Hemant Nagda

Have breakfast …or…. be breakfast

2010-02-04T16:36:00.001+01:00

By Y. L. R. MOORTHI

Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.
Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sonys and Canons are taking note.

Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).

Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel's parent) are breathing easy you can't be farther from truth.

Nokia confessed that they all but missed the smartphone bus. They admit that Apple's Iphone and Google's Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?

The "Mahabharat" (the great Indian epic battle) is about "what is tomorrow's personal digital device"? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question – "who is my competitor?"

Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says "What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?" The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won't compete on pure audio? "Elementary Watson". So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as "digital."

In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question "who is my competitor for tomorrow?" The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared "internet is a fad!" and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today's competitor. Today's competitor is obvious. Tomorrow's is not.

In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton's law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC's price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!

India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 overs. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film's competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour "tamasha" (entertainment). Cricket season might push films out of the market.

Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is "I don't remember!" For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.

One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is "alarm clock." The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called "alarms." What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cellphone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!

On a lighter vein, who are the competitors for authors? Joke spewing machines? (Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, himself a Pole, tagged a Polish joke telling machine to a telephone much to the mirth of Silicon Valley). Or will the competition be story telling robots? Future is scary! The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said "Have breakfast …or…. be breakfast"! That sums it up rather neatly.

—Dr. Y. L. R. Moorthi is a professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He is an M.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a post graduate in management from IIM, Bangalore.
[Management Views from IIMB is an exclusive column written every two weeks for india.wsj.com by faculty members of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.]

Seitenwechsel : Changing roles

2009-06-30T16:16:00.012+02:00

On Friday 24th April 2009 a week long internship of Seitenwechsel at Café Augenblicke came to end and I was on my way back to home. While passing through the streets of Sternschance (a famous area in Hamburg), I had some kind of strange feeling. Were these the same Sternschance streets, where many of weekend evenings we have spent in cafés or in bars? I could not believe that in the very center of such colorful place (or ‘party’ place) full of clubs, cafes and bars, there existed absolute different world of Jesus center and it’s Café Augenblicke. I was in a deep thinking of if it was end of my internship or new beginning of perspective towards life.

JesusCenter, Hamburg

During many of our business presentations and seminars, we spoke about business plans counting in millions and billions of Euros. However, we often neglect the consideration of number of people in our own society, for whom even a meal worth a Euro was expensive. Lot of time we spoke about Corporate Social Responsibility and our role as manger in corporate world to be accountable for everyone who has stake in our day to day business. But I must say a new chapter of social responsibility was understood by me during one week of social internship.

with Neomi and Sarah at Cafe Augenblicke

Recently I participated for the Seitenwechsel® program, at Café Augenblicke at Jesus center e.V, Hamburg. The main idea behind Seitenwechsel® program or “Changing role” as directly translated in English is to prepare understanding for executives and managers from corporate world towards the social responsibility.

Manny (a regular guest at Cafe Augenblicke)

Organizations such as Jesus Center have a very important role in society no matter what the cultural, ethnical or regional differences are. The internship at Café Augenblicke not only provided me and great opportunity to understand how social problems in Germany are being tackled but also it was a wonderful experience of working with a motivated team comprising of different personalities coming from different backgrounds and working towards one goal. I should say, I have better understanding of a person whom I see on the street bagging or into addictions of drugs or/and alcohol or from the environment of violence. I will never forget the discussion with these guests coming to the Café and their struggle with the life. It widened my personal horizons and forced me to reconsider my own values.

Some of nice memories at Cafe Augenblicke

Of course one week of social-internship is definitely not enough, but it is in fact enough to refresh your conscious about the environment around you and your social responsibility towards it. I hope that NIT will continue to encourage its students to participate into such programs in the future. These efforts boost the future managers in the society by helping them learn to deal with people from different cultural backgrounds and mindsets and also to make them responsible citizen.
At last the only words that come to my mind are from one of the brouchers of Jesus Center e.V...“Damit das Leben Gewinn”... (with that the life has won…)

-Hemant Nagda
June 2009

About india on last LS elections (2009)

2009-06-03T11:52:00.003+02:00

recently i came across some really nice writings about India by V Mitchell, New York times, writing about India on Loksabha elecions (2009). worth sharing.

