The Fifth Blog

What a rewarding and enriching month it has been! And it ended in many similar ways to how it began. Preparing invoices and speed posting. Tandoori Chai with jaggery. Also shot off a book proposal to a publisher. Good to see the announcement of my workshop in print. It will be a dream come true. Idea for next month’s editorial already in my head. 

I attended a fascinating presentation about Mumbai Monorail in the IEI auditorium. The speaker was the Head of Operations and another senior engineer who was involved in the design and testing of the electrical system. Both were very knowledgeable and fielded all the questions extremely well. The audience was barely 25 and instead of asking technical questions, many went on and on about policy issues. I asked about the fire incidents and they replied it was due to tyre burst. It was surprising to learn that monorail uses rubber tyres, both for propulsion and clutching the guide beam. Even more surprising was that the entire beam is moved for switching tracks.  The hotel of my Choice at Daman, a 150-year old Portuguese property, is asking me to book the rooms through travel portals, which are quoting 40% higher rates. Met Sarita at Starbucks in Seawoods mall and picked up this clutch of books.

Fascinating 4-hour long interaction with the 4-member Japanese delegation representing ICCA. Their mission was to improve the coverage and accuracy of GHG emission reporting. China and India, 2 of the top 3 emitting countries don’t have laws for mandatory disclosure by companies. Today it is indirectly deduced from fuel consumption, using historical emission factors. All that will change following COP24, which mandates transparency using IPCC guidelines by December 2024. We should prepare our industries for this. It was a rewarding half day despite their difficult English. 

Another assignment wrapped up. But this one didn’t feel as satisfying as most others. There were learnings, but it didn’t feel the same. It felt incomplete. For the first time in nine and a half years, retweets of my tweet crossed the 3-figure mark. 

Very happy with my Project Management lecture today. Introduced the class to the concept of WBS with plenty of examples. Paced it well. Lasted a shade over 3 hours. Shot pictures of hibiscus during the break. The class is now in a Google Group, where I announced the first assignment - to create the WBS of their PhD project. G told me a trivia about flag hoisting and flag unfurling, and I posted it on twitter. It is getting noticed. Stressed about the Daman itinerary. 

I have to teach for 3 hours tomorrow. And it is always last minute preparation. I thrive on this stress. 

3rd consecutive long day at work. I am not complaining because it is paid learning. 

Another long day. It is an opportunity to observe how another culture works. Happy to be learning. Happy to be contributing. 

Long day at work. And work is a great healer. All my woes of yesterday are begone. 

Unwell today. And I am a bit worried, only because I have work tomorrow. 

Struggled to write today. The cold continued to bother me, eyes and nose running incessantly. Australian Open was a minor distraction. When my editor reminded me of the deadline late evening, I was only two-thirds done. I had to fill up words to reach the four figure mark. I hated it because this is such an original piece of work to commemorate the 25th edition of Chemingineering. 

I am under the weather today, but it did not prevent me from clearing out the balcony, where a monstrosity of junk had manage to accumulate, entirely due to my procrastination. But truth be told, that this is only making space to hoard more junk. I suppose it is my DNA to hoard things.  Eyes and nose are watering and I find it difficult to focus on writing. But still managed to put together 250+ words for my column. I have chosen to write on “Engineering Education” and it is a daunting subject. 

Attended what was dubbed as a conference at Bhau Daji Lad Museum, part of the “Connected Threads” exhibition. Women outnumbered men 95:5. One of the panellists even went on to say that textiles are synonymous with femininity and give women an identity. The “conference” was essentially 2 rounds of panel discussions with the artists. But before that there was a keynote address by Dr Jyotindra Jain, former director of crafts museum. At the end there were many loose threads and no logical connection. After the conference, rushed through 6 of the 25 exhibits. Best was this, where the artist has written her mother’s recipes in Braille by leaving parts of the saree-like fabric undyed. It is a brilliant metaphor for trying to understand her mother who died early. 

Memorable evening at Hotel President, Cuffe Parade where I received 2 awards for my writing. Awards were given out in 30 categories by Association of Business Communicators of India. There were 1895 nominations. Reason to be proud and happy.

