F.R.I.E.N.D.S

There are times when you feel like expressing much more than you believe are capable of. Then again simply surrendering to this notion leaves a burning desire inside. I don't know what is funnier - the fact that this post is a result of deep yet totally wrongly-timed thoughts for many long days just before finals or that finishing watching all the seasons of "Friends" was in a way an impetus to writing this!

Seldom while meeting people we ever think of the way in which they are going to affect our lives. People we meet through other people, people we meet through shared interests and people we meet and get acquainted just plain randomly. Of these hundreds of people whom we choose to call friends, generally for a lack of a more appropriate term, few are the ones we inadvertently give the power to truly affect us - to characterise us and shape us, to love us and heal us, to hurt us.

We all have a set of closest friends; we all define them in unique ways surely, but we all have them. Differences and arguments, likes and dislikes, tastes and opinions, all these become simply too shallow and inappropriate when it comes to these buddies.

Although "Friends" has been one of the landmark sitcoms of our generation and appreciated worldwide mostly for its sheer humour, it has a much deeper appeal to me (and I'm sure to many others). The relations, interactions and emotions portrayed are not much removed from reality and yet the characters survive it together. Although our lives may not be television sitcoms we all tend to relate to the situations in one way or another.

Buddies, the closest ones, have an unsaid understanding; to love and accept unconditionally. We are all individuals and have infinitely different reactions to the same situations. What matters the most is that we learn to put every presumption aside, every mistake, small or big, every misunderstanding behind and appreciate the bigger picture. That is moving on; even if it means fighting with yourself to keep a bond unbroken.

It is not rather difficult to shred apart a deep relationship. Faith is what builds the walls of the fragile fortress of a long and enduring friendship, one that is as strong as any kinship. Faith, which by definition comes from experiencing something, from believing in something with even the slightest crevice of logical explanation.

PS: I don't know why I am writing this (maybe one of those things I would feel nice about reading years later) but I owe a lot to my dearest of friends and even the thought of drifting apart from any one is disturbingly painful...

Internet Radio

Internet radio is not a new concept and like most of us I knew it existed, but never thought of it seriously until a few days back when I noticed a friend of mine listening to it (yes, Dipti you get honourable mention here! :)) It's a really cool alternative to putting songs from your disk in a playlist and then changing that many times over to get rid of the boredom! Obviously we listen to the 'normal' radio stations for this reason and also the fact that you frequently get to listen to newer and more importantly random songs!

I'm not quite certain how many guys actually listen to online radio - specially desi friends abroad. The coolest part is if you have a data plan on your cell phone you can listen to online radio on the go too! One of my favourite station is Radio NRI. To listen online from your computer simply follow the link below -

http://www.radionri.com/

Once on the site, click the 'listen now' button on the top right part of the page - it asks you to download a m3u file on your disk - now play this file from any music player (almost all should support this format). m3u is basically a playlist file and this particular one simply has a single entry to an online stream. You can also google for the station and go to some site which has a player embedded to listen straight from there but I personally prefer this way 'coz I don't have to open a page every time, the file is always sitting in my media player.

To play from a cell phone you need to find your player which supports 'live stream' - in the phone I have (Nokia 5230) the default 'media player' doesn't have this feature but the included 'Real Player' supports streaming audio/video.

Most phones will have this player or you can install it pretty easily (google is your friend!). Now in the player there will be an option of 'new link' under 'streaming links'. In the 'new link' option you will have the option of saving the link in the phone / memory card. Choose one and then in the field where it asks for a web address (where mostly you'll see the first part automatically entered as 'rtsp://') enter the following address exactly as it is -

rtsp://qtss.streamguys.com:554/radionri.sdp

This station is pretty good and you can always find tonnes of other stations (yes, including Radio Mirchi etc) in the same way - the only small problem with listening to Mirchi this way is that if you're in a totally opposite timezone you'll have to listen to really crazy old and in general crazy songs since it's bang in the middle of the night in India when it's day time at your place!

How I wish...

Want to do a PhD on "Dynamics of human psychology with respect to the interaction of graduate course load, major mental screw up and serious caffeine intoxication"!!!

Anyone willing to volunteer/fund??

