There is a lot of research going on waster water treatment - waste water from textile industries, food industries, tanneries etc., and scores of research articles are being published on novel treatment methods of waste waters.
Immediately, spontaneously any reviewer would ask - "what are you going to do with the waste you have removed? how will you be disposing them?"
I had an opportunity to interact with Prof.Yuh Shan HO, he had come down to NITT as a visiting prof. He went about explaining the above question like this - - - -
------
Consider the animal kingdom, you now separate all the animals that are domestic or that are not a potential threat to the humans - now compare this with a waste water system, the waste water is the animal kingdom and you separate the water (the domestic animals). So, now you have a bunch of harmless animals (the purified water) and harmful dangerous animals (the hazardous waste that was in the water).
Now, in this set of harmful animals you will definitely have Tigers and you know that tigers are dangerous and harmful - so do you go and kill all the tigers (or lions etc.,) because they are threatening ? Tigers are harmful so kill them and eradicate them ! - - is this what you do ?
Definitely no !! you take the harmful set of animals and keep them in a cage, or a Zoo or develop an artificial environment like safaris and let these animals roam free there !
Now, come back to our water system - you have now separated the purified water and are left with the waste. Now, what do you do with this waste ? why bother about this when you have what you want - PURE WATER ! take the solid waste and store them in rock solid containers, put all the chromium, lead or any damn waste in a huge container and just keep it in some place - it's not going to disturb anyone. A completely sealed container of chromium is just going to stay there - it will not disturb you ! unless you disturb it !
Why do all the reviewers worry about the disposal of the waste ? my job is to purify the waste water - waste water treatment - now i have given you the pure water - so enjoy it ! why worry a lot about the waste - you can just put it in some container and store it. Or if it can be recycled just go ahead and do it ! There is a huge discipline called solid waste management , so the blokes who do that will take care of the solid waste !
So, worry about the extent of purity that you can get and the amount of waste you are able to extract - the more waste you extract the more pure the water becomes - don't think that you are removing more and more waste and thus generating more and more waste ! you are able to get more and more pure water ! that is a trillion times more important than the waste ! remove the waste and gimme pure water - that's all your job ! how you do it and what you need to do to do that is what your research is all about !
----
Well , I surely enjoyed this brief discussion with him !
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Now, why does all this water get polluted? who pollutes them and where does all this waste come from ? - - - The Maharishi
Tigers and Solid Waste !
Clive Wearing - Forget me Not
This weekend, I was going through some old Reader's Digest issues and chanced upon this particular article titled - Forget Me Not - its about Clive Wearing - a noted musicologist and conductor. It featured in August'06 issue.
The article was written by his wife - Deborah Wearing and she outlines the life of her husband once he was affected by the worst case of amnesia ever recorded in medical history - anterograde amnesia.
One day Clive had a stroke of headache and the next day morning he went missing ! - Deborah complained to the local police department and they found Clive in the afternoon and his memory was completely wiped out - when the police found him Clive could not remember who he was or where he lived - but the moment Deborah entered his face lit up ! a warm glow of love and he said "This is my wife ". The local doctor diagnosed it as some harsh case of head ache that causes temporary memory loss.
The next day morning, Deborah left for work and Clive called out asking for her office phone number (it was something Clive never forgot) and he wrote it down in a piece of paper and beside the number he wrote - "Deborah Wearing"
Deborah was stunned and next followed numerous medical visits and some senior doctor said Clive is known to have the worst case of amnesia and all the memory cells in his brain was wiped out by some virus.
Since then, all that Clive remembers is his wife - and he remembers how to play the piano, when any music notes are placed in front of him he can immediately play them on a piano. Daily he wakes up saying - "What day it is ? I do not know who I'm and what I;m doing here, it's been like am dead for a long time" - but when Deborah enters - "My wife!, sit beside me" and they both have long talks marked with repeated lines from Clive, he tends to say the same thing over and over again - - his memory lasts only for 7 seconds. Initially Clive had some violent strikes and he used to break furnitures and bang the doctor's head - however Deborah used to visit him regularly and make him play the piano - it's music that served as a therapy and went beyond the power of medicine.
In the meanwhile even Deborah had violent strokes of sadness and she slipped away to New York - but the power of her husband's love - the glow in his face when he sees her and his MUSIC drew her back to him. All that Clive now cares is about Deborah and she says - "How many wives can say that their husbands care only about their wives, I'm proud to say that all my husband cares for is me"
Till this date, Clive and Deborah enjoy long hours of musical sessions where untold, unexplainable emotions transmit between them - Clive's repeated statements, every few minutes he says - "I love you Deborah" . . . .
Deborah has taken all measures to ensure that her husband always sees her and can always play the piano and is always HAPPY - - - Forget Me Not
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There are certain emotions and feelings that go beyond words and gestures, thats where Music sets in - - The Maharishi
Too much = Too Less
heeeeeyyy...come over here, it is coming here, come on fill up fast. Call only X,Y and Z and do not call everyone . Aaah, its time to take some load off me, I better do it before it stops coming.
Open . . pfftt..hissss..something trickles and sound of air and silence - - - the sound of silence.
Off he goes, with his only weaopn - a large medium sized truncated conical object, open in one end and with a handle to carry it. In it he puts his indispensable attire and carries a small bar that lathers. Bare chested and wearing only a big cloth wrapped around his waist he walks, greeting people along his path and finally reaches the arena - he is all set to fill up his weapon and fight off those dirty invisible minute dirty rascals off his skin. Creeeeeeeeekkkk! - he opens the amulet ;) and pfftt..hissss..something trickles and sound of air and silence - - - the sound of silence.
Those dirty minute rascals have won the war, the dejected warrior aint able to fill up his weapon, all he hears is - - the sound of silence, everything around him is dry, sticky, mucky and the air is stale.
Then there is this cry . . ." heeeeeyyy...come over here, it is coming here, come one fill up fast. Call only X,Y and Z and do not call everyone, else it will get over immediately."
Our warrior mounts his feet sized vehicle and gallops to the source of the sound - the battle arena in the ground floor.
ALAS ! - the arena is "overflowing" with too many warriors. He tries in vain to get a place to fill up his weapon and fight off those dirty rascals. ........ 15 minutes later . . .. ..aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh . . it has stopped again . . Oh nooooo... curse those ******** . . . . pfftt..hissss..something trickles and sound of air and silence - - - the sound of silence.
Sniff..sniff ..the air is mucky, the warriors stink, stink very badly . .body odors fills up the entire scenario...........
Too much of it causes a calamity . . . .Too less of it makes you stink.
dihydrogen-mono oxide - - - - - the universal necessity
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The Ripple Effect - Struck the right chord !
"Cognitive Intelligence coupled with Organizational Behaviour results in the net overgrowth of a group, mind you - group and NOT a team. Understanding the nuances helps us grasp the cues, mind you not queeeuees , it is cues from an organization to acclivate our self esteem . . blah blah . .intelligence . . blah blah . .phsychology. . .blah blah . .SHTUdentsh "
yaaawwn...this is what we were all doing in unison during the Humanities Lecture hour. All were getting bugged up, scratching their legs, poking their pen into another's ear, tapping on the desk, messaging ....and many such uncouth stuff was going on !
Some guys were trying to crack some jokes, a few ripples here and there, some struggling to attract some people, some making all kind of gimmicks to get people to notice them ;)
Then suddenly, one guy cracked a one liner - just a single line - with a melancholic tone and a slight drawl - - in an unassuming manner and went back to his activity of scratching his legs - - - immediately a small circle around him became silent - - there was a sudden wave, a strong ripple and spontaneously started the giggling . . the ripple spread, a huge circle around him started to giggle , then snigger, then laugh , then guffaw and then to cry ! the ripple was slowly passed on and quietly died away. The people in the front or who the ripple did not touch were bemused !
There is this person, scratching his legs - the epicenter , around him there is a circle of laughing students - the wave, laughing till they cry. Outside this circle, the unaffected region was untouched, the silent observers who still couldn't get what has happened.
The observer - the professor ! has no clue what is happening, he stopped his lecture on Organishational behavioursh and was stumped !
This person, scratching his legs - struck the right chord and triggered the Ripple Effect !
Just as a ripple dies of in a few seconds, this huge small incident died off and the students continued to scratch their legs and poke their pen into people's ears, and the prof continued - "you should know how to behave in a community, mind you community not claassh . . ."