THE INDIAN ELECTIONS-NEW YORK TIMES

It is truly the greatest show on Earth, an ode to a diverse and democratic ethos, where 700 million + of humanity vote, providing their small part in directing their ancient civilization into the future. It is no less impressive when done in a neighborhood which includes de-stabilizing and violent Pakistan, China, and Burma.

Its challenges are immense, more so probably than anywhere else, particularly in development and fending off terrorism -- but considering these challenges and its neighbors, it is even more astounding that the most diverse nation on Earth, with hundreds of languages, all religions and cultures, is not only surviving, but thriving.

The nation where Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism were born, which is the second largest Muslim nation on Earth; where Christianity has existed for 2000 years; where the oldest Jewish synagogues and Jewish communities have resided since the Romans burnt their 2nd temple; where the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile reside; where the Zorostrians from Persia have thrived since being thrown out of their ancient homeland; where Armenians and Syrians and many others have to come live; where the Paris-based OECD said was the largest economy on Earth for 1500 of the last 2000 years, including the 2nd largest, only 200 years ago; where 3 Muslim Presidents have been elected, where a Sikh is Prime Minister and the head of the ruling party a Catholic Italian woman, where the President is also a woman, succeeding a Muslim President who as a rocket scientist is a hero in the nation; where a booming economy is lifting 40 million out of poverty each year and is expected to have the majority of its population in the middle class already, equal to the entire US population, by 2025; where its optimism and vibrancy is manifested in its movies, arts, economic growth, and voting, despite all the incredible challenges and hardships; where all the great powers are vying for influence, as it itself finds its place in the world.

Where all of this is happening, is India, and as greater than 1/10th of humanity gets ready to vote, it is an inspiration to all the World.

- V Mitchell, New York, NY

My experience with baking the cake.

2009-06-01T16:02:00.007+02:00

Friday 29^th May 09…. Last day of Henrike and Fikri in office, as they finished their Diploma thesis. So as a general customary in Germany, Henrike invited all the colleagues for “Kaffee und Kuchen”….or Coffee and Cake. Yesterday she decided to bake the cake own her own, which is very common practice. So I asked her if I can help her and she agreed. In fact I don’t know how to bake a cake, and this was a great opportunity for me to learn. Fikri is probably as lazy as me, and he decided to buy the same from supermarket.

So… the story begins from yesterday evening after the office. I and Henrike first went to my place to pick up Camera, which I was in deadly need to capture some nice moments in the evening. Next halt was a supermarket to buy cherries for the cake.

On the way to Henrike’s home in Witten (about 10 km from Dortmund), she showed me many farming fields and “Bauhof”.. kind of a big houses located near the fields. At we reached her place with a large field in the backyard. Away from main city, the place was very calm, and green all over.. The place was really beautiful and worth leaving.

I met Henrike’s mother, father, brother and a friend of him there. I shall admit, it was really nice to see such big family leaving together in Germany. I wore an apron to protect my office cloths and we started baking the cake.

(me and Henrike)

First layer of cake was made up of wheat, backing power, butter and sugar. These were thoroughly mixed and layer was applied on greased surface of baking tray. Then came the next layer, with same ingredients, but in addition “Kakao” was also mixed.

Once these tow layers were evenly spread, Cherries were inserted from the top and pressed till it passes through both layers. Now the first phase of preparation was over, so Oven was set to heat up and we waited before putting the baking plate into oven.

