Volume 3 Issue II, July 2021 PDF of the CURSOR 5.0 Volume 3 Issue II, July 2021 Content ● Messages 1. From The Director's Desk 2. From The Deputy Director's Desk 3. From The Editor's Desk Creative Content ● Creative Content 1. A Broken Rose-Tinted View of the Lockdown by Bhakti Khubnani (BBA-IT 2019- 22) 2. India and its vaccination Strategy By: Harsh Kahate (BCA 2020-23) 3. India and its vaccination Strategy By: Jayshree Pandey (BBA IT 2020-23) 4. Higher Education in Post-Covid Society By: Manan Agarwal(BBA IT 2020-23) 5. Work-from-home Culture and future workforce By: Maria Qaiser(BBA IT 2019- 2022) 6. Could impartial education systems have saved our nation from the pandemic? By Mohammed Taha Alibhai & Simone Gangal (BBA-IT 2019-22) 7. The Pandemic & The Future By Rhea Shree S. (BBA IT 2020-23) 8. Are we heading to bleak future? By Sandhya Agarwal (BCA 2020-23) 9. Emerging Technologies for the Economic Development of the Nation By: Tushar Laad(BCA 2020-23) 10. Covid 19: A catalyst in higher education post pandemic By: Vanshika Srivastava ● Internationalization @SICSR 1. Tamanna Oberoi | Country: Uganda, East Africa 2. Dakshin Bharathi | Country: Muscat, Oman 3. IEEE R10 EA Sponsored Capacity Building Workshop: Education 4.0 - Role of Education Technologies 4. SPORTS CUM EXERCISE ACTIVITY 5. SPORTS CUM EXERCISE ACTIVITY 6. Alumni Harsh Singh pursuing MBA-ITBM at SCIT, Pune 7. Sakthirajan Balamurugan - Startup : “Futureveal” 8. Manish Patil working in Winvesta technlogies 9. Muskan Mehrotra placed in DeltaX 10. Manish Kumar Singh working in Digital API Craft Ltd. Bangalore ● Awards and Achievements 1. MRS. HEMA GAIKWAD DECLARED AS THE RESEARCHER OF THE QUARTER. 2. Bhuvanesh Hingal Completed Short Term Training Programme on "Cyber Security and Penetration Testing" Conducted by Svnit, Surat 3. Kabir Jain received a certificate of "Spark AR Gladiator" for his contributions ranging from AR effects, Machine Learning, Teaching and various areas of technologies to the community organised by Facebook developer circles 4. Keval Shah Participated in 30 Days Web Development Event and Got in Top 20 for His Final Project Which Was Sponsored by Google Student Club SICSR 5. Mohammed Taha Alibhai Participated in National Level Workshop on Data Science, Analytics, AI & Tableau 6. Many Students From SICSR Participated in Women's Day Walkathon Like Mohammed Taha Alibhai Organized by SICSR, Pune 7. Amol Borkar Secured 1st Position in Business Analytics Case Study Challenge in Data Science Summit 21 Fest of Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra 8. Amol Borkar Was the Finalist in Pitch the Plan Competition (in Top 16 Teams) Organized by Jaipuria Institute of Management (Jim), Indore 9. Amol Borkar Was the National Finalist in Ranneeti - a National Level Case Study Competition Organized by IIM Lucknow (Being One of the Top 8 Teams Out of 509) 10. Amol Borkar Was the National Finalist in Social B Plan Organized by NSUT, Delhi (Being One of the Top 10 Teams) 11. Simeen Khan Ayyub Secured Second Position in Poster Making Competition Organized by MITADTU IEEE STB WIE Affinity Group in Association With SICSR IEEE STB WIEAG on Account of Women's Day 12. Adarsh Rai Secured Second Position Essay Competition Organized by MITADTU IEEE STB WIE Affinity Group in Association With SICSR IEEE STB WIEAG on Account of Women's Day 13. Meghna Das and Simeen Khan Got Selected in the Newsletter Team and Social Media Team Respectively at IEEE Pune Section Student Council Team 2021 14. Shatakshi Vishwakarma Secured Second Position Essay Competition Organized by Mitadtu IEE STB WIE Affinity Group in Association With SICSR IEEE STB WIEAG on Account of Women's Day 15. Harshika Avinash Jadhav Got Rewarded for the Python Learning Programme, Event Was Conducted by EDU Year 16. Jui Kahate Was the Winner of the Preliminary Round of the Chinese Bridge Competition and She Has Been Selected as India's Representative to Represent India in the Final Round of This Competition in China 17. Sandhya Agarwal Got Selected as Ninja Entrepreneur at Coding Ninjas 18. Vishesh Luthra and Ayushi Khare Got Selected for ACM India Summer School 2021 ● Events gallery 1. Majhi Vasundhara Abhiyan 2. NATIONAL YOUTH DAY 3. Inauguration of SICSR-IEEE Affordable Agriculture Labs and IEEE Membership Drive 2021 Introduction to IoT Workshop by SICSR IEEE Student Branch 4. Matribhasha Diwas 5. Expert Talk Series by Google DSC SICSR x YIF SICSR 6. Cyber Security Workshop by SICSR IEEE Student Branch 7. Design Thinking Workshop by SICSR IEEE 8. Student Branch Résumé Building Workshop by SICSR IEEE STUDENT BRANCH ON CAMPUS SPORTS CUM EXERCISE ACTIVITY 9. CRICKET CUM EXERCISE ACTIVITY 10. KHO KHO CUM EXERCISE ACTIVITY 11. DODGEBALL CUM EXERCISE ACTIVITY 12. Dive in GitHUB Workshop by SICSR ACM 13. Parakram Diwas 14. International Women’s Day - Poster Making and Essay Writing Competition 15. SICSR IEEE Special Interest Group For Humanitarian Technology (SIGHT) Group and Women in Engineering Student Branch Affinity Group (WiE SBAG) - Promotes STEM education to Children from 6 to 16 years olds 16. Open Data and Analytics by SICSR IEEE Student Branch 