Mysore misery

Thom 2018-05-14 13:40, laatste update 2020-09-30 13:00

6.30. it's way too early to get out of bed. But we are going on a trip to Mysore and since it's a 3 hour drive we have to leave early to still have some part of our day left. We get picked up by an Indian guy and his bus. The Indian guy seems like a stand up guy, but his English is almost non existent and after seeing him drive I also wonder if he has a license at all.Before going to Mysore we stop on an island on the way there. On the island we visit the Ranganatga Swamy temple. There is a very long line of people in front of the temple. We decide it's worth it and join the queue. After standing in the queue for 20 minutes, in which I had to kindly tell 4 Indian guys I'm not interested in a wooden elephant with a smaller wooden elephant carved inside, we enter the temple.Inside the temple the line of people unfortunately continues. After standing in the queue inside the temple for around half an hour, we enter a room. Another queue. We stand there for another 20 minutes after we enter another room. To no one's surprise this room consists of a line of people slowly moving towards the exit of the room. After standing in line for another 15 minutes again we enter another room. Here there is a line in front of some laying statue of a man. Indian people do their prayers when they reach the statue, we just kind of look at this underwhelming piece of stone and leave the temple again. After the temple we visit some dungeon. We get a tour by the security guard, who apparently also functions as a guide here and move on to some long dead sultan's summer palace. From the outside it looked like an ugly building, but inside it looked quite nice. There were some nice paintings and sketches hanging on the walls, of which some had impressive drawings themselves as well. After the sultan's summer palace we went to the same sultan his tombe. After going inside, the most boring Indian person I met here starts telling us in the most monotone way possible that here lies the sultan's and his parents, and outside his wife and kids. After finishing his 1 minute story he demands money. We give him 20 rupees but this guy, being the attention paying mad man he is, sees a 100 rupee bill in my wallet and kindly asks if I don't want to give him that one. After declining and leaving, we go back to the bus that drove us here and continue our way to Mysore. We get in Mysore at around 2 in the afternoon, and most people are hungry by now. We decide to eat in the most depressing KFC I ever saw, on the, except for the KFC, completely empty third floor of some building. The food itself was okay and not that expensive, so I didn't care. After lunch we went to the Big palace in the centre of the city. The palace was quite large and there were a lot of Indian people also visiting. After taking off our shoes, which was mandatory if you wanted to enter the palace, we went inside. Inside the palace were even more Indian people in an even smaller space. Several of the Indian people inside the palace decided I was a bigger attraction then the famous building they were in, so they asked to take selfies with me. After an hour of having Indian people on all sides standing as close to us as they can, we had seen the whole palace from the inside so we went outside again. In the gardens of the palace, in some corner, there were some elephants. This was very cool so we went over there and looked. I touched an elephant. It was hella tight. After the elephants we went back to the bus and asked him to drive up a hill, where there was another temple. After looking at the temple we walked around on the top of the hill for a bit. There was a guy selling corn on the street. But since this is India, some cow came and ate the corn. After we were done laughing at this, there were again some Indian people who wanted to take a picture with us. It was already getting late, and since driving back to the hotel would take 3 hours, we decided to go back. We got in the bus and headed back to the hotel. At around 8 we stopped at a collection of restaurants next to the road. I was done with rice and curry after two and a half weeks so I decided to get pizza. Although not as good as pizza anywhere else in this world, it was still pizza so I had a great time eating it. After everyone was done eating we got back on the road again. We drove for a while when traffic started to get slower and slower and after a short while we were completely stuck. Our driver did not like the pace at which we were going, so he was desperately looking for a solution. This solution came in the form of a small opening in the middenberm. The other side of the road, with cars going the other way, wasn't as busy as our side. Actually it was almost empty. So who can blame an Indian guy for thinking well I can just go against the traffic. It will go way faster. So our busdriver decided to use the small opening in the road devider and get on the wrong side of the road. Driving against traffic. This seemed to work fine for almost a 100 metres. Then traffic also got stuck on the other side of the road, with cars trying to go in both directions on the same lane. After standing still on the wrong side of the road for a couple of minutes, our bus driver decided to swallow his pride and turn his bus around. After turning his bus around in the middle of the highway he drove back to the opening in the road devider and got back to the right side of the road. There was still a massive traffic jam so getting back to the hotel took another 3 hours. And we only got back at around 1. Luckily I'm stupid and stayed awake until 2:30. Even though the next they I had to get up at 7:45. Fun.

