Science. It works, bitches.

I saw this (pic, see it!) on the internets (on Reddit infact) yesterday. My first reaction was - it's not possible. It's just not. It had to be glued or something.

But curiosity happens. I spent an hour with a paper and pencil trying to work out the physics behind it. At 6 AM, i had finally constructed my own version of it (using only a stick and my pocket-knife). Here it is:

Doesn't it seem impossible? The rod sticks out with no apparent support to hold it up! The only torque is downwards! How is it staying there? But there is no glue or anything. It is simply mechanics.

(Original concept by PhilixBefore. Free body diagram by omicron8.)

Harishchandragad – The First Trek

Harishchandragad. The very very first trek we did. Certainly it was one of the more difficult treks I've done (perhaps only Kulang was more rigorous), it was not particularly green either. And we were lost and sans-water "almost-dead" too. But if this trek had not been so amazing, so much fun, then I would never have gone on those hundreds of other ones.

Now I wonder if I would ever have got to know Krishna and KP so well, and Ankoor Das at all, had we not gone on this trek.

Junta. (L to R):

Jerome, PD, Me, Das, (who is that?), KP, Krishna (photographer)

Ummmmm... Yeah. We're lost.

Konkankada. What an Insane drop!

Ah Waters! We have waters again!

The valley as we crossed hills

KP's bullock cart. :)

It would have been so cool to write down those "Trek Diaries" we always said we would but never got around to doing. Maybe I should do it for real this time.

Happy 4th Birthday, Dear Blog

I'm simply amazed that this blog has not died. I started it so long ago, back in my third year in IIT. Blogging was just becoming a fad back then and I had decided to give it a try. So did a lot of other people, almost everyone I know.

As the fad passed, the internets was littered with dead blogs, and many phoenixy ones as well. Luckily, this one survived. Over 4 years, I've written a little more than 200 posts - approximately 1 a week.

For me, this blog is a very special. It's one of those few hobbies or pastimes or whatever that I have kept alive for any length of time. Over these four years it really has become a sort of diary, a place where I can return to see what I thought and felt over the years.

There was a point when I almost abandoned it. Around December 2006 to April 2007 I wrote not a single post. I was bored. I didn't feel like posting. It's not like I had anything substantial to say anyway.

Luckily I discovered Maya, Vue and Apophysis in April 2007, and mediocre CG artwork drove the next many post-lets. That and shady cribbu posts. I am very cribbu. I remember they wrote that in my valfi as well.

Now, I post once in a while. A sort of whenever type of thing. I'm quite sure that this blog won't perish now. It's passed that point. I'm happy for that.

Wow, it's really been 4 years.

Happy Birthday, dear Blog. And a big Thank You to all those who still read it... I wonder how many still do...

Naneghat

Krishna, KP and I had trekked to Naneghat sometime this August.

I need a Coffee Shack

The IIMA campus is nothing like the IITB campus. There are no tree-lined roads, no cool breezy lakeside, no 20 minute walks to the classroom where you can imagine made-up worlds and elaborate ninja-battles. There aren't any crazy people who play monopoly in the middle of the night, none of the partying and none of the booze.

Sure, there is frisbee which is better than all the sports I played in IIT. But so much else is missing. Most of all, this place needs a coffee shack.

A place to just sit on lazy afternoons with minutes without conversation and a pun thrown in to indicate still-aliveness.

A place for everyone to come and haggle for free food and coffee – for measly treats, yet sizable gestures.

A place where I can sit at all day whilst bunking class. Sit and read comics, books and graphic novels.

It was the life of IIT. I recall Mood I junta being described (by Renta?) as the largest group of people at coffee shack where no one is talking to anyone else – they're all on their cellphones!

A place for companions, old and not-so-old, simply land up and someone is surely loitering around. That's what I need here – some good old wasting time, not in front of a computer but out there talking, laughing and drinking coffee.

Oh, how I wish for Coffee Shack.

Splash!