General Observations - 5

Referring back to my habit of throwing, some people will call me lazy, but if done correctly, I call it efficiency. When it goes wrong, well, failure is necessary for success!
My examinations in college are ongoing, as of when I am writing this post. On the 19th of October, 2015, I had my biology practical examinations. We hadto preapare a slide showing mitosis of onion root cells, the stain used being the odd-smelling acetocarmine (smells like vinegar - acetic acid, duh!).
My slide, one must believe, was not even near perfect, but the only thing that helped me was that the teacher checks only the part of the slide that you show. In my slide, there were many microscopic air bubbles. I searched for about 4 minutes before I saw a cell showing any stage of mitosis - it was metaphase. Also, if the teacher had moved the slide even a little bit, she would have seen some microscopic yellow something!

Cold Feet!

If you have followed my posts so far (if not, please read them), you probably know that I mean cold feet literally. Getting back at all the directors who portray India as a hot, crowded land, I faced a very real threat of frostbite here in India! No, I was not in an artificial snow world (I know 2 - one in Hyderabad, one in Pune, and I bet there are many more). I was at 14,000 ft! Ahead of Tawang, towards the Bum La pass, one has to pass through the Y-Junction.

The Y-Junction is a 'Y'. One road from where you come, one that leads to Bum La, and one that leads to the Madhuri Lake. To go to Madhuri Lake, one has to make a pretty steep descent.

When we went to Y-Junction, there was a flagship meet between India and China at the pass (it's on the border) and to top it off, bad weather conditions - it was snowing.

There was a bit of a delay, and we had to get out of our car, and I got my feet wet in the water - yes, flowing water, and you can imagine having wet feet at sub-zero temperatures.

To add to my misery, I forgot to wear my shoes that day - I was wearing floaters, with wet socks, at sub-zero temperatures.

General Observations - 4

I have remarked that I have a habit of stair-running. This is what I don't like about scheduling posts, and restrictions on writing (well, technically, typing). What I wanted to say was, I did it again! In that very week, on the 15th of October 2015, just 3 days after the mentioned recored, I broke it!

This time I scaled the 9 floors in 67:48 seconds. An inprovement of more than 1 second!

Another topic of discussion was the effect of coffee,
I have a very comparatively slight addictive habit of coffee. Not as much as I read on the internet- 4 to 5 cups, and caffeine-containing energy drinks in addition! - I can finally say I found peoplemwho want to die of work.

I have the regular 2 cups per day - milk coffee, made using instant coffee - but with 2 to 3 teaspoons of instant coffee powder,
My personal observation is that the inital effect (jolt) of coffee depends on not the total amount of coffee, but on the concentration of coffee being ingested,
Comment if you agree,disagree or have another observation! You can e-mail too!

General Observations - 3

I have mentioned previously that I cycle daily. I, obviously, being a thinking, caring-for-my-own-life, evolved form of an ape, wear a helmet. Now, for those who have seen my helmet, they know that this is not entirely true.
My helmet has been bought by my mother, some months after I bought my cycle on the second of February, 2014. What she bought was a roller-skating helmet - that too one which is not nearly as heavy-duty as a cyclist's helmet. Now, as I am using it today,it's inner padding is missing, and its adjustment screw is dysfunctional.
When asked why I wear this helmet, my first response is - "What do you mean by 'Why do you wear a helmet?'?"
If inquired further, I say, I wear it just as a message to people, as a means of asking them to wear a helmet as well. For some inexplicable reason, few wear helmets here.

Some people put me high up in the clouds, saying in a pseudo awe-infused, flattering voice, "You wear a helmet!" Though being in the clouds makes me feel like a Roman or Greek mythological leader figure, like Jupiter or Zeus respectively, it's not that enlightening (Get it!).

General Observations - 2

I have mentioned the song 'Shantabai' that disturbed a lot of us during the exam in Ganeshotsav. I recently learnt that this song was supposed to be a lullaby. Interestingly enough, the lyrics of this song have been described as indecent.

