Physical Graffiti

The Atomic Hypothesis

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:46:00 +0000

I like reading in the bathroom. It is one of those places where your mind can be at peace, where you'll always have a good reason to give to others and yourself about why you are reading something that may not be of utmost necessity or for that matter it is a good place to read something which you absolutely detest but have to read; because there is no escape from the pot! I think, I also remember reading some sort of a psychology report on the subject of how men tend to be more of the bathroom reader kinds rather than women...it is one place where the woman cannot nag the poor man and hence give him some moments for himself and his good book.

You might be wondering what the name of this post has anything to do with what I have said above. And no I am not about to give an atomic analysis of what lies in the commode. This morning I took this book called: The World Treasury of Physics Astronomy and Mathematics. It has articles written or delivered as lectures by famous scientists. I started reading the first chapter which was amount atoms and how atoms make up everything we know. Now this book has on it's later pages some very interesting articles on quantum mechanics, and I wanted to get to them as soon as I could; so given this situation I would not have spent much time on this very basic chapter about the atoms. But something about the very simple yet engrossing style in which the theory of atoms was being explained made me read more of the article. I was thoroughly enjoying myself, reading something as basic as the forces of attraction between molecules of water and forces of repulsion when you try and force two molecules toward each other; and was surprised and happy to have found such a well explained article on something so mundane.

And then I realized that I had somehow missed the cover page of this article, maybe just flipped it without realizing it. I went back to it and saw the source of the article: "Atoms in Motion: an excerpt from one of the introductory lectures given by Feynman to a class of freshmen and sophomores at the California Institute of Technology, 1961-62". I smiled to myself when the greatness of the man hit me. It is only people like him who will make the most mundane things the most interesting and the most difficult of concepts, intuitive and easy to grasp. It is people who understand the subject so well that they tend to explain it so beautifully that they leave you enlightened! Oh and by the way, the first page of the article had a quote by Richard Feynman:
"If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis (or the atomic fact, or whatever you wish to call it) that all things are made of atoms - little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied."

Cricket on Doordarshan? ...Oh no :-(

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 14:45:00 +0000

I am writing this post while the last match of the one day international series between India and South Africa is going on. India is batting; chasing a pretty low total and the match is at a crucial stage. Sachin Tendulkar has just been dismissed by a stunning catch, and the chances of the match being a cracker have just increased. And yet I am sitting in front of my computer writing a blog post (after a very long time). A Cricket aficionado would call me a complete hopeless case in the cause of popularizing cricket.
But no; that's not why I am not watching the game; I do follow at least the Indian team with a decent amount of enthusiasm and concern. The reason is the hopeless television coverage by Doordarshan. Well it is politically correct for doordarshan to be given television rights for covering a series featuring India, so that people in India who don't have cable TV can see it, but that does not mean that they have the right to subject the viewer to such a poor sports show. And I am not talking about the game itself; the quality of cricket has been high; it's the general quality and entertainment value of the show that I am talking about. Firstly, there are too many commercial breaks during the match. End of over Before even the fielder has thrown the ball to the keeper, there is a commercial break taken; and it happens after every damn over. The whole continuity of the show is lost. There is so much happening on the field between overs; fielders move about to change ends, the umpire gives a warning to the bowler for running on the pitch, there could be a very interesting exchange of words between the bowler and the batsmen; friendly or otherwise, someone in the stands could be doing something funny, there could be an interesting cricket statistic to be shown, or the commentators could just be discussing some interesting incident from their cricketing lives. We just miss all of it; lose out big time on the whole built up atmosphere in the stadium, the essence of the game, the thing that gives the show some entertainment value. There is just no point to it. All we get to see are six deliveries of an over...over and over again. Well you do get to see some really interesting ads repeated a lot of times for drilling their stuff into your heads Like the moisturiser cream ad where the focus of the shot is not on the cracked up feet of the guy...but on Kareena's cleavage. Well you get too see so much of those bloody ads that many times I take time to fall asleep because the stupid advertisement music is running in my head. Well I don't want to go on an on about the whole ads issue, but really it does suck. Just as a comparison, if we take ESPN-Star Sports' coverage of cricket as an example; it is so much better just because they do not take breaks after every over. There are many instances where the game is shown seamlessly for a period of two to three overs at a stretch. That and the discussion sessions with the expert panel, between, before and after the two innings, makes the star sports show so much more enjoyable...and also keeps semi-enthusiast of cricket riveted to his seat.
Well, the issue of the panel of ex-cricketers giving their intelligent insights on the game, and the value that they add to the television cricket coverage, is so juicy that it deserves a blog post of its own. To just delve a little into how doordarshan so totally sucks at that too, just give a little more attention to the hand gestures that Kris Shreekanth makes while talking; they are hilarious. He does this batting action with his hand while talking about a batsman and a bowling action in case of a bowler, and he even changes the hand he uses for left handers! Now that is so ridiculous, and the pain on the viewers part is aggravated by the fact that he is speaking utterly useless stuff. Any kid who has just seen cricket for a couple of years will also be able to predict what he is going to say next. Well, that really does it for doordarshan's coverage. Makes me sick in the stomach just to think about the Fair and Lovely Fourth Umpire show. And the most important part is that Doordarshan is the only broadcaster of the cricket series. If there had been any other, there wouldn't have been this blogpost, because I'd still be watching the match on the other channel. So thanks DD, for shaking me out of the no-posting phase. Now I gotta run to see how India is doing in the match! Jai Hind!

