Renesa | Spring Edition 2022

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RENESA Spring Edition 2022

Messages from Faculty MESSAGE FROM CHAIRMAN

As the faculty advisor, I am pleased to see the team working relentlessly to bring consistent issues of Renesa. Renesa is the students’ magazine that is- for the students, of the students, and by the students of SVNIT. A magazine which has become a forum for students of SVNIT to voice their speculative views and extrapolations of the past, present, and future.

Everything from writing, designing, editing, printing, and distributing is managed by students. Every year, a new team starts working with an idea, then zestfully translates their thoughts into reality. Year after year, SVNIT students’ determination to keep Renesa afloat, despite myriad unforeseen obstacles, demonstrates their will to retain their mouth piece. Although it is essentially for the students, it also interests the faculty and administration as it mediates a new perspective through the lens of students. Its writing and creativity collate emotions with pragmatism and pluralise the issues adherent in contemporary times. It has been a source of reminiscence for old and new alike, as SVNIT’s alumni treasure it as a means to walk down memory lane. The team has consistently persevered to reach an intersection between trivia that symbolises campus life and technical know-how. Their endeavours have helped them create a niche for themselves in SVNIT. While some cynics label Renesa as a product of the elite aficionados of English, I feel it’s an opinion formed from the periphery. Renesa, as a magazine with English articles, can be a ready source of learning for curious minds as it embraces themes that intrigue “Gen Z.” At the same time, it exhibits the nuances of creative writing, rarely witnessed in this age of cryptic communication. Furthermore, while adhering to its designated role, it gleefully communicates and connects all SVNIT students with its creative feats.

The Spring 2022 issue of Renesa explores the theme of obfuscation, which implies obscuring something. In precarious times like these, it is a significant theme to discuss and deliberate, and I presume the global trends of obfuscating facts and values have found a place in the issue. Obfuscation is the new norm for

RENESA Spring Edition 2022

everyone, from politics to the media, from business to the public. Some obfuscate to polarise the world, others to avoid polarising. No matter what the reason, the truth in contemporary times is a chimera.

For the gratification of a few, truth is obscured and topographies of thought manipulated. The dearth of knowledge has promoted fragmented information, thereby encouraging precarity in the present world.

I compliment the team for their commendable work on a prevailing, ubiquitous theme. They have attempted to deconstruct the defining quality of the contemporary age. I hope, through their micro narratives, they will encrypt many facets of this dynamic theme and destabilise the hegemonic (mis)representation of facts. In conclusion, I sincerely hope that the readers will appreciate this endeavour by team Renesa and will provide the required impetus for its continuity.

Dr. Urvashi Kaushal Chairman - Renesa

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MESSAGE FROM CO-CHAIRMAN

The pandemic is coming to a well-deserved end and the sense of optimism is rewoven into our lives. As the winter melts away and the season of rejuvenation begins, it gives me immense pleasure to share our students’ wonderful carving “Renesa 2022 Spring Edition’’ with the theme Obfuscation.

This magazine represents the talent of the students of SVNIT Surat to express their thoughts, voice their opinions, and showcase their creativity. I acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of our student members to connect the SVNIT student body to share their talent in exploring multidimensional thoughts via Renesa Magazine. The students view the world through a lens of originality and their diverse and vibrant takes on the theme and the tasteful artwork brings life to this issue.

I impart my congratulations and regard to the Renesa team for conceiving this excellent and engaging magazine and being the Co-Chairman of Renesa, I wish all the best for this publication.

Dr. Sanjay Tolani Co-Chairman - Renesa

MESSAGE FROM CO-CHAIRMAN

I want to thank the editorial team and everyone behind the successful launch of the magazine ‘Renesa Spring Edition 2022’. The intermittent Covid waves have disrupted the academic and social life of students and faculty alike for the last couple of years. Both classroom learning and guidance from mentors and faculties have been affected. All students have been isolated in their homes with lesser avenues of connectedness and networking. The students have shown impressive maturity and proactiveness in switching to the online mode of learning and communication. They have abandoned their campus life of hostel, clubs, and canteens in exchange for the online calls. This magazine has been a fantastic tool, a breath of fresh air at this time. I am thankful to all the contributors for making this a success. I hope this magazine inspired everyone to connect more with their fellow friends and batchmates.

Dr. Subrata Dutta Co-Chairman - Renesa

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Contents Messages from Faculty

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Contents

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Editorial

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This is Life

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Jamie, can you pull that up?

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SIKE!

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P(Guilty|Innocent) = ?

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Out of focus

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Do I get to choose?

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Churuli: Movie Review

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Alfredo Martinez -Artist vs Art

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Chronoception

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Barely Legal

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Art of Manipulation

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200 days, not out!

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Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

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Contributors

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Editorial We love to complain. All the time. To anyone and everyone who is patient enough to tolerate our tantrums. Maybe because we are entitled and think that our problems are bigger than everyone else’s. But if there’s one thing we have realized over the past couple years, it is that we aren’t really that special. Don’t get me wrong. We are great. And unique. And we should celebrate who we are, but our problems are just more of the same really. Ctrl C, Ctrl V, ad infinitum. And it has become more obvious than ever before with all of us patiently waiting for some vaccine-shaped Noah’s Arc to save us all from this travesty.

So let’s not address the horrible C-word this time. Let’s stay in denial. For a bit. Let’s pretend everything’s okay and that we are back in the 60s before the invention of the internet. And the radio. Let’s pretend that there are no other distractions, and that our primary source of entertainment is reading.

Read along also to learn the stories of the infamous Alfredo Martinez and the boy-scout Baden Powell. While you’re at it, you might feel like checking out a wellcurated piece on the art of manipulation from our team of in-house deception specialists.

For all of you philosophy-heads, we have a piece on the classic conundrum of free will and determinism to offer.

For the politically-minded, we delve into the world of hate speech and government-control.

But if all this seems a bit too heavy for your taste early in the morning, fret not. Don’t bother brewing that coffee yet. Jump to the review section. Check out what we think about the Malayalam-language thriller movie Churuli, or get out of your reading slump with our review of the Murakami book - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

If you’re like us, you love to read. And you’d be in for a penny, in for a pound, as you ravenously ride through the various articles contained within. But maybe, you’re different.

This edition of Renesa is dedicated to you, the reader.

And the love of reading. You could be doing literally anything right now - Netflixing, Amazon Priming, Huluing, or gaming, but you choose to do this instead. It speaks volumes about you as a person. Your choice to slow down and read is commendable.

We don’t know you, not personally, atleast. But if there’s one thing we can guarantee, it is that we have got you covered. There’s definitely something for everyone in this Spring Edition of Renesa, pretentiously themed “Obfuscation”.

So, thank you for sharing your time with us. We are a validation-hungry, approval-seeking bunch. So write to us, and tell us how amazing we are. Or kill us softly with thinly-veiled criticisms. We promise to be only mildly hurt.

