My First Tea!!!

It is mid August, I got up from the bed at 9Am. As usual went to the mirror directly.
I weighed more than 60kgs, plump all around my cheeks I stood there wondering what to do. I brushed and called “Amma… Cha”. (“Mom…Tea”).
Within two minutes, I was sitting in the hall with that day’s TOI and a huge mug of superb tea prepared for me. When I sit and think ‘bout it now, I feel I have blue blood!!!

Oct 10th 2005, the person who was supposed to be having blue blood just about a year back, is in a dirty looking kitchen preparing tea!!! Tea making… How much I hated it. My mom always used to tell me, “You will understand one day” whenever I said I hate making tea. Here I am out of Home just for a year and I have understood it!!!

I love drinking Tea, but hate preparing it. But, here in Mysore where I stay there is no other option. I have to prepare it. So what do I do, I decide to proactively make tea.
So I bought an electric heater. Now with some utensils and the heater I plunge into the grilling task of making tea on 10th Oct 2005. I requested my friend to get milk and asked him to get Brooke Bond Red Label tea powder. He got 1/4ltr Nandini milk and got Brooke Bond 3 roses. What the hell!!! 3 Roses, I hated that tea powder. Okay I decide it’s alright and next time I will get the Red Label. I cut the milk packet as I had seen my mom do that and poured it in a vessel. Then I mixed some water in the milk and kept it for boiling. Then I tried to stir the milk. Chuk… Shock!!! I was afraid for a second. I had spent Rs.650 on the heater and this on the first day. Then I checked out the electrical connections. There was a loose connection. I rectified it. I started the heater again and stirred it again. Uff!!! No shock. It was working fine.



The electric heater along with the tea powder and sugar in our kitchen
Then I put sugar, less or more, I never figured out the statistics of tea making!!! I decided to wait until it was ready. Then when the milk was pretty hot, I put right amount of tea powder… Right Amount… What in the gods name? I don’t know how much sugar I have to put and my room mate is worse than me. So I have to take the risk which I do and put some Tea powder. Now it is boiling. We haven’t got a fork. Never came to my mind that I will need it. So when it started boiling I took it off the heater with a kerchief. Hands, well they had to burn!!! Then the worst part, we don’t have a mesh to separate the tea and the used tea powder. So I just poured it in the glass, rather two glasses and we kept it for some time so that the tea powder settles down. We started drinking. But, as if it was a syzygy between the two, the powder didn’t settle down completely in the tea. So every now and then, we need to spit out the powder. But that was very less. So it was manageable. Now somebody had to clean it. I had burned my hand, had been electrified by the heater. So luckily my room mate cleaned up the utensils and the glasses. WoW!!! We had made the first tea on our own in Mysore.

At the end of all this, it was a satisfying incident. I learnt that what we think is so simple from outside is not like that. Look at the circus I had to do just to make 2 cups of tea. The tea was good, not the best but very satisfying.

Everything said and done, one thing that didn’t change was my idea of tea (a bit modified) “I love tea, but hate preparing it, but I have to”.

Size of God and the Atomic Structure

The year is 420 B.C. Greece. The sun is setting in the far west. A Greek named Democritus is sitting and watching the beautiful Red sun, set in the sea. He has a mug in his hand. He is drinking water. He thinks to himself, what is this water made up of? He starts wondering and suddenly the mug slips all the water is spilled on the ground. Splash!!! What he sees on the ground startles him! He sees that as the water falls, it breaks into tiny droplets. As water touches the ground, it spills again and breaks into smaller parts. So he fills water again in the mug and spills it, deliberately this time. Again he wonders at how the water breaks into droplets. His hand being wet, he even drops the mug. The mug made of mud also breaks into pieces. Thud!!! He starts smiling to himself. He crushes the broken parts of the mug again. Smaller pieces!!! He wonders how small he can go. As small as the grains of sand around him? He continues breaking several things and finally makes a proclamation that matter is composed of tiny, indivisible particles in constant motion. These indivisible particles he calls “atomos” which means indestructible particle. As it happens with many great ideas, his idea dies with him.

