It’s that month of the year that bores you out of your wits (just like the last one, and the last, not to mention the one before that). So here we are, holding your hand, offering calming cups of tea and warm reassurances as you tear your hair out, out of nothing to do. Oh and I nearly forgot. We also have a fine little list of things to help kick that fiend Time six feet under. Without further ado:

1) Register for the Bangalore round of The Centre for Civil Society’s youth centric seminar titled I, Society and Public Policy. Thinkers and intellectuals such as Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar, Parth Shah,Rakesh Wadhwa, Meghnad Desai and Gurcharan Das have long been associated with the CCS. The seminar in question involves some very interesting Policy Making, Society and Economics related lectures, activities and discussions for students (age groups 18-25). You have to apply by sending in a form with a couple of essays on specified topics and personal details. The last date for Bangalore entries is November 7th. It is a 4 day residential seminar starting the 27th-30th of this month and I think it will have lots of interesting things to do and smart people to meet in it. 40 applicants are selected based on their essays. Don’t procrastinate, write those essays NOW!

PS-It doesn’t matter if you aren’t a student of the Humanities. Yay!

Link: http://www.ccs.in/ispp/

2) Always wanted to write a novel? Too scared to admit it? Too lazy to get down to doing it? Have no clue how it’s done? Worry not, for the boring month that Vengeful Vigilantes urge you to remember remember (November, silly!) is also National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo for short is an online movement which urges people to write for the pure, sweet sake of writing. It is a marathon that requires you to complete a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Starting November 1st, thousands of people worldwide are uploading bits of their novels and upping their word counts.

There are forums discussing novels and related topics and encouraging essays by renowned authors. For once, the focus is not really on quality and completely on quantity! So if you wrote artless lines resembling: It was a nice sunny day and Linda didn’t know whether to wear the green dress or the white. She liked the white dress with those charming paisley prints which always spoke to her of summer but if only they wouldn’t remind her about Richard so much and such, don’t erase them.(Alternatively, if you are an Indian writer, the s/w programs keeping count won’t mind your knowledgeable observations of the diaspora or third-world-slum-sagas or terrorist love stories either) Word Count Hedonism is allowed. Write on, like some…Er…dead, penniless, obscure writer said.
I personally love the lovely pep-talkish mails they send you, gently nudging you to write on slow, wordless days. So do sign up. And add me as a NaNoWriMo Buddy. [Insert smiley here]

PS: What dress do you think suits Linda? I can’t seem to decide.

Link: http://www.NaNoWriMo.org

3) It’s fest time! National Law School’s annual, much-talked-about Cul-Fest Le Gala is happening this 21st-23rd -which means three days of spectacular debates, interesting quizzes and Music to look forward to. Yay, we say. Updates shall come as and when they reach the author.

4) And now for the engineers. Yes, yes, a drumroll and bugle cries later, it looks like the good people at Schneider Electric realized that if they wanted kids from engineering colleges with some non-mythical knowledge of how anything worked, they might as well roll their sleeves up and get into the muck themselves. As we laud them for their noble intentions, here’s spreading word about their Innovation Challenge 2008 competition. IC’08 calls for innovative ideas on topics spanning Energy Conservation and suchlike by students.

A considerable number of engineering students have reported cases of water leaking out of their earphone-lodged ears. Specialists concluded that this was the result of defrosting on the ‘engineering-sides of their brains’ owing to IC’08 piquing more than just interest. The competition boasts of huge prizes and come on! Who wouldn’t want to win a paper-presentation-comp hosted by Scheider Electric, for chrissake! Last date for Registration 16th November.

Link: http://www.schneider-electric.co.in/r&d/IC/ic08.html

While good ol’ BU folk enjoy their vacations, we at engineering colleges are furtively chewing on our fingernails wondering how to make up for internal marks and which textbook to finally buy. The exams are just about a month away and I can’t wait for the holidays already. Mr. Murphy admires the scenery in heaven even as he smiles at how interesting events and nasty examinations vie for our attention at the same time. One way or the other, November shall be cruel. (April has gone on holiday).

The only consolation is that, at the very least, we have the boredom problem licked. Right? ⊕