17. ON CAMPUS SPORTS - CRICKET CUM EXERCISE ACTIVITY 18. ON CAMPUS SPORTS - FRISBEE CUM EXERCISE ACTIVITY 19. ON CAMPUS SPORTS - CRICKET CUM EXERCISE ACTIVITY 20. Fun With Algorithms Workshop by SICSR ACM Student Chapter 21. Commemoration of 400th Birth Anniversary of Shri Guru Tegh Bahadurji 22. Artificial Intelligence in Industry and Career Opportunities in Data Science by SICSR IEEE Student Branch 23. SEHAT - Walkathon and Cyclothon for World Health Day by SICSR IEEE Student Branch | Valedictory Session on SIGHT Group Project with SAMPARC NGO by SICSR IEEE Student Branch 24. VIRTUAL SPORTS CUM EXERCISE ACTIVITY 25. Birthday celebration of Rabindranath Tagore 26. Guided Beginners Project Session on Machine Learning 27. VIRTUAL SPORTS CUM EXERCISE ACTIVITY 28. eSTTP on “Latest Trends in Information Technology (LTIT)” 29. GitHub Hands on Workshop Messages ____________________________________________________________________________ FROM THE DIRECTOR'S DESK Dear Reader! Greetings and wishing all of you a very happy new year 2022! We at Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research (SICSR), a constituent of Symbiosis International (Deemed) University, foster creativity to inspire innovation among our students and staff throughout the year, be it as part of academics or as part of extra and co- curricular initiatives. CURSOR 5.0, e- magazine of SICSR is one such platform for the team to express their opinions and display talents. The current edition of the CURSOR 5.0 captures the spirit of consistent teamwork and efforts of displaying the effect of hard work put by all of us at SICSR. The current edition CURSOR 5.0, Volume 4 Issue I, January 2022 presents, (i) Creative talents of students in the form of articles, poems and photographs (ii) List of events (iii) Achievements of staff and students (iv) Alumni Corner I wish all the best to Team CURSOR 5.0 and encourage you “The reader” to participate in its journey of reaching its various milestones. With Best wishes, Dr. Jatinderkumar R. Saini, Editor-In-Chief, CUSROR 5.0 FROM THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR'S DESK Dear Reader, Wishing you a very happy new year 2022!! CURSOR 5.0, e- magazine of SICSR is an innovative magazine which provides a platform to students to express their new ideas, thoughts, technology trends and cultural aspects as well. I wish all the best and congratulations to CURSOR 5.0, e-magazine team for this wonderful work. Dr.Sachin Naik, Managing Editor, Deputy Director, SICSR,Pune. FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK Dear Readers! On behalf of Team Cursor 5.0, as an editor of the magazine, I take immense pleasure in the release of the present edition of CURSOR 5.0 Vol. 4, Issue 2, July 2022. The month of July is very auspicious for us. This month we celebrate our Foundation Day and we mark it with great pride. With this we grow one more year of rich in experience to continue contributing to the higher education in the fields of Information Technology and Techno- management. The release of this edition is amidst monsoon season here in Pune. The city of Pune lies in the western margin of Deccan plateau and is leeward of Sahyadris. It is a hilly city making it picture perfect during this month every year. This month also welcomes new batches of our esteemed post graduate and undergraduate programmes at SICSR. So, on behalf of the entire team of CURSOR 5.0, I welcome new readers from SICSR and hope to onboard some of you as student editorial team for our future editions. While we enjoy all these good things, it is important to note and contribute in becoming global citizen, who will not clog our water lines- be it the natural streams or water and drainage distribution systems of our city with man/woman made waste disposal into them. Through CURSOR 5.0 we serve as a platform to carry forward the rich legacy and strong belief of - “The world is one family”, a vison of our Founder President, Chancellor, Symbiosis International Deemed University (SIU), Padma Shri and Padma Bhushnan Awardee, Dr. S.B.Mujumdar. We are also indebted to Dr. Vidya Yervadekar, Pro Chancellor, SIU, for rock solid support in such activities. The team under the leadership of Dr. J. R. Saini, Professor and Director, SICSR presents before you the current edition of CURSOR 5.0. The current edition covers awards and achievements, event diaries, featured articles, creative content, alumni corner, and special events. I express my sincere gratitude to all our Student Editorial Board of AY 2021-22 for the timely completion of the activities. I reiterate that through this initiative we would like to connect the past legacy of SICSR with the current generation. I would request each one of you “The Reader”- staff members, students, and alumni to consider CURSOR 5.0 as a platform to express your thoughts, share your creativity, and help us build a very informative college e-magazine. Please do contribute and provide your valuable suggestions and feedback to the ‘CURSOR 5.0’ team. Dr. (Mrs.) Rajashree Jain, Professor & Editor, CURSOR 5.0, SICSR E-Magazine, SICSR, Pune. Creative Content __________________________________________ With the position of privilege comes the responsibility to not view the world with rose-tinted glasses. Yes, it’s not easy to get the understanding of the society from our sweet spots- in our comfortable homes and air-conditioned offices but if we, who have the resources and voice to make things happen for those in less fortunate positions don’t work towards a better tomorrow for all of us, what is the point of enjoying the privileges that we do? “They say the sun shines equally on everyone And I don’t think I’ve heard a bigger lie, For me, the sun is warmth and summer sweetness, And for my sister walking home - The harshest thing in the sky” With India locked down over the coronavirus and no way to earn money, the migrant workers faced a grim choice of either walk the roads to home or die hungry in the city. Lakhs of migrant workers were left unemployed by the full shutdown in the country, this sparked an exodus from metro & major cities with many forced to walk back home hundreds of kilometres on foot as public transport remained disbanded. Although some trains started operating, connecting to major state capitals of India, the larger point of the conversation is to highlight the apathy. The lack of consideration shown by those in power for those whose livelihoods and lives have been endangered in the past year. I’ve seen people from the well to do socio-economic status belittle the struggles of those forced to walk home and it left me disgusted. How can we, who don't know anything about walking several miles to reach home and instead were at the luxury of sitting at home, ridicule the struggles of those who have to endure this dehumanising experience? But what I absolutely cannot fail to look past is how everyone, irrespective of where they come from and where they belong always seem to think that home, wherever it might be, is always the better place. Keeping the above points in consideration, I continue to believe that the world, intrinsically and actually, is a good place. That despite everything we hear on the news every day, kindness survives and people are by and large - good at heart. That positivity is sitting folded in the seams, waiting to take over the world. Better days are coming and if you are paying attention, you’ll get a WHIFF of them too. References: Agencies, A helping hand for the migrant workers walking home, The Economic Times, Politics, March 28th 2020, 02:16 PM IST Illustration by Tanishq Nakra Covishield, Covaxin, Sputnik, Vaccines-Possible Saviour. These are some of the words that we are hearing everywhere nowadays. Are you vaccinated? Got your Dose? 2nd Dose completed? etc. India is one of the worst affected countries by the Covid-19 pandemic. Apart from wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing, and washing hands, vaccination is the only way to defeat the coronavirus. This shows the importance of vaccination; not only in India but all over the world. However, has the Indian government or any state government took the vaccination seriously? My opinion is no. Firstly, the vaccination criteria were changed. There was no clarity on whether the central government would be purchasing the vaccines or the respective state governments. On 7th June 2021, the policy was changed again by the Hon. Prime minister for the third time. On 8th, 3.3% of India’s population stays fully vaccinated while it is 42.11%, 19.2%, 24% in the USA, France, and Spain respectively. For any problem in India, the reasoning is done is based on the base of the huge population, so was it done in this case as well. However, this argument is baseless according to me. If we look at “developed” countries such as Japan and Canada, the number of people fully vaccinated remains only 3.9% and 8.5% respectively. It shows us clearly that this is not a question of the population but the strategy of the government. If the American, French, Israelite, Spanish governments were able to carry out the vaccination rapidly, why not the Indian government? Ignorance! In my opinion, the main reason is ignorance. First of all, as per the Ministry of External Affair’s statistics, the number of the vaccine doses exported stands at 6.63 crores. While we can understand the vaccines exported under a contract, what is the reason behind exporting vaccine doses in a such large number as gifts when the people in your own country are dying! Differences! Secondly, the vaccination strategy was changed constantly by both the central and state governments. The vaccination was opened for the age group 18-44 without even taking the number of doses that were available/that would be available. As a result, neither the citizens in the age group 45+ nor the young people were vaccinated fully. For example, the government of Maharashtra announced the vaccination for young citizens and closed it for 10-15 days temporarily due to the unavailability of the doses. When India is one single country, why the rate of vaccines is still different in different states? Why some states prefer the 45+ age group while others 18+? Why certain states are getting more doses in consideration of the