Eligibility (volunteer)

1. Non-US citizen (!)

2. Graduate student in good standing (ie at time of application; no guarantee about state during/after completion of study!) Occasional spikes of inconsistent academic performance encouraged!

3. Three strong recommendations from close friends, demonstrating major mental screw up (reasons immaterial for initial study!)

4. SONP - Statement of No Purpose!

Eligibility (funding)

1. Non-US citizen (!)

2. Financial capacity to fund regular (and high experimental amount) of caffeine in any form, including but not restricted to coffee and caffeine tablets

Portraits - Freezing Emotions

More often than not, people simply point their cameras at other people and click off! Few of these will ever look at the photos in the 'review' and decide to shoot the same frame again; still fewer (and innocent) might appreciate good portraits but can't really say what goes into capturing those perfect moments.

I have yet to master the art myself but I feel I can definitely give a few pointers for beginners.

The photo on the right is probably one of my personal favourites. It was shot in a small village during a casual photo trip that a few of us had gone on. The powerful emotions in the kid's eyes were not so easy to catch - I had to strike up a small talk with him and then click 4-5 frames to get the one I wanted.

Firstly, shooting multiple frames is almost always a good idea. Secondly, notice that almost the entire frame is filled with his face, avoiding any distracting background. Initially while taking portraits we tend to try and 'get everything' or 'fit the face / half body' and in the process loose the essence of portraits - to capture emotions. For example in this photo, part of the kid's face (ear and small portion of head) is not in the frame; but by avoiding that, the focus of the viewer goes straight to the kid's eyes - or at least that was the intention!

This is one of the techniques used in portraits - the effect of good composition. Most of the times, any good camera put on one 'auto' or 'portrait' modes will take care of the rest of the stuff.

Another technique used to eliminate the background distraction is taking advantage of what is called the 'depth of field'. Simply put, this factor decides how much or rather which portion of the frame will be in sharp focus and which will be totally out of focus, creating the desired 'blur' in the background. The details of aperture, focal length etc are left aside for this beginner's guide. The first step is getting the composition right! Once that is done, the above mentioned factors can be easily played with to get better results.

Portraits are meant to bring out details, to bring out the finer aspects of the picture, to get the viewer 'involved'.

Almost everyone around has a digital camera these days with more features than many care to use! This aspect of photography, however, hardly requires any special features and yet is accepted to be one of the most challenging ones in photography!

Sweetly Bleeding

Blue winter breeze

A burning struggle inside

Let not the pain ease

Don't choose a side

In a flash it all strikes

Rolling tears upon a smile

Live the unrest

Peace away a mile

Leaves turning red

The crimson will not stay

Thoughts of dear memories

Must they fade away?

Colours washing off

Hollowness surrounding

A deep open wound

Left sweetly bleeding

-abhi

PS: this is also an expression for something seen in a dear friend recently...

30th September - The Conflict is Lost

People in our country seem to unite over the most destructive of causes, and not merely figuratively. The verdict of the conflict over the Ayodhya land has been declared recently. If one looks at the history of this long lasting conflict, it dates back more than 17 years.

The Liberhan Commission which was set up by the Government of India after the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 submitted it's report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in mid 2009; after what one can only call a "delay" of 16 years! This is probably one of the longest run commission in the country's history and yet the report has some "legal fallacies". One of these is the fact that former Prime Minister A.B.Vajpayee is included in the list of the people responsible for the destruction act and yet he was not summoned once during the inquiry. This obviously gave the BJP an issue to challenge the findings of Justice Liberhan.

Apart from the utterly ugly politics involved which basically transformed the existing socio-religious issue into a political one, there is something which I, or rather an overwhelmingly lot of us fail to understand - why the hell are people so willing to unite against such a bloody destructive cause? I'm not in favour of either the Hindu side or the Muslim side here.

In December 1992 over 150,000 karsevaks (hardcore Hindu activists) demolished the Babri Masjid. This was despite the assurance given to the Supreme Court that that the structure would be left untouched. Thousands were killed in the riots that broke thereafter in major cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Thousands more died later in the riots in Godhra many years later. Nothing was gained; none of the sides proved any point. Why were thousands of innocents dragged into this slaughtering at the whims of a few religious fanatics? Or has this fanaticism been penetrated so deep in the masses that it's no longer a few people fueling this madness?

