Workshop Woes

I spend my time in Bangalore at the Indian Institute of Science, designing a micro air vehicle. A large part of the design is complete, and I'm getting a prototype fabricated at the workshop under the Aerospace Department.

It's a miserable experience, a real pain up the rear end. Now the workshop has a foreman and under him machinists. The foreman, Mr. Govindraj, is tied up with other items to be fabricated, so I have to settle for one of the machinists. They aren't half as good.

The guy is about to make a drill hole using a lathe*. He puts the job* in the chuck*, and the drill bit in the chuck fitted in the tailpost*, and is about to drill. So I remind him " Centre hole?" And then he removes the drill bit and replaces it with a centre drill, so that the spot to be drilled is marked before drilling. The centre ( a cone shaped depression) created serves to guide the point of the drill to the correct spot to be drilled. It was terrible.

I mean, that's the most obvious thing to do before drilling. I feel helpless. This guy is almost as old as my Dad, and has been a machinist for as long as I have lived, and he acts like this. I don't feel I have the right to yell at him, so I don't. He rushes through everything, fumbling occasionally because of that.

The drill bit is vibrating. That means I will get a slightly larger hole than the drill bit is meant to produce. The best part is out of one of the four times he drilled a hole, he could get it to not vibrate.

I felt miserable... he had no love for what he was doing, no understanding of why he was doing it. It was just a job. He was to make parts that the Aersopace Department needed, and would do whatever it takes to finish the part. Accuracy, function, tolerances, finish could all go out the window. I wanted this and this process, he'll do it superficially and it doesn't matter that he gives me a freely sliding fit when I wanted a tight fit.

I wonder, why on earth does he have this work ethic? What is it with these people? Is it apathy due to experience? Boredom? His expression showed he hated doing his job. It's not like he has to repetitively make the same parts. It's always a specially ordered part. Machining is an art. Yet he hates it.

I guess that a lot of people feel that way... it was kind of depressing. Maybe you don't get to do the job of your choice in life, but every job has something that's interesting.

Lathe - a machine that spins an object at high speed, so that it can be easily cut by cutting tool.
job - the article to be machined.
Machining - removing material from an object.
Drill chuck - used to hold a drill bit
tailpost - used to hold the end of the job not in the chuck, or a tool.

Home... Again

It feels great to be home. I've been taking it easy since I got back home, not rushing through anything. The ride home was bumpy, espacially because I was sharing the berth with my guitar and laptop. My back hurt all night and to top it all some insanely chatty couple was across the aisle talking as if they were on honeymoon on some mediterranean island.

I reach Bangalore by around seven in the morning and it takes them two hours to drop me near home from then on. Mom made breakfast after which I had a nice hot bath. Been a long while since I did that, like a month.

My Grandmom's come down from Mumbai. Sat down and chatted about my family for a long time. It's great to have her down in a way, inspite of her conservative outlook, 'cos I learn a lot about what the others are doing, especially my cousins.

Meanwhile there are a lot of small chores to be done, like unpacking, cleaning out the cupboard, dishwashing etc. For some reason I don't hate doing all that as much as I used to. Apart from that I strummed the guitar. Fingers were really feeling loose for some reason. It was nice, could really pick up some speed while maintaining clarity. Not too fast, beacause soon I start hitting bum notes. Picked up a few notes from a Dream Theater song, not completely accurate. Need to do a lot to train my ear.

Now its the afternoon. Think I'll go get my bike out of the garage, or maybe just sleep. Will go out and catch the jazz/blues/rock stuff supposedly happening at Prominent Cafe Coffee Day outlets.

My Seventh Sem Exams

So this year I had a simply great time during my exams,

It starts with a trip to Gokarna. Read all about it in the previous post. I got conned into it by that usual go-with-the-flow live-in-the-moment philosophy and all. In any case since It was only the beginning of how I decimated any chance of a 9 GPa this semester in hindsight it wasn't a big thing going for it.

