British

British, should we hate them?? I used to and still am not their biggest fan. Reasons I’ll tell but first why I changed. I hated history, like every other thing in my curriculum, it bored me. But as soon the subject was gone from my schedule I have developed a strange liking for it. I actually read all my history books again, this time with all my interest, not for marks but for knowledge, to know who we are, and how we became what we are.
Earlier when I read history, I did it for a different reason and was not analytical in my approach. What I did was just rote for exams. As we all know that the books offer facts which are explained in a manner that suits the perception of the author and in case of history what has been portrayed through the years is that the English were bad, they ruled over us and what all they did was unjust. We are made to believe that they are tyrants and lootere who came and ransacked us of our riches and then were thrown out only when the valiant warriors of India sacrificed for us. I am not underestimating the sacrifices of our freedom fighters, because after all it was them because of which we breathe freedom and fear no one. Our land is finally ours. But then what we overlook is the very fact that in spite of all this there was much that the British gave in return of their rule in India.
Let me put forward some of the points because of which I have changed my view a little bit.
First of all, it was because of the British that India is what it is today. By this I mean the geographical and the political unity that we now display. Earlier we were just a group of small independent princely states who could not stand each other. Very similar to what Afghanistan is today. Small disintegrated land of fighting clans. The British did it just to forward their policy of ruling the world and helped us. Else we would still have been what we were some two hundred years back. Fighting and planning for the next fight. When the British left they had already formed a basic skeleton of a new nation, seventh biggest in the world and the biggest democracy. Our politicians of that age, driven by the zeal to make a new country contributed a lot in making this possible. After the British left it was Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel who worked furiously to give shape to what is India now. Had it not been him and others who helped him, supported him we all would again be fighting all. Also the British got us to use a common currency, administration and taxes binding us for a common fate.
Next what I feel is the biggest gift of the British rule is the English language. Something our fore fathers learned to get lucrative jobs under queen’s rule and we learn to rule the world. It is a priceless gift which has immensely helped us. This language is now the global lingua-franca and one cannot do with out it in this flat world. Where ever you go, be it China, Japan or Europe this is one thing you can definitely not go without. Even the French and the Chinese have now woken up to the fact that they have to learn English and its not going to be other way around. The economic growth of our country can be attributed mainly to the service industry and the back office work that we do. Had it not been for English we would still not be as well off as we are today. Our knowledge of this language has helped us moult our image from that of the land of the snake charmers and the elephants to the one of being the technology people. Besides the economic advantage that we have gained from this language there is one distinct advantage which we cannot possibly overlook. India is a land of diversity. Changing slowly from one end to the other and becoming absolutely different by the time you reach the end. The cultures and everything is so different and unique for every state, one has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. This is where the knowledge of English has helped us. Earlier on we could not have thought of a national language as we think of now. Then the times were very sensitive and even a small provocation could have ended in a disaster. That time it was this language that held us together till the cement of trust and understanding set in and gave us Bharat.
After the language and the national integration, how do we maintain it. We have communication to help us rule. The post and telegraph system set up by the British is what we still use. Today we use cellular technologies to communicate but then it was them who started it, other wise there was a very distinct possibility and a high probability that we would have been left using pigeons and runners to convey our messages, a lazy lot is what we Indians are, we would have been satisfied by what we use. In India sab chalta hai bhai, tension kyun lene ka, message mil gaya naa, jaldi karke kya karte???
Again transport system was build by them and it is still the same that we use today. Be it the Mumbai local or the tram of Calcutta, we still travel and had they not been built by the british I cannot say if we would have had them. The railway system is a real master piece of engineering, helping us a lot, especially the middle class to travel and the industry to transport. Curse as much as you may want to the railways for running late but remember the people who made it possible for us to travel. Some may say, the British did it to serve their own ends, but then think for some time, the rulers of this country at those time were busy building forts and palaces for their luxury, and attending mushaira’s and writing proses for their enterainment and satisfaction. The technological advancements were very few in those times in our country unlike the earlier times when we ruled in education and technology. The world was getting industrialized and we were attending more concerts. And looked a bit more analytically that too was not entirely our fault, we had little problem with the system and were pretty satisfied with the things and when this is the case then what they did is what humans do, relax. Hence what they did has indeed helped us.
The technology they brought in helped us a lot. The weather forecasting methods for a better agricultural produce, the digging up of canals for irrigation of far off lands, till now dependent solely on rains cannot be overlooked or underestimated. All these and many more have helped us a lot.
One more thing, giving us a distinct economic advantage now is that the understanding that we gained from the effective usage of the youth energy. Earlier most of this energy was wasted in the fields playing games and doing nothing else. The british helped us to use this in a fruitful manner. It started getting used in more than one ways. The british brought in many new career avenues like engineering, medical and law, which were before then very unorganised and not in the form it is seen today. This gave youth the power of choice, earlier on they usually did what their forefathers have been doing for ages and many a times with out interest. Any other work was taken to be a rebellion by the family members. With the new avenues opening up, they were considered to be prestigious and finally the young could choose. For many though it still remained a choice made be their family none the less many took advantage of the opportunity. For others the freedom struggle helped them use their energy for a common cause. This gave us many leaders which may not have been there save for the british and their ways.
These and many more points can be cited and analysed on how we were helped. Just that cannot think of more now. J J J J J

