Imagica: Jan 14 to Jan 19

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









Comments

  1. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the correction! Glad you enjoyed the blog and thanks for reading.

    ReplyDelete

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