From left to right: dBera, Chak, myself, Guptaji, Soham, Dambuj and Atthi
Diode was taking this one so she gets to appear all by herself!!

This is approximately the subset of btech98 that was most active during the btech98 birthday bashes. We were mainly brought together by the long sessions in the Solaris lab when we attempted to do our programming assignments but ended up engaging in gulla (chatting).

The group has eight members and what better to describe each one of them than the yearbook writeups.

Most of us are in the Bay area presently. Soham, Atthi and Guptaji are at Google, Diode is at Oracle, Dambuj is at UC Berkeley, Chak is at VMWare, and dBera is at Boston University.

Arindam Chakraborty (Chak)

By far the most enthusiastic character in btech98, lovingly called chak by all and gpl'd in every birthday bash. The ever smiling chak is the heart of every departmental get-together. A keen phatta player, even half a dozen stitches couldn't keep him from the field. Even the great DR1 was brought down to his knees, when chak set out to conquer Mt Vallorbe in Switzerland. Due to his affectionate relationship with a great many females, diode in particular, he was conferred the title of the "Universal Brother", but we firmly believe Rajashree thinks otherwise. The apping expert of the batch, many of us could never have finished our apps without his efforts. His patience with dbera is legendary, the only person who had the guts to do multiple projects with that confirmed geek. A great fan of movies and novels in general, his devotion to the Star Wars series is unparalleled.

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Akhil Gupta (Guptaji) 

Guptaji is one of the dearest (and thinnest) guys of btech98. Soham's remark "door se dekh ke lagta hai ki hanger pe latke hain" is not very far from the truth. He's fond of doing all arbit acts especially if someone's ready to bet on it. Guptaji once had a dip in the badly-stinking library pond for a bet of Rs. 100/- and survived for full 24 hours without bathing thanks to a few puffs of his favourite deo ! Hapaahap khana khate hain lekin badan mein lagta kuchchh bhi nahin - Guptaji apne aap mein ek ajooba hain. The self appointed B'day coordy of btech98, Guptaji has troubled everyone with his bony constitution. Not many like to GPL him for it's equally hurting for the executor ! He made scores of guys jealous by establishing a perfect connection with diode, who otherwise had a long chain of guys after her. Fond of sleeping late till the afternoon after night-outs, Guptaji claims himself to be a "sincere" student. Guptaji has had lot of overloaded semesters with twice as many projects and courses as other guys. So many believe "ki woh 2 B.Tech. degreeyon ke haqdaar hain". Switzerland mein inhonen beef kha-kha kar apna dharm bhrasht kiya aur apna hi nahin diode ka bhi project complete kiya. Nowadays, Guptaji is busy convincing himself that UMass is a "chanpu" university in AI - and isn't it true ? After all, it will again offer Guptaji the opportunity to do twice the coursework and projects !!!

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Pooja Nath (Diode)

The doll of btech98, she's the only connection the gh has with the CS department. Had a great fan following in the department (Dambuj, KAshyap etc) and otherwise before guptaji bowled her over with his artificial oops natural intelligence. Along with chak, the three form the great "diode ka triode" . Always bubbling with energy, she's one of the most fun persons to have in any get together. Her accent, a weird amalgam of American and Bihari, has been the talk of the institute and probably the single biggest factor that prevented guys like Soham from entering her fan club for a long time. Her knowledge of her native tongue ....... with words like "eenta" and "tanhai" missing from her vocabulary. She is her brother's nightmare, who is probably praying she doesn't end up in a univ near Virginia. The finest female athelete in btech98 (the only one), displaced Soham from the instructorship of PE406. Her role as the principle actor in Paris Dhamaka was a source of immense entertainment to the IITK Lausanne community. 

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Dambuj

Although still a bachelor, he is the only one in the department to have spent a night roaming with a girl. The king of one way valentine's cards, he is also proboably the one and only to have sent a valentine card to kammo. Having graduated from a telu hacker in his 2nd year, to an SMTP cracker now, he has given many people sleepless nights by sending them "interesting" mails from some "interesting" people... as rajat found out recently! Also known as "pujari", our dear dumbuj, is not only a perpetual GPL favorite, but also a great enthusiast in departmental activities. His devotion to PE406 is legendary, diode ne use jo daudaya, woh aaj tak daud rahe hain. Some however maintain that he is a man with no mojo. Though a confirmed_prof_to_be, his devotion to studies is questionable, as we found out in EPFL during the last summer, where all he did was to write "this.x=x" and take swimming lessons from his beautiful colleague. His exploits at Vidi beach are better not elaborated though. However we would advise him to be more ready, when girls come to kiss him! ST's ashique no. 2, his relations with her have distinctly taken a positive turn of late. Pooja ka pyara dumbuj is invaluable to btech98. 