The roots of communal disharmony can be traced back to the Mughal invasion. There is a general belief that the Babri Masjid was built after demolishing an old Hindu temple. This is yet a matter of debate, even after the supposed evidence given by a report of the Archeological Survey of India on the issue. However, whichever way one chooses to draw conclusions from the little available material evidence, why can we just not live with the fact that all of this has happened over four hundred years ago, when power was law.

Just because some invaders probably demolished a temple and built a mosque there doesn't give anyone the right to claim a certain property as that belonging to any particular religion. India is a huge country with hundreds, if not thousands, of religious places - go build whatever you want to over there! What possible bad would have come, had the Ayodhya land been declared as a heritage site and the ancient structure preserved as a part of Indian history; not Hindu, not Muslim but Indian history. Seriously, are there less number of places of worship that we have to fight like cavemen over this one place? Please someone show me how this logic is refutable.

The whole country was portrayed to be in a state of "wait and watch" and tension and apprehension, days before the verdict. The general consensus is that the verdict is unbiased and what not; and people are relieved that one of the longest, if not the longest burning communal issues in the country has been resolved. There is nothing to be relieved of over the Ayodhya verdict! It might as well make us all feel ashamed of ourselves - for who can now assure that no moronic people would simply kill thousands of innocent people to erect places of worship...

Worship...people are busy worshiping everything but humanity...

Existence

This has bothered me for quite some time now and so it's only appropriate to put it down somewhere in words; after of course eating a few of my friends' heads over this!

I somehow just cannot find the point in everybody (except a few maybe whom I'm yet to meet) being so obsessed with having kids! I'm not talking about how many or anything but just the concept of producing life; rather reproducing. And the 'continuing the race' argument is just too stale in my opinion.

So what if the mighty human race just comes to an end one day! It would, in fact, be much better for all the other millions of species on this planet! We anyway keep discussing and debating on how we have basically screwed up the 'balance of nature' and how we are now struggling pathetically to reverse those effects. Our understanding of the universe, from the smallest atom to the largest starts and everything in between and beyond has only shown us how insignificant our very existence is.

However, we all, and of course I am not an exception, are selfish beings and so we want to live our lives as best as we possibly can. But picture this - if all the present humans on the planet stop having kids, just live their lives (in the best possible way) and then die, after some time our species would be extinct. Now where's the flaw in this? Or rather what is the problem if there's just no 'next generation'? And the argument of being selfish in the sense that 'you just want to live and enjoy and not let others (ie the future generations) enjoy' is inherently flawed because there is no 'future generation' until it is in existence, and so basically how can you be selfish with respect to someone that does not exist?!

It should be kept in mind that I'm not a misanthrope or the like, I just feel we are going nowhere by simply having more and more people being produced without any real meaning to our existence. I'm neither being naive nor over-philosophical by implying something like 'we don't know the meaning or purpose of our existence' and hence we should all stop living. On the contrary, what is the harm in all the existing people living in peace and then letting it go...

We exist, therefore, we protect existence.

New Beginning

Today is the first day of classes; first day of the first semester of my grad study. I'm happy, excited and all set for this journey! One that I have embarked upon by choice; to pursue my ambition, satisfy curiosity and contribute in whatever manner possible to the vast pool of existing knowledge.

Just a couple of days ago we had a convocation for new graduate students and I can vividly recall what our president (of the university) said. While urging us all to maintain the highest professional and ethical standards of research, she said that we were slowly transforming from 'gatherers of knowledge' to 'creators of knowledge'. We now have the opportunity to explore any and every possible domain of study, not just within our chosen fields but in a wide variety of areas that are now open as never before.

I have not attended a single class till now and yet I can clearly see the benefits of this education system; one which is based on a very flexible plan of study; one which is research oriented and one which can be tailored according to the career objectives of every individual. It is indeed challenging to be a part of this world class institute.

There is little uncertainty as to the ultimate objective of my education and career, both regarding the area and depth. However, for now, I have decided to and am sure to enjoy this amazing new path that leads to it; for it is a new experience, a new beginning, something that I have not known although have unknowingly yearned for a long time now.

