Paper_Presentation_Is_Not_As_Easy_As_It_Seems....

After finishing my 1st year of college I started visiting my seniors more frequently in semester break. So as I got to know them closely I found that they were intelligent also & knew a lot apart from that nonsense ragging.
My seniors told me that if I’ll do some paper presentation then I’ll have some good certificates (which are very helpful in Campus Interview) as well as knowledge about advance and latest technology. Hence after finishing my semester break, my first priority was to do “Paper Presentation” in some reputed college of India.
As we all know time runs very fast so I got my first opportunity to present a paper at NIT Rourkela very soon. I knew the importance of this chance very much. I also had heard from seniors that generally paper presentation should be done in pair of two so I chose my partner as one of my best friend in college & eventually in life “Sumit”.
Then I realized that now I have perfect partner to win prizes but not any paper for this? Then it struck my mind that I had my college computer center which allows surfing facility from 7-10 in night for boys .Some R&D at computer center provided me inspiration in form of lot of old papers and articles to write a paper.
Now it was time to write my own paper at home from that inspiration .But very soon I realized that inspiration is not useful at all. Again some seniors told that books are source of all knowledge (inspiration). Also this advice gave me the opportunity to become member of British Library (again an input from seniors). But till I became library member last date of abstract submission arrived. So in a hurry I went to library in order to search some books on VLSI design or Embedded Systems which were “latest & hot topic” (again information courtesy seniors).
Now the next question was how to write an abstract from the book? At last, just 1 day ahead we decided to use Preface of books (looking good also) for our Paper’s abstract. Finally we came up with 2 abstracts from the prefaces of 2 books & sent them nicely with proper changes required.
But our abstracts were not selected which made us to read abstract again, those were really looking nice, then we noticed that we made a small mistake in E-mail address (wrote ____@yahoo.co.in instead of _____@yahoo.com) and thought that may be due to wrong E-mail address we haven’t got confirmation. As the date of presentation was near, we called them for clarification & luckily they also informed that our paper was selected.
Now the next problem was that we haven’t got any confirmation mail from NIT Rourkela to get college permission letter for travel reimbursement. But as we didn’t have that mail it was not possible for us to get permission letter. Again one of our senior, who knows HTML, helped us & after some modification in web page we had fake confirmation E-mail with us.
In this way finally we got permission letter of college at 2:00 PM on the day when we had to board the train at 8:00 PM in night. But we had neither reservation ticket nor any paper to present with us. Here I got to know value of partnership as I went for ticket reservation & Sumit went home to prepare Presentation slides (though he was able to prepare only 8 slides, out of which first contained our names & last contained thanking note).
As there was no direct train to Rourkela I got ticket from Bina to Rourkela which obviously was in waiting list. Finally we boarded train at 8:00 PM from Bhopal to Bina and in the way to Bina Sumit informed me that he had also kept those 2 books along with him to complete paper slides, it was really an intelligent (smart) move.
Luckily all reservations from Bina to Rourkela were confirmed & we enjoyed the long journey along with friends and seniors.
We reached there next day at 9:00 in night where they had a separate welcome counter at railway station to receive us; also they had provided buses to take us from station to college hostel. But it was a shock for me to not found our name in their list of delegates. But in India we believe “Atithi Devo Bhava” & same tradition was followed by them and in spite of not having our name in the list they took us to hostel to accommodate us. This means one more problem other than presentation slides. Then we talked with organizer by showing him E-mail printout (fake) along with college approval letter. He was also stunned to see our E-mail letter which they never sent to us, but after a long research finally he informed us that our abstract was selected for poster presentation under the topic Embedded Systems (and we had prepared slides for VLSI design only).
I have never heard about Poster Presentation but luckily here also our seniors were with us, and their abstract was also selected for poster presentation under same topic (Embedded systems). So again our seniors helped us by giving 2 pictures from their downloaded stock for our poster, means now we had something to start. But paper is paper and poster is poster so we were emphasizing again & again that we have got confirmation for paper presentation and then only we came here with full preparation (really we were good liars too).
Now our next challenge was to search an internet café to complete slides. In between, the organizer told us that there is an internet café after hostel boundary but warned us to return soon because area was not safe, especially for Boys (I heard this first time). We (4 friends) went to café but were able to add only 3 more slides to presentation. After finishing that it was already 12; also we were very tired, so 2 out of us took lift with café owner and me along with 1 friend returned by walk.
