Desh ka namak...for all those unsung research assistants at Aero@IITB


That one place on earth where one can go and feel at home @IITB...research assistants over the years have been exposed to cool technology in their early years thanks to ready-to-work-with boards like the arduino, raspberry pi etc...this was only a dream when we were working there 20 years ago...the cost of the ECU was so high that we were told explicitly "one at a time" in terms of usage so that only if the first board goes bad was the second one handed over to us for work :)...today they no longer have fixed wing mini aircraft limiting their research...drone apps are killing the market and the guys at the aerospace department are at the front line of research projects...sometimes i wonder if coming back home from the US was the best thing i could do...if i hadn't, i would not have got to walk the path i did for sure...most people who are in the US for the past 20 odd years have made a killing in terms of salary...however i think that mother India gave me the chance to be one of her kids again...something most of the others had given up on a long time ago when they left these shores...i miss the days at IITB and ADA sometimes...it was really good to be part of the establishment...but then bangalore is a strange place...it feeds on its own in so many ways it is unfortunate...the "north" v/s "south" divide was so big in the old days in some places its not funny...i wish the research assistants of today's time be treated with the same respect as we used to be treated a long time ago in the job market simply because the small work packets they handle on a task by task basis are a stepping stone for many a university research projects...in fact these days they have the facility to keep their work on a cloud or internal web portal...this way projects can be incrementally advanced from year to year...the challenge on funding is always an issue even today however the avenues for kids to kick up a startup is something that has been a game changer...wishing Aero@IITB a lot of success for years to come...and a huge thanks for all the research staff who work there...may you be recognized for all you are and all you are going to be...paint the sky with stars my friends :)

pic credits: Sanjay Mohite...the one guy who tolerates me when i won't stand still for a picture :)

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