Turn away the smoke, those questioning hands

"Too many words,
Too many lies,
Too many seeds,
Too many cries,
Too many thoughts,
Too many lights,
Too many times too many. "
- Plan B, Thermal And A Quarter

One year since the last post. Lots has happened...some worth mentioning, some not. In a nutshell :

One failed masters degree,
gazillion lost follicles,
one hefty student loan,
and upon acquisition of a few fantastic people as friends later, I'm back home... ...back to square 1, or 17-19ish, IF you take into account the EXACT anatomical details of a snake's digestive system.



Talking about digestion, processing thoughts to translate into blog-worthy entries has been tough (yes, as minuscule as they may seem,i have standards too), because every attempt at prose, resulted in poetry...BAD poetry. More like a severe case of writer's block coupled with poet's diarrhea. Poetic Kakkus!

On the 'bright' side, if it could be called that... i'm working again (ALL puns intended) and how!
Its a rather new department, which means things are'nt as sorted out as they should be, which also means, i double up as lab-attender, instructor, evaluator and wise-ass... all being very important components of enhancing the 'lab experience'... talk about schizophrenia...No, YOU shut up!!

So on a nice sunny saturday morning, i set out to 'procure' components for the coming monday's experiments. Say hello to the filthy streets of S.P Road, Bengaluru (which ussshole changed the name?) First shop i entered, filled with students and regular folks, it seemed, at the risk of sounding elitist, as plebeian as it could be. Then amidst this, in walks a trio, three cute lil chik-dees... full, with bounce in step, glint in eye, and mint in cud-chewing mouths. I must admit, apart from the obvious sexist tone ringing from this, this was not a scene you'd encounter regularly at an electronic component shop in S.P road... ie: a couple of fair-sexed engineering (i suppose)kids braving SP road junta and stepping into a nasty shop, to buy resistors and LEDs...'Wooh' i say, nice to see the love for electronics spreading.

It's ok that they were chirpy, and jumpy and made a huge ruckus in an already chaotic shop. It's also ok that they cut the line, and asked for their 'stuff' without caring for the rest who have been waiting (read 'Me'). It's also ok that they asked for a wide range of resistances, because they didnt want to bother about the exact values. But my marbles went into hyper-spin-twist mode when they asked for specifically the 'green' resistors, the lower power-rated kind .... for a moment i thought...

'Wow, these chicks want 1/4 watt rated resistors, perhaps for low power applications and for a compact feel to their overall circuit design....maybe its a low power micro-controller based...' When all of a sudden, while lost in my thought, i heard the shop keeper mutter 'INDUCTOR... that's a lil more expensive'

Completely piqued by now, about exactly WHICH circuit these chilli-pillies had in mind, i spiraled into further half-baked technical thoughts

'... perhaps its a tuned circuit, a filter of sorts...'


and i would've gone on thinking unless i heard this :

"...This will go well with the green salwaar..."

If i could recreate a screechy sound of a Long-Playing gramophone record being short-stopped, i would, here, at this point, when i heard those words.Also, noticing that the inductors and resistors had something in common... they were all green.

Upon further shameless eavesdropping, i discovered they were building a bracelet.... a green bracelet of resistors. WTF man!!?! How that bubble burst! Anyway, my 'teacher instinct' kicked into high gear, when i decided to tell them that zener diodes might help beautify their ornaments. However, i decided to cork my pie-hole, and let my partially numbed mind heal itself instead.

Still, a project's a project, i say. Electronic or otherwise. The purpose of any object is rarely justified by just its intended use. Sometimes i feel, art itself supersedes all else. The purpose of science and technology is just to further means to optimise enjoyment of the Arts. And then again, any field is an art by itself... sigh*

So i'm back now.... lots of figuring out to do. Lots of things to catch up on. Fortunately, i'm surrounded by people who care.
More soon, on music and other developments.