CDAC: My Second Home (Part One)

A year is a round trip around the sun. And a year at CDAC is a round trip having all the excitement, freedom to try out new things, do mistakes and also learn from them, be independent, be capable of taking own decisions, enjoying life to the fullest, etc, etc. While inquiring about the course in CDAC, Juhu office (my Mama being my greatest support during that period); little did I know that this course is going to change me into a far better human being. All I can say is “Proud to be a CDACian”

We had to clear an entrance exam CST 2011 (Competency in Software Technology) for taking admission in FPGDST 2011-12 (Full time Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Software Technology). The exam was on 30^th Jan, 2011. The course period was August 2011 to July 2012. Our batch consisted of fantastic 44 students.

Just Pre-cap of CDAC moments:

·         The Warming Welcome on Day One of the course.

·         The Parikshak environment and its assignments submission.

·         The one hour quizzes at sharp 10am.

·         The exciting questions of MGPA’s and the struggle to get all the YYYYYYY

·         The lecture rooms and the lab, where there was too much fun along with study.

·        The library with loads of books of different languages (not English, Marathi, Hindi). It’s C, C++, C#, Java, etc, etc.

·         The PC’s especially dedicated for games (Counter Strike) and Facebook.

·         The late night project completions and those scaring VIVA’s.

·         The preparations for New Year.

·         The Midnight birthday parties and McD burgers.

·         The Mock Interviews and Resume corrections.

·         The Placement Interviews and selections.

·         The last day of CDAC, going home with lots of memories and a very heavy heart.

August: The Beginning

It was 8^th August 2011, the first day of CDAC. Our batch FPGDST 2011-12 comprised of mix of Graduates in B.Sc (I.T.), BCA, B.Sc (CS), BE, B.Tech and also some Post Graduates in MCA. We were briefed about the course by the Head of CDAC. Then all the staff introduced themselves. We had a tea break at 11.30 where we started introducing ourselves. I met Ritika Pandey, Laxmi Supate, Sunita Pillai and Namrata Nimje. Then we had a lecture on C Programming by Leena Ma’am (on Day 1, CDAC started off with lecture!!). At 1pm, we had lunch. There I met Litty Bijoy and Sharvari Desai. Post lunch we had Practical Session. We were given login ids and passwords. The “Moodle” was a portal for all the course related information. Two modules were going to be conducted in parallel till November, PRGF (Programming Fundamentals) and MFCS (Mathematical Foundation in Computer Science). Such big full forms and so the syllabus. 

The CDAC campus is wide and beautiful. At the entrance, there is Security Room. CDAC is a two storey building.

The CDAC Building

Ground floor:  There is Computer Lab and Library to the left and the Lecture room (Nilgiri) and Admin Room to the right. The reception is at the centre and there are sofa-sets to the right and left corners of the reception area (where we sat to read Newspapers).

It's me and Sharvari

First floor: It was the workplace for the CDAC staff (they were also our teachers). There was another lecture room (Aravali) where we had MFCS lectures post-lunch.

Second floor:  There were meeting rooms. We had no permission to go out there. But still Sharvari and I managed to reach there, out of curiosity just to see “Kai aahe second floor var”. Ok now let us move further:

Connection between main building and Hostel

The above picture connects the main building to the canteen and hostel. This was our shortcut. Ground Floor: There was Canteen (our favorite place) followed by the TT area, way to the hostel.

Canteen

First Floor: Boys hostel and T.V. Room and Water Cooler.

Hostel

T.V. Room

Second Floor: Girls hostel and T.V Room. There were games like Chess and Carrom in the T.V. room. Ok now let us see around the building:

The CDAC track

We used to walk around post-lunch, post-dinner, and “Jab mann kare tab”. And I had the silly habit of walking on the yellow and black line.

There is playground behind

Behind this greenery, there is a playground where boys used to play Cricket, Football, Volleyball, etc.

Badminton and parking area

We played badminton over here in the evening. The extreme corner was Parking Area and that is the CDAC Bus.

From 14^th August, I started staying in the hostel. At least once, you should experience Hostel Life.  I really wanted to stay away from home and be independent. My room was on 2^nd floor, Room no. 201. Four of us stayed there: I, Bhavya Mathur, Rekha and Neha Gayal. My study table was adjacent to the door. The lazy girl (me) who never got up from bed before 9am at home;  used to get up at 6am in the hostel. See the view from balcony:

View from my balcony

So now back to lectures.

