Re: TENDULKAR Travel Problem

Dear ********
Sorry about that , I didnt know that maybe its a new regulation from UK,
any way at this moment we just can try to move the flight reservations,
please let me know as soon as you have the transit visa to try to change
the flight reservation
Regards
********
******* ******* wrote:

> Dear ******,
> Could you do something from here to help this dgdf student of *******?
> Many thanks in advance!
> Cheers,
> *******
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject:
> Travel Problem.
> From:
> "Shriharsh Tendulkar"
> Date:
> Tue, 1 May 2007 12:37:45 +0530
> To:
> ********@eso.org
>
> To:
> ********@eso.org
>
>
>Dear Ms. *******,
> I am stuck here with a problem. According to the new rules of the UK
>Government I need to have a transit visa for going through London even if I
>am not leaving the airport area. I was told at the British Airways checkin
>counter that I would not be allowed to board the flight without a transit
>visa. The lady at the checkin counter said that the travel agent who booked
>the ticket should have informed us that a transit visa for UK was required.
>When I last travelled through London Heathrow Airport to the US, a transit
>visa wasnt required and I was not aware of the change of regulations.
> I'll go to the British High Commission tomorrow morning, as it has a
>holiday today and apply for a transit visa.
> In the meanwhile, I enquired at the British Airways office about shifting
>my booking. I was told that the earliest available seat is on 12th May. I
>have asked Dr. ******** whether this would do. I have not asked the British
>Airways office to shift the booking, for I thought I should let you know
>this. I am maintaining status quo right now.
> Please let me know what can be done and what I can do from my side.
> Its unfortunate that such a small detail hampered the whole plan.
>
>Sincerely,
>Shriharsh Tendulkar

An evening with a friend.

Evenings had been getting boring for quite some time. Never found out when the afternoon changed into the evening and when it was dinnertime. (Generally people find that time passes slowly when you are bored, but it works differently in my room it seems).
Going by that measure, yesterday was good; went for a run, went to the gym, got a surprise (a goddamn big one at that: Found Rutuja right at my hostel entrance. Got a minor heart attack), talked to Ghoan, worked on the Hele-Shaw cell; trying to load salt and sugar solutions into it... yeah it was pretty eventful.

Today was even nicer.
Went for a photography trip, cycled around the insti, went to the library, talked to Kartiki, ran around the SAC, one round more than yesterday, met Siraj, then, went straight to H3.
The nice thing about friends is that they don't care what you are packaged in. You go in sweaty, dirty Tshirts and scruffy shorts, you are still welcome. Infact welcome with a smile. He puts away his work to talk. And listen. And infact, listen attentively. You havent met in a long time, so he asks about you, what you have been doing all this while, what you will be doing. He tells you his side of the story of life, what he's been doing all this while. He talks very animatedly about decompilation and the non-trivialities of decompilers. He knows you wouldnt be knowing too much about it, but he still knows that you love to hear new ideas.He listens to your ideas and crazy brainwaves and smiles as if to say "Hehe this is so typically YOU."
The music changes and a beautiful song comes on, he wants to make you hear it. He doesnt bother about whether you like it or not, the point here is that you should hear it, if you like it, its an added bonus. You suggest a song, and that too is appreciatively heard, lyrics read, to make sure he gets the words right. Sad songs dont seem so sad when they're heard in such a nice company. They just feel awesome. You discuss about the nicest songs you've heard, mentally making a note of what to pick off the LAN when you reach the room.
He suggests dinner in his hostel. Yeah, thats nice, you can talk longer. So you do. You can crib about bad profs, appreciate good profs, hear anecdotes about those stupid profs. You can talk with your mouthful, drink straight from the jug, no problems. Friends accept you as you are.
It's been a long long time since I felt so good after meeting a friend. Quite happy today, though I hate this stupid cold and bouts of sneezing that I have. Thanks for the evening, Sangram :)

