AECS 10th 2006 Graduates.Part 2-High School (6th,7th and 8th class)

High School days

6th Class

               After my 5th class was completed I was very excited about going to High School.It felt good.It felt like I was a big kid now.Compared to my 5th I remember a lot of things about 6th class.There were a total of 6 sections starting from 6A to 6F. We had to choose between two optional languages Telugu or Sanskrit.I chose Telugu as my parents believed it would be useful in our day to day life.In retrospect I am quite happy with that decision.Section A was for all the students who chose Sanskrit and Section B was a mix of half Sanskrit and half Telugu students.The rest of the sections were all Telugu.I was placed in section B.Early roots of our gang FC grew here in this class.

               I met abhishek,swatchithlal,raviteja and deepanjan in this class.We all were in the same section. Abhishek was the chubby kid who was famous for his cute looks.In fact his pet name was Tin tin and he even resembled the famous fictional character. Swatchithlal was the jolly kid in the class always up for a good laugh.And deepanjan was the hyper excited kid always looking for some fun or the other. P. Raviteja whom we used to and still call just 'p' was a quiet and soft spoken kid who was obsessed about buses.His one passion was buses.He used to draw buses everywhere ,in books,on boards and even on benches. We all knew each other pretty well but got closer only later in 10th class and afterwards.

                I had two bench mates in this class.One was N. Rakesh. We had one major thing in common.It was our height.We were short in height and that is how we both got to to share a bench in the first row.Then the other person with whom I shared a bench was Yamini. She was very talkative and I was a very quiet kid but I got along with her fine.Our class leader was Pratyusha Karnati.For most of us the word 'leader' is synonymous with Pratyusha even now.Other people I met in this class are KrishnaVeni,Bharath,S.Sowmya,Sachin Giri (Sachin was the one who introduced to me the game of 'Half Life'.It was one of the best games I have ever played.We both, along with our respective elder brothers used to share a lot of stuff related to computers and games)Himaja,Deepti,Meghana,Sindhu,Sheena Patel,Swetha,Nitin,Raghuvamsi,Pramod,Ravi chaitanya,Lavanya,Ravi Teja,Alisha.

                Our English teacher was Mrs Hema Malini ma'am.She was everything I looked in a teacher back then.She was,kind and understanding.And she taught very well.She is one of my favorites teachers ever.Best thing about her teaching was that she never really confined her teaching to just the school stuff.She used to give us general advice and used to solve our problems.Some incidents that she told us from her personal life spring to mind whenever something similar happens to me.Even after 8 years of leaving school I still sometimes get dreams wherein I am sitting in a class and Hema ma'am is explaining a lesson.She was one of the earliest persons in my life who made a lasting impression.There were other teachers.Some were good like Vasu sir and Joshi sir,Some were quite the opposite.Not going to mention the names here.

                 My Reading habit also started from this class.I started reading tinkle comics given by my dad and later in large numbers by my aunt.My reading was confided to comics in 6th.The school library was very good.And the Librarian Mr Azagappan sir was a nice person.I later formed a good bond with him.

                I used to go to AK Das sir's tuition during this period.Here along with me there was Himaja and Chimayee Jena.Myself along with K.Vinay used to go out and pluck mangoes from the trees nearby and bring them back to the tuition.Aunty with assistance from Himaja  used to cut those mangoes and sprinkled with pepper and salt, used to distribute in the whole class.Those were all wonderful days.

