Posts by Tags

Supposedly six months later

4 minute read

Published: August 08, 2021

Hello there, how are you doing? Well as the title suggests, I was planning to wite a post six months later but what the hell, you were not expecting me to fulfill that ‘commitment’ on the 4th of july, right? Well, we can just assume it is six months in the pandemic time; that’s a pretty good scale. But yeah,a lot of things have happened since we visited this rusty old blog which somehow still comes up on like the 5th site when you google my name (Goddamnit, Google): 1) I completed my spring semester with retaining almost perfect sanity 2) Decided to become more social- can’t stay in the shell anymore. 3) Went on two trips- one to this country place called Duffield on the Virginia-Tennesse border in April and later to Cape Canaveral,FL for two days. Now, I have laos later visited DC and my family in the Tri-State area but the Cape Canaveral visit is somehow one of the best trips of my life. The reason itself was so interesting- to see a launch at 3 am on a lakeside and it was magical. Of course, it’s Florida, so we hit the beach too. And the company was great. Imagine just some crazy people driving down south just to see a launch we could have seen on television: but it was fun and worth it: we could not have seen it that cool on the damn TV and could n’t have been that interesting.

New Year

3 minute read

Published: January 04, 2021

Hello, down there! Happy new year 2021! Well January 1 is just a date to start a new Gregorian calender but looking from the events of last year, it seemed 31st Dec 2020 11:59:59 would turn into 31st Dec 2020 11:60:00. That would have been insanely scary. But 2020 has vanished and off we are to a new year with new things on the bucket list piled upon the old things we have had and new ‘resolutions’ This resolution thingy seems not dopey for an undisciplined person like me- I don’t remember the last time I had made any resolution. Maybe it was because I decided to start on a resolution immediately when I thought of it and not wait for it on the 1st of January. And all over you see people being glad as if this Covid-19 virus will leave on 1st Jan 2021. We have had some variants of the virus now but thankfully science and the hard work of thouands of researchers and healthcare workers has won with some vaccines in the market and vaccination programs beginnning to happen and we might see some sort of the normalcy later.

The beauty of mathematics

6 minute read

Published: November 30, 2020

Hello down there, how you doin? Well there has been some good news along with this harrowing and bored up COViD quarantining. I finally passed my Ph.D. quals and am on my way to become a Ph.D. by 2024 (that means I will have the title of Dr. Dhruv Apte rather than Mr. Dhruv Apte). Geez, may sound dopey right? I honestly, don’t see the difference yet- it’s just me and turbulence waltzing and trying to find a suitable dance step. Nothing much in it. Although my family is quite happy at this, I have been shown how much knowledge I lack even after going through college. Damn, I could not answer questions a sophomore could have.If I was a faculty, there is a high chance I would have failed myself. How the hell didn’t I know what flux is? Well, I always tried to simplify things for myself (I had alwys been a bit dim) and that simplification though helped in other places, did not help in this case. But I learnt a lot about lot of things and not just about fluids, but also about myself- I can really crank hard once I get in the flow. Unfortunately, that cranking has apparently ended after the quals with me dingling and dangling around doing almost nothing despite having a journal deadline of March. I honestly, have lost the motivation and I feel I have to call Dr. Feynman’s thoughts to help again. Let’s see if they work now.

You need the damn physics

4 minute read

Published: October 20, 2020

Hey how are you doin, Hello down there! Geez, coming here after two months- that’s the big reason I decided to write a blog rather than podcast. I would be too lazy to work on preparing a podcast and check if I am not going round the bush in circles, then record it properly without a text or a call and then post it on soundcloud/spotify-that’s way too much trouble!

Charged Minds

4 minute read

Published: August 15, 2020

Hello, how you doin? We started this in February when the coronavirus had started to make huge problems and now crusing slowly towards september, another academic semester online avoiding the beautiful campuses many American universities flaunt- the old stones endorning buildings and dorm halls, the pebbled footpaths with giant courtyards in the middle with duck ponds, lakes, waterfalls and even an alligator lake(UFL has that, Virginia Tech decided not to follow suit with a turkey farm!)