Lonely..... :(

Lonely…. there is nothing as lonely, I am there naa, don’t worry. Chuck out this melodrama and get real, u have so many people around you why do you say so, no one is lonely today, especially you said my friend. Today when I look back, I feel that what was said then was very true, so correct. Look at me now; this may be what loneliness is. Not alone but still alone. With friends but still without them. Not sad but then not happy too. It’s a weird state in which I am. Seriously, never did I feel so bound down and so free at the same time. Feels as if I am on an island with a group of friends partying and I have turned vegetable. Cannot feel anything, see anything, cannot express myself when I so want to. A state of mind, weird to the extent of being disturbing, driving you insane.

This is a strange situation. I am not at peace with myself. There is a fight that ensues every time I open my eyes. I fight with myself. I say that what all has happened is for good but then somewhere inside I know, I feel, no, all is not right. There is something that is lost, something that is missing. I don’t know what but am having a hunch there is something. The feel is same when you pack for a vacation and then in the back of your mind you keep on thinking, have I left out anything??? Passport?? documents?? Tickets?? Do I have it all?? You check twice, thrice and still don’t find what’s missing. But then you carry on, cannot waste an age trying to find out that you left your handkerchief, can you?? So it is with my state of mind, just that I am checking it more than those three times, have to be very sure on this vacation of life.

I listen to music, see people around, children playing, quarrelling for petty things, I smile at their innocence and pray for its long existence. Every thing that they do is out there for every one to see. No malice what so ever. I feel emaciated, drawn to the limits and left there to get accustomed. I never feel fresh, I long for that feeling but its just not there, try as much as I want to. Sleep for long hours, take cold showers, have tequila shots, just to cross that threshold to feel new, the way you were. You cannot climb this wall of a threshold. Cannot. The effort is for me to say, yes, I tried. You look up, try again, cry at the failure, laugh at your self for its you who has landed yourself at the place you are.

No one understands me, not even myself. The face misleads everyone, convincing every soul that you are the happiest of them all. The smiles are responded to. I want everyone to behave as bad as they can so that I feel good about my present. I try if people will leave me, if I stopped trying from my side, and they do. The world is a mirror said someone and now here I am standing in front of it, naked, to see every fault I have, magnified, too hard to believe it’s me. The truth is there for me to see but I don’t want to accept it. It makes me feel small, alien. Is it me?? It cannot be!!!
After all I was good to everyone, never hurt anyone, never lied and if I did it was for everyone to be happy. I did not know that lies harmless for others will ring the death knell for peace in my life.