The Regular routine of College Quizzes

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 16:17:00 +0000

Had gone for a quiz in Sinhagad College of Engineering (SCOE) today. It was part of ‘Pinnacle’ their annual electronics fest. Bunked a whole day of college and went there simply because this was one of the first inter-college quizzes that I (partnering Kunal Thakar) had finished in the top three (second to be precise). Hence even after knowing that the quiz will be made by pretty inexperienced people, (The handful people in SCOE who can be considered to be decent quizzers (Exceptions: Anish Bhat and Hrishikesh Kavade) have passed out of college), we went; you know just to try and repeat our performance of the earlier two years. The trip to SCOE, though a bit tiring because of the traffic and the dust, is pretty good because of the last section of road that leads up to the college. It’s a small ghat, with some parts that are broken tarmac and some that are fully dirt roads. So you can really try out some dirt biking, throwing your bike around turns, deliberately causing the rear wheel to loose grip a bit so that you can try an opposite lock like the crazy speedway riders. Kunal was holding on for dear life behind me.
Anyway, the quiz elims started pretty much on time, and they had an acrostic question before the main questions. The funda was that all the answers to the following questions began with the letters of the answer of the acrostic question taken in order. This is a very stupid way to do it, because anyone who gets the acrostic answer has too much of an advantage over the others. The acrostic question was: What id Ritchie Benaud’s autobiography titled. We didn’t get it. Fortunately none of the other regular teams got it either. We qualified for the finals which began after an excruciatingly long waiting period of almost four and a half hours; during which time we roamed the campus, ate at some of the many different eateries on campus, and chatted a lot (had just read in TOI that like walking about gossiping is good for health).
The finals began and it became obvious that the organizers were very inexperienced at making quizzes. Firstly the quiz had the direct and pass format; and the scoring system was one of the most badly screwed up systems I have seen till date. You get a different number of points for a right answer in every round. Like the first round had 40 points for a right answer on a direct and 20 for a pass. The second had 60 and 30; and the third had 80 and 40. Amazing no? We were debating on the possibility of one of the teams ending up with 4 digit scores eventually. One round also had 100 for directs and 50 for passes. And there was no uniformity whatsoever in the difficulty level of the questions. One team scores 100 points on a sitter and another team (in most cases, our team) got a question like: picture of a blue stuffed cat shown and we were supposed to identify it. The answer was: Bob the builder/repairman’s cat Plichard. I mean what the fuck? The bloody toy is meant for toddlers, and we are supposed to know its name. No one got such questions. Kunal Sawardekar and his partner Puranjay Parchure of Fergusson College won the quiz with 530 points and we placed second with 500. Kunal S is one hugely lucky fellow. He got two of the biggest sitters of the quiz when others were getting screwed on their questions, and was awarded 100 points on both occasions. I am calling him lucky just because he got some extra cash. I have no regrets whatsoever of coming second in a quiz like this one.
Looking back, we ( the VIT quizzers and Kunal S) have done so much of college quizzing in the last two years that I think that we should really think about whether its worth or time to go for such frustrating quizzes any longer. It is an enjoyable quizzing experience that we are looking for, not the incentive to get yet another certificate of yet another college event. But then at the back of my mind I do know that most probably I will end up going for many more such quizzes this year, just in the hope of getting a good quiz, and a taste of Pune college quizzing for what will be my last year in VIT.

