Over

The first day in Melbourne was sunny and warm. So was the last day.

I will deal with this part as briefly as I can. Allison was the first to say byebye. She said she would like to have me back again. I was happy to have done justice to my expectations as an IITian. Then she left for Brazil for a conference.

With Azmir too, things got a bit emotional towards the end. He came to the airport with us. Besides the good work experience together, we became good friends as well. I will miss him.

We owed Gail a lot, for her hospitality. We often gave her trouble. I with the keys, Kartik once with flooding his toilet (trying to perform an experiment to estimate how much water is wasted). Then there was Goldilocks (Piyush) who slept in Pulkit’s room the night Pulkit left, only to be surprised by Gail in the morning. We shared jokes about us with her. Every morning, we wished her, and she wished us back. We reflected on all these as we bid each other farewell.

Pulkit and Kartik, - we will be seeing each other for some more time, but I doubt whether there would be the long discussions or the leg pulling that we had amongst us. It was great knowing these guys. I developed a lot of respect for Kartik especially. And Pulkit didn't mind being our 'bakra' for much of the time. Thanks for taking it in good spirit, when you could have easily beaten us into pulp. Even SM became Piyush towards the end, and I found that I no longer disliked his company. It is just his ways that may put off a new person he meets. And finally Jai. At the Netaji Subhash Airport, we parted ways, not knowing if we’d ever meet again. In spite of him saying that there should be no morality and only rules that human beings need to follow, I did notice that his deeds and beliefs too had a moral aspect, beneath the crust. I greatly enjoyed his company throughout the trip.

To the readers of this blog, I think it is time to say goodbye from here. Though I would like you guys to keep in touch just as you did through GTalk or otherwise whenever you wished to comment on my blog. It was nice to get your inputs, and that’s what kept me writing till the end. (I am in general very lazy. My sister keeps record of a large list of the unfinished works of Arnab Dhabal, be it art or writing or whatever. I am happy that this won’t get added to that list.)

Wish to come up with something better in the future. Till then, adios.

City Pics

Federation Square

The Yarra

Arts Centre

Graveyard on Lygon Street

(Here we performed some of the GPS-IMU Kinematic Tests because of the large expanse of unobstructed satellite view)

State Library on Swanston Street

Yarra by the Crown

Melbourne Central (I named this the Batman house)

Flinders' Street Station

$100 for a city tour in them. Free city tour in City Circle trams

Gumtree

The modem i had bought was of no use after I leave Australia. So I sold it. I put up an ad on the Gumtree site, and unexpectedly I got interested customers, calling me up pretty soon. The ad was as follows:

If you want to get a new Internet connection, you could not get a better deal. Just install the modem (I have the full pack with accessories and CD). Choose an internet usage plan from Unwired, and start using the internet. As simple as that. And for just $39.95.

This same item has seen bids of more than $70. See links below.
http://www.oztion.com.au/buy/auction.aspx?itemid=5082155
and
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Unwired-Modem-Longlife-Battery--for-sale-or-rent_W0QQitemZ270341134778QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090207?IMSfp=TL090207126001r12819

Positively contact me before purchasing item. Mobile: 0432115896

Not bad. Selling off an item for 40$ after buying it for 50.

Reflections

Saman filled me with a lot of details about the projects under him, and I learnt about the PhD programmes and all. He seemed to be quite interested in getting me as a PhD student here, even in the Mechanical Department. He stressed on how staying in Australia is better than staying in the US. In terms of research, well, I got the feeling that the people here are a bit prone to publishing papers irrespective of the fact whether they do substantial research or not. And people generally live in ‘peace’. Things tend to go slightly slow here. The facilities are quite good however. And if someone has a plan and motivation, this is the right place. As for my future, I will have to see how my next 3 years shape up……

It is almost time. And I came here to study, to learn. Well, I did learn quite a lot of things. They were mostly technical stuff about serial port communication. And starting from zero knowledge about VB (I mean Visual Basic, not Victoria Bitter), I did a satisfactory job. Allison was extremely satisfied. She said that my program would be extremely helpful not only for the present work, but also for future students. She gifted me a camera, -better than the one I lost. The university too decided to compensate me, and I tried my best to refuse, but the gift voucher of 400 dollars was already bought by the Uni. It was kind of awkward, and as undeserving and unjust as the tram ticket fine.