I see people happy around me and then I doubt; are they actually happy?? Or is this just a façade?? are they doing it just to make me feel even worse??? I start thinking and then go into the abyss of dismay, trying to come out but being pushed down further, rock tied to me, falling fast, as if never to come out. I stabilise only to find myself deep down, try to come out but then slip again. I know this way I am going to hurt just myself and those who love me, I hope someone does, but how to come out??
I don’t know. I think I should stop trying; enough has been invested on this. Lets go out and enjoy every thing, the pain, misery, joy and happiness. I will do it, no one can stop me from being happy now, I have had enough of this. After all some one has also said, life is a ice-cream, enjoy it before it melts away. So why waste my ice cream for a flavour I could not have.

F1 : wrote it three years back, now much is obsolete

Amongst Indy, NASCAR, rallying and other motor sports F1 rules the roost. Why is F1 called so? As history goes, the fuel used for early racing engines was Green Spirit which was known as formula one hence this name has been adopted by the FIA. Earlier this sport was a rich man’s game who used their own machines (usually custom built than stock) to prove their driving skills. Mille Miglia and Grand Prix des Nations are the earlier forms of this sport.F1 has slowly transformed from an individual effort to a team event and one of the most prestigious event in the automobile industry.
Motor companies pour in millions (even billions) of dollars in research and development of latest technologies to get that crucial edge in the race and make their product superior in the consumer market. A major chunk of the R&D money goes into the development of the engine, the heart of the car, to make them lighter, frugal, efficient, and long lasting. It takes almost 500,000 man hours to develop an F1 engine and the design data when compiled takes up almost a terra byte of memory space.
The engines are manufactured with a very high degree of tolerance and precision. All the engines have to conform to the very strict FIA norms which take care that no manufacturer takes undue advantage of their technical and financial vantage. All cars this season have to stick to having 10 cylinders and a capacity of no more than three liters. Along with this limit there are many other checks on the power boosting accessories so as to keep the competition as even as possible but still experience of the drivers of some teams coupled with the engineering advantage sends many a teams scurrying for cover. These engines of 3000cc capacity have a power output of nearly 900BHP, almost 24 times that of our dear Maruti 800 with the engine having a capacity advantage of only 3.7 times. If we consider the Land Cruiser Prado (Toyota), the most powerful car in country, the power level is still 4 times in favor of the F1 car. The power to weight ratio of an F1 car is 1500BHP per ton meaning for every 1000kgs of the car weight there is 1500BHP of power to drive or rather rocket it. The power levels themselves prove the efficiency these engines have.
The F1 engines are made tough so that they last for about 1500kms of race. After this the cylinder block is all messed up and appears as if it has been used for a few hundred thousand miles. The pistons are all damaged, valve assembly ruined and the springs used in actuating the valves start to pose problems like bounce or float. Bounce occurs when the springs cannot keep up with the cam, the lifters hit back on the valve seat. This increases the wear and hampers air flow into the combustion chamber hampering high speed performance.
F1 engines are not as heavy as one might perceive them to be. An F1 engine weighs in the region of 90 to 100 kgs which is much less than the engines of our stock cars. Engines weighing more would affect the performance of the whole car by increasing the dry weight of the car. A Maruti Esteem engine weighs almost the same. These engines are not cast iron blocks but are very durable, light and thermodynamically efficient alloys of aluminum, magnesium and iron. The higher the thermodynamic efficiency of the engine, the faster it reaches the optimum temperature of operation and which ensures a higher performance delivery. The 4500 other components used to assemble an engine are also made of one of the best materials like valves of titanium steel in order to bear the rough usage the engine would be put to when racing.
The F1 engines are extremely high revving, which means its maximum rpm values are astronomical, to say the least. An F1 engine normally revs to the extent of 19000rpm, that’s 19k’s without running out of breath compared to only 4000-5000 for a stock diesel engine and 6000 to 8500 for a gasoline unit. Such high rpm values are achieved using a short stroke engine. In a short stroke engine the stroke is less so the piston head takes lesser time to reach the Bottom Dead Center (BDC) and back to the Top Dead Center (TDC). As this motion is fast the ignition in the cylinder occur at a faster rate, in short the total time taken to complete the 4 strokes (all F1 engines are 4 stroke) of compression, ignition, power and exhaust is reduced resulting in higher rpm which the engine can achieve. As these engines run at such a high rpm the speed of the piston inside the cylinder is also very high and are near 25m/s whereas for a normal car these are somewhere in the range of 11 to 15 m/s. As the stroke of engine is less, hence in order to achieve the volumetric capacity, the area of cross-section of the cylinder has to be increased which results in higher torque values (the torque of any engine is directly proportional to the area of c/s of the piston or the bore of the cylinder. The torque developed by an F1 engine is in the region of 300 lb-ft that is equivalent to 42 kg-m or 412 n-m which can festinate a 600 kg automobile with utmost ease and agility).
The engine temperatures are high enough to melt iron. The temperature at the exhaust port is about 950 degrees. The cooling of an F1 engine poses special challenges and these are all oil cooled instead of being water cooled. The spark plug fires 158.33 times every second burning a liter of fuel for every 4 to 5 kilometers. The peak acceleration experienced by the piston head is 100G.
The newer engines that are being developed use pneumatic springs, i.e. highly compressed air for actuating the valves, instead of an ordinary spring used traditionally. The use of these eliminates many problems like float and weakening of the mechanical springs and hence improves the overall efficiency and reliability of the engine. The team at LOTUS (UK based) is working on an engine wherein the camshaft is being replaced by solenoidal valves which are electronically actuated. All these enhancements will make the F1 engines superior in all respect. The objective is to minimize the number of moving parts, resulting in lesser heat generation, reduced wear, more frugal and greater overall efficiency.
All F1 engines are four strokers and have mainly V-configuration as opposed to the inline or cylinder configuration since this configuration gives a smooth operation on almost the entire power band with a constant power and seamless torque delivery.
As we all know the fuel reserves are fast depleting and it’s a matter of a few decades when oil will become equivalent to diamond or gold, taking this factor into consideration, what will be the future fuel to power these cars? Water, hydrogen or just pure electricity? Although research is on at Toyota in Japan for extracting hydrogen from water by on-board hydrolysis, only time will tell which alternative fuel does the trick!