Zen and the act of Motorcycle Riding

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 16:08:00 +0000

We used to have something called "moral science" as an extra classroom activity when in school. In that we used to try and meditate for a while, chant Om etc. I found all this very boring and pointless. The teacher used to tell us to empty our minds of all thoughts and then concentrate. Bloody, what the fuck do you concentrate on if you don't have anything in your mind? My mind used to stray away on a lot of things. I fell asleep most of the times or would try and open my eyes and look around to see what the others were doing.
On a motorcycle, its different. You are going, say in a ghat, at pretty high speeds. What is going on in the mind at that time? The next approaching turn; what speed can you take that at? Does it open out enough to allow that kind of entry speed? Is there gravel or water near the turn's apex? Is the turn blind, could there be some vehicle coming from the other side? All this and much more goes through the mind in just about 2 or 3 seconds. The turn arrives in that time. You have to go into it at a certain banking angle, got to have the fingers ready on the brakes just in case, got to be ready to change gear if needed, and ready to take evasive action if at all something or someone is in the middle of the road after the turn. And in a ghat kind of place, this goes one and on, till the ghat gets over. You really have no time to think of anything else, because you know that you cannot afford to think of anything else; a bad accident is so much more likely to happen if one does not pay attention to everything. Now that's real concentration. You automatically forget about people you love or hate, your boring college or work, are you hungry or not, what are you going to tell your dad about having smuggled his bike out for a ride; everything other than that bloody approaching turn. This people, is meditation. You are concentrating so hard that it's a state of bliss; nothing else can trouble the mind. Is this not what the doctor recommended as meditation? Is this not better than any conventional meditation? The feeling you get after such a ride is awesome. It's a mixed feeling of exhilaration and fear. Fear because you suddenly realize that you were doing something pretty dangerous; there is no time for fear in the actual process; it comes later.
All the thoughts flooding back to the mind later on gives the impression that you were detached from your body when riding the bike. It is a real nice; "achieved nirvana"; kind of feeling.
I have just started reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". I expect the book has a lot more stuff like the post I have written here. I met many people who said that they could not appreciate the book much. I expect that it would be much more effective on a person like me who has already done a decent amount of motorcycle riding, and hence has made a few observations on the whole motorcycle riding experience for himself.

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 17:12:00 +0000

The small lakes formed in a quarry on the Law College hill as a result of the monsoon showers.

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 16:53:00 +0000

Waterfalls at mulshi.

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 16:43:00 +0000

Trip to Mulshi.

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 15:33:00 +0000

School friends at Barista. Arnold (the blogger who gave up blogging) in the background.

French, anyone ?

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 12:55:00 +0000

I go to the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) every Sunday (almost) to see the French films screened there. The entry is free of cost which along with the fact that its a French film is truly an added incentive for going there. The place is just something like at a two minutes walking distance from my house. It has a very appealing laid back attitude to it. Also the people who turn up there to see the films are true film lovers. It's real nice to see a film in such company. The French films (most of which I have seen) have near perfect characterization and in general have a very relaxed feel about them. I cannot put into words exactly how different a French film is from other European or American films; you have to see some for yourself to realize. Also, even the one's which have a serious underlying meaning to them are not mentally taxing. The films go at an easy pace, and have little bits of humor that keep popping up suddenly. I must say the French films will top my list of foreign films in terms of the sheer number of films that I found pleasing, though it is some of the other European films that I would say are my favorites and have left an impact on my mind. That's it I guess. I have got it. The French films are very nice and all but very few leave an impression on your mind. I wonder if its the same with the French people.

