Tornados Back Again

Ramayana 3392 A.D.

Rama using New Age Bow and Arrow in the midst of Blazing Fire.

Do not worry it is the futuristic approach of mythology. Ramayana, the age old epic told by millions of Indian, the face of Indian culture to the western world and the reason of Diwali is now available in a brand new package known as ‘Rama Reborn’ or ‘The Odyssey of The East - Ramayan 3392 A.D’. Rebirth of Rama in a highly advanced society where common man uses exotic technologies in their mundane routine. Ravana-the evil Asura of this epic is claimed to be made up by nano-technology. I am not joking; indeed it is the new face of Ramayana which is recently launched by the Virgin Comics. Here goes the exact word of the CEO of Virgin Comics.

"Ramayana has inspired the lives of millions of people through the ages. The re-imagining of this great ancient epic through the creativity of a game platform re-affirms the fact that Ramayana is one of the greatest stories ever told," said Sharad Devarajan, co-founder and CEO of Virgin Comics.

I wonder what Swami Valmiki thought while writing down this legend. I pray to God to give his soul peace, I am quite sure he would have not been happy to see Rama and Dashratha talking in fundax English, to make things worse, Laxman teasing Shatrughan by saying ‘Tabby-Ticky ,Tabby-Ticky’. Alas!! If not Valmiki I am quite sure Shiv Sena would not let the Virgin Comics down. On the contrary, reviews are good and it is now a Best Seller in the Indian and the US comics market. After some research I found that this is not the first time Virgin comics trying its luck on Indian mythology. They have already published comics with the exotic Indian names such as Mandakini (The Serpent Girl), Devi (The Female Warrior), Sadhu (The Saint Man). But unfortunately they didn’t receive much attention like the Ramayana 3392, may be because they used just the Indian name while keeping the story line purely westernized fiction.

Preview of the Introductory Page of the comic.
(They deliberately used the brownish color to give it a look of an ancient manuscript. Moreover it seems to be more like a the LOTR themed story with maps and full explanation of the whole legend by a third person, probably Valmiki)

The Graphics of the comic is worth appreciable. When I first saw the preview of the pdf comics I was stunned to see the level of imagination. Pictures have the background of the ancient India but at the same time they also resemble to the would be 3392 AD technology. The ornamentation is excellent and grand. It would be great to watch an epic movie based on this comic similar to Frank Miller's 300. Sony soon releasing a PS3 based on this theme, which I guess would give a strong backing to the market of the comic.

Coming to the background and building of the characters, they resemble more or less to the Valmiki's Ramayana. Characters have similar nature and physique, even the society seems to be similar to the Valmiki's Ramayana. I am using Valmiki's Ramayana because I don't want to mix up the New-Ramayana with the old one. I guess it would be unfair from my side to say that the artist of this comic didn't do anything, so New-Ramayana is the Virgin Comic's Ramayana. They have done a great job to build the characters with time, so that they easily mingle with the 3392 technology. Let us take the characters one by one.

Rama : The central character of the whole legend.

(The Character of Rama is kept very much similar to the old epic. The only thing which has changed, would be the sophistication of the weapons. After all it is a New-Rama-With-New-Weapons)





Ravana: The Main Villain of th whole story.
(He is shown as the evil man in the legend but now few fundamentalists have come up with an idea that Ravana was not a bad person, he was doing his Karma, for which he came on Earth. How Virgin Comic going to portray Ravana is still a debatable issue because they haven't published much of the episodes. Let us wait and see what is there in the box !!)





Hanuman: A devotee of Rama also considered as a God in Hindu Mythology.
(They have beautifully shown the strong built of Hanuman but what is concerning me is the physical appearance, more like a beast than a monkey. Nevertheless, they have also reformed the Gada to an Enlarged-Stone-Age-Weapon.)





Asura: The Warriors of ravana, the rulers of hell and the symbol of evil.
(Asura looking like the Ogres we have seen in the LOTR, which looks similar to one of those Warcraft-characters)

ps: Images have been taken from the Virgin Comics site.