The Carbon Cycle Part 2

As the sun rose, people rose to equal their daily chores. As we moved on, a couple of fishermen were fishing, for oysters, I think, in this creek near Pen.(Fig. 1) They have a pretty bad schedule. They hold a large stone, which helps them descend quickly and stay underwater, collect as much stuff as possible into a basket. This is pulled up by their colleagues onboard. Then they leave the stone and comeup again. Then repeat till god knows when. I wonder, these poor people, without any equipment of any sort, are able to hold their breaths for upto 3-4 mins (supposedly), have a continuous risk to life and limb, to earn, probably, a pittance. Seems weird, IIT grads get 5 digit salaries for sitting in the office and (sometimes) doing copy-paste coding :p.
The scene on the otherside of the bridge was similiar (Fig. 2) but it brought out different thoughts. Look at the progress that engineers brought here. A technologically advanced railway, piped water, and a decent road transport. The Konkan region has come a long way from what it was when my grandfather left it. Anyway, random thoughts always come to my mind when I travel, and this one was no different. We started post breakfast from Pen to Nagothane, a long dreary stretch of road, but it was good for us because the road was straight and flat allowing us to cruise down the road with minimum effort and a very high speed. But it was dreary nonetheless. While having a water break, I discovered that my rear tyre was dangerously worn out, a thing I had overlooked when I had overhauled my cycle. At one location, it had actually balded, a bit of the inflated tube showing. That was very dangerous, because, although I had spares, my air pump wasnt all that efficient and we would have had a hard time pumping it up if it burst.
So it was patchup time. I put rubber patches on the balding tyre praying to god that they'll hold the thing together till we reached a cycle repair shop. This was a reflection somewhere close to Nagothane. I am still wondering why the water was so calm. A small amount of water droplets in the air gave it a nice, slightly vague, look. (Fig. 3). Later in the afternoon, we lunched at Nagothane, and went around looking for a temple. The purpose of finding a temple, was to find a large shady tree as is common in these areas. We found one, and then, taking off our shoes and bags, we spread ourselves into the cool shade for an afternoon siesta. That, mind you, was a very pleasing sleep.
Leaving Nagothane, we proceeded, continuing to ask about my cycle tyre (which was of an uncommon specification and wasnt available anywhere.) wherever we could. We finally reached Mangaon precisely at 5, as our original plan was. So we looked for a place, had a bath, had dinner and slept in at 8pm.
The next morning we started off at 6. A fairly pleasant atmosphere welcomed us. This was a river just past Mangaon.(Fig. 4) It was a nice place to be. I wished we could have waited a while, but then there was a tryst with 3 painful ghats awaiting us. I didnt dare to keep them waiting for long.

The Carbon Cycle Part 1

It wasn't my idea, I must accept. But I supported it whole heartedly. Deep came up with this brainwave of going to Chiplun on our cycles. We did a practice trip to Karnala (55km) down the line from Mumbai. Had a decent if not amazing time then.
So we started. 18th of July, 4.30 am Dadar. By the time we reached Vashi, we had our first problem. Deep's brake came off. Neither of us knows how, but it did. So that was our first repair stop. We reached Panvel in light rain and a rainbow to the west. Thats Deep, at Panvel ST stand waiting for a cup of life giving tea.(Fig. 1).
Enroute to Karnala, the bird sanctuary, Deep had a fall. Nothing of much significance but it left him full of mud. So we had to wash up at a roadside well where truckdrivers were having a bath. So I, having nothing else to do, chatted with them. They were impressed by our plan and offered advise about road traffic and stuff like that. Pretty cool for the general opinion of truck drivers. And while all this happened, our bikes rested. (Fig. 2).
We were already behind schedule with the brake break and the fall break. There was Karnala, far away in the fog(Fig. 3), a distant target we had set for yourselves but were still far from it even though the deadline had passed. It was actually a pleasant ride, and we knew we could make it upto Mangaon (our planned night halt) till the evening. so it wasn't all that bad to be late. Soon we managed to make our way up Karnala. And who should meet us but Gangal in person. He had been wanting to come with us on a cycle but had been unable to find one. (Yeah, as if they're 'found' anywhere.) He happened to select the same day to go and visit his cousins down south, which was a nice coincidence. So we talked said our final good-byes and then his car went zooming up the slopes which slowly but steadily started climbing.
This was just past Karnala from near the Yusuf Meherally Centre at Tara.(Fig. 4). Thats the whole of Karnala fort. Its an easy one to climb, even all the way to the top. Do go there. After we left this, we went downhill towards the creek to be crossed before Pen. The map had shown a small distance between Karnala and Pen, we expected to cover it in about 20-30 mins. As it turned out, it was not only long but also had a huge number of ups and downs on the road. So we painfully reached Pen about an hour and a half late as compared to our schedule. Then we had a glorious breakfast of 2 double burjis each with about 6 pieces of pav (again, each.). 

New Year

I am still confused which New Year we celebrate on the night of 31st Dec.
I'm sure it's not Besselian, draconian, sidereal or anomalistic.
Who cares? It's a nice time to meet friends, walk around the sea face and chitchat.

Happy new "anonymous" year.(Sorry! Thats the best I could manage.)

Full moons, werewolves and astronomers.

Full moons are the worst things around. They kill the skies. No wonder werewolves turned mad at the sight of full moons. I wonder if they were astronomers. Damn the full moon on 26th. Couldnt see a 4th mag comet.

First shot.

This is my first shot at putting up a blog, although I'm pretty experienced at putting out my opinions (i.e. I am OPINIONATED).
Yes, I believe Cassini is the best thing that has happened to planetary exploration till date.
And yes, Mood Indigo is not what they say it is.