Location : Nanotech. Lab , 201 , Mechanical Sciences Block , IIT Madras
Time : 4.30 AM
Waiting impatiently for the last run of the High energy ball mill .Its been 10 hrs of nonstop work here and I can hear the Ball Mill begging me to stop it and urging me to give us both a break !
So it all starts here ; we ( two enthu punters : Shawshank & me :) ) left Nagpur this Thursday for Tam-Land with the mission ( actually Final Yr. BTP work ) of synthesising Al-Mg-SiO2 nanocomposite powders using the High energy Ball Milling facility at IITM ( excuse the technical blah here :) ) . In short , the experiment requires both of us to be awake for most of a 48 hr-marathon operation period of the machine followed by 10 hrs of analysis on the aforementioned results . Needless to say the project experience sounds demanding enough but the real challenge came up when we were told that our accommodation arrangements ( made in advance ) had mysteriously been cancelled and we had two options : to share a really cramped hostel room with 2 other M.Tech students or else sleep in the lab itself . We chose the latter and hence MSB 201 was to be our home for the next 3.5 days and 3 nights . We would work , eat , sleep , drink , surf the net and offcourse even blog from the lab . Initially , sleeping on newspapers or a thin bedsheet surrounded by huge N2 cylinders and multi-crore worth instruments was a wee bit uncomfortable but we were so goddamn weary to fret over all this and decided to instead enjoy the very few hrs of sleep we were getting .
Both of us were overwhelmed by the trust of the IITM lab guys and the freedom they gave us ( two total strangers whose work benefitted none at IITM :) ) within 10 mins of our stay in the Lab . They gave us the full responsibility of the Lab with an individual set of keys too which helped us work throughout the night too . Sadly , our own Meta. Dept. @ VNIT has never allowed us to use certain so-called ‘ expensive ‘ lab instruments by ourselves or ever stay in the Lab beyond 5 P.M. Otherwise , the weather is a bit too hot to be comfortable and the food is too good to miss !
One day gone ...SO FAR SO GOOD !
Cheerio !
Count Grishnackh
4 comments:
I dunno why, but somewhere in the back of my mind i was expecting that u wud put a photo of u sleeping (but dint expect it to be in your lab :O)
Living and working in the lab reminds me of those Indians who go to Dubai in hope of good work, by the promises made to them and end up living in cramped places and conditions-pathetic. Still urs looks better than theirs. Anyway, desperate situations call for desperate measures and thats what is bringing out the working part in u. . . . .
This is my first comment on blogspot, hope that i dint screw this up. Do reply....
@ Pratik-dude : He's not sleeping. A bolt from a very high-priced machine came off and rolled down beneath the table. Balu's just trying to find that bolt.
@ Balu : Sharing a room with Matkas! shudder.
And why are u even comparing our college with iit-m? Huh? WHY?
And one more thing man. Sleep. I had read somewhere that people who don't sleep for more than 40 hours develop dark circles and then, die. So sleep.
@ Pratik : Really appreciate you dropping by the blog and commenting on it !! I have no comments on your first statement actually :) . Anyways , I wouldnt call my condition here a desperate measure exactly cuz I am really enjoying it out here :) . And for you info , there is absolutely nuthin like screwin up a comment on Blogspot !! Infact , ur comment OFFICIALLY ROCKS :D !!
Cheers ,
" The Destroyer of Lies "
@ Deng : Eggjactly ...Thats wat I am doing here !! Finding a lost bolt ...altho. I am afraid my current sleeping schedule will soon make me lose my BEARINGS :) . Sleeping in the Lab is cool and watching a movie / sitcom in it is even cooler !! Try it sometime :) .
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