Maybe, you’re intrigued by deception in the world of sports and parlour games. Or perhaps, you are high on EQ and would emapthize with the kid whose brain seems befuddled all the time. Surely, you’ve wondered about the real-world application of mathematics, and would love nothing more than to discover how the Bayes’ Theorem has been the source of several legal mishaps globally. Or you’d like to deep dive into the world of blur photography. Did time stretch out for you while you were reading this bit? Probably check out how and why our perception of time is shaped the way it is.

Yours Truly,

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Shivansh Shandilya Chief Editor - Renesa

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This is Life WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Krish Sajnani

Fahad Khatuda

IIIT Comps 2nd Year

Mechanical 3rd Year

Krishna Shreeram Comps 2nd Year

“Careful, that’s some dangerous stuff you are holding right there” exclaimed Jack as the jar of billysap almost slipped away. I strengthened my grip on it and kept it on the shelf. A loud bell echoed through the entire plant announcing the end of our shift. I took a quick shower and got changed. The clock struck 12 as I was heading out the door. It was way past our customary closing time.

With no other cars in sight, I pulled my coat tighter around my body and started walking along the cold, deserted road. The night was eerie and bitter. Then, step, step, step. I heard something shuffling across the sidewalk.

Before I could react, I felt a strong grip on my neck, and then THUD! The world in front of my eyes became blurry and everything blacked out within seconds.

anything for you.”

“How the hell did you get back up? I checked your pulse. It can’t be possible. I– ” he exclaimed while pinching himself.

“What are you talking about? You were here two seconds ago, on the phone.”

“What? That was yesterday when I brought you here.”

“Yesterday? That happened just now.”

“Stop, enough of these games. Whatever it is you were trying to do by faking your death. Obviously, it did not work out.”

“Why would I fake–” “Shut up and stay put while I get the phone.”

With one last glance at me, he left the room. The door closed and I slipped out of consciousness.

The captor re-emerged but there was something different. Those eyes that once ruthlessly stared at me were now filled with fear. I guess he finally started to believe I wasn’t lying.

The open night sky was replaced by the faint humming of the fan. The atmosphere felt uninviting, and the humid air stung my body. The door creaked open and a large blurry figure towered above me, phone in one hand, gun in the other. I tried to flail my arms around but I was bound to a chair and my muffled shouts were of no help.

“Now, now, calm down. This is pointless, no one can hear you. Just give me what I need and we will be on our way”, said the large figure while removing the gag from my mouth.

“What’s this place and why am I here? What do you–?”

“Are you dumb? Don’t you realize you have been kidnapped? You need to arrange ten lakhs in cash or suffer the consequences.”

“You don’t understand. I don’t–” My sentence was cut off by the shrill ring of the phone. He replied in a muffled voice, gagged me and immediately walked out of the room.

The door swung open again a few moments later as he reappeared. But the phone was nowhere to be seen. He instead had a black plastic bag, big enough to fit a man.

His expressions completely changed once he saw me, almost as if he had seen a ghost.

“You… you were… how are you… what the…?”

“What’s wrong with you? Let me go, I don’t have

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“What the hell is going on here? How are you doing this?”

“How am I doing what? “ “Don’t mess around with me.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You keep dying and coming back to life,” he said.

“I what…? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Just wait or rather just die” he yelled. I slipped out of consciousness as he walked out the door.

My eyes opened as the captor entered and untied one of my hands. My right cheek burned with pain. My shirt was colored with red stains. I slowly moved my hand up to feel my face. I shrieked as I touched my exposed skin and saw blood at the tip of my fingers. My hands had gone pale and the weakness had crept in. I was stunned as to how I did not feel any pain when the cut was made?

“Do you get it now?”

“How is this even possible? I can’t take this anymore” “There has to be a way to stop this.”

“Let me leave, that might be the only way out. I can’t stay here forever. You won’t get anything from a dead man anyway.”

Without saying a word, he let me go. I tried to move forward but my legs couldn’t keep up with my will.

But I had to get out. I mustered up all my strength and started pushing myself towards the door. My body ached with every inch that I crawled. Seeing my condition, to my surprise, the captor helped me. But even with his support, with every step that we took, the pain kept increasing. I wanted to stop and just give up. But I was ready to take my chances because I was as good as dead being inside the room anyway. I reached the end of the room and took the leap of faith.

What happened next could only be observed by you.

Jamie, can you pull that up?

WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Vishvesh Trivedi

Dev Jariwala

Comps 2nd year

Comps 3rd Year

Neelav Bhatiya Comps 2nd year

Knock…Knock…Knock “ROGAN! The bus is about to arrive, how long have you been in the shower!”

Rogan gets startled by his mother’s scream. His phone, which he had been holding for twenty minutes straight, almost flew off his fingertips. Fretting around to comprehend his surroundings, he realizes he has been sitting on the close-lid loo and hasn’t showered yet.

He stands up hurriedly and checks his watch in fright.

9:27 A.M.

What was I doing here for the past hour?! He stands muddled.

Glancing at his phone, he reads, ‘Lisa unmatched you’ Since the fall of the Roman empire, it had been the first

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instance that he was matched with someone on Tinder.

And he screwed it up, all because he didn’t reply on time.

Why didn’t I reply! What was I thinking! Am I… “ROGANNN!, QUICK!”. His train of thought was broken yet again by his mum’s screech and the next instant he found himself pulling the shower knob, almost instinctively!

Rogan was a sophomore mathematics student at the Ontario Precision University. The peculiar quality that distinguished him was his ability, or rather his inability to communicate. A classic introvert, one might assume.

However, he did enjoy the company and was rather inviting at the prospect of a social gathering. But when it came down to actually talking, no words reached his tongue.

Back in Rogan’s class, the professor asked them to choose their elective activity for the semester. They had the option to elect applied calculus or linear algebra. A form was circulated for students to make a choice and submit within the next five minutes.

Meanwhile, Rogan seemed oblivious to his surroundings.

Just like how a sophomore math major would look at a multivariable calculus paper, Rogan was staring into blank space without an accompanying thought.

“Mr. Rogan, sadly enough, we don’t have all day.

Tell me which list shall I put you under? Calculus is it?” the professor asked in a mundane tone.

had actually happened. The ground beneath felt wobbly to the point where he could swear it was an earthquake. He felt as if he had been punched in the gut and the air rushed out of his lungs. He was just about ready to throw in the towel, to call it a day, to give up.

Back home, the thoughts of the final test took over Rogan’s mind. He felt the need to prove his mettle.

Especially to that bully Andrew who was getting late to his practice. Mastering Integral Calculus wasn’t a breeze and Rogan knew that. Notwithstanding, Rogan gave it his all. He dotted all i’s and crossed all t’s.