(base layers with Cherries)

Mean while, Henrike showed me her living room and “Klavier” (Piano). By now, the oven was almost heated, the baking tray was put in, and temperature set to 200°C. Now we need to wait for next twenty minutes at least, so Henrike showed me how to play Piano. She taught me how to read the notes… believe me, I never though it would be that difficult.

Then she started playing some of the notes she knew. Amazing!!! I was just speechless for a time being. Suddenly for me, the respect for all musicians specially the one who play Piano, raised more that any thing.

(Henrike und Klavier)

Now since 20 minutes were about to get over, we started making top layer of vanilla pudding. First milk was set to boil. In parallel vanilla pudding powder, butter etc were mixed and pudding layer was prepared. The baked cake and the pudding layer both set to get cooled.

This left us with some more time, so Henrike took me and Elena for a small walk around and showed new water fountain installed in the house, the “Bauhaus” where tractors and other farming equipments were parked. We also met Max, the “Jaghund”.. the hunting-dog. Its was full of fun seeing all this things.

By now, both the baked cake and vanilla pudding were cold enough and third layer of vanilla pudding was put on the cake….. it was so tempting, that one can not resist itself from eating it. I was just about to take a piece from the tray to taste… but was stopped by Elena and Henrike.

(henrike, Elena and me)

Finally we put the tray into cold fridge in the basement, so that it can be eaten next day with one more layer of chocolate coming on the top…. I could not stop dreaming how great it would look and taste tomorrow.

Today in the office when I saw the cake… I just couldn’t believe myself helping Henrike to bake it yesterday.

(the last piece of Cake...)

This was my first experience of baking cake. I must say, baking a cake is for sure not easy task.. but looking at output, its worth taking up. As Julia (one of the office colleague) said, one must bring self baked cakes for the last day “Kaffee und Kuchen” gathering…. I think probably I will bake my own cake on my last day of Master’s thesis.

Hemant Nagda

29^th May 09, Dortmund

Christmas Market in Dortmund, Germany (2008)

2008-12-23T12:55:00.009+01:00

Christmas is much more than a festival… one realizes this moment he enters Dortmund. Few minutes walk from central station takes you to famous Christmas market of Dortmund which can be claimed as one of biggest Christmas markets in Germany.

(on way to Christmas market)
It reveals some of the oldest memories from history like centuries old coin minting press or honey-wax work with varieties of honey and wax products or over 100 years old music show performed at this Christmas market. For a change in Dortmund one sees lot of people… and when I say “lot”, I do mean it.

(toy rides for children)

(110yr of Christmas market)

(Handicraft stall)

With more than 300 stalls, places to eat, to drink to do shopping are all around. Famous “Liebkuchen” (cakes with heart shape) are seen every where. Potato varieties (Kartoffel Produkte), Glühwein, Bier, Pommes freies, Mendeln, Süßwaren etc are just few of things to eat and drink. Folk music is all around which together with handicraft articles, wood cravings, Christmas decorations, lights and people make a wonderful atmosphere and of course one of most memorable visit.

(Typical eating shop)

Dortmund Christmas market is incomplete if I don’t mention about Christmas tree of it. This is supposed to be world’s biggest Christmas tree of Christmas market. 45 meter tall, 14 m x 14 m wide and with more than 40,000 lights, this gigantic tree is the main attraction of Dortmund Christmas market.

(some of blinks of Christmas tree)
Gigantic Christmas tree at market

Official web link for Christmas market of Dortmund:
http://www.weihnachtsmarkt-dortmund.de/

-Hemant Nagda

Dortmund, Germany (2008)

Eisriesenwelt (Ice Caves)- Werfen, Austria

2008-10-22T17:21:00.008+02:00

Werfen, Austria
11 Oct, 2008

When I heard for the first time “largest system of ice caves on Earth” I was pretty much excited to see how it actually looks like.

