If I were to list down the things which engaged my interest and attention majorly during the time I spent a few days back in Madras , it would pretty much have to be :
1. ‘S’ambhar : I saw it everywhere . I smelled it everywhere and hell yeah ! I hogged on it everywhere . Starting from the minute I landed at Chennai Central and had a plate of the ‘ most authentic ‘ sambhar vada of Saravana Bhavan to the numerous sambhars concomitant with the dosas I had at breakfast and dinner time and to top it all the ubiquitous lunch item of sambhar rice . ‘Sambhar Slurpfest ‘ rules my gastronomic priorities hands-down :) here in Madras .
2. ‘S’ilica-Based Nanocomposites : Synthesis of nanosized particles of this material by high energy ball milling was the purported reason I was in Madras in the first place . Research work miles away from the insti. bang in the middle of a semester otherwise marked by an incredibly boring diurnal schedule of alternating between Gtalk ,Heavy Metal , hours of unproductive lectures / labs and the occasional sleep was a really welcome change .
3. ‘S’.. Hadn’t met this good friend of mine for four long months ! And when the opportunity finally came , busy schedules of ‘Work ’ forced both parties to limit the meeting to a fleeting time of 6-7 hrs .However , whoever said 6 hours wasn’t enough time to experience the vibrance of a major city was wrong !! Stopovers at S’s place ( where the sambhar slurpfest continued unabated :D in the disguise of homemade Southie food ) , Coffee Central ( an awesomeMAXX coffee bar in T.Nagar) , Gangotree Chat and offcourse watching the Sun set over the Bay of Bengal at Marina Beach to top it all . Thanks S , for making those 6 hrs the only truly ‘Happy Hours’ I had in an otherwise maddening work-dominated stay in Madras .
4. 'S'leep : Good ole sleep eluded me for 3 nights in a row . After just 7.5 hrs of sleep in over 3 days, on Sunday night , I felt like a walking and talking zombie and thought to myself , “ One more night like this and I am officially ‘DEAD’ “ .
5. 'S'un N 'S'and : The Sweltering Sun and the and the relentlessly humid weather in Madras left me wondering whether I would make it out safely from the city without dehydrating to death . I mean I know what humidity can do to you ( coming from Bombay i.e. ) but it’s a different story altogether here .
I managed to sneak in some time for Marina Beach ( with 'S' ) and Eliiot’s Beach ( with Shawshank ) and mind you for a guy who comes from Nagpur (which is right in the centre of the country far far away from any large water body :) ) the sight of the sea can bring an inexplicable amount of joy .
78 hours in Madras was hence basically a choice between spending time for one of the above S’s which thankfully at times was substituted for time with another S . And in this battle of the S’s , the combination of No.3 and No.5 win hands down :) .
I shall go now and get some of No.4 before I end up writing more mindless blah !
Cheerio ,
Count Grishnackh
Showing posts with label Arbit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arbit. Show all posts
Madras Musings II - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Location : Still in Nanotech Lab , MSB 201 , IIT-Madras
Time : 4.30 AM
One more day of hard work gone by and I am beginning to feel dizzy both because I haven’t had much sleep the last 2 nights and also coming to terms with realising the amount of work I have done in the same period . It is indeed true that you never realise your potential till you stretch yourself to the limits . So , I sit here waiting for Saturday to give way to a much-awaited Sunday !
In general , I am always psyched up on Sundays but also have the infamous habit of having never ONCE in the last 3 yrs of my happy undergraduate life do anything constructive on Sundays . If history were to repeat itself today , I fear some serious repercussions on my project . But a Sunday is a Sunday ( and this one particularly promises to be ‘LEGENDARY ‘ ) . So , I’m gonna have my share of fun today !! Time to SUIT UP & BUZZ OFF !
Cheerio !
Count Grishnackh
Time : 4.30 AM
One more day of hard work gone by and I am beginning to feel dizzy both because I haven’t had much sleep the last 2 nights and also coming to terms with realising the amount of work I have done in the same period . It is indeed true that you never realise your potential till you stretch yourself to the limits . So , I sit here waiting for Saturday to give way to a much-awaited Sunday !
In general , I am always psyched up on Sundays but also have the infamous habit of having never ONCE in the last 3 yrs of my happy undergraduate life do anything constructive on Sundays . If history were to repeat itself today , I fear some serious repercussions on my project . But a Sunday is a Sunday ( and this one particularly promises to be ‘LEGENDARY ‘ ) . So , I’m gonna have my share of fun today !! Time to SUIT UP & BUZZ OFF !
Cheerio !
Count Grishnackh
Madras Musings I - MSB 201
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
The Lonely root ov Three
I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three
The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out ov sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine
For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic
I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality
When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root ov a three
As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer
We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands
Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed
P.S. I conned this from a movie i just saw . Clever shit , isn't it :) ??
Cheerio !!
