A first attempt to capture the lightening

These have been clicked from the faculty building top with a Canon EOS500D with a tripod. They are long exposure shots (20s) with low aperture (5.0).

KETCHUP TASTING

As we strolled through the campus of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) (www.iitk.ac.in) this chipmunk catches our eye. He casually strolls out of his bed (read: climb downs his tree) and heads over to the cafe for some early morning wakeup drink (read: goes and drinks ketchup from a bottle which has been unintentionally left outside by the cafe manager).

IITK is a place where flora and fauna coexists with their bipedal brothers. Peacocks and a whole plethora of bird species can be seen yodeling, doodling, pecking, munching and making out :)

MOMS new Icon

Icon

Last night we designed a logo for the Indian Railways project we have been working on. The project has been code named MOMS which stands for MEMS based oscillation measuring device. Its a very cool concept that was incepted right here in our Mechanical Engineering Dept last year. It uses sensors to detect faults in the railway tracks and then plots them onto a map on a small screen device for easy repair. Once this cost effective solution is implemented repairing and monitoring railway tracks could be done in a jiffy.

Day of the broken iPhones

Yesterday was the day of the roken iPhones. Early morning Kshitij's iPhone got shattered as it dropped face down F L A T on the ground. There was no sound and after 5 secs melancholic vapors started spreading though out the lab.... After a few hours another student working at the same spot dropped and shattered his phone :)

Jugnu featured in India Today

Jugnu, the IIT Kanpur nano satellite has been featured in India Today. It is one of the most innovative projects in Science and Technology happening in India. Work on Jugnu started last year and is a very ambitious project. Jugnu is a satellite which would orbit the earth like other satellites, but what makes it special is that it weighs slightly over 3.5kgs and leverages on the latest technologies. Conventional satellites weigh over 100kgs and the cost of putting them into space is high because of the added weight. Jugnu will be India's first Nano Satellite.

The India Today article:

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/93167/Cover%20Story/Small+wonder.html

IITK: New lIght

Come back.... Come back to where you once belonged

Thats the song that comes to my head when I think of my alma mater...

Research@LibrarySkating... My national timpass

The end of my masters was a crazy time... I learn't that research couldn't be accelerated beyond a certain rate and then I started moving faster than that :)... I had started photography again with my introduction to the Canon 500D. Every now and then I would go out for skating too.
FacB (Faculty Building) roof top had become a regular wee hrs hangout spot.

Even with all the time crunch sleep was the only thing I was budgeting on. Visits to the bowling alley and to the coffee shop were prioritized. When Priyesh and Prachi came over we went to the Landmark hotel with Neharika to show off my exemplary driving skills. People there got to witness such awesomeness that they had to be sworn to secrecy.

The Mai Hu DON walk@ Landmark (From Left: Neharika, Priyesh(Chotu), Prachi)

FacB Roof Top 2am (From Left: Tulsi, Neha, me, Deep, Dhaval, Sandeep)Ksh sporting the 'tora aur milega look'Technology Park@BangaloreKsh wanted to click some pics and guess who volunteered to model :)

The Banglore trip before coming to Mumbai was a great success. The project partners were very happy to see their feed back taken into account and with all the progress made. Also the digital entertainment system in the flight crashed and we got a chance to make a video of the system boot up... that was a really cherry on the icing for us geeks... the icing being the great hotel and the night at the hard rock cafe.

The dump from the airline entertainment system boot upAnother one from the FacB roof top

2am and its raining on my home planet

On a planet in the Milky way galaxy, home to the homo sapien species, atmospheric water vapor has been condensing into drops heavy enough to fall and big enough to make it to the surface on the face of the planet facing away from the star it circles every 31,556,926 seconds. This ridiculous phenomenon is captures by a being made up of 70% H2O and with scarce signs of motor skills and intelligence.After roughly taking 300 shots, I was finally able to capture the lightening. Second shot for a comparison.

3g now at IIT Kanpur

The pic say it all...