:) :) :)

Teacher : "Now, children, if I saw a man beating a donkey and stopped him, what virtue would I be showing?"
Student : "Brotherly love"

Pahale Aap

I am writing this after getting inspired by a friend of mine… till now I used to crap about UP, my home state, and then I read a piece my friend wrote. She wrote about Maharashtra, her home state. It really got me thinking, why is it that I talk so badly about my place, overlook so much that is so good, much better than many. I got down to thinking what all have I overlooked just because I hate the politicians there which my people chose or people there are intolerant and that too not for the wrong reasons.
UP, Uttar Pradesh, or Uttam Pradesh as one of the political outfits call it. It really is a state to be in. Be it religion, people, values, natural beauty or gastronomy its right there to make you feel good, feel proud to be associated with it.
Till now I was proud to be from Lucknow, but when it came to my state I had a very bad opinion about it. I forgot what harm I am causing to my self, and undermining so much of value. Let us start right from the beginning. I am a proud Hindu, and the basis, the foundation of Hinduism was laid millennia back on this very land. The land of the holy rivers of Ganga, Yamuna and the mythological Saraswati, their confluence. People keep Ganga Jal with them to purge, a custom we Hindus follow, imagine the land where there is this river…need I say more. We have Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath, Badrinath, Hardwar, Varanasi, Mathura, Ayodhya, Allahabad and the list can go on, all the temples people come to visit from far off, to kneel before the almighty, offer their prayers, atone for their sins and go back satisfied. It is here that the holy books were written. How can this land of Sant Kaalidas and Kabeer be bad?? I have no answer.
History has it that it was UP where the seeds of the struggle for freedom were sown in 1857 and our valiant queen the Jhansi ki Raani laid down her life to free our country from the shackles of the British tyranny. We have the Taj Mahal, a wonder for the world, a way of expressing love for us. It is here where Nawaab Asafudaullah distributed his wealth to his people by making them work, one group builds the other destroys, when the deadly famine struck Awadh, a way to help people without hurting their self esteem of making them beggars. This is just one of the countless examples we set for all.
We have the seats of learning like at Beneras, the Beneras Hindu University, the first modern university of the country, the one to offer engineering, a first for India. We are the only state to have two IIT’s, at Kanpur and Roorkie (erstwhile College of Engineering Roorkie), an IIM, and various other prestigious institutes churning out the brain power leading this country forward. Name any other state which can claim this. We have research laboratories like CFTRI, CDRI, NBRI and many others to make us proud.
It is our custom, our tehzeeb, to respect anyone and everyone, even your enemy. Our salutations consist of AAP and HUM, respecting others and respecting our self. It runs thick in us and I am proud of it. We have had bad experiences like Ayodhya, but then even roses have thorns.
We are the food bowl, providing wheat in abundance, making India self sufficient and the sweetness that we sow as sugarcane is known right from Kashmir till Kanyakumari. Come to Lucknow and get ready to be enchanted by the gastronome adventure that awaits you. Be it the street food in the form of Chat, chanaa jor and the kebabs that melt in the mouth, to the concept of dastarkhwaan that the five stars and the Mc Milan restaurants follow the world over, we have it all there to bowl you over.
What all I thought, reflected upon cannot be put in here but then the purpose is solved, I respect my state, my people, maybe its not in the good books for reasons but then we were there right on the top and be assured will be back there, its just that we give chance to all, Pahale Aap.

