It Finally Happened

After a long time, it finally happened. Before I tell you what ‘it’ is I have to tell you the background. So read on!

This weekend we planned to go to Elephanta Caves and also roam around a bit at Churchgate. Frankly, I am not much interested in history, so as expected I didn’t love the caves much. A few pics here and there, especially of monkeys, a snake and shops there, meditated a while there; but what really rocked our moods was the boat trip while going to and coming back from the caves, which are located on an island. This was the first time I had adventured into the sea; luckily for us, it was not raining that day; but the currents were still strong and they almost threw me off my feet a few times while I tried to stand on the deck and take a few pics. We decided to go on the top deck by just paying Rs10/- extra which were worth the amount of fun we had there. The driver even allowed me to manoeuvre the boat for a while, (when it was docked of course :P). The view was amazing, awesome, breath-taking, overwhelming, (even MSWord Thesaurus won’t provide me enough words, so let the pics say the rest. For higher resolution pics see my orkut album).

And yes, the boat trip begins and ends at Gateway of India and Hotel Taj. Earlier that day we took a few pics there.

After returning from the boat trip my friend did a bit of shopping at the Fashion street, we had ganne ka juice and went and sat at Marine drive for a while. Just then there was a drizzle, light enough for us to enjoy getting wet in it and strong enough to cause the rainbow behind us. My friend and I (both mechanical engineers) had a good discussion on how tetrahedral shaped concrete slabs, piled on top of each other, would help to disperse the stresses caused by splashing sea water tides and prevent the wall from falling. For nature lovers like me, apart from bird watching :P there were variety of crabs, (no pun intended here if it exists) and in all sizes. And finally I think I have told enough things to tell you what ‘it’ is. Unfortunately, ‘it’ happened. My DIGCAM battery got discharged, I had not charged it for a long time! I cursed myself over a hundred times for letting ‘it’ happen. So I could not take any pics at Marine Drive.

When the sun was almost about to set, we decided to retreat. I had a hamburger at Wincy and took a packed local back home. It was neither BCC, FCC, nor hexagonal packing; but worst kind of packing I have ever encountered, the density was highest I assure even without any calculations.

On Sunday we went to Juhu Chaupati, which was not much different from Colva beach, only it was more polluted as the tides brought with them polythene bags in addition to sea water. However, some things that you won’t get to see at Goan beaches are the Bombay Pav Bhaji and other chat stalls, the kalakhatta, chana masala, fruit decoraters, flute-sellers and the state-of-the-art fortune tellers, not humans but robots! (See the pic). We transformed our jeans into shorts and enjoyed the splash of waves for a while and then fed our hungry bellies at the Chat stalls.

3rd and 4th week in Mumbai

Last two weeks literally flew past and taught me to enjoy each and every moment I live, like listening to the songs on a small TV screen in the BEST buses I travel rather than complaining about the noisy polluted streets or using the decent speed net to make 500 friends on orkut instead of feeling bored in the lab when I seemed to be making no progress on the project. Too many funny and interesting things I did and won’t be possible to blog them all, but to cite a few, I used intelligent guessing ‘correctly’ after a long time (last I used it was during GCET) but this time to shop for a given list of vegetables which looked like cubic equations in two variables- appearance and shop.

Shopping reminds me I went to Lamington Road and hunted for a few electrical items I needed for my projects, in baking afternoon sun for more than 2 hours and next day I realised that IITB has a supplier who delivers the needed goods at the lab the very next day, what a waste of energy at Lamington street, a simple phone call would have done the job! I also enquired on some online stores through emails for some materials but didn’t reveal my identity or purpose why I wanted them; they refused to give me more info about their products until their company’s MD talks to me personally, (and they insisted on this); I get a sick feeling that they thought I am a terrorist and informed the intelligence about it when I refused to give my number! If I showed you the mails, you would agree why I felt so.