The examination was conducted and to everyone’s surprise, including Rogan himself, he aced the test and topped his class. However, he knew that it hadn’t come easy. A fortnight’s worth of grind was behind it. But just as he finished analyzing his answer sheet, he noticed some bustle at the teacher’s desk. Andrew and a couple of other students were mumbling something to the professor while looking at him. Before he could react to the situation he heard the professor calling out his name.

“Rogan, please come here with your answer sheet” At first, he couldn’t move. He stood frozen, staring at the professor’s desk in oblivion, almost lost of his vision.

His trembling fingers mustered a loose contact with the answer sheet as he heard his name echo again.

“Umm…I elect..uh…Linear calculus” “Rogan, be quick!”

“Huh? Linear what?” the professor mocked.

Meanwhile, he heard a familiar voice reminded him of an old scar at the of his head from the locker room’s

that back gear.

“Dude, stop wasting our time. I got my practice in five minutes!” - A guy was heard from the back of the class.

“I have a class in fifteen minutes as well so Mr. Rogan I am putting you under calculus. Ms. Su-che would be glad to have you.” the professor uttered with apparent sarcasm.

“Class dismissed. Remember you have your finals on the last Friday of this month and the grading will be on a curve...” - the professor continued in a class of emptying students.

It took Rogan a good seven minutes to fathom what

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At the desk, the professor, while skimming through Rogan’s response booklet halted at a page and asked, “Explain me the procedure as to how you solved the integral of arctan x”

Why am I being interrogated like this? Does he think I cheated on the test? Andrew seems to be behind all this…

“Rogan, did you hear me?”, the professor repeated in a staunch tone. Integration by parts using some theorem, but what was it called? Agh, I can’t recollect its name.

How about I explain the substitution method instead?

But I haven’t used that in the paper, so wouldn’t it doubt the integrity of my solution? Agh, what do I do!

His brain was tossed up into dizziness. He knew the gravity of the situation and wanted to speak. But, as if someone had pulled the plug between his prefrontal

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cortex and his hippocampus, he was lost of his senses!

“Ah…I used integration by parts…maybe….oh no wait. I actually used integration by substitution here I guess and…”, Rogan mumbled.

“Wait wait. Let me stop you there. You are making no sense at all, child. I asked what symptoms have you been experiencing which led you to assume you are suffering from brain fog?”, the doctor interrupted Rogan.

“Too many dates with Mary Jane it seems.”, the doctor continued with a wry smile over his face.

“Uh…sorry, could you repeat what you just asked, doctor?”

SIKE! WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Krish Sajnani

Freya Parekh

IIIT Comps 2nd Year

ECE 2nd Year

The opportunity for outwitting your opponents stands tall and strong in basketball as well. From the slightest step-over to clear your opponent to sham-gods, off-ball screens, and no-look passes, moments like these make or break the match. Let’s take the 1998 NBA finals, for example. Defending Champions Chicago Bulls had a good 3-2 lead ahead of western conference challengers Utah Jazz. But when Game 6 came around, The Bulls had gone down 85-86. With less than 15 seconds to go, Micheal Jordan stole the ball from Karl Malone in the post and dribbled up the court. Bryon Russell, one of Jazz’s best defenders, guarded Jordan. With 5 seconds to go on the clock, he stopped on a dime, crossed over to his left, and pulled up from 20-feet out, giving the Bulls their sixth win, bringing Russell and the whole Jazz team down with him. This simple yet genius maneuver by Jordan led to one of the most replayed highlights in the game’s history.

In poker, they say don’t play the odds, play the man, and if you manage to do that right, you might make enough money to fund a political campaign. Richard Nixon did. American history would be drastically

Ragni Trivedi Mechanical 2nd Year

The world is abuzz with instances of “cut-throat competition” and “playing dirty”. With the end justifying the means, there is enough place for malice when triumph is at stake. Chasing the high of victory can often lead to ugly situations, yet sports happens to be the arena with the healthiest display of both victory and the lack of it. Despite the notion of the pristine “sportsman’s spirit”, deception remains to be a valuable part of the arsenal of all winners. Some of the historic sports victories were built around the idea of deliberately misleading the opponents and flaunting one’s cleverness.

Ask the Czechs who reached the finals of the European Championship against West Germany. The match ended 2-2 and it all came down to one penalty. Antonio Panenka stepped up to take the decider, unfazed by the pressure.

He faked his shot, making the keeper prematurely dive to his left, and slyly chipped it into the box. Some may discredit Panenka for trying such a risky tactic in the most important moment of his career. But this shot remains one of the most iconic goals ever, often replicated by footballing giants like Zidane, Messi, and Pirlo, and has found its place in the books as the “Panenka Kick”.

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different if he hadn’t bluffed his way to victory in a poker tournament. A lot of powerful characters are depicted to be good at poker: Harvey Specter in Suits, James Bond in Casino Royale, Henry Gondorff in The Sting, Rusty Ryan in Ocean’s Eleven, and so on. Deception is the sine qua non of poker.

In chess, it all comes down to a battle of wits, again.

Every move is interpreted by two human minds, each with its idiosyncrasies. When you play against someone you begin to form a sense of their beliefs and preferences, which may not always be objective. You prey on the beliefs of your opponent and present them with the opportunity to deceive themselves. World Champion Emanuel Lasker has shown legendary prowess at this technique.

“If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?’’

But there is more to winning than just satiating your dopamine appetite. Shooting for the stars keeps you going, it gives you purpose to be the best version of yourself. So you could choose to bluff your way through life or call out other people’s bluffs, but you got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.

P(Guilty|Innocent) =?

WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Tanmay Dadhania

Tanishka Sonavane

Comps 3rd year

ECE 2nd Year

Vishvesh Trivedi Comps 2nd year

An unusual bustle was present outside the Chester Crown court on the 28th of October 1999. A crestfallen 35-year-old solicitor, Sally Clark, who had recently lost both of her infant children to the mysterious Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) was facing charges of allegedly murdering them.

And what followed is perhaps regarded as one of the biggest blunders of employing statistics in courts.

The prosecutors had roped in statisticians to quantify the chances of two SIDS deaths from the same womb. One-in-seventy-three million was the number presented to the jury of the chances of Sally being innocent. The statisticians considered each infant’s death as an independent event thereby multiplying the probabilities to itself, resulting in an oddly slim figure which spoke against the defendant. Genetic RENESA Spring Edition 2022

factors, biological reasons, and scientific intricacies of SIDS were completely overlooked during the trial.

Consequently, Sally Clark was declared guilty and awarded a non-bailable life sentence based on this highly dubious mathematical ratio. Apart from being reviled by the media for being a child-killer, she spent nearly four years behind closed bars. Later on, she was released on additional findings in the case, but the damage was done. The trauma of the deaths and the trial took a huge toll on her mental health eventually prompting her to commit suicide, four years later.