The one with internships

4 minute read

Published: July 28, 2020

Hello down there! Long time, eh? Well this is not a weekly newsletter you were expecting about a grad student in AOE ranting about his research and life in particular. You can see the news channels for that stuff. But I must agree, I need to work out ways to encounter my temporary writer’s block and work more on the posts- maybe once in 2 weeks or something.

Essentials

1 minute read

Published: June 18, 2020

Hello down there! It’s been a month now since I wrote the last post but I have been really serious about the fact that I won’t write regularly. I recently shifted to Florida sometime back and have been living here since a month now. The reason is also that I don’t know what I am supposed to write and I don’t want ramblings to be written here; this is a blog not a teenager’s stupid diary.

The one with Dr Feynman s birthday

4 minute read

Published: May 11, 2020

Long time, eh? Well, I enevr said this was going to be a damn diary. You have irregular entries with mispellings; that’s how a blog post is written. This is not a blog post detailing how quarks work or how droplets remain the same volume but decreas ein decrease in surface area when falling in a stream(rayleigh instabilty): lthough I would have still kept the spelling different. Would have made a spelling constest with students and giving an A if you get that right. Graduate students love these freebies.

Those Incorrigible Books

4 minute read

Published: April 13, 2020

Hello down there! I kno it’s been almost a month but were you thinking I would document every single day of this lockdown? well, you could not be more wrong.

Selection of letters

3 minute read

Published: March 22, 2020

Hello down there! Concerning the recent events, I guess from wherever this blog is getting its traffic, you are sitting at home thinking as to why the hell this dang virus had to happen and trying to work at the same efficiency.

• In cse you are someone after 2021, this blog post was written during the 2020 Coronavirus outbreak. I enjoyed reading about Feynman and working out math.

La conte des colombes foncees

3 minute read

Published: September 14, 2022

Rebonjour ! Ça fait environ quatre mois que j’écris quelque nouveau. Mais, j’était occupé avec beaucoup de choses à faire et j’ai pas l’inspiration à écrire quelque chose intéressant. En plus, cette fois, j’ai trouvé écrire quelque truc très difficile (vous connaîtrez bientôt !) L’été pour moi, c’était époustouflant. Je suis allé en France pour la première fois et j’étais complètement surpris que je parle français sans difficulté. J’ai souvent fait des conversations banales à l’arrêt du bus ou des restos ou des gares et beaucoup de gens m’ont apprécié. Ça me fait très encourageant et motivant. Quand j’aurais dit que je viens des États-Unis, on m’a souvent demandé si j’ai grandi en France car mon français était génial. Mais moi, vous connaissez si vous coupez ma main, à place de sang, vous allez voir le merlot qui vient de Bordeaux :P


Aujourd’hui j’apporte un poème qui je n’ai pas écrit. Le poème était originalement en espagnol par M. Federico García Lorca au nom de « Casida de las palomas oscuras ». C’était un très beau poème avec beaucoup de sens caché surtout sa sexualité. Pour moi, il représente l’idée du secret et comment on cache notre identité à s’intégrer dans un groupe ou car on ne semble pas comme faible ou sensible. Puisque le poème est écrit en espagnol, j’ai dû comprendre sa traduction, son sens et essaie à traduire en français mais pas perdre sa signification. Donc, pour les mecs qui comprennent tous les deux ou seulement espagnol, voici le poème original :

Casidade las palomas oscuras

Por las ramas del laurel
vi dos palomas oscuras.
La una era el sol,
la otra la luna.
«Vecinita», les dije,
«¿dónde está mi sepultura?»
«En mi cola», dijo el sol.
«En mi garganta», dijo la luna.
Y yo que estaba caminando
con la tierra por la cintura
vi dos águilas de nieve
y una muchacha desnuda.
La una era la otra
y la muchacha era ninguna.
«Aguilitas», les dije,
«¿dónde está mi sepultura?»
«En mi cola», dijo el sol.
«En mi garganta», dijo la luna.
Por las ramas del laurel
vi dos palomas desnudas.
La una era la otra
y las dos eran ninguna.