population while the others are getting fewer doses? No one has a response. It is only and only due to the unscientific approach towards vaccination and petty politics played by all the political parties. To continue, certain facts have to be appreciated. As for the State-wise tally, Maharashtra has administered the highest number of first doses among the States with 1,97,48,461 doses. It is followed by Uttar Pradesh at 1,74,71,652 and Rajasthan at 1,47,23,621. Statistics! Maharashtra is leading in terms of second doses with 49,32,788 second doses being administered so far in the State. It is followed by Gujarat at 43,62,132 and West Bengal at 39,73,884. (Source: Ministry for health and family welfare) The State is also leading in terms of total doses administered with 2,46,81,249 doses, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 2,11,50,258 and Gujarat at 1,89,22,357. Efforts! Being the largest population in the world, everyone understands that it is a nearly impossible task to vaccinate 135Crore people fully. To add, the vaccination speed and effectiveness in the first phase (frontline workers and healthcare people) has to be appreciated. That was the right way to carry out a vaccination drive. However, the problem arises afterward. While the British government was ordering the doses for the third shot, the Indian government did not procure the second dose even for 25% of the population. No efforts were made to purchase foreign-made vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna to make the citizens safe. Domestic Vaccine! It was a mistake to restrict the drive to just two Made-in-India vaccines: Covishield, the AstraZeneca Plc shot manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India Ltd., and Covaxin, an indigenously developed shot produced by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Ltd. The duration between two Covishield doses was increased to 84 days without giving any idea, which might have created confusion. Politics! India’s vaccination drive has also been politicized after the federal government asked the state governments to procure the vaccines. Public health experts and opposition leaders have called on the federal government to run the immunization program instead of delegating it to state governments. However, the right step was taken where the central government will be giving the vaccines, free of cost to everyone. Conclusion! Finally, it would not be wrong to say that the vaccination strategy of the Indian Government is failed. As mentioned earlier, no scientific approach was used towards the vaccines. When the people were dying and vaccination should have been the most important priority, we were busy with election campaigns and huge religious festivals. The recent steps were taken by the Hon. Prime ministers are correct and if the vaccination is provided by the central government in an adequate quantity, India should be covid-free soon. Taking the example of the USA and Israel, a nation can vaccinate fully its people. Mistakes are done by everyone, but the one who understands them and moves forward wins the race. References: • Ministry of health and family welfare, Government of India. • Henrik Pettersson, Tracking Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide, CNN, July 6, 2021 at 3:48 a.m. Illustrations By Tanishq Nakra “India's 86 Lakh Vaccine Doses In A Day Is Not Highest Record Across the world.”, A false claim. With the onset of the second wave of Covid-19, India went under Lockdown again. The country opted to abandon its pandemic strategy and focus on mass vaccination. This strategy failed to stop the outbreak and it is now time to reverse it. Until herd immunity is achieved, private hospitals must continue acting as agents of the state, and impose only a limited markup on the stock they’re given free from the national pool. Starting May 1, the Great Indian Vaccine rollout will cover millions of people in the age group of 18-44 years. The priority then shifted to the healthcare workers and the frontline workers. Turn of those over 60 years of age who were most at risk of contracting the pandemic came. The demand for the vaccines started to outstrip the supply. Officials defended themselves by claiming that India had inoculated over 143 million people, which is more than the number of days taken up by the US and China. However, the reality is that only 50 percent of the population has been vaccinated. More than 60 million senior citizens have been covered by the polio vaccine since it was introduced in April. The second Covid wave, which hit the country at the same time, brought a slew of problems. It unnerved the central and state governments, which were already struggling to contain the outbreak. The criticism that the Narendra Modi government received was due to the slow pace of the vaccination program and its export of vaccines that could have protected its citizens. From May 1, those above 18 years of age were able to get the pandemic vaccine. The country needs about 1.8 billion doses of preventive medicine. As the pandemic began to gain momentum, the governments of India and other countries were