In the same year when Sally was freed, another woman from Australia was charged along the same lines. Convicted of murdering her three children and manslaughtering one. Astoundingly, the same obsolete theory of using seemingly improbable events in determining guilt was used. Perhaps, the courtrooms across continents were still plagued by misconstrued probabilities.

All of these mishaps arise from the misunderstanding of a concept well-known to our crowds, Bayes’ Theorem. Aptly dubbed the “Prosecutor’s Fallacy”, the error assumes that the P(A|B) == P(B|A), the probability of A given B has occurred is the same as the probability of B given A has occurred. By design,

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statistics is a complicated discipline that is difficult to execute and comprehend accurately by untrained minds. Sometimes even experts have a hard time wrapping their heads around certain problems. Case in point, The Monty Hall Problem. The problem itself isn’t important in this context, what’s important to highlight is the reaction of the academic world to the problem itself. Thousands of Ph.D. holders and prolific mathematicians like Paul Erdős were stumped by the problem and even had to be shown computer simulations for them to be convinced. But that doesn’t mean that statistics shouldn’t be used in a courtroom.

Courts around the globe often claim to live by the principle of the innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; this principle originates from Blackstone’s formulation that “It is better that ten guilty men escape than that one innocent suffer“.

But in many cases, the hunger to find a name to attach to a villain consumes the desire to uphold our principles.

The SIDS cases were classic examples of a case being solely decided based on ‘a priori’ arguments. Contrary to ‘a posteriori’ based evidence where knowledge is obtained from an experiential basis, ‘a priori’ is when knowledge is obtained independent of any experience.

The verdict in these cases was decided after calculating statistical probabilities and an assertion made by a British Pediatrician, Dr. Roy Meadow that stated - ‘one sudden infant death is a tragedy, two is suspicious and three is murder, until proved otherwise.’ No evidence was presented of the women actually committing the murders instead, the probability of their innocence was wrongly ascertained and the hapless women were imprisoned.

Another reason why Blackstone’s formulation should be held to the highest degree is the government. By its nature, the government is the only organization legally authorized to use violence. Its power and resources are incomparable to the individual, thus putting the individual in a compromised situation when faced with a criminal trial. This is why it’s important to place as many checks and balances as possible to level the playing field for the individual. After all, the lifespan of humans is relatively very short. Confining an innocent man robs him of ever experiencing those years again.

No amount of money can ever make up for lost time. But if you ever find yourself on either end of a criminal trial always remember the great words of the British economist Ronald Harry Coase, “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything”.

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Out of focus WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Siddarth Sreevatsa

Vishwa Menpara

MSc Maths 2nd Year

Mechanical 2nd Year

As you walk down a crowded street in the evening, a building lit up with festive colours catches your eye. That would make for a great photo, you think to yourself. You pull out your camera and just as you are about to take a photo, someone bumps into you. They apologise and move on. You look down at the picture you had taken.

Obviously, it turned out to be blurry. But instead of immediately deleting it, you stop yourself. The photo, though not what you’d describe as an objectively good photo, was more vibrant than a still image of those lights could ever be. The streaks of colour in the photo made it feel more akin to what a painter would make than what a photographer would capture.

Excited to try this new style of photography, you take photos everywhere you see an opportunity. Just shaking your camera slightly or making sure it’s a hair out of focus. A beautiful bouquet lit under the light catches your eye. You try zooming in while taking a photo, and see that it causes an effect where the photo has blurred streaks all around the outside while the centre is crystal clear. This helps focus all the attention of the viewer on the flower while giving coloured streaks around it.

You next search for and find stalks of wheat lightly swaying in the evening breeze. You set your camera to a slower shutter speed, place it on the tripod and take a few photos. The results amaze you. The photos not only caught the motion of the plants but also ended up creating a golden, blurry trail behind the clear part of the stalks in the image.

It’s time for dinner, so you head out to a nearby restaurant to meet some friends. While having dinner, you take your usual set of photos, some of the food and some of your friends, but wanting to try out your newfound style here, you pick up a frosted red glass and take a photo of one of your friends through it.

This created a unique photo where the outline and a few identifiable features of your friend are noticeable, but the rest is blurred out along with a strong red

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hue over the photo, not a kind any filter can add.

You head home and get in the shower. The steam from the hot water fills up the bathroom and an idea for a photo instantly hits you. You run out, grab your camera and wait for the lens to fog up. You then take a photo of the lights in your bathroom. The image you get has been blurred, however unlike a traditional blur, which is done by purposely changing how the camera shoots, such as forcing an out of focus shot, the background of this image is in focus, but the image has been softened and given a “desolate” or “gloomy” look.

Meeting up with another set of friends the next day, you decided to try something new - turning on the flash while having a slow shutter speed. This creates an interesting effect where you see a ghost-like frame of your friend along with a sharp frame of them, both in the same image. You see that this photo helps capture the emotion

as well as the movement of your friend, something you would not be able to obtain with a higher shutter speed.

Although you have tried a lot of techniques to get good blurry or out-of-focus photos, you know there are so many more out there. You could even create some of your own, and remember, an out-of-focus photo isn’t meant to be a technical perfection.

Instead, it’s meant to create an emotional impact.

At the end of the day, unless you are aiming to do it professionally, hobby photography is not meant to bring joy to anyone but you, so there is no such thing as a bad photograph, only different perspectives, especially when it comes to blur photography. Though an in-focus photo might be more pleasing to a wider audience, an out-of-focus photo might be more your style or help capture a moment or emotion that a sharp photo would never be able to. So remember to experiment, have fun and shoot with your heart and soul.

Do I get to choose?

WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Krishna Shreeram

Sauparnika Nair

Comps 2nd Year

MSc Maths 2nd Year

Omkar Ojas Kanade Mechanical 3rd Year

What did you have for breakfast this morning? Was it Dosa? Let’s say you had Dosa. Now, why do you think you decided to have Dosa and not something else? Your answer would be along the lines of “I just felt like it”. But was that it? Or was it a consequence of the actions of our forefathers who ruled the Palaeolithic era? This question is, believe it or not, at the heart of the contemporary philosophical debate. Well, not the Dosa one of course, but whether we are genuinely free and in charge of our actions or if we are merely puppets in the hands of fate.

But wait, isn’t there a way out of this? Couldn’t you just toss a dice or use rand() to decide what to have for breakfast? While randomness appears to be great for making undetermined choices, there is always a hint of a pattern, no matter how intricate or difficult to discern it is. Therefore nothing is truly random.

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Even if perceived as truly random, randomization leaves the decision to chance, and you and your will have no involvement whatsoever. As a result, randomness has no essential connection to free will.