It was not until 1803, a 36 year old chemist was trying to find out the answers to questions like “Why did (say) one gram of hydrogen always combine with 8 grams of oxygen, never more, never less?”, that Democritus’s idea was given more thought. He kept daily weather records. He was very interested in meteorology. He was John Dalton. In the course of his studies on meteorology, Dalton concluded that evaporated water exists in air as an independent gas. He wondered how water and air could occupy the same space at the same time, when obviously solid bodies can't. If the water and air were composed of discrete particles, Dalton reasoned, evaporation might be viewed as a mixing of water particles with air particles. These particles he called atoms from “atomos” again. Now atoms were the smallest particles known to man. Mark this statement again:

“Atoms were the smallest particles known to man”.

Let’s number this statement as 1. We will be using this statement to make an interesting notion.

Now let’s go a bit further with the history in hand.
There have been dedicated researchers in all centuries. Here I am talking about a British physicist, who changed the very idea of construction of universe. Until him, all matter was made up of indivisible particles called Atoms. Around one hundred years ago amidst glowing glass tubes and the hum of electricity, this British physicist J.J. Thomson ventured into the interior of the atom!!! The particle supposed to be the building block of all matter and which was considered indivisible. At the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, Thomson was experimenting with currents of electricity inside empty glass tubes. He was investigating a long-standing puzzle known as "cathode rays." His experiments prompted him to make a bold proposal: these mysterious rays are streams of particles much smaller than atoms; they are in fact minuscule pieces of atoms. He called these particles "corpuscles," and suggested that they might make up all of the matter in atoms. It was startling to imagine a particle residing inside the atom-the indivisible, the most fundamental unit of matter.
After several more experiments (Lets spare the details of all the experiments) and suggestions from fellow scientists, he made a hypothesis:
“We have in the cathode rays matter in a new state, a state in which the subdivision of matter is carried very much further than in the ordinary gaseous state: a state in which all matter... is of one and the same kind; this matter being the substance from which all the chemical elements are built up."
The subdivided particles were called as corpuscles by Thomson. Irish physicist George Francis FitzGerald, in 1897 named these corpuscles as “electrons”.

So,

“Electrons were the smallest particles known to man”

Let’s again number this statement as 2. We will be using it for our notion. So let’s try and remember this also.

Okay let’s continue our journey through the past.

Year1896, month march in France it is was overcast weather. A local physicist Antonie Henri Becquerel was conducting experiments which needed sunlight. But since the weather he couldn’t get the sunlight he was looking for. He had among his apparatus, photographic plates and some uranium. Physicists are known to carry weird substances.
Okay let’s not deviate from the story. He kept both of these in a darkened drawer. Much to his Becquerel's surprise, the plates were exposed during storage by invisible emanations from the uranium. The emanations did not require the presence of an initiating energy source--the crystals emitted rays on their own! As John Lennon puts is so wisely”Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans”. By accident what he had found out was what is today popularly known as Radioactivity.

This serendipitous discovery of Radioactivity was further pursued with great interest by many scientists. These studies lead to some astonishing discoveries; I would rather call them findings rather than the former.

Ernest Rutherford was a New-Zealander with a Scottish origin. He was a student of Thomson and a great physicist. He conducted some war type experiments and bombarded the atoms with fast moving Cathode-Rays. What do we call this-A war against the building blocks? Whatever we call it, his experiments led to the discovery of what we call nucleus now and that this bulky thing in the atom constitutes all the weight and positive charge of the atom.
So referring to statement 2, it was not only electrons that made up the atom. There were some more particles!!! These are the particles that make up the nucleus, which were further named as protons and neutrons, positively charged and electrically neutral respectively. Electrically neutral? Sometimes these physicists are really confusing. They say electrons move and thus produce electricity and then make a statement like “Neutrons are electrically neutral” when they also say that nucleus where neutrons are found don’t contain any electrons. Interesting, but still true!!!

Okay now Man knew three fundamental particles negatively charged “Electrons”, positively charged “Protons” and electrically neutral “Neutrons”.

Now again let’s mark this statement as 3. This will again be used in our future notion.

Okay I know it has been too much of physics and chemistry in this story.
Time to take a break!!! Just remember the three statements and have some coffee before starting this next part. You might be wondering, “Where is this weirdo getting to with his boring physics and chemistry stories?” I promise it will be worth all this waiting and coffee. We are reaching that illusive notion I have been talking about all along.