Eisriesenwelt is a company owned by the Salzburg Association of Cave Exploration, that maintains the caves and runs guided tour.
Werfen village

To reach there:

From Salzburg main station I took Austrian regional train to Werfen. One can also reach Werfen via free way in a car. Private bus from Werfen station is available to the base of Ice caves, which is approximately 5 km distance. Journey in morning time is very exciting with wonderful picturesque surrounding. From the bus stop, its about 20 mins walk to Ropeway. And form ropeway about 10 more mins to the caves. Instead of ropeway, one may also climb the mountain. It takes about 90 mins. I would not recommend the climb for normal tourists.
View from the cave is simply amazing.

Some words from History:
Till nineteenth century the caves were only known to hunters and poachers. In 1879 Anton Posselt, a natural scientist from Salzburg, push 200 metres into the darkness of the caves and officially “discovered” the Eisriesenwelt. One year later he published a detailed report of his discovery in a mountaineering magazine, but the caves then slipped back into obscurity.

Alexander von Mörk, pioneer of cave exploration in the Salzburg area, recognised the significance of Posselt’s report. His expeditions were followed by various other discoverers in the 1920’s and the increasing popularity of this wonder of nature soon attracted the first tourists.

From the cave !
Inside the Caves:
The total length of cave is about 42 km. out of which only about 1.5 km is open to normal visitors. The path consists of ~1400 steps and is tiring walking in dark and cold (0°C).But one forgets all tiredness, once see amazing ice formations inside the cave. These natural formations also imitate natural objects like elephant, polar bear ect.

I saw two huge Sivlings and reminded me Amaranth’s yatra. Unfortunately here no one knows Shiva, otherwise by now this would have become a holly pilgrimage.

Some tips:
Officially, photography is forbidden inside the cave. But take ur camera inside. If relatively less people, the guide allows u take pictures inside.

If possible try to reach Werfen, early in the morning as first ropeway starts 9.00 am in morning.

Information:
Official website: www.eisriesenwelt.at
Scientific details on cave formation: http://www.eisriesenwelt.at/013_wissenschaft.pdf

-Hemant Nagda

New Europe guided Tours

2008-09-11T23:21:00.002+02:00

31st August 2008

In Munich, to roam in old city, I used Sandeman’s New Europe Tour (famous free walking tour). Founded in 2003 by Yale University Graduate, Chris Sandeman, this tour is aimed to provide every traveler, no matter of budget, good overview of City. The tour is absolutely FREE and operates purely on Tips given by the tourists. These free walking tours are also offered in London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Paris, and Madrid.

I must appreciate the way Young enthusiastic individuals were conducting the tour, and making visit memorable. The tour also offers free city maps and special discounts at a couple of Beer Gardens.

In Munich the Free Tour starts everyday at 10:45 am, 11:45 am, and 3 pm on Marienplatz by the large column. more details can be obtained at http://www.neweuropetours.eu/

-Hemant Nagda

München (Munich)

2008-09-11T23:13:00.004+02:00

31st August 2008

Bye all means if any city that can represent tradition of Germany… I would say it is Munich. “ The heart and soul of Bavaria” !.

Munich !

Historically famous and in present time more cheered for its OKTOBER FEST, München or Munich is very dynamic and colorful city. No doubt it attracts travelers from almost all part of the world.

After getting out of Central station, I asked a passerby “Wo ist die Bank?” and he asked me back, Do you speak English?....I can’t understand Deutsch?.... and I answered NATURLICH :)

Munich was often called the "most northern city in Italy" for the stunning baroque architecture of the 18th and 19th Centuries, Munich’s palaces, royal avenues, theatres and churches make it one of the most characterful cities in Germany.

The city is teeming with beer halls and beer gardens, where the amber liquid flows without end. Home of the celebrated “Weizenbier”, a typically Bavarian wheat beer, it isn´t surpirsing that more beer is consumed in the region than in anywhere else in Germany! And not to mention…. the hundreds of thousands of Weisswürste (white sausages) consumed every day.