Wait a minute, what even is free will? It’s what lets you have pineapple on your pizza, it’s what allows you to have biscuits with ketchup. It’s the ability to choose between different possible actions unimpeded. We all believe we are free, and we have the right to feel that way, but is this objectively true? In a Gujarati comic by Dinker Mehta - A woman asks her husband what he would like to have for dinner. She presents him with a couple of options like handvo, khandvi, dhokla. He chooses handvo. What he doesn’t know is that she had already started preparing handvo.

Although he believes he had a choice, there was only one possible outcome, and his free will was an illusion.

14 to have a profound sense of having free will and this is needed, because only then will we hold ourselves and others accountable. Only then will we feel in control and feel that we as an individual matter, and therefore be able to stay sane. If you think about it, even Laplace’s demon is only a theoretical monster.

It’s only fitting that we end with the beautiful words presented by the famous American journalist Norman Cousins – ‘Free will and determinism are like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt to you is determinism. The way you play your hand is free will.’

Imagine if you could know exactly what lies ahead in the future and what lay back in the past. And not through some magical superpower but with the help of actual axioms and theorems. If we could successfully predict the motion of an atom by knowing its exact location and velocity, we would actually be able to trace it back to the past and follow it ahead into the future. This conjecture is known as Laplace’s demon. Quite a shocker, isn’t it?

These ideas however obfuscate when we approach psychology. Our brains are made of the usual messy and slimy matter which is deterministic by nature, therefore our psychology is deterministic too. A general idea from this is that all of human history and the foreseeable future was already determined since the Big Bang as we all are made up of the particles that popped into existence.

So if our choices aren’t free, do they still matter? Since we have no free will, we might as well sit on our couches all day long without lifting a finger. However, this is not entirely true as it’s important not to mix determinism with fatalism- the notion that we are helpless in the face of “ultimate fate”. Our choices do matter. What we choose to do shapes the paths we pursue in life. The point is that we cannot decide what we will decide to do.

After reading this article you may feel a painful sensation in your inner subconscious as you drift into the vastness of existentialism but fear not as some of the leading neuroscientists are here to pull you out of that black hole. We humans inherently tend

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Churuli: Movie Review WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Karthik Sunil

Freya Parekh

Mechanical 3rd Year

ECE 2nd Year

“Seems like a different place, Shajiva ‘’ ASI Anthony tells PC Shajivan as they enter the thick dense forest of Churuli. As the undercover cops Shajivan and Anthony try to settle in this uninviting village, Churuli slowly starts to unravel its true colors. Puzzling trails, hostile residents, and violent wildlife. This is not the place you want to book your next vacation to.

Churuli, meaning ‘Labyrinth’, is a Malayalam language thriller directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery that follows two Crime Squad officers who were assigned to nab a slippery fugitive named Myladumparambil Joy. APC George and constable Joy disguise themselves as diggers who came to work in Churuli, a village giving refuge to wanted criminals. Initially, the villagers seem to be good hosts, but as we progress through the movie, they get more hostile, vulgar, and violent. Shajivan and Anthony slowly start to lose track of time and it becomes more difficult to catch their target. They hopelessly wander around the unforgiving village with an eye on their back, trying their best to not blow their cover.

The immersive cinematography coupled with the sound design does a splendid job of bringing out the beauty and ruthlessness of the forest. Churuli’s eerie nature and its weird inhabitants are brilliantly portrayed through the cast, who are shown as dangerous, godfearing people. Lijo Jose Pellissery is famous for adding flavor and depth to the background characters and he hasn’t disappointed his fans with Churuli.

The aggressive swearing brings out raw emotions that help the viewer settle in the atmosphere of the cold village. The movie has an extra-terrestrial undertone that convolutes the story, keeping the viewers in a constant state of confusion and curiosity.

The striking feature of Churuli is how Lijo Jose Pellissery was able to mesh extra-terrestrial elements into the plot and keep it interesting. Previous attempts at

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incorporating aliens or anything of the sort in the Malayalam industry has always felt forced. Directors usually struggle to keep the movie entertaining for the audience and experimenting with novel concepts simultaneously. On the other hand, Lijo Jose Pellissery’s attention to detail is also remarkable, as the movie is riddled with subtle clues and foreshadowing.

Churuli is a must-watch thriller with Nolan-esque elements to question what you’ve watched. The movie is almost flawless except for its direction, which feels too random at times. The randomness makes the movie mysterious, but it also makes the movie hard to comprehend. Apart from that, this intense flick is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Alfredo Martinez -Artist vs Art WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Jayesh Pandey

Prasang Maheshwari

Chemical 3rd Year

Mechanical 2nd Year

“What unites people? Armies? Gold? Flags? Stories.

There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it.” - Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones.

Picture this, it’s 2002 and hours ago you have made the perfect art deal. You bought two paintings of the renowned neo-expressionist Jean-Michel Basquiat for a meagre sum of $38,500 from this six-feet tall, “all-brawn-no-brain moron” Alfredo Martinez, he does not realise the value of any Basquiat paintings.

But you know its value. You know that in the world of art, the name Basquiat is synonymous with “Legend”. You sprint to your computer table, boot up the system, open the Internet Explorer, and look for places to sell these paintings. But as you’re scavenging the internet you smell something fishy — the paintings you bought and the ones on the internet have an uncanny difference. A sweat glides down your temple and only one thought diffuses on the insides of your cerebrum — “The paintings are fake”.

This is what happened to Lio Malca, a renowned Columbian art collector. And he immediately contacted the FBI’s national art crime division, and the FBI in turn put America’s greatest art detective on the job.

Someone who has recovered Civil War guns, Nazi diaries, gone undercover amongst Mexican cartels and Brazillian Gangs — Robert “Bob” Wittman. Bob had only one task — To catch Martinez. And to an untrained

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eye, this might seem like the easiest task Bob ever had to do in comparison to his colossal achievements.

But Martinez was no novice. He had lived one rollercoaster of life - at different points in his life, he was a punk rocker, a weapons expert, and an artist.

To catch Martinez, Bob goes undercover and sets up a phone call with him. And during their correspondence, Bob gets Martinez to admit that he is selling fakes.

Bob asks Martinez if they could work together to scam “art neophytes’’, to which he agrees. Bob spun this thread of lies to catch Martinez red-handed. They decide to meet in a hotel, where Martinez would bring Basquiat paintings, and they could discuss terms.

But as soon as Martinez enters the room and makes himself at home, a dozen FBI agents swarm in and hold Martinez to the ground. Bob was successful in his mission but he couldn’t keep one fact out of his mind. During the arrest, Martinez was calm beyond disbelief, which was a rare sight. And even during the trial, where Martinez was found guilty, the brawny man couldn’t help but grin the entire time. This was getting on the nerves of the FBI agent. However, the hearing concluded, and Martinez was given a sentence, which seemed like the end of the story — but what the FBI and law system of the USA didn’t realise at the time was that Martinez was also a con-man. And they had just become part of one of the greatest cons in history.