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ha..ha...ho.ho..HA Ha HA...HAHAHAHAHAHAAHa...aahh.haaaa.ahahaha...sniff..hahaha.sniff sniff..haha..hoho..ha..ha..a.a.a.ah..ha...haa...hum...hmmm..umm..mm....------ The Maharishi
The life of a . . . . . . .
Aaah, thats a nice breeze . . picks it up and carries it along through the twists and turns, throughout the world to all nooks and corners. It slowly detaches itself from the breeze and slowly settles down, to stay there for a long time or maybe just for a few seconds.
Very minuscule, weightless but very powerful . . does not die and is never born. What exists always exists, just moves from place to place occasionally with the wind and predominantly due to some mysterious magical powers of nature.
It likes to settle on stagnant bodies, loves to sit there for a long long time so long that it settles there permanently. It grows in size, attracts its numerous relatives to gather around its new found home. They settle, they accumulate, they Stay ! Often, certain octa limbed species frequent it's abode. It simply adores it's new found home that it just cannot leave it, so it Stays !
Day or night, afternoon or evening . . makes no difference to it . .all it cares is that its abode is stationary.
Then comes the villain - picks up a huge hairy weapon and with a mighty sweep demolishes it's resting place, kills its relatives, the villain starts shaking its abode, it falls down heavily with a heavy-soft THUD. Another might sweep . . SWOOOSH ! ..a gust of wind . . . and away it goes again. . . to be carried by the breeze . . to unknown places . . to nooks and corners . .to ancient buildings . . to hostel rooms ( :P ) . . . to many many unknown places . . . its there everywhere . . always there everywhere . . . it cannot die and is not born . . just carried from place to place by the mysterious magical forces of nature . . . . .
the life of a dust particle.........
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aaaaaaa...chu...aarghh...aaaatchu hcu....umm..aa..atchu....i have dust allergy - - -The Maharishi
Tata Nano -> A Revolution ?
An afternoon gossip with my armchair critic (click here for another of his critical idea) ventured into talking about the newly released Tata Nano - the famed 1 lakh car ! which is being portrayed as an social revolution and is said to take private transport in India to a new realm.
I, as usual, asked him his opinion -
"What do you think of the concept of the Tata Nano ?"
pat came the reply -
"I do not like it one bit, 't s a crass commercial effort at increasing Tata's profits, nothing else and is not at all a Social Revolution"
He then went on to reason out his opinion - -
" The last thing this already insufficient infrastructure needs is something that tells people to avoid public transport. Being a fan of public transport, it would have been nice if he could have a 10lakh bus with awesome comforts and facilities, now you will see 10lakh Nanos, each with one person in it. Develop something that everyone can benefit from, and I see public transport as a potential entity that can be developed. If the the government aint developing the public trans, who better than Tata, by far the most ethical business community in India, can do that ? He can develop a cheap, comfortable, revolutionary bus than making 40lakh Nanos. "
I asked him - " Okay, suppose, I want to travel with my family and only with my family, do you think I should go in some public bus eh ? I can't afford a Honda, Maruti or Toyota etc., so this Nano is a boon for me, I can get it for a very affordable price and at the same time, I can enjoy traveling in comfort , in privacy . . I need not compromise on traveling"
Armchair said - "See, you do not want to travel in a bus because its crowded, you need to catch multiple buses to reach your destination and can't stand the crowd. Why is it crowded ? Because there aint enough buses in this place to support the population ! So, let Tata make more buses, cheaper buses, cheaper minivans . Ask anyone in New York, Hong Kong or London - there the public transport is damn convenient and everyone prefers that"
This case is neatly being solved in Trichy, there are plenty non-governmental transport services that own public buses and run them at the same rate as that of an government bus.
Most are more comfortable and faster ! Now, Tata can, maybe embark in running such buses :P !
Okay, next point - "Our place aint like London, its full of winding streets, practically inaccessible streets, lots of nooks and corners and such places can't be definitely reached by public transport. This place is highly populated too, high population density. I would prefer to own a 1lakh car if it takes me my doorstep after a day's work and save me the trouble of walking all the way from the bus-stop to my home"
Critic retorts - "The roads in HK are equally winding as ours, and has a similar population density, but still, they have a beautiful network of trams that serve all these places as well. Consider Bangalore, wouldn't you prefer to travel by the volvo bus rather than your car ?"
The Rishi - "Obviously no, I would any day prefer my personal car over the volvo. Do you know how many volvos are there in the city ? Just a handful and they cover only the most prominent parts of Bangalore. Apart from that, their tickets are costly too."
Critic - "Exactly, thats the point I want to make, do not make Volvo buses, do not buy volvos, buy Tata buses and buy more buses, but...sadly Tata aint making buses nor are they buying more buses"
Rishi - "Hey, it aint easy to get buses to all the remote villages in India. In such places, families tend to travel in a single two wheeler - the Nano is targeted at those people."
Critic - "Why don't they make minivans or mini-buses for the villages ?. See, the point is this Nano is touted to be a Social Revolution - I do not like that lie"
Rishi - "It aint a lie and its not wrong call that concept a revolution. See, then why do the people in NY or any place own cars ? Considering that, they possess some of the world's costliest cars, they take tremendous care over their cars, the cars are a prized possession there and each owner would go out of the way to maintain the virginity of their car ! "
Critic - "See, I would like to use my private vehicle to reach places that are not serviced by a public bus. But, do you think people use their own transport ONLY for places that are not accessible by a public bus eh ? Check the percentage of population that uses public transport in any big foreign metro, take even London..... that would be far more than the other.There even a rich man wouldn't mind using a bus to reach a place that a bus would take him to as long as its comfortable for that you need more buses and trains and metro rails and trams not Nanos !
Look.. All I am saying is, even in developed countries, you can find people using public transport even if they are rich, because it is convenient and plentiful... which is not the case in India so the solution should be towards improving public transport facilites not having more private cheap cars. The point is , Nano aint a Revolution at all "
Rishi - " We should ALSO improve towards developing public transport facilites....and at the same time...give everyone achance ....or the pleaseure of owning a car...see da..this Nano..also might result in a reduction in accidents due to overcrowded two wheelers"
Armchair - "But increase in accidents due to overcrowding of roads and lack of space! The moment you get a cheap car into the market before you have good public transport, people will use this over public transport the damage is irreversible now if Tata Nano is released in a place where there is good public transport system, I'd paint the town red, asking people to buy it. So, again..my only point is - - "The TATA NANO is NOT a SOCIAL REVOLUTION,
it's a crass commercial effort at increasing profits, nothing else he is cashing in on the lack of good public transport.. "
For certain, Nano will lead to an increased number of cars on the streets and the roads of India will suffer, unable to bear the ever growing population weight . . .this is already prominent in Bangalore.
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Well, then we drifted on for some more time and I bid him TATA (Goodbye in Tamil) !!!!
So . . uhmm.... I do not how to conclude !! so . . . Sarve Janaa Sukhino Bhavanthu !!
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I think traveling aboard brooms will be a better idea ! - The Maharishi
Misunderstandings...
Three years at NITT, mingling with a mini India, talking and associating with a wide genre of people . . . . made me realize this . . . . there are so many friendships made and so many get destroyed as well . . . almost, or rather, every such breakup is due to Misunderstandings.
For example, everyone . . . anyone . . will have a friend, whom they know for a long long time, that person is their family friend and he/she has been entrusting that friend with almost everything happening in his/her's life and strongly believes that that friend can be completely trusted upon. Now, he/she has told that friend a very very arcane stuff, stuff that has to be so completely hushed up and treasured and this friend smilingly approves it and ensures his confidentiality. However, Murphy's laws aint termed as laws for nothing, these laws come into play and somehow this treasure is exposed to the buccaneers ! But, but, this friend is genuine, he aint spoken a word about it to anyone, but, he/she, immediately, without even hesitating a moment to think, simply calls up this friend and starts bashing him up, screaming, accusing with bawdy remarks and what not . . . . . Now, what can this friend say ? . . . he asserts his innocence, says he aint responsible for anything and repeatedly, politely and patiently pleads his innocence.....on the other hand...he/she, goes on bickering about the friend's betrayal, not even pausing to listen to his pleadings, completely blinded by the rage . . . . . . . now, this continues for some time and this friend. . . . loses his patience, completely irritated that he too starts spouting words and quarrels . . . . . . . . in the end . . . . . . they, sadly, pathetically end their lifelong, family friendship :(
So, this is just an example, . . . another cause. . just plain misunderstandings of a conversation. Say, he/she and the friend is having a conversation which slowly enters into an unwarranted territory. Now, he/she (or the friend) misinterprets a statement made by the friend(or he/she) and then . . the above said situation ensues. Another example, the very infamous game - "pass the message" . .. he/she says something to Mr.X and asks him to pass it on to the friend . . Mr.X bungles up the message but obediently delivers it to the friend - who misinterprets it and again . . the above situation ensues . . . .
