Parable of a dream
A dream is a seed,
The seed of a tree.
A tree of the future,
Of which you will be.
The story of Team Nirvana, a group of twenty odd mechanical engineers in the process, a team that qualified the virtual round of SAE BAJA ’13 in its very first attempt, with least available resources is pretty dramatic. It starts about more than a couple years ago, when two young boys who just started studying in an Engineering college happened to attend an event at NIT Jalandhar. Aviral Dubey and Himanshu Yadav, when saw those mechanical setups with roaring internal combustion engines, in motion on the tracks, they were more than just motivated.
So these two young boys, with little, or rather no knowledge in automobiles, come back to their college and start foraging for an opportunity to realize it.
Experience was one thing they didn’t know they will need, but time had it in its pocket. They stumbled upon a senior who was already working in that direction. Resources were put to use, money was spent and they learnt what they wanted. Within a few months, these two boys were a part of a BAJA team from J.U.E.T. and on their way to appear for the virtuals.
It’s said that if you learn from your defeat, you haven’t really lost. But it’s hard to teach the same to a young and dedicated mind. All the preparation just went to the pit. The only thing they learnt, most important one was, their leader was nothing but a tyrant. Dejected and with a feeling of oppression, a step was taken and they left that so-called promising team. And everything almost saw a full stop. There was nothing in hand except a defeat.
But these two boys had done something that evoked a revolution. All the mechanical engineers of that college, who so far didn’t found anything else other than academics now saw a distraction to humor themselves with. This new horizon captivated every single one of them. And a new story saw its beginning with the former’s catastrophe.
Now let us start a fresh episode.
It all started about a year ago, when some students of J.U.E.T., a college with a young Mechanical Engineering Department, dared to compete with the rest of the nation. They were less in number, had no money and didn’t know a single thing about an automobile. All they believed in was, themselves. Young and undergraduate engineers from different years harbored together, to sail on a journey, on the path of glory.
It took about 10 of them from the second year, each one choosing his field of interest. From materials to roll cage dynamics; suspension to brakes to ergonomics and power train and suspension, et ctera, et cetra.
Everything they could figure out they will need. But ten weren’t enough, and seniors were too much superiority complex to handle. The next day saw a notice on the bill board. It read, Interviews to be held for the SAE-BAJA team for the first year students. Anyone interested in automobiles is welcome to appear.
The message was clear, the only prerequisite was INTEREST! It was an obvious fact that a first year student can’t even define engineering, understanding automobiles would be a real underestimate. Questions were as simple as, ‘Which is a more powerful engine, 2-stroke or 4?’. No surprise only mechanical engineers appeared. This took the team total to over twenty, which seemed apt enough. With every single person assigned a topic or rather a stream in automobiles, everyone started learning the rules of the game.
There were two faculty advisers, specializing in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and related fields. With their support and guidance and a hard labor of about six months, the twenty odd mechanical engineers in the making, strengthened themselves in all required fields of creating an all terrain vehicle, ATV. Learning machine design, which was well ahead in their curriculum, and balancing forces on trusses was something they became unbeatable in.
The calendar dropped down to August 2013 by now. Registrations were in the face, the name of the team not decided yet. But that wasn’t the only thing that was absent. It eventually didn’t occur to anyone so far that the team will also need a name. So, with Jesus-can’t-save-me-from-a-sunbeam in the background, they registered themselves as TEAM NIRVANA. Everyone cutted down on their pocket money and paid for the registration. Finally, the TEAM NIRVANA came to life.
The time was finally here to put all the knowledge gathered in one place. With new assignments, every single person on board bent down on their skill sets. For those who do not know, an all terrain vehicle needs the following areas to be worked upon,
Roll cage design and suspension
Vehicle dynamics and analysis
Steering and analysis
Brakes
3D Modeling
Market survey
Wheels and tyres
Power train
Material selection
And of course, Ergonomics
And like Knights Templars, they started their way, all by themselves; no experience, no consultancy, no idea of the competition; just knowledge and a single belief that they can make an all terrain that will trample everything its way.
When you enter the gates of J.U.E.T. Guna, there is a message of the Jaypee Education System written boldly in blue; it says “Gyan hi shakti hai”, the meaning is clear, knowledge is the greatest power. What else could these boys believe in anyway?
