First Report From Narayanpur

Since my last blog post, i have been busy. Busy like never before.
First, it was the pressure of finishing my MTech project and three more projects of my friends. Then, once free of that, i was busy meeting and eating with friends all over Pune. From there, i shifted to TISS, Mumbai for training of PMRDFS. I must write a few posts about my experiences there.  I wanted to, while i was there, but i was tooooooooo busy experiencing all those things.
Then i moved to Raipur and finally to the district of my posting - Narayanpur. And after a week here, now that i am settled and have a free Sunday after ages, here i am, writing a blog again.

I have been posting status updates very frequently this past two weeks on Facebook. So, most of my story is already up there. So, what am i going to write about today? nothing. Really. and to prove that, i am stopping here!

OWLED at last

In these two years at IIT, i had progressively converted from a lark to an owl, in term of sleep patterns. To more about the subject, start here. Till i read this, i too was worried about this shifting pattern and always tried to fight against it. But now, when i started to embrace it, it has played a greater havoc!
in the past one week, i have ended up staying up all night and sleeping till 4 (1640, to be precise, when tiffin starts and i have a sudden hunger which makes me get up, brush and rush).
And, a boy who could never watch a friday evening movie on TV, simply because it started at 2100, just around his bed-time, was now staying awake to read next day's newspaper before going to sleep!
All in all, a perfect Owl. what i do you ask? earlier, i was working on my report, once watching movies, once just chatting with friends, waiting for Maddu mess to open up! Well, you know about Maddu mess? surely you stayed in IITB!!!

PS - two months later, after being a total OWL till 10th August, i have suddenly started to sleep at 2200 and wake up at 0630 ish. more like my old times! I hope this will help improve my health and peace of mind and keep me active throughout the day. but heck! i enjoyed the past few months like anything :) will miss that time. (25th August 2012)

Delayed Monsoon

In my last post, i mentioned that the Monsoon has been delayed by a week. Well, that is not the case if you are sitting in Mumbai, like i am. Here, the delay will not be more than a couple of days. But in the eastern Peninsular India, the delay might really be of a week. This daily updated image from IMD is very helpful in tracking the progress of Monsoon for a naive enthusiast like me. Yes, i can myself give another 4-5 links which will add a lot of details and allow you to make your own predictions, if you know a bit of climatology, but that is not the point here.

Well, a delayed Monsoon can be very bad for our country, with most parts reeling under a drought this summer. The condition will only turn worse. Especially in interior Karnatak and Maharashtra. Somehow, water storage capacity should be increased, so that water will last over 13 months, in case of a delayed monsoon. It rains enough that so much water can be stored. Well, that will need helluva calculation. I will try something in my district of posting...

BTW, monsoon is almost in Mumbai! pre-monsoons showers are gaining strength!

In front of the Sun, Behind the Clouds

On 5th June, i ended up reading multiple articles about the transit of venus from Scientific America, including a slideshow and a very intriguing story about the viewings of the previous venus transits.

The event was also being shown in IITB by Krittika, the Astronomy club. This transit was to happen from sunrise to 10 am in India. As it was morning time, and a nice telescope was being put up very close to my hostel, i decided to attend it.

So, my preparation for the even included - making a calendar entry with two alarms, switching on phone alarm for 6:30 am and sleeping early. But i ended up sleeping at 4:30 am that morning. Yes, for a change, i was able to work late in the night and move my report a great deal ahead. So i thought i will miss this event simply because i won't get up. Little did i know what was happening outside at that time.

When i wokeup with a start, because the alarm was ringing very loudly in the empty lab, i decided to get up and go out and be one of the first to watch the transit on campus and again go back to sleep, this time in my room. But alas! It had started to rain. With monsoon delayed by a week, the only time the premonsoon showers had was this morning! i cursed and left, just to check if the viewing event wasn't cancelled and i could go there if the sky cleared later on.

It wasn't cancelled. Three - four people from the club and a handful of enthu people were sittting there on OAT stairs, waiting for the sky to clear. No luck. So i went to hostel, freshened up and was planning to sleep, when i felt the sun was coming out. By now, it had stopped raining too. So, remembering the story of Jeremiah Horrocks, the first ever person in recorded history to observe the transit of Venus, i decided to hold out. And ended up sitting in OAT till 10:15.