SNAKES! (is no clickbait sir)

Stefan 2018-05-13 21:42, laatste update 2020-09-30 13:00

This weekend was time off for all participants. Most of us spent the Saturday sightseeing in Bengaluru. About half of the group had to rush, as they would also visit Mysore on Sunday.

Together with Bart, Bartje, Inge, Jeremy, Mina, Alexander en Peter, I started Saturday morning in Cubbon Park. The shadows of the trees were very welcome after two weeks of exhausting heat and we decided that we would walk around a bit before looking for a place to lie down in the grass and relax. Unfortunately, apart from a place crowded with doves (hundreds of them), the park did not offer as much interesting things to see as expected. However, when we were about to leave the park, we saw a snake gliding just one meter behind Peter. We started yelling and pointing but luckily the snake did not seem to care about Peter that much and disappeared in a hole. A few minutes later, the snake reappeared and had brought a smaller friend. The smaller snake seemed more hostile, lifting its head off the ground with a weird twist in its neck. It started gliding with high speed, but we were glad to see that it did not come in our direction. Some Indians also noted the snake and started screaming "snack, snack!". It was hard to tell if they tried to pronounce the English word or really wanted to pierce it with a stick and hang over a fire. Quickly we abandoned our earlier plans to lie down in the grass.

After our encounter with the snake we headed off to see the impressive state office buildings and the 27-feet high bronze statue of a meditating Mahatama Gandhi in its gardens. On our way, four wild cows appeared from a busy road. They ran past us on their way to the park and started jumping around once they reached a small field. We have no idea were they came from, but they were the happiest cows we have seen in India this far.

Our next destination was Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace. Peter decided to go his own way and visit the HAL Heritage Centre and Aerospace Museum. Not that bad of a choice as the palace left us little impressed. We also had to say goodbye to Bart, because he did not feel that well.

The afternoon had started and it was time to find some place for lunch. Most restaurants seemed to be closed however, which might had something to do with the elections of the Bengaluru region taking place that day. After half an hour we found a sign that was one of the prettiest sights of the whole study trip. It had a red background and three large white letters: KFC. Some non-Indian food was very nice to have for a change. With our tummies full we visited the Big Bull temple. The name says it all, inside of the temple one will find a huge statue of a bull. It's big.

We already encountered doves, snakes, wild cows and a bull of stone... When it comes to wildlife India seems to be one big zoo. Another proof was when we found ourselves underneath trees crowded with large bats. The locals thought that our amazement was quite funny. They seldomly seem to shy away from laughing at our white-ass behaviour and by now we were used to it.

The last stop for Bartje, Inge, Alexander and me was Lalbagh Park. Jeremy and Mina also joined us, but they would visit the ISKCON temple afterwards as they also would visit Mysore the day after. We strolled around for two hours in this beautiful park. This park had some interesting wildlife as well. Aside from the monkeys we already had seen numerous times (but never get boring to watch), we also saw some centipedes and even three small iguanas fighting in a tree. The park was also home to one of the famous Bengaluru watchtowers from which there was an amazing view over the city.

My Sunday was even more laid-back. It started off at the ISKCON temple with Danny, Inge, Alex and Bart. ISKCON is an abbreviation of International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The interior of the temple was probably the nicest we had seen in all of India, with a large golden structure and amazing paintings in the ceiling. However, we found ourselves in some kind of Krishna Disneyworld, after visiting the temple, we had to walk through merchandise for what felt like half an hour. This turned out to be for the funding of the completion of the theme park by a yet-to-be-built Sky Temple, which would reach like forty meters high and even has a sky lounge for viewing the city.