Happy day because I wrote effortlessly with much clarity of thought and finished the column well in time. In the morning I had a moment of serendipity while browsing through mails marked Promotions by Gmail. It led me to learn about GAN (Generative Adversarial Network), an important AI tool for drug discovery and design. Was able to weave it into my column. Wrote longhand on paper before typing on iPad. Also learned about Finland’s initiative of teaching AI basics to 1% of its citizens. They have an online course and I signed up for it. 

A day of writing - the second on the AI series for Chemical Weekly. Was in a flow during forenoon. But the long telephone call disrupted the rhythm. Put down 600 words on AI for molecular discovery. The remaining 400 words tomorrow will be an uphill task. 

This year the alumni association wants to scale up the mentoring project. And I share that responsibility. Getting free and frank feedback from the current crop of mentees is the first step. Created an impromptu questionnaire - 4 short questions. To avoid impulsive comments, I made groups of 4, so that they can deliberate and come with moderated and considered opinions. 

The 7-consecutive day HAZOP is done and dusted. Tried to get over the withdrawal syndrome by watching a Tamil movie on TV. 

Never worked on a Sunday before. But as a freelancer I don’t have a choice. 6th consecutive day of Hazop. It will end tomorrow and I am already depressed thinking about the vacuum that will follow. This Hazop has been an exceptionally learning one. I have been taking notes. 

First lecture of Project Management to PhD students, as part of the diploma course in Technology Management. Used my famous Filter Coffee example to introduce them to project objectives and scheduling. This should be a very enjoyable experience. Professor friend asked my opinion on whether he should forsake 30+ years of passion for teaching to move into administrative position. I asked him to listen only to his inner voice. 

The pressure is crazy. Yesterday worked even longer than the first two days. And now they want us to work on Sunday too. Mindless management of project. Focused on ticking off boxes at the cost of everything else. 

Another long and tiring day. And monstrous traffic at the end of the day. There is pressure to complete the Hazop ahead of schedule in fewer days. Working for long hours is counterproductive. There is palpable slowing down after lunch. 

Long and arduous opening day. Exhausted mentally. All I want now is a good night’s sleep. 

Took the first step on my book. Met the editor and had a frank discussion. He has promised a costing very soon. Wondering if workshop earnings can finance the book. It is my Ikigai now. Read many pages today. Also started on this one that I picked up from the editor’s office. 

Have been adding new vegetables to my culinary repertoire in last few days - Madras Cucumber and Pumpkin. Today it was spinach. Totalling and tabulating the marks took much more time than I had bargained for. It almost consumed the better part of the day. Perfect normal distribution without aiming for it. 

"Talk Less, Listen More" mode today.

Worked to a timetable today and it helped me complete a long and tiresome task. The editorial crystallised in my head during the morning walk. Now I need to write it down before hitting the bed. Don't be Passive, is the message. 

Put my head down to paper correction work overcoming the distractions of test cricket. It was a number crunching task. I had customised one of the problem in the question paper and now had to enter the student's mobile phone number in the spreadsheet to get the correct solution. This will continue tomorrow.  A new chapter has been opened in 2019. The first of my new series of columns on Artificial Intelligence has been published in Chemical Weekly. The courier delivered the hard copy. Always exciting to see one's name in print. Brave New World is my title for these columns, inspired by Aldous Huxley.

"How to say YES, Always" is the book I love to write. I have said yes and taken on more responsibilities. There was such clarity of thought in the morning and it helped me decide. So much to do this month and I am beginning to feel the heat.  On a lighter note the morning walk in the park infected me with couple of earworms. https://youtu.be/9VruI_nkOVE https://youtu.be/v2PQEkDFLQA

The first day of the New Year is always exotic. The conditioned mind leads us to think that the world has transformed overnight. As I take a different route for my ritual of catching the first sunrise of the year, my mind tries to seek novelty among familiar scenes. Novelty did happen later. Camel Milk Chocolate Tandoori Chai The familiar trappings of the New Year , And new thoughts for the New Year - Why should we work longer? Disappointed at not being able to watch the New Year Concert of Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. But the video clip of the Radetzsky March was up on YouTube