The Bet

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 09:47:00 +0000

Recently placed a bet with Arnold about the outcome of the F1 world championship of this year. I have bet that, Kimi Raikonnen wins the drivers championship. Arnold wins if any other driver wins it (The only other driver who has a chance is Alonso). We are playing for a hundred rupees. I placed this bet when Raikonnen had just won the Monaco GP. I thought my chances were gone when Raikonnen failed to finish at Nurburgring and Alonso won that race. The tables were turned the last weekend at Canada when Raikonnen won and Alonso failed to finish. Theoretically (engine and aerodynamics wise) Mc Laren have the fastest car on the grid. It is in the reliability aspect that Renault are one up. Remember San Marino, where Raikonnen had blasted off the start line just to retire after a few laps? I hope Mc Laren work on this (they will surely. Mc Laren is one team who takes losing to heart. Their history shows it.), which will almost guarantee good finishes at almost every race. It is race wins that they need badly though to close the 22 pt gap to Alonso; which is even more difficult because of the second placed driver getting 8 pts instead of the older version of 6 pts. Hope they do it; my 100 bucks are at stake. Check out the new Mc laren policy for this season here.

Post Exam Idealistic Rantings

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 09:35:00 +0000

Posting after a long time. I am just plain lazy. Have a lot to say about a load of things but just don't feel like devoting time to sitting down and writing a post. Anyway, finished off with exams. As is with every semester, the Pl just does not seem to end. Also subscribed for a BSNL dataone connection just before the Pl which has unlimited download till the 30th of June. So basically spent the whole of the Pl downloading stuff; and did just one chapter from a total of 5 huge subjects in the Pl. I had really stretched it a bit too far this time and was really worried about my survival in the exam. Though I noted that this seemed to be a common phenomenon among some of the TE students. It is probably because all of us have done five semesters in the same stupid way and the more intelligent amongst us are pretty bored with the system.(though don't want to speak to early; will wait for the results).
Kunal and Arnold were some of the others who happened to go my way this time. Arnold has this whole theory about geniuses and workhorses. Check it out on his blog. Reminds me of a story from Stephen Hawking's book:"Black Holes and Baby Universes" where he tells us about his days in Oxford, where studying was considered to be a sign of being dumb. So people who studied were thrashed in peer groups, and hence nobody studied at all. Hawking says this is a really bad way to go about it and that he himself suffered in terms of exam performance during his days there. I agree with him on this. What is wrong though in our engineering education system is that it takes very little to pass particular subject. All you need to do is see the past exam papers and look up those answers from a text book. It’s the same formula to score in the exam. I think this is total crap and that the system needs serious revision in the exam pattern. We should have exams that will make us study the subject from an understanding point of view and not just mug it up. It’s the only way we are going to learn something, and become real engineers who can hope to compete with those from the IITs.

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 09:23:00 +0000

Jupiter. Again no camera attachment used. The pic has come out decent though.

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 09:19:00 +0000

Tried some astro photography with my new digital camera a few months back. Do not have a camera attachment for my telescope and hence the camera moved a lot. Had to hold the camera steady for quite some time (1.5-2 secs). will get much better results and will also be able to shoot fainter objects with a proper camera attachment.

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 19:28:00 +0000

Colours after sunset seen from outside my house.

PIFF

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Sun, 16 Jan 2005 19:49:00 +0000

Yes, I have seen 13 films over the last three days, in the PIFF; the most amongst our group, which consists of the usual VIT gang, the lone FC fellow (his quiz partner does not come and he knows that), and the enthusiastic lone PIET guy. If you want a more in-depth view and a more formal description of the PIFF films check out salil's blog.
I don't know the exact reason(my best guess is the large number of films seen), but i have such haphazard thoughts coming to mind right now that I am writing as they come. to make it simple, and I really suck as a writer(/blogger) anyway, I will just list out the films I managed to see till now i.e. till the end of 16th jan 2005.