There is a concept known as Maths Practicals in my system of education. I personally find it silly,but essential for marks to qualify for further education, It is basically solving 4 sums in front of the teacher, and according to my friends in another college, not even necessarily in front of the teacher!

So, one day, I borrowed the Maths Practical file from a college friend, and had to return it to him. I reached the rendezvous location and he was late. During the time I had to wait, I devised a 'game' to pass the time. I was counting the number of automated two-wheelers that pass in front of me, and of course, keeping note of the time. I spotted a staggering 263 such vehicles in 9:28 minutes, i.e. 1 sighting every 2.16 seconds, on average.
For anybody interested, this was on Paud Phata Road, near the distal entrance to my college campus.

General Observations

I have mentioned in earlier posts that I have a cycle, and I utilise it everyday. What I have not told you until now, is that the rear brakes of the cycle (the brakes that act on the rear wheel) are not in working condition.

If you have ever cycled, you know that it is always advised to use the rear brakes, so that you don't topple over.

So,I have an interesting time cycling, especially in the traffic of Pune, where the extremely courageous cyclists rarely dare to go at 40 kmph, and where the terrain is not plain (Pune used to be considered as a hill station about 100 years ago, but now-a-days, it is odd to call a place with summer temperatures hitting 40 degrees Celsius and housing nearly 9,500,000 people).

The other observation is about my handwriting, connected with my education. When I am extremely bored of writing something, my handwriting changes, just shifts! I don't mean the neat to the scribble, I mean from cursive to print, semi-print, sometimes the other way round. Sometimes slanting left, somethimes right. Sometimes medium sized, and sometimes small enoguh to make my teacher comment on why she needs glasses. This does present a difficulty for me, and people. In school, the teacher used to keep a bundle of checked papers on the first benches, asking us to distribute them amongst our class of about 40 people. Whenever I forgot to write my name (about thrice in 10 years),  it would take extremely long for me to receive this paper, via the teacher's hands (all unnamed papers were handed to the teacher).

It also troubles me while writing journals etc. for college assignments and so on, where my handwriting changes per page (yes, clerical work is boring for me).

Poop

I mean poop, not 'People order our patties' from Spongebob Squarepants - I do not presently watch Spongebob Squarepants, but I have an excellent memory,especially for trivial things.
The amazing incident that happened with me some time back.
I would have shown you a photograph if I had one, of the circumstances. Please note that I did not step in poop. This does not mean that steepping in poop is commonplace.
Coming back to the topic, I was pooped onby a bird, the pigeon, the most unwanted, and the most proliferative species in the cities of Earth. This happened, not when I was standing, but cycling. I was not stopping for a signal to turn green, but cycling at a modest speed! The poop hit the pant on my right thigh.
I understood what happened after I stopped at my destination, which was about 30 metres away.
Has anything odd like this happened to you? If yes, e-mail it to me, or post it in the comments!

Throwing

Welcome back, readers!
I have some things that I really like to do. Some of those are studying and throwing objects to their respective positions.
This habit is not liked my many (most) poeple, the reason being that it generally causes breakage of things, and tempers.
I routinely throw my keys, my wallet, and even my mobile phone (I am on the safe side as it is not a smartphone, and is extremely sturdy, it also has a QWERTY keypad!)
The reason I do this is I feel that it improves your aim - practice makes man perfect. That is not the only reason. It is just simpler to throw things, and please note that by throw I do not mean throwing with all your might (of course), I mean gently tossing things around, upto a distance of 6 metres.
The other reason is ... it's fun!

Stairs

Sorry, again, for the late posts.I will be writing a couple of posts now and scheduling them to be posted in the coming days, so that you will get a post every two days.
Therefore, please, check my blog once every two days for a new post.
The length of the posts may have decreased since it is exam-time - more like exam season. I have examinations from the college, from M. Prakash Academy and the KVPY, all within the next 22 days. College examinations include oral examinations, practical examinations and written examinations.
I apologise for writing 'examinations' again and again, but that is my style - minimum use of SMS language (I actually type my messages this way).
This is going to be the first of the posts that I mentioned at the start of this post.