The Oath

"I, Abhishek Deepak Bawiskar, a graduate of College of Engineering, Pune, hereby pledge that I shall always conduct myself with dedication, honesty and integrity in the discharge of my duties as a professional. I shall always endeavour to utilise my knowledge of Science and Technology, my experience and skills to the best of my ability for the service of the country and glory of the institute.

In all circumstances, I shall uphold the values and traditions of COEP, respecting the rights and dignity of the individual and as a loyal emissary of this institute shall seek to excel in the chosen field."

Today is different; different in the lives of many of us. We shall all cherish this day as our Graduation Day! Today, along with many other fellow students, I have taken the oath. Tonight I sincerely pray - I pray for each one of us - to the inner conscience within, to give us all strength to uphold this oath taken in a very solemn ceremony.

Perspective

School kids in uniform - right from the elementary all the way to high school... teachers explaining lessons in the typical loud and clear tone... water coolers, playground, tiffin boxes, lunch breaks - 'recesses'... school buses lined up just outside... and of course the buildings... school buildings. Some years later college students - 'guys n gals', seniors, juniors... profs... lectures, pracs, submissions, exams, grades and everything in between...

Not many days back, I dropped my friend to her little sister's school so she could come home in her sister's school bus. She had to show the driver the route to her house on the first day of school. We reached a little earlier than the school got over.

The familiar classrooms, long corridors, painted railings.. everything was so... familiar; though this was not my school, it strongly reminded me of mine. Then again, I guess it's just school time - that time, that environment, that very world of our own in that age! As school kids we are all in such a protected and limited environment; in a comfort zone; in the company of so many peers, friends and teachers; no doubt then that it is our second home indeed!

In our childhood life is simple, life is easy - well for the most of us and barring the lesser fortunate ones; so much so that we are truly unaware of what life is! I'm sure many people, much older than me, would probably say we - people of my age group - are still yet to find out what life is. This is, however, not completely true; and definitely not a function of age. Life is not some kind of a mirage behind which we run all our lives. The mere transition from one phase to another does not and should not warrant us to believe so. So what if our environment and our very idea of life changes from a toddler, to a school goer, to a teenager, to an adult, to old age and finally to death; the very path of life remains unchanged throughout. What this means is simply that we all have to, and will 'figure it out' someday; that we all will gain the 'right perspective'. And how do we know when we have gained this perspective? well, we just know it; we know it when we can, honestly 'look ahead' and know where we're headed.

Having the right perspective does not, in any way, mean that we don't screw up things, that we don't get into trouble or that we don't damage ourselves. It also doesn't mean that we don't stray away from our goals and ambitions, that we don't mess up our relationships or most of all that everything, everyday will be hunky-dory.

In the end, life's a roller coaster - a monster one at that - you can either choose to sit and puke in it or open your eyes and enjoy the ride, or at times switch in between the two; whichever one you choose, when you feel you've seen the entire coaster ahead, that's when you've got it - the right perspective!

Moments

One hour near a tap with dripping water, one bucket, my dslr, tripod and two hundred photos later...

Click here for the complete album.

And of course this was a day before one of the papers of final exam! Somehow exam period is very conducive to creative work - probably the cool part of the brain is just finding ways to please the jerk part which says "study!" :-)

Final Year Trip to Konkan

To view the entire album click here.

Last Wednesday, 14th April, all final year Civil students had gone on a trip to Konkan. We left at 4 in the morning and reached Murud - a small coastal village at around 8.30. Almost no one had slept in the bus and the entire journey was spent singing and hooting and by the time we reached Murud everyone was hungry! Breakfast order had been given to a local family a day in advance and everyone was more than happy to have garam garam upeet, pohe ani chaha (typical hot Maharashtrian breakfast with hot tea)!

The beach was very inviting, so all of us went for a stroll and played a little on the shore and clicked a few photos. Although plans of getting wet were left for the evening. In a short while after freshening up we pushed ahead to see Janjira - a fort built in the sea just off the coast. Sail-boats operate on a regular basis from Murud to take visitors to the fort. After a short ride in the boat we were in the fort. The fort itself was a huge construction project in its time and a lot of it still exists with almost the entire outer wall intact and several important features within.