Still no luck. Only, i learn a bit about the telescope which was kept there - equatorial mount of its stand, parabolic reflector, Schmdit-newton type telescope, the solar filter and what not. Also, i learnt how it is dissembled and thus, assembled. It was fun. So many people turned up, little kids shorter than the telescope to old PG students to uncles and aunties and even a grandpa. All had to be satisfied with seeing some distant Gulmohar flowers.

In all these three - four long hours, the sun never came out strong enough to cast a shadow and make any observations. there were always clouds and the invisible Venus between the Sun and us. Just twice did we think we have a chance. But it was false alarm.

Frustrated, i came back to lab, having missed both the Venus transits in my life time. the earlier one was in 2004. I don't remember what i was doing then, but i didn't see it then. And today, clouds made sure that i didn't see the other either. Dampened, in both spirits and clothes, i came to lab. But then, my luck was just a little bad, when compared to the unlucky Guillaume Le Gentil who has been immortalised in the play Transit of Venus. So, i made sure that i didn't feel too bad either.
All left with me were these lines by Horrocks

" ...Thy return

Posterity shall witness; years must roll

Away, but then at length the splendid sight

Again shall greet our distant children's eyes."

 I hope my grandchildren see two transits of Venus!

A bird alighting on top of Taj Mahal, Agra, while transit of Venus is happening.

The above image is taken from a slideshow at this link

Writer's Block

Its been over two weeks now. I am writing my final thesis report. And i might take another 3-4 days if i continue at the expected pace or a month, if i continue at the speed i am currently writing.

Then reviewing it by guide, corrections, improving, etc. before i submit it. A long way to go. This is the worst time to hit a writer's block. There is so much you want to say, write, explain, elaborate, deliberate, question and conclude, but can't. Simply because there is no coherence of thoughts. You are deeply immersed in the research, but every time you sit down to write, you don't know from where to start.

This goes on for days. Days change to weeks. All your commitments whoosh by and you are still not done with your little report. You suffer, you languish, you burn from the inside, but its no use. That moment is just round the corner when you will finish writing. Then suddenly one day, your guide shouts at you as Michael Nobb Shouted at the Indian Hockey team during their Bronze medal match against Great Britain yesterday in Azlan Shah Hockey tournament, and you do a complete miracle and finish the report in next two days and win. I hope i can do the same without any shouting.

Now, its time to go back to typing report

Delivery time

One month since my last post! as always i give up soon after i start with something.
Updates - Fitocracy fad is also ended, this time due to deactivating my Facebook account rather than stopping exercising. yes, i haven't totally stopped working out. i still end up going to the ground twice a week at least. more often though, i have ended up playing football. Mostly as the goal-keeper but also as last line of defence. either way, i sweated enough, as we played minimum 2 hours every time.

What's up with deactivating Facebook you ask? Well, its the same old story. ended up wasting too much time when i was expected to be working on my report. It will soon be one month. Last time around, i had stayed away for just over a month. This time, i wont need to. Or so i hope :)

Now that's from where this title comes. Carrying a baby is a very painful, anxious, stressful and frustrating period. Or so i hear from the ladies. And the closer you are to the expected date, the worse it gets. That's my situation, though my baby is my Project thesis/report/dissertation. call what you may but it is here to trouble me. Hoping to get done with it in 15 more days and get out of IIT-B finally having successfully completed my MTech!

Wish me luck.

Ear worms or Pain in the eArs?

Listening to Sheher mein from Rockstar, while a friend is criticising it, i realised how sometimes some stupid songs just stick on to your mind. Simple tune, which a music-impaired guy like me can follow, very simple-story like lyrics, having some convoluted logic, more like LL (LL expands into something that i can't write here) or Thallu. Listen to Kapil Sharma in any of the laughter challenge videos, may be this one where he enacts Devdas and you will realise what kind of arbit bakwas i am talking about. Still, it is funny and you cant stop listening to it.
The same was true about last semester's two viral videos - Why this kolaveri and Alu Andey. They just capture your mind. Many like these have come and gone. Won't ever make it to any best songs ever list. But might make it to the worst songs list of many people. Still these are popular. Each one has something different, radical, rebellious. And that makes these interesting.
Think of all those Govinda/Salman songs and all those worst ever bollywood song lists you might have come across. Some one calls them bad. but at that time, they were a hit. i remember many of those. Yes. i liked them then, but won't listen them twice in a row any more.
So, should we shut our ears every time we listen to these songs? No. Listening to them gives us some momentary pleasure. enjoy it and move on. But looping them? well, get some cotton for me too ;)