faced with an unsatisfactory situation. So, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped up efforts to boost the production and delivery of vaccines. To boost vaccine production, the Narendra Modi government has decided to allow the import of vaccines made by foreign manufacturers, including Russia's Sputnik V. Both firms needed to raise their share by July and August respectively to meet the demand. The companies have been asked to raise their share by selling a fixed amount of doses. To address the shortage of vaccines, state- owned laboratories and clinics will supply another 50 million doses of Covaxin in August. Dr. Reddys also planned to import finished vaccines once the price is fixed, reports IANS. It is important that the majority of the population gets the vaccines as soon as possible, says Dr. Jayaprakash Muliyil. Distribution challenges Zydus Cadila planned to raise its annual production capacity to 240 million doses, which includes 120 million doses in-house and the rest from contract manufacturing companies. Under the new strategy, which came into effect on May 1, the Centre and the states got 50 percent vaccine production from domestic producers. The remaining half goes to the Centre. A comprehensive plan for the vaccine's rollout was in the works, but the details such as the right temperature for the vaccine and its utilization were still not finalized. The Centre has allowed states to distribute vaccines through decentralization. This will enable people to get the vaccines without paying for them. To be successful, all stakeholders must work together to ensure that the entire population is inoculated. The planning and controlling the flow of vaccines to the right places will pose a greater challenge to public health experts than the cost of the drugs. Several states, including West Bengal, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh, have announced free vaccines for infants up to age 44. Pricing problems Analysts say the move is a political ploy to shift the blame for the lapses in implementing the Centre's plan. They also believe that a coordinated inter-state mechanism is needed to ensure that vaccines are distributed among states according to the severity of the pandemic. The Centre's bridge funding is essential to ensure that states can procure vaccines without resorting to the diversion of their funds. As per the Centre's decision, private health utilities will now be allowed to charge as much as Rs 600 per dose and Rs 300 to the states. Critics of the private market for vaccines also point out that many countries don't use them and provide them for free to the public in the context of a pandemic. For vaccine-makers, the differential pricing is justified since they spend large amounts of money on R&D. It is also beneficial for them since they can charge a higher mark-up than the cost. Public interest groups have questioned the high prices of vaccines when the money is being used to boost production. On their part, the vaccine producers say that their prices are the lowest globally. Krishna Ella, managing director, Bharat Biotech, says that the company's Covaxin-based vaccines are highly purified and require low process yields to produce. The public has been asking why the taxpayers should pay high prices for vaccines when the government is spending its money to increase the production of vaccines. All costs of product development, manufacturing, and clinical trials were mainly borne by the company. GOVERNMENT'S CHANGE TO VACCINE POLICY Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Centre would no longer share responsibility for the country's vaccines program with states. The federal government now purchases 75% of the vaccines manufactured by private firms. This means that the state governments will receive the vaccines for free. It means that states and territories will now receive their allocated doses based on the level of disease and vaccine wastage in their respective states. India has administered a total of 235 million doses of vaccines since January. The drive, which began in January, is aimed at immunizing the country's adult population. June’s Covid vaccine quota to be 120 million after 79 million in May Around 120 million doses of vaccine will be made available for the Covid-19 program in June. The remaining doses will be given to the states and union territories for the benefit of the healthcare workers and people above 45 years of age. In June 2021, around 120 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines will be available for the country's immunization program. