The story of E-Cell@Nitr and my experiences

The story starts with the founder of this cell, Mr. Debashish Mohapatra- a Mining Engineering undergraduate with appreciable managerial skills. He brought together a bunch of friends and started an initiative to inculcate entrepreneurship in students. The first task they planned was Arthayan, a business event held in Confluence-2k8. They had planned everything and promoted it well. The students who worked on the brochure and promotion- Nishank Kanungo, Rashmi Ranjan Nayak, Shakti Swarup Sahu- were promised membership of e-cell (but were never inducted or recognized). But on the D-day the organizers were contemplating the cancellation of the event as the organization which Mr. Debashish & Co. had handpicked for providing them the required software had swindled them and the organizers had fallen short of funds. This resulted in the postponement of the event and a search for an alternative. The reputation was at stake, after all. It was at this stage that I was called in and handed a challenging task of preparing the software within 24 hours. I had accepted the challenge and remember working non-stop to complete the task in 18 hours. The events in the itinerary went well and were the biggest hits; I was congratulated by a lot of people and was inducted into e-cell. I started working with them despite being the only second year amongst the lot. I loved sharing some of my business ideas with my club mates, but later I realized that they were using my ideas and taking credit for the work, so I stopped working.
In the session 2007-08, e-cell had managed a single event; Arthayan and a small guest talk. So, we planned to change things- yoke together more enthusiastic people and form a larger community. The group was inducted but the majority was the product of nepotism. As is obvious the planning of year round events by the group yielded nothing but another Arthayan to be held in the Conflence-2k9- and this time there was no preparation/sponsorship. I was the convener of the technical society in those days and the organizing body of Confluence-2k9; we tried to help them saying that the technical society would provide accommodation to the Arthayan guests and other required resources, although no financial aid would be given. Initially they agreed on this but on the very last day they tried to press-gang me to provide funds as they had been unsuccessful in managing sponsors. However, I couldn’t heed to their ‘requests’ as major events had already been planned and approved and only minor changes in the budgets were permissible. So these people- who were supposed to have all the managerial skills in the world- went to the authorities and started a crusade against the technical society. Being the head of society and a member of the e-cell, I was in a dilemma so I called a meeting of the organizing body to see if anything could be done. Despite my efforts, there was nothing substantial that could be done. I had to explain my predicament to Mr. Debashish & Co., so they went to the Director with their woes and complaints. The Director asked me to look into the matter and help them in any way I could. I tried my best and did all I could to get Arthayan bailed out. But after the Technical festival was over I was never invited to any meetings and later not even recognized as a member.
And what is disheartening is that none of the founders of the club, now alumni, have pledged financial aid to the promotion of the club.

If nobody spoke unless he had something to say, the human race would very soon lose the use of speech.