Next stop was the Big Bazaar (supermarkt) where we bought lunch and enough masala spices for a year. Alex and I went to the Sancha Tea Boutique. We were in quite an expensive neighbourhood, as we walked past a Lamborghini shop and a pale-skinned woman taking her dog for a walk (you really don't see that often in India). Inside the store we found all kinds of expensive and less expensive teas as well as a wild Willie (it was just a normal Willie, but we did not expect him). Later on, I also encountered Danny. After trying and buying some nice Indian tea, which was weird enough sold by two Chinese ladies to mostly other Chinese visitors, I left to see the Industry and Technology Museum. The entry fee was only 50 rupees (60 eurocent) and inside it was really crowded. The whole museum was set up in an interactive way with a lot of little experiments aimed at starting interest in science in kids. It seemed to be very effective as kids were running all over the place pressing buttons and pulling levers. I found it really nice to see a place where people can get introduced to science for such a small price, but even more so that it really sparked the enthusiasm of the hundreds of visitors inside.

This seems like a good point to stop my writing, also I get the feeling that Willie wants to go to sleep. Tomorrow we have our last institute visit before we leave this exciting country for our beloved Nijmegen, which we are all looking forward to see again.

Astronomy @Gauribidanur

Danny 2018-05-10 17:42, laatste update 2020-09-30 13:00

We are heading to the Gauribodanur Observatory today. Gauribidanur is located roughly 100 km north of Bengaluru so we had to get up early to enjoy a 2.5 hour busride. Luckily the hotel was so nice to prepare breakfast half an hour earlier then they normally do, so we all had our Idlis and our Rasam. Energized for an exciting tour on the bus...

The observatory is part of a campus that also hosts a section of the Indian Atomic department. Therefore, photography was restricted in certain parts. After being welcomed with freshly made chai, we received two talks from scientists who work at the observatory. The first comprised of a small introduction about the physics of the sun and what information can be gained from looking at the radiospectrum emitted by the sun. The main expertise of the Gauribidanur Observatory is coronal mass ejections. They cause disruption on earth and in space. The aviation industry and satellites get disturbed by them, hence it is useful to know when they eject so you can take precautions.

After the first two talks, they showed us the radio antennas. The radio antenas are located in a field in a T shape where the long arm is about 2.5 km and the short arm about 1 km. Roughly every 7 to 10 meters you can find an antenna that is a few meters wide and high. The setup is huge and it takes a while to see it entierly.

A good way to enjoy a bit of the sun.

After the field visit we got lunch from the institute. It was served in a small pagoda where there was just enough space for everybody, but it all fitted. Five minutes after we sat down for lunch, the weather changed to heavy rain! The nice open pagoda led us all to flock in the middle to prevent us from getting wet. That didn't work out that well. Some of us even wore a poncho.

After lunch we enjoyed another 3 talks. This time about the technical details of signal processing of the antenna and one from a PhD student who is also working on the coronal mass ejections. The last talk of the day was an extra talk from the Raman Research Insitute that also has a office on the Gauribidanur campus. He told us about their quest to get information about the cosmic dawn and about some exciting measurements they will do in the upcoming weekend to confirm a recent nature paper concerning the origin of the universe. He was however skeptical about the possibillity of reproducing them. We will see.

After a 3 hour bus ride back to Bengaluru, where even the ambulances are stuck in traffic, dinner and Bengaluru nightlife is waiting for us! See you tomorrow!

Second day in Bengaluru

Victor 2018-05-09 19:41, laatste update 2020-09-30 13:00

The previous blog post mentioned us ending the day in a brewery pub (Toit). Afterwards a select few of us went on to another brewpub (Vapour) Which was quite nice and seemed to fancy for us but turned out to be reasonably priced. We enjoyed the craft beers to a playlist which seemed composed by a twenty something years old undergoing a midlife crises, but was very enjoyable. After finishing our beers and watching the pub quiz downstairs for a little while we moved on to go back to the hotel.
On the way we decided that we would go and look inside a club just to try the ambiance. But when we wanted to go in we were stopped and asked for 3000 rupees (about ) which we answered with a round of laughter and a :¨It was nice meeting you¨. The some Indian man asked us where we where from and told us to go inside and have a good time, finishing with the sentence :"A gift from an Indian". So i'm pretty sure he paid the entree fee for the four of us that where left. Inside we payed way to much for our drinks and danced. Up stairs we met some drunk middle aged Chinese women wanted to dance with us. At the end of the night we went home with some tuk tuks and went to sleep.////

The next morning a visit to the ISRO satellite center was planned but was canceled giving us time to catch some sleep. Not to much tho since breakfast was only served until 10:00 and we had to gather at 11:15. We then went on a one and a half hour bus drive to an institute called CREST which is part of the Indian institute for astronomy. Their we listened to a talk about the institute and the telescope in the Himalayas that it operates. Afterwards we got to visit a (class 1000) clean room. Which was the most exciting part of the visit because we had to get all dressed up in special suites to enter. ////

On the ride back home we got stuck in traffic jam which turned out to be caused by rallying political parties. The jam was so bad that some of us got out of our bus and took a metro. Eventually we all arrived back at the hotel.