Spectacular ~ Spectacular

Courtesy: Moulin Rouge Movie

The show Must go On, One Day I will Fly away, Spectacular Spectacular ~ These are few quotes from a musical extravaganza, Moulin Rouge. Not a movie but a true visual treat and a piece of an exuberant vision, vision of the director Baz Luhrman. Yes, he is the man behind this spectacular bohemian love story. High quality of animation and intelligent mixing up of new age music with the old classic Moulin Rouge soundtracks makes the whole experience an audio-visual treat. Nevertheless, watching it on the big screen with BOSE speakers was an experience which can’t be written down in words.

Nicole Kidman as usual looked stunning in the role of Satine but I was amazed that she was not only looking gorgeous on screen but had a mesmerizing voice when it came to singing. First time I watched the movie trailer on television when I was in standard 11 and I said to myself only two words ‘Spectacular-Spectacular’. Indeed it is an opus movie made on Grandeur scale to tantalize the senses. Despite of the fact that the story was too cliché still it succeeds in grasping the attention of its audience from the beginning to the End. The story of the movie was inspired form a famous Sanskrit drama wrote in 5^th centuary BC known as ‘Clay’ play. The same play has also been adopted by various movies such as Utsav, story of a beautiful courtesan Vasantsena and her affair with a penniless Poet. To make things worse the evil Maharaja of Vasantsena fell in love with her and of course the ending was an expected juxtaposition of melodramatic events leading to death of the beautiful Vasantsena. The story of Moulin Rouge was no different from this play, indeed the movie ended with the death scene of Satine, perhaps leaving marks on each and every character including the penniless Sitar Player Christian.

Butterflies ~ Too Common Yet so Unique

Courtesy: Butterfly

Biological systems use nanometer-scale shapes to produce brilliant optical properties. Morpho Sulowiskyi butterfly uses multiple layers of cuticle and air to produce unique structure which produces high contrast color change with minimal wing movement. It has been observed that Morpho butterfly fine nano-engineered structure on the wing shows highly selective vapor response by changing the angle of the wing's intricate structure to the incident light. Nevertheless apart from the butterflies, eyes of a common household fly are now being used to study the anti-reflection properties exhibited by them. House hold flies eye is an excellent structure for filtering out UV rays. Moreover these common yet unique biological structures can be used in solar cell research in case we want to filter out specific range of wavelength but the fabrication issue remains questionable because nature is quite capable of producing intricate structures which are still beyond human knowledge. Nevertheless such structures might provide the inspiration for future technological applications.

Potyrailo et. al., “Morpho butterfly wing scales demonstrate highly selective vapor pressure response”, Nature photonics, 2007.

Huang et. al., “Bio-inspired fabrication of antireflection nanostructures by replicating fly eyes”, Nanotechnology, 2008.

Huang et. al., “Controlled replication of butterfly wings for achieving tunable photonic properties”, Nanoletters, 2006.

Taare hain kya zameen par ?

Courtesy: MovieTonic

I haven't given this movie 10/10 in imdb because of the excellent direction or acting but the very fact of dealing with a new idea blew me off. Whole movie revolves around a 12 year kid and his imaginations. Acting could have been more perfect but still it was appreciable. TZP reminds me of the 80's art movies such as Sparsh and other such movies based on the neglected part of our society. May be it is quite possible that we have a soft corner for them and it helps to build up the emotional factor. I liked the beginning of the movie where alphabets tend to form different types of shapes, dancing and doing all crazy stuff. Background music and songs were not great but indeed it was worth appreciable. At least I don't see TZP as a strong contender for Oscars this year. I have huge hopes for Gowarikars Jodha Akbar simply because of its historical background and the execution of the same. Coming to TZP I wish every Parent should go and watch this movie with their kids. It is indeed a thought provoking movie with a preaching in its core. Indian subcontinent including China is facing a fierce sense of competition due to population explosion. The direct effect of the competition can be seen on small kids. This movie, if not all, but I am sure will kindle some kind fire inside the hearts of the parents. It is an eye opener.....

