The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch... Carnegie Mellon University speech!

Pheeld Tryp

image courtesy (power plant control room): google

Did you ever feel that the education system in India is more classroom oriented than practical? A Japanese student starts to experiment and assemble stuff like watches, gears etc. at the age of 10. A tenth standard student in India on the other hand does huge mind numbing problems on capacitors, not realizing that condensors and capacitors are the same or that they can be found even in a normal fan!
While some of the bureaucrats might beg to differ, me and my many friends are on the same page here... The page where you see the picture of a fresh creative mind being squashed to shit by useless, impractical and outdated ideas. Yet, in this hell-hole of the Indian pedagogical system, there are some worthwhile people who care enough to go out of their way and show their students what they are actually gulping down their intellectual guts. It is because of profs/teachers like these that some of the institutions manage to gain an edge.
We were recently out on a trip to visit NTPC in Dadri. Around 28 students including 3 profs (Dr. P Srinivasan being one of them) embarked on this educational tour which took one whole day. I would like to narrate to you all, my experience of this fabulous journey*.
The bus started from Pilani at around 11:00pm on 11th Feb. 2010. Pagadala and Bijjam were the two most familiar faces to me throughout. We shared ipods, cracked jokes on every god damn thing in the universe, slept on each others' shoulders and mumbled profanity about the rash driver together. We finally reached Dadri (close to noida) at about 6 am on the 12th. The accomodation wasn't great but very huge and very tiny people adjusted quite well. :) Rahul and I loitered around the acco. making up stories of comic escapades. (we both are quite creative on that note... but this post is definitely not one of those)
Everyone got back on their feet by 8:15am and we all had breakfast which resembled our mess food in so many ways that some of us were internally crying.
We finally got to the plant at around 9:30. It was a coal based thermal power plant having four 210MW boilers and one 490 MW boilers adding up to a total of 1030 MW. (one more 490 boiler was yet to be inaugurated) We were taken around and shown almost every significant component of the plant which was quite overwhelming because
- most of us never expected to see something, that is a prospective 15 mark question in a cdc comprehensive exam, live!
- all of us felt so puny in front of these gigantic metallic power-beasts that made noise enough to wake you up from your deepest slumbers.
After a three hour tour around the plant we reached the NTPC plant canteen to have a bite and guess what was waiting there.... BLOODY MESS FOOD! Though the food was "healthy and sufficient" we were all happy for the fact that the trip was in keeping with what we had imagined. After a little bit of resting in the lawns outside the canteen, we were taken to GT-ST combined cycle plant which was of 829MW capacity. This was a more state-of-the-art power plant and was very interesting. We were told that it runs on CNG (compressed natural gas) or HSD (diesel). The plant was much more compact and sophisticated than the coal based one. After a lot of questioning, understanding, discussion and agreement, we moved on to a place called the "ash-mound". Ash from the coal plant was heaped into the shape of a small hill near the plant and vegetation was grown on it which made it look like a beautiful picnic garden. Everyone played on swings and other child-play equipment there, which made our profs wonder if we were really mature enough to understand the seriousness of the trip. Nag became the lead and the explorer on the mound and was at the peak of his analytical and observational abilities (for a not-to-be-named girl) while Rahul followed around with his ever-green poise and calm.
Calling it an awesome day, we all started back at around 5pm, had some tasty and non-mess like food on the way and reached Pilani at 1:30am on the 13th.

*though the journey was really good, I did miss out on the batch snaps of my wingies... sorry guys and thx for the cool pics at my batch snaps. :)

Clapology

We were discussing the typical Wimbledon audience clapping-etiquette the other day and realized how up-tight those people are. There are only two deductions anyone can draw from the mass-behaviour exhibited by them.
They are not at all expressive. (or)
They constrain themselves a lot. (you know, bottling up)
I think they even have a pre-fixed number for how many claps they can clap after each point, each game, each set and finally each match. Most of them have a mental decibel counter such that they don't clap louder than that dictated by the queen or the referee or whoever decides these things for them!
Now, while clapping, if you are amongst Wimbledon audience, you must dispose of a perfect sitting posture i.e. your legs and thighs, thighs and torso, arms and biceps .. must all be at perfect right angles. And after the appropriate number of claps or t = t1 (pre-fixed) whichever occurs first, you should stop clapping. In some cases, the match referee might say "Thank you"(in the mike) while you are clapping. This should be translated by your brain to all your motor nerves as "Drop dead now!" Obviously, no "woo-hoo"ing or "boo"ing. Hence, one would enjoy a lot more by sitting in front of the TV at home than by being in Wimbledon.

*Note: If you see a guy clapping while standing or shouting slogans or encouraging the players, you can be sure that he'll be vehemently condemned.

Credits:
1. Pogo - Shuttle freak
2. EC - Sarcasrtic commentator
3. Ghajini - PJ Man
4. Pandi - Gay for Fedex