Capturing Hussain-Sagar

 On 27/11/2011 i boarded the flight to vizag from hyderabad with Mom and Dad.  The flight took off at 7:30 PM one hour late than the actual time. It was night as it has to be. I was excited since the cities lights would be a fantastic view from the top. At 7:33 PM i spotted Hussain Sagar in the distance. It was a Dark blot in the middle of an ocean of lights. Immediately i trained my camera on Hussain Sagar as a hunter would his rifle on his prey. In a few seconds the wing of the flight blocked my line of sight. I used this time to plan how i would capture the spectacle. A photographer will understand the technical difficulties involved in capturing it.

First thing i did was to choose the max ISO speed and max aperture of my cam, 1600 and 3.4 respectively. Now came the bigger problem, shutter speed. What speed should i choose?? If i choose a high shutter speed the pic will be sharp but very dim. If i choose a low shutter speed the pic will be bright but blurred. How ?? How?? How?? I did it , i managed to capture Hussain Sagar in its all stink glory. . .   :P

The first pic i shot was at a ISO 1600, shutter speed 1/20 , aperture 3.4 . Here it is

ISO 1600, shutter speed 1/20 , aperture 3.4

The second pic i choose a smaller shutter speed of 1.6 seconds. I knew it would be blurred and bright still i took it.

ISO 1600, shutter speed 1.6 sec , aperture 3.4

Mera Solution :
At this point i lost hope and thought its impossible to capture the beauty of hussain sagar from a great height. I was watching it and then it suddenly struck me that since the aircraft is still gaining height i might have a chance indeed.

As the aircraft rises the ground doesnt seeem to move much slowly.

 For example : When driving a car in a vast open space like a highway 100kmph seems like nothing , but if you travel at 20 kmph in a congested gully it seems like 100kmph. Thats the way we perceive. When the reference is large and far away we cannot perceive speed and distances. This is true. If you try to estimate distances and speeds with reference to massive objects like mountains you will most probably fail to estimate.

So i waited for a few seconds for the aircraft to rise higher and give me a chance to capture hussain sagar bright and sharp ! My only worry was whether the aircraft would reach the required altitude before hussain sagar passes away . It didnt. After approximately 45 seconds i managed to capture hussain sagar bright and sharp.

shutter speed 1/5

PS :  The first picture is not the actual one.I posted another dark pic i clicked in that journey. I deleted all the  failed attempts.
PSS: That journey is the most terrible journey in my life. There was a thunderstorm in vizag. The pilot attempted to land 6 times. The plane was shuddering and vibrating like a hand kerchief in a wind tunnel experimental setup. The flight was sent back to hyderabad owing to bad weather conditions in vizag.

Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Atheism, Evolution

I was born a Hindu. Im Indian. Recently i signed up in twitter and there i met a lot of diverse people. I met forensic scientists, physicists, psychologists, journalists, political science students, priests, evolutionary biologists, Atheists, Christians, Muslims  and who not. It was like a flood of knowledge. Normally i wouldn't have met these people but twitter helped me. So being an atheist i saw the reactions from people of all religions.

The Hindu :
Most of my friends are Hindus. They never refute the theory evolution nor any other scientific theory. They accept both evolution and the concept of God. They never debate about the two at the same time. They never seem to be troubled by Atheists. I cant generalize but this is true for my circle.

The Christian :
Most Christians i met are from Twitter. I think most of the Christians refute the theory of evolution. I haven't seen someone who believes in both. They see Atheism as a huge folly and try their level best to convince the atheist that god exists. They question how you can be moral without believing in god i.e they believe that any human being will murder, rape, steal if he doesnt fear gods punishment. They believe that morality comes out of fear of God.

The Muslim :
Same as above but im not sure about their stand on morality and belief.