By half past noon we had returned from the fort. We had lunch at a khanawal (homely dine-in) in Murud. After lunch everyone had multiple barfache gole (ice-candies made on the spot from shredded ice and a wide range of flavours) and lazed around a bit in the afternoon. The heat in Konkan during this time of the year is almost unbearable.

After lunch and a little relaxing we left for Kashid Beach. By 4.30 we reached Kashid. Everyone had fun on the beach and in the water. A few guys played football while others were enjoying the waves. By the end of the evening almost everyone was completely drenched. We all had bath and changed into fresh clothes - some inside make-shift bathrooms on the beach while others in a farm house a little away.

While returning we stopped at a restaurant on the outskirts of Alibag for dinner. We reached Pune by 1:30 am. The return journey in the bus was more or less quiet - many were sleeping and others were simply tired and chatting in smaller groups.

On the whole the trip was fun, and I'm sure all of us are going to remember this one for a long, long time...

A Little Fun with Photoshop!

The original photo is one of my favourite portraits I've shot - thank you Pooja!

This photo (cropped out of the original one) was edited in PS using channel mixing, photo-filters and saturation control. To elaborate a little, the photo was sliced vertically in 8 equal strips and each one converted to a layer. Individual layers were then channel-mixed or applied photo-filters till the desired effect was achieved. After this, all layers were combined, so as to boost/reduce the saturation of RGB colours individually. Without saturation control, the image does not get the required 'blending' between the strips and attention is drawn to the edges of the strips rather than the subject. Hopefully that effect has almost been eliminated.

This was the author's first successful (??) attempt at such a technique - although that is his personal opinion! Comments / suggestions are always welcome!

Bachelor Cooking (2)

Being a hardcore non-veg lover at heart, I couldn't possibly not post a few non-veg recipes here! This one's an easier version of Chinese style Chilly Chicken; I'll call it Simplified Chilly Chicken, on the lines of the simplified version of their language!

This recipe isn't a quickie but it's not particularly time consuming either.

Simplified Chilly Chicken, Chinese style:

1. Take about 200-250 g boneless chicken (this quantity should serve about 2 people).
2. Wash the meat thoroughly, and cut into small squarish pieces.
3. Sprinkle liberal amount of salt, mix it and leave for a couple of minutes.
4. Put the pieces in a pressure cooker vessel, keep the vessel in the cooker, add some water around the vessel (inside the cooker), close the lid and place the cooker on low flame. After sometime increase the flame to medium.
5. Dice 2 big capsicums and onions (keep the pieces a little large) and cut 3 green chilies into 4 pieces each, exposing the seeds inside.
6. In about 10-15 mins, the cooker should have whistled 3-4 times; if not, increase the flame to maximum. After 4 whistles, switch off the flame and let the lid fall on its own.
7. Heat oil in a vessel (kadhai) and put in the onions and chillies, stir occasionally. After sometime put in the capsicums. Add salt to taste.
8. While the onions and capsicums are getting fried, take out the chicken and check if it's done properly - the meat should be tender and easily broken with two fingers.
9. Put the chicken into the frying vessel and stir occasionally. Add little water/oil from the vessel in which the chicken was steamed, to the frying vessel - this will add flavour to the dish since that water/oil has the juices of the meat.
10. After about 5-8 mins, add soy sauce and pepper as per taste.
11. Fry for 2-3 mins more, switch off the flame and we're done!

Note: This recipe does not have many spices; the only spiciness is from the chillies and pepper, so add lot of pepper or a couple of chilies more for a sharp spicy taste. In should take about 30-40 mins from start to end for this recipe.

Bachelor Cooking (1)

The tittle says it all - a series of posts in which I wish to share some basic recipes that'll be useful to any of you living alone or away from home. Some of these have been taught by my mom, a brilliant cook indeed! Also some of them are a result of my own experimentation at 2 am! I had talked about writing such a series of posts and after encouragement from a friend (yes Shravan you get a mention here like I had said!) I'm finally going to write these.

