Written Jan 21, 2017
Alas, the Seahawks did not vanquish the Falcons as I had
predicted. I woke up to watch the game, called my family while lying in bed at
4:30 in the morning, then went back to sleep briefly at around 6:00am when it
was clear that the Seahawks no longer had a chance.
I got up a mere 45 minutes later to head off to Adlabs
Imagica, a theme park outside of Mumbai! I went with Akshay and Shahnawaz (two
friends from IIT-Bombay), Akshay’s twin brother and a few of his friends from
college. The park was a mere 3-3.5 hours away by public transportation. We took
a rickshaw from campus to the local train station, three local trains, then
finally rickshaw to the park. (Despite the long commute, one park-goer at the
end of the day described the distance as “2.5 hours”; time has a different
meaning in India).
Of the seven of us who went to Imagica, I was the only one
who had been on thrill rides before. It was incredible to see their faces as we
were waiting in line for our first ride, a roller coaster that had a steep drop
at the beginning and went upside-down about 5 times. They were all nervously
excited—it was really fun to watch. After we finished the ride, we immediately
went again; Shahnawaz promised he would open his eyes this time. The size of
most of the rides were in between those at Evergreen State Fair and Disneyland.
We wandered around the park and went on them all, except for the few that were
for little kids. Some of the rides seemed eerily similar to those in
Disneyland: “Deep Space,” a roller coaster in the dark; “A Cup of Tea,” the
spinning teacup ride; and “Alibaba,” a ride like Astro Blasters where you shoot
bad guys. There was also a haunted house, a tower that blasts you up (opposite
of a drop tower), a “7D” movie (the seats moved, but the movie was not all that
entertaining), a dinosaur-themed log ride “Rajasaurus River Cruise,” and a big
spinning swinging ride that reached a height of well over 100 feet. All in all,
it was a great day at the park. A bottle of water inside cost 40 Rupees, which
my friends thought was a rip-off until I told them that in Disneyland you would
pay $4.50 for the same bottle. The buffet lunch was only 400 Rupees, also a
steal for inside the park. My body’s tolerance for stifling motion sickness has
waned in the last five years—if I think my stomach can handle all the rides
again, we may go back again later in the spring once the water park section of
Imagica is open.
On Monday I ate lunch with Abebe, an Ethiopian Ph.D student
who lives across the hall from me. I do not remember what we ate, but our
conversation was memorable. We started talking politics, as has happened fairly
frequently with people here (Indian student:
“One more week of Obama, right?” Me: “Yes…”). He mentioned that there
are lots of Ethiopians in some areas of the US, and I followed up by asking why
so many people leave the country, especially those who have a college education
and are working in engineering or science. Higher pay in the US is a big
factor, but mainly it is an attitude of discontent towards the current
government in Ethiopia. He loves his country, but with the current political
environment it is not possible to have a successful, honest career in the
public sector. The government, says Abebe, is technically a “democracy,” but
does not function as one. This is true of countries all over Africa. The police
and security forces can shoot protesters with no consequences. He lauded the US
for persecution of cops who shoot innocent people. I argued that the US is not
necessarily handling the issue well and that some cops that have done terrible
things have been let off the hook, but he said at least in the US it is an
issue that the public acknowledges and cares about. In Ethiopia, the people in
power promise lots of things to the people and say it will get better, but in
reality their plan is to keep the people poor so that they remain subservient.
The ruling party simply ignores the laws of the country when it suits them.
Abebe also expressed his disappointment with Obama’s visit
to Ethiopia many years ago; Obama knew “the truth” about the rulers of
Ethiopia, but instead of challenge their democratic process or their oppression
of citizens, he had a conversation with them as if the country was a properly
functioning democracy. This brings to mind a recent clip I saw on the news of
John Lewis calling Trump an “illegitimate president.” The more I hear and read
about other countries with dictator-type leaders, the more similarities I begin
to draw between their actions and Trump’s actions in recent months. It will be
interesting to watch what happens from India…
Most of the week I spent working on a design modification
for the dryer at the turmeric processing facility I visited last week. The dryer
needs to have much better circulation of air in order to function well, and the
air needs to be hotter. This project has required lots of background reading on
heat transfer and fluid mechanics, topics which I have not studied yet at
Northeastern.
On Thursday, a professor from Portugal visited IIT-Bombay to
give a lecture and demonstration on solar cookers. He has designed his own
solar slow cooker that concentrates the sun’s rays on a pot. He made some corn,
tea, and two carob cakes. Carob is a seed that he collects from large trees in
his yard in Portugal; when dried, it tastes vaguely of fig. He was very energetic
about solar cooking and it was fun to watch him work.
On another note, my friend Vynatea (who I will be working
with on the solar roaster project), acquired a bike for me that I can borrow
for the semester. It only has one gear, so some of the hills are tough, but it
is going to greatly decrease my commute time. I have to concentrate when I ride
to make sure I do not accidentally drift over to the right side of the road
like I am used to.
I have not been writing about the food much because it is
pretty similar most days in the mess. At breakfast, I take my two allotted bananas
and save them for an afternoon snack. I drink my warm milk with turmeric and
fill up on the grain product du jour, its accompanying sauce, and the sprout or
bean product offered. At lunch I have rarely been able to resist trying all
three dishes offered—generally one dal and two vegetable dishes. This is of
course accompanied by two chapatti, some curd (yogurt), some sliced tomatoes,
beets, cucumber, and/or onion, and usually rice. Dinner is a very similar
offering, but a small dessert and sometimes fruit are given instead of curd.
The curd is great, especially when it is nice and cold. It is sour like plain
yogurt in the states but it is not as smooth. I cannot identify exactly what is
different from US yogurt, but I eat it the curd whenever it appears in the mess
and will continue to do so. I have also identified one bright yellow sauce
served with vegetables that appears a couple times a week that I do not enjoy,
so I will stop eating that dish provided I can identify it before I scoop it
onto my tray.
This post was mostly a recap of the past week, so I guess I
need to retract my earlier statement that I will focus more on writing stories.
It will be a mixed bag going forward. I am going on field visits most of next
week and I hope to post once more before then.
*Correction to earlier post: I have heard conflicting
reports about whether or not Ambani was the first to introduce 4G coverage to
India, but regardless it was only introduced in the last couple years and is
becoming more widespread than ever thanks to Ambani’s company Jio.
**Update on key duplication: I visited the guy at the key
duplication place; he filed down the key some more and told me to come back
again and take him to the lock if the key still did not work. It is a little
sticky, but the duplicate works. He did not charge me again.
|
Sports field at IIT |
|
Roller coaster at Imagica: "Nitro" |
|
Getting ready for the first ride |
|
After their first roller coaster ride (from left, Abhijit, Shahnawaz, Akshay) |
|
Imagica |
|
Roller coaster: "Nitro" |
|
Imagica: "Red Bonnet: American Diner" |
|
Imagica
|
|
Group picture at Imagica |
|
Imagica |
|
Solar Chef |
|
Carob cake |
|
Solar cookers |
|
Campus bus delayed: cow crossing |
|
A hawk flies from its perch on the 4th floor balcony in my hostel |
A little correction, Use of time as measure of distance is typically a 'Mumbai style' ☺ which one will not experience in other parts of Maharashtra/India. Anyways..nice blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction! Glad you enjoyed the blog and thanks for reading.
ReplyDelete