Why is this so ??  Why doesnt the Hindu refute the theory of evolution ? How can he believe both at the same time ?? I think a Hindi Evolutionary biologist would preach that humans evolved from apes but she/he would not refute god. They never speak of both at the same time. So when i thought of this i came to the conclusion that this is because there are not many absolutes in Hinduism. For example : The Bible says Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation , Even the Quran says the same thing. Whereas Hinduism doesnt preach anything like that.

God means everything in the average Christians, Muslims life. Everything they do, every though is influenced by God and the teachings of the religious books. I think the concept of God plays a major role in the Christianity and Islam than in Hinduism. Hindus are influenced more by their culture than God(Of course Hinduism too vast to generalize) probably because the Gita(holy book of Hindus) is not read by everyone. The Gita is just too big to be read by the common man. If the Gita was smaller all Hindus might have read it and Hinduism might have been much "definable".
This is how i interpreted it. I might be absolutely wrong of course.

What do you say ?? Comment your opinion

Castings .

Egg as a whole

Egg being disassembled

Egg is broken into 4 parts

front view

Central portion top view. Observe the grains alignment , outward

One year back when i was in second year and was being taught by the legendary Satyendra sir i was highly inspired by his lectures on metal casting. He is an extraordinary teacher and his lectures were very knowledgeable. He taught us Manufacturing Technology 1 . Imagine me, a pyromaniac by birth being taught about metal casting. In tenth i went to Vizag steel plant and there i saw a river of molten metal flowing a few feet away from me. Then i realized that there is nothing which can match the beauty of molten metal.

So my passion for metal casting went to such heights that one day i decided to really do it ! Since its not easy to melt metal i thought of doing it on wax.

With wax :
I took an egg, made a small hole on the top of it and emptied all the contents. Then after it dried i used a funnel and filled the egg shell with molten wax. After a few minutes the wax would solidify and contract. Since i dint use a riser i had to manually fill the void every time. One day i managed to break open a wax casting an inside i found shrinkage voids.
1) The two depressions you see in the central green portions are the shrinkage voids, I had no intention to create them but they are the result of multi-directonal cooling.
2) You can see the direction of cooling by following the way the grains are aligned(radially outward). It is multi directional cooling.

Observe the depressions in the central green portions, shrinkage voids

With metal :

I went to my dads yard and took some basic training with the oxy acytlene torch. I made a small hole in the ground and cut a sprue for the metal to enter. I placed a lump of pig iron by the mouth of the hole and lit the torch. The lump got very hot and melted then it drained into the hole i made in the ground. The metal was soo hot that it was glowing white. After the hole filled i waited for a while and later cooled it by pouring water. Then i plucked it out of the hole and this is what i have achieved ......an ugly lump of metal oxide .

Porous lump , mostly metal oxide

Im still trying to do better. My aim is to make a metallic egg.

The Crow shit dilemma

You know what scares hostlers most ? Its the crows.
Our hostel is surrounded by lush green trees. Good isnt it ? Actually awesome. By evening a large number of crows perch on the trees. They rest till 5:00 am and then go back to work waking. While they rest they excrete. The road to the hostel is a patchwork of white on black. Of course the white colour is the crows work and the roads are cleaned regularly by sweepers.Walking to the hostel at night is a daunting task unless you like crow droppings. You can only hear crow shit hitting the ground and make a loud "SPLAT !". Its like a thriller .... there will be many near misses . If you are foolish enough to park your bike in the action zone your vehicle is bound to get a new look by morning. My friend's black R15 transformed overnight into a gorgeous 'R15 Dalmatian', credit goes to the crows team work. 

Now here is my dilemma. Should i walk on the black patches of the road or the white patches ??




CASE 1 : I walk on the black patches of the road


Why is the road still black ??  Coz there are no crows above or the crows above havent crapped yet ??


CASE 2 : I walk over the white patches

Should i assume that the crows above me have already crapped so they wont crap anymore ?