It was in 1956, Fred Reines of the University of California at Irvine and the late George Cowan were working on the beta decay of the nucleus and they found the particles named neutrino. Further experiments proved the existence of smaller particles generally classified as Leptons, neutrino being one of them. In July 1998, it was proved by a joint venture of US and Japanese scientists that these neutrinos are one of the fundamental particles and have a mass lesser than an electron. I mean, where was man heading? A particle smaller than an electron! That’s really mind blowing. It is also said that millions of these pass through the body every second. Why don’t these leave a dent? Well it’s again a mystery which is out of the scope here.

So now we had these funny named neutrinos as the smallest particles known to man.
So the elementary particles or the fundamental particles were these Leptons which included neutrinos, electrons etc and the protons and neutrons which are collectively called Baryons.
Let’s not mark this. Because as Sherlock Holmes says, “Mind is like an attic”. So you must keep only things necessary in it.

Okay going forward, there is a lab named Fermi lab. This lab by around 1995 found out that, protons and neutrons are not the fundamental particles, In fact they are made up of smaller particles called Quarks. Just the thought of this is sickening me. Just take a look at the names of these small particles:

Down, Up, Strange, Charm, Bottom and Top.

Isn’t that interesting? Well now where are we in the history of the atom and its structure?

Okay let’s mark the next statement also, as statement 4

The Fundamental particles are Leptons and Quarks. Leptons comprise of the electrons and the almost mass less Neutrino. Quarks are the particles of which protons and neutrons are made of.

Ufff…I am tired of finding more microscopic particles. Let’s stop here in our research about the sub-atomic particles. We have enough data to come to our notion.

God… Who is this god or what is this god? I will take the definition used by many scientists; God is a power behind the nature’s creation. Okay so God built us this beautiful Universe. So God must be very very big!!!
Wait a second! Let’s analyze this properly, what did God actually make? Go to statement 1. Atoms were the smallest particles known to man in around 1803. So we knew matter is made up of atoms. Who made these atoms? GOD as there was no better answer for it.

Then in about 1897, we came to know (statement 2) that atoms are not the fundamental particles, but they are made up of electrons. Referring to statement 3, in the earlier part of the 20th century, Atoms was in fact made up of protons, neutrons and electrons.
Who made these particles? Again it was GOD, the almighty. Interesting word people use to describe GOD, the almighty the most powerful. He created the smallest particles of nature known then, protons, neutrons and electrons and everything else was made of these indivisible particles.

In the latter part of the 20th century, the 90’s, we came to know that protons and neutrons are further made of Quarks (statement 4).

So from statement 4, Quarks and Leptons are the most fundamental particles known to man. Who created these again, GOD!

A wild dog has a den and a sparrow has a nest. Both built them on there own. The size depends on the size of the maker. So the den is larger than the nest. Using this hypothesis (Sorry for being so mathematical), I want to make forward a notion that…

GOD IS SHRINKING!!!

In nineteenth century he was so big that he created the atom, and by the end of twentieth century he is so small that he is creating Quarks and Neutrinos. God is the creator, but his size is shrinking as our knowledge about the atomic structure is increasing. Man is a logical animal. This is my deduction of the study I made about the belief of what god is and the atomic structure.

So, God is shrinking and our knowledge is increasing. How good it is for the mankind, Time is the only thing that will tell.

This is small story about me and my sweetie!!! My Yamaha Rx135!!!

The syzygy of events in life led three of us, Amrya (myself), Arya and Nagya to come together and stay in the same house. We all got posted in Mysore but in different departments. We took a house about 2 km from the company. We used to take the city bus, a rick or would walk our way to and back from office.

Then one fine day as if He had shown us the direction, Nagya and Arya decided to get their bikes. They were so excited. I was also excited but it was different. These friends of mine knew how to ride a bike and me poor me didn’t know as I never found the need.

But fate had better things in mind. So Arya and Nagya got there Samurai and Rx100 respectively. Both bikes were really old. So I had to be the pillion of either the Rx with the great sound or the more safe (as on paper) Samurai. Rx was not available as Nagya had a schedule very very unlike mine. So I had to stick to samurai.

