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.

Protect Your Heritage

My Web Resources

Every person has certain internet surfing habits.In this post I am going to talk about mine.

For Travel research and planning
-www.indiarailinfo.com
I keep trying different combinations to nearby places to check out the best possible route and trains.For that purpose this site is a lifesaver.
-www.wikitravel.com
Why?- See,do,sleep and other sections this site offers.
-www.lonelyplanet.in
Why?-Because Lonely Planet.Enough said.
www.Indiamike.com
-A very big Forum for discussing almost anything about travel in India.I am a senior member myself.

For Timepass/gyan
www.9gag.com
-Brings out the latest happenings in the world in a humorous forms.Also you can find out which all important memes are trending worldwide.
www.listverse.com
-One of the earliest sites that I used to visit.It had lists long before it became cool.Has many sections including books,mysteries(my favorite),science and Technology etc
www.cracked.com
-Humorous articles that will have you laugh out loud.
www.quora.com
-Very good question and answer website where I give and take information

For cricket updates
www.cricinfo.com
-No other website offers the quality of writing this site does.

For my blog related stuff
www.indiblogger.in
-A community of bloggers of India
www.blogger.com
-Platform of my various blogs

For movie reviews,recommendations and lists
www.tasteofcinema.com
-Very high quality lists about world cinema

For Restaurants Reviews and Menu cards
www.zomato.com
-Gives good recommendations and mainly I can find the menus before I visit a particular restaurant

Visit to an Underground coal mine.

A few days back I had the opportunity to visit an underground coal mine thanks to my friend Abhishek. He is an Engineer in Singareni Collieries in Ramagundam and through proper permissions he arranged a visit for us(two more friends bhanu and swat) on a Sunday.

      When we reached the site abhishek led us to a work room where we were provided with helmets,shoes and overcoats.A battery operated fully charged headlamp was also provided to each one of us.From here we boarded a small train that stood on an inclined pathway which descended into the mine.As the train started its rickety descent into the mine all I could think of was the game 'Half Life' which I used to play in my childhood.The walls shone as the light of our headlamps fell on them.Here and there there were huge gaps in the wall.I asked abhishek what these gaps were and he explained that those were the gaps left after all the extraction of coal from there was over.

      We soon reached a level from where we left this train and took another one.It went still deeper into the mine and somewhere around 250 meters from the land surface level we stopped.From here,abhishek informed us,we needed to walk in thick sludge to reach the actual boring machine.We walked along the brightly lit bore of the mine.Along the side of the mine there was a conveyor to remove the coal from the boring machine.Also there was a huge pipeline running along the wall for creating a draft.The walls were wet in places with small streams of water running down along them.This water was mixing with the mud in the ground to create a very slippery and dangerous ground to walk on.We trudged along carefully,our headlights shining their lights ahead.There were overhead bulbs in some places and it some places they weren't. As we continued our progress into the mine we came across a compressor, its loud noise filling the whole mine with a doleful sound.We moved along and ventured deeper into the mine.Since it was a Sunday no usual work was going on and we met only a handful of people while going in.At one point we were the only ones in a long section and we stopped. Abhishek suggested we all turn off our headlights just to see how it will be.We did so.Everything was pitch black.Nothing could be seen.Here I asked what happens if a miner's headlight's battery charge empties before he gets out? He said all he could do is wait for someone to come or maybe get over to a nearest phone and make a call to the surface.

    We resumed our walk after this brief stop.We reached the end where we saw the boring machine.It reminded me of the movie 'Total recall' We looked around here fro sometime.There were two technicians working on it. Abhishek engaged in some conversation with them regarding a problem they were having.This gave us an excuse to see the machine in action.After spending some time here we started to go back.We had a bus to catch in the night so we were in a bit of a hurry to go back.Along we went through the passages and again passed that sombre compressor and reached the train station.All that walking took us 4 hours.We took the train and rode to the top where fresh air greeted us.A miners job is one of the toughest and we all could personally see why.

Close encounters of the annoying kind.Part 1.Snoring chacha.

                 Travelling in a train in India can be quite an affair.It depends on one's luck.If you are lucky you will have an uneventful journey and maybe meet some good co passengers.But when your unlucky stars have aligned and the force is not with you,expect to have some close encounters of the annoying kind.

                  On one of my most horrible train journeys yet,I happened to meet an uncle who I think had a jet engine in his nose.While he was flying his jet plane in the dark skies of his mind,the sound of the engine was traversing into the real world through his nose.He was sleeping in the upper berth and I was the unfortunate one sleeping in the alongside upper berth.I tried everything to wake him including coughing loudly and making a few 'hmm' noises.But to no avail.I looked around at the other passengers trying to gauge how they were feeling but in the darkness I couldn't make out anything.There were a few restless silhouettes changing their sleeping positions now and then.I greatly regretted not bringing my Industrial ear plugs with me.I couldn't sleep the whole night and the next morning at 5 am I reached my destination.Showering my thanks to the god almighty above who did not make the train reach late,I left that jet-plane-in-the-form-of-human being to himself and said a few prayers too for the next person to occupy my berth.

                From then onwards I always carry a pair of industrial grade ear plugs with me whenever I travel.