Uni Pics

Main Entrance

Administrative engineering building

Union House

Within the Union House

Poster Pillars. Act as student activity noticeboards as well

Yours truly at work

Finally

The last weekend was spent amidst the Melbourne crowd. On Saturday, we went to Victoria Market, where Jai took over full responsibility of bargaining. Kartik and I kept our mouths shut as Jai struck excellent deals for us. The stuff were already quite cheap. One of the sellers was a student. He played the Didgeridoo for us.

At a wine shop in Glen Waverley (where we went during a weekend)

In the evening, we went to the casino. Here Jai profited 15 bucks while Kartik broke even in Roulette. The slot machines were very busy. We stood there seeing people play. An old lady was in full enthu, putting coins after coins and pressing switches, and ultimately she got rewarded by a flurry of coins. We, a group of IITians failed to understand it. Even after a person explained it to us. Piyush tried his luck by putting in 2 dollars, and before we could even realize what was happening, he pressed an array of switches, and the money was gone in a flash.

On Sunday, we went to Southgate. There on the Yarra, we saw a school of dolphins passing just as in those Animal Planet shows. Coming out of the water swiftly and again diving into it. We were informed by a cyclist who had been following the school down the river. Sadly I couldn't catch them in my camera properly.

By the Yarra, front of Southgate, something or the other keeps on happening. There are people performing juggling tricks, exhibiting their art, or being a piece of art themselves. At night there are excellent fire shows in front of Crown.

We took a River Cruise. It was good. We went under the bridges, they were only inches above the roof of the ferry. We passed Docklands. Ultimately turned around at the dock, where there were many cargo ships and large cranes, which looked like robot giraffes.

After that, we hung around Southgate for a while before going to Federation Square. There a peace march was underway, by international communities in Melbourne. The issue wasn't exactly clear to me, but I liked the ambience with so many people flooding Flinders and the Square, swaying flags and playing music.

We paid another visit to Max Brenner before returning.

Bulldogs and Magpies

Primarily I didn’t go to see the game. Mostly it was to see the people and the stadium. But it happened that the contesting teams were formidable forces in the AFL (Australian Footy League), and we had a great match as the Bulldogs and the Magpies ( Collingwood) fought it out.

The ambience was just awesome when Kartik and I reached Etihad (previously known as Telestra Dome). There were stalls of both the teams outside selling flags and similar merchandise. Piyush shocked us with the news that the spectators have to stand throughout the game. Seats are only for members. But after getting a seat, we remembered that Piyush is always wrong unless proven right.
Needless to say, the stadium was excellent.

The game is a derivation from rugby, and requires a lot of stamina. Use of both hands and feet. Not suited for Indians. A single clash would have been enough to throw us out of the arena. The game is divided into 30 minute quarters. There are these tall posts, at each end, through which the rugby like ball is to be passed. Central section: 6 points. Two sections on either side of the central section: 1 point. No off side. There is a concept similar to a free kick called a mark. And, the game never stopped. Injury, knocked down, unconscious, dead – whatever the case, just continue playing, while concerned people would come into the ground to tend to them.
Kartik and Piyush supported the Magpies. I was always supporting whoever was losing, and that was the Dogs all the time. The Aussies really love their sport. And these games being held only in the weekends there is no interruption of work. And then the public just let themselves loose in the stadiums. Full of booze and enthu as they cheer their team on. “Go go Dogs” or “Come on Swarley” (Swarley seemed to be an important player of Collingwood, but he missed a sitter in the last quarter)

Till the end of the 3rd quarter, the score was 105-68. But the dogs came back hard in the last round. 5 minutes to close of play, the score was 105-104. Then the Magpies saved the blushes with a goal (whatever it is called). And the match ended at 111-110.

