Come back.... Come back to where you once belonged

Thats the song that comes to my head when I think of my alma mater...

Research@LibrarySkating... My national timpass

The end of my masters was a crazy time... I learn't that research couldn't be accelerated beyond a certain rate and then I started moving faster than that :)... I had started photography again with my introduction to the Canon 500D. Every now and then I would go out for skating too.
FacB (Faculty Building) roof top had become a regular wee hrs hangout spot.

Even with all the time crunch sleep was the only thing I was budgeting on. Visits to the bowling alley and to the coffee shop were prioritized. When Priyesh and Prachi came over we went to the Landmark hotel with Neharika to show off my exemplary driving skills. People there got to witness such awesomeness that they had to be sworn to secrecy.

The Mai Hu DON walk@ Landmark (From Left: Neharika, Priyesh(Chotu), Prachi)

FacB Roof Top 2am (From Left: Tulsi, Neha, me, Deep, Dhaval, Sandeep)Ksh sporting the 'tora aur milega look'Technology Park@BangaloreKsh wanted to click some pics and guess who volunteered to model :)

The Banglore trip before coming to Mumbai was a great success. The project partners were very happy to see their feed back taken into account and with all the progress made. Also the digital entertainment system in the flight crashed and we got a chance to make a video of the system boot up... that was a really cherry on the icing for us geeks... the icing being the great hotel and the night at the hard rock cafe.

The dump from the airline entertainment system boot upAnother one from the FacB roof top

I got new skates

My new skates arrived yesterday and they are just funtastic. They are every thing I ever wanted in a skate. They are from the company K2 and are called Il Capo or the head/the mafia :). The boot is short and very well padded. The chassis is made out of steel which gives it strength and makes the base heavy which is great for maintaining speed. Also the special thing about the skates are that they are specially designed for street and slalom skating. Hence, even though the wheels are 80mm in size there is very less space between two wheels. This gives me exceedingly rapid acceleration, complemented with a high degree of maneuverability. The wheels too have high hardness(84A) but at same time are remarkably grippy, a very rare combination. The bearing are ILQ7 which are turbo fast. I am once again ready to burn the roads. };^)

New Skates for the club

slalom race on the wet rink: it was awesome, watching us skate the crowd went nuts..

Puneet and me after the race

After months of nagging we finally have approval to buy new skates for the skating club. I really appreciate Ahbishek Tiwari's efforts for allotting the funds. I know he has taken some very tough decisions to make this happen. We all (participants and the coordinators) are very excited about this new development. With the flood lit skating rink, new instructor and new skates the skating club is fast moving out of the developing stage. The new coordinators are taking charge now and heading full on to make the club a phenomenon. A phenomenon I am really lucky to witness.

At a place like IIT Kanpur many new and revolutionary things keep happening and if you get to be a part of just one of them you are really lucky. I have been a part of three. The skating club for one has touched over 800 students and showed them a new ways of falling head over heals :). The YES!+ course started happening when I was in my second year and now has become the most popular course on campus. It has transformed the lives of hundreds of students on campus taught them how to smile even after a bad quiz 

and go make a difference in the society they live in. From setting up schools in far fetched corners of the country (eg. the one in Aur Wand Tand, a naxalite hit area, by Rajesh Jasaia and ass.) to planting over a 100 million trees. Now that I have mentioned YES!+ I'll do another in-depth report about YES!+ and its side effects ;). The third is Sumeru Sandhya/Anantrang. More about that too, but later.

 Getting back, as for the skates, we are planning to get inline skates from Yonker. They have a great soft skate shoe, steel wheel frame and ABEC-5 speed bearings. All in all they are the perfect pair of skates to start on. I wish I had these when I started. If you have any suggestions or need tips buying new ones do get in touch. I would love to hear from you.

Another update: A few weeks back during Udgosh 08, our inter-college sports festival the club had organized a couple of skate races. I came in first in the 500m forward and 200m back skate race. Rajat won the slalom race which was a real challenge as it was raining and the skating rink got wet.

skate dance team....almost

Skate Dance DE 08

So many updates........so little time. Actually thats not true. Its just that I have been acting lazy all week.
Last weekend the skating club performed in the Dance Extravaganza 08 (DE). I think it happened for the first time in the history of DE that non performers went on stage and rocked, after all we had a superb choreographer Nitish and two great managers Hemant and Adarsh. The three are coordinators for the club now. The Dance club was really supportive to put their faith in us.
I remember when Nitish proposed for a skate dance exactly 13 days before the event. We didn't have props, people or the time. But we decided to go ahead with it. We'll thats the way we do things here at IITK. Finally by the time of the show we even had sponsered dresses!!!
I must say the participants did a great job. Most of them picked up skakes for the first time, but became so good over the week that even most of experienced ones were left behind by their vigour and valler. The jumps they made, the trust in their team members to let them jump over them and what not.
Check out the pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/shubham.goel/SkateDanceDE08

Top reasons to Inline Skate

Inline Skating as Transportation
Reap the benefits of being a pedestrian while enjoying the speed of a small vehicle. Your inline skates are a wonderful way to transport yourself from one place to another, especially if there is a scenic view. But wait, there’s more. Once you arrive at your destination, there’s no need to pay for parking. Just take your vehicles with you.
Inline Skating is Very Green
Motorbikes, go carts and jet skis precious gas and emit poisonous fumes. Inline skate and help save the world while having fun, because you are the fuel that powers your adventure.
Inline Skating Equals Physical & Mental Fitness
Burn some calories, tone some muscles, relieve a little stress, get an aerobic workout, strengthen your heart and clear your mind.
Inline Skating is for Thrill Seekers
Vert, aggressive, freestyle slalom, downhill and off road inlne skating can fulfill every thrill seeker's dreams. Or nightmares depending on who’s dreaming.
Inline Skating is Competitive
Hockey, speed, figure, and aggressive inline skating have competitive activities for anyone who loves to choose a target and shoot for it.
Inline Skating is Flexible
Enjoy an activity that can be all that you want it to be, where you want to do it and when you’ve got the time for it. Morning, noon or night, there is a place to inline skate. Choose social, fitness or competitive... you can have inline skating your way.

(from about.com)

Skating Club

The Core Team and a guy in blue t-shirt

Finally after months and months of work we have a skating club in campus not that anyone could have stopped us. I am proud to announce that this semester over 550 people participated in various activities of the club......ironically, cause the club officially came into existence yesterday.