The Sage Colleges: Fill & Download for Free

January 2014 was my fourth Hunt, and the second in which I participated "actively." I puzzled with the Manic Sages (winners '12, writers '13, since disbanded) in 2011 and 2012, with Wafflehaus (Simmons Hall, MIT) in 2014, and through unaffiliated dabbling (via a friend's team) in 2013, so I've gotten to experience the Hunt from a variety of perspectives. The overall experience can vary wildly depending on your own experience with puzzle hunts, as well as team size and culture.General things you'll probably experience:Opening ceremony. According to tradition, the hunt begins in Lobby 7 (the little dome at MIT) with a humorous skit relating to the Hunt theme. It's pretty crowded, but worth going to just for fun.Doing puzzles. Well, of course. But there a lot of puzzles. The most recent hunt (2014) contained 120 puzzles or so; you have access to several at a time, which allows you to switch around if(/when) you're stuck. And on that note, doing is probably not the correct verb. Unless you're a very seasoned puzzler, you'll frequently be staring cluelessly at puzzles, or perhaps spending some time raging wordlessly at puzzles. Even if on a large team that's able to "unlock" all of the puzzles, you're probably going to focus your attention on a much smaller portion, and you'll contribute to a puzzle with several other people rather than just doing it yourself.Feeling overwhelmed. This generally follows from above. Note that most teams don't finish the Hunt (see Solved Puzzles (by Team) (http://web.mit.edu/puzzle/www/2014/solved_puzzles_by_team.svg) for 2014). But if finishing is not your primary goal, no need to stress.Not sleeping very much, or having a strange sleep schedule. Depends on how involved you want to be, but the Hunt usually lasts a couple days, with the record in 2013 being over three days. Straight.Spending some quality time with friends and/or getting to know new people. The intensiveness of the event is great for bonding with your pals, but if you work for this long with total strangers, they'll soon be pals too.Experiences more specific to team size:With a very large team:The Sages have had estimated team sizes around 150 members, and "team size" usually refers to the number of active puzzlers at any given time. The demographics range from high school students to adults years out of school. In addition, some puzzlers participate "remotely"; remote solvers in various time zones are a huge competitive advantage, pushing progress in the wee hours of morning.With a team this large, hyper-organization is necessary: rooms reserved for sleeping, a food plan, and (most importantly) a dedicated team wiki to record puzzle progress and facilitate communication. Each puzzle usually gets its own page/spreadsheet, and contributors from all over can collaborate over chat.In terms of making meaningful contributions, a team this size isn't very beginner-friendly; someone more experienced will probably think of your idea first, and the speed of fact-collection (the easiest thing a beginner can contribute) can be mind-blowing. In spite of my best efforts, I was not an active contributor at my first Hunt with the Sages.Major advantage: getting to see the entire Hunt. A large competitive team will be able to experience the entire story arc, unlock all of the puzzles, and participate in the final "runaround."With a medium size team:Wafflehaus probably had 20-30 active puzzlers during peak hours. (Very few people during late night hours, though.) As a dorm-based team, the composition was generally college students living in Simmons Hall (plus acquaintances).Like with the Sages, collaboration occurred online, but with Google Docs rather than a custom wiki/scripts. Somewhat more disorganized than the Sages, but still easy for me (a remote solver) to know what was going on.As a semi-experienced puzzler, I found this to be the ideal team size for those not gunning for a first place finish -- I was able to contribute significant insights to a respectable portion of puzzles, while being exposed to most of the Hunt. This is also good preparation for later joining a more competitive team.With a small team or individually:You probably don't want to experience the Hunt this way unless you're looking at the puzzles purely casually. I've found that picking out a few interesting puzzles with a couple of buddies can still be lots of fun, and is good if you can't devote the 2-3 days. Works best if you already have some puzzling experience.For a complete puzzling novice, I'd personally recommend a medium-size team with a mix of newbie and more experienced puzzlers. Having this support is important for making sure you get to be involved and have fun.Finally, puzzling can happen on-site or remotely. I've solved remotely for 2.5 Hunts (as I don't attend MIT), but with a group of others, so the experience wasn't solitary. If possible, being present at the team's home base is great and lets you in on the core shenanigans.