Early Morning Cycle Ride

A couple of days back I was talking with a friend when I realized there is still a lot to explore here before I go. So starting on with my expedition I went on a early morning cycling safari to the pond@IITK. This place is behind hall of residence 9 and its pretty difficult to locate on foot because of the hedges all around and the uneven landscape, but I am a pretty stubborn person when I set my mind on something.
To prepare for the trip I borrowed my cycle back:), got it serviced and cleaned up and didn't sleep through out the night, probably the best techniques to make sure you are up early. Next step was to look up the place in google earth and get going. Cycling on bumpy, lumpy, rocky ground is my passion. I love to cycle fast on rough terrains and avoid getting thrown off it. After around half an hour of hunting I was able to locate it and it was worth the wait. The sunlight reflecting off the water looked magnificent.
I also ran into some huge birds that morning. They had deep red colored necks and were over 4.5 feet tall. This is the closest I could get to them without disturbing them. Pic from my iPhone.Hopefully I'll get a good camera soon. PS: I voted :). If votes have still not been casted in your region, do go out and vote.

It's April fool's day ...

April fool's day in Kshitz's words:

Amidst loads of hassles and chaos due to uninformed visit of GM's top official, April fool's day fetched us many preys for entertainment, with Taru and Neha leading the row with Mr. and Ms. Popat award. The plan was incubated at the Hall 8 mess during lunch time while I was having food with Shubham. We had been thinking of some nice idea to play a prank on someone. When we were entering the mess I came across Ashwini Shukla. I had found my prey. Shubham suggested me to call Neha, and propose her. Since she didn't have my phone number so it should work out easily. I was little uncertain of the success of the plan... "proposing a girl ... although fake.. still first time in my life I was bound to stammer and fail." We even wrote a script for carrying out the entire series of events. Finally I gathered some courage and called her :

"Hello Neha... my name is Ashwini Shukla. I am a 4th year UG in the Mech Deptt and am planning to start my own firm and would like you to design the website for the same. I saw you a couple of times at CC canteen and got your no. from Rahul Verma. Could we meet at 6 in the CR."And fortunately she agreed in the first attempt.

Our evilness turned darker by the evening and we began making more wicked plans. We needed some girl who could fake Neha and call Ashwini to the CR. We approached Ruchira Ma'am and she agreed but 'Shubham didn't have the script ready by then'. Meanwhile Akanksha had arrived in the lab and gladly joined the gang. I confirmed Shukla's phone no. from Saket and called him from my mobile but he didn't pick the phone. While we were still planning what next... there was call on my phone from the same number. Akanksha picked up the phone. The plan was that she would say that she was a student from MNNIT who wanted to participate in Robocon and needed his guidance. She picked up the phone , "Hello , may I talk to Ashwini Shukla." On realizing that the voice on the other side was feminine she asked "Who is this?". "This is Neha. Is it Ashwini's phone number ?" I immediately realised that I had called up the last dialled number, that was Neha's and not Shukla's. What a popat were we making of ourselves; picking up Neha's call and a girl asking her for Shukla leaving no reason for her to trust us.

2-3 more attempts but Shukla didn't pick the phone. It was already 5 and we didn't have much time now. So we started thinking of some alternative target. But who could beat the mastermind Shubham who had already fooled 3 people in the meantime. He called up his Mom saying that he had finally found a girl and he wanted to introduce her to them at an upcoming family function at his uncle's. Surbhi was in the lab for a while and even she was not spared, "You know Vyas Sir has become the director of IIT Indore " :D He didn't stop at that. He wanted a double cross; when Ruchira Ma'am would call up Ashwini it should be someone else on the other side and she would herself be fooled.

We were browsing through our gtalk lists and came across Taru - the perfect choice. Akanksha made up a nice storyline , "Hello I am from Kanpur Institiute Of Technology. Our group is working on a solar heater project and Kadambi Sir wanted us to meet you. Could we meet at CR and could you share some of your notes and works". Poor Taru in his usual squeezing voice agreed to all her conditions (I could imagine him sitting on his chair and pressing the space bar for pausing the media player). It was 5.55 and we were planning to leave when Vyas Sir entered the lab saying, "Mr. Mangalgiri is in campus and would be here in 10 minutes." What the hell... we felt so cheated, while trying our best to somehow delay his visit but nothing seemed to work that day. Finally I somehow convinced Neha to come over to the CC canteen while Taru was still unreachable. While we were moving out to CC canteen Vyas Sir informed us that we would have to go and meet him in the VH itself so we were relaxed but it was little late as Neha might have already left. I again called her up and asked her to be at CR itself.

