Author: Pradeep

  • Water and Wind

    It’s been raining heavily here for the past two days. The roads are a wreck with branches, overflowing drains et. all. Still people are on their way to work.

    We only have Sunday’s off and on that day the rains got pretty heavy. It’s not as if you can’t go out because of the rains. You can’t go off because the winds might break the heavy water laden branches just hanging on their edges.

    Want to make a bag? Try this. (I know it’s totally unrelated)

    And some more, I went upto Dadar today morning in the bus and Bombay looks great and lush green for a change. No stink, now overflowing drains. BMC has also managed to clear the King’s Circle stretch which gets flooded quickly and cuts off the suburbs from the city. Hopefully, we’ve learnt a few lessons that 26/7 thought us. Cross fingers.

  • Communicating my ideas

    Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as https://blogs.seds.org/pradeep. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on June 25, 2007 as per the timestamp. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.

    One of the things that I learnt at the meeting at ISRO Bangalore is how I lack the idea of communicating what I am doing to a group of people who may or may not know about space. In the end, it all comes down to communication.

    The bad part is I get only one chance.

    A guy to whom I tried to explain what being in SEDS entailed and who was not interested in it is not likely to listen to me a second time when I know a bit more and have a clearer picture of what I am saying than when I said it before. He’s already created a block against space thinking of it as very murky water. All thanks to me =(

    That has not happened yet and I hope it never will. It is one of the worries that a person who is trying to start a SEDS chapter might face. Startup fear?

    I am thinking about this and I am also simultaneously trying to solve this problem. But, my solving this problem won’t help others besides people in India since every country has a different outlook on space. India uses space as a means of self-reliance and telecommunications. We don’t want to rely on NASA pictures all the time :).

  • Quick Long Update

    I returned from Kerala on the 17th. And there has been no blog posts since then. So, that needs some explanation.

    Stuff that I did –

    • Changed the theme to Unsleepable by Ben Gray
    • Read all the emails
    • Read all the blog posts
    • Updated Orkut and Facebook. Still catching up on that front.
    • Trying to get back into SEDSAT2

    So, in between all that, I didn’t have time to update my blog. Sorry. Had tons to write about. Forgot all of it. Sorry :(.

  • Return trip from ISRO

    Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as https://blogs.seds.org/pradeep. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on June 18, 2007 as per the timestamp. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.

    Returning in the evening from ISRO Headquarters to a quarter of Bangalore called Majestic, we found our way out of maze of criss-crossing exits and finally pinned down a hotel where we could eat something light. As we settled down in the hotel, my mom called me asking if I was boarding my train.

    The re-booking that I talked about caused this confusion. I thought my train was at night and so decided to print my ticket only in the evening.

    I was now running across the crowded streets of Bangalore trying to find an internet cafe. Nagappan accompanied me and helped me in locating a cafe. Thanks a lot, Nagappan. In the run, we finally found a cafe where I got my tickets printed.
    Didn’t have the time to bid all the people there good-bye, but I hope that they’ll forgive me for that short-coming.

    Lo and behold. My train is in the next 45 minutes. I had to travel atleast 1 hour for getting to the station which I thought I should go to. But luckily my father booked the wrong station and that ended up being 15 minutes away. I have to say that Bangalore Station is a very confusing maze and more confusing when you’re confused.

    Finally jumped onto the train and I slept all the way to my hometown.

    I woke up realizing my station had come. I got up and ran to get down. I realized the train was moving and waited until it stopped but when I looked ahead I noticed that the train was moving out and not in. Luckily, it hadn’t gathered speed and so I just closed my eyes and jumped out.

    My dad, who had come to pick me up at the station had surmised that I might get out at the next station, but I managed to catch up with him. Most of that was a dream. All in all, a fun trip. Hope I was able to contribute something positive to the discussion we had at Bangalore.

    I’ve just returned from a month’s worth of vacation. Have lots to catch up on. Will reply to all emails and requests soon. Hang on!!

     

  • Somewhere in Kerala

    post dated post.

    I am in Kerala till 17th June 2007.

  • Failure (Part 2)

    Although, academically, I approached many people for help, where I really needed help was at the personal level. I tried to get that but failed. This happened, I theorized because of the difference in the way people viewed things.

    My way of thinking is not really shared by many people. I viewed this failiure as a result of a string of internal failiures. Others viewed it as one failiure – academic.

    So, I basically needed to introspect. And I discovered this fact about Bombay. You can’t go on these long introspective walks that you see in the movies. You do that in croweded places like local trains, public toilets and BEST buses.

    Luckily for me, I was not thrown out of my house and I had the emptiness of my balcony to shut myself up in. I took Krishnamurti’s Commentaries on Living and the notebook that I later burned and wrote, copied and talked to myself.

    The result was a change in my life without much external changes. I thought seeing sudden changes may lead my parents to believe that I am mentally disturbed.

    But my father not having released his anger physically, began to quip on my uselessness and my inability of becoming an engineer. I would have preferred a few beatings. Physical strain is infinitely better than mental strain. Maybe, in his wisdom, he prefferred to give me that punishment.

    I am sorry to say though that all this failiure did was replace one set of qualities with another. There was really no total revolution. enough for today. More later.

  • Discovering hidden Google Stuff

    Found this and this via Google Operating System blog. I am reading through some of it.

  • Voters ID

    Got my voters id card today. Which in reality has no other significance other than the fact that I now have to carry and take care of another card.

    I was registered to vote two years ago! Ah! the hassles of growing up!!

  • Math or Maths?

    People in the US use math. People in India use Maths. Why and what’s the difference?

  • Failure (Part 1)

    I feel that now is the right time to put on record my experience in the past one year at home.It is something that I am still recovering from but now is the right time.

    I had not expected such a failiure to take place. So first, I believe, I was shocked to hear it over the telephone. I stayed in that state till I saw the results in person. India makes you pay dearly for your lack of academic excellence.

    So, two things were certain. I had failed and had lost a year. Consequently many people have asked me about that performance. It is best described as a collective failiure. Since I destroyed all the stuff I wrote at that time, there is really no way to remember. Several small events triggered that avalanche.

    This is perhaps the most difficult part. Informing your friends and family. I even contemplated suicide at this point but today I thank the crowded local trains of Mumbai. My long travel by train gave me time to think and I now even laugh at myself for having contemplated suicide.

    No one really can explain the barrage of feelings, anger and frustration that you experience. You alone will experience it and there will be no support for you. Just more anger from your parents, friends etc. As they say, this is what they don’t teach at Harvard. No one will understand your experience.

    I felt sorry for the people who were trying to be sympathetic. Sympathy is really not something that helps you in your hour of sorrow. I smiled to shield my real emotions which I penned down in a book, took it to a ground and burnt it.

    No vegetarian diet, no meditation and no self-help books help. Only one question – what next? The way you answer that question largely determines where you end up.

    Lessons
    1. When someone is in sorrow, leave them alone. He will come to you if he needs your help. Else you’re just meddling in his business.
    2. Nobody but you can help yourself.
    3. Find a way to regularily release your anger – like an overhaul.

    Lots to write. So, I’ll write this in parts.