Youthful Fest

 Our sister institute, Prestige Institute of Management and Research, celebrated the inauguration of its annual fest Manthan, in style. We enjoyed the flute, and the saxophone, from two different guests and also a brief talk by a seasoned crime journalist.

Some pics from the event, with the two musically inclined guests- Mr. Baljinder Singh and Ms. Manisha Yadav. He played the eternal Nagin tune, and a couple of fast-paced songs on Flute, while she played the Sax solo, to the tune of Badan pe sitaare lapete hue, and Laila main laila, a lovely performance!

Ms. Yadav who entertained on the Saxophone, and Mr. Singh on the Flute (below)

With our Registrar Dr. Subramanian, Ms. Yadav, Director of the host institute, Debashis Mallick, and Director of the Gwalior campus, Nishant Joshi.

Below, one of the displays at the Fest.

Dune Tunes

Dune Tunes

A dune has a life of its own
Wind gives it energy.
Here now, gone soon after,
Reappearing in a form anew

You can't create or destroy energy,
a wise man had said,
But when you have a dune around,
the same could be said of it

Seemingly destroyed, momentarily,
It rebuilds itself,
Somewhat like a soul..
Formless, timeless, eternal

If dunes were to sing,
what tunes would emerge?
What songs would be heard?
Of heroes, villains, or ordinary folk?

A dune can actually give
more than it receives,
and tune itself to play
the music you wish it to.

First Rain?

It's probably the first rain of the 'official' monsoons of 2014. I was kind of surprised at the regularity of the first rain in Nagpur while I lived there. It arrived unfailingly on the 10th or 11th June. So it was in Indore yesterday. There was a strong cool breeze around 5.30 pm, an indication of things to come.  It took a while for the rain to arrive, but it did at about 7.30.

Mood changes probably closely follow the weather, so I am expecting an uplifting month. As the senior MBA (PGDM) students come back on campus, the activity level and the energy levels are up. Classes will be on in full swing. Faculty will have a somewhat tight schedule, compared to the two months gone by which were somewhat relaxed. We will need to put on our thinking caps and device new means of torture- assignments, exams, quizzes, I mean. All good-natured torture, you understand, designed to enhance learning.

We kicked off the academic year with a workshop on new teaching methods, with a few simulation-based package vendors showcasing their wares. A good, innovative start.

A to Z of Nuclear Power

I read an intriguing book by Saurav Jha called 'The Upside Down Book of Nuclear Power'. It is the most comprehensive stuff about nuclear power you can find in one place, and is written by an economist who seems to know almost as much as nuclear physicists- at least more than electrical engineers like me- do about nuclear power. Many of the myths associated with this energy form are cleared effectively. I think the govt. could do well to make this compulsory reading for all those involved in policy making AND SELLING THE POLICY to the public.

I found the research fascinating, and some of the gems hidden in it are mind-boggling. Example- nuclear reactors can, as a by-product of their core activity, desalinate sea water! Can you imagine how that would affect future water-warriors of our world? And an unhidden gem is that India can do more than many with Thorium instead of Uranium-at some point in future.

The arguments about renewable versus nuclear power are pretty persuasive, but could change if renewables technology progresses into hitherto uncharted territory. In any case, for a central, large facility, there is no comparison between the nuclear/conventional and the renewables. It is only for smaller, decentralised applications that renewables are pretty good even today.

Environmentalists get the rough end of the stick in this book, and rightly so. In fact, nuclear energy is potentially the cleanest, if waste disposal is properly attended to. Russia seems to have set everybody back by a few years by letting the Chernobyl disaster happen.

A minor grouse is that China's emergence as a nuclear power - how they did it in particular, is not clear to the reader. In general, shenanigans of various other nuclear powers are dealt with very well.

There have been stories about nuclear waste being dumped in cahoots with African dictators in their countries. The truth or otherwise needs a mention. Overall, an interesting, informative read.

An irrelevant aside- should the book have gone from Z to A in its chapters instead of from A to Z, to go with its title?