I got to the gymnasium, 3-4 times a week, and it is not exactly a gynasium. It is a place, about 90 ft off the ground, on the 9th floor of a hospital nearby,believe it or not.
I climb the stairs up, of course, and I have a habit of running up the stairs and timing it.This means that I am practically useless for the 2 minutes after the run. If possible, try it sometime. My record for climbing the 9 floors (225 steps - 13 steps, a 180 degree turn, then 12 steps, 9 times - and each step of about 13 cm in height) is 68.69 seconds! This was on Monday, the 12th of October,2015.

So, if you have the enthusiasm and interest, post your timings in the comments or e-mail them to me.

Hectic

Sorry for the late post, but the title of the post does not start giving you an idea of what happened. Of course, if anyone of my firneds is reading this, they know. The past 2 days, the weekend, I gave 3 examinations of 3 hours each - an intensive mock test for the JEE.
Of course it was hectic - one exam wasn't enough?
No, it isn't as a matter of fact. The JEE Adv. exam is a 6 hour examination - 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm.

A 6 hour examination should be enough, right? It's not. This coupled with, routinely from the past year, a vicious marking scheme, like (+4,0,-2) (which means 4 for correct answer, and negative two for a wrong answer).

In addition, a science student of my age in India has to deal with junior college and all the submissions, the HSC Borad Examination, the KVPY (for interested students, like me) and so on.

Another extremely trivial point that came to my mind was even though the following phrase does not exist, what could it mean? 'As soon as probable'
If you have an idea, please comment below or e-mail me.

Traffic

I have mentioned before that I live in Pune and though there are comments (true statements) such as - What does one do to be perfect? - Be born in Pune.
Well, there is a flip side - traffic, especially vehicular traffic. I cycle to work (as in from home to an academic institution to study) almost everyday and encounter unusual circumstances. The traffic signals are almost guidelines, call the red light as 'stopnow'inogen, and the traffic police as the conditions required to convert it into 'stopnow'in (For those who have no idea what I am talking about, '-inogen' is generally the ending for an inactive enzyme, and '-in; for an active one).
The above description is obviously a hyperbole - Pune is not that chaotic.
But, there are people who break the rules, right in front of everyone. If I had a photo (or photos), I would have uploaded them, but it is rather difficult to photograph while cycling, or while waiting for the signal to turn green.
At some places, the traffic is so polluting, that I occasionally check the skin near my fingernails (Again, for those who are unaware, that is a symptom of CO poisoning (for those who do not know CO, please inhale it (meant to be sarcastic, an insult for the ignorant))).

Another point that I feel is very distressing - well, not that distressing, but distressing enough to write about it. I have not seen one scene of an American or English film regarding the atmosphere of India, that does not look like the bazaar in Morocco depicted in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - so many people, and someone is always carrying a goat! I really feel that the directors of these scenes should visit India, and find that they have got it pretty wrong.

Observations in College - Continued

So, continuing, I have observed many people, while training, especially for cricket, football (soccer), and other sports, wear fluorescent green clothes. Now, I understand why fluorescent green clothes would be necessary for crowd control personnel, and airport ground staff. The only reason I could think of was that their super (short for whoever they are under) wanted to make sure that these aspiring athletes don't bump into each other. It would suffice - I think - for people on one team to tuck their shirts in, and for the others out - it did for us when we were in school. The other possible explanations I feel are obscure. One being that the institution wants them to wear that - not everyone looks like an electric parrot - so, not a uniform. The possibility that so many people like fluorescent green clothes is odd - well, of course, to disprove this, one will need to take a survey regarding the favoured colours by a sportsperson - nobody is going to do that.

The other kind of intellectual insult - if you have ever actually done paper chromatography in real life - is when the chromatogram is kept just for observation, and the expected colours are marked clumsily by coloured sketch-pens.

The college, I feel, is still one of the better ones in Pune, because as far as I know, no other, or very few other colleges had a visit from the late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam (last August), who was felicitated by my friend, Niramay Gogate (a very intellectually smart person). Also, we had a visit to IISER (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, one of the leading research institutions in India).