Day One:

1.A Journey Up the San Fransisco River (Brazil): Great start to the fest. Loved the photography, the
shooting locations, the cast, and the music. Great scenery shown in the film; typical brazilian settlements on the banks of this river. The story is very simple and similar have been used many times, but the movie is beautiful in the way it gets you involved in the characters; one really starts liking brazil and their way of life after seeing the film.

2.The Man Who Knew too Much (USA): Typical Alfred Hitchcock story; very old film. I got pretty bored
seeing the film, one reason for which was the poor audio quality, and the heavy lunch that I had just bfore the movie. I actually slept for about 15 mins during the film because of the food and the AC. Kunal T will tell you more about this though.

3.Sky Hook (Yugoslavia): Fantastic film, set in war torn yugoslavia. It tells the story of a few young people in yugoslavia who live in an area frequently bombed by NATO aircraft, who inspite of the difficult times manage to keep playing basketball which is their passion and which finally helps them get over their differences and come together as a community. Very touching movie. It also has great music.

4.If I Were Rich (France): A light French romance comedy. Very nice film; has an entertaining plot and a predictable ending. Has many hillarious moments. Its the kind of movie that we might probably see after a few years on ZMZ after they have cut out the steamy sex scenes.

5.RAN (japanese setting and caste, dialogue in french): This is a Akira Kurosova film, which is why i left the above mentioned french film halfway through(inspite of the uncensored nature:-)) and went to see this RAN. The film has typical old Japan setting and a typical Jataka tales type story. Also it was very long. But still a decent film.

Day Two:

6.Crying Ladies(chinese): Didn't want to see this one because of the name, but it turnd out to be a very refreshing comedy set in the Phillipines. I had the honour of having the now very busy (i don't know why, he studies arts), kunal S for company for this one.

7.Ring Of fire (French dialogue): Set in Lebanon where a civil was is on. The story of a professor who is seriously obsessed by the thoughts of a female student whom he does not know, with whom he spent an intimate night during an air raid.

8.Butterfly (China): A very bold film on lesbians and the social problems they face. A pretty boring film though because of a poor story, in which there is more sex and less substance.

Day Three:

9.Days Of Santiago (Peru): A moving film on the life of Santiago who is a retired marine of the peruvian navy. Santiago tries to find a meaningful life in the presence of many disturbing elements like his old navy friends who rob a bank; his family where his brother continually beats up his wife, his dad harasses his sister; the college to which he goes paying fees by driving a taxi and the new female friends that he makes there who only like to party the whole day.

10.The Rose Seller (Columbia): A film about the shocking lives of small children who live on the streets. I did not see this movie whole but did get the gist of it. Kunal T will be able to tell better; he saw it whole.

11.Kontroll (Hungary): Ties in first place with "Together" for the best film I have seen during these three days. The movie is about a ticket collector guy doing his job in the underground. It is a very tough and unrewarding job where people completely flaunt the system and don't buy tickets. The movie is about how our hero conquers these elements and solves the mystrey of people being pushed onto the track. The movie is fast paced, slick and has excellent music that keeps you riveted to the chair.

12.Swimming Pool (French; dialogue in english): It would be cut for about a quarter of its length if shown as a commercial film in India because of all the nudity and sex. An enjoyable flick nonetheless, decent plot, and an ending that sets the hall buzzing with discussion. The end is left to us for figuring out.

13.Together (China): A great great film about a father, his love for his adopted son, and his singleminded effort in making his son a great violinist. A touching film.