We moved towards the shop-C where Taru was sitting under the tree waiting for his lady. The sight was amazing. He had a big diary in his hand probably containing all his btp work to be sacrificed for a KIT girl. We went inside making him comfortable and at the same time pulling his leg. His usual stupid principles didn't take a break even here, "Yaar sabse buri baat ye hai ki log time dete hain aur late aate hain. Main 4 baar phone kar chuka huun but no kar de rahi hai." I was literally feeling sorry for him but could not stop recording all this conversation on my phone. "So, Taru whats her name," asked someone. "She didn't tell that and neither did I ask." And still this gentleman was waiting there well dressed up waiting to pour out all his knowledge. If only we had a little more time..... the story could have continued for some more time. I asked him to watch a video in the meantime which was nothing but the Akanksha's call video. He almost went dumb for a minute and then says, "Ab CR aa hi gaye hain to kuchh khila do." But we had to proceed to CC canteen to claim another treat. I called up Neha and this time some guy picks up the phone and spoke rather rudely as to who I was and why I was looking for her. I called on her cell back and assured that I am not fake and I was serious about the project to which she blindly agreed. While heading towards the lab a profile video was made on the Taru and the gang behind these activities. Shubham's description of his role in the story was worth noting, "Main sabse chaapu huun...saari achhi planning karta huun, tum log tel machate ho fir main usko wipe out karta huun".

Neha was waiting on a table behind the TMRS lab. Shubham jumped to ask her what was she doing there. "I was actually waiting for someone," with no clue to who the caller was and what was the name of the company she was making the website for. I tried to instigate some talks regarding Shukla but probably her enthusiasm about the first project of her life didn't let her stop.

Shubham :"So koi bhi ladka tumhe kahega ki kaam hai aa jao to chali jaogi".
Neha: "Mech mein main sab ladkon ko jaanti huun..ccc mein sabko dekha hai."
Shubham: "Rahul ko apna no. kyon diya?"
Akanksha :"Agar Vyas Sir peechhe se aa jayein to teeno ka jayega."

Praneeth who was waiting in the lab to hand me the bluetooth mobile for demo was already in the lab and was bugging me on the phone. So we decided to uncover the mystery fast. We once again showed her the call video and got our shares of abuses immediately.

Shubham: "Btw wo banda kaun tha jisne jhaada tha ?"
Neha : "To wo tum the jisne phone kiya tha... you dog .. agar maine pehle tumhari awaaz phone pe suni hoti to galti na karti ... arey wo to cross connection tha."

We apologised to the victims and proceeded for mission lab's mission now, when Neha snatched away Shubham's phone. Shukla after seeing my missed call, called back on my phone. Shubham not having switched to the work mode yet, cooked up a nice censored story to him on the phone.

Now it was Praneeth's turn who was walking with us towards the VH. He overheard our conversation regarding Neha making the company's website and got curious, "Which company which website... you registered your company or what". Why should we let him slip when he wants to drown himself. We cooked up a nice story that Shubham's Dad has loads of contacts and he has got us a company registered dealing in embedded systems. A website has also been registered for the same. "You didn't even inform me. What is this ? ...bla bla..bla", the whining continued till we had reached our destination.

The movie was yet not over and some anti-climax was still in store for us. We reached the VH at 6.45 only to realise that his room was locked. After waiting for 15 minutes I called up Sir and the much awaited typhoon was there. I tried to calm him down. Then we went to pick Dr. Mangalgiri from the "Artist in Residence" show. We brought him to the lab at 9 pm where our presentations lasted till 11.30 pm. Next morning we got the 2nd part of the blow from Sir when the single wheel test rig was not working. "3 din se bol rakha hai...ready kyn nahi hua. hasi mazaak chal raha tha kya !!" Somehow RSS and Ruchira Ma'am managed the situation and showed him some working VI.