Then one weekend, as it happens, I was left alone in the house with a samurai and also an Rx in the den. Poor me didn’t know how to ride nor did I have the jigara to venture alone. This really frustrated me. But I could do nothing!!!

Next day I asked Nagya to please teach me how to ride the bike. He reluctantly accepted. There it started my association with a Yamaha. Rx100 is a super fast monster, but the one we had was even though fast had lost its luster and hence seemed sluggish. This sluggishness in fact helped me ride it easily. I eventually started venturing alone with the Rx. I like the feel and the gear shift style. I am short and this bike being small helped a lot!!! I even started riding the samurai but was never comfortable and I haven’t figured it out till now why. But I knew life gives you signs and I accepted the signs.

The major problem after a month or so after me learning to ride was that I seldom got the Yamaha to ride. Samurai, I was happy to be the pillion. But as I said earlier Fate is important. Arya got a transfer to b’lore!!! So suddenly I had the samurai to my own. But fate again, Arya told me his brother wants his bike as soon as possible. So I sent the samurai after riding it for a week or so. Still our Yamaha guy had bad schedules and I had to walk home or come by a rick. The frustration started building. I had to do something.

Now let me tell you about his bike fanatic friend of mine. He is Adya from pune. He owned an Rx135 at this time. He maintains his bike very well and loves them like his wife. This fellow had his Rx up for sale. Since I had rode an Rx I thought I will go for it.
I thought about it a lot and finally when I had to make the decision I made it a flash. I had been to my home town. I asked my dad and got the green. I called up Adi and told him, Sucker I want your bike and I cant pay you more than 25K. He started laughing and said I can’t handle his monster. I said I have decided to take that risk and convinced him. He agreed and we struck a deal. I saved a lot of money for this. No purchases, No dress. No shoes. Nothing. I liked the way I did it. And finally I had the required dough in a month to get this Rx.
It was 15th June 2005, I transferred 25K to my friends account and he transferred the bike to Hubli. I went to Hubli and booked the transfer of the bike to Mysore on the train. Next day I came to mysore. My sweetie as I call her had arrived. She stood there shining. I could help but smiling at this first real spending of my life!!! I owned a bike. I took her from the station. Fate again had its say. It was a strike for the petrol bunks that day and the worst part being, Nagya as usual had just half litre petrol in his bike. I asked him to remove that petrol from his bike and come by the next bus to Station. I pushed my sweetie to the nearest petrol bunks. None was operating that day. I called up Nagya and he was still coming. Then as life shows us signs, someone told me that a petrol bunk is operating on the end of the road I was standing. It was a down hill. If it was false, I had to push her all the way back. That was one hell of a risk. My intuition said, lets give it a try and I did. Luckily the petrol bunk was operating and I got the so much needed petrol.
Then started the tedious task of starting her. Yamaha always has cold start problem. I was not used to that. So I tried calling up Adya. But that bugger was sleeping!!! I kicked and kicked and finally she spurted to life…. Wow what a hum she made from her heart. I fell in love instantly! Then I rode to the point very cautiously where I had asked Nagya to come. He came and I told him about the petrol story. He was very happy to see my bike. Then we rode back to our house, with the half litre petrol from his bike in his hand.
That was the last and final time I rode her so cautiously. Just take a look at her. Isn’t she a beauty?

MY FIRST POST

What is Nitrous Oxide?
Chemical PropertiesA nitrous oxide molecule is made up of 2 atoms of nitrogen and 1 atom of oxygen. By weight it is 36% oxygen (air is only 23.6% oxygen). At 70° F it takes 760 PSI of vapour pressure to hold nitrous in liquid form. The critical temperature is 97.7° F; at this temp the vapour pressure can no longer hold the nitrous in liquid form. At this point the nitrous turns gaseous and will be at 1069 PSI. As temperature rises further, so will pressure, but it will remain in gaseous form. If you intend to siphon liquid nitrous, it is important to keep the temperature below 97.7°. When liquid nitrous is released, it will go from 760 PSI to 14.7 PSI (normal atmospheric pressure). It will then begin to boil and rapidly expand; the pressure drop will cause the temperature to decrease. Nitrous boils at 129.1°F below zero.

for more details see:
http://www.noswizard.com/technical.php?osCsid=d7a3e5be2dfee15a08d7262412ae179b