Martinez was an artist at one point in time. And he had realised one fact, which also made his skin crawl — people don’t buy art because they love art for its face value but because it has an incredible backstory. And Martinez was about to tell an irresistible story. As soon as he entered prison, he started fabricating original artwork with nothing but coffee and juice. This rattles the prison authorities because creating art in prison was not allowed during that time. They confiscate his artwork. To protest against this, Martinez goes on a hunger strike for 55 days. But outside of prison, everyone is astounded and wants a piece of Martinez’s art. Later on, Martinez smuggles his artwork outside, under the pretext of legal documents. And these artworks reach a dealer, who puts up an exhibition titled - “United States of America vs Alfredo Martinez”. Two of the paintings are sold even before the exhibition opens.

This is Martinez’s first victory. Two years later, Martinez leaves prison and now he has money, fame, and most importantly he has a place in the world of art, where he can create original work with his own signature.

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There is no doubt that the Martinez-Art-Chronicle is a 300-IQ move, but there is a hidden trail in all this fiasco - Artist vs Art. To make sense of it, let’s trace back to the origin - Jean-Mischel Basquiat. In the 1980s, he crafted these raw, dazzling, and graffiti-inspired paintings but none of them were appreciated during his time they were labelled “illiterate”. But when he died of a drug overdose at the age of 27, his paintings turned invaluable, instantly. The art was the same, the person was the same, what turned out different?

He became a “myth” - A black man alone in the art world, representing the unrepresented and everyone latched on to the “myth”. In a world where all we have is value for the “myth”, the art gets suffocated.

So before you move your eyes away from these words, ask yourself, what do you value? Artist or Art?

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Chronoception WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Ragni Trivedi

Fahad Khatuda

Mechanical 2nd Year

Mechanical 3rd Year

Akshita Gupta Electronics 3rd Year

Our attempts at measuring time began with the invention of sundials in ancient Egypt sometime before 1500 BC, and we have been obsessed ever since. We have tried to quantify it using clocks and calendars, romanticise it with countless idioms, the Greeks even named a titan after it – Kronos, and physicists today suggest that it is not even real. Aristotle rightly stated that “Time is the most unknown of all unknown things”, and despite centuries of effort, the concept of time remains an elusive and slippery notion.

Akin to the five senses, our perception of time is indispensable to our experience of the physical world; however, we do not have any specialised organs for sensing the passage of time. And we utilize many of our senses simultaneously to gauge time. This is probably why our perception of time is very often flawed. Time seems sluggish when you’re bored or afraid and appears to fly by when you’re doing something riveting. Novel or unexpected stimuli result in longer perceived time durations. Our brain devotes significant resources toward processing the unanticipated occurrence and interprets this as a prolonged duration, known as the oddball effect.

Our perception of time obfuscates our comprehension of reality, and the malleable nature of our perception has given way to several schools of thought. There are those of us who are worried about the days getting longer and the years getting shorter, then there are the proponents of “faster the better” and then there is Danny Hillis. He worked on building supercomputers all his life and as an antidote to that, conceived the idea of a monument-scale mechanical clock, being built inside a mountain in Texas, designed to keep accurate time for the next 10,000 years. It is called “Long Now”, a phrase borrowed from the British musician Brian Eno who remarked that “now” meant something a great deal faster in New York than in England. The clock is intended to encourage imagination at the timescale of civilization and promote a long-term cultural institution that hopes to creatively foster responsibility.

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Our philosophy of life is moulded by how we look at the commodity of time. If you think that time will outlive your consequence, you take to nihilism; if you think there’s only so much time for everyone in the world, you start chanting “Carpe Diem!”. The concept of time has universality but no objectivity. The sense of self begins

with our perception of time connected to memories of the past, current experiences, and expectations for the future. Yet, the way we perceive time is widely debated.

In all its glorious guises, time has been orchestrating our lives and even though it might have been written off as an illusion, our perception of it most certainly isn’t.

Barely Legal WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Tanmay Gopaldas

Sauparnika Nair

Comps 3rd Year

MSc Maths 2nd Year

Rohit Rajesh Yelnare Comps 3rd Year

“Few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer men are wise enough to rule others.” - Edward Abbey.

Do you remember the feeling of absolute rage you feel standing in a government office, waiting in a mile-long queue in the blazing hot sun, while the government worker is busy finishing up his round of solitaire after which he promptly heads out for his lunch break? Not one person reading this can honestly say that they haven’t. Can you? There’s a reason why government workers can behave this way and still keep their jobs.

The government acts as an uncontested monopoly in the market of governing people. Every organization has vested interests in furthering its agenda and power. They achieve this by seizing as much power in the market as possible. Luckily for the government, this is very easy as they have the sole authority to use force as they please.

One way of solidifying their presence is to introduce laws to weed out speech that directly or indirectly harms them.

Hate speech laws make very little sense. The standards for what constitutes hate speech differ significantly from country to country. Usually, speech deemed offensive is generally considered as grounds to prosecute for hate speech. But who gets to decide if the speech in question is actually offensive or not, people’s capacity can vary greatly. But at its core, should offensive speech even be censored in the first place? What gives the government the right to regulate the speech of its subjects.

The “purpose” of these hate laws was to curb targeted violence caused by public speech that expresses hate. But in reality, they are nothing but a tool for the government to crack down on its dissidents. In 1951, just over a year after India’s Constitution went into effect, the article giving the right to freedom of speech was amended

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slightly to protect relations with friendly nations. This was done to curb the influence of Akhand Bharat supporters at the time. The amended cause has been used throughout the decades as a tool for moral policing.

Things online aren’t much different. Chelsea Russell found this out the hard way when she was brought to court for quoting a Snap Dogg song on her Instagram page as a tribute to a teenager killed in a road accident.

The said quote contained multiple instances of the “N-word” and the “perpetrator” happened to be white.

Chelsea was brought to court in Liverpool and was convicted. She was fined 585 pounds and compelled to wear an ankle monitor for eight weeks as it was deemed as a hate crime. Government resources being wasted and the ridiculousness of the situation aside, the major problem at hand is the harassment of the private citizen.

Comedians have always been the bastions of free speech through the ages. Lenny Bruce was famous for regularly being arrested for obscenity. He regularly swore and used vulgar words during his shows. He was every bit guilty as the law was laid out. But that doesn’t mean that he deserved those punishments. These laws might be obsolete in the USA, but they are still on the books in India. As recently as January 2021, Munawar Faruqui was booked under these particular subsections for his stand-up.

If you want proof that these speech-controlling laws are nothing but a gimmick for the powerful to protect themselves then look no further than South Korea. The defamation law there doesn’t even require for the information being released to be false, factual information can also be considered defamatory. The image of powerful people is given precedence over the speech of the common person.