Electric Cars... are we ready??

This letter was published as letter of the month in Overdrive and TopGear(india) Feb'06 issues

As we all are seeing that there is great deal of lobbying going on in our country (and everywhere else also ) for giving a thrust to use of electric cars over those that run on fossil fuels but have we calculated the benefits of the same before we start doing it blindly, well I do not think so. Using purely electric cars are a bane at least for our country than being a boon, the reason we are still approximately 60 % dependent on thermal energy for production of electricity and most of these establishments use coal as there primary fuel (this is cheap and available in abundance but the quality of coal available still forces us to import it mainly from Australia). This introduction of electric vehicles will no doubt reduce our fuel import bills but at the same time make this place inhabitable as burning of coal gives out more green house gases ( approx. 50% more) than burning of fossil fuels and also the particulate emmision is more for the same amount of energy also as these electric cars will be drawing power directly from the grid the transmission losses associated actually increase the losses more and create more pollution than is created by normal well maintained cars. Hope this thing is thought of before we plunge into something disastrous. I personally feel that hybrids are a much better technology and similarly use of biofuels is better than using pure electric vehicles.

One more thing what about disposing the parts of the cars(both electric and hybrid) that will have to be disposed after the vehicle wears out?
This is just one of the many socio economis issues that should be considered before giving a push to a new technology.

joke: beware if u forget me ;)

practical joke: :) did it yesterday..... :):)
i called up one of my long lost school friends, kartikeya, whom i saw go somewhere. i found out his number, courtsey orkut, and called him up and then the fun began.....