I hope you will like it.

Human Tooth ~ Too Common yet so Unique

Real Life Samples Taken from KJM hospital, Mumbai

Do you know that Human tooth is considered as the strongest component in a human body?

Perhaps this information you read in standard 6 while attending the general knowledge classes. Fortunately I got the opportunity to test the same during my under graduation studies. The following blog is little bit different from general entertainment flicks. In this post I have tried to explain human tooth and its properties by looking at them with the perspective of a Materials Science engineer.

Human tooth is indeed the strongest component in a human body but what fascinated me the most was its unique biomechanical properties exhibited at the dentin enamel junction commonly known as DEJ. Have you ever experienced chipping of the tooth. Yes, chipping of the tooth, not breaking of the human tooth because it is an arduous task to break a human tooth into two halves. In most of the cases tooth gets chipped from the top because cracks cannot propagate further inside the tooth due to the DEJ. I realized the fact and the reason when I was just browsing through a highly acclaimed scientific journal, Nature Publication. I came across a paper by V. Imbeni, J. J. Kruzic, G. W. Marshall, S. J. Marshall, and R. O. Ritchie (The names are according to the order appeared on the journal paper). They published the result of the experiments done on the adult human tooth to explain the unique biomechanical properties of human tooth. They found the toughness and hardness variation of the human tooth on moving away from the DEJ. If you move outwards from DEJ then obviously you are in Enamel section so you will have harder material, whereas if you are moving from DEJ towards tooth root then you are in Dentine which has lower hardness as compared to hard enamel.

fig 1: Hardness Variation from DEJ, positive axis represent
dentin whereas negative side represent enamel.

Figure 1 showing the variation of hardness with variation in distance from DEJ. As you can see hardness drastically drops on reaching the dentin region but toughness properties are superior which makes it soft as well as tough material. Human tooth is indeed a beautiful specimen at microscopic range. It has lots of beautiful pores as shown in figure 2 filled with a material which is present in our bones, you guessed it right, that material is none other than a compound of calcium and phosphorus which is commonly known as Hexa Apetite.

fig 2: SEM images of various sections of human tooth
(a) Dentin, (b) Enamel, (c) DEJ.

I really feel lucky sometimes when I think about my past. Got through JEE and studied in one of the internationally acclaimed university known as Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay commonly known as IIT and widely appreciated by IIT brand name. It gave me such a great opportunity to work with some of the high end instruments; Atomic Force Microscope is one of them. AFM images of human tooth reveal the surface morphology of the enamel and the dentin. The uneven surface due to acid etching clearly comes out when we get the result from AFM. Etching of an inorganic material is done with the help of an acid so we used Hydro-Phospheric acid to etch the mineral part of the human tooth. Figure 3 show the result of the AFM where the uneven pits formed due to acid etching which can be observed in the form of hills and valleys. It is indeed easy to represent data on paper and making comment on them but when it comes to do the experiment then you realize the real hardship behind it. It took me several weeks to get the two pictures which you can see at the bottom. It was not only hard to do the setup but it was difficult to get an appointment from the lab instructor. Yes, it took me around three months to test my samples and by that time you feel exhausted because half of your work is stuck in between due to awaited results.

fig 3: AFM images of various sections of human tooth (a) Dentin, (b) Enamel.

Indeed if I do not show the beautiful and magnificent images of cracks formed because of the Vickers Hardness Test then it would be unfair from my side. Moreover toughness test revealed why we get chipped tooth and not a broken tooth when we fall on our mouth. Figure 4 are the optical images of the enamel near DEJ on human tooth. The colorful picture is due to optical diffraction happening inside the optical microscope. If you observe the images closely then you would notice that cracks do not impinge the DEJ rather they move sidewards as if avoiding the movement inside dentin. The reason as I said earlier is the supreme and yet unique biomechanical quality of DEJ which prohibits the crack propagation inside the dentin.

fig 4: Optical Microscope Images of various indentation on human tooth
showing the direction of prorogation of crack near DEJ regions.

