Pentax Camera Repairs

Cocurricular Adviser called and asked me to submit the bills or return the cash. I promptly replied saying I would prefer to submit the bills. He has asked me to give a call on Saturday Morning. These bills are about the repairs of two Pentax cameras. We spent Rs 4050. I just could not find time to call him and submit the bill.

Suggestions received

Antony has asked why SBI doesn't give checkbook to students getting stipend. This matter should be discussed with SBI Branch Manager. I can imagine that he is going to say that as per the guidelines of the bank a student can not open a regular/salary account even if he gets stipend in thousands. But to begin with the followup I should start from this Manager only.

Another point suggested by a resident of Sharavati is that during the examination time boys and girls may want to study together in nights; more so UG students as MS and PhD students have their laboratories to study. The library is closed at twelve in the night and so they are seen studying in front of hostel, especially Sharavati. This can be avoided if a study hall is provided and kept open overnight. This sounds fair. I should discuss this with DoS.

In the afternoon I found a piece of egg shell in veg biryani. Unfortunately it was the dish that I had ordered. When I reported this the superviser he said that this happens and a little can be done about it and he would ask the cooks to take care in future. I know that he was trying to fool me. He said that he had fired the cook. But his statements "this is not a five star hotel and there a a huge crowd to handle and this can not be avoided" were totally unacceptable. I had to warned him against his attitude. Let's hope that theydon't repeat these type of mistakes.

When coming from a dinner at Gujarati Mandal in Savakar Peth we missed the last bus at ten and we had to walk from the main gate upto GC. On the way, Rajani asked about the recent activities of SCAI. It was really a thought provoking discussion. I should discuss this again with Satheesh and Parikshit. Possibly should call for a meeting and discuss how this activity can be kept alive.

While walking, I found many of the street lights were not switched on. It gives rise to the doubt if there is any mechanism for maintenance of street lights or not. The whole stretch of Delhi Avenue was in dark upto the stadium. Incidently all the stretch from stadium upto GC eventhough poorly but was illuminated. If the Director from the entrance of his official residence looks to the left and then to the right, he will find everything all right!

There are many other places which are poorly illuminated and are neglected. According to CSO, Security Section has conducted a survey and has submitted the report to the Estate Office. I have asked a copy of the report more thant two weeks back and have reminded about the same many times. So far I am not successfull in getting that copy. Anyway I have planned to conduct a survey for street illumination by myself soon.

Case with Rosin Rammler distribution

When the SMD variation at various planes is plotted, it can be noted that for ID 60 micron and B1 values of 25 and 35, one can not get any particular trend. For ID 45 micron and B1 15 SMD reduces from around 166 micron to 55 micron. Rest of the combinations do not show any significant variation in SMD. It is also observed that, for a particular ID, SMD reduces with reducing value of B1.

Presently a case with Rosin-Rammler diameter distribution is used for specifying initial diameters. The case is started on tuesday afternoon. As the number of particles injected in one timestep is very large compared to cases with constant ID, the solution is very slow. Prediction upto 6 ms is expected to be over by friday afternoon.

Lectures by eminent speakers for the next year

India Today people visited our campus in the morning. DoS had passed the message to me but it seems that it did not reach to me. Any way came to know from somebody else. It's quite strange that India Today people wanted to take pictures of students entering the class, attending lectures, reading in library, and what not. This is vacation time. Most students have gone home. No classes going. Still they wanted us to arrange some students so that they can take photos. Never the less their purpose was noble. They were collecting information about academics and students' life in order to publish some article. Today morning some students were gathered in the job was accomplished.

My VC sample was sent. It looks alright. I have okayed it with some minor changes it it. Mostly I will get it on Monday. Rajesh's VC sample also is ready. I called him to have look. He will call the printer if he wants any change.

In the evening, after waiting for almost two hours EML team had the first meeting with DoS. DoS has suggested many names and also has informed that already three speakers have agreed to come in next semister and we have to fix the schedule for two as one speaker's lecture is already decided on 18th August. The fourth is also fixed in form of Mrs Padmasree Warrior but we have to see that she schedules her India visit cosidering our academic calender. It should not happen that she comes here in December when we will have vacation. This year onwards we will videograph all EMLs and we are given permission to get a handicam for this job. So far so good! The meeting has helped in a long way in increasing morale of EML team members right in the beginning.

Visit to Mylapore

At around 4:30 pm, Shree Padmanabhan called me about my visit to his office in Mylapore. This was regarding my enquiry of wheel chair. I told me that I would reach his office at 6:30 pm.

At 5 pm. EML team assembled at Nandhinee for discussion. It was the first meeting. I gave them an idea about the proposed meeting with DoS. They will work out the list of the speakers the team would like to invite for lecture. At 5:45 pm I asked them to continue the discussion and I left for Mylapore.