me: hello..
kar: hello..
me : may i know who this is??
kar: Kartikeya sharma!!!
me: 9876543210 (not the true no)
kar: yes..
me: so u agree that you are kartikeya sharma right???
kar: ofcourse i do!!!
me: besides you who all make calls from this number??
kar: mostly me... rather only me..... why???
me: hmm.. mr sharma i am calling from CBIcrime branch delhi,
and there is some news for u...
kar: what??? ( a bit shocked)
me: i hope that u understand that this call is being taped and what
ever you say is an evidence for our proceedings......
kar: i totally understand it...
me: mr sharma, u live in gomtinagar... right??
kar: yes...
me: hmm.. eldeco greens to be precise.....
kar: yes i do... ( he is already sounding low... all details from orkut
his pics and contact details)
me: hmmm.......you are still a student ( he is doing engg
a college in lucknow, UP)
kar: yes but what happened???
me: mr sharma there have been 2... no 3 calls to pakistan from this
mobile number...
kar: this is impossible!!!! it cannot be so!!! there is some mistake
on your part.....( very excited voice)
me : this is 9876543210 right.....
kar: yes it is.....
me: and you are kartikeya sharma from lucknow...gomtinagar....
kar: yes all this is true....
me: then sir i am sorry to say that we are right and you are on the
wrong foot....
kar: but it cannot be.... yaar i never make ISD calls leave alone
of all the F*&^ing countries Pakistan.....
me: mind your language mr sharma....
kar: i am sorry but there is some mistake ..... it cannot be this number this is BSNL no. and u know they are very strict in giving SIM cards
me: i know .... that what makes this whole thing even more interesting... the officer who gave you the sim is already with us......
kar: but officer i am telling you this is not possible....
me: yes.... u not being involved is not possible....
kar( already pleading voice) : please let us try and understand this
whole thing once again ....
me: mr sharma there is nothing left to be understood here now...the
whole picture is very clear.... u testified that the mobile no.
is yours and you are the one who makes the most calls from it...
right???
kar: yes i said so.... but..... (almost dead voice)
me : sir u agree to all that i say and then say that the calls were
not made by you, i think you are new to all this....
kar: new to what???
me( a bit more serious and high pitched) : tere madarse(islamic school of teaching) mein bataaya nahin gayaa kya ki jab principal se baat karo to naya number lo aur baat karke number change kar do haan??? ( did they not teach you that whenever you make calls to the principal then do it with a new no. and throw the simcard??)
kar: -------------- ( no response)
me: kya hua sharma ji..... pakistan ki yaad aa gayi kya?? (what happened mr. sharma.... memories of pakistan o what??)
kar: .......sir aap samajh nahin rahe mera isme haat nahin hai....( sir
you are not understanding... i am not involved in this..)
me: matlab yeh hua hai yes sach hai... badhiya hai yeh to.....
hamari aadhi pareshaani to aap ne duur kar di......( means that u agree that something has happened... good you solved much of our problem......)
kar: officer i am repeating again and again that i am not involved in any antinational activity of any kind.....
me: means you are involved in some activity....
kar: nahi sir aap samjho meri baat aisa kuch bhi nahin hai...( please try to understand it is nothing like that..)
me: to phir kya aur kaisa hai aap batao... ( then you tell me the what and how of this situation)
kar: sir i seriously dont know what you are talking about....
me: dont worry mr kartikeya, many people when they talk to us tend to loose track of many things.. its not only your problem......
kar: no sir ........ ..... ..
me: dekhiye sharma ji .... agar aap sharma hi hain to...... hamare aadmi aapke paas aayenge aur aapki khatirdaari karenge...(see mr sharma... if u are sharma that is..... my men will come and treat you.....)
kar: PLEASE THIS IS NOT SO ... why the FU&^%ng hell are you not listening to me....
me(rude and sarcastic tone) : apni zabaan sambhal zaara..... court mein sabke saamne gaalion bharaa tape nahin baja sakte hain... censor ki problem ho jaayegi, aur kaam mat badhaa aise hi bahut kaam hai karne ko... samjha dhakkan ( i chuckle )
( watch your tounge.... it will be a problem of censoring things in the court... as it is there is a lot to do... do not increase work for us do you understand peanut brain...)
kar: ................
me: mr sharma how are you feeling today.... ab kaisa lag raha hai....
kar (almost weeping) : officer aap mujhe galat samajh rahe hain.....
me: hmmmm..... ho sakta hai.....
kar: matlab.....
me : aap darpok hain.......
kar: aap jo kahiye mein woh huun par maine koi galat kaam nahin kiya..
me: galtiyaan to ki hain aapne......
kar: nahin sir....
me: aap anant ko jaante hain ... woh bhi hai is case mein.....
kar: anant.... anant kumar...... saale kamine yeh tu hai kya...??
me: zabaan sambhaal ke baat kariye... ( i sounded stern again...)
kar: i am sorry officer.....
me: waise mein anant hi huun.....
kar: saale tu ab marega...

and the exchange of words that followed cannot be shared because of the explicit nature of the content.....)