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Diverting-The-Traffic Strategy

Courtesy: Absolutely

Most nubies in blogging try to divert the traffic towards their blog, they use all different types of tactics such as writing about exotic topics, pasting exotic pictures or even discussing something which you know half a million people would search at the midnight. Yes, indeed it is a good way to divert the traffic but if you continue doing this then your blog will eventually turn out to be just another deceiving pornoblog having nothing except curse from frustrated deceived humans. Unfortunately I don’t have any proof about the percentage increase in HITs but of course I am eager to find out. In two words we can say ' SEX SELLS '. What about Paris Hilton controversy or Pamela Anderson real life video. I am sure they sell more than any other CDs in the internet. Nevertheless, Youtube and Xtube are the prime locations where they serve sex to the virtual world with just ' I-know-you-are-above-18-and-I-Trust-you ' type thinking. I don’t know why they ask for the age verification when they know that it is simply not going to work, may be they trust the dishonest human beings.

Not only internet industry is infected by the SELL SEX addiction but our entertainment industry is highly engrossed in the same business. Just take the example of most of the spoof movies. They cut copy paste the situations from few highly acclaimed Hollywood movies and camouflage their cheap SEX scenes over them. But it tingles’s you; you love to watch it, not the movie but the degree of deformity. Recently I saw two of the spoof movies of their kind, THE EPIC MOVIE and MEET THE SPARTANS. I found the fun factor exceptionally higher than most of the comedy movies. These movies are low budget but at the same time with full hilarious content. The way they deal with controversial Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie and of course Pamela Anderson is worth watching.

I wonder sometime which word is most frequently searched on Google. If you have any clues then you are most welcome to put your thoughts in the form of comment.

MRC calling

Microelectronics Research Center is commonly known as MRC in ISU. Not a high end building, situated at the remote corner of the city and surrounded by our beloved corn fields. I know what you must be thinking of......poor grad students unlike UC Berkley or UC Santa Barbara where most of the students spent their half of the graduate life on beaches either with their better halves or enjoying sunny gust of wind in between the experiment. MRC is not bad either, perhaps it needs few things to attract students. Actually MRC use to be a nuclear plant which was renovated quite a long time ago and converted to the university lab. May be due to the same reason it has block shaped corridors and highly obsolete architecture.

I still remember those days when I came to ISU, all ignorant about Solar Cell and Electrical Engineering. Ashutosh Shyam helped me to know the university, met lots of people and made few good friends such as Kanwar Singh Nalwa. I was fortunate enough to get an excellent room mate as Amit Diwadker. If I dont take the names of our beloved seniors from MRC then it would be unfare from my side. Satya , Atul , Ted and Debju are amongst few of my guides student. Debju already left us in Fall 2007 for job and rest three stooges are there in MRC to handover the MRC customs to us. I am eagerly waiting to see the bright day when I will be working on devices in MRC. In the above pic you can see the future three stooges standing in front of the building name. Well this pic was taken in October when Fall was in it's peak time. Duhhh those were the days when we enjoyed every corner of Ames. I hope Summer comes soon and again we see the sunny bright morning outside.

'Home should not be judged by the building blocks', whoever said those words I hope he said after putting lots of thought behind it. Yes, indeed MRC is my would be new home but the family is still missing. I havent started my work in full fledge but I am just hoping to have a good healthy family there soon.

Harmony in Air

Courtesy: Istockphoto

You mock him, ridicule him or criticize him but his popularity is unprecedented and appreciated by the wide range of audience, from rikshaw-wala to the midnight disc jockeys. Yes, I am talking about none other than Himesh Reshammiya, a great musician and a victim of nasal singing after Kumar Sanu. I must confess that I am a great fan of Himesh bhai simply because of the foot tapping music he makes year after year while changing the style according to the need of the society. Himesh Bhais music runs on simple harmony, without indulging into complicated turns or windings like A R Rehman's intricate music. The mere simplicity and usage of basic notes strategically makes him an adorned music director. Anu Malik did contributed some similar type of songs in mid 90's but Himesh Bhai is the real Techno wizard.

