Rube Goldberg

Saurabh Pandey

First year

Almost 25 days after our arrival at the college , the first technical event of our college “Rube Goldberg” took place .When,I surfed on the You Tube , I was amazed by the way people had used
unwanted materials to do a simple task in a complex manner.The idea only that i would use scrap to build something fascinating inspired my inner heart and without wasting any time, I contacted my friends ,formed a team of 8 members and got ourselves registered to the event coordinator Rahul.

After the registration we were given 24 hrs time to submit a brief abstract about our ideas and the basic model of our design. The problem given to us was to demolish a glass structure in angry birds style containing at least 15 steps.Following this people started hovering around on the net looking for some good designs.I,instead thought it would be better to make simple but original ideas rather than making high quality stolen ideas.So, I sat down with a piece of paper and a pen with my friends and started penning down my ideas and within 1 hr we had almost 10 new ideas in front of us which were the sole cultivation of our own mind.the joy and the ecstasy which I got after making my own ideas was just awesome.

The actual event started after the abstract submission . All the participants were pumped up and all were focused towards the ultimate goal of winning.The competitive spirit could be felt in the
atmosphere.People did not wish to share their items , even cello tape was hard to borrow.Why curse others, I too was focused towards one goal that is winning and nothing less than that.

Just as time passed we realized the difference between thinking an idea and implementing it in real life.We had to drop most of our ideas. Other participants too were facing the same problem.
This problem actually united all of us . People started going to one other’s room and the tension just began to disappear and we started to help each other. It was then when I realized that everything is not done just for winning ,  actually its the emotions attached to it and the feeling of togetherness which motivated us to take part in such events.

Just as the deadline came closer, the focus shifted from winning to completing the task.Something from inside constantly kept telling me that I had to complete the work if not for me then at least for other members of the team who had done a heck lot of hard work for the event. I knew the same feeling motivated other participants also . that’s why almost participant did not sleep for almost 3 days.

The most important realization which I got during the event was the importance of team work . All the members gave their 100% and all of us were ready to support and help each other.For instance, once I cut my hand while cutting a piece of cardboard and all my team mates left their work and helped me and they made me sit idle for next 1 hr.

On the last night before the the examination , all the participants behaved as if we all belonged to the same team. We all helped each other in completing our machines and the rat race for winning ended there only.

The faculty were to come at 10 am but it was postponed to 6 pm in the evening.So we had the whole day in front of us . Some members suggested that we must add some new steps or we should improve some pf our weak steps.On the contrast, one member suggested what we need to do was to sit down and relax. We did the same thing, talked to each other the whole day which groomed our friendship and we were able to know each other in a better way.

Then the faculty came for examination. Some teams performed really well without any human interference. Some were not so lucky to fulfill all the expectations. When our turn came  , the feeling of tension could be felt in the air. I tried to lighten the atmosphere by cracking some PJ,s but it did not help. Our machine ran without any human interference . All of us were so happy that we kept shouting for 5 mins and Rahul came and scolded us for that.

Then I realized the happiness which one gets when his hard work gets paid off. WE congratulated each other. Although, we came second , but we were as happy than as the winners were.

So, in the end I would say the event was far beyond than being just a technical event. It nurtured our thought process,groomed our relationships,made us realize the happiness importance of team work and also the ecstasy which one gets on being paid for hard work he has done.