The year of the ACM Student Chapter

Phew! My last blog post was a year ago, on 4th March, 2014. Which shows it's been a hell of an year for me. These past months, I've been thoroughly (and happily) busy with the ACM Student Chapter.
Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, as it is popularly known is

"..the world's largest scientific and educational computing society."

And unlike the IEEE, ACM is solely dedicated to computing.

I knew ACM Student Chapter accepted chapter representatives solely from the Third Year students of our college, and was looking forward to be a part of the 'lucky' few.


I still remember my trembling body when I went for the interviews with the previous representatives, and then with the HOD, and other faculties. My hands were like waves of water in the middle of a deep sea because of the anticipation of what lay ahead, those being the very first interviews of mine.
I shouldn't say much about my interview though! ;)

I was very pleasantly excited when I found out I got selected as a Secretary, coming after the Chariman Chairman, Ms. Amrita Nair, and Vice chair, Ms. Nikita Merani. I was on cloud nine!

May I also introduce the other members:

• Ms. Aishwarya Kulkarni, Treasurer
• Ms. Sayali Haral, Co-Treasurer
• Ms. Dhanashree Nemade, Wall Magazine Secretary
• Ms. Ruchira Rokade, Co-Wall Magazine Secretary

The first program we organised was the Induction ceremony. We were honoured to take over charge from the previous office bearers. Thus began my whirlwind ride!

We organised many events and programmes over the course of the semester - such as TED Talks, Coding Workshops, Alumni Meet, Teachers' Day programme, Anantya - Engineer's Day, Coding Contest - CodiGami, to name a few. We organised these, in addition to the already time consuming academic programmes that the college takes us through, throughout the year.

The year was not without its lows, however. The posts of the Student Chapter almost made deep cracks in the social relationships of all associated with the chapter. This showed me an ugly facade of human behaviour. It would never be the same, that's for sure. We can now only hope to give Time, time. The less talked about it, the better.

As an introvert, I never really interact much with anyone. You do your work, I do mine. But, as with great power comes great responsibility, my social interaction jumped nearly 10x.

Ridiculous Graph, made with MS Paint. Pardon the size.

Talking to girls has always been awkward to me. And as you can see above, with the skewed sex ratio in the Core committee made me come out of my Adamantium shell. I haven't been fully out yet, but I'm inching closer everyday nevertheless. I was Bond, and they were the Bond girls.

I look quite like him, don't I?

ACM made us workhorses, which sometimes continued right from seven in the morning, till twelve at night. It provided an adrenaline rush(to some of us atleast), working to do something better for the students in the department. And with an awesome team to back you, nothing was impossible. This journey made me better in every aspect. We were learning all throughout the road.

In the second semester, we organised the Farewell for our seniors, Android Development Workshop, and the mega one- Techlligent, made an eMag for the department called The Rivista. I also started a class blog -The Rivista which inspired the magazine. The cherry on the cake was that we also started a Readers' Club for the department! What could be better! 

All through the year, our Chairman, Amrita spearheaded the team with great skill. All credit goes to her. Our Vice Chair, Nikita, with unparalleled communication skills brought out numerous participating entries for the events. Our treasurer, Aishwarya, and co-treasurer, Sayali, with their tabs on each paisa spent for the different events. And our Wall Magazine secretaries, Dhanashree, and Ruchira, for doing an exceptional job on all things designing. Who can forget our esteemed- Atul Pawar Sir! Thanks for giving us these exceptional opportunities.

It will be a great shame if I didn't include you, the reader, in the list of people I am thankful for. As students, you participated. As classmates, you supported us. As friends, beared with us. As parents, motivated us.

I could write a lot more on this, the memories and everything. It was nice working together. But all good things must end.

And the end has come. Sob. :'(