I came across My name is Anthony Gonsalvis while I was listening to the new dance numbers from the latest Bollywood movies. 'Tum Mile' is not only a fabulous song but it has all the essential ingredients which are required to make a good melodious romantic flick. Pritam is the music director of this movie but this special song has been especially embellished by Himesh Bhai. KKs soft at the same time strong voice goes smoothly with the song. I was only disappointed that Sunidhi Chauhan appears at much later part of the song with her bold tone. May be they would have made a female version of the song since it is a romantic song, and of course I would have loved to listen the song if Sunidhi had sung the same.

I have been listening 'Tum Mile' since two days and still not feeling saturated enough. The melodious harmony as if going deeper and deeper into my soul. Drums and guitar are the essential component part of this song. Nevertheless, the base chords acts as a strong backbone, keeping the listener captivated in the melody during transitions in the song. I also liked the voice overlapping technique they have used to overlap the voice of Sunidhi Chauhan with her voice itself. It results to a mesmerizing low pitched sound with intense feeling.

Tum Mile is an excellent example of a simple, but at the same time intense song which is strong enough to mark its presence in diaspora of Indian population.

Himesh Bhai I am eagerly waiting for your next dance number !!

US Unlimited part 2

Courtesy: US Nation

Dear ol

As I mentioned in my earlier mail, I will discuss about the ajeeb and
weird behavior of the mighty Americans. The observation and
interpretation of their behaviors started from the day one when I
landed all the way from Brit land to Chicago.

In general Americans are really very beautiful people. They are
helpful and over courteous, they don't let you feel alien. they use
huge amount of sign language and motions to express their feelings.
The most boring part of any conversation is the constant nodding of
head. If any American talking to you and you dont make ' haan haan ok
hmmm ' types sounds then they take it as a rude behaviour. Not even
this, you have to greet everyone even if you don't know that person,
you are suppose to open door for others and have to say welcome after thank
you and etc etc. List will go on. In a nut shell they do the '1001
baar jaap' of "Thank you, Sorry, Ur Welcome, Hi, Hello, Cu Later".

America is sparsely populated and human beings are rare species. If
you want to see any human being then either you have to go to any Mall
or social gatherings. Though during my initial days in the college,
when my college was closed for summer holidays. I could hardly see
anyone walking across the street. Especially during night (after 9,
because sun sets at 8:50 in Ames) you wont find even a single man.


Americans don't care what others think about them. They know how to
enjoy life. They drink, they puke, they scream but in their homes. I
want to share one of my experiences of Cincinnati. My bhatija was ill
and we were suppose to take him to the hospital. In the hospital I saw
a kid walking on his arms and legs. I was just in the process of
feeling bad for that kid. But the very next moment when the elevator
came to ground floor, he started walking on his legs perfectly. This
is not THE ONLY example. Amru junta kuch bhi ker sakti hai. Bas they
don't care, ki kon kya soch raha hai. Which is good....!!

This section is all about the food habits in USA. If you are strict
vegetarian dont even take the risk of reading the subsequent texts.
Otherwise if you dont mind in experimenting little bit of this and
little bit of that then you are most welcome. You will get ample of
choices in a food court. Alligator, crocodile, various fishes ,
chicken, beef, ham, pork and etc etc. It is better for veggies to
carry their own tiffin boxes.
I have seen many Indians converted from veggie to non veggie. Food is
good and sasta if you dont start converting it to Indian currency.
Dont ever go to SUBWAY, they literally ask you 27 questions before
serving the burger. Goshhhhh half of my hunger just dies in answering
their two dozen questions. Americans are great fan of PAAP (Cold
Drinks are known as POP in AmruLand and they speak out POP as PAAP).
Amru junta dont drink water they consume hell lot of POP. Ek baar
department orientation main I was having my lunch without a POP, so
the graduate secretary came to me and started the mantra jaap of PAAP.