Right now im following Case 2 which i found is not fool proof. One crow successfully did its job........ :)

Believing Science

Recently a close friend of mine wrote

I'm one frustrated soul in a population of 1.2 billion. I do not believe in god nor in science. Did you see god?electron? We live in a world full of assumptions theories and lies. Many have abitons, goals and what not? Some succeed some not. I strongly believe in "reaching  your goals is not the reward, the .........Read more at http://vignanprakash.blogspot.com/


I have to admit that your question would have been quite acceptable if you were 14 or 15 years old.Science is bluntly put "The study of the surroundings" . An electron cannot be seen is true but can you see the radiations that your mobile, radio , dish TV emit / receive ?? Many invisible things exist in this universe . Firstly you have to understand how our eyes work. The human eyes can only detect radiations within a certain range of frequencies which means that you cant see what other creatures see. For example : A bee can see things in the ultraviolet spectrum which a human cant. A cat can see much much better than you and me can.

In the following chart which is called the electromagnetic spectrum lie all the frequencies. The colorful  part is the called the visible spectrum i.e what your eye can detect. We are blind to the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Being 'Mad'

Im totally HOMO SAPIEN . . no doubt in that . At times people ask me if iam mad and each and every time my answer is  YES !. Of course iam mad and im happy to be MAD. What is wrong with being mad in this world which is sooooo diverse and full of wonders/madness . Isnt every wonder the result of some kind of madness ??

Taj Mahal : The result of a males madness/extremes of love. He had the power and resource + lot of  madness which made him create the wonder that is Taj Mahal

Pyramids : The result of extraordinary intelligence and extreme madness which inspired them to build gigantic structures to house themselves when they die.

Great Wall Of China : The result of extreme hard work and intelligence + madness  to protect themselves from the madness of their enemies(mongols) for land and water or whatever they fought for.

Colosseum Of Rome:  Was built to feed the primal need for blood and gore and the death cries of other men. Isnt it madness ?

Macchu Picchu : A fabulous civilization brought down to ruins because of the madness of the spanish invaders for land and water.

The simple question is what one can do with the inherent madness. As the law of entropy states "Entropy of the universe is always increasing" Entropy can very well be called madness. The world is a turbulence of madness. Sadhus are the people with the least madness(Thats what a sadhu thinks). A sadhu might consider even a simple man with simple desires as mad. Once again i conclude that iam mad and that madness is the key to success.
BE MAD !!!

Originally published in zakkam.blogspot.com by Pruthvi Krishna

Sweat

First thing i would like to clarify is that this article is about sweat (perspiration) and not about sweets (sweet things).

How many of you have felt that Vizag is a sweaty place and makes your clothes stick to your body ?? 

Kya Hyderabadis how did it feel like to suddenly face humidity as high as 99% ??? All people from non - coastal areas complain about the high humidity in coastal areas. Im writing this article to clarify the myths about sweating in Vizag and the lack of sweat in hyderabad / non-coastal areas.  

Man sweating while exercising 

The normal body temperature is 37.5C ( C stands for degrees centigrade ) and it does not increase or decrease. You might ask me how??? A hot cup of coffee / tea will slowly cool down , A chilled bottle of soft drink will heat up to the room temperature .........

  

Hair standing erect to trap heat (goosebumps)

How the body maintains its temperature at 37.5C ??

During Winters : 

When the outside temperature is less than 37.5C say 35C the body starts losing heat to the surroundings as per the fact that heat flows from a body at higher temperature to lower temperature.To compensate for the heat lost to the surroundings the body burns more calories similar to burning wood or any other fuel to generate heat.At the same time the hair  on the body stands erect and traps a layer of warm air against the skin. When the outside temperature is very low say 15C the body starts to shiver. Shivering is a vigorous exercise which generates a lot of heat just like any other exercise does and the heat thus produced helps in maintaining a constant body temperature. At the same time blood flow to skin is reduced since most of the heat is lost through the skin.This is how the body reacts to low temperatures.