Les Amoureux

3 minute read

Published: May 16, 2022

Bonjour encore ! Ça fait longtemps que je viens ici mais vous me connaissiez : j’ai souvent l’air d’humeur changeante ou, comment est qu’on dit, peut-être lunatique ? Comme je m’ennuie et j’essaye de trouver quelques bons passe-temps, j’ai commencé à lire et, bien-sûr, à écrire de nouveau des poèmes. L’anglais, c’est une langue pour les insipides et j’ai trouvé la poésie de langues romans sont très belle- de quoi m’inspirer ! Ce n’est pas facile mais on trouve de faire quelque chose qui représente un défi, n’est-ce pas ? Et ce n’est pas mon premier poème en français (je vous dirai plus tard). J’espère que vous le trouvez satirique, comme je l’ai fait. Le rythme est inspiré par un poème du M. Georges Brassens, au nom de *Les Copains d’abord *. Il a pu l’air de sophistication mais si vous ne comprenez pas, ne vous inquiétez pas !

Les Amoureux de l’année

La conte des colombes foncees

3 minute read

Published: September 14, 2022

Rebonjour ! Ça fait environ quatre mois que j’écris quelque nouveau. Mais, j’était occupé avec beaucoup de choses à faire et j’ai pas l’inspiration à écrire quelque chose intéressant. En plus, cette fois, j’ai trouvé écrire quelque truc très difficile (vous connaîtrez bientôt !) L’été pour moi, c’était époustouflant. Je suis allé en France pour la première fois et j’étais complètement surpris que je parle français sans difficulté. J’ai souvent fait des conversations banales à l’arrêt du bus ou des restos ou des gares et beaucoup de gens m’ont apprécié. Ça me fait très encourageant et motivant. Quand j’aurais dit que je viens des États-Unis, on m’a souvent demandé si j’ai grandi en France car mon français était génial. Mais moi, vous connaissez si vous coupez ma main, à place de sang, vous allez voir le merlot qui vient de Bordeaux :P


Aujourd’hui j’apporte un poème qui je n’ai pas écrit. Le poème était originalement en espagnol par M. Federico García Lorca au nom de « Casida de las palomas oscuras ». C’était un très beau poème avec beaucoup de sens caché surtout sa sexualité. Pour moi, il représente l’idée du secret et comment on cache notre identité à s’intégrer dans un groupe ou car on ne semble pas comme faible ou sensible. Puisque le poème est écrit en espagnol, j’ai dû comprendre sa traduction, son sens et essaie à traduire en français mais pas perdre sa signification. Donc, pour les mecs qui comprennent tous les deux ou seulement espagnol, voici le poème original :

Casidade las palomas oscuras

Por las ramas del laurel
vi dos palomas oscuras.
La una era el sol,
la otra la luna.
«Vecinita», les dije,
«¿dónde está mi sepultura?»
«En mi cola», dijo el sol.
«En mi garganta», dijo la luna.
Y yo que estaba caminando
con la tierra por la cintura
vi dos águilas de nieve
y una muchacha desnuda.
La una era la otra
y la muchacha era ninguna.
«Aguilitas», les dije,
«¿dónde está mi sepultura?»
«En mi cola», dijo el sol.
«En mi garganta», dijo la luna.
Por las ramas del laurel
vi dos palomas desnudas.
La una era la otra
y las dos eran ninguna.