Observations in College

This article has also been published from my aunt's house.
On Thursday, I don't have any class in college, and it is hence, a holiday.
One of the first things one should do, if possible, when they reach a new institution, is to know it inside out. I am a person in a hurry to not miss classes and reach classes on time - to give a good impression to teachers and staff. This tactic has worked for the past 3 years. According to my 2nd post (on my first blog (I am not very proud of my first blogging experience)), (http://noonnoonnoonnoonnoon.blogspot.in/search?updated-max=2013-07-16T16:56:00-07:00&max-results=7) I have still no contradiction to the theory.
Of course there's is a very big, extremely helpful loophole - I say, that the above is true under general conditions - I have not defined general conditions yet - but it is true, in general

Coming back to the point in hand, I have had to extend it by including people who have nothing on their mind (people who have nothing to do). Please note that this does not imply that females have nothing to do. (To know what I am talking about, visit the above link and return. If you have already visited it, good for you).
If I had a tracker, one would observe that I move almost like a mouse in a maze in the college - a mouse with a long-term target and who knows his way around. The routes in my school (Millennium National School, from which I graduated in 2014) are even more complex, especially because they are spread over 25 acres. (I assume bragging rights regarding the school)
I bet you have encountered such situations - maybe on staircases and/or on elevators, when people stand side-by-side, instead of one in front of the other.
The other observation(s) in college will be posted tomorrow.

The 5th of October

Today was boring. Especially so because I was also bored. Yes, on some boring days, I am not so bored, in which case I do activities such as dissecting peanuts. On some interesting days (in others' perspective, of course), I am terribly bored. For example, almost everything related to traditional activities.
One of my favourite things to do, is to point out the flaws in today's world, especially of the festivities during the festivals.
The most recent trouble caused to me and many others (about 70 other people) was on the days of a mock test - 2 days, 3 exams, 9 hours, 216 questions - by not one but two Mandals (a temporary stage for display) participating in the Gameshotsav, the famous (or infamous?) festival of Pune.
Sorry for the delay - there is some issue with the internet at my house. This post has been publshed using the internet at my aunt's house.

The 4th of October, 2015

The day was basically uninteresting except for a couple of things.
I observed transverse sections (TS) of immature peanuts and of the stalk of the immature peanut. The observations were in line with our textbooks - parenchyma in swollen parts of roots. I say roots because I saw distinct root hairs on the stalk. Even the immature peanut has the characteristic peanut smell. It is white in colour, with no protective coat visible. The section of the stalk was not one of my best - the 'cavity' in the centre was unclear, as air bubble(s) had formed there.
The reasons why peanuts are very famous are two in number - people like eating them, and peanut allergies.
These allergies, caused by switching on of some genes, terrorise the parents of children who exhibit them, all over USA and Europe - the "advanced" countries.

The other interesting question - yes, the interesting thing was a question - was as follows:
Which of the following nucleophiles is stranger than MeS-?

Isn't it interesting what small spelling mistakes can do? There are numerous ironic examples in the Auto-Correct jokes on the internet. Another example: A friend of mine in school mispronounced mensuration (which means measurement) as what I mentioned in the werewolf article.
 

Studying and Learning

I am lucky to be in one of the better junior colleges in Pune (my home city). They had us give a MENSA Test. The people who score above 98%ile (98 percentile) are eligible to join MENSA. My score was on the 90%ile, which, of course, I consider less than expected. I blame it on forgetting to drink coffee that day. It may sound like an excuse, but I do have a sharp memory for trivial things.

For students scoring 90%ile and above, mentoring sessions took place, and we discussed on the same topic as the title of this post.

One cannot stop learning - understanding something that is around us.
One can stop studying - systematic method of learning, based on a curriculum - to some extent.

The problem with learning is that it is not always related to the curriculum, i.e. related to your studies. So, this learning is construed as wasting your time. My own experience was learning to solve differential equations in the 8th Std. (when I was 13 years old), but it was not to be a part of the syllabus till now in 12th Std. (I am 16 years old as on this day).