One of Beer Garden

Apart from the Munich’s festive colour, its history is a long, important one – at times shocking, at times amusing, but always fascinating. Later named by the Nazis as Die Hauptstadt der Bewegung (the Capital of the Movement), Munich and its surrounds were central to the rise to power of the Nazi leader. There are many infamous streets in Munich where some of the darkest stories of human history took root and grew into Hitler´s dictatorship. The death-site of more than 40,000 people at the Concentration Camp Memorial of Dachau lies just 20km North-West of the city, and is one of the most important places to visit in Germany. Munich was extensively damaged by allied bombing during the 1930s and 40s. But following American occupation in 1945, the city of Munich emerged from the rubble and was restored to its former glory, more so than any other German city scarred by war.

-Hemant Nagda

Hofbräuhaus

2008-09-10T22:59:00.004+02:00

31st August 2008

After reaching back Munich in the evening, we visited Hofbräuhaus. Imagine a big hall sufficient enough to accomodate 5000 people.... all drinking Beer (each one with ONE liter mug) with traditional Bavarian music and dance. It simply energiesed me after a long tired day.

The world-famous Hofbräuhaus was founded in 1589 and has since been one of Munich's most popular tourist attractions. Here, one can find a little Oktoberfest throughout the whole year! another reason of Hofbräuhaus being famos is that Adolf Hitler used to give his early days speeches here and it was official political meeting place.

Traditional food, music and sometimes dance combined with a nice cozy atmosphere, waitresses in traditional costumes and a lot of beer makes the Hofbräuhaus a must for every interested travelers.

One Litre Beer !!! on traditional wooden Table

Address:

Hofbräuhaus am Platzl
Platzl 9, 80331 München
Tel: 089-2901360
Fax: 089/227586

Oficial website: http://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/en/index_en.html

Travel to Bavarian Germany (Neuschwanstein)

2008-09-10T22:37:00.006+02:00

30th – 31st August 2008

This particular travel, I would call a well planned travel, as we booked & reserved tickets in advance, hired hostel to stay and almost everything planned and discussed to fit in the given time frame.

Travel with CNL

From Duisburg we got in to City Night Line CNL, a train that travels almost entire Europe. It was my first experience with CNL and was quite satisfactory. The journey is bit slow compared to Inter city express ICE, but is very comfortable.

Neuschwanstein Castle

After reaching Munich, we immediately traveled towards Hohenschwangau, extreme south of Germany. As the day light was getting brighter and brighter, a different Bavarian Germany was waking up. This side of Deutschland is quite different form other part. I must say, Southern is very beautiful!!

way to Neuschwanstein

Reaching base of Neuschwangau castle, we confirmed our ticket and started walking up the hill. Its bit steep but very beautiful. One may also take horse-cart to go up, but is slow.

Horse-cart in Mountain

The weather was fogy when we started, suddenly the fog started vanishing as wind blown and sun arrived and first sight of Castle appeared… Love at First Sight!!! No doubt it makes u feel u r leaving in Fairy Tale. A white stone castle in middle of beautiful lush Green Mountain, crystal blue lake and a clear sky.

beautiful Neuschwanstein !!!

If I had discovered this place, I would only had made few hundred pictures J , camped for a night… but King Ludwig II had better plans than me. He built world’s most photographed Palace.

It is said, that he got this castle built to have peace and get away from people,…. But he never got chance to get it finished and after his death, immediately the palace was open to general public. On an average, every day about 6000 people visit this palace.

Alpsee (Lake)

Near Newschwanstein castle lies lake, Alpsee. One of most romantic and picturesque places I have ever visited!

Crystal clear Alpsee

Beautiful Bavaria

Team: Hemant, Vipin, Irfan
Thank you guys for making this travel Sucessful.

-Hemant Nagda

Carring the Burdens

2008-08-13T13:15:00.009+02:00

from J. Krishnamurthi's "Freedom from the Known"

We carry our burdens all the time; we never die to them, we never leave them behind. it is only when we give complete attention to a problem and solve it immediately - never carrying it over further, and at very next moment there is solitude.

i qoute here a text from J. Krishnamurthi's "Freedom from the known". it is quite interesting to understand carring our own burdens all the time.

