Not Entirely a Waste of Time

With the end of this year's Survey Camp, another milestone in our endeavour to be mahaan Civil Engineers has been crossed. And the result: a beautiful yet thoroughly inaccurate topographic map and a new facebook page called 'kaissa kataa yaaaar!!'

Well, it wasn't all that bad really.After all, I learned how to use a Total Station, which means that I actually can perform a real survey with some better (much better) planning. I also revised my concepts of GPS, although I can't do anything beyond a FastStatic survey!

The camp was as much a physical test as a mental one. While climbing the hills and getting down into that dry riverbed from the slippery slope was an ordeal in itself, it was nothing compared to the mental stress that we had to take on. At any point of time, an argument could have turned into a fist fight. There was crying and screaming and a hell lot of swear words flying through the airwaves. Perhaps our united opposition to the working style of the professor, whose only aim in life seems to be to prove that he knows more than you (although he doesn't), was the only reason we didn't pounce on each other.

Once the seriousness of the camp began to dissipate, there were picnics galore. Most went to Chandi Mandir, which is a long climb up the very hill on which we were performing a part of the survey. Then there were the visits to Rajaji National Park and the nearby Dam. Facebook's servers filled up with pictures from these visits, backed by our amazing LAN. We went from having to submit a group file, individual files, an analog map and a digital map to having to submit some (copied) readings and a well-decorated but thoroughly inaccurate PT!

Another wonderful part about this camp was the fact that I managed to keep a good conversation going with a number of people with whom I never spoke to normally. I also believe that I am actually very difficult to work with, perhaps because I think too much of myself. Must work on that. While many people rejected Civil Engineering entirely following this camp, I actually felt that, had it been planned like a project and not a practical, it would have been superb. The planning was faulty, not the premise itself.

Well, with beautiful PTs submitted with false TS and GPS data, the hostel is beginning to empty. I, however, have miles to go before I sleep. Fortunately, I can sleep beyond 5::45 AM now!


(Series Concluded)