The First Draft

[I am never able to write a good essay on myself. It just feels weird to write in praise of oneself.

"No thinking - that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is... to write, not to think!"

Dedicated to the above quote, for it has rather influenced my writing recently.]

Prologue

Hi all

The AIC is proud to introduce awards for exceptional service to the Council by its members. These awards will be given on the 25th(all boards night).

All AIC conveners interested in applying for these awards must email me a one page write-up explaining their contribution to the Council by 5pm today(Wednesday).

Regards

Aman Bakhshi

'Outgoing' General Secretary

Chapter 1

Application for AIC Award

Pradeep George Mathias

2nd year outgoing convener

I don't know what to write. I am not sure why I am even doing this. If anyone has to write a one-page write-up of their contribution, they'd have to be really self-praising and just generally go on and on and probably try to intimidate the reader. Fortunately, I am incapable of doing such.

As a member of the AIC, I merely managed to fulfil my duties as a member, and as a convener. I lost steam halfway through and neglected a number of duties. I would even use the excuse of “not wanting to be elected next year” as an excuse for not working. I believe I satisfy all the requirements of an ideal convener, and I am sure that I am not boasting when I say this; but I gave up working. Despite my end-of-year negligence toward the post of convener, I managed to have a number of my classmates beg me to stand for the post again.

Instead of outlining my contribution to the AIC, which would turn out rather sub-standard in my opinion, I will describe how by merely fulfiling the duties required of me, I was able to contribute to the welfare of my department and the working of the AIC.

Chapter 2

A convener's first and most inherent duty is to represent his classmates. From the moment I was elected the convener, I have looked on my classmates as little kids to be taken care of. It was undoubtedly a most natural reaction to being put in such a position of responsibility, and I do remember a number of instances where I went out of my way, causing some confusion among the staff.

From controversies such as trying to get MAL115 floated in the summer even though the HOD had said no, to trying to sort out the issue of cheating in the MAL122 major paper, my tenure as convener has not been any cakewalk. Throughout these issues, I managed to keep my personal views out the way from making a judgment in favour of the majority, while also trying to satisfy various parties with various compromises. Whether I was successful or not, I cannot be certain; but I feel confident that I did the best I could, and that I managed to satisfy as many people as could possibly be satisfied.

As the name of the post suggests, the class convener is supposed to convene the class committee meetings. During the first year, we never had any class committee meeting, and the concept of such was rather alien. With due aid of the AIC Constitution and the General Secretary Aman Bakshi, I can confidently say that the meeting turned out successful. The agenda was taken from the class, addressed during the meeting, and the class was notified of the conclusions.

The departmental academic committee (DAC) is an integral part of the AIC. It is the bridge between the Class Committees of the Department and the AIC. However, due to the prior defunct nature of the AIC, the DACs were never held. This year however, our department senior conveners and our AIC GSec helped revive the DAC. As a participant of the DAC, along with some classmates, I became aware of the issues of the department, ensured the department was notified of the issues of our batch, and the DAC thus became a success.

When conveners were called upon to help out with the pilot project of the online feedback system for the AIC, under short notice I was able to get a majority of my classmates to respond. The pilot project, was thus a success, save for the problem of authenticity and security.

Under the AIC, I was a part of the Constitution Review Committee. As a member of the Constitution Review Committee, I suggested changes to a number of flaws in the Constitution such as “the tenure of members of the AIC should be one semester”, and other changes pertaining to a shift in the current scenario from previous times.

Epilogue

As such, in looking back at my tenure as convener, I believe I have satisfactorily fulfiled all my duties and hence, am applying for the AIC Awards.

[@Aman: If you're reading this... Do pardon the breach of privacy by publishing your email.

@all: This was NOT the thing that I finally submitted. It was just the 'first draft' of the manuscript.]