The Story of two monks:
two monks walking from one village to another and they come upon a young girl sitting on the bank of a river, crying. And one of the monks goes up to her and says, `Sister, what are you crying about?' She says, `You see that house over there across the river? I came over this morning early and had no trouble wading across but now the river has swollen and I can't get back. There is no boat.' `Oh,' says the monk, `that is no problem at all', and he picks her up and carries her across the river and leaves her on the other side. And the two monks go on together. After a couple of hours, the other monk says, `Brother, we have taken a vow never to touch a woman. What you have done is a terrible sin. Didn't you have pleasure, a great sensation, in touching a woman?' and the other monk replies, `I left her behind two hours ago. You are still carrying her, aren't you?'

In the reallife also there is very little solitude. Even when we are alone our lives are crowded by so many influences, so much knowledge, so many memories of so many experiences, so much anxiety, misery and conflict that our mind become duller and duller, more and more insensitive, functioning in a monotonous routine. Are we ever alone? Or are we carrying with us all the burdens of yesterday?

Once we can leave off this burden from TIME, what is left is Solitude, and this solitude indicates a fresh and innocent mind.

-Hemant Nagda

Nuclear Power Plant (Visit)

2008-08-08T00:09:00.005+02:00

Hamburg, 7th August 7, 2008

Visit Vattenfall’s Nuclear Power Plant at Krumel

After brief talk and discussion at NIT with Vattenfall, a day arrived to visit NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. Dream… of probably every kid!!!!
A Little introduction of Vattenfall and power plant at Krümel, Germany: Vattenfall is one of biggest electricity producer, distributor and seller in Europe. Krümel is a small village near Hamburg, where vattenfall’s nuclear power plant is located. Site of the plant is very historic. About 100 years back, Alfred Nobel (remember Nobel price!) build world’s first Dynamite manufacturing plant here in Krümel at the same site where this plant is built.

Krümel plant from other side of river Elbe

Journey to the plant:
Location of plant is about 40 km form Hamburg, but it took us almost 2 hrs to reach there, changing trains and buses. But overall journey was quite pleasant. The plant capacity is about 1250 MW and is Europe’s one of biggest “Boiling water” type Nuclear power plant. The road passes just next to power plant!!! Quite uncommon to India where it would be probably 2 to 3 km away from normal operational roads.

Plant Model

Visit to Controlled and non controlled area:
A nuclear power plant is divided in to 2 parts in general: controlled area i.e. the reactor and accessories and non controlled area i.e. turbines, coolers and generator section. I never thought that we would get chance to see the controlled area. Fortunately the plant was under maintenance and due to non-operability we got chance to see every part… even the core of reactor with Nuclear raw material. I must say as a process engineer and designing and commissioning chemical plants, this was one of absolute extraordinary experience.

Nuclear reactor Core (during shutdown, under the water level)

Generator with Turbines (1250 MW)

On the top of Reactor Core area !!! (reactor top is seen in back)

Security and Safety:

Even though plant was not operating at the moment, we had to pass through all safety and security procedures. I must appreciate the security protocols for the visit. Even international airport or Consulates Generals don’t have such security. Apart from an independent security for entry to the plant there is continuous monitoring of reactor core and nuclear material by regulatory authority via close circuit cameras. We checked ourselves at least 4 times at different places before entering the controlled area. And same while returning back. We were wearing special suit, shoes helmet and gloves all the time in controlled area. A radioactive measurement device was given to each of us and was continuously monitoring radiations around us. I remember value of 0.001 mSv of radiation when we moved out (safe limit for normal visitor is 2.0 mSv).