Here's a basic recipe of Lady's-finger vegetable:

1. Take about 200g Lady's-finger (for one - two persons) and wash and dry thoroughly with a cloth.
2. For each of the long vegetable, cut off the hard end portion; then cut circular slices of the rest of the length (don't cut too thin or thick).
3. Take one/two green chilies, wash and cut them each into 4 pieces (first cut perpendicular to length, then cut each of the halves longitudinally, exposing the seeds inside).
4. Now keep a vessel with little oil in it to heat - keep the flame medium high.
5. After a couple of minutes, put just one or two mustard seeds, and see if it crackles. If it does, then lower the flame and put in two good pinches of mustard seeds. If it doesn't crackle just wait for another minute and try again!
6. Now quickly add the chili pieces, and a small pinch of tamarind powder.
7. Stir a little and add the cut Lady's-fingers.
8. Stir properly making sure the spices spread everywhere. Add salt to taste.
9. Keep a lid over the vessel, and let the vegetable cook for about 5 minutes on low flame. Check in between to make sure it's not burnt, and stir once or twice.
10. Remove the lid, fry some more if needed. When the vegetable is properly cooked, it will turn soft and a few of the thin slices will have become golden brown. Turn the flame off.

Note: My mom warns me that this vegetable has to be properly dried before putting it in to cook, else it will become sticky and messy afterwards, which I totally dislike!

A very quick recipe, just learnt last night and it barely takes 10 minutes, from start to end! Tastes great with chapatis / rotis.

Comments, suggestions and alterations on this and future recipes are welcome! Also, if you do make any of them, I'd be happy to know! Hope I can write more of such.

The Anxiety Finally Ends!

This morning is different from all the others in the past few months..no more wishful opening of inbox to see if there's an admit decision or an update on that..no more checking mails hundred times a day..no more "will I get an accept or not, so and so got an accept, my profile is this, my profile is that" and no more wishing and praying every now and then! The anxiety is finally over.

Last night I got my last remaining decision, which was by far the most awaited one since it was a very high ranked univ. It was a reject. Looking at the brighter side, my destination is finally fixed. This whole process of applications, right from the tests, short listing univs, finalising them, writing sops, filling out all those lengthy app forms online, and ultimately the almost never-ending waiting for decisions...all this has been fun I must admit!

What is a little relieving is that there was a time when I had two options and could not choose the right one, yet after a few days of patience, things turned out in such a way that the choice was very obvious. It was like I had been given the new information as if to clear the cloud of confusion.

At the end of season, my 'score' stands at a decent 7-5 (admits-rejects); and I owe a big treat to my pal 'coz we'd had a deal that if I crossed 5 admits I would treat him and myself to an amazing lunch / dinner at our favourite restaurant!

You've Written This?!

It's around 11pm. We've gathered in the auditorium upstairs for practice of a song to be played in the variety show of our college a couple of days later. We're waiting for someone and in the meanwhile our guitarist and his friend come excitedly towards us saying they've composed a new song! We all listen to it, and without a doubt I know I've heard this tune before, yet it's very refreshing! The lyrics they had composed were amazing and went with the flow of the music very well.

It's around 8am next day. The tune from last night has been stuck in my head like crazy. I've forgotten the lyrics but need something to keep humming. Before I realise it I've already made up a verse in my mind! Now totally gripped by this, I think of few other lines to express something meaningful and compose it in a manner that it would flow with the music.

It's around 9am. I tell mom I've written a few lines to add to my friend's song in the same tune. She listens, then smiles midway, then says approvingly, "You've written this?! nice!"

Samne tum baithi ho lekin

Baaten kuch hoti nahi...

Palkon mein tum rehti ho lekin

Yaaden kuch jaati nahin...

Teri khatir paaya hai sabkuch

Teri khatir khoya...

Dil deewana hasta hai lekin

Ha kabhi hai roya...

Humsafar tum kehti ho lekin

Humkadam rehti nahi...

Humnasheen tum kehti ho lekin

Humnawa bhi toh nahin...

-abhi

Hopefully my friends and I will sit down someday and weave all these lines (and some more by then) together into a song and record it for fun!!

Pedal Away

Last weekend I happened to be in IITB and so caught up with a couple of friends, one from the Institute and one from UICT. After a nice lunch in 'Paranthas' in the Hira Nandani complex, we were treating ourselves to big ice creams and what not, when these two guys came up with a crazy plan. I was on the phone for a while and just as I hung up I caught the last few words of what they were chatting and so confirmed if indeed these guys were thinking of what I thought they were thinking - turns out they were! By the time we walked out of that shop we had decided to cycle from Powai to Marine Lines and eventually to Churchgate! And amongst us only Darshan had been cycling (in the campus to get from one place to another) and Gubby and I had not been on one for probably 4-5 years!

