Pilani Diary

BITS Pilani Main Building.

Then the day of the travel to Pilani came. I had allotted one full day only for the travel  because I had heard that it would be the hardest part you will have to face. This happened to be very true of course. The viva was on the next day. So I could stay one night at Pilani and attend viva in the morning.

 The information I got was that there would be buses to Pilani from ISBT Terminal in Delhi. I came to ISBT at around 11am and got to know some hard facts. The important one was that there are only a few buses after 10 o'clock in the morning. The next buses are at 11.45 am, 2 pm and then 4pm. But there are regular bus services before 10 in the morning. 

 At the same time, one friend called me and said he was coming with one another guy. They were also coming to Pilani and he was  currently at Airport.  The other guy was only coming. So we decided to travel together. Finally we took the tickets for the bus at 4 o'clock. It was a very ordinary bus that can be expected from normal bus services. It took around
6 hours to reach Pilani. The route taken was Delhi - Rohtak - Loharu -Pilani. This journey was very tiring and we all were very much exhausted on reaching Pilani. 

 I suggest you to go by a cab to Pilani if you are 3 or 4 guys. You will have a comfortable journey and you can stop in between for some coffee or refreshment etc. We met some taxi guys at ISBT, but they were asking around Rs3500 for the trip. It seemed to be very much overpriced.  But you can get taxi from airport or some travel agency at reasonable rates.

Saraswati Temple in BITS Campus.

 BITS campus is only at a walkable distance from the Pilani bus stand. Pilani is a distant village in Rajasthan where BITS is the only significant establishment. When we reached BITS we were quite apprehensive about finding any accommodation because it was around 10 o'clock. The security people guided us to VFAST hostel, which is very near to the gate. But surprisingly rooms were available there and even a delicious dinner also.  So the first experience in BITS was very encouraging.

We were told to report at 9 o'clock in the WILP division. There were around 30 people in the hall. The Asst Dean gave an introductory session of WILP courses first to the 30 peoples. And he responded to the our queries. He was a down to earth person who speaks very nicely to people. 

 And the viva turned out to be even better. Even the examiner was a PHD student and he was nice in his approach. We discussed about the project for about 1 hour, but he didn't asked for any demo. One thing you should be careful is that the project report should be in the prescribed format, otherwise they will ask to resend the report again; but you can attend viva and all. They are accepting only hard bound copies, not spiral bound etc.

Inside the campus

BITS has a very good campus. And you have all  facilities in it. The Dean had specially suggested  to visit the Birla Museum. A real size coal mine is the main attraction in it. But it was not opened when we reached there. And we were not able to buy the BITS T-shirts as a souvenir from the alumni office. Both of these will be closed from 1pm - 4pm. Missing these was a sad part of this visit.

 There is a Saraswathy temple made of white marble inside the campus. Along with the deities, the idols of the famous personalities also put up there.  A lot of people of seemed to be visiting this place.

 Another interesting thing i have learned is that students are not forced to attend classes. Attendance is never  checked in a class. And a number of professors will be giving lectures for the same subject. So a student can choose to attend any of those.

  I had planned to reach Jaipur on the same day as the viva. That meant I had to leave by 3 o'clock. I got another friend who was also traveling through Jaipur. He agreed to join me in the Jaipur tour, on the next day. We had to hurry everything and but managed to get the bus at 3 o'clock. It happened to be last direct bus to Jaipur from Pilani.