                                     

During Summers :

The surroundings are very hot during summers say 40+ C. The body starts to get hotter and the body  temperature rises by a fraction of a degree. The brain immediately initiates sweating since sweat is mostly water and when water evaporates it takes away a lot of heat and gives a cooling effect..

Now comes the tricky part. In a dry place like Hyderabad or Warrangal the sweat produced by the body instantaneously evaporates and gives a cooling effect. But in a very humid place like Vizag the sweat cant evaporate since the air is already loaded with moisture and cant take anymore moisture. This is similar to adding sugar to water. Beyond a certain limit the sugar wont dissolve in water i.e the water is saturated with sugar. In a similar way the air is saturated with moisture. This causes the sweat to accumulate and drip.

Theres the answer. You sweat everywhere but it gets accumulated in humid places and evaporates in dry place. The answer to the humidity is the Bay Of Bengal . A lot of water evaporates due to the sun.

The Poori Mystery

Why does a poori puff up when it is fried in oil ?

A poori is made out of  wheat flour (maida). Maida is mixed with water . The mixture is called dough. The dough is spread into a thin layer over a hard surface by using a roller.  Then the thin layer is gently dropped in very hot oil .

Maida spread with the wooden roller

Yummy pooris.

The actual story begins now . The outermost layer of the dough gets very hot and looses all its moisture. That is the reason you see the bubbles sprouting from the maida. A few milliseconds later the heat starts to pass through the inner layer layers by conduction. Now the moisture inside the inner layer starts to rapidly evaporate due to the high temperature and the steam generated tries to escape but all the steam cant escape from the poori so it starts to exert pressure on the poori from the inside which results in the swelling. After swelling the poori retains its swelled shape without collapsing due to the crispy skin. If u poke the poori when it is hot it will collapse as well as the steam will burn your finger :) .

Wont believe me???? Try it for yourself

Also try making a poori by making a small cut or a hole at the center of the maida. It wont swell.

PS : When water turns into steam,its volume increases to 1600 times the original volume. That is 1 liter bottle of pure water will occupy 1600 1 liter bottles when it becomes steam.

DISCLAIMER : All that I wrote in this post is what I think. I might be wrong too. But Im pretty sure that Im right. I will be glad if someone corrects me or proves that Im wrong. Im open to discussion.

Green Lantern

Before going into the theater make sure you have enough stuff with you to eat coz thats what you will feel like doing after 15 minutes into the movie.
 The movie begins with a fight in outer space and a green humanoid is killed by a yellow thing.
 6 months later ... ... .. . . ..
EARTH :
 Hal Jordan a test pilot and his partner Carol Ferris a pilot are employed to defeat two fighter jets in a simulated combat situation. Hal manages to destroy the jets by using a clever maneuver but later he looses control because of fear and memories of his dads death in a jet flight crash. Jordan ejects, the flight crashes and screws up the contract. At this point of time in another planet a humanoid is once again hunted by the yellow thing. The humanoid is badly injured cut manages to escape.The humanoid makes it to earth. The humanoids ring chooses Jordan to be the next ring bearer. Jordan gets supernatural powers. Later it is shown that the yellow thing is fear. Fear consumes one of the guardians of the other planet. The green lanterns primary need is the lack of fear and a strong will. The Lame story goes on with Jordan being rejected simply because hes human and has fear in him. In the meantime the other guardians plan to destroy fear with fear. So they make a  ring which is powered by fear. Fear takes control of a scientist(Hector Hammond) and he turns loose. Lantern gives his ring to hector to please him and thereby defeats him. Later fear comes to planet earth and kills hector. Jordan kills fear by taking him too close to the sun. Fear gets pulled by the suns gravitational field and Jordan is rescued from the suns Pull by Sinestro .......END OF THE GODDDAMN story

The movie sucks from about the 10th minute till the end !

Disclaimer : Watch it at your own risk 

This is what I call an extraordinary mind game. What a bluff !!!!