We decided to leave by 4:30 pm but even by 5 we didn't have three cycles! Finally around 5:15 we left IIT. After about 35 km (from what Gubby found out later on google) of tiring cycling we reached Marine Lines! We celebrated with a good meal of 'Pav Bhaji' in one of Darshan's suggested restaurants. After that we just whiled away some time at the sea face chatting and clicked a few photos.

The journey back was by train, which wasn't as simple as we had expected! From Churchgate to Dadar we didn't have much trouble getting in the luggage compartment with three cycles, but from Dadar to Kanjurmarg (the nearest station to IIT) was fun! Gubby had gone from Dadar only so just Darshan and me were left now. It was only after two locals that we could finally get into the luggage compartment of the third one that came. In the train we realised that the front tyre of Darshan's cycle was punctured. Instead of cursing we just thanked our luck that it hadn't punctured earlier in the trip! After getting down at Kanjur station and talking a little with the rickshaw guys and fixing the fare, we realised later that the guy who fixed a deal for taking both the cycles to the hostel couldn't get them to fit in his vehicle. So there was just one option left - to walk all the way uphill to the insti and then an equal distance inside the campus to the hostel - in all a good 3-4 km! It was close to midnight so without wasting anymore time we started walking. After about two minutes another rickshaw guy came up to us saying he could fit the cycles in his vehicle! After a lot of squeezing and adjusting, we accomplished the seemingly impossible task of stuffing in two full size cycles and Darshan and me into the rickshaw!

Protest Against Protest

"2 py homage & protst against d terrorist act @ Pune, studnts in maha state r wearin BLACK clths today.Lets unite agnst terrorism!4wd dis, dnt brk d chain :)"

How would you react if you got such an sms at 7:35 am, shortly after you've gotten out of bed? I almost laughed out, but am not quite sure which reason was funnier - the sms itself or the last line with a smiley!

I completely sympathise with the victims of the blast, but surely wearing black clothes and urging others to do so is of no help! There are better and more practically useful ways to pay homage such as collecting funds (in one's college or place of work or locality) to try to relieve the financial burden of treatment of the wounded.

And as for protesting against terrorism, I don't understand this whole 'protest' concept in this situation (it may be effective in other situations, mind you) - is it to try to get the government / police machinery to function better / more effectively? Do you genuinely believe that the agencies responsible for prevention of such acts are not already working at the fullest capacity? It would be hard to believe so, given that ultimately they themselves and their families are also the targets of terrorism, more than the common public! Then the remaining lots are the common public and the terrorists themselves. Speaking of the common public, with all the media and word of mouth spreading of news, who's left in the city who doesn't know of the happening? And how many of these do you think will turn a blind eye to something suspicious? And how many of these who are in a state of 'don't care and I'm not getting in this' are going to change their minds because of you wearing black clothes? Finally for the terrorists - I think common sense begs us to believe that those who have silenced their conscience enough to commit such a dastardly act and don't fear the law even, are surely not going to succumb to a mass of public wearing black clothes!

I mean, get real! If you cannot do something practically useful, at least don't resort to such laughable means! Giving moral support to each other or the affected people is all acceptable, but make sure it reaches out to them, maybe by means of a condolence gathering like the one held at the Gateway in Mumbai in memory of the terrorist attack there.

Reject in the Morning & Admit by Night

'Admission decision: Refusal'

Those three words are very depressing if you have applied to a lot of universities for admission and the one who's application status you're checking is way below in your list of ranking. This was how my day began early in the morning on 8th Feb. Now this particular univ was not a very high ranked one but it wasn't bad by any means. The most depressing part was that out of the 12 universities I had applied to, only 3 were below this one's rank, and so a natural line of thought in my mind was that if this university found my profile unsuitable what are the chances that universities higher up in rank would admit me! After a few comforting words from mom and friends I decided to forget about it and hope for something better.