Team NIT at one of Control Posts with Suites

Impression:
In India probably I would never get a chance (or permission by authority) to visit a Nuclear Power plant, that too into controlled area looking at the core of reactor. Also I would probably never get a chance to design a nuclear power plant!!! But I’ll never forget this visit to Vattenfall’s Krümel plant.

-Hemant Nagda

Planten un Blumen getting closer to nature

2008-08-03T10:58:00.008+02:00

Planten un Blumen : Hamburg
2^nd August 2008

It was Saturday afternoon, and I was bit bored being at home. So thought of moving out and seeing some new place in Hamburg. I had heard from people about “Planten un Blumen” from people but never got time to visit it…. So why not today?

Planten un Blumen

The Planten un Blumen ("Pflanzen und Blumen", or "Plants and Flowers" in low-German) is a large park smack in the middle of Hamburg. The park itself is very large and diverse, and is delightful for joggers, photographers, tourists and just people strolling by.

Despite of being in the heart of the city, it has totally different atmosphere. One simply forgets being in the city while visiting. One can say that it’s a wonderful place to breathe some different air and feel being close to nature.

There's a lot to see around Planten un Blomen. This includes, Japanese garden, Tea house, Rose garden, Lake, fountains, jogging tracks, numerous wild and domestic botanical collection…. Music pavilion (famous fountain-show, illuminated with ´rainbow-colors´ and classical music), Cafes and many more….truly magical!

I would rate Planten un Blumen as one of most romantic places in Hamburg… how come I missed visiting this place for so long!

more pictures of Planten un blumen are at following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hemantnagda/PlantenUnBlumen

Other useful links:
www.plantenunblomen .hamburg.de.

- Hemant Nagda
Hamburg

HSH Nordbank Run 2008 "Children help Children"

2008-06-29T00:49:00.000+02:00

Hamburg, 14 June 2008.

RUN FOR THE GOOD CAUSE

The Hafen City on Saturday,14 June 2008 pulsated like never before. As many as 964 teams with 28 202 runners started the seventh HSH Nordbank Run by growing district of Hamburg on the river Elbe. The participants consisted of teams from companies, universities, schools, etc. The HSH Nordbank Run 2008 has became the largest northern run event.

With the initiative "Children help children" of daily news paper "Hamburger Abendblatt", five euros were donations per participants. Thus about 150 000 Euros were collected for charity help for Children in Africa.

Around 25 students from Northern institute of Technology Management (NIT) took part in the run.

The Team NIT
(click on the picture to enlarge)

Pictures of other teams and other events can be found at:
http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2008/06/16/894341.html

The whole event featured a full day entertainment program around the track and in the Hafen City and in the evening there was an open air party in the HSH nordbank Arena (hamburg Football stadium)

Team NIT at start point
(click on the picture to enlarge)

Other pictures:

Other links :

http://picasaweb.google.com/hemantnagda/HSHNordbankRun2008

www.hsh-nordbank-run.de

-Hemant Nagda

Scenic Denmark

2008-05-13T18:36:00.000+02:00

This travel was more like a last minute planning. we hired a car, Nissan Pathfinder.... simlpy a Monster. and headed towards north, with idea of travelling through the countryside of Denmark.


We cruised along the west coast first with island Romo, then along the west coast Ribe, Esbjerg, RingKobing fjord. I must say the beaches in Denmark were very shallow, low tides, in my opinion they can’t be called as North sea instead they can be called as North Lake ;)



We also visited small lake near Ry. Took bath in freezing cold water... it was fun lying on the sand, taking sun bath, watching some beauties ;).....



Also travelling down, we touched Baltic see on east and pass through Aabenraa, Vejle, Kolding, Haderslave and finally Flensburg in Germany.

The most important thing in our whole trip was the Barbeque. With sun shining really hard, amazing coastline, the sexy bikinis ;) to cook amidst all these things is a great experience.


Team: Bernd, Hemant, Satish, Rushikesh & Vijay

by Hemant Nagda
Hamburg