30 Hrs in the Good Bay !
Life has been extremely uninteresting and drab for most of the time this semester in VNIT :( . So I decided to set off on an impromptu jaunt back home this weekend . I had a rail ticket booked 2 weeks in advance ( There's a long story behind that , the details of which I spare u :P ) but made up my mind to go with this 'whim' of mine 3 hrs before the departure of the train from Nagpur to the ' Good Bay ' . Considering I was anyways going to screw around another weekend in Nagpur , I felt that 30 hrs @ Home would be a better option instead .
Fortunately , my train journey was fun thanks to the awesomeness of Aggie's presence ( another equally 'whimsical' person here :) ) & infi. rounds of dozing off accompanied by blissful hours on the iPod . On reaching home , my Mom who opened the door was shell-shocked !! She expected the Chauffeur who generally reported for duty at his regular time in the morning and instead found me at the doorstep . Needless to say , Dad and Bro were equally surprised :) .
Later that evening , we all went out to dine at an amazing restaurant serving authentic Oriental cuisine . But the highlight of the evening was undoubtedly BEER which I had with my Dad ( and ya , rite in front of my Mom :) who btw is 'not so cool' about me drinking up ). That beer was definitely SOMETHING :) .
And here I am , 3 hrs before leaving Bom Bahia ( The Good Bay ) to return to the rut of VNIT life :( doing what I do best when I am jobless ...BLOGGING !!
Cheerio ,
" The Destroyer of Lies "
Fortunately , my train journey was fun thanks to the awesomeness of Aggie's presence ( another equally 'whimsical' person here :) ) & infi. rounds of dozing off accompanied by blissful hours on the iPod . On reaching home , my Mom who opened the door was shell-shocked !! She expected the Chauffeur who generally reported for duty at his regular time in the morning and instead found me at the doorstep . Needless to say , Dad and Bro were equally surprised :) .
Later that evening , we all went out to dine at an amazing restaurant serving authentic Oriental cuisine . But the highlight of the evening was undoubtedly BEER which I had with my Dad ( and ya , rite in front of my Mom :) who btw is 'not so cool' about me drinking up ). That beer was definitely SOMETHING :) .
And here I am , 3 hrs before leaving Bom Bahia ( The Good Bay ) to return to the rut of VNIT life :( doing what I do best when I am jobless ...BLOGGING !!
Cheerio ,
" The Destroyer of Lies "
The Blackmetaller’s Guide to the GRE :)
Blogging after a long time . Courtesy GRE . Thankfully , I am done with it . An OK score of 1460 ( Quant: 800 , Verbal:660 :( ) .
Although the title of the post gives the idea that the post is a didactical treatise on how to study for the GRE , it actually isn’t . I have just listed the material I used for the same and added my views here and there . Nothing more , nothing less . It is upto thy intelligent self to winnow the useful stuff from the one which isn’t ....
For Verbal :
1. Mugged Barrons ....No ifs and buts here sadly !!
2. Solved all the Big Book Tests . U’ll find a host of new words here too....especially in the analogy questions . Do them !! And chances are you’ll never run out of them during your prep. duration .
3. Read the ‘Kaplan’s Verbal ‘ Ebook.....has certain fundae on how to approach various sections of the Verbal exam . Browse through. The word lists too deserve a glimpse for they are pretty well-organised and grouped .
4. “ 63 RC’s “ . Ignore this one if you are already able to crack the Big Book RC’s effortlessly . Personally , I used to always make a few mistakes in RC’s ...hence I used this ebook. It has an amazing collection of GMAT/GRE level passages . Again , there are so many that you’ll never run out of them !!
5. Prof. M.Krupa Shanker’s Audio Lists ( Only the ‘ Analogies ‘ and ‘ Special Words’ . These are 2 audio files ( 10-15 mins duration ..i think ) . Here are some words you can note down for analogies .....for e.g collective nouns , words related to a particular subject etc. The alternative for this Audio thingie is exploring a Thesaurus , but again , I didn’t have enough time to do the latter .
6 . Lastly , all your efforts in building a strong Vocabulary will remain incomplete if you don’t supplement it with section-wise tests on a regular basis . In the initial period of your prep , do Big Book , Princeton Review CD ( Really Easy !! ) , Kaplan ( A lil scary initially..sum tough words ) and Cambridge . And yeah ..the Powerprep section-wise practice exercises too .
For Quant :
Prepared very little for this section ....
I read through the Fundae in Barron’s . Solved a few examples here and there .
Did the same with an ebook “ Nova GRE “ . And the ‘ ETS GRE Math Review ‘ . That’s it .
Do some tests ( from the CD’s mentioned for Verbal ) and u shud be fine . Mind you , the actual GRE quants are slightly tougher ( cuz they take more time and require a tiny bit more of thinking ) . Avoid making silly mistakes and you should be through with a perfect score here !!
For AWA :
I wrote just ONE essay each for the Issue and Argument types two days before the exam . Was too lazy to practise more . Do read through the sample essays in ‘ ARCO’s Essay Book ‘ . Its an amazing book with samples based on the ETS list of issues and arguments . Get a basic feel on how to approach the section otherwise from the ETS AWA tutorial . That should be more than enough to land you a decent score .
