Saturday, December 26, 2009

Aerostat Recovery Device (ARD)

Well, when I began writing this blog, I had promised to post some random stuff here. And it would be like throwing a biased dice if I don't include any technical GYAN.

So here it is- the fruits of my 2 months arduous efforts in IIT Bombay during summer 2009 The project title- "Design of an Aerostat Recovery Device (ARD) in case of accidental breakage of tether". Full pdf is available for download. Do check out this link, and refresh as many times as you like ;)
http://www.casde.org/index.php/casde/article/view/4

Well apart from that nothing much to share. Well yes, we said tata-bye-bye to BITS, our home for the last 3.5 years. It was a little sentimental moment, but considering that there is lots more in life ahead, I didn't feel that bad. Lots more includes Mercedes Benz PS in Bengaluru and job at John Deere. But yeah, I will miss DC++ badly :(

Anyways life has been great and will continue to be, Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

A week in Bengaluru

Finally I am home, and I can pour out all that I am holding inside for the last one week. I haven't felt the need to blog more desperately than I am feeling right now and this post is going to be a long one. So prepare yourself, while I take a deep breath and start from the start!

I had booked my slot for online CAT 09 on the evening of 30th Nov.

Saturday, 28th Nov
We took the Yashwantpur train at night. I had slight cold and so had stuffed my pockets with HALLS chocolates. I had decided against carrying my laptop, for preparation on the day before the exam. (I had just carried one notebook of Quant questions just incase I suffer from boredom attack). My priority was to chill out. However, one important thing I did was to copy some rock bhajjans and relaxation music from my lappy to my father's mobile. I knew this would come handy on the night before the test. The journey was good, slept better than expected.

Sunday, 29th Nov
We received a warm welcome from our relatives in Bengaluru, after which we settled in our room and had breakfast. I loved the house. I found a novel about the History of Philosophy, it was called "Sophie's World". I decided to read it, as it would help me with relaxing and with the RCs in CAT paper. We visited my center of CAT exam in the evening. There was a lot of news about chaos the online CAT had created nationwide, so I was more worried whether I would be able to answer my test than about my performance in the test. Luckily, Iskcon temple was quite close to the place we were staying. So I could go into the "sharan" of Lord Krishna.

Iskcon visit:
The atmosphere helped me to relax. I entered into a conversation with Lord Krishna. I asked him how do I avoid stress while answering the paper? Then a thought emerged from within . (It must have been Lord Krishna). "Karma karo, phal ki iccha mat karo". This was the answer to a lot of my queries. If I was able to trash the thought of "results" out of my mind, it would help me to focus, give my 100% as well as keep my mind in the present. Next, I asked him: how do I avoid the anxiety that I felt before the test? He advised me "Karma karneka uchit samay hota hai." So there was no use worrying about the future. These two replies changed my mood drastically. I felt like I had attained nirvana. :) By the way, the temple is beautiful, definitely worth a visit.

That night, I was not much tensed, but still sleep eluded me. So I remembered the songs I had copied on my father's cellphone. I must have listened to them from 12:15am to about 3am, when I must have finally fallen asleep.

Monday, 30th Nov (C-DAY)
I woke up at around 9am after a good night's sleep. I had deliberately chosen the evening slot, keeping in mind my sleeping pattern during the semester :P I had a good breakfast as I had decided to have a light lunch. Also I had a long hot water bath under the shower, which was comforting. (Begaluru is cooler than Goa). I did feel a bit anxious, but I was in a better state of mind than expected. I had lunch and left for my center, listened again to the meditative bhajjans and kept reciting them all the while.

CAT Experience
After a brief security check and all the procedures of fingerprinting and photosession, I finally sat infront of the computer screen that would decide my fate at around 2pm. My test was scheduled to start at 3:30pm. This 1.5 hrs were the hardest to pass. I tried to take a nap, but then heard one of the invigilator say, "this guy has fallen asleep or what?", so quickly opened my eyes and sat down. I smiled at him and he smiled back. On my left side was seated a beautiful girl, another CAT aspirant. Unfortunately we were forbidden from talking inside the lab, with video cameras fitted for surveillance. We were not even supposed to look anywhere except the computer screen, but I managed a look on my left, a few times :P Even she looked at me sometimes! Blush! :P Actually I was not sure, whether to look at her so as to pass my time or to stay focused on the test. Before I could decide about that, I decided to use the loo. (This was allowed only until 30 mins before the start of the test, i.e. till 3pm). I drank some water too, just a sip and was seated again in front of the computer screen.

Finally it was time to start the test. I started with my strongest section, Quant and did well in it, then moved on to DI and last Verbal. Time just flew past. This is what I guess Einstein calls relativity. After coming out of the center, I was overall happy with my performance. It stayed that way for a couple of days more, until I realised that some CAT aspirants had attempted almost the entire paper. The paper was simple but that simple? Had the CAT standard diluted so much? Only time will tell.

Nevertheless, CAT09 was over and I decided to enjoy the rest of the stay in Bengaluru. We were invited for dinner at my cousin's place. That night, I had ice-cream without even caring that I hadn't fully recovered from cold.

Tuesday, 1st Dec
I had two discount vouchers of Westside, thanks to Girish and Pratik, so I decided to do a bit of shopping. At Westside, on the commercial street, I purchased two formal pants and one jeans for myself and some stuff for my sister. My mother also did some shopping in FabIndia and then it was time to do what I had been long waiting for. We brought 3 zinger burgers from KFC, out of which I had one and a half. Had lunch at home and a nap after that.

When it was evening, it was time for the grand dinner at 'Coastal Express' as promised by Chhaya Aatya and it was really a grand one. Thanks to Aatya and Uncle for such a wonderful treat. We ordered so many varieties of fish and chicken dishes there. Aah, and the Virgin Mary drink! Later that night, I got boils on my hands and legs, I wonder whether it was due to the drink as I was the only one to have that drink and those boils. Anyway, after I applied the lotion, I was okay next morning.

Wednesday, 2nd Dec
We again did a bit of shopping at Maleshwaram street, two sarees for mammi and some handicraft idols of Krishna and Radha. E-zone disappointed us as the 1 Tb external HD, I was searching for wasn't available at a reasonable prize. Nevertheless, at lotmart we bought 3 formal shirts, well actually just bought one and got two free!

In the evening we went to the chemical plant owned by my relatives for the inauguration of a new lab there. My mother and I both loved to see the plant and had a good discussion about the process with the main supervisor. Then there was the pooja and the dinner. I loved the drive home when Aatya was driving.

Thursday, 3rd Dec
We returned to Goa by flight. It was the first 'international' flight I had boarded, well it was Bengaluru-Goa-Dubai flight! :P I enjoyed the take-off as much as I have always enjoyed. As we rose above the clouds, the scenery was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l. My faculty of wonder perceived the clouds to be similar to waves of snow on a vast ocean and a little further, I felt they better resembled a softee ice-cream and sometimes plain vanilla icing on top of a gigantic cake. I was busier enjoying all this, than 'Kambakht Ishq' on a small screen in front of me. The flight was smooth and in about an hour we landed safely at Dabolim.

It was a fun trip to Bengaluru, though my DIGICAM went unemployed. I did not find time to click even a single pic in Bengaluru, and also it was stored safely in the cargo luggage, during the flight, when I actually wanted to take a few shots. Nevertheless, it was a great trip!