Reaching for the skies, at Dayton!

It has been snowing for the past 2 days, but as the academic calendar wants me to believe, its the official Spring Break. Last weekend, I made a trip to Dayton, OH - about 75 minutes drive from Columbus. The city was the home of the Wright Brothers and is aptly named the "Birthplace of Aviation". Just outside the city is the The National Museum of the United States Air Force at the nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

7 people in 2 cars started the journey at 9.30 a.m on a bright, but cold Saturday morning. While there was nothing remarkable about the journey, but what followed was truly admirational. On entering the Museum, we were given the directions map and that set us on our tryst with modern history.

There were displays of various aircrafts, right from the age of Wright Brothers to the ones used in the Iraq War, neatly divided into 5 sections based on chronology. There were separate sections devoted to planes used in WWI, WWII, Cold War period and a Missile section. It was truly amazing to see the use of technology in the war planes that were used in WWII, which ensured the visotory of the Allies against the German and Japanese forces.

We took a lot of photographs, courtesy Benny, whose fingers clicked faster than your eyes could blink. While returning, we also stopped at the Buck Creek State Park near Springfield, OH and enjoyed the sunset with some shero-shayari. In all, a Saturday well spent.

The team is ready to enter the Museum. (L-R) Anisa, Neha, Benny, Arun, Me and Sagar (Sanchit behind the camera)

I survey the Museum map closely, while Arun poses for the camera


This is the famous Ford Model-T, being used as an Ambulance in World War I


The propeller of the P-26 Boeing "Pea Shooter"


The B-29 Superfortress

Welcome to Space

With Arun in front of the Boeing B-28 Bockscar, which was used to carry the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

And here comes the Bomb - Fat Man, the atomic bomb that ended World War II

This one looks straight out of Star Wars: B-2 Bomber used in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars

Everyone enjoys a light moment at the Buck Creek State Park (L-R) Sagar, Me, Arun, Anisa, Sanchit and Neha (Benny behind the camera)

Keeping you "mobile"

My room mate, "Playa " bought a digi cam a few days back and resulted in this photo. After resisting for long, I decided to buy a mobile phone, though I am not sure, why. At the very first mention, my mom rightly asked me "what for"? I couldn't decsribe. There is more to it than just being in contact. But when you are in a place, where everyone owns a mobile phone and at any given point, you can see more than 4 out of 5 people talking on their cell phones while waking, running, even jogging, even the best of the minds is made to think about this tiny little creation.

I owned a mobile phone even while in India (oh, come on! who didn't?), but it was just a basic model and did what it was meant for - sending and receiving calls and text messages. But I yearned for more. With the whole world shrinking onto your palm , there is a whole range of tasks done with your mobile phone than ever before and I wanted to be in the thick of the technology.

Alright...I am eagerly waiting for my Sony 600i camera phone with an in-built MP3 player. Now doesn't this sound cool?

Busy Quarter and world events

WOW, what a week that was! By far, this has been the longest and toughest week for me - 2 mid terms, a homework submission, a new Lab to TA and mid term grading for 2 lab sections + some additional responsibility being on the EC of AID-Columbus...huff..puff.. and at the end of it, I am forced to shout "Thank God It's Friday"...woohooo...

My update on the blog is thanks to two of my friends - Nano and Sujoy - who politely made me realize that probably they check my blog more often than even I visit it. Last few weeks have been full of activities. My new job as TA meant that I spent more time on the Lab than on my courses, and research obviously showing no signs of getting started. But I must admit that I enjoyed every day of being a TA. It helps to get to know so much people at the same time, being an instructor, and lots of thanks are due to my Lab coordinator, Kimberly, without whose support it would have been nearly impossible to pull it through the tough initial weeks.

I have had my share of fun this quarter as well. The Intra-mural sports started around mid-quarter and indoor cricket is one of the sports. There are 8 teams in the fray. We have had 2 matches so far, and we won both of them. In fact I have a match in another hour.