Moving on to Bengaluru

Bart 2018-05-09 07:46, laatste update 2020-09-30 13:00

This blogpost was written by Bart Steeman & Stefan Horst

Followers of this blog might have noticed that we've had a pretty full program these last few weeks. In this regard today was remarkable, since we really didn't have to do anything except cross half of India. Lucky for us humanity has discovered the power of flight and this turned out to be quite the easy feat. Destination: Bengaluru (Wait isn't it called Bangalore? No. Not anymore, you uncultured swine.) We had to leave our beautiful rooms at hotel East West at the ungodly hour of 6:00 in the morning. After saying our emotional goodbyes to a certain staff member (who shall remain nameless) we went for the calmest and least life threatening car ride yet. Even though Kolkata has more than 10 million citizens the roads are still (relatively) empty at this hour. After Steeman guided us through the baggage check-in at the airport like a total pro we had time for a nice breakfast and a big cup of coffee, as we were more than an hour early. Some of us enjoyed the still early morning by strolling through the book shop. It turns out that comics are also popular in India, although the topics cover Indian mythology and the lives of numerous gods and godesses of the Hindu religion. We also encountered a book written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, designed to help children through their exams with tips for studying and yoga exercises. Then finally it was time to take our seats and fly away to new adventure.

The flight took us a comfortable two and a half hours. We came prepared for a barely edible Jet Airways meal and a turbulent descent and were not disappointed. Instantly we noticed the more moderate climate of Bengaluru when driving in the taxis on our way to the Palladium hotel. The first impression of Bengaluru was quite pleasant, with less honking on the streats and sidewalks that could be crossed without soaking your shoes in some kind of slush of plastic, rotting fruit and curry leftovers from March. This could only be trumped by our hotel, of which the luxurious rooms made us feel like the gods and godesses in the comics of the Kolkata Airport bookshop. Arriving at about 14:00 we had three free hours for relaxing at the hotel and exploring the city, before meeting again at 17:00 for dinner with the group as a whole.
Some of us went to explore our surroundings and have a bite to eat. All the cities we visit have their own distinct cultures, and of course there is no better way to experience those than by eating all their food. After a short stop at a local alternative for a shopping mall (in a small, narrow basement) we got directions to a little fastfood place were they would have local specialties. It turned out to be a self service restaurant, and in order to place our orders we had to wrestle ourselves to the cash register, only to then turn around and wrestle ourselves to the kitchen to hand over our receipts. Proper queuing is clearly not part of any of the culture. But it was all worth it, because the food was indeed great, especially the Masala Dosa.

In the evening everyone gathered to have our second dinner with the entire group. We took the metro to god-knows-where in the city and arrived at Brewpub Toit, a suprisingly non-Indian, very western restaurant. The menu did not have a single curry on it, but instead there were burgers, pastas and pizzas. Not unimportantly they had some very good selfbrews on tap, and beer has not been easy to come by here. It was also the first place where i've heard european/american music here. We had a good time, and Steeman even took a very rare selfie. After that most of us went back to the hotel for a good nights rest, with the knowledge that we could finally sleep in tomorrow.

Greetjes home,
Stefan & Bart

Last day in Kolkata

Mina 2018-05-07 19:05, laatste update 2019-05-15 14:05

After another buttered toast breakfast at the hotel, for some perhaps a relief after two days of Indian food only, we left for the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC). This institute owns the first ever variable energy cyclotron build in India, but has multiple research areas besides nuclear physics. Sadly Danny could not join us, because his entry visa wasn't granted in time.