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, however, did not share details of the total number of doses allocated for June. Vaccination is an important step to prevent a disease from spreading, especially among the country’s most vulnerable population. Nearly 23 crores vaccinated, 3 crores infected, only 16 lakh cases at present. India, at the moment, vaccinating one Qatar per day. Hopefully from June end, India will vaccinate one New Zealand per day and one Israel per day by July. India vaccinated one Canada in the first half of May, In the entire May, India vaccinated one UK. Hopefully in July India will vaccinate one US. The Indian government has pledged to vaccinate all adults by the end of the year, a target many experts say would be difficult to meet at the current pace. Indian vaccines are the cheapest in the world and India is very few countries in the world to have a vaccine of our own. Seeing Surroundings, India hopes to be vaccinated as soon as possible. References: • Andy Mukherjee, In a nation of inequalities, India's vaccine strategy is bad economics, Bloomberg Opinion, April 27th, 2021 21:17 IST. • Mohamed Zeeshan, India Must Rethink Its Pandemic Vaccination Strategy, The Diplomat, May 19th,2021. • Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, Why is India learning details of vaccination strategy from Adar Poonawalla and not the Centre? Scroll.in, April 23th 2021 09:00 am IST. Illustrations By Tanishq Nakra HATCHING OUT Author: Prachi Lal (BCA, 2019-22) It was the first time I saw my parents cry. My parents who have stood beside me, uptight, all along were crying as they left me in the hands of this temple of education, in this hostel. It was a first for both my parents and me. I wanted to weep and stop them and ask them to stay, but then I remembered my mum kissing my forehead and saying, “Bubu, here you well get all that you need. Tomorrow when you come back home, be the better person we expect you to be”. It has been a few months now and weirdly, these words have been the source of strength and a beacon light for me. I have stayed strong and focused. Everyday when I wake, I want to run back to Ranchi, run back to my city, my people, mum and dad. When I look around, I see people of my age doing the same thing, like little birds coming out of their nests for their first flights, just like me. I see people with the same urge to run back to their peers but they stay. Everyone wants to do the same, excel. This age period is a roller-costar ride in our life. We come out of our comfort zones, meet new people, learn, plan careers, manage our lives and problems, make friends, make enemies, fall in and out of love, discover ourselves and most importantly know how and what life is. This is the most important phase – the make or break phase – in life. We want things to be perfect and plans to go our way, but sometimes things don’t work that way. Sometimes our worst fears get realized. These fears need not be as big as facing voldemort, but instead could be as simple as running out of money on month ends, which most of the people do. These situations make us angry, anxious, terrified, restless, all at the same time, but we all must remember that the madness has just begun. These fears or mistakes are not the end. They are bitter pills to swallow because these uncomfortable situations eventually prepare us for what lies ahead. More than anything my colleagues (and I) are worried for marks, results and placements. Yes, these things do matter, but no, again this isn’t the end. Mathematically, even if you score less marks in one exam, you still have a 100% probability of scoring highest in the next. Dear friends, getting low marks isn’t the real issue. The real issue is not dedicating 100% of yourself to it. So, it’s my first time living what is called a ‘hosteler's life’ and to be honest I had a rough beginning. I was curious, anxious, a little unstable and angry. I used to complain all the time about the food, the lighting and everything. I used to weep every now and then missing home, have major mood swings, feel depressed and sometimes have an outburst of emotions. It’s not that I don’t miss home now and that I don’t feel anxious or depressed now. I do. I still feel all of it and even now I have an outburst of emotions. The difference is that now I have started learning how to cope with it. I have started learning to set my priorities. The art of living lies in how you react to a particular feeling and every one should know that no feeling is wrong or right (says a person I know), but the actions you take in response to a feeling get to decide the right or the wrong. Everyone should always know that it is okay to make mistakes because if you are my age, you have just hatched out of your comfort zone. For instance you might be socially awkward or might be an extravagant in the start. It is okay, but what is not okay is to not learn from your mistakes, live in denial and not ponder over them and the give yourself a chance to do what must be done. You need not feel guilt about a thing for as long as you committed it, but then you must also not forget it, because if you do so, you will never be able to learn from it. My coping strategy is talk to that one girl I trust, yours maybe writing or reading or listening or even studying, you never know until you try it out and trust me it is never too late to give it a shot. People, Symbiosis is a brand. Let’s prove worthy of being ‘Symbians’. Let’s show our parents the person they want to see- the strong, independent; the better versions of ourselves. KICK THEM,BOOT THEM,MAKE YOUR WAY,BARCA BARCA ALL THE WAY!! In the novel Coronavirus or Covid-19: many