Ear worm refers to catchy songs/tunes which get into your head and stay there for even hours. These can be classic, good songs or songs worse than the ones i have listed. Personally, Kolaveri had got stuck in my mind for about three days and Aloo Anday for two. That hasn't happened with any song till now.
You wanna kill a ear worm? best of luck!

Fitocrat

As always, i ended up not writing for over 10 days. And a lot happened in the meanwhile.
A class party and farewell, a lot of report writing, attending a ceremony, a treat from our juniors and a trip home are few of the things that i remember.
But today, i will write a small write up on Fitocracy.
It all started when i read the XKCD strip "oversight" and ended up signing up for Fitocracy. It sounded fun. more like playing mafia, but doing all the fighting in real life, just to get fitter. i loved the concept and decided to track my intermittent exercises on it.
When i say intermittent, i mean the once-twice a week workouts on the IITB main ground. Considering that i am too unfit to even jog twice around the 400 m track, non-stop, i generally focus on brisk walking and then stretching out. every time i stretch, i realise one muscle or the other which doesnt bend the way it must. Slowly and steadily, i would have improved only if i had exercised regularly. nevertheless, i keep trying and i already feel a bit better than my worst phase in life, which was at the beginning of this semester.
40 Inches and 88 Kgs! i want to get back to 36 and 80. Also, i want to be able to jog a km and sprint  50 m. For that, i have to get fitter. Fitocracy might just be the carrot for me...

Pizza Time

Today was Pizza time.
A friend owed me a treat, i didn't want to eat in mess today noon, another friend's mess was closed and a couple of others didn't want to walk to their hostels in this sun. All in all, it was party time in the lab today. Making decisions was easy. I asked each one whose pizza they would like to eat. Then which pizza and then the side dish they would like to have. then, with my bias applied, i decided everything ;)
No one objected to it, that helped a lot.
So, here we were, eating pizza, pasta and garlic bread. In AC lab, since its too hot outside and it was making me sweaty. Like every year, isn't the summer a bit too hot this year?
Pizza and pasta - both part of the Italian cuisine, which i love as much as our Indian food. More than anything, it gave me a reason to procrastinate and put off my visit to our workshop where i had to discuss about the scale model of floating dome biogas holder.

Now that both these things have been done, its time to work on drawings of the plant. I will be trying my hands at CAD today. Will let know my experiences. Till then, go out and eat what you enjoy the most!!!

Reaching out

After having created blogger profile about 5 years ago, today is the first time i am attempting to write a blog. Multiple reasons for this.

• Need to get back into a writing mode, with many life changing assignments coming my way. I feel that i should share my experiences for anyone who cares.
• Unable to concentrate on work, which involves writing project report and a manual.
• Sudden feeling of loneliness.

So, here is my attempt at blogging.

In the past, i have been known for my moderately long posts on Orkut and then Facebook. I also tried my hand at writing articles for our college magazine, for all its avatar over the five years that i was at IBB. These were a vent for me and also a platform to keep forth my views.
In the pre-computer era, i wrote poems, Shers and gazala or songs once in a while. Also, i had regular commutes to and from school with friends and in general, had a lot of time to chat with my close ones. Though i never felt the need to talk with people, i have always been an introvert, it was nice to think out loud once in a while. All that writing also gave me a creative feel, a sense of having made something which might be appreciated by someone somewhere sometime...

So, that's precisely the reason to think about blogging. Think out loud. Keep a record. If anyone is interested, let them have a peak inside my mind.

This time, against my usual trend of giving up on any resolutions after a week or two, i want to keep writing. I am totally aware that it will not be so and so, i am declaring it publicly.

Now, i will try to reach out with my random thoughts...