So meanwhile I had made a kind of pledge that I wouldn't watch a movie till the hols. Should have kept it. It all started with Cinema Paradiso, touted by Brat for a long time. Curiosity got the better of me and I got down to see what all the fuss was about. Once the pledge lay in tatters a flood followed. I watched on average three movies a day till my exams got over. Not to mention finished a few series here and there.

Luckily the exams were fairly simple, so I could survive with a possible BB in most.

I didn't start MEMS until 12 midnight, and the exam was at ten the next morning. At nine I find out that the news was a mistake, the exams already started! I rush to the exam hall and nothings begun, except the appraisal form. Anyway it was a patheticly simlpe exam so I was happy my goofing off didn't cost me. Well it cost me a possible AA to a BB maybe, because in simple exams I do unnnecessarily badly compared to others. Anyway... as long as my grade doesn't turn off potential admissions to US unis, I couldn't care less.

The last exam was Finite Element Methods, which was basically a stick up my rear end. I suppose by the law of averages it was bound to happen sometime. Apparently it was a uniform phenomenon, so I didn't feel guilty of the three movies last night.

You see, when I prepare for an exam, I don't aim to max the paper or anything. Those days are gone forever, like school maths. I don't even want to beat everyone else. I just want to be able to attempt the paper in a decent fashion, I shouldn't be caught unawares. That amounts to a casual once-over of the notes/text and maybe a sum or two if I have the josh. A nd yeah, I do worry about grades, I just don't want a 7, that's not healthy for applying abroad. I can't be motivated enough to aim higher, it just doesn't work... I lose interest very fast in exams, and end up leaving marks purely because I couldn't be bothered to break my head over a memory-based question. Or a sad paper. Sure, this is a cocky/costly/foolish attitude but that's who I am.

I'd rather watch a movie :)

In seven days:
A Scanner Darkly
Amores Perros
Cinema Paradiso
Black Hawk Down
Kingdom of Heaven
Torque
X Men III
Road Trip
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Dazed and Confused
Secret Window
Malena
October Sky
Pyaar ke Side Effects
The Skeleton Key
What Women Want
Amelie
Chasing Liberty
Eyes Wide Shut
Trainspotting

Beta

Alrighty then,

After many moons I decide to log into my blogger account and I find that they have an old and new type of blogger. Their little mind game works and so I decide I might as well see what happens, even though I hardly use blogger.com never mind any of the new features that Beta is supposed to be worth shifting to for.

In any case its christmas and New Year season, so first let's all forgive me for all the times any of you checked my blog and saw it in the same old state, and then I'll resolve to maintain this thing I've started a bit more regularily.

In case you're curious, you'll find all my old stuff here.

Cheers.

Gokarna

We caught a private bus from Coll to Kumta at around ten p.m. on Friday night. The bus ride was amazing, so smooth we didn't feel a thing, even on the last seat. The bus goes form Mangalore to someplace up north, and gives preference to people boarding at Udupi, who can reserve seats. So basically we were unreserved and were shunted into the last seats, still we all slept soundly.

The bus reached a half hour early, at around 1:30 in the morning. We went to the bus stop at Kumta in hope of finding an auto to the beach, but they were charging too much and we thought we'd walk it up. About ten minutes later we managed to stop an auto who charged a bit lesser, and we all landed on the beach, in two trips. Four of us started playing football while waiting for the rest. Great fun :)

Soon they arrived and we were off.... we walked along the beach and we finally a rock outcrop jutted out from the beach. We tried to go over it, but the other side was a cliff, so we had to climb towards the land, and finally took a long walk around the 'hill'. This took about an hour, where we used the Big Dipper or Great Bear or somehting and decided which way was west at a fork road, cos that would take us back to the beach. so about two hours of that led us just three km from where we started, but around the rock. phew...

So we trudge on, taking a break once. We lay on our backs watching the stars, it was brilliant, the whole milky way stretched out. We could see Orion clearly, I had just learnt what the Dipper looked like, and we looked for scorpio, unsuccessfully.

We kept walking after that, well into the morning. Harry, Sundi and NJ jogged ahead, Bacat, RJug, and Kant were behind us taking pictures along the way. We is Anil and I. We walked, it was a bit bugging not knowing where anyone else was. By dawn we finish the first Stage, which meant we had reached this river mouth. We rested, then played football again, with a volleyball mind you. As usual nice. Kanta NJ and I lost 2-1 to Harry and Sundi and Anil.