Sometimes, I have had this experience, some of my friends . . they expect me to tell them each and every thing happening in my life, each every second of my life they want to know, but, ofcourse, I can't tell them everything, there may be some events so trivial that such events need no mention at all . . but the friend says - "hey, why din't u tell me that ?" . . again, misunderstandings and the above situation once again ensues .. . .
A budding young designer, a senior artiste, a fellow Ron's man - some people whom I misunderstood . . . and sometimes, repent for that.
This is one feeling, one phenomena, that is as big and endless as the Universe , it can never stop, can never be avoided and its really really really difficult to get rid of - misunderstandings - a bane on human understandings.
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When the Rishis themselves curse and abuse their fellow Rishis, what can poor mortals do ? When such high intellectual people themselves fall prey to misunderstandings (you can find many many misunderstandings amongst Rishis in the Hindu Myths) , what can you mere mortals do ? - - -sarve janaa sukhino bhavanthu - - - -The Maharishi
Culture.....Follow ??
Yesterday night, around 11, I was ambling back to my hostel sipping hot chocolate along with a dear friend, Mr.Ass, my neighbour in the hostel. We love to talk about all sorts of random topics and one such topic that ignited our idle minds was - "Are we really proud of following our culture in the hostel or do we just try to seem to follow some culture to please our peers?"
It all started when we noticed our batchmate making a weak attempt to adopt a western accent to impress a group of acumen freshers to whom he was giving some advice. I remarked - "Why do people tend to adopt or imitate some other culture by forsaking their own?"
With a nod, Mr.Ass aceded - "Yea, many of us have actually transformed and adopted a random culture with a false idea that it is a more "cooler" culture and that makes us a real "college dude" ".
The point is, many of my batchmates, have after coming to the college, seem to have forgotten their inherent culture and have started to emulate, adopt and follow another culture that is seemingly more cool. In most cases, that culture is actually "no culture". There are a set of students in our college, they follow no tradition, culture or philosophies, that is because that is how they have been brought up and that's how the life is in their native lands. They find that life natural and are comfortable with it. There is nothing to blame them for.
Now, many students, who astutely followed their religion, culture and tradition till their 12th, seem to have forgotten those and have found an attraction to this life of "no culture" and living a care free life, sticking to no rules. They seem to have forgotten their daily rituals, their beliefs and started ridiculing their own culture. Instead, they praise this new "no culture" and seem to have forgotten of God (in whom they once so severly believed that they even went to the temple thrice a week). Being a brahmin, I found many fellow brahmins losing their traditions. They stopped applying the sacred paste on their forehead, stopped praying, stopped believing in God, stopped taking bath daily (they think its cool to stay without bathing for days on end), tend to adopt a heavily accented way of talking by frequently absurdly using obscene words (another factor that makes them think its cool), tend to walk and behave like western teenagers with that slight swagger, tend to stop studying thinking being a cool dude means one should study the minimum etc., There have been many such people, some my very dear friends, they have completely changed in their lifestyle, their attitude, their way of speech, their behaviour, their way of life , a complete transformation in everything so that they can be a part of that so called "no culture" group. The sad part is, not many succeed in this "transformation", it results in such a weak profile for that person that it is very pathetic and seems that that person is very desperately trying to imitate someone. The end result, they lose their identity, they lose their originality and they lose their personality.
You would have been referred to as - "Mahesh?, oh the guy who plays the mridangam ?, they guy who wears the white paste on his head daily? they guy who plays the flute ? the guy who has a neat room ? the guy who has a beard . . .. so so "
Now, if you adopt some other culture, you will be referred to as - "Mahesh ?, oh the guy who roams with that gang ? the guy who smokes a lot ? they guy who tries to be like an NRI ? they who says "f*ck" for every 4 words ? ....so so "
Now,
On the other hand, there are quite a few who proudly exhibit their culture, show off every slightest property to claim that they strictly follow their tradition and culture.
I say, we should silently and humbly follow our culture, be proud of our culture and tradition, be proud to be whatever you are, always withold and support your culture, never unnecessary boast of your culture and at no cost try to dump or shadow or bring down your tradition.
There is yet another small group, that has been wooed by this "no culture" and tried to imitate it and underwent this transformation. Then, they decided that this new culture is not suited for them and it was a mistake!, this group was in a fix ! they din't know what to do , they had made a mistake and chosen the wrong culture. They finally realised the beauty and the scantity of their older inherent culture and tradition and reverted back to their older lifestyle. These people are the ones who have completely understood the norms and meaning of culture and tradition.
At birth, you are involuntarily made to follow the traditions of your family, whether you accept or not, you follow it till your 12th. When you enter your hostel, you are a free bird, your mind tends to wander and ultimately you might end up transforming. The transformed people are one set, some benefit and some lose due to the transformation. Now, those who lost, tend to return back to their own lifestyle, this time, they voluntarily return back, they know that their old methodology was the best and now realise its full potential and from then on, their life becomes a smooth ride !
So whatever tradition or culture you follow, pray follow it throughout, or if you want to imitate or adopt some other culture, do so with utmost devotion and do not take up any temporary change. Only when you lose and return back to your own culture, do you realise its true potential.
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Whatever culture the students follow in the hostel, back home they are the normal, astute kids and they follow their family tradition to the last letter ! So, in the hostel, it's only an attempt to impress people and give an false impression.
Always uphold your religion, never lose faith in it - The Maharishi
Be proud of what you are, never tend to change your beliefs and life style so that it may impress others, that is a false identity and is of no value, people appreciate and respect a person who follows his own lifestyle and upholds his ideals - The Maharishi
Hassle vs Serene - - - ??
Research - Management ??
Scientific - Corporate ??
Hassle vs Calmness - - -
Yesterday, my batchmate, Mr.P.Venky asked me - "Hey, tell me da, am in a big dilemma, I got an awesome course offer from a CAT coaching centre, I badly want to take that, but I'm wondering if I might miss out on Research and the Masters by chosing the CAT, tell me da, what do I do? "
Now, my answer follows, but, it's a strongly biased idea, biased to my notions and ideas and may not appeal to many.
------I start my avarthanam----------
At the abut of this answer, I will say, this is not a guidance, Since you have asked me, I will give my opinion and what I would have preferred at this junction.
A bursque reply would be - "I will prefer Research, the Scientific, Calm life"
At the penultimate year of my bachelors, I have gained some considerable experience in Research and have mingled with many people in the management/economic/corporate sector. Based on these, I will now aver my answer by first stating the reasons for my aversion towards the Corporate Sector.
Eh, I find economic, market life to be too fast for me ! I am a slow runner, like to amble along slowly, grasping things as they come along, not skip things,run, stumble and hassle my way through through things. I find people involved directly in the management of a company, corporate gentlemen, to be always too busy, always on the run, they do not have time to even chat for some 5 minutes, do not have time to listen to music, do not have time to gossip ! , do not have time to sit and write blogs, do not have time to , do not have time to, do not have time to . . . . . . always, u find such a person saying - "hey, I'm sorry, I just don't have the time, I have a meeting at" , or "Hey, I'm sorry, I just dont have the time, I have to complete this stuff before 6 " . . . . so many reasons, meetings, answering 20 phone calls in a minute, working with databases till 5 pm, very often over time work, work, work , work .. . . . too busy, no time , very very very fast, always walking at a brisk pace, submerged with work, tensions, afraid when the market will fall, have to try and defeat time, always to be working along with the clock, always ticking every second, ...OH MY GOD !, I definitely cannot stand such a buzzle, definitely cannot stand such a rapid, artificial life.