Differences

In the past 2 months, one thing that I wanted to understand was ‘what is the difference’ and ‘why is the difference’. What makes one realize that he is at a ‘phoren’ city? The first thing that that strikes you is that it is a hell lot cleaner. No dust in the air. You can see further in the distance. Secondly everything seems very proper here, hardly any irregularities, -the pavements, the white lines on the roads, the buildings, fences, windows, all can be described by a set of straight lines, and even if there are curves they can be represented by simple mathemetical equations. Of course the skyscrapers are another signature of these cities.

Maybe the fact that a large part of the country lies in the temperate region, somehow helps, but majorly it is the population that matters. The population being low has both good and bad implications. It is easier for the government to manage and maintain public property in proper shape. Less people means less competition amongst each other. The common people have time and space to think beyond their selfish selves, which makes them more considerate towards their surroundings, be it people or matter. An example. Why are the streets clean? A) When the common man is done with some article, they are thoughtful enough not to throw it off anywhere. B) The government has installed garbage bins, at least one every 50 metres, to help out the people. If you think carefully, both reasons are related to population. The darker side of the low population is what happened to me.

As I already said earlier, that the average build is formidable. That they are fitter and stronger, whatever the reason, you have to admit, because the number of world class athletes this country of 20 million has produced is just unbelievable. The initial gene component (being that of criminals) might have helped.

Moving on to other areas, I have found here that the people are gullible and they easily believe in others. I don’t know if it is because they have no other option, but I don’t think that’s a reason. The large stores like Coles and Safeway, rarely have any security or checking. People can easily take stuff away from these stores, but the fact that these stores do well without security is an indicator of the fact that such occurrences are rare. Also while purchasing tickets, to claim the students’ concession, word of mouth was often sufficient.

The language well, there is a certain accent. Kartik can shed more light on this. He can predict where a person is from by hearing the English. I noticed that these guys tend to pronounce ‘a’ as ‘aye’. Plate is ‘plight’. Mate is ‘might’. Going by this, ‘brat’ is ‘bright’, but I didn’t hear anyone use it. A phrase that I found them using frequently: ‘I was like’ in place of ‘I said’, but I think it is common worldwide.

Food: I tried out stuff but mostly cooked them myself, so couldn’t test myself with the real taste of things. The fact that Pulkit and Kartik were vegetarians didn’t help neither for them or me. And although Jai claimed himself to be a pure non-veg eater, he wimped out on the talk of trying new things. By the way, there is an Isckon temple, where we went to have a free meal during one weekend with Jai's friends from Kharagpur.

My time was spent entirely in Melbourne. But I came to know some things about the other cities around. Nearest is Sydney, 800 kms odd to the W-N-West. It is an old city, and there are monorails in place of trams. The Aussies were probably confused about which of Melbourne and Sydney should be made capital. So they brought up Canberra inbetween these 2 cities, and pretty much in the middle of nowhere, to dump all the politicians.
I got the idea that Brisbane is more of a homely city. Gold Coast near it is very posh. Perth is a 2 day train journey (which are by the way far more expensive than airfares). It is a highly commercial city. Adelaide is some thousand kilometers to the west of Melbourne. I don’t know much of it other than the fact that had I gone to the Uluru/Ayer's rock (which I would have liked to go to, if time and money been by my side), I would have had to pass it.
Cairns is the gateway to adventure sports. And to the Great Barrier Reef.

Some more points:

• No concept of MRP. Even different shops of the same chain can have different prices of the same object.
• The coins have Queen Elizabeth II on them. The Australians have no problem considering them under the British even now.
• The people earn a lot, and they have to spend a lot too. But the high expenditure is more on the common items than more expensive things like electronic items or cars, which are comparitively cheaper.
• The purchasing power of the dollar being high, people can go to tour around the world at ease, without having to give much thought on money being spent in the process.
• Most of the cars are automatic, with the following gears - P,R,N,D,1,2,3
• The cars do not honk. They consider it rude.
• Everything is highly mechanized/automatic, an aspect that can often be annoying.
• There are many helicopters. I see around 5 a day.