We arrived at the gate of VECC, where we were escorted to passport control by armed soldiers. Did I mention VECC is engaged in contract with the Department of Atomic Energy? After signing several forms, making an eye scan and handing over all cell phones and cameras we went to a conference hall, hence the lack of pictures. There was no question whether the air conditioning worked. Compared to the outside, the hall felt like the inside of a refrigerator. We were handed some tea (without sugar) and the director himself welcomed us to the institute. He gave us a showy golden plate, and I found myself wondering how it would look in between beer bottles and second hand couches in our canteen back in Nijmegen. I don't think we had felt this welcome at the other institutes. The director told us about the institutes' highlights, the variable energy cyclotron from 1969 and the superconducting cyclotron currently under construction. The VECC had two presentations planned about research done at the institute. One about experimental nuclear physics and one about high energy physics. Originally, the committee also wanted to go to VECC's neighbor: the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), but they denied access to us. Therefore VECC arranged a talk with a faculty member representing SINP. The SINP turns out to do pretty deep theoretical research such as string theory research.

In the mean time we all got quite hungry and just in time we were taken to the guest house where they prepared an entire buffet for us. The food was really good and even included white bread and boiled egg for the students who had seen enough Indian food. There were also sugared cheesy balls which I personally didn't like and purple mousse which I didn't even try. The people from VECC joined us for lunch which allowed for more casual conversation. They were really nice and seemed genuinely interested.

After two more talks we finally got to see the cyclotrons. We split into two groups and visited the ion beam faculty, the K130 variable energy cyclotron and the construction of the K500 superconducting cyclotron or photon multiplicity detector. Luckily for us, the K130 was out of order for a few days so we could take a look around the cyclotron building from 1969. The control room still looked the same as it did in those days, but they replaced the manual controls by computers. The construction of the K500 started in 2004. The cyclotron goes 10 m under ground and 10 m above. It is cooled using helium and liquid nitrogen, which are both stored in tanks after cooling to be used again. //

Overall VECC was definitely one of the nicer institutes we have seen. After giving the tiny wooden shoes and the group picture to the directors we left for the hotel. We couldn't leave Kolkata without seeing the Victoria Memorial, especially when it was so close to the hotel, so we drove past the building with our cars on our way back.

Trip to the Sundarbans National Park!

Manon 2018-05-06 22:16, laatste update 2020-09-30 13:00

Friday in Kolkata

Ruben 2018-05-06 18:23, laatste update 2018-05-06 19:45

Friday morning the day started a bit too early. Breakfast, which should have been served around 08:00, was suddenly an hour early (Which is better than late, but rushing to the door half asleep isn't the dream start of my morning). The planned activities were visiting the Bose Institute, followed by the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).

After a final buddy-check we proceeded to the vans and left for the Bose Institute. We soon discovered that there are multiple locations of this institute. With only one of the drivers speaking English and one knowing the way, this proved to be rather time-consuming. So with only one and a half hour left, we entered the Bose Institute. Here we had an interesting talk on complex systems, but due to being short on time, we quickly grabbed lunch and continued our journey to the ISI.

We quickly arrived at the gates of ISI, so at least one of our trips had gone as planned, right? Wrong. Apparently we arrived at the wrong gate of the complex. In stead of letting us walk over the campus, we circled around the ISI in busy traffic for at least 15 minutes. The walk over the terrain would have cost us 5 minutes, but we can all agree upon the fact that this would have been totally unacceptable (or at least this is what Indians seem to think). Luckily our troubles were compensated by some interesting talks about molecular electronics and the relation between the formalism of general relativity and fluid dynamics. This concluded the physics part of the day.

Because we had some spare time, we went to a large temple complex near the ISI. After reluctantly handing in our mobile phones and undoing our shoes, we entered the large temple complex. It had a lot of shrines and we happened to visit during a Hindu ritual. By now everyone was tired, so we went back to the hotel (without problems for the first time this day). All I had to do, was get dinner somewhere. I ended up at a Indian restaurant close to the hotel. There were 10 waiters, who were serving 5 filled tables (now we know how the term waiter was invented). The experience was only lacking on one front; the food quality. Moving some staff from the restaurant to the kitchen wouldn't be a bad idea. For the next weekend a visit to the mangrove forests is planned. How we experienced this, you can read in the next blog!

