Day 2 in Pune

Pune is a city which has left me with a lot of memories, most of which are ones I always will cherish. For this same reason, I wanted to visit most places that I had been to, the last time I was here. One such place is IUCAA (Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics). Well, my association with this place dates back to my 8th grade, when I came over with my parents for a month during my summer vacations in school. Although traveling with my parents on their official visits was not uncommon for me, this place stands out as one which I have always liked coming back to.

This was where I made my first telescope (well that was the only one till date too 😀 ). Nostalgia hit me the moment I stepped onto the quad where stood the Newtons, Galileos, Aryabattas and Einsteins (sculptures of course 😉 ) – the path I took everyday on my way to the library. I sat beside Newton, staring at the apple that fell on him, trying to figure out gravity. I traced the star pointed to by Galileo, wondering if that was something I could have found through *my* telescope.

I then walked into the library complex, which housed the famous Foucault’s Pendulum . I remember standing in front of it waiting to see it change its direction of swing at least a little only to find that it always did when I went out for lunch! I spent almost an hour or two there, trying to relive those moments I’ve had. It was indeed refreshing.

PS: I wish I had not forgotten to bring along the cable for my camera, to transfer the pics on to my laptop!!

Harsh realization..

Autorickshaw drivers in Pune are better “arithmeticians” than the engineers and scientists in India.

The meter system in the autorickshaws in Pune are a little weird compared to the ones I have seen in the rest of the country. I wouldn’t consider myself to have seen them all, but the little that I have seen, this certainly proved to be the strangest. Unlike most other places, the meter reading here does not directly indicate the amount we need to pay. Instead, it gives you a number, which when multiplied by 6 and then incremented by 3, will give you the amount!! So much for technology laying emphasis on user-friendliness 🙂 he he.

Coming back to my first statement, I was with a group of physicists yesterday, and we happened to board an auto. Although I have not done much justice to engineering, I would still call myself an engineer. 😀 So that makes us 2 physicists and an engineer. Having reached where we were supposed to have reached, we looked at the meter which read “3.50”. We all started calculating the amount as we were getting down from the auto – a simple math, (3*6 + 0.50*6 + 3). To our surprise, even before we calculated what 0.50*6 would be, the auto driver was ready with the answer!!

I just stood there wondering how talented *we* Indians are 🙂

Offbeat: I did manage to find a “used” phone. Well, it took a little while trying to convince my mother to buy a new phone 😀

History repeats itself…

Two years back, this happened. And two days back it happened again! My cell phone refused to turn the display on, when I flipped it open.

And I get back to my frantic search for a “used phone” two years later…:-) Well not exactly as frantic as I was last time. I still can see the display if I keep it open at a “complex” (yet real) angle 😉

History INDEED repeats itself, and that too rather quickly 🙂

Mac's "grey screen of death"

Early yesterday morning, I was taking a stroll in the web world, trying to get over the insomnia streak that had gotten over me, when my Mac decided to “quit” on me! Suddenly out of the blue (In fact I must say it was grey 😉 ), popped out a message saying “You need to restart the computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.” Its translations into Spanish, French and Chinese further substantiated the seriousness of the matter.

In the two years that I’ve known her, she never told me this even once before !!

With nothing but the power button being functional, I was left with no option but to keep that pressed, until she “shut down”. It took a while and “a lot of convincing”, before she decided to power back up. Never having seen such an issue before I decided to find out what really happened all of a sudden. And here is what I found. 🙂

Apparently there was a “Kernel Panic” , which could have been due to an external hardware issue or even a memory overuse! Amidst an overdose of hexadecimals in the log files, I found the word “Trackpad”. I never knew trackpad was an external hardware!! 🙂 he he.

Wise men from the mountains say reminders come through small doses of the impending big disasters 🙂 And I realised that I haven’t taken a backup of the system for quite long. I need her for atleast another month after which I can go get myself a new Mac. *sigh*

Books, family, food and TV

It has been a relaxing one week at home. Barring a long drive to Trivandrum, I may have stepped out of the house for just 2-3 hours in all. Family, books, TV (I realised it is always nice to watch movies on a screen wider than the 12″ I have on my laptop 🙂 ) and food (I must have gained a kg already!!) were the only priorities for me in the past one week. Most important was watching the Premier League on TV after a year and half. I also managed to convince my mom to cook all those things I missed for almost a year. With the travels starting next week, I really needed this time off to recharge myself.

The book that has been keeping me company is “When Elephants dance” by Tess Uriza Holthe. This is the second book that Im reading, which describes the World War II. Both the books talked about two completely different angles of the war – geographically as well as historically. While Suite Francaise gave a first hand picture of what happened in Paris during the German invasion, this book is a narrative in on what happened in Filipines (Philippines) during the Japanese invasion. I wouldn’t be entirely right when I say this book is a narrative. It is about a group of people living in the cellar of a house, amidst heavy bombings, keeping themselves together by narrating stories to each other. Hence it is a fine mixture of the real world and a world of fantasy, in my view. Im just 100 pages into the book right now and I hope to finish it by this weekend.

I'm home !!

Its a feeling, out of the world,
To be back at home …

A random shot at home.

Monthly report !!

Another horribly long hiatus. Events in my life were happening faster than I could pen down. In the end I decided, perhaps it was better to summarize everything into a one-page “report” rather than write about each one of them. The last two months were so filled up that every day seemed like a year.

First things first … I got a job, I bought an iPhone and I came back to India for a month long break :-). And all these happened over the last one week. Such has been the pace of my life! The past two months went away, trying to make these happen, amidst the usual truck load of work at school.

The grueling rounds of interview, were so tiring that I even managed to miss my flight once, sleeping right in front of the boarding gate :-D. At the end of it all, I didn’t expect it coming, especially after the last round. And I got an offer a day before I boarded my flight to India 🙂

The only thing that stood between iPhone and me ever since it was released, was my T-mobile contract. It all ended last week, when we decided to part ways and I got myself an iPhone and an ATT contract :-). It was an all night affair, trying to get my service up and running, but I guess it was worth the wait. I just cannot keep my hands off it now 😀

I had been planning on this Indian trip ever since my fall semester started, but somehow never managed to book a ticket for myself. Late in November, I realised I HAD to do something about it. Fortunately, I did find a cheap ticket with a “not-so-crooked” itinerary. And here I am trying to set my biological clock right !!