Anyway I finished watching third volume of heroes and then realised I too have a special ability, for example I learnt how to control the weather- by just expecting it to rain, I could stop it from raining, (my ability is that whatever I expect never happens, if I were to expect a 100 things, 101^st thing would happen; all teams I expected to win 20-20 world cup matches lost). By the way, the long awaited rains finally came down unexpectedly on Saturday night when I was fast asleep. And yes, I got sore throat and cough and next day read on news that swine flu cases were reported in India including in Mumbai (so I ‘expected’ that I caught swine flu :P). Also I survived an explosion in the nearby fuel testing lab, 3 were killed and 4 are still in coma, (I am talking about insects, not humans ;) And yes, I got a haircut only in Rs25/- from the barber who claimed to have given Aamir the Ghazini haircut, (Aamir is apparently another boy who lives in a nearby galli- this clarification the barber gave me after the haircut). “Conditions apply, I forgot to read them!”

At home, I helped my uncle file his income tax returns (I hadn’t used excel for anything worthwhile for a long time), finished watching three movies of star wars (and talked about it with a friend who I later realised was talking about star trek!), and next day I fought five angry, barking, street dogs alone without any jedi sword. I even got scolded by a watchman for touching a gate (how could I possibly steal a gate, I am still wondering!), went to the Infinity Mall in Andheri and saw a not-so-famous TV serial actress there, so didn’t bother to take her autograph or a snap with her. I watched 'MEE SHIVAJI RAJE BHOSLE BOLTOY' a marathi analogy of 'Lage raho munnabhai', here we have Shivajigiri instead of Gandhigiri, got bored with Sudoku, so tried it’s brother ‘Kakuro’, and finally (after a long waiting) something happened in the elevator that changed my way of thinking and writing, I am probably following Pratik’s footsteps, a bit different though, this time it’s a girl next floor (more details in the next post if further developments take place, P.S: I hope I wasn’t hallucinating!!)

Bandstand- Week2

After my exams finished on 14^th May, I was all set for my internship in IITB, for which I was supposed to leave for Mumbai on 17^th, but then I changed my mind and postponed it to 23^rd. It was one small decision, which changed the whole story of my internship. Had I reached on 17^th, I would have finished all the formalities before 20^th and I would have got hostel accommodation as well. But all hostel rooms got booked by 21^st and I had to stay at my uncle’s place at Vile Parle and travel everyday spending a lot of valuable(?) time and most of my energy in it. I wished I was Isaac Mendis, I would have painted my future and known the outcome of my decision beforehand. Or if I was Hiro Nakamura, I could have teleported into the past and changed it! (Courtesy: Heroes!)

Anyway, apart from travelling there was no other inconvenience I faced, thanks to my uncle. And the highlight of the week was ‘friendship’ with my four year old niece, the cutest girl I know, a blue-eyed fairy she is. Playing with her I felt like I lived my childhood again. We played “Cook and the kitchen”, “bat-ball”, “teacher-student”, “mummy-baby”, “going to the beach”, and with puzzles, dolls, cars, her cycle, etc. I went to such an extent that I got an idea for my internship project from one of her toy :P See this post

On Saturday, Divyanand, Ankit and I decided to take a break from our regular schedule and roam around a bit. We went to Bandstand in Bandra and it was finally time to put my Digicam to use.

After seeing the pics and the video, if you feel that this place is a bit familiar to you, then you are absolutely right, it was here that a part of the song “kabhi- kabhi aditi” from “jaane tu” was shot. If you can’t still recollect, see the video again, and watch carefully the para- “Tu khush hai toh lage ke jahan mein chaayi hai khushi...”

When we climbed the stairs we realised that it is basically a hang-out for couples, we saw a few live smooches, etc etc... :P We rubbed ours eyes enough number of times for the next few minutes. I was in two minds, I looked at my Digicam, but finally I decided to respect their privacy. Then we changed our focus from the couples to the beautiful scenery. The whole atmosphere was so pleasant and calm, altogether different from the noisy city life. My friends sat on the stones to enjoy the breeze, while I kept my fingers, eyes and Digicam busy. The sea was the same as it is on Goan beaches, but the rocks replaced the sand. I didn’t bother to go into the Geology to find out the reason, but just sat down and enjoyed the serenity.