                   
7th class
               7th class was also a good year for me.Initially there were to be six sections and I was placed in the sixth but soon because of less number of students in the sixth section,all the students of the sixth section were distributed and accommodated in the other sections.I was then shifted to C section.Here I met Mujahid who warned me that I came to the wrong class.On asking why he replied that C section had one teacher who was not popular among the students.I came to know about her later but I personally didn't have any problems with her.It was here in this class that I formed one of my earliest 'gang'.It comprised of three boys- K.Vinay,(whom I met in 6th class) BK Chaitanya aka kittu and myself. Vinay was the soft spoken handsome boy in the class. Kittu was excellent in sports and was a big fan of Telugu movies.We three were inseparable back then.We used to hang out together and play together.It was during this time that I first got the feeling of being in a group and someone having your back in case something unpleasant happened. I used to go to Vinay's house a lot.The other person whom I met was Shoaib Rashid.He was a tall and lanky kid who mostly kept to himself.We got acquainted but weren't much of friends.Of all the members of FC I have the most in common with shoaib.
            I remember one time we had a combined class with 7D( I was in 7C).Here I first listened Amulya ma'am's class.Since it was a combined class , Ma'am chose to tell a horror story to entertain the kids.She narrated the story in such a manner that students talked about it years later.The fact that I still remember that episode is testimony to the kind of effect it had on the students.As an aside a strange coincidence happened that time.When Amulya ma'am first narrated the story in that combined class a girl started crying at the end.The next time she narrated the story to another set of combined class,another girl cried.Eerily both the girls were similar in many aspects.Both had specs.Both's seating position in the class was the same.And both started crying at the very same point in the story.Call it childhood imaginations but this incident was fodder for gossip for a long time to come.Though Amulya ma'am never taught me full time she became one of my favorite teachers later.I still try to visit her whenever I am in colony.

8th class
                    This period was a very forgettable one for me.Again I remember much from this period except the fact that my grades dropped dramatically during this period.From 80% in 7th class it dropped to 60% in eight.But apart from that I remember one incident very vividly.It is the only thing that comes to mind when I think of 8th class.Mr Tiwari was our Hindi teacher and I hated him.He was uncivilized,rough and very harsh with the students.One time he was checking the books of all the students.When he came to my bench I showed him my book and it was incomplete.I was absent for a few days before and so my book had a number of blank pages showing my incomplete work.He asked me 'kaha hai work'?
I replied with 'incomplete hai sir'
And out came his strong sturdy palm on my cheek. He slapped me with so much force that my cheek turned red.I sat down and muttered my first expletive in front of anyone.It did that in front of none other than akram. I carried the imprint of Mr Tiwary's five fingers on my cheek for the rest of the day.It caused many curious glances at me when i walked the corridors and went to the water cooler to drink.Thankfully by the time I went home those marks disappeared.

        I changed tutions from Das sir to Mahapatra sir.Here I formed a close friendship with Harsha Vardhan who used to call himself Army man because he had only one goal in his life back then ,to become an army man.We used to go to tuition together and come back together.In my whole childhood two persons gave me lifts on their cycle more than anyone else.One was bhanu during my primary school days and Harsha during my 8th class.I will always be indebted to them for this.

9th and 10th Class in my next post.
Previous post on Primary Class.Part 1- Click here

AECS 10th 2006 Graduates.Part 1-Primary School

Primary School
Pic was taken in 2009 by my brother.

Every person looks back at his/her school with fondness.My case is no different.I love my school.Loved it back when I was studying in it.I love it now.I have so many wonderful memories associated with it.This post is about our batch which graduated 10th class in 2006.And when I say this is about our batch I mean it is about our batch from MY point of view.

The Buddies

              Let me first talk about my group or as some like to call it,gang.There were eight of us back then.Abhishek,Deepanjan,Bhanu,Swatchitlal,Ravi Teja,Akram,Shoaib and myself.(We are nine now with the addition of Kiran later and still a very close knit gang)We use to call ourselves TT back then.I am not going to reveal its full form now as it sounds a bit silly.Later we changed our name to 'Falcons Club' which still sounds a wee little bit silly but  doesn't matter.I met my FC friends at various points of my schooling and I will mention their names as I move from class to class.

Primary School (1st to 5th Class)
            There were separate buildings for students from 1st to 5th class and students from 6th to 12th class.Class 1 to 5 was called the primary school.I don't remember much from this age except a few incidents.I was, maybe in 3rd class and a boy from 2nd class asked me if there 4 balls in an over or 6 balls.I had no idea what he was talking about and sheepishly just told him there were 4.Later I came to know there were talking about the game of cricket which I later started playing.
       
             One of my earliest friends was Akram.We met in 2nd class.In 5th class during the start of the year seating arrangement was being decided.By luck akram and myself got the same bench.We were delighted.But then the teacher asked the class leader,Priyanka Patil to point out any bench where any friends got together.She looked around and pointed us out.That was it,we were separated.We laugh about it even now.
       