I feel, if I get into the corporate world, I will definitely miss out on Simple things in Life ( I will very soon post on what I mean by simple things and why I love them!).
It is indeed a alacritic world, full of brilliance, live time challenges, controlling people, taking some 'in the nick of time' decisions, rapid aptitude, so many challenges daily, dealing with people etc., It is indeed splendind, that is precisely the reason, why I talk to such people. I love to listen to those challenges, I admire the guts of these guys, the simply brilliant ways by which the economic gurus shape the market, how the current industrial lords developed their empire, the economic reforms, I admire the way these guys think, how the producers manage to stupefy the consumers, the way leaders talk and the power and thrust they carry in their speeches, this part of the world overlows with raw brilliance.
But, still, it is too fast, all the guys are brilliant, phenomenal, but, but . . . their only goal - Money. This monetary basis of their life defeats the chance to glean and appreciate simple things in life. Some are bourgeois, always on the lookout of for individual development, which I strongly averse.
Okay, enough of Coporte world, it's already got me tired !
Research . . . for me . .it's pure music ! There is no hassle, no tiny deadlines, no clock to follow, no boss to boss over you, no meetings, no tension, nothing ! pure, raw, crystal clear world, where your brilliance knows no boundaries, unleash your potential to any extent you can, think of anything you can, experiment what ever you want . . . awesome freedom for the vibrating mind. You will be living with things that not many would have even dreamt of, (time travel - can u beat that !! possible in corporate world ???) , do awesome stuff, develop new, novel things. Here, I feel we can get to experience the most simplest things of life. You walk along a calm street, chatting with a fellow researcher, talking some high funda stuff, but, the you move slowly with the nature, (nature likes to crawl) , you blossom along with the flower, you do not try to overtake the snail unnecessarily !
Music, you can spend time to listen to music, you can work with music, it can be your partner, in the counterpart world, music is an extra fitting, an hindrance for your work !
As you dwell more and more into research, you will find things, nature responding to your thoughts, your mind will always KNOW peace, calmness, the balmy nature . . . Everything will be so soothing, you will realise many things, understand many things. The satisfication when you understand completely a concept, be it simple or complicated, can never be experienced in the corporate world. (I told you this is biased !) . When you develop your own concept and the world acknowledges it, such an feeilng can never be even dreamt of in the corporate world.
an simple example -
See, you may achieve something great, make some nice profit for your company, but, you will be celebrated for a short time, you will be cajoled, blandished, but after some time, people will forget you , your effort will be washed away, you will become a void.
In Research , your efforts will be rememberd throughout, every further advancement in that field will give credit to whatever small thing you have contributed in that field. You will always be celebrated, even after you die, your name will be etched and you may be celebrated too ! This kind of honour can never be got in a corporate life, to get such an honour in the corporate sector, you have to strive a lot and achieve something really ground breaking and that takes years and you might achieve that only in your late 50s !, by that time, in the research field, by your 50s, you will be known worldwide and would be a legend !
So, the idea - - -
Coporate is too fast, your simple things will be lost, you cannot continue ur passions - only aim, - get more money
REsearch - you can take it at your own pace, fast , slow, crawl - your choice, you can do whatever you want, develop new passions, - many aims - develop new things - realise a lot - enjoy a lot!
So, that's it da, this is my opinion, it is perfectly biased on my ideals !!!
Anyways da, I do not know why you asked me of all the people, anyways, I am happy that you value my opnion :) !
----------I end with a theermaanam----------------
So, I guess that was one long, coarse post !
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Realisation of the ultimate power, what the power is I cannot say, but I know it exists, is only possible if you can admire and appreciate the simple things in life - - The Maharishi
Today Hitler Raises to Power - Appointed the Chancellor of Germany
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (The Nazi party). He was appointed Chancellor of Germany in Jan 30th 1933, and became Führer (leader)[2] in 1934, remaining in power until his suicide in 1945.
The Nazi Party under Hitler gained power during Germany's period of crisis after World War I, using propaganda and charismatic oratory, emphasizing nationalism, anti-semitism and arrest and murder of political opponents. After restructuring the economy and rearming the military, a dictatorship commonly characterized as totalitarian or fascist was established. Hitler pursued an aggressive foreign policy, with an ideological goal of Lebensraum. The German invasion of Poland in 1939 triggered World War II with the British and French Empires.
The Axis Powers occupied most of Europe and parts of Asia at their zenith but were eventually defeated by the Allies. By the end of the war, Hitler's policies of territorial conquest and racial subjugation had brought death and destruction to tens of millions of people, including the genocide of some six million Jews, in what is now known as the Holocaust.
In the final days of the war, Hitler and his new wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide in his underground bunker in Berlin, as the city was overrun by the Red Army of the Soviet Union.
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This was copy pasted obviously, but...I was once a Fuhrer ...before being a Maharishi !
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Amruthavarshini and NITT
Amruthavarshini - The Carnatic Music Club of NITT !
With the happening of the famed Tyagaraja Aradhana at Thiruvaiyaaru today (27/1/08) , I thought it would be instructive to do some publicizing for our 'famed' Carnatic Club too !!
The club kicked off with it's very first event - The famed Tyagaraja Aradhana - YES !, we (am also a part of the Club ! ) , organized the Tyagaraja Aradhana for the FIRST time in NITT. A pompous hit, it was organized in a humble manner, and attracted many senior artistes from the Carnatic havens like Thanjavur and Srirangam (these places are hardly 2hrs away from our college !) . An unexpected great success it was, Harsha and Sundar and ofcourse our dear faculty who were instrumental in organizing this event we all satisfied and amongst great pomp and fanfare, that event spelled the farewell for Harsha and Sundar, who were in their final year then!
Now, we were bestowed with the honor (or burden!) of carrying on the tradition and organizing the famed Aradhana every forthcoming year, but, we did not stop with just the Aradhana, we went on to conduct various concerts, started to celebrate the Anniversaries of several Carnatic greats, conducted competitions for school children, started conducting the Classical events in our college cultural fest -Festember, in the name of our club and recently, we had Harsha come down from TAMU to give a concert at his alma mater and to cheer him we had Sundar Rajan !!! Last month, we gave a concert, I played the mridangam in it !, supposedly for the invitees and the lecturers who had come down from China, US, London for a conference in our college.
So, this year to, as prestigious beholders of our austere tradition, we are going to have the famed TYAGARAJA ARADHANA on Febraury 23rd-24th , in our very own college premises, and further details regarding the event will be soon put up at www.nitt.edu .
err, so..ALL ARE INVITED !!!!
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Entharaomahaanu bhaavulu , anthariki vandhanamulu - The Maharishi to all !
Why can't Mac breakdown like Windows ?
With the release of the MacBook Air (http://www.apple.com/macbookair/) , Apple's innovative creations have reached a new zenith and quite predictably we once again gossiped about Apple's product and pretty soon landed on the MacOS.
Their powerful, sturdy and super fast operating system -MacOS, has yet another feature - it never hangs, unlike the famous, userfriendly, nice Microsoft's OS - Windows.
An obvious question is - "How come MacOS never hangs or breaks down?" . I put this question to a friend of mine, a noted armchair critic !! He replied -
"See, have you ever tried to install a MacOS on an assembled PC ? Well, even if you try so, it would be futile, waste of time and money. You cannot install the MacOS on a PC, you have to buy that beautiful, stylish, powerful and COSTLY Mac computer to run an MacOS, that is, a MacOS runs only on a Mac computer. So, you chose your own hardwares, your own chipset, and you develop a OS that runs only on these hardwares, so how can it hang ?
This is what Apple does, they market their own brand of computer under the name Apple Mac which has handpicked hardwares, chipset and they develop an OS called the MacOS (the latest being the Mac OSX Leopard) which runs only on this hardware configuration - the moral - u take a book, measure it properly, buy a huge sheet of paper to cover the book and cut the paper according to the dimensions of the book - how can the cover NOT fit properly ? ...analogically - how come the MacOS hang ??