Kolkata University

Wies 2018-05-03 20:33

Our first real day in Kolkata! We started with a belated but very nice non-indian breakfast. (To be honest I can´t stand the taste and the smell of any spicy indian food in de morning anymore). After breakfast we went to the University of Kolkata. This university has his faculties all over the city. In the morning we first visited the department of Physics. After a nice introduction and some group pictures we visited a cellar like space were they were working with lasers. Afterwards did we get a yummy and not to spicy indian lunch. This was the first university were we also saw some students. This wasn´t the case in the other universities because of the exams the students have next week. Special for our visit were there still some students present at the Kolkata University!

Next was the department of environmental science from the Kolkata University on the program. We thought that the people couldn´t be any nicer then at the department of Physics. We thought wrong!
When we arrived and took the lift to the 8th floor (the die hards of the group did take the stairs) were we welcomed with a welcomes song from the students of the department! That was really a special experience. The talks they gave were with such an enthusiasm about there little department. I think that they were really honored that there small department got a visit from students from an university of the Netherlands! Two students were totally unstoppable when they were telling about how a specific machine worked. They were telling with so much fire and passion that we didn´t understand it at all.
It was our goal that we would leave the department of environmental science around four O´clock but at the end after many times saying that we need to go we could finally leave at half past five...

Now the group splits up in smaller group. Some of us wanted to take the big temple tour and visit three different temples. The others visited only the first big temple to go back to the hotel after dinner. I was in the group to visit three temples. First we visited the Birla Mandir. This was really impressing. We were right on time to experience a special kind of ritual were they were ringing with bells among other things. (They do this every day at six O´Clock). Afterwards we went to a restaurant called Ginger Bar were the meals were okay. Next we visited some small temple were you could take some flowers to follow some kind of ritual. It goes without saying that they expect some rupees afterwards. When we were finished with this temple we were tired and was it already late, so we skipped the third temple and went back to the Hotel. Now I am writing the last sentences of the blog for today. We will see you tomorrow again!
Wies

Transfer day to Calcutta; leaving Delhi behind us

William 2018-05-03 04:45, laatste update 2020-09-30 13:00

This morning we arrived at 8:50 in the hotel lobby in New Delhi, with our suitcases already packed and left at the rooms for our transfer to Calcutta later on the afternoon. With everyone but Stefan - who felt too ill to join us unfortunately :'( - ready we walked towards the Ramakrishna metro station where we forced ourselves into the busy metro only to change lines at the next station on our way towards the Indian Institute of Technology of Delhi.

We got out at Haus Kahz station and found ourselves walking through the burning Delhi sun on the slightly improvised sidewalk of one of the many busy streets. Seeing construction work being done on the pavements by people in regular clothes was quite an experience. After continuous sweating during the little wait at the security station - what coincided with our first moment of contact with Indian eduroam - we were guided into IIT where we were showed around the clean rooms of the Nano Structures Facility and were given a look at some of their research subjects such as fuel cells or scanning probe microscopy.

After we surprised the head of the facility at the end of the visit by describing our way of transportation (I don't know wether he was shocked by us walking in general, or with us walking in this weather), we received a guided exit towards the metro station by a scientific staff member (who then had to walk all the way back to IIT again).

Back at the hotel I did not only find Stefan still (or hopefully again) sitting on the toilet, but we also quickly gathered our suitcases and hopped into our shuttle buses to conquer Delhi traffic one last time towards the airport. After check-in I went for a quick meal at McDonald's (I myself had a MacMajahara Veg, which is the Hinduism approved version of the Big Mac basically, with a corn and cheese based burger) before heading to the boarding gate. Luckily Peter got some precious time photographing planes before all out of nowhere a dusty fog covered the airport, luckily not affecting our flight's departure time.

After a bumpy ride the plane touched down in Calcutta, the second destination of this study trip. At the airport, government vans (yes, really) were waiting to take us to our hotel. After checking in, our hopes of being able to quickly fall asleep were somewhat crushed by the slightly unpleasant state of the rooms (I will spare you the pictures). So Stefan and I decided it was time to take out the mosquito net and duct tape for the first time this trip to give ourselves a slightly better feeling for the upcoming night. I guess it worked as Stefan, who luckily feels better, is sleeping already as I'm typing this. I can't blame him, for the first time this trip I feel quite tired as we and can't wait to get some sleep on this uncomfortably hard bed.

Cheerios,

Willie