             I first met Bhanu when I was in third class.He was the tall boy sitting in the corner row in the penultimate bench.We weren't friends back then.In my 4th or 5 th class I started going to Reddy Sir's tuition. Bhanu was in the same tuition and we hit it off immediately.I have some of my best memories of my primary school days with Bhanu.We use to pluck some kind of wild fruits from the trees behind our school, play cricket together and we used to bring colored sounf to tuition and eat together.
       
              During my 4th and 5th class I used to play a type of Frisbee game with the lids of our tiffin boxes.It was the first time I was playing in a large group.I think I can only remember Sudheer Vasireddy among the those whom I later met. Sudheer was a good friend.We used to play together a lot during our lunch breaks and PT(Physical training) classes.

            One teacher I fondly remember from this period is Mr Raja Reddy sir.He was My favorite in Primary school.As I mentioned before I used to go to his tuition too.Other teachers I remember are Shankar Sir,Prema Jyoti ma'am,Shahela ma'am,Vani ma'am,S.L.Prasad Sir,Prabhakar Sir.
         
            I changed many tuitions during this period.Major among them was Srinu sir's and Raja Reddy sir's.Others are S.L.Prasad sir's and Shankar sir's.My dad was against the idea of tuition corporal punishment so I never went to any tuition where the teacher beat the students.A very calm person and one who never beat any of his students,Shankar sir once,in a fit of anger,slapped me.I did not turn up from the next day.Another time I was looking for a new tuition and somebody suggested Johnny Sir's name.I liked Johnny sir and thought it would be a good idea to go to his tuition.So off I went one fine day to his home.There to my surprise I saw his wife teaching the kids and not johnny sir.During the class she took out a long sturdy stick and hit me with it.I stopped going from the next day.And like that I changed many tuitions. During this time I used to carry a satchel made lovingly by my mom to the tuitions.It was made up of a short towel and two large fiber rings.It was the trend in that sleepy colony of ours.I had it with me for a long time.And in my time every little kid used to wear paragon slippers for intra colony movement.Nowadays it is hard to find any kid with paragon slippers.

            Summer days used to be so interesting back then.Either my family used to go to Hyderabad or we used to stay in colony itself.Long days of staying back in home and watching cartoons on TV.More than anything else I remember the stillness of the colony in the afternoons of a summer day.The deserted roads,the dry plants,the warm wind blowing,the hot sun overhead .These are the things I remember.

            One tragedy to strike early in our batch was the death of a batchmate.I think in 3rd class,Khaja babbar died in a car accident.We were sad and confused at the same time.I had only talked with him once or twice.
           
           Coming to marks the one thing I remember was I got 20/20 in social studies in all the five Unit Tests that were conducted in my 5th class.And then in half yearly exam I got 50/50 and again in annual exam I got 50/50.Overall I maintained a 100 percent record in social studies.My love for social studies started early.One common feature in the school was that a bench was shared between a boy and a girl.My bench mates used to change with every class.One of the best bench mates I had was Harika.She was a polite girl and was a good person.I still remember her earrings which were very beautiful.Her friendship with Divyasri, another one of my bench mates was very famous back then.          
         
             Primary school days ended with the end of 5th class.I was happy and a bit apprehensive at the same time.In 5th we were the seniors of the school.And we enjoyed it.But now in 6th class we were going to become the juniors once again.

People I remember having met during my primary school days-
Bhanu,Akram,Sudheer,Priyanka Patil,Viju,Vicky,Vinod,Vijay,Randeep,Immanuel Raju,Harika,Divyasri

The next part will be about High School.That stage of our life which shaped us for the future.
I urge any readers from the batch to share their incidents in the comments section.

A few more clicks of primary school here

Know Your Thermal Powerplant.Part 2

The first part (Know Your Thermal Powerplant) received quite a good feedback and I got a few suggestions and queries from my readers for the second part.
        One of them was by Sumedha who suggested the idea of combining all the pics that I used into a single picture so that it can be shared more.So here it is.