A day full of pranks and an evening of nightmares.. deadly combination !!

via: http://kshdeo.blogspot.com
Go to Kshitz's blog for more fun stuff and happening of IIT Kanpur. There is a lot of untold and unheard stuff there.... shoking reveletions what the life at IIT is like.....
Chow
Shubham

Hi

I am in Bangalore. Came here to have a discussion with some very experienced researchers on the project I am working on. My project is basically a joint collaboration between GM and IIT Kanpur and is related to improving the car steering system. Here the GM facilities are excellent. Very quite and peaceful offices to work in and well equipped labs to break things in.

Apart from work I got a chance to go to the MG Road. While packing for Bangalore I realized that I had only one pair of jeans which was in one piece. Rest have ripped some where or the other, mostly my skating habits are to be blamed. So I got a couple of jeans.

Before coming here some thing very interesting happened. A couple of weeks back my guide and I figured that I need to give some direction to the project I am working on. For that he suggested I go to GM Bangalore, present my work and get some feed back and thoughts. I promptly fixed a meeting and booked my tickets. 5 days before departure I realized something. Say my work is shooting arrows. I was supposed to shoot an arrow in the North direction, but because it was a little foggy at that moment in the north I decided to shoot an arrow 2 degrees from the north figuring I could reorient it later, back to north. Five days before the presentation I found out that there was no possible way to reorient the arrow and all the work I had so far, now only contributed to increasing my knowledge. So basically 4 months of slogging and nothing to present, that too a week before!!!!. Life is full of pleasant surprises :).I figured what had happened had happened and there was no way of knowing how this knowledge would contribute in the future. Smiling at my fate I started again from scratch. I toiled for 3 days and nights and finally was closing on something that might have accounted as presentable results, when again something very interesting happened.

Some late night creative photography....:)

At 6 am 2 days before the presentation I realized I wasn't supposed to shoot an arrow in the north in the first place. I was happy that now finally I knew what was to be done and was pondering on how stale life would be without these servings of salt and pepper along the way. I decided to do first things first..... sleep.... So I went for group kriya to Ankur's room at 6:30am with every intention of going to sleep after that. Who knew the master had something else in mind. After the group kriya Deep and Neha figured it would be better for me to go for Dev D morning show :) I also thought it was a great idea and willing went provided they took me in a taxi and the ticket was paid for. So 10 am we were at Big Cinemas ready for some emotional attyachaar in the most expensive seats :P.

After the movie I took some rest and worked till my morning train the next day. Before leaving I had the equations ready. I did the presentation on my way and by the time I reached I was almost done....... Now when I look back I cannot stop laughing and wondering how things happen. The universe works perfectly.... all you need to do is have some faith. I have no idea how a lazy bum like me stayed up for 5 day... almost straight..... :)... well actually I have some idea. In the last couple of year events with same central theme have happened over and over again and I have realized one profound truth about my life: It's going to be a lot of fun (unimaginable)........ but its not going to be easy at all..... a no comfort zone is guaranteed... :) well I have developed a liking for it. I'll do the next part of the post soon with details on how the trip turned out to be...... and how I managed to meet the Guru (Guru bhai and His holiness Sri Sri).....

Signing of and hoping a good night's sleep in weeks

Shubham

Feedback!!!

Hi
I got a chance to visit the Registrar office today. Check out the pics for a expose on the complaint and suggestion box. Truly our feedback is valued and preserved untouched for eternity. I can bet the key to the box is lost.
Cheers
SG

Casual Updates....

So many days have gone by and I have been waiting to write something. A lot has happened since I last posted.A YES!+ course in campus. The course was a big hit and every one had so much fun. I remember something Bhaiya asked in one of the post course sessions which made me think a lot. We were eating Pani puri in Rave Moti when Ankur pointed out how magnificently the Pani Puri had been presented. Then he asked "Have you ever presented some thing so well?". I don’t remember the PJ that followed but you should have seen the course venue the next day. As the course participants were entering they were asking "Is there some special session today?" the venue was that clean.

Phuskar

More pics of the course at http://picasaweb.google.com/shubham.goel/YESIITKanpurNov08

My brother visited the campus and I got a chance to check out the iPhone 3g. It was in mint condition. I absolutely fell in love with the device. Though the differences are minor between the 2g and the new 3g but its so white and shiny!!! Plus it has GPS and a data plan which works on roaming. I have been struggling really hard to get the data plan activated on my iPhone. Also the rumors are true. Because of the new shape it really feels better to hold and work on. I must appreciate his patience because I really know how to fiddle with a device and test its limits.