It was time to leave, but we were not aware of the excitement that was awaiting us, it left me wondering whether Essel-World was in Bandra. We were waiting at the bus-stop for a bus, but decided to take an auto instead. We were four of us, a guide-cum-friend called Thakur had joined us. Rickshaws normally take just three passengers, but we were happy to find a chap who took the four of us. That’s what we thought, until the driver found another customer a little ahead and then we were five passengers excluding the driver in the auto!!

For the first time on Mumbai’s streets, traffic made no difference! Even when the road was blocked, the rickshaw kept moving. How?? Well, the lane had a divider, the left side was blocked, and to our surprise the driver drove on the right side of the lane, and that too in full speed... lol! He almost banged into four girls trying to cross the road, and remarked “Sorry se kaam chalega?” Divyanand, who was sitting uncomfortably against the exit door, suddenly burst out “Dhire chalao bhaiyya, meri aadhi gand gaadi se baahar hai” :P The whole ride was full of sparks and bursts, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing and took a pic as well.

We finally reached Bandra station and I caught a train to Vile Parle. There I did a little bit of shopping. I bought a kit for my project called “Technica”, which consisted of many small metallic bars and pipes that could be joined with bolts and nuts to form various assemblies. I also bought a game called “Bullet Train” for my niece and she liked is so much that she exhausted the battery within one day :P

First time in Mumbai?

I had been to Mumbai before, but never alone. And I was supposed to spend two months in IIT Bombay for summer training. I had got a project in Aerospace Engg Dept.

Waise I am not a good travel guide, never tried that before, but I am sure my experiences would be useful for a first timer in Mumbai. Here’s the preparation that I did, apart from the mental preparation of staying away from home for two months. This is what I packed in my bag apart from clothes: My shaving kit, toothpaste and brush, soaps for taking bath and washing clothes, my digital camera, alarm clock, cello-tape and scissor, pillow cover, laptop, mobile with charger, calculator, pen, refill, pencil, passport sized photos, ruler, umbrella, a keychain, RJ45 and LAN cables, towel, comb and most important, I took printouts of two maps that I thought would be very useful, Mumbai city map and IITB campus map, which I would always keep in my wallet. They did come handy in the first week especially. Apart from this, one may take other things like a notepad, an emergency address-book in case your mobile gets lost, itch guard, medicine tablets, etc. I had a total of three bags, one with lappy, one handbag and a main luggage trolley.

Thik hai, packing-shacking ho gayi, but you can’t leave your home until you get the necessary instructions from your mother! Like don’t eat or drink anything on the roadside and take care of your wallet and other belongings when you are travelling in local train, etc...

My uncle from Mumbai was in Goa for a few days and would be going back by car, so I went with him. It was a tiring journey of more than 13hrs. I stayed at his place at night and next morning my cousin gave me a flavour of travelling in Mumbai city. We travelled in auto-rickshaw as well as local train to reach another uncle’s place at Vile Parle. I was to stay here till I got hostel accommodation in IIT campus.

It’s been over a year now since I know to drive, and I always thought I am a good driver, until I saw the traffic here during the rickshaw ride, especially while crossing the narrow lanes and penetrating the pedestrians who walk on both sides. The pedestrians have become immune to the honking and don’t give a heed even when the vehicle is one metre away from them. I believe they have wrongly interpreted the saying, “who can harm the man whom god protects himself”.

And what do I say about the local train journey. The compartment was fully packed and we had two bags each, me and my cousin. I didn’t understand what happened in those 20 secs, yeah the train stops for only 20 secs on each station and people get out as well as get inside in that much time. I had studied long back that two bodies can’t occupy the same space. But I had also been watching Heroes where D. L. Hawkins could pass through walls and objects. I began to wonder if I too had some amazing abilities and whether I had passed through men when I had boarded that local.

The next day I went to IITB in my uncle’s car. I met the Professor Pant, who’s a very nice person to talk to and I became sure that I would get a very good experience by working under his guidance. I also met the project manager who gave me a report of the previous work that had been attempted on my project area. I grasped it quickly and the same night I had my own idea ready which I would present to the professor later. The summer interns were given a separate space to sit in the lab and of course we had high-speed net access. :)

Back to off-campus activities, I learnt how to travel in bus and local train on my own within two days. It was a bit tiring journey but it helped me get a feel of Mumbai life. I’ll always preserve the tickets of my first journey.