Mumbai

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:44:00 +0000

Just didn't feel like putting up a post for the last month or so. I really am not of the "diary keeping" types. Hope you all have read the mood indigo posts that Kunal.S and Salil have put up. Kunal T and I had booked tickets for the Deccan Queen which was scheduled to leave for Pune a day after mood-i got over. We thus had one full day in Mumbai. We took a slow-local from Kanjurmarg to VT (now CST) which took about 45 min for its journey. The local was not as crowded as it usually is at that time of the day since it was christmas and we had a pretty pleasant ride. The VT building is one of my favorites in Mumbai with typical British architecture. Its got this huge dome on the top of which on the outside are stone dogs (look like hounds) stretching outward which serve as water drainage spouts. Looks pretty amazing. We roamed about in the fort area which was uncharacteristically peaceful that day because of the holiday. I love this area of Mumbai because of the old buildings, the well kept roads, lots of trees, and the overall old city feel. It also reminds you of how small Pune is in comparision. Mumbai really is a very beautiful city. We walked till marine drive, and peeked inside the windows of some of the big banks and the more expensive restaurants. These places are really different than the ones we have in Pune, just in the fact that they are so much more expensive and hence have such a select clientele. We walked along the marine drive, saw the Air India building, the Brabourne stadium, and hotel Sheraton at nariman point. We then walked back through the Vidhan Sabha area, along the famed oval cricket ground, to Regal cinema which is near the Gateway of India. Had food in an old Irani place : Cafe Mondegar. This is a very nice little pub which is famous for its decor (Mario Miranda caricatures fill its walls), beer, and great music played using a very old and fully mechanical jukebox. You also get very good quality continental food here. I had a large steak with cheese, and kunal had some chicken dish that sounded very spanish. The food was excellent and it was one of the best continental food meals that I have had till now. We spent the rest of thetime in the Prince of Wales museum, which we noticed, would have been 80% empty if it had not been for the Tata collection. The museum is now called Chatrapati Shivaji museum like many other great landmarks of Bombay. We came back to VT and got on the train. There was an old parsi couple in the cubicle next to us and the woman was lamenting loud enough for everyone to hear how she never got a window seat in any of her journeys. Now we had two window seats and we offered her one; she happily, almost like a child, took it. She was very talkative and we could barely keep up with her in the conversation that followed. She and the whole incident very pleasantly reminded me of P.L.Deshpande's Pastonji uncle. We had a good journey and the Deccan Queentook us to Pune in three hours as promised. Thus came to end another Mood Indigo trip.

The Greatest Ever ?

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:16:00 +0000

Valentino Rossi won this year's Moto GP title, the first time ever he was riding a Yamaha. He changed from the all conquering Hondas to Yamaha this year and had taken it as a challenge to turn around the fortunes of Yamaha who had not won a single title since 1992. The three time world champion Wayne Rainey had done it for them in 1992. Many vetrans were skeptical about rossi's chances with Yamaha, but he proved them all wrong with his sheer genius at handling a motorcycle. To put his acheivement into perspective, Rossi had tried out a Yamaha for the first time ever this January. Also, the Honda is a far better bike in terms of the engine and general stability; and that inspite of all these things Rossi manages to win puts him in a class of his own.
Rossi now has four consecutive titles at the Moto GP level; this along with the fact that he switched to Yamaha, puts him amongst the greatest champions in history. I believe, he is the greatest.