" You should take a POP,
POP is good, they are tasty POPs,
I love POP, I guess you need POP,
Dont you think POP will compliment the pizza,
If you drink POP and then eat something then it tastes good
You should take one POP "

Baap Re

Pura dimaag ka dahi bana daali thi . Main mun hi mun soch raha tha "
Meri maa !!!! khane de mujhe shanti se, kyun mere peeche paadi hai
POP ko leke "

But somehow I managed to get over that POP mantra jaap.

Bahar ka khana too expensive Ghar ka khana too cheap. Only one type of
food you will find cheap outside and that is Chinese. Take any Chinese
dish it's cost would be 5$ (which is pretty cheap according to US
standards).

In the next episode I'll discuss about my TAgiri experience and of
course the basic intelligence level of Amru/Chinki/other international
Crowd.


ps: By the way after Americans you will find chinkis ruling over the
education system of America.

pps: I wrote this blog in 5 sittings.
To add more I just returned from the WELCH AVE.

Welch avenue is the name of the street where u will find all bars and
recreational things.
It was a nice experiance to see all AMru bevdaas. Though I didnt enter
to any of the bars but I could feel the heat from outside.

Weekends are too bornig......


tab tak ke liye shabakher, namaskar ....goodnight.

US Unlimited part 1

Courtesy: US Nation

Dear ol

To start with my US visit and experiences.

My flight was Air India 125 from Mumbai to Chicago then United
airlines 6459 from Chicago to cincinnati. Few days of stay in Mumbai
was little bit hectic but after my visit to Hostel 13, I regained my
lost energy. the affection and warmth which I recieved from my good
old pals was overwhelming. My hostel visit was hectic because only one
day was left for my boarding and my bags were still unpacked. So
somewhere I was planning a visit of an hour or two to the hostel but
may be god himself wanted me to stay with my friends so it rained
heavily that night. Obviously due to heavy downpour I dropped the idea
of going back to didi's house. I stayed back and we (Bharat, Gc,
arpit, GJ, Sunmay, GJ's friend) played cards ( If I am not wrong then
the name of that game was bluffmaster ). anyways it was worth staying
back hhehheheeh...and me for a short period experienced the lukkha
dadda life :))

Next day in great hurry I left the hostel and went back to pack my
things. time was going out of my hand and I was still there thinking
what to pack and what to leave behind in India. Somehow I manged to
complete my task at the eleventh hour and ensured their weight limits
withing the range. I know it may sound strange to some of you
especially arpit, but really I was in panicky due to extra weights. I
was thinking AI or UA might charge me for the extra 0.5 kg ( One of my
bag was 23kgs and the other one was 23.5kgs ps:- 23kgs allowed
weight). Well I was also surprised by GC, GJ, Arpit and bakar when I
saw them in the Mumbai airport at 2 o clock night. Not only they made
me feel special by coming to the airport but I was also
given a memento to remember our good old times.

I was nervous because I was traveling all alone without the protective
shelter of my parents. I was wondering whether I would be able to do
all the formalities and other stuffs properly or not. Thank god,
everything went smoothly in the airport and above all I was not
charged for those 0.5kgs of extra load :D

The AI flight was as usual late and religiously followed the so
called indian standard time, which implies flight was 1 hour late.
anyways, I boarded on the plane and my seat number was 50E, the middle seat.
Therefore unfortunately because of the strategic location of my seat
I was able to peek the outside world while going for a pee.
The experience on the plane was fun
because I was almost surmounted by the gujjus and most important 'the
Patel bhais and bens '. They were obviously green card holders and
seems to be frequent fliers because when I was striving hard to off
the light above my head the so called kokila ben ( name changed due to
security reasons :) ) turned on the tv attached to her seat and
started watching mata santoshi types gujju movie. Never mind it
happens with everyone, no one born with technologically adept hands.
At last when I failed to switch off the light I asked kokila ben to
help me and learned many new technical aspects of international
flight. She also recommended me few indian gujju shops for khakra,
thepla, papad and god knows many things. May be she is the chalta
firta ishtihaar of her fraternity business.