An argument could be made that a country like the USA has been a democracy for a couple of centuries at this point and that eventually, all democracies evolve to a level where these laws are automatically removed. But that’s never the case, just look at the UK for example.

They have been holding elections for a long time now, but they still haven’t got these archaic laws out of their books. Values are what separates the Brits from the Americans. Americans value the individual’s freedom above all else, thus after countless struggles, they got what they wished for. The recognition of one’s absolute rights is what drives change. If the individual fails to understand the importance of their own right, the government isn’t going to give up power. The government isn’t in the business of doing any favors.

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Art of Manipulation WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Karthik Sunil

Prasang Maheshwari

Mechanical 3rd Year

IIIT Comps 2nd Year

Omkar Ojas Kanade Mechanical 3rd Year

Hey YOU! Do you want your crush to desperately fall in love with you? Do you have an unquenchable thirst for attention and validation from the people around you? Well, you have come to the right place! All you need is this short course on manipulation and deceit and voila, watch yourself evolve into a new breed of a snake. Lucky for you, we’re highly skilled at talking our way out of problems and getting what we want. We will make sure that you come out of this a master baiter.

Step 1: The secret to gaining respect is being right all the time. People always trust a person who’s right. But, this isn’t as easy as it sounds. That’s why you should exude confidence every time you speak. Even when you’re wrong, one must master the ability of flexing the truth. Say the narcs’ sniffed out your fancy collection of shrooms, what do you do? Will you break down over the thought of spending the next few years of your life

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locked behind bars with a guy named Jamal? No! You convince the officer that they are mouth-drying local delicacies that he must try later today at your place.

Step 2: In the case they have solid evidence against you, don’t back down. Destroy the only evidence they have and convince them they never had any in the first place. This way, you’ll always be right. For example, imagine your wife discovers a used johnny in the bin because you forgot to chuck it after cheating on her, what do you do? Will you apologize and beg her to take you back into her life? No! You swiftly pick up the johnny and transform it into a balloon animal that you were going to surprise your one-year-old with.

Step 3: Ruin the victim’s image. Ruining their image can tarnish his/her social standing and you can use that to your advantage. This secret technique will almost guarantee you the upper hand in any scenario. Since you and your wife are not on good terms, the next step is therapy. Will you spend the next few months going to therapy with your wife where the shrink counsels you about how faithfulness, trust, and loyalty are the pillars of a good relationship? No! Instead, you persuade the therapist to see your wife alone to sort out her unresolved childhood traumas and how her father’s abandonment is the root of your relationship’s troubles.

Step 4: Belittle your victim’s problems by oneupping them each time with your irrelevant minute inconveniences. Never sympathize with them, instead prove that you are the one who’s more affected between the two of you. This way, they will always feel emotionally indebted to you and will be inclined to satisfy your needs. Will you sympathize with your wife as she breaks down in front of you talking about her painful childhood? No! Instead pull an Uno reverse and break down describing how excruciatingly painful it was for you to cheat on her with the police officer and how the shrooms did not make it any easier to deal with. Once she’s emotionally weak, you can confidently make the final move and convince her for a polyamorous relationship with the police officer, to which she’ll readily agree since she feels bad for you.

You must follow all these steps as closely as possible as any deviation from them would likely lead to you being considered a beta. This guide will most definitely add purpose to your life and for once you won’t feel like killing yourself. Don’t take our word for it, look at some of our famous alumni. Joe Goldberg, Light Yagami, The Joker, and Hannibal Lecter.

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200 days, not out!

WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Rohit Yelnare

Abhinav Pandey

Comps 3rd Year

Mechanical 3rd Year

Anirudh Peri MSc Chem 2nd Year

It’s Sunday in the village of Mafeking, and even before the sun had reached its apex, a crowd had gathered to watch the local teams play cricket. Although it seemed like an ordinary day, if observed closely, one would notice a whole lot was amiss in this small village. The armed men patrolling and the constant vigilance of the residents would leave one wondering. But mind you, this isn’t the present-day Mahikeng but the Mafeking of the early 1900s. This small village, located in what is now The Republic of South Africa, was engulfed in a war back then.

A few months before, when the winds of war had just begun to blow, few officials recognised the signs and even fewer prepared for what was to come. Among these people was Colonel Robert Baden-Powell. As tensions rose, the British feared a war with the Boers (Dutch farmers that settled in Africa). Having failed to persuade the government for additional troops, the British Army Chief tasked Colonel Robert Baden-Powell to raise Rhodesian regiments. With a mere 1500 soldiers, Baden-Powel realized that the only way to fight the Boers and their unorganized warfare was a defensive battle. Holed up in the small village of Mafeking, the Colonel aims to draw the enemy’s attention away from their intended target, the Natal province. He succeeds, but now he faces the brunt of the Boer offensive.

Heavily outnumbered, the British resorted to trickery of the smallest proportions to keep the enemy at bay.

Day in and day out, the soldiers could be seen laying out barbed wire and setting up land mines as they fortified their position, almost as if to mock the Boer effort to take the village. What the Boers did not know was that the Brits did not have landmines or barbed wire. With barely any provisions to work with, the only thing they could do was make the enemy believe they were well defended. To the enemy, it seemed like any attack would be a march to their death.

At this point, the garrison was stretched to the RENESA Spring Edition 2022

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23 man and spread thin across the perimeter. Unable to defend themselves, they constructed small fortlike encampments at regular intervals. Although the idea doesn’t seem so novel to us, it was one of the first recorded instances of such a defense, one that would see a lot of use in the next world war. Even through all the hiding, cross-dressing, and fakes, the colonel always had a bolder move planned.

Baden-Powell’s most daring move was when he deliberately wrote to his dead friend in Transvaal, informing him of the impending arrival of relief British troops. As anticipated, the letter was intercepted by the Boers. A single letter got the Boers to divert an additional 1200 troops to guard the village.

The British held out for a whopping 217 days before being relieved by reinforcements. The Siege of Mafeking turned out to be futile for the Boers, a drain of personnel, resources and time with nothing to show for it. The staunch resistance that the Brits showed, underscored British valor and marked a turn of the tide in the war, as the British went on to rapidly increase their control in the continent. A story to be told for ages to come, of gallant heroes, of daring soldiers led by the shrewd Colonel fighting for the queen.

The Victory was inordinately celebrated even back home, in the mainland. Maffick, a new word was created, which means to celebrate extravagantly and publicly, in tribute to this day. It set off hysterical Empire-wide celebrations, out of proportion for its significance, described as ‘Mafeking’.

One might ponder whether this was sagacious on Colonel Baden-Powell’s part, or did he just get lucky?