names were given to this deadly disease. One that shut down businesses, institutes, economies, and even entire countries almost overnight. A pandemic that forced everybody inside their houses or drove them to the hospitals, affecting every social and economic institute all over the globe. One of the major institutes was EDUCATION. Impact Of COVID 19 For primary and middle schools, the situation was easily dealt with due to the lack of any major examinations. They followed the government’s instructions without giving it a second thought and put a hold on their classes. Secondary schools, on the other hand, had to face some complications due to the class 10th and 12th board examinations. They had to make a humungous decision as they held their students’ futures in their hands and are solely responsible for any hiccups which they cannot afford. Recently, there have been reports of cancellation of said examinations by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for both the classes but the Indian Council for Secondary Education (ICSE) has only decided to cancel the class 10th boards while leaving the status for class 12th in uncertainty. This came as a much-awaited relief for secondary schools and their pupils. New Version of Education Universities and colleges all over the globe faced this crisis as well but on a yet bigger scale compared to secondary educational institutes. They have a greater responsibility of producing the future leaders and workforce of their countries, respectively. Putting their semesters on hold or even ending them early was not an option unless they were willing to risk their reputation by adding to the incompetency of the general population. The solution they chose to tackle this problem was “Online Classes”. Colleges and universities around the world started conducting classes in the, now well-known, online mode, keeping up with the times, trying to impart their education and experience as best they could without being physically present. Teachers worked tirelessly to do their jobs while students used this time to avail themselves of endeavors that could not have been availed had they been attending college in the pre-covid society. Students taking on multiple internships at a time and participating in every possible event they can has become the norm which is bound to give them a glowing resume by the end of the year. Such tremendous progress has been seen all over the world, across universities but these, sadly, are only the pointers for the proposition of the pressing debate, that is online classes with the opposition holding much better cards. Cons of New Version Not all students take their online classes seriously, without paying any heed to the fact that the knowledge they could gain might prove to be crucial in the future and the lack of it may even lead to their career’s downfall. Students often join their classes just for the sake of attendance and if it was not a requirement, they might choose to not attend classes altogether. On the other hand, for the more studious ones, it often becomes difficult to grasp the concepts being taught and causes them to lose interest in the subject. But this does not at all mean that only students are the cause of such disruption in education- Teachers showing disinterest and not caring about their students causes harm not only to their reputations but also to their pupils. Even if they try their best to disseminate their knowledge, it is not the real deal that one would receive in the offline mode of classes. Need to be back Covid has given the entire world a really hard time and when I say this, I think I speak for everyone, we all want this atrocity to end, to go back out into the world without having to wear a mask first, and do everything that we did every day but never felt grateful for but now that it has been snatched from us. Even though getting everything back to normal is not within reach yet, I feel that a few things might still be very much attainable. The first ray of hope was seen at the beginning of 2021 when the 1st wave of Covid-19 ended. A lot of things achieved near- normalcy. But educational institutes could not decide the mode of classes in such a short time and turned out to be the smarter to hold out as soon enough the 2nd wave hit. This meant that it was only a matter of time before the situation became better, enough for the world to go back to the way it was. More hope came in the form of various vaccines being created almost simultaneously in various countries like Covishield, Covaxin, Pfizer-BioNTech, etc. Changes When campuses across the world do open up, everyone knows that certain changes will have to be permanently made into their lifestyles. Masks will become like smartphones, always to be kept on the person, and social distancing in public places will become essential to ensure a decrease in the spread of the dreadful virus. Being fully vaccinated will be a requirement to visit any public place or use any means of public transport. But the elephant in the room remains. How will the universities get back on track after this dry spell? Students have missed out on a lot