Street-wise

When you reach a crossing, expect to be greeted by a ‘Keeet-keeet-keeet ……’ sound emanating from the signal post, which means you have to wait till the signal goes green and the sound changes to ‘kitikitikitik…’. If the sound is ‘kitikitikitik…’, it means you are welcome to cross the road. Better hurry till the green changes to the blinking red (signaling that no one will start crossing the road now but those who have started may continue crossing till the next pavement). But if your hear no sound, then you should press the big button on your nearest signal post for it to register that there is a pedestrian who wants to cross the street.
Towards the start of my stay, I tried to figure out why the country is different from ours. At a traffic crossing where everyone was waiting for the light for pedestrians to go green, I convinced myself that people here follow rules and so they were different. The very next moment my nascent theory fell apart as people started crossing without the lights going green!!!
But no, actually this is a reason, and the pedestrians only crossed when there weren’t any vehicles. It’s not at all a random walk like it is back home. And the vehicles were very considerate too. There are many places where pedestrians are given first priority, and at these places if a driver sees a person waiting by the roadside to cross, they would halt the speeding car and allow the pedestrians to cross. Often the driver would himself signal to us to go. Sure, such would not have been the case had it not been the law. But at the same time there are not many protectors of the law in such a lowly populated country. I haven’t seen a single traffic police anywhere. I suppose the concept is absent here.
The vehicles - international brands. Seeing many of the cars I drive in NFS (for example the Alpha Romeo) roaming the roads here is just awesome. Then there are those loooooong limos –as if the front and hind portion of a car has been taken and 5-6 cabins inserted inbetween. I am yet to see a car like small family cars of India. Most of the cars here have a separate large boot space extending out at the back. And I like those Ducatis as well.
Public transport largely revolves around the trams. There is a City Circle tram, free and specially meant for tourists. There are cabs, which are also quite impressive. There are some horse drawn carriages in the city as well, for people who want to get a Victorian taste.
The pavements are wide and spacious. And God, the people are always in a hurry while walking. It was almost impossible for most of us to keep up with them. I thought maybe it was because of their height, that they can walk faster. But when I saw a girl of height lesser than me, speed past me, it hurt my prestige. So I matched steps with her, to find out where I was being left behind. Realization dawned that it was not the space between the strides, but the time between them that mattered more. The delay between the front leg touching ground and the other one leaving is very less for most of these Melbournites.
All of us got familiarized with the streets, and developed a general idea for the directions, within the first 2 weeks, except for Kartik, who is simply hopeless, even after 8 weeks! Elizabeth Street and Flinders Street formed the backbone of our ventures to the city. We majorly went to Indian restaurants (like Flora, and Jaipur Curry) or sometimes to Hungry Jack's.
We generally use the trams. Before going out, just check the Metlink website, about the directions and the trams to catch to go to a certain place, with timings. Some trains in and around the suburbs and some buses(rare) also come under Metlink. Tickets are available in the 7/11 shops.
On 8th July, I got a penalty, probably one of my firsts, as I was caught ticketless on a tram. I had lost my 2x10 journey card with my wallet. I didn't buy another one majorly because it seemed unjust on me to pay twice for an incident for which I was not responsible, and also because the ticket is for 10 journeys, and so it would have remained unused. Infact I travel regularly over the weekends, so I had bought myself a weekend card. Of course I could have bought a ticket for that single journey itself. But on going to the ticket vending machine I found I didn't have coins. So I asked Jai, but he told me 'peace maar' and I did so.

It seems like I have a tendency to follow Murphy's 3rd Law a lot.(http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-laws.html)

White

We woke up before 5 in the morning, an achievement in itself for IITians. A cab (that had been booked yesternight over the net) took us to the corner of Russell and Flinders.