A Reflection of the 2g in the 3g iPhone :)

I took him out to Tarka along with Rajesh Bhaiya and some close friends. It was fun to see him after a long time. We tried awesome new Italian dishes, names of which I still can't pronounce:)

Pavan's G4 on the right

Last week end I got to lay my hands on Pavan's Powerbook G4. Its always feels nice to finger around with vintage Apple stuff. Pavan would kill me if he reads this cause he sincerely believes that his G4 is faster than my intel duo and loves his machine. Ignorance is a bliss after all. Did I mention I accidentally erased his hard disk at 4 am in the morning, but then I remebered "There are no accidents in life"- Master Oogway

Dinner Gang
From the left: Some awesome dude, Deep, Zeba, Abhishek, Dheeraj, Siddharth and Rashmita
Row 2: Divya, Avani, Gauri, Vipul and Laxmikant

And finally today to celebrate children's day we went to the near by juvenile centre and I made a new friend Chandan. Later I cajoled the three babes (Avani, Divya and Zeba) to cook dinner for us and after 3 hrs of cooking and grocery shopping we had a great meal and lots of people to help finish :)

Video Chat in Gmail

And the cherry on the icing is that google has has released video and voice chat and the best part, it all works on mac this time.

New Skates for the club

slalom race on the wet rink: it was awesome, watching us skate the crowd went nuts..

Puneet and me after the race

After months of nagging we finally have approval to buy new skates for the skating club. I really appreciate Ahbishek Tiwari's efforts for allotting the funds. I know he has taken some very tough decisions to make this happen. We all (participants and the coordinators) are very excited about this new development. With the flood lit skating rink, new instructor and new skates the skating club is fast moving out of the developing stage. The new coordinators are taking charge now and heading full on to make the club a phenomenon. A phenomenon I am really lucky to witness.

At a place like IIT Kanpur many new and revolutionary things keep happening and if you get to be a part of just one of them you are really lucky. I have been a part of three. The skating club for one has touched over 800 students and showed them a new ways of falling head over heals :). The YES!+ course started happening when I was in my second year and now has become the most popular course on campus. It has transformed the lives of hundreds of students on campus taught them how to smile even after a bad quiz 

and go make a difference in the society they live in. From setting up schools in far fetched corners of the country (eg. the one in Aur Wand Tand, a naxalite hit area, by Rajesh Jasaia and ass.) to planting over a 100 million trees. Now that I have mentioned YES!+ I'll do another in-depth report about YES!+ and its side effects ;). The third is Sumeru Sandhya/Anantrang. More about that too, but later.

 Getting back, as for the skates, we are planning to get inline skates from Yonker. They have a great soft skate shoe, steel wheel frame and ABEC-5 speed bearings. All in all they are the perfect pair of skates to start on. I wish I had these when I started. If you have any suggestions or need tips buying new ones do get in touch. I would love to hear from you.

Another update: A few weeks back during Udgosh 08, our inter-college sports festival the club had organized a couple of skate races. I came in first in the 500m forward and 200m back skate race. Rajat won the slalom race which was a real challenge as it was raining and the skating rink got wet.

skate dance team....almost

Skate Dance DE 08

So many updates........so little time. Actually thats not true. Its just that I have been acting lazy all week.
Last weekend the skating club performed in the Dance Extravaganza 08 (DE). I think it happened for the first time in the history of DE that non performers went on stage and rocked, after all we had a superb choreographer Nitish and two great managers Hemant and Adarsh. The three are coordinators for the club now. The Dance club was really supportive to put their faith in us.
I remember when Nitish proposed for a skate dance exactly 13 days before the event. We didn't have props, people or the time. But we decided to go ahead with it. We'll thats the way we do things here at IITK. Finally by the time of the show we even had sponsered dresses!!!
I must say the participants did a great job. Most of them picked up skakes for the first time, but became so good over the week that even most of experienced ones were left behind by their vigour and valler. The jumps they made, the trust in their team members to let them jump over them and what not.
Check out the pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/shubham.goel/SkateDanceDE08