In PRGF module, marks were divided into 60% for quizzes and 40% for MGPA. MGPA (Machine Graded Programming Assessment): Putting this in simple words, a problem will be given to you. You have to write a program for solving it. A sample set of inputs and output will be handy. But you have to really think of all the scenarios and write such a code which will give the correct output.

Shekhar Sir (Chandrashekhar Sharma) introduced about the Parikshak Environment and the MGPAs. We were given a set of assignments for practice. Those included Triangle, Word Count, Game of Life, Matrix, Permutation, Snakes and Ladder, Maze, Wordy enough, etc. Akshay Kumar Sir was teaching Logic in MFCS lectures. The Post Lunch sessions of MFCS by Samba Sir (Reni) and Shivraj Sir were very interesting. The questions were based on what was taught in the morning lectures. So it was a kind of revision. We all were divided into groups of two. On day one, the partner was Anshu Kumar. After interacting with him, I really got to know the difference between actual Hindi and our “Aamchi Mumbai Hindi”. My partner was Litty on day two. Day 3, it was Mithil Kotawadekar, then what “Marathi gappa suru”. He then introduced his friends (gang from Thane) Shadab Khan, Akshay Jadhav and Pratik Singal. In the morning, I used to have lunch with Bhavya, Neha, Ritika and Madhur Telang. A new course started by the end of month. It was WiMC course consisting of 11 students. Priya Mathane was the only girl student in their batch. She stayed in Room no. 203 with Renu Ma’am. 

I was not so famous then but life was good.

September: “Proposing the parikshak is not an easy job.”

On 5^th we had our first quiz on C Programming. There were 25 questions (MCQs). One thing is for sure however old you grow, the habit of asking “Answer kya hai” in sign language will never go. The questions were tough; I was confused between all the options. Ganesh Festival started. I visited Laxmi aunty’s home along with Sharvari, to worship the Eco-friendly Ganesha (the murti was so beautiful). We went to her home in Belapur on her AVIVA Scooty (like The 3 idiots).

On 7^th we had Mock MGPA, just to give us a hint to check out “Hum kitne paani mein hai”. There was an hour writing session and three hours practical implementation. Only the keyboard keys were talking. Not even a single student could submit the program. I was in the worst condition, program unable to take the input itself, forget if the logic is correct or not. One thing was for sure a good amount of practice is required to clear MGPA. The C Quiz result was displayed on the notice board. From my group, Litty got 60/75 (she was second highest). There was a boy named Niket Singh, who scored 66/75.

On 14^th we had the first MGPA exam (C language). The question was “Subtraction of two numbers”. So easy it seems naa: 

int a;

int b;

int answer= a-b;

It is what came first to my mind, but I could still remember the Mock. I read the further lines; the numbers will be 100 digits long. So now I started using my brain. One hour writing session was over and then we all proceeded towards the lab. I got the first PC in the third row. It was 2.30pm; I wrote the code and checked for some test cases. Now I had to submit the program in order to check how many Ys and how many Xs and how much more should I trouble my brain. It was 3.15pm and I submitted the program.  To my surprise the result was:

            Y.Y.Y.Y.Y.Y.Y

I called Shekhar Sir (in a low voice as if something terribly went wrong). He said, “Fantastic, your program is submitted.” It was snacks time then; I (alone) took a cup of tea and sat at my usual table (the table near the canteen entrance door). The canteen was full of staff members, all were staring at me as if I have bunked the MGPA exam. I just gulped the tea and ran away to my room. At 5.30pm the exam was over, only two students cleared, me and Ranjith Pillai (you can think of Dhanush of Kolavari Di fame). Both of us had the similar coding style.

Whatever happens in our batch is known to all in CDAC (including the staff, security, chefs and housekeeping folks). I was taken care of too much. If I did not like to eat what was on the plate, alternative options were available for me. Thanks to the Canteen coordinators (Ravindra Sir) and yes chef Birje kaka. Sharvari stayed in hostel for a week. We had real good time.  Sometimes, I used to have dinner with Priya and her batchmates Suhas Dalvi, Paras, Altamesh, Ranjit, etc. They always complained that the boys of your batch make a lot of noise in the lab, can’t they go to Hostel room and do the same. 

Another month over; I went home on Fridays (Namrata to accompany me in the train till Mankhurd) and came back to CDAC on Monday Mornings. Now I was famous as “The Girl wearing Sweater”. 

Read Next: CDAC: My Second Home (Part Two)