Mr Padmanabhan greeted me and briefly told about their product range. Later he demonstrated the operation of the joystick controlled wheel chair. He asked me to get a feel of that. The joystick controls the direction and speed. Acceleration and maximum speed can be set as per the need even during operation. When the hand is removed from the joystick, the vehicle motion is braked. The chair has a limit rod on the rear side for the maximum incline the wheel chair can climb which is 10:1 (horizontal distance travelled : elevation). The joystick operation is smooth and precise. The control panel with joystick is fitted at the front end of right arm-rest. The control panel can also be fitted to the left side as per requirement. The control panel has battery charge indicator of three stages. It has maximum speed indicator of five stages. The panel has a touchpad and has three buttons. The horn can be operated by the top button and bottom two buttons are for increasing and increasing the maximum speed. The chair has a battery pack below the seat. It provides energy to two DC motors, one for each rear wheel, through the controller. The operation is effortless. The wheel chair is certainly good as a product.

Overall it was a nice experience to operate the vehicle. Now I am waiting for the quotes and chair details from other manufacturers.

On the way back to hostel, I met some PhD Research Scholars who are here on an orientation program. Some are from Pune Vidyapeeth and UDCT. Actually I stopped after hearing them speaking Marathi. It was a nice meeting. They are staying in Alakananda and will be here upto 4th June.

I have to stop as I will have to reach Krishna. We have a brief gathering of MMM at ten.

Visit to Office of DoS

Visited Office of DoS to know about the info-brochure from Tata. I found that it was posted on the DoS notice board not HSB. Rajesh also wanted to print VCs, a part of preparation for his visit to MIT next month. Rajendran was kind to make arrangements for that. We appreciated his gesture very much. Any was Rajesh will bear the expenses involved in printing his VC. There itself we prepared layout and gave to Rajendran.

Former GS was to return the cellphone yesterday, but so far he has not done. He must be still busy in his BTP. Office of DoS will give him a reminder for the phone and also for the camera.

From the office, I spoke to CSO and requested him to send a copy of Street Illumination Report to me. He has assured to arrange it tomorrow. He will deliver the copy to the office.

Vinay and AparNaa visit lab

Just some time back. Vinay and AparNaa came to my lab to pick a couple of books. They were on way to their home. Had a nice chat with them. They had not had dinner so they decided to pack dinner from Quark and go back to home. Amit, back at home, has not yet had dinner. I guess he is fasting... he only knows why so.

Case running

It seems that my prediction is not matching with experimental values. So far I have changed the model constant in all of its range. I should change the initial droplet diamter and then see what difference it is going to make.

Visit to new hostel under construction

We visited a couple of rooms in the new hostel on 11th May. Our immediate reaction was that size of the room was very less especially the breadth. What surprised us more was the layout of toilet and distribution of floorarea. A lot of space was provided for wash basin (6 nos), urinals (3 nos)but two of three Water Closets were provided with extremely inadequatewidth. It is a very poor plan. We gave many suggestions to the supervisers present there and also to the Dean of Students. I will not mention all suggestions here as they are many in number.

After this I was called for a meeting with the architects and Chairman of planning committe. There again the suggestions were discussed and changes were made. Toilet layout was changed completely. It was decided that I would visit hostel rooms again. Which I did along with Harshit in the morning of 21st May. We suggested changes in the height of rack in the closed cupboard to accomodate a full size notebook. It was well taken.

On the way, I was informed that the balconies, which are open from inside, were going to be fitted with steel grills. This was strange.

I have informed the site manager about this but he can do very little about it. I have then spoken to Dean of Students. I have appreciated the concern behind the decision to fit grills. But in my opinion it is an unnecessary action. I am sure that if at all somebody wants to jump over the parapet of the balcony, then he has many more open balconies in the other (taller) buildings in the campus. This also gives rise to a thought about the terrace. Are they going to keep terrace closed all the time? I think with closed terrace, closed balconies and a couple of watchment at the entrance, it is going to be more like a jail than a students' residence.

Why should I blog?

I should answer one question for myself and that is why I have created this blog. The answer can be somewhat like this. I wanted to record the happenings and thoughts in the day. A place where I can go and open the page and start writing. I wanted to do this such that from anywhere I could add to it.

I think this is going to be a pretty good way and a very right place to document and share the day. I will be posting here my views, experiences, observations, comments and incidents I will come across playing various roles here in my Insititute. Basic role of a citizen, role of a research scholar and role of the Students' General Secretary.

Prasad

Something about INW and NEWS

On 20th May Guru had gone to donate plates, if plates is the right work I want to use. 2 and a half litre blood was taken out of his body and later injected back after extracting RBC or WBC. He came to lab but started feeling weak. So he retired to his room. Thus could not make it for the meeting with GS. Anyway before reaching GS's office we had called his lab and knew these details.

Only today I could see him in the dining hall. After dinner I briefed him about all the four points (SMAIL audit, website audit, individual webpages and ICE). Now he should contact Arun and decide the plan of action.

After this I thought about visiting Ganga. At the entrance found Mama and Pritam. Took Mama with me in the hostel. Had a look at the food being served. Then on the way of return, informed Mama about the idea of transcribing the students' constitution. He as the NEWS I/C will get it done in two weeks. This transcribed copy will be given to DoS for attestation and then will be published on institute's website. Making the constitution available to students will be the first step in its revision.