           And from another of my friends Mohi I received a few queries which he requested me to answer here so that it benefits others too.All the questions asked by him are here followed by my answers

Q.At what time in a year the plant would be running at full capacity?
A.The plant always strives to be run at full capacity irrespective of the time of the year.The points on which the load of a plant depends is
1.Internal wellness of the plant like availability of all the equipment
2.Availability of coal.For example in the recent times when some companies lost their mines to the government and their plants had to be shutdown.
3.The schedule assigned to it by a load dispatch center.Looking at the conditions of the Grid a certain load is assigned to every power plant.It has to follow it.

Q.Normally how many units are operated simultaneously?
A.If a plant has 4 units all the 4 units are run simultaneously except when there are problems like the above mentioned points.

Q.What are the number of Breakdowns in a month on an average?
A.It depends on how well made(erected and commissioned) the unit is.Also it depends on the operation of the unit.For example a unit  may have had 3 outages in 12 months(0.25/month) and another may have had 15 outages in 12 months(1.25/month)

Q.What is the source of water?
A.Rivers or if a plant is located near a sea shore its sea.

I thank sumedha for her suggestion and Mohi for the questions.

Know Your Thermal Powerplant.

70% of India's Power is generated by Coal based Thermal Power Plants and yet majority of the general public knows very little about them.

One of the comments that I got related to my previous post about Powerplant(Power Engineers) was how it helped a person know what goes on inside a powerplant. That got me thinking.I know of many people who have no idea of what a thermal powerplant does and how it does what it does.So here I am dedicating an entire post about a thermal powerplant.This is essentially for people who have zero idea about a thermal powerplant.

Q-What does a Thermal Powerplant do?
A-Generate electricity

Q-What is the fuel used?
A-Coal or Gas (This post is about a Coal based Thermal Power Plant)

Let me start with a few pictures.The plant that I will be talking about is a 250MW Unit.

This is a typical Thermal Power Station.What do you see? People who have no idea are, maybe wondering what those buildings house.Let us see, in different pictures some of the  parts.

That building houses the Boiler. A few questions now.

Q.What purpose does a boiler serve?
A.A boiler is where steam is generated.

Q.Why is steam required in a Thermal Power Limited?
A.Because steam is the main driving medium.It is the medium which drives a turbine.

Q.Why does a turbine needs to be driven?
A.Because turbine shaft drives or rotates a shaft inside the generator

Q.Why does a shaft needs to be driven inside a generator?
A.This has a long and a bit complicated answer but lets just get a basic idea.Just know that if you rotate a conductor inside a magnetic field,current begins to flow inside the conductor.So we have a magnetic field already created in a generator.Only thing we have to do is to rotate a conductor in that magnetic field.This is achieved by the generator shaft.This is how current is generated.(The turbine shaft and generator shaft are coupled.When turbine shaft rotates the generator shaft rotates.The turbine shaft is rotated by steam.Steam is produced by a boiler)

Q.How is water heated in boiler to produce steam?
A.By burning coal.

This is the turbine building.It houses the steam turbines and other equipment like pumps etc

These are the chimneys.Now a simple thing needs to be explained.When coal is burned in a boiler furnace,products of combustion are produced.These transfer the heat to water and then they have to be removed.These are sucked out by a set of fans known as Induced draft fans.They suck the gas and eject it out through the Chimneys.

There are other fans like forced draft fans which provide the air needed for combustion in furnace.

Now let me make this clear, coal is not burned as it is.It first crushed into a fine powder, as fine as the talcum powder used in our homes.And Primary Air fans are the fans which lift the coal powder and throw it in the furnace.

This is how coal is transferred to the boiler.From these conveyors coal(size is normal here) falls into the mills( also called crushers or pulverizers) where it is finely crushed.From here,as I mentioned before,Coal powder is lifted by primary air fans and then taken to the furnace where it burns.

Many people draw blank faces when this description comes up.This is nothing but the capacity of a plant.This 1000MW is actually the sum of 4 units of 250MW each. It is generally written as 4x250 MW Power Station. Let me explain what it really means.At any given point of time of the plant's running it produces 250MW of power.So it is not 250MW per hour or per month.
(MW is Mega Watt)

And these are Cooling Towers not chimneys. These are used to cool water.

I hope I have made at least a few things clear for the people who had no idea about a powerplant.If there are any questions I would love to answer them.