STUDENTS ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT ELECTRONIC GADGETS

“Ihave all the iPhones, first, second, third and fourth generations, a PlayStation III, remotecontrolled helicopter and car, cameras, video cameras and a computerised chess board.”

• That was one student’s reply when we asked him which gadgets he owned. Well, this is GenY for you. They’re so infatuated by gizmos that they’re an inseparable part of their life. They may not be able to flaunt them on campus but many students own BlackBerrys, iPods and iPhones. And most track new gadgets quite avidly.
• “I regularly follow magazines like Electronics for You and have registered on websites which update me about the latest innovations,” said Gaurang Gupta, a third semester student at the National Institute of Design. Vikas Baligar, a II year PGP student at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, has a collection of “fascinating” things like a Timex data link watch to which computers can send data and an Android phone. “I do a lot of cool things with it. For instance, if you lose it somewhere, you can send it an SMS to track it down. I try experimenting all sort of things with it. I have been into gadgets since childhood — when something used to go wrong at home, they used to call me to repair it,” he said.

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Students save their pocket money to buy gadgets. “When I was working, I used to spend most of what I earned on gadgets. Now, money is a constraint,” laughs Vikas. Agrees his junior Anish Aryan. “I have a laptop and some good headphones. These are a must in every MBA college, I guess. Most people with work experience have BlackBerrys, but I don’t have one as I’m a fresher. As soon as I get into the summer internship, I plan to buy a state-ofthe-art smart phone,” he said.

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• “I’m putting together enough money for a C3 phone — I’ve heard its keypads are different. On campus, what’s shown in movies becomes the rage. The N series phone is most wanted now,” said Afshan Syeda, a II year BA journalism student.
• Gaurang says gadgets help him in studies and he choses them carefully. “My work is all about design and the software needed for it work better on a MacBook. I cannot take chances of my computer crashing and therefore choose gadgets with which I’ve had the best experience,” he said.
• The selection criteria varies among students. Merwyn Raju, a mechanical engineering student at MVIT, has an iPod, PlayStation and a remote-controlled car but an “ordinary phone”. Ask him why, he says, “I may as well have three things separately in which they are really good, rather than have a mobile phone with a little bit of all the qualities,” he said.
• “I find touchscreens very fascinating and they give me pleasure that cannot be explained,” said Hema Rudrappa, a student of the University of Agricultural Sciences Of course, some have come up with their own innovations. “I have a home automation system. When I walk in, the lights turn on and vice-versa. I started doing it as part of my college project and continued with it,” said Vikas.