Les Amoureux

3 minute read

Published: May 16, 2022

Bonjour encore ! Ça fait longtemps que je viens ici mais vous me connaissiez : j’ai souvent l’air d’humeur changeante ou, comment est qu’on dit, peut-être lunatique ? Comme je m’ennuie et j’essaye de trouver quelques bons passe-temps, j’ai commencé à lire et, bien-sûr, à écrire de nouveau des poèmes. L’anglais, c’est une langue pour les insipides et j’ai trouvé la poésie de langues romans sont très belle- de quoi m’inspirer ! Ce n’est pas facile mais on trouve de faire quelque chose qui représente un défi, n’est-ce pas ? Et ce n’est pas mon premier poème en français (je vous dirai plus tard). J’espère que vous le trouvez satirique, comme je l’ai fait. Le rythme est inspiré par un poème du M. Georges Brassens, au nom de *Les Copains d’abord *. Il a pu l’air de sophistication mais si vous ne comprenez pas, ne vous inquiétez pas !

Les Amoureux de l’année

Supposedly six months later

4 minute read

Published: August 08, 2021

Hello there, how are you doing? Well as the title suggests, I was planning to wite a post six months later but what the hell, you were not expecting me to fulfill that ‘commitment’ on the 4th of july, right? Well, we can just assume it is six months in the pandemic time; that’s a pretty good scale. But yeah,a lot of things have happened since we visited this rusty old blog which somehow still comes up on like the 5th site when you google my name (Goddamnit, Google): 1) I completed my spring semester with retaining almost perfect sanity 2) Decided to become more social- can’t stay in the shell anymore. 3) Went on two trips- one to this country place called Duffield on the Virginia-Tennesse border in April and later to Cape Canaveral,FL for two days. Now, I have laos later visited DC and my family in the Tri-State area but the Cape Canaveral visit is somehow one of the best trips of my life. The reason itself was so interesting- to see a launch at 3 am on a lakeside and it was magical. Of course, it’s Florida, so we hit the beach too. And the company was great. Imagine just some crazy people driving down south just to see a launch we could have seen on television: but it was fun and worth it: we could not have seen it that cool on the damn TV and could n’t have been that interesting.

New Year

3 minute read

Published: January 04, 2021

Hello, down there! Happy new year 2021! Well January 1 is just a date to start a new Gregorian calender but looking from the events of last year, it seemed 31st Dec 2020 11:59:59 would turn into 31st Dec 2020 11:60:00. That would have been insanely scary. But 2020 has vanished and off we are to a new year with new things on the bucket list piled upon the old things we have had and new ‘resolutions’ This resolution thingy seems not dopey for an undisciplined person like me- I don’t remember the last time I had made any resolution. Maybe it was because I decided to start on a resolution immediately when I thought of it and not wait for it on the 1st of January. And all over you see people being glad as if this Covid-19 virus will leave on 1st Jan 2021. We have had some variants of the virus now but thankfully science and the hard work of thouands of researchers and healthcare workers has won with some vaccines in the market and vaccination programs beginnning to happen and we might see some sort of the normalcy later.

The beauty of mathematics

6 minute read

Published: November 30, 2020

Hello down there, how you doin? Well there has been some good news along with this harrowing and bored up COViD quarantining. I finally passed my Ph.D. quals and am on my way to become a Ph.D. by 2024 (that means I will have the title of Dr. Dhruv Apte rather than Mr. Dhruv Apte). Geez, may sound dopey right? I honestly, don’t see the difference yet- it’s just me and turbulence waltzing and trying to find a suitable dance step. Nothing much in it. Although my family is quite happy at this, I have been shown how much knowledge I lack even after going through college. Damn, I could not answer questions a sophomore could have.If I was a faculty, there is a high chance I would have failed myself. How the hell didn’t I know what flux is? Well, I always tried to simplify things for myself (I had alwys been a bit dim) and that simplification though helped in other places, did not help in this case. But I learnt a lot about lot of things and not just about fluids, but also about myself- I can really crank hard once I get in the flow. Unfortunately, that cranking has apparently ended after the quals with me dingling and dangling around doing almost nothing despite having a journal deadline of March. I honestly, have lost the motivation and I feel I have to call Dr. Feynman’s thoughts to help again. Let’s see if they work now.