Since I boarded at 6 o'clock morning I was almost sleepy so I somehow
managed to get my eye shutters opened for the tasty breakfast but I
slept despite of my all efforts. I guess it was a well formulated
sajish of the AI crew members to serve the breakfast late so that
maximum people fall asleep.

In my ticket it was mentioned that my flight is directly from mumbai
to Chicago. But we went to Chicago via London (heathrow) airport. I
have only one word for that airport - Gigantic. It is true that you
may get lost in that airport very very very easily, not because of the
super jumbo size of the airport but because of the lack of information
they provide on the sign boards. Now I would say it is the mixed
politics of the airlines and heathrow airport officials to provide
least information about the directions. Moreover I couldn't believe on
my eyes to see the staff members of the airport, out of every 10
people in heathrow you will find one Indian smiling and speaking
Punjabi (pun intended).

Heithrow chapter was for 45 minutes and after that we were again in
our good happy and fully indian airlines , Air India. I appreciate
indian government for their sincere efforts and concern for the old
age people of our country. If you fall under these categories then do
go and apply for the post of an air hostess - Here goes the
requirement :

1- age should be 60 or above
2- Never ever responds to a call
3- should be at least 30-40-30
4- should be expert in spreading Motherly affection

categories 1 and 4 are must

Then from heathrow it took around 8 hrs and we were there in Chicago.
But the new problem which came in front of me was the time
constrained. as I told earlier I had a flight of UA from chicago to
cincinnati at 6 evening but due to delay of AI i reached chicago at
4:30 evening. I was left with 1:30 hrs and I was suppose to do the
immigration checking and many other formalities including checking in
the UA for the evening flight. O'Hare the international airport is
good and worth spending time to see some upcoming technical things.
chicago airport unlike heathrow is well organized. You will find self
explanatory sign boards and hence least chances of getting lost. I
reached cincinnati in 1 hr 45 min. bhaiya and bhabhi were waiting for
me eagerly on the baggage claim section but there was something else
for me. When I didn't receive my luggage, I heard a harsh voice of an
afro American shouting from lost baggages claim section. Yes, my
luggage was still there in chicago enjoying the sunny winds of
michigan lake. Duhhhhhhhh, that was really uncool about America.
Anyways we told them the baggage numbers and the shape colour of the
bag. Well I got my bag within 10hrs on my doorstep, now that was cool
about America.

Next on US unlimited 2 : People of America and their behaviors
So sit back and do wait for the next episode. till then bbye,
shabakher and namaskar.

Watan Ke Rakhwale - Do watch

Vintage Mithun-da (click me please)

LOST in time

Coutesy: abcmobile

It seems boredom has engulfed me completely. All academic commitments are over and I don’t have anything to do apart from the post BTP. Children usually go back to their home during summer holidays but poor me waiting for my parents to return back from US. Nonetheless my elder sister and brother in law are there to take care of me but still I am missing home sweet home. While browsing through the servers I found few series and movies. Among the entire latest stuff I found LOST quite appealing.

LOST is a television series which came forward to rescue me from boredom. The genres of the series are Thriller/Suspense/Action and Drama, as the genres suggest it is a true treat for thrill lovers. A fabulous series provided you are watching it on a computer. Well computer because at times things do become quite monotonous and you need to forward the boring stuffs out. Till now they have aired three seasons each with 23-24 episodes and it took almost two days to complete three of the seasons but I must say it was worth it. Each season unfolds various labyrinths of mysteries with dozen of doubts and to get the answers of those question you need to watch the next episode.

So I am waiting desperately for the next Episode

Adieu BTech Project

Dear BTech Project,

On remembering the good old days the very first thought which comes in my mind is the precious time we spent together. I am grateful that you taught me many things including proper method to carry out a project. There were few moments when we could not find any result but sometime we did enjoy the triumph of success. You were always with me supporting through the year.