Strategically speaking, the village had no saving grace. It stood alone, on the path between Kimberly and Bulawayo. Neither close to reinforcement nor defended by a huge force, any confrontation should’ve had an obvious conclusion. But they held out and were eventually rescued. Of course, the Colonel came out a valiant hero praised for his cunning use of deception. But with over 8000 troops going towards Kimberly, within attacking distance of the village, did the Boers ever spare any effort to Mafeking?

The over-glorified nature of the siege suggests so.

Before the siege, the Colonel recruited over 300 African natives to augment his forces. Nicknamed “The Black Watch,” these natives were always at the forefront of any action the forces saw, and sustained

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the most casualties. The apparent bigotry was the root cause for the war, as the white men fought against one another with the blacks as collateral.

The siege in question is an example of what biased documentation can imply. Most records on the siege follow a British perspective, making it seem a victory against insurmountable odds.

Yet where is the Boer perspective, the other side of this 200-day siege? Is it because it was a shameful defeat or rather, the truth buried under years of glorifying the Colonel’s decisive victory.

Accounts have revealed that the garrison of Mafeking didn’t really protect the residents of the hamlet as they were bombed upon, shot at, and slaughtered in the crossfire. Cronje, the commander of the Boer forces, went so far as to demand their surrender so as not to drag the natives into the war, yet he was ignored.

In years to come, the stance of the colonialists was revealed as their blatant disregard for the lives of their non-white subjects was brought to light. With all this known to us, we can say that most historical evidence during the Second Boer War remains questionable.

We may never know the truth, but we do know the lies.

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Wind-Up Bird Chronicle WRITTEN BY

ILLUSTRATED BY

Jayesh Pandey

Yash Bhardava

Chemical 3rd Year

Mechanical 3rd Year

“When you’re supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top. When you’re supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom. When there’s no flow, stay still. If you resist the flow, everything dries up. If everything dries up, the world is in darkness.”

-Haruki Murakami, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Imagine you woke up on a warm sunny day, last night you went to bed with no plans for the next day - all you wanted to do was to half-doze on your couch as you binged F.R.I.E.N.D.S for the 20th time. But apparently, you cannot do that, because you are standing in the middle of a busy road. You don’t know how you got there, you can’t seem to recall a thread of memory that will untie the knot of this peculiar situation. You notice that your left hand is holding something. Your fist is clenched around a red-colored microphone - one that is used by news reporters. And on your right-hand something is scribbled. You are perplexed by this mystery, nothing is making sense anymore, your feet start moving on their own, you don’t know why you’re running but you don’t care anymore and you go along with the flow. You start sprinting, every time your feet hit the road the sound gets duller and duller. You are colliding with people, but they don’t seem to care. You are now running at your maximum capacity, but you feel no exhaustion. The sun was overhead a moment ago but now the sky is colored in orange as if Van Gogh was painting his next impression.

You keep running until there’s no road ahead, until there’s no sky over your head, until there’s no “YOU” left.

This was a mere replica of the work of a true magician.

And every show that this magician puts up has a formula to it - a whimsical premise followed by slow but fancy buildup which never concludes, with a tiny sprinkle of jazz - and although it’s formulaic, it works every single time.

Because the whims of his idiosyncratic universe consist of - talking cats, permeable walks, ghosts of living people, and Colonel Sanders working as a pimp in the alleys of Japan. To say that these elements are absurd RENESA Spring Edition 2022

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would be an understatement, but that insane absurdity is the stronghold of our “magician”, who is none other than the Japanese author, Haruki Murakami. And his novel of 1997, Wind-up Bird Chronicle is no exception to his style.

The novel - Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (WUBC) opens with our protagonist, Toru Okada cooking “al dente” spaghetti while listening to Rossini’s Thieving Magpie on the radio. But the geodesic notes performed on radio and the flow of Toru’s life are soon disturbed because of the phone call and the peculiar chain of events that follow. These events lead Toru to cross paths with a number of fascinating characters, from the past and the present, and all of these people are connected by a single coordinate - Wind-Up Bird, a mysterious bird whose “clock-like” mechanical cry brings nothing but despair and ill-fate. The supernatural elements at play apropos the mystical tone of the novel, each chapter invites you into the woods of magic-realism, to get lost in for hours.

To say that WUBC is a complex but majestic novel would be a euphemism and this might sound like hyperbole, but this novel is very close to a meditative retreat for one obvious reason, its metaphysical nature. The book deals with different fundamental levels of the human psyche by using Freudian Psychology of ID, Ego, and Superego. It combines themes like Nature of Reality, Relativity of Time, and the most evident Mold of Darkness. Throughout the novel, you will find characters trying to come to terms with their inner darkness and the darkness that the environment has to offer, and within different prose, Murakami offers the readers a torch to find their own Light and Darkness.

It is always a wild-ride to see a Murakami novel unpeel its layers and in the end, the reader is left with an indescribable delight and tons of questions, as if they were the main character. And WUBC nails these aspects to the point that it won’t be an overstatement to say that WUBC is the most Murakamian novel. It will force you to leave every task hanging, while you gulp down the last word of the last sentence of the last page of this novel. In other words, it is a mesmerizing read that will fascinate you and linger in your memories like ink forged on vellum.

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Contributors CONTRIBUTOR

Shivansh Shandilya Abhinav Pandey Karthik Sunil Tanmay Dadhania Malvika Nath

Chief Editor Chief Designer Editor-at-Large Secretary Senior Editor

Aneesha Sengupta

Senior Editor & Senior Designer

Supal Padmashali

Senior Editor

Akshita Gupta Riya Anirudh Peri

Junior Editor & Social Media Head Junior Editor Correspondent & Podcast Head

Neelav Bhatiya

Correspondent

Vishvesh Trivedi

Correspondent

Krishna Shreeram

Correspondent

Krish Sajnani

Correspondent

Chinmay Bhagat Rutvi Shah Mukul Raj Mishra Fahad Khatuda

Designer & Podcast Head Designer & Social Media Head Designer Designer & Newsletter Head

Dev Jariwala

Designer

Nishant Singh

Designer

Tanishka Sonavane RENESA Spring Edition 2022

DESIGNATION

Junior Designer

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Contributors CONTRIBUTOR

Vishwa Menpara

Junior Designer

Freya Parekh

Junior Designer

Sauparnika Nair

Junior Designer

Manish Goyal

Junior Designer

Prasang Maheshwari

Junior Designer

Parva Bhavsar

Audio Editor

Atharv Patil

Video Editor

Vraj Nirajbhai Rajpura

Video Editor

Sunny Sagar Bagde

Video Editor

Aayush Dude

Video Editor

Yash Paresh Bhardava

Video Editor & Designer

Jayesh Pandey

Correspondent

Omkar Ojas Kanade

Correspondent

Ragni Trivedi

Correspondent

Siddarth Sreevatsa

Correspondent

Rohit Rajesh Yelnare

Correspondent

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