The problem with studying is very well-known. For the average student, there is the least number of problems. That is attributed to the fact that the curriculum is designed to meet the needs of the average student. The problems of the below-average are, again, entirely different. I want to deal with the problems of the above-average.

For most in this category, they are cruising over the curriculum - on top of everything. But for the rest (e.g. me), understanding is not a problem, nor is writing answers in the examination - one can recall almost all points and frame the answer in situ. The problem is with the system. For the average student, memorising is not such a difficulty. The above-average student considers it an insult to his/her mental capability to need to memorise something. This means that displaying question banks, and asking direct questions straight from textbooks puts the above-average at a disadvantage, or rather takes away their advantage.

I have a friend in college. He is not as interested in studies, but loves learning computer science and programming and so on, which is not part of his studies.

I would like to appreciate the JEE Adv. Paper setters (if you haven't heard of the JEE, refer my first post; the Adv. is the 2nd stage of the examination), for drafting questions which in turn appreciate the abilities of the good learner, and not the one who studies by rote. I know that it is quite obvious that I do not like rote.

You might also be thinking that I have a high regard for myself - I do. My name is Eashaan Godbole (pronounced as ee'shaan god'bolay). My initials in my mother toungue Marathi are 'eego', which I consider to be 'ego'. One may feel this is a show of egotism, but I feel it keeps me pushing forward.

Origin of Werewolves and/or their Evolution

Consider me a sceptic atheist, for I do not believe in ghosts, god, and monsters. Well, there's no doubt that they do exist, in the minds of people. One such creature is the werewolf. I was listening to Wolf Bite by Owl City (great song) yesterday evening, when I came up with some thoughts about the origin and especially, the behaviour of werewolves.

I consulted a couple of friends. One of them said that it originated from hairy men. Most would believe that some person saw a really large wolf, or some other animal. Very possible, but no one can say for sure.

Now, consider werewolves. They howl, call each other, gather, call for more, and all this happens very co-incidentally, once every 2 fortnights, or in other words, about once every month.

The origin of werewolves, we don't know about. But their properties do seem to match those of women. (If anyone feels this is offensive, comment to remove this post). They are known to be irritable around that time. They are known to have mood swings. They are known to be impulsive. They are known to gather (in general, for catching up, gossip etc.). The main point under consideration should be the 'once a month' point.

Well, of course, one could argue that our credulous ancestors roamed through forests and consistently saw big wolves on full moon nights. About the transmission of 'werewolf'ism (I do not know the technical term), I can't explain it properly. It is again possible that the idea of transmission of vampires was taken from this, or the other way around.
The odd point in the above explanation is that if our credulous ancestors knew about a dangerous animal roaming the woods, why would they search for it? There might have been a courageous person in the group, but I haven't heard of anyone who saw a werewolf and returned.

This was my take on werewolves. Do comment, and wait for other articles!

Hello World!

That mostly means hello to people, not unlike yourself, I reckon, who are presently surfing blogs.

Some information regarding me: I am a student (aren't we all? #Cliché) in India. I am not active on Facebook or Twitter (almost cut-off from the world). I am a fan of Sherlock Holmes adventures, and have read all. the title of the blog finds its origin in the idea.
I have 2 to 3 prior blogs. The first was a school assignment, on which I posted 2 of my theories, which are more of observations than laws.
The second originated out of interest in Gaussian distributions. Due to posting 'advertisements' on Twitter and Facebook (yes, I have accounts, that's it), I got a surprising 212 hits overnight.
The third was done with friends, interested in science (like me), but was later abandoned due to studies for the IITJEE, one of the largest scale competitive examinations in the world.

This blog is aimed at revealing the irony, and the passing, fleeting joys (ridiculous circumstances) that I face. There will be a considerable number of such sightings related to studies and science. some will be jokes that I thought of, some funny thoughts, interesting comments and so on. Follow the blog, and get to know it all.

DISCLAIMER: Some posts might be offensive. Please comment if you find it offensive, and I will remove the post. I am for the right to expression, but not for angering anybody.