31st December it is. It is the last day of my graduation year. 2011. Time flies. And all that.

Was this a productive year? Oh yes – I went through big transitions. But the best part is that they don’t feel like change at all.

As for new year’s resolution – I will travel every weekend. Will never sit at home and “chill”.
Why – life has so much more to it than hanging out on Google+.
Where – anywhere in the US, and one long international backpacking tour.

Happy New Year you!!
Do write about your resolutions too!

This is an interesting anecdote that I came across recently and I thought
it would be of interest to young engineers for time management.

“Ghrada Chemicals Ltd. was started by Dr.Gharda – a brilliant chemical
engr. from UDCT and his name is famously taken together with another star
of Chem Engineering Dr M M Sharma (ex-principal of UDCT) among the who’s
who of chemical technology.

The factory of Gharda chemicals was situated in Dombivili and Dr. Gharda
used to travel by train from Bandra to Dombivili (via Dadar). He would ask
the job applicants to stand below the indicator with a first class
to-and-fro pass at 10:15 AM. He would interview the candidates one-by-one
between Dadar to Dombivili and on getting down at Dombivili he would
reimburse the ticket fares and tell them to wait for the call letters. ”

Interesting, isn’t it?

from Prof. V. G. Gaikar (Professor in Chemical Engineering Dept., UDCT)

No, I did go past two days. And really really tried sleeping for 20 mins just before lectures started and in the break too. That part worked out pretty well, because my friends used to kick me until I was awake for lectures and labs. But the part after that was the bad one. The nap after the lab and at 10 pm were the toughest part, and alarm clocks are oh so not made for me. I used to end up sleeping for more than an hour in the evening nap, and sometimes the whole night in the 10 pm one! I mean thats not fair, not being able to get up! I don’t know if this is such a good idea to give up so easily, but I end up wasting the entire day behind it. I feel bad that I couldn’t take something that I had planned to completion (I feel like a loser).

Got to come out of it, so trying this get-up-early thing. Getting up early no matter what (the only matter is that I should hear the alarm ringing).

Slept a lot. 2 am to 8:30 am, then 10:30 am to 12:30 pm. Started for Nasik by Sewagram so again slept from 3:10 pm to 4 pm. Reached home had dinner and again slept from 10 pm to 2 am. And been awake watching Boot Polish (1954) till now (7:15 in the morning). Won’t be able to sleep today.

Was wondering if polyphasic sleep has to be scheduled or you can sleep any time you feel sleepy?

Day 1 didn’t go as I had planned. Slept at 2:30 am instead of 2:00 am, got up at 8:30 am instead of 6 am. Flag hoisting at 9:30 am, inauguration of hostel 3 and Mess Hall B at 11 am (met Padmavibhushan M. M. Sharma) slept at 2 for 30 mins, completed one round of the wordlist by 4:16 pm and slept for an hour instead of the 20 mins that I had planned. Nothing really after that. So it wasn’t very bad, but didn’t strictly stick to my schedule.

If I finish watching Chashme Baddoor by 2, I’ll go to sleep and get up at 6 tomorrow.

So I am going to try this new polyphasic sleep pattern now. It says that you have a core sleep session, which varies from 2 hours to 5 hours for different people, and then short naps of about 20 mins every 4 to 5 hours. The aim is to complete the 8 hours of sleep everyday initially and then reduce the sleep hours. You end up getting more hours awake and you work more effectively it seems. Well, one requirement is that you have a flexible schedule and something to occupy you with. And no long term side effects of this are recorded yet, so I think it could be a good thing. Now since I have this holiday week because of swine flu, I can work on polyphasic sleep. The first week is the hardest they say. So I am going to occupy myself with watching one movie and writing review (just one liners), doing two sessions of Wordpower Made Easy, and one box of GRE words  every day. And of course I will keep a log of my polyphasic sleep here.

So starting today, I am going to sleep at 2 am, get up at 6am tomorrow.

You might want to give a try too.

I have gastro, and I am only eating bread and butter and rice and rice and rice and rice.

When I get better, I am going to eat a mountain of good food.