The night oil burnt, sleeping was not on the clock anymore. After starting from scratch, it took them about a month to gather all the information they needed. But it was the same time they realized that it’s about 15 days left for them to present the design at the virtuals. But they had the courage. Hard work of nights, meals which were skipped and calculations which took hours, and all this done after the academic hours when didn’t waste a single moment of that fortnight; and in the end it was true that even God can’t ask those 15 days back from them.
At 13 days from the above, excited with their preparations, they gave the faculty a demo, and lo! The Gurus were highly un-impressed. But like true teachers, they showed them the way, and in the next 48 hours of intense labor and an unbroken communication between the 20, brought the project alive. What was next was a journey of a lifetime.
The boys with a dream, stunned the world overnight. With a design that had no flaws at all, these so called stupid-geeks who were said to be wasting their time and energy stood amongst the top 125 teams in this nation. From every team, five are supposed to represent, eight went. The trip although was costly, but things got taken care of, somehow. The importance of their victory was evident to everyone. But this was just the climax, when the story had simply reached the chill; the denuoement had actually begun.
There’s a theory in group dynamics, it says that after a team is set to work it is supposed to fall apart after half of the job is done, and it was about time.
With anathema from the university on the project fundings, they decided to seek out sponsorships. A field of work not many were familiar with. Oppressed from everywhere they started looking for help, but after hundreds of phone calls, uncounted e-mails only sadness did they find. With an amount of 40k to be deposited for the next round they were left with no other option but to contribute among themselves.
Promises were made of help from the faculty, but only to be broken. It is not very easy to understand the plight of young hearts who were looking at their dream being crumbled and crushed. Contributing for such an awesome sum, they cutted down pocket money, requested home and even borrowed. But they dared to take this step.
Next was just a time of depression, increasing. There is another payment you have to make of about 38k to issue yourself a Briggs-Straton engine, default one, from the authorities. Add to it, the total vehicles cost was another colossal 300k. The representatives approached higher officials of the Jaypee Education System, as high as the Chief Operations Officer. He too, like others, left them nothing but promises.
Finally, unable to contribute, the team saw it’s first failure since advent. As many as eight of them stepped back. Their reasons were fair, circumstances true; miserable and seeing no future the team saw a tragic day.
December was here, and End semester exams just in the face. After getting constantly bugged, the C.O.O. finally made a declaration. J.U.E.T. and Jaypee Sports collectively were willing to pay as much as 200k in the new year. Like an energy drink for an athlete, everyone sprung from their places in joy. This was an antidote to the venom they were suffering with. Of all those were left, another about 10 volunteered to stay back in college and construct the basics. Permission was granted on urgent basis, and determination was now rock solid.
They although still lacked funds, but now it was viable to contribute as the money was sure to come, or was it?
But faith kept them going. Hours on the Gas-Metal Arc welding Machine and purchasing of hardware made them forget that they are the only few souls in that 200 acre campus.
With a catastrophe still to be seen, they march on.
We all know a habit of all our mothers. You can always see them bargaining at places, when we just nag about why do they do so. This lesson too was learnt, only that they were trading for chromoly tubings and manufacturing gear. Travelling as far as to Indore because of low prices and freezing themselves in buses on the way, in gushing Madhya Pradesh winter. The first task was to make the Roll cage, and the most important. All the practice they’ve done on the GMAW sets was now being put to use.
Not only these boys had actually constructed the vehicle with all basic fabrications, upto the prototype stage but this was the time, they were sighing relief and a small sense of achievement. This might be the same feeling Michelangelo has felt while 5 chapters ahead of the Genesis in Sistine Chapel.
But why are these 20 boys being portrayed like Olympians? Weren’t there 124 other teams who had achieved the same feat, and most possibly a good number of those were also preparing for the second round. Then why should these 20 be so proud of their vanity?
Well, being one of them it’ll be an absurdity for me to answer the above question. So, I’ll just let our experience we shared, speak for ourselves. What other teams usually inherit from their seniors, is a legacy we are going to leave behind, built by us, all alone. Not only did we built a cocoon, but we very well grew out of it. This is a story of boys who dared to reach out. They were said lunatics, they were mocked; humiliation was actually worse, but nothing stopped them. It takes more than a spirit to keep rushing yourself towards your dream, but whatever it took, they had it.
In the words of Orson Welles, a happy ending depends on where you wish to finish your story. We know we’re not happy yet, so this isn’t the end.
Bhoomik Sharma