On the other hand, Windows - you purchase any arbit hardware from any shop, build your own crappy computer and get a Windows OS - it will beautifully run in that contraption that you have developed ! the moral - you take any book, and take a BIG sheet to cover the book - the cover will fit the book even without cutting but will have some loose ends ! ...analogically - the Windows can run in any comp, the problem - it will have lots of loose ends that may make it go berserk and in the end - it hangs !! also, that is why Windows has a very BIG ,complex and abstruse code. "
A very neat and neutral opinion !! However, the recent Mac OSX Leopard can run Windows as well (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/apr/05bootcamp.html) !! . So, effectively, I can purchase an Apple Mac (if I can afford one!) and run a Windows Vista in it !! Am an Apple and Microsoft customer !!
However, Apple's computer have now shifted to the Intel based chipsets ---Apple's a real revolution in the Electronics world - a apple a day makes you bankrupt in a day --- some comments I heard about Apple.
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Know no Route nor Rate...
I reached Trichy today morning, after a nice Pongal holidays at Chennai. It was quite early in the morning, around 5.30am, Vivek,myself and Aditya alighted from Mangalore Exp. We decided to take an auto to NITT since we had quite an amount of luggage.
There was one guy, who eagerly hobbled towards us "Saar, auto?" , "Yea, REC" said we,
"O!, sure saar, we can go, keep the luggage in the back, 300 rupees" ---aahhhahahaha, we started laughing and that automan just lost a juicy customer.
There was this solitary auto, far away from the stands, it had no horn, no rear view mirror, no meter , and it's driver was frail, sitting meekly waiting for someone to approach him. So went we, "Sir, we want to go to REC" , "Well, sure, dump the bags in the back and hop in" said he, "uhh, how much Sir" - asked we ,
"Nah, you give an usual amount na?, give the same thing, how much you used to give, give me the same thing" - okay !!! done !!
What a nice man !, and he started the auto, made a small U turn and set forth on the 20km journey towards our college. Then he suddenly said "Saar, please tell me the route" ----Eh??
Every automan in Trichy knows the route to NITT, this guy, he just asked us to guide him , hmmm, so okay, what's there, after all he is not charging much - "Sure Sir, we will tell you".
So, we guided him, the vehicle slowly lumbered towards our hostel finally, it couldn't obviously take our combined weight !!
Then, we fished out some currencies from our overly stuffed purses and handed him 200 rupees. "Saar, be a little generous saar, it's early in the morning too and petrol costs 120 saar" - well, frankly 200 is a perfectly just sum and we told him so and he was happy !
We asked him, "Sir, how will you go back?, do you know the route?" - he said "Naaah, I will go back somehow, that is not a problem, there must be some other students like you na, having bags n all, I will take them to Trichy" --poor guy, 't was early in the morning and no one leaves for Trichy at that time, anyway, we bade him goodbye and went to our rooms.
This guy, a nice guy to a very impractical limit, didn't know the Rate nor the Route to our college, and we thought how such a guy might thrive in this city. He can be easily fooled by the public, "You give me the usual rate Saar and please tell me the route Saar" - I bet you will never hear such a statement from any automan in Tamil Nadu.
Sarve Janaa Sukhino Bhavanthu ----The Rishi
Vivek's Researchs...
This is a comment Vivek (my Research partner in all my activities so far) left for my post on "How to do Research...." , I thought this is very important to any budding Researchers, so thought I will put it as a post itself....
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Being Mahesh's research partner in most of his endeavours, I know how much it means to this guy and how enthusiastic he is about getting his work done and getting results. One thing I really wanna point out at this instant is that its not about the money that really drives you into research. It's more like a quest and a search for answers and when you follow the quest with such passion, you will definitely land up with wonderful results, come what may. And there's no such thing as a job in an industry pays more than a researcher or anything. True, the start maybe easier for a person in an industry but if you're not bothered about patriotism or spending your life abroad, research pays very very well and that is no understatement. It is only India, where the research field has been quite mild due to many many reasons..
But a strong advise to those who are in the crossroads of deciding their career, just follow your heart and consult elders and many experienced people. You have a passion, you follow it and try to live it. Dont go about doing anythin just because the crowd is going to it. Then, what would set you aside?? Show who you are and show your induviduality.. As long as you like what you're doing, money will come to you..
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Cheers..!
Follow the Traffic ....!
Yesterday I had gone to Richie Street (an illegal goods haven) in Mount Rd with my friend Shriram (he's with the Merchant Navy). We had gone to buy an external USB hard disk for him, and we, after a lot of scouring around, got a 120GB Western Digital HDD for 3600 - from a shop called Oasis Network (the Bai Shop!).
Elated with our nice bargain, we were returning home on his Honda Activa and were constantly chatting through the journey that we lost our way !!!! Imagine, we lost our way in the most famous, crowded route in Chennai and we didn't realise we have lost the way and we kept on driving.
Well, soon it dawned on us that we have somehow landed ourselves in alien territory ! Well, the Rishi to the rescue - "Follow the Traffic" was the golden rule that spouted from his blessed lips!!! (I know its a little sad, but after all its my blog !). Since Chennai was getting crowded and crowded, there is traffic everywhere ! So, what we did, followed a stream of vehicles which we chose intuitively and decided to rely on that traffic to take us to a known territory !
We followed the chosen traffic, it turned, twisted, halted, screeched, honked and suddenly the traffic liquidated, each vehicle of the stream diverted ! Again we were stranded - in the search for another stream - Lo! there was another traffic stream going nearby, so - followed we it !~
Like this we were doing for some 30 mins, constantly jumping from one stream to another !, in the end we landed up at a signal on G.N.Chetty Road - a known territory !! From then on, we rode back home amidst a huge amount of traffic !!
A nice time, but we could have just asked an auto driver for the direction, but - see, am a researcher and would like to test my ideas - "Follow the Traffic" - a nice coarse rule, if you do not know Tamil, this rule is a safe bargain - you will definitely reach your destination but it will take a lot of time !!
"FOLLOW THE TRAFFIC" - only on the road, in life - you take your own stream and if someone decided to follow your path, that's your ultimate victory !!
Barber's Anti-Climax...
"Will you first go to the barber's and get your head shaved" - my mom ! ...that was one of the first things she said when she saw me yesterday morning when I reached home !
Today morning, with a lot of grumbling I tumbled out of bed and cycled to the barber's. Oh man, I'm getting very very lazy !
An old man greeted me there at the saloon - "Please come in" , in I went, a perfume scented room, a 4-bladed fan trying to rotate and an old FM radio was screeching on a arbit local FM.
I sat down on a creaky bench and picked up a tamil daily - it has lots of nice nice pictures !!! I waited for the old man to finish of shaving one of his frequent customers.
"Please come sire, what would you like ?" -- "Give me a trim short enough to comb my hair" - said me.
I parked my bottom on the chair, and with an artistic wave he placed a towel around me and tied it neatly around my neck. He sprinkled some water on my head and - "pat, paaat, PaPaPat, pat pat pat , sssappaat" - he gave a nice massage and started off with his slow smooth exuberant motion with snipping of my hair. Slow and steady, up went the comb, the scissors was waiting and SNAP, down fell my hair ! again went the comb, another SNIP ...and SNAP and SNIP...slow smooth exuberant and steady. My head was his seasoned finger's cricket field. He bowled, up came my hair and SNAP caught the scissors.
Then, after what seemed like years, pleasant years, slow smooth years, he placed his instruments on the table, flexed his fingers and cracked his back. Oh my god !, what an experience, this 15mins with the barber....a psychedelic feeling - this guy rocks ! I simply enjoyed every second with him, his musical pattering, the harmony and rhythm with which his scissors snipped...so much comfort and a nice feeling ---all for such a small amount (at least i thought so) ....he is an old man....shouldn't charge me much....
"aaaah, sir, you look perfect, that's the best I have done today,.....now,, that will be 70 rupees"-------------------------------- Eh ????
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It's time Mahesh learnt that cutting his hair is too expensive, that's why we rishi's do not bother to do that ---The Maharishi
Time has dual nature...
This week I experienced duality of time !!
This semester started on Monday (for me!) and I decided to start setting the patches on the drum pad (for a couple of songs that our music troupe plan to perform in a forthcoming event) on the same day. We thought we could finish all the settings by Friday and break off for pongal and resume a complete practice with the entire troupe from next week. So, we thought, we have 5 days, lets leave Monday and start off from Tuesday. OKAY! ....blah blah...ohoh..heheh..hihi..zzZZ..Yaawwnn....Hi ..!!
eh..?..what happend.?? ....IT's FRIDAY !! what happened to Tue, Wed n Thursday ? I just landed in Trichy...Monday....decided to set pads on Monday....well..tuesday seemed a nice day to start off...and ...and....IT's Friday ! ...Time...went ...soooo fast !