We met John, a Brazilian guy. He was funny. And it was quite surprising to hear "Ore baba" from him. Actually Brazilian TV serials are largely based on the Indian ones, and they use some Indian vocab as well to spice it up. He spoke Portuguese at home, but his English was good, since he has been staying in Brisbane for years. He also used the f-word at least twice in every sentence.
Azmir joined us (only Jai and me) soon, and then we ultimately boarded one of those huge Volvo buses, for the trip. It was the first time I rode a bus with a toilet on board. It was also a 'maal-gaari' in Jai's terminology (it is not necessary for maal to mean merchandise here. No, it isn't alcohol either.)


We went through the beautiful Yarra Valley, and the lushness the green was very appealing. Although the journey was to be of only 4 hours, three of them had past, and still there were no signs of any mountains. And then all of a sudden there was snow beside the road, with us just starting to go up. It was amazing. White in green with a streaks of dark brown (the straight thin trunks). Gradually the white-in-green transformed to green-in-white.

The bus took us to the base. We had to take a lift to reach the top of the mountain. Do not visualize a box moving vertically up and down when I say lift. It is more of a ropeway, but absolutely open, just a bench hanging in midair. The tourists mostly had come for skiing, from first timers to pros. We felt it was too costly at $150 and moreover we had to take lessons. From previous experience, I knew it wasn't cake walk. Azmir knows skiing and so I thought I could learn from him, but in the bus they announced that "There could not be a better way to end a friendship than learning to ski from a friend." Besides they also announced 6 requirements for skiing. For me, they turned out to be 6 reasons not to try it.

When we reached the top, it was a wonderful feeling. Cold though but the sun was out as well. There was snow in ever direction. It was a bit crowded though at places, with loads of people skiing or snowboarding down the slopes. And then started the expedition to conquer the mountain. Taaraan-taaaraaa......

Azmir was at a disadvantage, with his shoe sole so smooth that whenever tried to go up one step, he slid down two steps. Jai had to help him out holding his hand. But you know in the 21st century, it sometimes gets embarassing, and so Azmir ultimately said "I don't want people to get the wrong impression here" and decided to stay back while we carried on. We tried to reach the ever elusive mountain peak, and ultimately came to the conclusion that it was more or less flat at the top (small undulations resulting in multiple maxima). We carried on in the cold to a lift station. There were many. But we realized that our sight seeing permit didn't allow us to take most of these lifts. So we walked our way back, but this time with gravity assisting us, and my soles smooth enough at certain angles, helped me slid down almost like the snowboarders.

Next we went to yet another lift station which our ticket permitted. Here the view was majestic. It is beyond my literary capabilities to describe the scenary and feeling. We took the same lift ride twice before returning.

The houses were covered with snow and from time to time, they slid down with loud crashes. And it wasn't safe at all, with huge chunks of ice falling every now and then. The trees were white and the cars were buried in snow. After lunch, I had a hand at pool. We were among of the last few people to return to the bus at 4.30 pm.

It was another of Jai's firsts. But he had some linguistic problems during the trip too. I told him to speak amongst ourselves in English because Azmir was with us. But he did worse. He addressed to Azmir in Hindi once, by mistake and I know it can be very embarassing. And then the IITKgp lingo presented itself through him. The word 'highly' was used too often and highly inappropriately. He tried to explain to Azmir that they were similar in terms of taking things easy. An excerpt:

Azmir: Arnab, please give me a call tomorrow, otherwise I will be late to the University.

He generally wakes up at around 12.

Jai (to Azmir): You are like me, 'peace' maaru types... (then turning to me) Abbe peace marna ko kaise batlaye?

Azmir(pleasantly surprised): What do you mean?

Jai: Meaning, I and you do not take much 'load', like Arnab. He always takes 'load' about what he has to do.

Anyway, I shouldn't say more on this subject because if he starts on my Hindi skills, it will be very embarassing and might go on for pages. He is, by the way, a good Hindi Elocution stage performer. But while talking with friends he generally spices it up with a lot of flowery language that we learn in colleges. Frankly speaking, I enjoy it.