Some time at the end of April or early-May, I was informed by my mother that Jaya aunty's (Jinu's mother) father had a stroke. The following day he was brought to a private hospital in Trivandrum. I was told to do everything to make them feel alright. Amil (Muthu) had informed me that he too would be arriving (from Tiruvalla) the next day. We met up around noon, had lunch and then set out for Ananthapuri Hospital, which was where appachan was brought. Jaya aunty's brother (who's also a priest) was the one who brought him along with Jaya aunty. Muthu and I helped them out with stuff and their accommodation in the hospital. Appachan was paralysed on his left due to the stroke. But otherwise he was alright, and with some treatment he could be made to regain his senses. Jaya aunty, her brother and Muthu and I, had lunch together in the canteen one of the days. We had a good time.
This was a different experience for me. There was a time earlier when I had visited a person from the Mar Thoma Parish in Dubai, who was ill, in this same hospital. It was, I guess, some 10 kms, from where I live. It was situated on the highway (bypass, actually). My drives to the hospital, the feeling while in it, the sight of a number of people there within, different kinds of illnesses, and the like, were all new to me. George-appachan constantly featured in my prayers those days. As also the other people from different other backgrounds, places, with different illnesses, and also the health-caregivers.
I also understood how important it is to be there for someone you love and to make them feel well in your company. These experiences showed me how significant was our relationship with Raju uncle, Jaya aunty and the family, and not merely friends. The love and fellowship our families share is certainly not something that can get dissolved easily. And I'm so glad about this.
On multiple occasions I've heard the respected Episcopa, Abraham Mar Paulose Thirumeni (hope I've addressed him rightly), use the name Ananthapuri to refer to Trivandrum. I believe, earlier it was called so that way. My trips to this part of Trivandrum was the first time I did so; so, it was an opportunity to see and learn new places in Trivandrum.
I think it was sometime in the third week or so May 2008 that we were done (partly) with our sixth semester classes. We would then return for classes (CAD lab - Inventor and ANSYS) only in June. I remember using my days then to go to a cafe and search out laptop configurations of all leading makers to prepare a list from which I can eventually select a laptop that would be bought for me. I was told that I would be gifted a laptop (or a LCD TV) for my birthday, for which my mother would be with me in Trivandrum. I actually felt there was no need for either, thinking that life was alright the first three years without these and I'd rather it remained that way. But anyway, I opted for the laptop. So the search began.
Sanichachan asked me what the purpose would be, and I told him that the intention is that it should be a tool with which I can work with my CADD softwares (Pro-E, SolidWorks and ANSYS). So he gave me a list of configuration specifics that I should look out for in laptop configurations. So I set out on the job. Each day I would take a book in which I would note down those laptops whose configurations matched with my minimum requirements. And then I would try to get Sanichachan to comment on my day's (hard) work during the evening. Sometimes I would chat directly with him, sharing specifications and company-links and the like, to get real-time comments and help too. It was a crazy period for me as I ate, drank and slept laptop configurations, all the while knowing nothing in computer stuff and associated literature.
[And O, actually, it was in Feb-2007 that I had joined CADD Centre to study these softwares. I totally forgot to mention about this in my Feb-blog. I was excited at the whole prospect of studying these cool applications and the various possibilities it offered in design and analysis. But as the classes progressed and months went by, I realised it called for a certain degree of involvement and dedication to achieve impressive things with these softwares. I understood I was lacking in it.]
Sometimes I would get back to my folks claiming that the model has been shortlisted. But then this model probably no longer existed in the market there. We came to a point when we were greatly impressed with a model with Dell India, and were close to sealing a quotation for it. It was also a time when we were feeling a kind of discrimination by the kind of great offers these same makers offer the American market and not us (in terms of customised configurations and corresponding prices). My search kept going on. It was crazy.
This was also a period of more thinking and questioning of study-in-US. I got to see the time-table (from the IMS-website) one needs to follow to make it for a September-intake. I understood that if I was considering doing it, then I'd have to start GRE-preps right away. There was the two-year duration and the cost - two factors that dissuaded me considerably. But I hadn't let gone yet.
On the project front: In May 2008, we (Jones, Rajesh, Sahal, and I) went to BATL to meet the guide the Brigadier had assigned for us - Mr. Gopalakrishna Pillai. It was quite an introductory session we had. This was the first time he was the project-guide of students from a self-financing college. Since he had negative experiences in the past because of the kind of students he worked with earlier from Government Colleges, he had a pre-conceived notion that we would tread a very similar path, if not worse. I think he was surprised to know that we had no suppl-ees at the time.
He spoke about the activities of the BATL, its significance and related stuff. We were very excited to be there. We wanted to know what our project was. He told that there wasn't any project that was waiting for us as such. He asked us to take a look at the many shops, machines and processes and see if there was something that interested us. That, we thought, was cool. We then set out for an unguided tour of the facilities at BATL. It was as though we were on an industrial visit. I think it was better than the ones we had during our fifth semester. We could understand so many things we saw and we related easily to the environment there. The machine shop, precision shop, fabrication shop - we visited them all. It was towards the end of our visit to the fabrication shop that we discovered a machine not used for quite a while that caught our attention. We asked someone nearby what it was, and learned it was an expander. This turned out to be the beginning of a nearly 12-month journey.
We rushed back to inform our guide that we found something we'd like to work on. On hearing that it was the expander, he was bemused. He asked what made us think that it was what we thought it to be. Actually the princple that it can expand a sheet of metal into the desired dimension was new to us. [We even thought that our project could be to repair the machine and bring it back from the dead, or something like that.] He thought about it, and asked us to meet him after lunch that day for a discussion.
He then said that it is not an easy task to pull off a job on that machine and that no one before had done a project on it. They themselves do a job or two very rarely on it. So if we were still up for it, that would be some thing. He said he'll take a look and get back to us on what our further course of action would be.
On our next visit, he let us know about how the project should progress and the production of the report, its contents, and the like. He asked us to begin work on the literature survey which constitutes about 60 % of the project work and report. He gave us a list of topics we needed to collect information on and get his approval to actually enter the next pahse, which is the actual project. He asked us to not stick to the information available in our textbooks but also check out other options. He suggested we visit the library at VSSC. It seemed alright to us. Sahal, particularly, made it seem like a task that needed no time at all. At that time, we were so looking forward to wrap the entire project up before the end of the year. That meant, completing the S8 project by the end of S7, the beginning of which started at the end of S6. Quite promising indeed.
That's pretty much the happenings of May 2008.
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