Use of Gobar(Cow dung).Excretion of our very own holy animal gowmata(cow) used like a boon in our country, whether its a gloomy or glee occasion.Even in our sacred text of India, vedas, cow dung is treated as auspicious, so much that it is used in many sacred ceremonies,rituals,worships etc.2. How about wall painting with Cow dung ?In any typical Indian village it is very common to find the entire floor and wall painted coated with fresh cow dung paste.3. As a source of energy that can be used as a fuel for cooking :--in raw form—or through Bio-gas4. Electricity generation from cow dung .you can check out this link to see electricity generation from cow dung :5. Cow dung is one of the best forms of natural fertilizer.6. University of Bristol and Sage college in NY, has found cow dung to be an excellent mood enhancing agent which activates a group of neurons in the brain that produce serotonin – a neurotransmitter that contribute to feelings of well being and happiness.7. Cow dung also used widely by Indian mothers/ teachers to scold their children/ students, dimaag me to gobar bhara hai tere(your mind is filled with cow dung). I am sure 90's kids would remember this.And i think amazon has realized its importance too.—So from next time if someone calls you Gobar, realize your importance.Dhanyavaad _/\_

Are you named Agastya? How do people react to your name?Well, yes. My name is Agastya. Mom took some time to think for this name, looking for a unique name.So, how do people react to it?Are you a Muslim?Are you a Christian?What is it’s meaning?Oh! [A big name to remember, and to spell]Wrong spellings on the birthday presents.Like the sage Agastya?Were you born in August?Teased as “Septemberia”Permutations of my namesAddition of H in the nameONE & TWO“Are you a Muslim?”“You are a Christian or a Muslim?”Bus journeys, train journeys. After a fellow passenger asks me my name, I don’t know why, but the immediate question is: “Are you a Muslim?” Sometimes, it is, “Are you a Muslim or a Christian?”I am really not sure why they ask me that question? I can understand for the part of Christian, because it is somewhat similar to “Augustus”. (more on this later) But for Islam? I don’t know if there is any name which sounds like Agastya.Some curious heads ask me the meaning of my name, probably thinking that I would not know its meaning, and unlike others, I know what it means.THREE“What is the meaning of your name?’It means: “Name of a wise man”. That is what I say. And then I receive a look which definitely means, “do you know, you shouldn’t boasthere about yourself in the first meeting? “ And I can read their minds and I have to add that it is because of sage Agastya this is the meaning.Once, during a college visit, I was asked the same question, I gave the same response. They appreciated my quick and witty answer, ‘Name of a wise man’; but then I told there was nothing witty.It is what it means. But it is possible that they assumed I deflected from the question giving a fast response when the ball was in my court.FOUR“Oh!” or “Oooooh”Some just say: “Oh!” Oh can mean a lot of things, but I assume it is because of the complications of the spelling. In Hindi, it is written as अगस्त्य. Pretty much explains why. In English, it is A.G.A.S.T.Y.A. Easy to type on the QWERTY keyboard, with almost 50% of the characters being ‘a’.FIVEAnything but A.G.A.S.T.Y.A.Except for my best friend, till the eighth grade, none of my classmates could spell my name. “AUGUSTA”, “AGISTYA”, “OUGSTYA”, “AGSTYA”… there were many weird spellings of my name for the labels on my birthday present.I don’t know if I was surprised what was inside or what was outside the present.SIX“Like the sage Agastya?”“Yes, like that sage.” Those who have heard about the sage, the sage who drank the ocean[sic], asks this question.They also ask me if my personality, behaviour and attitude is like him, These days people don’t ask me, and I don’t want to share my response here.SEVEN“Were you born in August?”“No, I wasn’t. I was born in the month of July.”It is interesting to note that the moth ‘August’ was named after Augustus. Augustus <==> Agastya. Somewhat similar, I take it.There are people who were named after the month they were born in. There are some people who named their pets after the month they were born in.But that does not mean “Agastya” was derived from “August”.People don’t ask if Theresa May was indeed born in May.EIGHT“Hey Septemberia!”Some people assumes that I was born in August and hence, they call me “Septemberia”.It rhymes. Some people laugh. But I am not affected by it. They are factually incorrect at the first point.NINE“AGATSYA”I am half Kannadiga, and half Gujarati, and I have to deal with the incorrect pronunciations of my name.Not all, but some Gujaratis think it should be Agatsya. Many non Gujaratis, back in the school called me Agatsya since they could not pronounce the name. I had to correct them.One day, a small kid in my locality tells me, “Bhaiya, meri bua kehti hai, aapka naam galat hai. […] Aapka naam Agatsya hona chaiye.”Which means, [Brother], my aunty says your name is wrong. […] It should be Agatsya. His aunt was a teacher (and yes, from Gujarat. I live in Gujarat, if you don’t know)TEN“AGASTHYA”Some of my paternal uncles and aunts call me Agasthya. Agasthya happens to be a well known sage in the Southern part of India, so they can pronounce it somewhat close to the original pronunciation, but some like to include the ‘H’ in the name.I study in Mysuru, Karnataka. And I am always prepared for someone adding ‘H’ in my name. I was pretty surprised when they did not write ‘H’ in my name for a certificate.Incorrect pronunciation: I correct the person saying that there is no need to stress on ‘T’ for the ‘H’ sound.(Tell you what, Typing A.G.A.T.S.Y.A is weird.)My thoughtsNothing as such.I appreciate people have something to ask or say, even though it isn’t a conversation starter. I don’t want to talk about myself, but at least those people will know something they didn’t know before.