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Debajyoti Bera (dBera)

"To beard or not to beard", that is indeed the question! Popularly called dbera, his impressive beard has been the subject of much debate. After he shaved off his beard during the 7th semester, the controversy about his beard has become the subject of all idle talk in the department. Opinion is divided whether the return of his beard is for good or bad. Also called "gdb", dbera is the true hacker of IITK, and never, mind you never, call him a cracker, unless of course you want a long lecture on the difference between hackers and crackers. His idiosyncrasies range from boycotting the CSE birthday bashes to being able to appreciate RKG's jokes. Though sometimes he is called the "frust" devar of the department, he is the only one who can claim to have full access to the "better" and "fairer" half of CSE. An exceptional poet in bengali and english, his poems often reveal a new insight into his personality. Offhand though, you can expect "ultra pure ganda kholna" from him on any topic under the sun (or as he would prefer, under all stars, for all stars belonging to the universe). In fact the temporal ordering of his "thinking" and "speaking" is undecidable. All said and done, his position in the CSE department is irreplaceable.

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Soham Mazumdar

A true Cassanova if ever there was one, Soham has always been a darling of the fairer sex. This bong-behari (and of late jharkhandi) is the cynosure of all eyes. It all started inocently enough, when in his school days, a girl was bowled over by him and made her feelings public in Teens-Today. His recent mishap at a departmental picnic leading to a broken front tooth, has had him looking even cuter to the opposite sex. His occasional flings came to prominence with the recording of his feelings for a particularly attractive maiden of the first year in the form of soham_e**a.wav, which was distributed to one and all. Soham however finally met his match in EPFL, when Miss Gupta over many romantic dinners swept him off his feet. The die-hard romantic that he is, he even helped her patch up with her boyfriend. A true Ajay Devgan of HDDCS, we hope that soham having played his part, she too fulfils her role to perfection. In his free time our dear chapoo soham, is a zealous "bhagwan" bhakt and you will often find him staring at homepages of great mathematicians and computer scientists with reverence. He always extends a welcoming hand to one and all, and I am sure the fact that one never finds his room locked is testimony to that. Getting back to true form though, the latest story doing the rounds about soham is that "kammo usko chaar saal se nachwaa rahi hai"!

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Ashish Agarwal (Atthi)

Atthi, the proverbial "Mr. nice guy", he is cool (sometimes too cool), in everything except studies. Don't be misled by his harmless appearance though, he is very senti on his hair; never, we repeat never, touch them. Atthi however, is still "Mr. bachelor boy" despite having held the much coveted post of urvashi secy... one would have thought that he would have picked up some tips from his dear roomie. But that is understandable, for being a roomie for those 3 years must have been a full time job for him. A big dance enthusiast, a more vigorous soul cannot possibly be found on the dance floor. We are sure he must have put those skills to good use, when he got locked in his room with a bandariya. For the last year or so, atthi's favorite line has been, "koi pattern nikal de yaar, main interpret kar doonga". Hope he is able to interpret his way to the end of his Btech project.

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Myself

DR1 since the first year, Uttu recently managed to defeat Kammo to become the sole claimant of the PGM. Not being a very maggu type of guy, he doesn't particulary like the idea of wasting away 5-6 precious years of his life doing a PhD. Currently, his only nightmare is a fakka in his BTP. He considers dancing (esp. in discos) as one of the most stupid of all human acts. That's probably the reason why no one in IITK has had the pleasure of seeing him dance. He has developed a special liking for Maitri College, Delhi ever since he was subjected to a little "chhed-khani" by some girls there. Bengalis, excluding a few like chak, soham, dbera, etc., are one of the most frequent targets of his criticisms. He can seldom watch a senti movie without getting frust and has developed an aversion for the top-20 hollywood and all bollywood movies. Always interested in girls in general, Uttu, however, never had any "lafda" in IITK. He was one of the members of the fan club of ST. Of late, his relationship with ST has taken an all new turn, and this has even led people like Soham to predict that Chuza, after all those 4 years of persistent dedication, will be kicked out of the way. If you are holding this yearbook in your hands you probably know whether Soham's prediction turned out to be true...

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