Other useful material and links :
www.number2.com
www.greguide.com
Dr.Raju’s GRE ( check out the Orkut version of this page otherwise for most recent Quant and Verbal Questions faced by others for an idea !!
500 questions on Antonyms , Sentence Completion , Quantitative Comparison etc.etc. ( all separate ebooks ).
That is about it ...i guess . It resulted in a decent score for me ....and hopefully atleast some of this might help you get a decent or probably a better score !!
Cheers ,
Count Grishnackh ( The Blackest ov the Black )
p.s. In case the readers of this post give the GRE in the future and come out with flying colours , they MUST treat the author or atleast drop a comment here :) .
Although the title of the post gives the idea that the post is a didactical treatise on how to study for the GRE , it actually isn’t . I have just listed the material I used for the same and added my views here and there . Nothing more , nothing less . It is upto thy intelligent self to winnow the useful stuff from the one which isn’t ....
For Verbal :
1. Mugged Barrons ....No ifs and buts here sadly !!
2. Solved all the Big Book Tests . U’ll find a host of new words here too....especially in the analogy questions . Do them !! And chances are you’ll never run out of them during your prep. duration .
3. Read the ‘Kaplan’s Verbal ‘ Ebook.....has certain fundae on how to approach various sections of the Verbal exam . Browse through. The word lists too deserve a glimpse for they are pretty well-organised and grouped .
4. “ 63 RC’s “ . Ignore this one if you are already able to crack the Big Book RC’s effortlessly . Personally , I used to always make a few mistakes in RC’s ...hence I used this ebook. It has an amazing collection of GMAT/GRE level passages . Again , there are so many that you’ll never run out of them !!
5. Prof. M.Krupa Shanker’s Audio Lists ( Only the ‘ Analogies ‘ and ‘ Special Words’ . These are 2 audio files ( 10-15 mins duration ..i think ) . Here are some words you can note down for analogies .....for e.g collective nouns , words related to a particular subject etc. The alternative for this Audio thingie is exploring a Thesaurus , but again , I didn’t have enough time to do the latter .
6 . Lastly , all your efforts in building a strong Vocabulary will remain incomplete if you don’t supplement it with section-wise tests on a regular basis . In the initial period of your prep , do Big Book , Princeton Review CD ( Really Easy !! ) , Kaplan ( A lil scary initially..sum tough words ) and Cambridge . And yeah ..the Powerprep section-wise practice exercises too .
For Quant :
Prepared very little for this section ....
I read through the Fundae in Barron’s . Solved a few examples here and there .
Did the same with an ebook “ Nova GRE “ . And the ‘ ETS GRE Math Review ‘ . That’s it .
Do some tests ( from the CD’s mentioned for Verbal ) and u shud be fine . Mind you , the actual GRE quants are slightly tougher ( cuz they take more time and require a tiny bit more of thinking ) . Avoid making silly mistakes and you should be through with a perfect score here !!
For AWA :
I wrote just ONE essay each for the Issue and Argument types two days before the exam . Was too lazy to practise more . Do read through the sample essays in ‘ ARCO’s Essay Book ‘ . Its an amazing book with samples based on the ETS list of issues and arguments . Get a basic feel on how to approach the section otherwise from the ETS AWA tutorial . That should be more than enough to land you a decent score .
Other useful material and links :
www.number2.com
www.greguide.com
Dr.Raju’s GRE ( check out the Orkut version of this page otherwise for most recent Quant and Verbal Questions faced by others for an idea !!
500 questions on Antonyms , Sentence Completion , Quantitative Comparison etc.etc. ( all separate ebooks ).
That is about it ...i guess . It resulted in a decent score for me ....and hopefully atleast some of this might help you get a decent or probably a better score !!
Cheers ,
Count Grishnackh ( The Blackest ov the Black )
p.s. In case the readers of this post give the GRE in the future and come out with flying colours , they MUST treat the author or atleast drop a comment here :) .
Snake Reverie / Benzene ??
Place : 10 July 2009 , 11.00 AM , Nerul , Navi Mumbai
"I turned my chair towards my window and dozed. Again the words were gamboling before my eyes. ... My mental eye... could not distinguish larger words , of manifold conformation; long ones , sometimes more closely related together; all twining and twisting in snakelike motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the WORD whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lighting I awoke...and wrote this post " - Nikhil Balachander
Folks , this could be an after-effect of continously mugging vocab for GRE !!
On second thought however it could also be an inane adaptation of the famous reptilian dream Fredrich August von Kekule (a German chemist)claimed he had and resulted in the discovery of the ring-shaped chemical structure of benzene in 1865. Although some scholars now believe that Kekule's dream was a hoax to avoid sharing credit for the discovery of the hexagonal shape of benzene, it still makes a wonderful story. :P :P
Cheers!