Lots of international events also caught my attention - the notable being the proposed Nuclear treaty signing with US and the wide spread protests in Muslim countries over the Prophet Muhammad cartoon. While I havent gathered enough detail on the N-treaty, but I have a strong feeling that India might even try to sell itself to the US, while trying to "secure" our nuclear interest. Over the 2 weeks, I have read about protests and clashes in every part of the Muslim world. Though its quite surprising that the protestors should damage properties and establishments in their own country, the more surprising aspect is the total apathy in the West over the issue, dismissing it as another incident of Muslim fundamentalism. I was having a talk with my roommate today, and he reminded me of John Lennon's statement in 1966, when he said "We're more popular than Jesus now." and that sparked off protests in the US, leading to burning of their albums and cancelling of their US tour. The cartoon controversy doesn't seem to be any different.

The parochial and insular view of the West vis-a vis the Muslim countries (yes, I am talking about Iran and Syria) and the Third World will not lead them anywhere, unless they understand that its time they learnt to live peacefully with other nations, instead of trying to pressurize and threaten them.

Back to campus after Happy Valley visit

Its been a while since I even visited my own blog! The Fall Quarter got over and it was vacation time! While I continued to work at the Chem. Lab, lot of things got sorted around that time. I chose Prof. Dan Mendelsohn as my advisor. Dan M works on Fracture Mechanics and Vibrations of Beams and crack propagation in them. And then, came the great news - I was offered a TA assignment by the ME Dept and with it came cheer and happiness. My vacation had truly started then. Within 2 days, I left for State College, PA to meet my cousin whom I had met way back in 1998 during his marriage. Remamkable things that I did during this trip:

1. Went out of Columbus for the first time after having set foot in the USA.

2. Took the Grey hound bus to reach State College, PA from Columbus, OH. That was one helluva journey and took me close to 11 hrs. I am gonna think twice before I board that next Grey Hound bus!
3. Went Bowling and won the first ever game I played. Wooohoooo!
4. Went for tubing and almost skiied, but for my cousin, who advised me against doing it without taking proper lessons.
5. Was my first visit to an Indian temple in the US - The Sri Venkateswara temple at Pittsburgh.
6. Had lunch at an American family's house for the first time: At my cousin's colleague Prof. Robert Newnham's house. For the uninitiated, Prof. Newnham was behind making the UltraSound scan, as we know it today.

7. Read two more of R K Narayan's books, thus inching closer to my aim of reading his entire collection.
8. Watched a movie almost every night, thus making sure that I watched more movies in the last 10 days than I have done in the last 1 1/2 years.

There ended the Dream vacation.....thuddddd! I am now back to reality. The Winter Quarter has started, but the vacation hangover made me watch all the 4 Bowl Games with all enthu and passion. The Buckeyes deserved to win the Fiesta Bowl, but the best game was the Rose Bowl game between the Longhorns and the Trojans.

Begining next week I will have to sweat it out in my new job as TA for the ME 570 Measurements Lab. My next blog will be on that! Till then, I have lot of cleaning to do at home before I begin the next week.....

Cost of Comparison - Part II

After a seemingly long time, here goes my second part of the story...

Soon after the death of Zedong in 1977, the Chinese Govt. decided to abandon the Communist policies followed so far and decided to adopt a semi-capitalist form of economy, trusting more govt. instititions in the hands of private individuals, opening the market to foreign players, and putting up its ailing Public Sector Units for sale.

After trying this experiment for more than 20 years, China finds itself at the pinnacle of world economics. Its exports are soaring, goods manufactured in nook and corner of China are flooding the US and EU markets. But, there is an increasing realisation in Chinese economy think-tank that they havent cultivated enough of fresh ideas and innovative products all these years.

Two decades of mindless copy-and-produce has left them woefully short of the Narayan Murthys, Azim Premjis, Baba Kalyanis, M S Swaminathans and Deepak Puris, that India seem to be having in abundance. When the Chinese look back in retrospect, the absence of such innovators and entreprenuers troubles them to the level that a special task force has been set up to devise means to breed such entreprenuership among the youth and the corporate China.