Soon we reached hostel at 12:25 but didn’t find rest 2 guys there, I was bit scared too by the warning of organizer. So first we searched them till 12:45 with some friends but finally at 12:45 we informed to coordinator of event that 2 of our friends are lost around college hostel. As soon as he heard this he was shocked & came at 1:00 in night to see us. He tried a lot by all means to search but was unable to found those 2 guys. Suddenly they appeared from the 3rd floor of hostel coming out of a room; it was around 2:15 in night. Actually they reached early and went in room of a hostler from MP for gossiping. First I thanked coordinator for his support and then I ran behind those guys to beat them for creating such a scene. After lot of time pass & fun we went to sleep at 3:30 in night.
Next day morning we became famous and everybody was asking about us that where those 2 guys are who lost last night. Everybody wanted to meet us, its great na? Next morning first we registered for poster presentation (also the fee was only 100/-) then our struggle started for paper presentation registration. But it was really impossible for them also to accommodate us because they had limited slots. In between this we got to know that in their list there was 1 paper of our friend who could not make due to Minor exams. So we requested them to accommodate us in place of that friend of us and after a lot of discussion they were finally convinced.
Next day also we didn’t read slides and enjoyed Rourkela campus & hostel (especially girl’s hostel) whole day (In between we told our good seniors to bring a poster sheet for us too). When we tried to read slides at 5:00 PM in evening we slept (as you all know we had very less sleep last night) & woke up at 9 for dinner. After dinner and some walk via girl’s hostel. Now real problem was there – we (at least me as Sumit made slides) didn’t read a single word so we decided that out of 13 slides I’ll describe only 3 and rest Sumit will describe. Also we decided 2 of our other friends will sit in audience to clap and to ask us question prepared by us. During preparing for presentation in night once I woke up one of my senior at 3:00 AM (we already set his watch at 7:00AM), when he saw his watch he was very scared because already he had set alarm for 6:00AM for preparation.
Next day we woke up early in the morning for some practice and for making poster but our helping senior helped us there too & made poster for us (he did some mistakes in our names also but as we were not in a position to say anything because we didn’t have time to see it even). Basically he copied some part of text from his poster along with 2 pictures which he donated for our poster. Fortunately we had to present both paper & poster at the same time. So first we went to paper presentation team to inform them that we have to present poster too, so please schedule our paper in last so that we can come back for paper presentation. She was really helpful to us & permitted us for doing so. When we reached poster presentation hall we realized that there were lot of mistakes in that poster (we didn’t know about topic but mistake was in our name too), its time for us to be stunned. Now our next aim was to stick with poster till evaluator comes, but in between some students also came to see the poster but we handled the situation nicely (by asking them question about their college & city and by not giving them chance to ask about our poster), but as soon as evaluator came he told that he had seen same poster somewhere, then with due respect I told him that our seniors are also presenting poster on same topic; he just laughed (its enough hint for him to understand full story about poster)& asked some question which we handled boldly (I even told him Embedded System could be use in Cars for automatic breaking systems when a cow or buffalo comes in front of car, he was also surprised and amazed by my answer and might have been thinking why he hadn’t thought in this way hitherto).
After finishing there we reached in paper presentation room but nobody was there, everything was finished. Now it’s our time to call that nice girl, she informed us that only 2 papers were presented there, also she waited long for us but finally judges left.
Basically we were more than happy after listening this but I told her that we are very disappointed by this because we came here only for winning 1st prize so she said sorry to us and finally I closed discussion with –“its ok, I know u tried your best for us”. So she was also impressed by our calmness under such situation.
Without wasting time we went to see the city and some special attraction around the city. We saw longest Hanuman there.
After returning back to campus we collected our certificates (for both events) and travel reimbursement from their side. At night we enjoyed cultural programs and various games.
We played cards whole night and disturbed others a lot (other delegates were really trying to sleep after putting their hard efforts).
Next morning we caught train for Bina with our paper and poster presentation certificates. After that I never presented any paper in my college life (though that time also I didn’t present).
After much experience in this field I participated in paper presentation at my college many time but only as a member of organizing committee which gave me lot of other experience too, but its better to write that next time, for now I can only say- “To be continued………………..”