A walk to remember - Manek Chowk

2300 hrs when almost every household in Ahmedabad finish watching their series and decide to sleep; every adolescent member grabs the bike keys, picks up his friend and drives straight towards the most flooded place at the hour. To savor his extravagant indulgence of the appetite for food, to temper his sweet tooth, to join the bandwagon of ordering the belly crunching food items and to compensate the dry state edge.  – Manek Chowk.

Manek Chowk is the most famous lane for the Ahmedabad foodies (Amdavadis) in the night. It operates as a jewelry bazaar in the day time and transforms into an open-aired food court in the evening. The place is crowded as the numbers in the Sudoku puzzle with one stall aligned next to the other. People flock the place in their two-wheelers and the face the world’s best salesperson. I can bet the servers/helpers at every stall can sell anything at the best possible price. They don’t need a degree in sales; Amdavadis grow with a chromosomic disorder of sales.

The other night when Dani and I reached Manek chowk to savor the anticipation of delightful hogging, the attack on the Cadbury sandwich was the most assured dunk. Cadbury sandwich – it’s what you call the angels’ delight. A bite of Cadbury sandwich after two long awaited years makes the bread go melt with the strands of cheese layered and the chocolate dip stimulating every sensory organ of yours. Next on, and new to us was the Cadbury Pineapple Sandwich. A layer of sweetened pineapple pieces, layer of Cadbury dip, a layer of shredded cheese and topped with butter – The entire monster calorie formation is known as the Cadbury Pineapple Sandwich. Post pleasing the sweet tooth, we headed towards the awesomest Pau Bhaji, then the Kharek dipped in tamarind extract and last was the Asharfi Kulfi Sandwich. The weirdest combination of an ice-cream sandwich struck the excitement bang and we were gulped kulfi sliced in bread, cheese and buttered on the top.

Special things aren’t Weird, they are Unique.

A cup of coffee and the love of parents

As i sip by the steaming roast of the coffee with snow showers in the midst of the night, I think of the moments that I would be living a day from now. In the next 24hours I'll be aboard the flight to the motherland, the smell of which hasn't touched me since two years. I wasn't as excited about the trip to India as I was to Dallas over the last week but now I realize how much I await the next couple of hours. The aromatic coffee influenced the thought of every moment I would be living there. The moment when I see my parents eagerly waiting (in the congregated area), the moment where the best hug releases the entire travel fatigue, the tears to see their child back after two years and the words "Aai gayo beta (you are back son)"; can't ask for more. Either the coffee's too strong or the feeling that you get after meeting them is different. And then those talks of how the place has changed over time to what their response stands it's been here since a long time; makes you feel how much they've missed you in those years. The feeling of reaching home and sitting on the couch where we slept while preparing for exams or watching the idiot box or eating like a king as our mom gave you "ghee wali rotis". Whether we cook everything to the best we can and even dream of owning a restaurant but when we eat the mom made sabzi that you've loved since your childhood, you don't find any reason not to hug the bed in the noon.
Meeting old friends and their talks of how much you've changed, to someone special awaiting your meet, to the 'Lapet screams' during Uttarayan, and to the Chocolate sandwiches at Manekchowk. Every moment flashes as I sip this coffee and live the rest of the month. I guess I need another cup of coffee now. 

The Chemical side!!

From a Chemical Engineer to the flip side of every equation

While an optimist, pessimist and realist guys were busy arguing about the glass of water, an opportunist drank it; We were busy calculating the molar composition of H2O, O2, N2, Ar, CO2 and other components.

When NY times quotes 'Never Drink Hot Water From the Tap' because it contains lead. We prefer to ring it this way - The only reason for the involvement of lead is through the corroded plumbing (only in case of old apartments and if the plumber is the dumbest of lot to have not used galvanized steel pipes) but then the cold water runs through the same pipe. Plus boiling the cold water does no good, it actually increases the concentration. So what's better off? 0.1ppm lead from hot water or 0.5ppm by boiling cold water. We still find it baseless to a certain extent.

When you say you gotta moment? We think of the dipoles passing one another.

When you find a solution, We prefer to look for a beaker around you. 

When you handover a glass of alcohol, We know it's an 'ideal solution'. 

When you talk about the head, We assume you meant the pressure.  

When you buy something organic, We understand how confusing and complicated purchase that is. 

When you find a research manual and happen to find the words Three samples were chosen for a detailed study, We know it was because the others didn't give any results.

When you tend to explain Osmosis, We take it as Assmosis - The process by which some people seem to absorb success and grades by kissing up to their professors. 

When you say that's the test, We understand it's a really screwed up way to conduct research and you might end up killing yourself or someone else in the lab, but we conduct the test because we know hell was full for us.

We don't think plant design is a botany course

We might not misread simulation to stimulation

We react better in packed beds  


We wouldn't have agreed with Einstein if he hadn't provided observation tables and trends.

We know what pressure turns coals into diamonds 

The only ghosts we believe in are the methylated spirits

The only vitamin we trust is the ibuprofen 

The only meaning of experiments - We'll know what we want when we see the fumes.   

Chemical Engineering is the only field that involves heat, pumping and mass transfer