Thin film PV and such

A couple of years earlier, a google funded startup called Nanosolar, based in Palo Alto, had claimed that solar power could become a lot cheaper with the development of thin film PV's. Another company Flisom in Europe, led by Ayodhya Tiwari and Anil Sethi, similarly claimed that in a few years this cost may become comparable to conventional sources. It appears many indian firms have already started investing heavily in thin film PV production. It was rumored that China is building a large permanent magnet levitated wind turbine which would be more efficient and cost less to maintain. But later this was proven to be a hoax. But the idea is cool. Low maintenance would make this more attractive, especially near the coasts where wind momentum is consistent. Designed well wind power can take India far because with low capital depreciation, power generated can be considered free. Nuclear power seems to be one major alternative. With time there are companies supplying pico plants. I would not want to risk being nuked but it is probably a sound alternative.

O Brother, where art thou

My brother is finally visiting me. I have always met him in Pune where he was based. This is his first overseas trip and I am dying to impress him with first world life. Finally comes at a great time. We are both engaged. He is set in his career, getting good reviews from his manager and I finally have the time to think of pursuing my own enterprise(s). Best of all he has given up his chimerical aspirations of becoming classical musician. Both my father and I introduced him to classical music - Jaipur gharana and Mansour were our favorites then. He became interested and later committed to pursuing music full time. Although later, he gradually weaned off classical and became interested in middle of the road fusion music. His classmate Arnab Chakravarty who is now a distinguished classical musician having learnt from Buddhadeb Dasgupta in California was a continuing source of inspiration. Life situations also help. Content that he had a maid to take care of him, understanding affluent parents and a house by way of inheritance, it was not hard to take a backseat in career. He sat through science college hoping someday he would be awarded an interesting and potentially nobel prize winning project which would stroke him into action. It took me a lot of work to get him to understand that science and music require a lot of initiative, something he claimed not to have. You are better of taking up a simple profession and exploring prospects of greatness by the side. He took a private masters in computer programming and started coding professionally. I had to use Milind Chittal as an example - a chartered accountant who had acquired fame as a classical vocalist, to keep him focused on his coding. From then to now, it has been a marathon ride. He now writes code with people from engineering backgrounds, who might otherwise have been 10 years his superiors. I feel like saying, Wah ustad wah.

Around the World

Found a rather good travel series - BBC and Cruickshank go to 80 patel points in "Around the World in 80 historical sites". The images are good and the narration is optimal. Makes it worth watching. I saw Visions of Greece from the Visions series. Again very good images - taken from a helicopter mounted camera. Visions is a good series but focussed on Europe. I hated IMAX, the little I saw of it because it had too much narration and none of the IMAX films were focussed on patel points. One note I have made from Baraka is that it helps not to contrive a story or a grandiose theme out of a geographical and historical site.

Startup or desk job

You have a job that pays well and a group of colleagues that you like. You get good projects, career progression opportunities in time, a good life. Why would you contemplate building a startup. That is the question I face from friends and colleagues. I do get encouragement, often from unexpected sources. There is my housemate Harold who thinks having your own firm could be vastly more satisfying IF you can be successful. Some have told me it is entirely worth having a go at the 5 million jackpot even if you fail. Were it not for the big IFs. How many businesses in India end up folded leaving their founders in bankruptcy. You can lose your family jewels if not your shirt. Money making is never risk free. But it still seems enticing, given I worked at a desk job for four years after 5 years of a gruelling PhD program. Desk jobs are awesome because you end up making some powerful contacts and get a few prominent firms on your resume but then there is often the issue of what you can own. Interestingly enough, I find my cousin, about 10 years my junior, in the same situation. A graduate of the London Metropolitan University, he is embarking on a biotechnology production unit. My uncle and aunt have been practicing doctors for the last 20 years and they have some finance to offer. But how to get it all working is the question. Among the few things I like about this young fellow is that he is also spending more of his time and money pursuing hobbies now that he has made up his mind not to study further. Done with one stage and on with another, a little bit of fun in the interregnum. His latest acquisition is a billiards table. I could use that when back home. We have another common project - to claim a share of our ancestral property. My grandfather left a huge haveli of which half would be shared between four brothers including my father who is the eldest. But all of it is in the name of the second eldest who has been handling the family business. It is for our generation to negotiate a fair deal for the two doctor families since our seniors are not interested in getting into an argument. That is another project.

Travel Shows

Have been searching for good travel shows to help plan a world tour sometime in the next 2 years. I was inspired by my cousin who works as a programmer in the silicon valley. He and my sister in law took a long break between their US citizenship and the first child. They chose Africa, latin America and SE asia which they thought would be hard at a late age. Here is a couple that has travelled the world, yet never been to Paris ! They decided to bias themselves to non tourist places. The collection of negatives they returned back with were slide shown on a film projector for the rest of us. Some images were breathtaking and replicated the visual joy of visiting Africa. Of course, not a substitute for the "real thing" but if only you could get a high resolution movie for every major site you wished to visit, maybe something like IMAX with to the point narration. That got me to search the library catalogue and the web for quality travel shows. I did not like Francesco's trip to the mediterranean aired on BBC, nor too much the Destination series. The hosts talk too much and the focus of these shows is not the touristy places that one would pay to visit but wherever the traveller goes. I realize there is a difference between a traveller and a tourist. I probably fall in the latter category. I had also seen Ron Fricke's Baraka. Produced with a small 4 million dollar budget, this lavish film consists of artistic wide angle clips of many major religious and cultural destinations. It includes some interesting time lapse photography taken with an automated camera. Since this is an art film, there is no narration or causality. It is an exercise to identify the locations. I wish I could get some technically gifted people to make IMAX quality clips of all the major "patel points" and release them on Blue Ray. Maybe some day you could go to your neighborhood dome theatre and virtually walk through inaccessible places in Latin America, Southern & Eastern Europe and Africa.

Prince of Pehsia

Sands of time looked like a B movie from the bilboard but I was hoping to see some decent special effects - maybe some intentionally sluggish scene changes and some pixelation, maybe old dos music. But it was a bit disappointing on the spcecial effects and action front. The cast is overwhelmingly British and Scottish with real life indophile Ben Kingsley as the Nizam and Jeff Murdoch (Richard Coyle) of coupling fame playing one of the princes. Jake Gylenhall comfortably fits a persian garb and so does the lady who plays princess Tamina. There are some anachronistic references to bureaucracy and taxes. Maybe the director is trying to say some British intellectuals have a curious tryst with oriental history and wishing the American and Jewish soldiers a safe return.