Paper, Glue and Four Hours of Masti!!

(from left) me, Gargi and Mitalee with our completed bridge

Since the first sem, Gargi, Mitalee and I have been good friends simply because we are very alike, especially when it comes to laziness. We are all lazy bones and would not move a muscle unless its is absolutely necessary. And maybe that is the reason why we don’t take part in fests or competitions(but we are the ones screaming in the crowd though!). This year, however, after much persuasion, we decided to take part in Paradigm, the bridge-making event, a part of Innova ’08. Contrary to popular belief, it is not an event restricted to civil engineering students, and anybody can take part in it. Here, we had to make an arched bridge out of chart-paper members and glue supplied to us. A prototype model was on display and we could choose to copy it or design our own, their only requirement was an arch in the bridge. Very enthusiastically, we started to work on how to go about joining the members together, and make a stable structure. The organisers had demonstrated on how to form the arch, and how the bridge will be tested.

The job wasn’t hard, but using that special glue was. It didn’t stick immediately, and required a lot of blowing to make it stay. Like Fevicol, we used our hands freely while applying it. Later, when we tried to take it off, to our dismay, the glue was stuck on our fingers. It would not come off no matter how much water and soap we used. When we enquired them about using such a lousy glue, the reply was that it is cheaper than Fevicol and its likes. So much for saving money!

We didn’t win anything, but I think it was a good effort. We stuck through the end, and completed our bridge, where many others had left off in the middle. It was enjoyable, and a good task to keep us occupied for what would have been an otherwise boring day.