Turns out there was something much better in store for me that day! In the evening I received an email with an admit from Purdue - one of my dream univs, which ranked 7th in the US in Civil Engineering! I was totally filled with joy and just couldn't get a hold of myself! Ironically, now there are just 2 univs in my list which are ranked higher than this one!

One hell of a day I've had; a reject when I woke up and a great admit before going to bed, on the same day.

[Edit]: For some of my friends who have been / are / will be (in future) disheartened by early rejects, as it turned out, in the end I had 9 admits out of 12 univs that I had applied to choose from, with most of those being in the top ten ranks! Point is, rankings are not everything and admits / rejects are very, very subjective, so hang in there till you hear from every univ you are hoping to get an offer from. 

Ring of Fire - ASE '10

Eight members of the COEP Astronomy Club (along with three members of a local Astronomy group - 'Akashmitra') had gone to Rameshwaram, a coastal village in South India to catch the Annular Solar Eclipse of 15th Jan 2010. Rameshwaram was chosen for its proximity to the Central Line of Eclipse (central line of the belt of shadow; places lying on this line have the longest time of eclipse and the maximum phase, with respect to places lying on a line perpendicular to the central line at that point).

In all, the long journey (around 30 hours one way!) was very much worth the 8-10 minutes of annular phase and 3-4 hours of the entire eclipse.

Click here (web album) for remaining photos of the event by the author.

One Pledge

Over a billion of us - one Pledge
An oath taken countless times
An oath not all remember
India is my country

One rightful haven
Unlike the less fortunate
Who still struggle
To call a place home

We ridicule the system
But at least there's one in place
We cry for luxuries
But at least the basics are in place

Education we crib about
The very same that taught us to compare
We run around for petty things
But at least not for our lives

Our voice is not heard we say
But at least we can raise it
Nothing's going to change we declare
But at least we have the chance to try

India is my country

-abhi

DIY Shutter Release Cable

Since the time I've been trying my hand at astrophotography, I've felt the need to have a shutter release cable. These relatively simple cables sell for anything between $20 to $100 (and probably even more!) online depending upon whether you want to have just a plain 'auto-focus and shutter release' function, all the way up to ones with digital intervalometrs and time lapse options.

However, luckily my camera (Canon 350D or popularly known as Digital Rebel XT) features a 2.5 mm audio female socket for plugging in the shutter release cable. Below are steps with photos describing how to make the simplest cable, inspired by many others who have made similar ones.

1)

You'll need one switch (the red one above is called a rocker switch), one spring switch (the black switch in the photo with a square head), one 2.5 mm stereo audio male connector (in the photo above the black sleeve has been removed to expose the metallic pins behind the connector), a plastic box to house the switches, some wire (depending on how long you intend to make the cable) and a hobby knife (or a swiss knife).

2)

Cut a slot in the lid of the box such that the rocker switch fits in snugly. I preferred to place it horizontally (if the box is held like a TV remote) but you can place it anyhow.

3)

To make the plug that connects to the camera, you need to keep in mind the following-

a) the longest pin is the 'common pin'

b) the shortest pin is the 'full depress pin'

c) the medium pin is the 'half depress pin'

So to just auto-focus (i.e. half depress the shutter button) you need to connect the medium pin with the common pin. To release the shutter (i.e. full depress the shutter button) you need to connect the shortest pin with the common pin.

Now since I'm going to use the cable release mainly when long exposures on 'bulb' mode are called for, I decided to use a toggle switch for the shutter release. Also since auto-focus is rarely required in astrophotography, I've not provided a corresponding switch for that. However, if you wish to provide an auto-focus switch as well, simply connect a third wire to the medium pin and through the spring switch connect it to the common wire.

Remember to wrap insulation tape after connecting the wires to the pins.

4)

So coming back to our cable, once you connect the appropriate wires, put the sleeve back on the connector. Tape the wires to the sleeve as shown to prevent them from snapping off inside the sleeve.

5)

Connect the other ends of the wires to the switch and wrap insulation tape. Now guide the wires as shown and tape them up; this is to prevent accidental snap off as for the connector wires.

Also make a small cut in the box for the wire to come out through, when the lid is closed.

6)

Looks cool!

7)

The best part is, the wires can be just folded and placed inside the box for a neat and compact look!

PS: Taking orders for the above if you don't have the time to make one or are just plain lazy! lol!