This winter holidays, I spent in Bangalore, I was a Research Assistant in IISc. Well, it was tough, yea, real tough and I got screwed all the way. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it and was a nice experience (my posts under the label IISc Life quotes some interesting experiences). But, I spent the entire 4.5 weeks in Bangalore, didn't go home at all. Semester Exams got over on Wednesday, I caught Mysore Exp on the same day and went to Bangalore, reached there on Thursday. My appointment as an RA began from Friday and went on till the Saturday before the Monday on which my college resumed. I really yearned to go home during the pongal holidays which was just one week from the day college resumed. So, I landed in Trichy....Monday...and couldn't wait for the Friday to go home..meet my family...enjoy pongal. Oh my god !, I had to wait 5 whole days....at laassttt !!..IT's Friday !!...Time...went..sooo slow...!
------- So, in that week - I landed in Trichy....Monday....I had time till Friday to set the drum pads...I had to wait till Friday to go home....and....................................'ts friday already ?? ...at last 't s friday !!!
Duality of Time - - - The Experiences of the Researcher----Time is slow and fast -
Nature exhibits duality in LIGHT (particle and wave nature) .... and....TIME (fast and slow)
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't s time Mahesh realised that 't s he who controls his time --- The Maharishi
How to kickstart a Research ....things that I've learnt from various experiences (Part 2)
Part 2 --- Some Difficulties a fresh Researcher may face
"disclaimer - i am not trying to woo anyone to do research nor am i attempting to discourage taking up a job, choosing the field is left to the individual, maybe later i will post about the research opportunities available in different streams and sometime if possible will make a comparison between job and research."
So you have chosen to proceed with Research. Nice !
Okay, now that you are a researcher - how to proceed ?...what is research ?
It is instructive to start off with a dictionary definition of Research -
Definition:
- [noun] systematic investigation to establish facts
- [noun] a search for knowledge; "their pottery deserves more research than it has received"
Synonyms: inquiry, enquiry - [verb] inquire into
Synonyms: search, explore - [verb] attempt to find out in a systematically and scientific manner; "The student researched the history of that word"
Every piece of info , formula, graphs etc., has a huge amount of stuff hidden, when u see an equation first thing you should see ......uhh...well i will take those up in detail later !
What are the initial confusions ? Here are something i felt worth noting -
1. Finding a Mentor - For any fresher, it is very crucial to find a mentor, a guide who will give you initial guidance and a preliminary idea to work on. You may be in you Sophomore Year, with a sound basics of engineering math, some classical mechanics and fundamental chemistry (organic/inorganic). At this juncture, you may not have a suitable idea or any idea at all on "what to research on". What should I do or what should I work on that will be useful, that will bring me credit, that I can complete. A guide, will initiate you into a topic in which you may not have any idea at all. But, the guide will help you to get a peek and get the feel of the topic. Then the guide will give you a topic, a hot field, in which you can work. He might give you a small part of his research work that you may start off with, or he may ask you to collect all the work done so far over the years on a particular topic (a bibliographic study) etc.,
Now, choosing your guide is important. For a fresher, I strongly suggest you approach a prof. in your department or in your school who is doing some research in a field that interests you. Tell him that you are interested in assisting him and some flattery ! Then, he will take up things from then on. You may not initially like the topic he is giving you, but its okay, as a beginning you can take it up. That will help you to understand how to go about research, how to do a survey, who are the leading personnel etc etc., So finding a mentor is the prime most important step. Choose the mentor carefully!!
2. Getting a trustworthy partner - Now, it's very advantageous if you could find yourself a friend who is interested to pair up with you in this research activity. Make sure you are able to get a very very interested and keen person. He should not drop out in the middle for some stupid reason or the other. Also, do not form a huge team, huge meaning 4 or more. I sincerely suggest you to choose just a single partner. Just the two of you !
It is not mandatory , but you might need someone to confide in !
3.When do i do it ? - Now, you are studying, you want to play, you are in lots of clubs, you want to go home, you have exams, you want to watch movies, you want to , you want to, you want to.......and you want to do research !
So, when do I do it ? How do I allot the priorities ?
Well, that is left to you, choose your priorities well. If you are seriously want to complete your research and present it somewhere and get it published, I suggest you give it a top priority amongst your other activities. Remember, once you find a guide, you are committed to him until the work is complete ! So do not get him pissed off !!!!
Try to read up stuff properly, neatly organize and do take some pains to get the necessary books etc., these things the prof. will tell, but you have to sit and read!!
4. Is it like an exam ..eh ? - RESEARCH IS NOT AN EXAMINATION !!!!
You need not, and should not do research like you sit and study for examinations. It is not about by-hearting stuff and vomiting it to the prof. NO NO NO. There is not an immediate deadline, there is no pressure, there is no schedule. You can carry out research at a slow pace, take your own time to get the basics strong - BASICS SHOULD BE ROCK SOLID. Never progress unless and until your foundation is solid.
There is no necessity to mug up complex equations, memorize definitions, practice drawing diagrams etc., The key thing is - Research is a attempt to understand the stuff conceptually. When you look at an equation, you should be able to rip it apart into its physical implications.
Read it like a novel - when you read a novel, say you are reading the 15th Chapter, and in that the author might have referred to a small incident in the 1st Chapter, but you can still sharply recollect that event and you never turn back to the 1st Chapter to see what the author is referring to.
Same thing is to read a technical book or paper. You should understand and remember the ideas , the concepts, but you can always turn back to look at an equation, that is not a problem at all. Those equations, graphs etc., will start flowing like your blood once you get some experience, so you can take it easy. CONCEPTUAL understanding is IMPORTANT.
5.Will I become a Nerd ?? - Bah !...you will become a more cooler dude !!
Again, once you get the hang of understanding stuff conceptually, your intellect will automatically start developing and reach an acme that you would have never experienced. Your thoughts, your lifestyles will naturally become more mature and neat ! You will no longer be spending time with your heads burrowed under books, rather, a single glance will make you get the stuff into your head ! You need not spend sleepless nights, abeyance lunch-dinner, -Overall, Research will be a beautiful experience and a fun filled ride!!
You will be seeing and working with stuff that none of your fellows know, none of your profs know, sometimes, you may embark on something that is so advanced that no undergrad would even know such things existed ! You will be making magic with your computer, you can scribble arbit complex equations in that carry immense power, you can thrash and rip apart any one who claims to be an expert.
Everything around you will be speaking to you, you can understand all the things and invisible stuff happening around you, in the end - you will learn to appreciate the 'Sound of Silence' - a melody !!
6. Should I neglect course work so that I can spend max time with Research? -
Definitely not, you need not bunk classes, flunk exams, forget academic work - Definitely NOT.
It does not imply that if you are doing research, you should be thinking of high funda stuff that you have no time to attend mere classes and learn some stupid basic stuff that a bloke blabbers. Never dude !..do not get that attitude and do not assume that you are doing high funda stuff !!
Research does not immediately propel you to some zenith. You are still the normal, sane person you were, just that, you are doing some research, some innovative novel work. Get a feel man, do your coursework neatly, do justice to research, play and pursue your hobbies, life is a mix of everything!!
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Well, those are some thoughts that occurred to me that a fresh researcher might face. If you are facing a confusion, learn to solve them on your own, do not take it as an hurdle, its rather a challenge !! Take some time off, sit and relax and learn to solve problems allay manner, assess all the possibilities etc etc.,
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I wanna some projs...so that I can get a good MS and a good Job..
I had a nice incident yesterday, there is this classmate of mine - Mr.Ram (name changed on account of privacy!!)
He is a brilliant man, no doubt, but very very lazy and lethargic. He said "Macha, get me a project in IISc da". Well, I believe - "Sarve Janaa Sukhinoo Bhavanthu" , so I helped him out, gave him an idea and we are currently in the process of procuring him a guide in IISc.
He suddenly asked me - "Macha, do you know what is the prime difference between you and me", well I rattled of a lot of differences blah blah..!
