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Purple vs The Good

Part 1th

Looking at a different picture. Interference, lovely song.

Dark, blackie-violet world, this story is set in a strange land. Mountains move and the world is mega-zoomed in & replicated.

Jupiter and beyond the infinite. Best-selling album all over.

Sunrise from Jupiter. Infinite-1. ‘Dhan dhan dhan’ go the beats.

Roaring white reflects from the distant stars. Flames burst into the point of view. Large galazies continue to be created and destroyed.

The ‘Purples’, as they’re known, are the most blazing galaxies of the Univers, radiating the most light. However, 5.2 Pegallion years ago, there existed a warm world, a world where the Sun was yellow. The yellow light that burst on the entire OlUnivers was complete and caring. The OlUnivers, raised on this diet of warm Sun, but then, what happens to almost every other tale happened to this one too.

The bright, optimistic years gave way to darker, evil times. The ‘Purples’ had captured the Univers. The ‘Purples’ absorbed all the light in the world and radiated it at ultra-high intensities. So much so that the Univers became, for the most part, a lightless zone – leaving a few intensely bright ‘Purples’ which were named so owing to the color they glowed.

The ‘Purples’ reign ended eventually, yes it had to happen. It was destined, you could say; but then destiny had no role to play in the Univers, as you shall soon find out.

The times changed. The bad was defeated by the Good.

‘The Good’ was the name of the Univers which had the special, amber Sun. It launched an all-out attack on the currently ‘Purple’ Univers in the hope of regaining control. In an explosive, inter-stellar war, ‘The Good’ banished the ‘Purples’ to absolute darkness.

The ‘Purples’ vanished into their tubular Univers and owing to their lack of energy, began to collapse into itselves. The energy levels dropped to a minimum and the ‘Purples’ had formally ceased to exist outside their micro-pico second thick tubular boundary.

As this process of infinite internal collapse continued, a most unusual event occurred. The ‘Purples’ mass, now forced into a microcosm of itself, gained criticality and exploded on the world.

To call it an explosion would be an understatement. The ‘Purples’ had finally arrived on the MegaUnivers scene. Their new found power had driven ‘The Good’ to momentarily take refuge in a secluded corner of the MegaUnivers.

Part 2th

When observed over a few giga-trilliano munites (musical-minutes, the smallest unit of time in the MegaUnivers), one realizes that this change, this cycle between the ‘Purples’ and ‘The Good’ was inevitable.

Not only was it based entirely on a collective dance of radiation called music, it was essentially periodic and cyclical in nature.

“The MegaUnivers Government had continued to overlook this serious conflict between the ‘Purples’ and ‘The Good’. Continued negligence on their part resulted in the conflict escalating to a thousand-Univers level. Such a large magnitude event could not not have created a significant impact on the MegaUnivers.

After all, there was only one order of difference in magnitude between the two.

A higher authority had to be called upon to assimilate this anomalous, erratic disturbance and restore the MegaUnivers to normality. It was simply the way humans appeal to a higher order (God, some call it) to fix their problems.

GigaUnivers was alerted and came to the rescue. The crisis was resolved for almost short of perpetuity. Till such time, the reign of ‘The Good’ would prevail. The ‘munites’ enabled this transition in a most gradual, synchronized fashion.

Part 3th

Gradual Transformation had been initiated with a music Voyage level of 34. It was no easy affair – every instant had to be transformed quasi-statically to another state.

The greatest rock band of the MegaUnivers has volunteered to orchestrate this transition, the basis of what is now known as tale of the ‘Purples’ vs ‘The Good’.

The End
Or is it?

My second journal entry as part of the course on Infrastructure Planning and  Management.

Introduction:

The reading of the Montreal Olympics Complex case study last week made me appreciate the multifarious issues and obstacles firms must overcome in order to successfully accomplish global infrastructure projects. During the discussions that ensued in class, we went on to broadly classify the factors affecting such projects into the following categories: 1. Design-related 2. Planning-related 3. People-related and 4. Environment-dependent (including economic, political and environmental interventions).

While the case study in consideration focused majorly on issues that lacked adequate design and planning (Unique design of components, new construction technique, scheduling etc.), it also highlighted the impact of labor strikes, resource shortages and the lack of coordination between client-engineer and constructor as some of the other factors that resulted in delays and cost over-runs.

Interestingly, a review question at the end of the case study asks the reader:

If you had been in charge of the construction of the Montreal Olympics Complex, what would have been your approach?

I attempt to answer the same through this journal and seek to extend the philosophy to other global infrastructure projects of a similar nature:

My Approach:

I begin by calling into account the fact that planning for the project started about 2 years later than it should have, giving authorities lesser time to get their act together than that would have ideally sufficed. [Case Study: Course Reader] At this juncture, I would have strongly argued in favor of a relatively simplistic design which allowed the use of replicable construction members and leveraged economies of scale instead of stubbornly sticking to a complex design which understandably demanded a meticulous and carefully planned approach.

Continue Reading »

This is the first of a series of ten journals I will be writing as part of the course on Infrastructure Planning and Management by Dr. Ashwin Mahalingam.

Infrastructure in India: Opportunities and Challenges

Introduction:

The first few classes of the course served to extend my notion of ‘infrastructure’ from merely being a set of basic civic amenities to that of an indispensable link between the economic and social development of a region. Quieroz’s study [Queiroz ‘92] of the relationship between per capita GNP and road infrastructure reinforced the ideology. Further discussions demonstrated the nature of the linkage to be strongly reciprocal – it became amply clear that while a vibrant economy will significantly contribute to adding infrastructural capacity, improvements in the quality of infrastructure will result in increased investments and greater industry-confidence leading to economic growth [Lou Harris ‘88].

Sector-wise Status:

Over the next few classes, we examined the current status of development in transport, telecom, power and urban and rural infrastructure. Each sector presents a unique set of opportunities to be leveraged for economic gain as well as a plethora of challenges which threaten to undermine the pace of socio-economic development in India. Continue Reading »

I am working on an academic project with Prof. Sudhir Chella Rajan (Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras) that involves constructing energy use scenarios for India. We have adopted an end-use approach to disaggregate the energy consumption and intend to analyze the impact of techno-economic policies on energy demand and green-house gas emissions from India.

The first phase of the project involves gathering data on ‘current accounts’ – figures concerning activity and energy intensity levels in a particular reference year, in our case 2005-06. As I strive to distil relevant and accurate data from a heap of papers and reports, it becomes apparent that dealing with macro-figures is no mean task. There are endless choices to make. Which data-source is more accurate? What parameter represents the variable adequately? How much detail does one incorporate?

On the way to meet Prof. Chella today, it occurred to me that our facts and figures resembled broken pieces of glass. Each with it’s own distinctive shape, tinge, size and edge.

I have to put these together.

I have to put these together.

The skill, of course is to identify each piece for what it stands and assemble all of them into a composite, meaningful portrait. One that describes the present as it is and the future as it will be.

What lies beyond.

What lies beyond.

Images courtesy DixonBaxi and Malinkrop.

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