Shaastra 04

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 04:49:00 +0000

No, its not a case of too many posts on Shaastra, but since none of the Pune guys who had gone to IITM for shaastra this year, have put-up any sort of report on the event, I feel obliged to do so.
We went to Chennai by train and traveling with us on the same train (though they were in a world of their own, doing maaz as usual) were a bunch of IIT Bombay guy. Now these IIT-B dudes had taken a last minute decision to come to shaastra, and had not notified the hospitality organizers at Shaastra that they would be requiring accommodation, transport etc. The IIT-M hospitality volunteer present at the station asked them for their confirmation letters which were receipts of having registered with the hospi guys. The IIT-B guys didn’t have any, so the IIT-M guy told them that it would be difficult for him to make arrangements for them. At this, the senior-most looking fellow from the IIT-B gang pointed to himself, stood there like he were a
Demi god and said to the organizer, “ C’mon …. WE ARE IIT –B!!” Now that’s real maaz; no other word for it. The IIT-M guy was cool and replied, “ so what, even I am IIT-M!!”
So, you see, the most evident difference between IITB and IITM is that people in IITM are absolutely down to earth. One experiences this everywhere in IIT-M. People there are so helpful and down to earth, that you begin to wonder if you really are in an IIT, because the only IIT we had been to before was of course IIT-B.
Shaastra is a completely student organized event and also is the only student organized event to have an ISO certification. The events in shaastra were extremely well thought of and were very well organized. Everything always began on time, there were always volunteers around to help, and there never was any overcrowding at a particular event.
Quizzes formed quite a major part of the events at shaastra. There were all sorts of quizzes that took place like : The shaastra daily quiz (sci-tech GK and trivia ) ;
The lone wolf challenge (hardcore technical quiz) ; How Things Work quiz ;
And the biggest of them all (reputed to be the best technical quiz in the country): The Shaastra main quiz. People there love quizzing, and unlike quizzes in Pune where an audience for a quiz is a rare sight; the auditorium used to packed with people to watch a quiz; truly heartening for us quizzers from pune. The finals of the quizzes that happened on stage had the quizzers squatting right on the floor of the stage; no chairs. That really gave a very nice informal feel to the quiz just like a quiz at the boat club. The Shaastra main quiz finals had 8 teams each having three members sitting on stage, and the quiz lasted for an amazing five and a half hours.
The IIT-M campus was really beautiful having lush green vegetation everywhere and a variety of birds, and deer. The campus is adjacent to a small sanctuary meant for blackbucks and we even got to see a few on campus. There also were spotted deer in the plenty on campus.
Thus overall, it was a very good experience and I hope to go there next year too.

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 05:24:00 +0000

A photo of Expyre

Expyre

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 20:53:00 +0000

This (i.e."Expyre") was the name of the firefighting robot we built for a competition called "Shaastra" which is the annual technical event of IIT Madras (not IIT Chennai) which took place from the 7th till 10th of october 2004. This was the first time that a firefighting robot contest was held in india at a national level. One such event is held annually in Trinity College, USA and some other american colleges also have similar firefighting robotics contests. The task to be acomplished by the robots was : to find and extinguish a lit candle in a 2.5m*2.5m model house, which had four rooms. The complete problem statement with the house plan can be seen at :http://www.shaastra.org/events/robotics/firefighter . In fact the IITM guys had juct copied this year's Trinity College competition satement. The floor plan was exactly the same as that of the trinity competition. This was a good thing in a way , that the plan was an alredy tested one. My team mates for this competition were Gagan Awhad and Anvit Phatak , both frpm VIT. Gagan is a pretty technically inclined person who had taken part in some project competitions before this one. He is also a big music fan. Anvit is a comp engg guy , always scores well in exams and plays a lot of sports. The three of us were not friends (read buddies/pals) as such, before we decided to form a team and I still cannot exactly reason out how we came together. So you see, it was a pretty risky decision in the sense, we could have failed in the attempt. But as it has turned out we were a pretty good team, and also won the competition. Winning it was pretty simple in the end, as there was no other team present who could complete the given task. Since ours was the only robot that actually worked, we got first place. There were no second or third place prizes given. Shaastra as a whole was a really nice experience; much better than techfest in IIT Bombay. More on this issue later though. There were other teams from Pune present at Shaastra, who also did pretty well in general. Nikhil K of the "mountolympus" blog won the open hardware contest there with two of his college mates. Cheers to them. Also there were two other teams from VIT there who qualified for the finals of their respective events. So it was a pretty good outing for the pune teams.

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 18:02:00 +0000

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

hi junta , here is my first post

noreply@blogger.com (Siddharth) — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 18:06:00 +0000

was planning to start a blog since about 2 months but was really busy with a robotics project.now that the PL is here ( its the longest i've ever got) ; and since the moto of all my PLs is: do time pass till the moment u feel that a NBD is on its way , i hope to maintain a decent blog .
i am not very expressive ( most of my friends will differ ) hence my posts may be really short . but what the heck , here it is .