He said - "You do research because you love it, I want to do a project which I can call as a research so that 't will help me land up with a nice univ. in America for my Masters"
Me - "o O o , that's great !, but remember da, even to complete your Masters, you have to submit a Thesis that should involve purely novel research, and in the US its a lot tougher than you think"
He - "De, I can take care then da, if the need comes I will do it, why do you think I did not do a project or a training during my 2nd year ? because I was not interested "
then we drifted off...
The point is, Ram clearly understands what is Research and why he wants to do one. That is very important, he sure can take it up if the need arises and am confident his Masters would pose no challenge to him. He just wants to add value to himself so in the end of the day he may land is a good company with a juicy salary and a neat little family !
So , that is the major feelings and purpose for many who do projects and strain a lot to crack the GRE to enter into one of the top schools for Masters. So, be confident that you can tackle the pressure in the US during the Masters and simply Surf Ahead !!!
How to kickstart a Research ....things that I've learnt from various experiences (Part 1)
I claim myself to me a Freelance Researcher, and being one, I thought I will share some very critical topics that will help a fellow budding researcher to kickstart his research -
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Part 1 - Getting committed towards Research
This is the most fundamental preliminary step, it's like, you have just crawled out of the womb, which is your schooling or the ground work education, and now stand facing the huge ocean laid out in front of you - research ? job ? , there are the two main questions that you will be facing towards the end of your undergraduation. Be it an engineering stream, pure sciences, a commerce course, or electronic media, visual communication , anything you may do, in the end you will be left staring at these two questions -
RESEARCH ? or JOB ?
There may be some who want to take research and then a job, some who want to go to job directly etc., The main difference amongst the various genre of courses you take is, some course may tilt a lot towards job (vis. comm, elec media, arts etc.,) some will give a better reason to prefer research (engineering , commerce etc.,).
Now, the next important query - 'Which will pay me more?', that's the first question any fresh UG will've to face. I'm not commenting on that simply because am still a Junior and have no idea which is gonna pay me more, but I will take up Research (and then maybe a Job). So, as for this question, people may ask their seniors, parents, relatives etc., and after a lot of mixed responses, brainwashing attempts an UG will (or should) have to decide - Research or Job ?!
Some may say - 'Job Satisfication', however in the end, it all boils down to ' will it pay me?' . There is no point in painting posters, masterpieces just because it gives you satisfication, will it fetch your daily bread ?? See, am trying to be practical.
So, in the end of the day, you chose between the corporate world or scientific world.
This article (post!) is inclined towards people who have chosen the scientific world.
Remember, any person who has chosen to do an MS or M.Tech ( with an idea that he may land up with a better job with a juicy salary ) has to submit a thesis as well and that thesis should contain some novel stuff for which you have to do some RESEARCH !!
Choosing a MS or M.Tech involves some thinking. It is not so easy to get a thesis done and get away with your masters very easily, that is if you are doing it in a reputed institute. A Masters is a very serious, yet fun, undertaking and one cannot do away by fooling around and time passing in Orkut or GTalk or Ennadu ! From my short life at IISc, I interacted with lots of masters studs, they are all really inclined towards research and show a great passion in doing some novel study. There are lots of hardships, pitfalls and long days that one might encounter and sometimes he/she might feel that her research is progressing nowhere, there are certain periods that you don't seem to understand anything at all, all those papers you read seem to be gibberish cluttered with equations, graphs, etc., Sometimes, or most of the times, you will have to do some thing that no one has ever done in before, tackle a problem that people have never even dared to think about, debug some huge problems tat may run for millions of lines, etc etc., And, there is an equally jolly side towards research, that is if you enjoy doing it, the thrills you get when you solve a problem, the unbounded happiness when you publish a paper, the joy you get when a great bloke from some of the top schools in the world commends your work etc etc.,
So, Research - getting committed towards is tougher than get committed to a person !
A person who has already decided that he is going to do research, but so far has not embarked on any such activity, kindly read on, I will be posting more Parts quite soon. A seasoned researcher may find nothing new as this is titled "How to Kickstart a Research" !
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I have no reason to get you committed to research or brainwash you against a job, I just thought this might be helpful for some person who may come across my blog !
Pillar Pillai.....
Pillar Pillai - His name is Arumugam Pillai S, he calls himself SAP and the the profs here call him Mr.Pillai.
He is a Technical Officer at the Chem. Dept , IISc (http://chemeng.iisc.ernet.in/) and also the library incharge , ............now that is where I come in ! I was stationed in the library (aka The Bunker) during my stay there this winter !
This person, he says he doesn't talk much, but somehow, right from day one, he started jabbering with me ! A very kind hearted, staunch believer of GOD is GOD , thinks everything happening around him is because of GOD and a very affectionate father and a powerful researcher !
He joined the Dept. during 1979 and during my 1month stay he rattled off his 28 yr experiences at the Dept. Gave me lots of tips, various stories of students whom he has seen, how and what the students do after the IISc life, some inside sneak-peek stories about the profs in the Dept., and a lot about Sai Baba and GOD.
He would go out of the way to help me ! and I really mean that. He allowed me to carry home library books when Project Assistants are strictly prohibited to do so, used to go to the main JRD TATA lib in IISc and borrow books for me in his account (we don't get to borrow books from there, it's a huge repository of the rarest books).
He was my spiritual and philosophical guru and kept bombarding me with pep talk and encouragements. He works a lot on utilizing fibers as adsorbents to remove Cadmium from water and has quite a few publications to his credit !
People who may go to the Chemical Engg. Dept at IISc, do make it a point to be-friend him, he may himself come swaggering towards you, but do not neglect him, he is a very nice person and lovable one too ! Kudos to Mr.Pillai , my Pillar !
A steady suitcase...
Today, I boarded a bus towards Majestic (a place in B'lore) and 't was going from Malleswaram. The roads from Malleswaram to Majestic aint so good, they are quite bumpy and coarse.
There was this man who boarded the bus with his suitcase, a small one that office goers usually carry, and sat infront of me and kept his suitcase beside him. It was erect and was standing steadily. The bus began to move and suddenly went over a speed breaker. This suitcase, toppled, or rather it seemed to topple, and went all the way over to one side and surprisingly came back to it's erect position ! I had actually bent and stretched to catch the toppling case and then F**k, so much for the effort !
Then, another bump, this time, it toppled towards the other side, again, seemed to topple, and this time, it's owner bent down to catch it. And, 't casually oscillated back to its erect posture and the man just touched the case to make sure Ye, 't s fine !
Now, the road was becoming really rickety. The suitcase started wobbling so much so that a person sitting in the opposite seat stretched all the way to catch the poor case. It was wobbling rather dangerously and was twittering around a lot. I was simply watching it ! This poor guy from the opposite seat was straining himself, really. Then the road became quite even, the case gleefully swayed some small oscillations and regained 'ts calm composed erect position.
By this time, Majestic had come up and the bus was slowing down and as it neared the stop, the driver applied a gradual brake, slowly the speed reduced and the bus screeched to a halt, 'Scccreeeecchhhh ....' and the deceleration was so gradual that no one even shifted. Suddenly a loud THUD ,this small suitcase had fallen, toppled over ! hahahahahaha..!..we had a nice hearty laugh ! , the owner said 'the case must've got tired' , the opposite guy claimed 'nasty case, when we tried to help 't fooled us, it deserves this' , lol !....
A nice incident that left me in elated spirits !! , So people, do try to notice your surroundings and absorb them !!
The Coffee Cup Phenomena
The what Phenomena ? , Ahem !, I've just coined that as Coffee Cup Phenomena. So, what is it ?
I had taken up an industrial plant training at Manali PertoChemicasl Ltd., Chennai, India, during my 3rd Semester and I was guided by one Field Engineer who happened to be a graduate from Anna University, Chennai, India. This guy, one day, asked us (two of my friends were with me for the training)
Seems pretty simply and straightforward aint it ?
. I put this question to my kid(1oth std) cousin bro, he gave a neat reply -
"The coffee is at a higher temperature than the surrounding air, so heat flows from higher temperature to lower temperature and when we blow, it loses heat faster" , these were not his exact words, but 't was somewhat like this.
. I then, had a discussion with Srinivasa Ramanujam (a Unit Operations expert, whom I met in Orkut) , and here is the convo.
SR : the process which you described in your question is nothing but forced convection heat transfer which you will learn when you take heat transfer course.