Against the backdrop of this, I hear comments from people that India should follow the steps of China and aim to be a super-power. Super-power, but at what cost? Mindless felling of trees and over-dependence on fossil fuels has left China slave to the vagaries of nature and the price-regulation of the OPEC countries. I am happy with the way India has been growing, though I would like to see more of Indianisation and localistion in our markets and products. I would like to see lesser dependence on fuel -guzzling automobiles and other modern gadgets. If India is going to merely ape the West, then I cannot imagine what may happen to the environment if every Indian (and every Chinese) owned a car and depended on electricity for even shaving his moustache a few years down the line.

Every Indian may dream an American life, but is he ready to face the consequences such a life may bring about?

Cost of comparison - Part I

What is the similarity in the articles you would read in The Times of India, The Hindu, Rediff.com, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and sometimes even in Columbus Dispatch - the growing acceptance all over the world that India and China are the world's next two superpowers in-the-making; the fact that 2.4 billion people represent more than 30% of the human population and collectively they could eat up all the energy resources in the world, and push oil prices to levels unseen so far; and the reality that China has raced far ahead of India during the last 20 years and India is trying hard at covering up the gap.

Though, in principle, I do not agree with the view held by the Western media, which is, at times, reflected even in the Indian media, I completely despise the comparisons India is subjected to against China, because there are inherent differences in the way both the countries chose to "develop" economically. (Let me make it clear that I have a different meaning for the term development and I do not necessarily agree with the generally accepted meaning of the term). Before we go into the comparison, let us see the points of similarity between these 2 countries.

1. Both India and China became independent around the same time from colonial rule.
2. They are large countries and have a large population, which, in present age, means that both have a large workforce and a large market for anyone to sell anything.
3. Both of them are in a drive to "develop" economically and have partly or fully adopted the model used by the Western world.

Now lets come to the critical differences.
From the begining, the US had a soft corner for China, which ultimately resulted in China getting the coveted Permanent membership of the Security Council. though many would argue that Security Council and the UN are puppets in the hands of the US and thus make no sense, China made the most use of it and sided with the US on every public forum, and was thus able to turn into a reliable friend which the US could trust on any issue. (Only now the US has realised its folly, when it sees its market literally swamped with "Made in china" products, its people losing their manufacturing jobs to their Chinese counterparts and Chinese economy looking to challenge the supremacy of the US). Though built on the Communist model, very soon China threw the policies of Mao Zedong (pronounced Tse-tung) into the trash bin and went into a frenzied makeover of its ailing public companies which had accumulated losses to the tune of billions of dollars. Interstingly at around the same time, India had experimented with the idea of "Open Market" and by 1977, when the new socialist govt. took over, comapanies like Coke and IBM were thrown out of the country, only to be later called back in early 90's.

.....To be continued in Part II

The plunder of Paris

Arson, rioting and killing has swept France and left the world bewildered. The country that gave birth to the lofty ideals of humanism -- Liberty, Equality, Fraternity -- is facing questions it has perhaps never faced since the Bastille fell, 216 years ago, and the French Revolution marked an important step in human evolution.

A state of emergency has been declared in Paris and various other metros, first since the war in Algeria in 1955. The riots were sparked when 2 teenagers belonging to the minority Muslim community were electrocuted at a power station while fleeing from the police. Almost immediately the public anger against the French government and its policies was evident in the form of burning of cars, torching of govt. buildings and large-scale rioting.

Though the Govt. claims that the situation has been brought under control, the streets of Paris and its suburbs paint a different picture altogether.

New to this World

I have been thinking of doing this for a long time, but procrastination is a disease that is akin to an extra-marital relationship. You feel guilty and bad the first time, shy the next time, but after that it just becomes a habit and you enjoy doing it. Finally I shrugged off my laziness and made myself part of this world, that seemed to be a lunatic's asylum just a few years back. Till long I dismissed web-logging as one of those new internet hypes, until Dec.26, 2004 came when the Tsunami struck South-east Asia and various parts of South Asia. That's when I realised the sheer power of blogs - before media reporters could reach the spot of destruction, eye-witnesses had started writing their description of the events on the blog, and within minutes, the whole world knew what was happening in a small village in India.

I salute the power of blog!