I still remember when I was eager to do a project on biomaterials then you helped me to take one. I worked on Human Tooth and compared the physical properties of an adult and a deciduous tooth. Chipkar sir, Neelam and Dr. Kamath helped me to raise you with proper nourishment. Usually birthdays are celebrated annually but I celebrated your birthday twice a year. In your first birthday ‘I^st stage of my BTech project’, I defended my work and tried my best to convince everyone that I am capable of taking care of you. Some people appreciated my work while some criticized. I was questioned till your father was convinced. Then time came when we celebrated your second birthday ‘II^nd stage of my BTech project’. Similar to your first birthday but now everyone appreciated my work and suggested me to get your name registered in the journals which would be my gift to you.

You were dear to me, close to my heart but few of your brothers and sisters were not as close to their guardian. Unfortunately some of them didn’t get the love they deserved and ended up with lack of care. I felt bad because my peers didn’t take care of them, I felt sorry because I couldn’t do anything. Nevertheless it is true you are not meant for everyone. My peers had their own dreams and aims which made them indifferent. According to them you were a responsibility but for me you were special and important.

Your father, my guide Professor Satish Vitta handed over you to me in August 2006. You were his dream and my aim and now I am leaving you in the able hands of Arunabh Sinha, your new guardian. I am sure he will take care and will look after you more than my expectations.

I am going to an entirely new place. New aims and new dreams are building up. I will be a part of many projects but you will always be dear to me, my cherished possession.

Take care,

Nayan Chakravarty
03011036
4^th year Undergraduate
Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science
IIT Bombay

Alternative Sources of Energy

Courtesy: Borregosolar

Please do not give me those nasty looks!!!

I am well aware that this post is remotely related to the traditional blogging stuff and more related to academics, a nightmare to many of us. The main motive of posting such issue is mainly to draw the attention of as many people as possible towards other alternative sources of energy. With time we are gradually loosing our valuable resources. It is a fact and no need to mention why we are loosing the resources which may lead to adverse fuel crisis in the near future, probably after 50 years only.

The byproducts of petroleum giving rise to Global warming and adverse weather conditions. Large efforts have been made by various organizations to reduce the same. 'An Inconvenient Truth’, academy award winning documentary has shown the global warming issue in a unique way. The documentary has been presented by the X vice president of United States of America, Al Gore. To talk about the other alternative sources of energy-the next generation need, the first thing comes in our mind is the solar energy. Despite of huge amount of research still solar cells has to cover long path before it reaches each and every household. To be very specific good amount of research is going on solar cells in MRC (Microelectronics Research Center) and Ames lab in Iowa State University. Professor Rana Biswas and Professor Dalal to name few are looking into our future needs and working extensively to cut short the price of the solar cells. To achieve this goal they have adopted a simple way making chips smaller with same efficiency which would obviously result to cost reduction.

Not only cost reduction, solar cells need a thorough research backup before we come with a product in the market. If you follow this link on current advancements on solar cells reported by The Hindu we find things are still at their initial stages. Though this report was quoted in 2003 and definitely by 2007 it has achieved great heights. The other major leap in semiconductor industry took place when multicrystalline Si chips found its place in electronic goods. It reduced the price of the electronic gadgets considerably. Before multicrystalline Si, single crystal Si was in use which in itself too costly to prepare. These are few major contributions from the research world to the commercial community which brought machines nearer to the common man. I remember computers were considered as the luxury items 10 years back and now it has turned out to be a basic need. Thanks to technology and mass production :). Just imagine every home well equipped with solar panels and solar household items similar to the computer growth. It would be another giant leap in the mankind, making our planet better place to live.

When half of the world dwells in dark rest half basks in sunlight. Do I make any sense? These products are reliable on weather conditions. Nevertheless everything has its own advantages and drawbacks. Technology cut offs these drawbacks and make things acceptable....isn’t it? It is true that solar energy concept still has to cover great heights and has potential future but definitely it will be the prime source of energy for us. We can’t overlook the limited strength of our earth, heading towards space and then solar energy will be our cherished possession in space.

Do I sound like~The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?