In absense of blowing, the beverage which is at higher temperature will lose heat to relatively low temp air in atmosphere. The heat lost by the beverage will be picked up by the air and its temperature will increase (upto a limit called boundary layer). when this hot air is removed by blowing, more and more cool air will come into contact with the hot beverage surface which can remove more heat. while the absense of blowing is called natural convection heat transfer, blowing by external means is called forced convection heat transfer.
SR : what you are talking about is two-phase heat transfer coupled with mass transfer which depends on specific and latent heat of fluid(s) as well as concentration difference between them. your explanation is partly correct that some amount of hot beverage will be carried out while blowing (mass transfer), however the dominant mode is heat transfer due to high temperature difference.
for eg, during summer the water in reservoir will evaporate due to heat transfer, but during winter it is by mass transfer. you will learn more during your heat transfer course.
SR : juz now i had coffee with my collegue which stimulated my thoughts furthur. first of all, the mechanism involved in heat transfer from coffee to atmospheric air is more complex than described earlier, because coffee is not an ideal fluid. it is a mixture of milk, sugar and decoction of coffee bean so you will have fine solid coffee particles, water vapour and milk (which itself is a mixture of fatty acids and water). the water vapour which is trapped by coffee will help to retain the heat, by blowing we are releasing the latent heat stored in water vapour which will eventually bring down the coffee temperature. also the high temperature fluid will lose heat by convection to the atmosphere. moreover, the concentration difference between coffee and atmospheric air will carry away some mass (and heat stored in that mass). try to stir with a spoon instead of blowing and see what happens :).
SR : first of all, i appreciate your learning interest.
hot coffee is a mixture of sugar, fatty acids, fine coffee particles and water (and probably few more which i don't know!) each of which will boil at different temperature. the vapour composition is not an ideal gas and it depends strongly on temperature, density of the fluid and other properties. fine coffee particles will also be carried away by this vapour tha heating effect and hence its temperature will reduce.
I do not have my scraps as Mr.SR had deleted them and I think he is not in Orkut anymore.
Well, one explanation I can think of is this -
In any liquid system, homogenous or heterogeneous, there exists a Vapour Liquid Equilibrium (VLE). What this means is, in any container containing some liquid, there exists a default layer of the vapour phase (of the liquid) just above the liquid surface. This vapour and liquid phases of the substance are in equilibrium with each other. Why such kind of equilibrium exists and further explanation can be found in Mass Transfer Operations by Robert E.Treybal and numerous texts are available to cover this, its a fundamental topic.
So, in our cup of steaming coffee, there exists this vapour phase, or coffee vapours, just above the liquid surface, it is this vapour that we see as the steam. The coffee molecules, take up the inherent heat (the coffee is hot) and get converted to their vapour form. So, the steaming coffee has - a vapour phase that takes up the inherent heat in the coffee to sustain, the hot liquid layer from which molecules vapourise.
Now, we happily blow !, what happens ? We are actually blowing away the vapour molecules just above the liquid coffee layer. We blow, the vapour molecules go away. Now, VLE comes into action, since there has to be a vapour layer existing, more molecules from within the liquid take up the inbuilt heat (due to the coffee's high temp) and vapourise to the top, we blow again ! , these newly formed vapour goes off. Again, more molecules consume the inherent heat and become vapours that are blown away, thanks to us !. So what is happening, the coffee loses more and more of its inherent heat to maintain the VLE, in this process what happens ?the coffee loses heat and ..COOLS DOWN !!. Summarising -
-Vapour molecules - Liquid coffee exist at equilibrium
-We blow, vapour molecules go away
-More vapour molecules come up by consuming inherent heat to maintain VLE
-coffee loses its heat to sustain the VLE by providing heat for vapourisation of liq. molecules
-coffee loses heat and cools down.
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So, there, that is the Coffee Cup Phenomena !! It was nice to write about it, think about it!, such a simple, day to day activity, but it involves a beautiful mechanism , nature rocks !!
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Have a nice coffee..!!
Apple I-Phone Ripped Apart
I chanced upon this interesting piece of news, a couple of blokes have sat down and ripped the Apple I-Phone apart, its interesting to have an inside look !! Check it out !!
http://thinksecret.com/archives/iphonetakeapart/
Apple rocks !!, and their latest OS, the Mac OSX Leopard, it can run Windows as well !! I just bought a piggy bank , saving money for an i-Mac :P
Assassinating a Political Leader - Benazir Bhutto's Death
Disclaimer - I am NOT a reporter, news press person, political leader,politician, employee of the Government of India, spy, police, CBI, detective, associated with politics, underground Don, news reader, owner of a company,critic, rebel, mastermind. ( I think that covers it all)
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To start off, people who expect this post to rattle about Benazir's political prowess, her ideals or about her as a person, am sorry, this has nothing got to do with that. I barely follow Indian politics, least Pakistan's, but, I have heard from some quite reliable sources that She (Bhutto) aint a good leader , she is corrupt (all leaders are so) and has been involved in numerous police cases etc etc, but, she was , now she aint .
I just wanted to muse about the amount of planning those assassins must have done to embark on this mission. It's really a beauty and we have to admire the guts and the nerve of these people to actually get the ideas rolling. Imagine going in and killing a person who is guarded on all sides by some of the country's best trained and ferocious guards. In Bhutto's case, she was actually killed by using a rifle and recent news show a vague picture of a unknown person having a gun with which Bhutto was presumed to be shot. Indira Gandhi, a very powerful woman, she was assassinated by her own gaurd, Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber, Mahatma Gandhi was killed by a rebel (Nathuram Godse) and many such major political assassinations have occurred throughout the world. It is not so easy to just carry a gun and simply shoot the person. The intense, minute by minute, inch by inch planning is to be done. Still, no one has any idea how (yes, PPP says she was assassinated, Pakistan Govt. says she got accidentally injured in the bomb blast which lead to her death, lately PPP has strong evidences and witnesses to disprove the Govt.) or who killed Bhutto. In most of the cases, the job is done neatly and subtley that no has a clue how or what happened. Sometimes, the killing is done at the unexpected moment and by the unexpected person.
Just take some time off and ponder, think that you want to assassinate say Mr.X who is the President of Namek (some fictional person and place). Think how you can do it, the necessary things, arms, time, people etc etc. You just think, and you will realize what it is to be a real rebel and have the blood to go and assassinate a political leader. Also, its very difficult to do it single handedly, you have to have a team , a very very very TRUSTWORTHY team who can be completely entrusted with the job, who can remain secret, who does not have any police records etc etc. And, how to carry out the killing, a suicide bomber ? a land mine ? a bomb in the car or convoy ? get out there and shoot the head off ? use a sniper ? drop a bomb from a plane ? poison the food ? ...oh my god, its not easy at all, its tougher than anything in the world. The amount of money involved, must be astronomical! Procuring the necessary equipments, unnoticed, customs cleared, in neat technically sealed packages, arranging for them, oh man..so many things to be considered. Convincing your team that it is possible, maintaining the zeal, that urge to pursue the project, envisioning etc. I can go on and on, its tooo complicated and not in the least simple.
I suggest you to read The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth, its a brilliant rapid novel about how a team of rebels hire an internationally acclaimed assassin who's supposedly known by no one ,no one knows his real name and who has no police record anywhere, to kill President Charles deGaulle. It seems, after reading this novel, a real attempt was made to assassinate deGaulle using the method outlined in the book. You can get a true feel of what it takes to embark on a mission to Assassinate a Political Leader.
PS: My friend said, " Hey, i pity the state of Pakistan man, imagine the present atmosphere there, how can the people be at peace now, its a troubled country" , I truly agree with this, and I recently read that Pakistan looks to be deserted now, the streets are empty, the shops are closed, no buses, no vehicles plying and people are terrified to even venture out to get basic groceries and there are some families who have no food to eat and are toooo afraid to even open their doors. And, lets hope that Bhutto's 19 year old son who has picked up the reins of the PPP can bring peace and restore the happYness in Pakistan.
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Disclaimer - I am NOT a reporter, news press person, political leader,politician, employee of the Government of India, spy, police, CBI, detective, associated with politics, underground Don, news reader, owner of a company,critic, rebel, mastermind. ( I think that covers it all)
Sarve Janaa Sukhino Bhavanthu
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