The traffic is pretty much unpredictable in these big cities. Just one independent variable (distance) is not sufficient to know the time for riding between two cities. A drive that can take 30 mins with less traffic can take over 1.5 hrs the next day in midst of traffic. In fact there is a 3m wide lane which connects Andheri station to bus stand, to walk 10m it can take 5min.

So I usually reached home at 7pm on an average and watched heroes until it was dinner time. Exhausted from the day’s work I would fall fast asleep by 11pm. That’s how I spent my first week here, six more to go.

How Engineers Cook

Well, this is an old collection. Just thought of sharing it here. This is how we engineers cook our food. 

First the raw material is purchased from the vendor. This involves a bid from various vendors and the best quality eggs with least price are chosen. 

 

Next step involves a thorough quality check of the raw materials. The raw material have to pass various tests, like in this case the viscosity might be an essential factor. Here Ostwald viscometer showed the viscosity to be 29 cP. As it was in the range 25-30 cP, the quality check was passed by the eggs.

The raw materials are put on various machines and heat treatment is given to them to produce required shape. Heat treatment is one of the crucial stages in processing as the material's strength is determined by it. 

Then the finishing operations are carried out. They take care that the product has been given proper surface finish. 

Then comes packaging and delivery. Here special importance is given to aesthetics as customer first tastes the food with his eyes and then eats it with his mouth. 

The finished product is sent to the market. 

The customer purchases the finished product and puts it to appropriate use. He then sends appropriate feedback to the manufacturer who then modifies his process accordingly if needed. 

Quotes and Sayings

The semester exams were over and the holidays had just begun. I was 3/4th engineer. It was time for a small get-together with all my friends in Damodars- something that had been waiting for long. So we had a splendid lunch at Hotel Anushka in BPS club, Margao. Then I had to leave, before others went to Baskin Robbins and Sernabatim beach I was told. It was a great day.

The next day, with nothing more interesting to do, I happened to open an old book of mine- a collection of sayings and quotations that I used to collect when I was in 10^th Class. I had a great time going through them. I chose a few nice ones to share with you all:

1. Courage is strange; it means you must be ready to die for what you wish to live for.

2. Of all the things you have, select the best and then reflect on how eagerly they would have been sought by you, if you did not have them.

3. Some people change their ways when they see the light, others when they feel the heat.

4. Those who hate you do not win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

5. Faith is like water- It will carry you, but not unless you swim.

6. Experience is a good school, but the fees are high.

7. The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your arm.

8. The most unhappy of all men is he who believes himself to be so.

9. If you want others to keep your secrets, first keep them to yourself.

10. The actions of men are like an index to a book. They point out what is most remarkable in them.

11. The reason why worry kills more people than work is that people worry more than work.

12. Don't count how many moments you spent together, count how many memories each moment left.

13. Just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts, but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.

True Love

When you are in true love, all you can think is about your love. All you can see is your love, a lot of movies have used this concept. But I neither intend to discuss a script for a movie here nor am I going to write about my latest crush. [So do I have one? ;) ] Nevertheless this is a true incident that happened with me...

My cousin had been to Mysore and had uploaded a picture of a giraffe she had taken. Here it is:

It so happened that I had to answer my CAD exam the next day. I had been studying a chapter on FEM (Finite Element Method). I LOVE IT!! Actually I had also done a project in FEM using ANSYS in this semester. When I saw the picture of the giraffe I pictured a Finite Element Meshed Model of giraffe. For non-mechanical friends, presented below is FEM in two lines.

This is a model of a rectangular plate with holes. In FEM basically the whole plate is divided into a number of small elements and required analysis is done. (Now have a look at the giraffe!)

So I had to conclude that if Newton discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head, then the guy who invented FEM must have seen a giraffe when he got the idea!!

Cheers!! So Please Protect Wild Life, who knows which species will inspire the next technological reform? ;)