After that we try to hire a boat to cross the river mouth and reach Paradise Island. Somehow the rock ahead looms large with its challenge, and we decide to climb it and find a boat on the other side. We expected to be in the boat in forty five min. Huge and terrible mistake. We climbed up in about five minutes, jumped a wall and came to this field of elephant grass, running to the other side of the hill, a bit like the Gladiator seen. We reach the other side and guess what? There's no beach at the bottom, so no point climbing down. There's a wall on this side too.

We keep following it till we get fed up cos we seem to be just circling on top of the hill, and hence decide to just go down the bushy hillside. This is why it was a mistake to climb up. We go through thorns, under thorns and over thorns for about twenty minutes until we finally reach tree-land, meaning no shrubs. My first experience in tree climbing began, although it wasn't a big tree or anything. We keep heading down till we come to a crescent of a beach. It was awesome. We jump into the waves and play around for a while, then pack from there. The ferry to the pther bank of the river was two beaches away, so we wade through the sea next to a cliff face, which was waist deep, then we climb up and over the next similar cliff, come down again. After soe negotiation we get a boatride straight to Half Moon beach. Its about 10:45 right now. We had to skip paradise island, becasue the trek to Om beach would be long and it wasn't that great anyway.

Half moon beach was empty, so we begin the trek to Om beach. We go a bit then Anil wants to go down and drink some coke, however we walk all the way down and the'shck' is really just that, two locals working mud. They give us some water from a plastic pot. We climb back up and cross the first few foreigners, they were coming from Om beach. As usual Om Beach is separated from Half-Moon by a rocky cliff, so we climb upto the cliff face and walk along the cliff, with a path cut out. This view, is amazing. We see beautiful images of Half Moon Beach, the sea and then Om beach as we descend to it. It's 12 noon right now.

Om beach was awesome. It's called that beacause it has two crescent-chaped beaches looking like an 'Om' symbol from the southern side. The beach was moderately populated by foreigners, which in the end is why anyone would go to the beach, to catch sight of the 'phirang' babes. We were not disapointed. We crash in a restaurant-shack, avoiding the overly priced Namaste restaurant in the northern crescent. We ordered lunch then sat around doing nothing. Sundi and RJug went swimming/ogling. Lunch was served after around an hour and a half. I get hold of Bacat's 'The Stranger' by Albert Camus, from Harry who dozed off. I must read that one. I had a chicken burger that was more like a chicken sandwich with a burger patis. There were french fries and salad. This place served all types of quisine, even Israeli and Penne.

Anyway, to the crux of Om Beach. The babes. In the shack arbit bikini-clad babes are coming in and going out, all pretty and all well-endowed. So uptil lunch we had an entertaining time. After lunch we go play, yes you guessed right, football for ten min after which the insane heat forces us into the water where the waves were simply great - nice and high. Nearby is a group of four isrealis, two HOT chicks amongst them. We play around, occasionally staring at them. They stare back sometimes, I guess we're both exotic in some way to each other. Unfortunately no sexual undertones there. So then this THIRD Israeli walks into the sea, and she is simply stunning. Great figure what not. This goes on a bit, we play, till about three when its time to leave. I'm not sure how to explain it, but that trip at Om beach will always be memorable. Perfect - sun, sea, sand, waves, food and pretty women all around.

So we catch a boat to Gokarna, after much bargaining. In the middle the boatsman claims some 'kerosene checking' will happen, so he must drop us off at Kudli, not Gokarna. We flatly refuse and finally we're on Gokarna sand. Very populated beach, unlike Om. we pass by, go straight to the bus stop, and begin the bus journey home, via a change of buses at Kumta, where we also grab a bite and a nice cool think chikoo shake for ten bucks. They fleece us back home. Anyway... we reach home at 11 pm, after an uncomfortable ride with almost no sleep. I thought I'd stay up till two to study. I did stay up, but I wrote all this.

It had been a great day... I learnt a lot.