You need the damn physics

4 minute read

Published: October 20, 2020

Hey how are you doin, Hello down there! Geez, coming here after two months- that’s the big reason I decided to write a blog rather than podcast. I would be too lazy to work on preparing a podcast and check if I am not going round the bush in circles, then record it properly without a text or a call and then post it on soundcloud/spotify-that’s way too much trouble!

Charged Minds

4 minute read

Published: August 15, 2020

Hello, how you doin? We started this in February when the coronavirus had started to make huge problems and now crusing slowly towards september, another academic semester online avoiding the beautiful campuses many American universities flaunt- the old stones endorning buildings and dorm halls, the pebbled footpaths with giant courtyards in the middle with duck ponds, lakes, waterfalls and even an alligator lake(UFL has that, Virginia Tech decided not to follow suit with a turkey farm!)

The one with internships

4 minute read

Published: July 28, 2020

Hello down there! Long time, eh? Well this is not a weekly newsletter you were expecting about a grad student in AOE ranting about his research and life in particular. You can see the news channels for that stuff. But I must agree, I need to work out ways to encounter my temporary writer’s block and work more on the posts- maybe once in 2 weeks or something.

Essentials

1 minute read

Published: June 18, 2020

Hello down there! It’s been a month now since I wrote the last post but I have been really serious about the fact that I won’t write regularly. I recently shifted to Florida sometime back and have been living here since a month now. The reason is also that I don’t know what I am supposed to write and I don’t want ramblings to be written here; this is a blog not a teenager’s stupid diary.

The one with Dr Feynman s birthday

4 minute read

Published: May 11, 2020

Long time, eh? Well, I enevr said this was going to be a damn diary. You have irregular entries with mispellings; that’s how a blog post is written. This is not a blog post detailing how quarks work or how droplets remain the same volume but decreas ein decrease in surface area when falling in a stream(rayleigh instabilty): lthough I would have still kept the spelling different. Would have made a spelling constest with students and giving an A if you get that right. Graduate students love these freebies.

Selection of letters

3 minute read

Published: March 22, 2020

Hello down there! Concerning the recent events, I guess from wherever this blog is getting its traffic, you are sitting at home thinking as to why the hell this dang virus had to happen and trying to work at the same efficiency.

• In cse you are someone after 2021, this blog post was written during the 2020 Coronavirus outbreak. I enjoyed reading about Feynman and working out math.

The train missed the station

5 minute read

Published: March 08, 2020

How do you do..hello! In case you are pissed off that you did not get the ‘weekly issue’ of “Dhruv talks” last Sunday it was because I was busy in doing some random shit. I warned you that I won’t be writing every week regularly; this is a blog not a weekly magazine.

What do these damn numbers mean

6 minute read

Published: February 23, 2020

This week I gave a student seminar at CREATe (Cnetre of Renewable Energy and Aerodynamic Technology). CREATe is a big collection of research groups aimed at working in aerohydrodynamics and has these seminars every friday afternoon where a social (it’s generally coffee and donuts) takes place followed by a studetn giving a talk. My talk? It bombed. I tried to make a lot ofjokes but from some whispered giggles I heard nothing. I got some insights from Agastya, a senior Ph.D. student who said I did well for my first CFD talk but I feel I bombed this whole thing…well you always got something to improve.

Hello down there!

3 minute read

Published: February 16, 2020

Last week after a lot less of thought , I decided to get on SnapChat. I made an avatar and connected on some friends and my brother. The idea of SnapChat is to send pictues, sort of stories that Instagram started and all social media appliations followed suit. But the thing that is a bit different is you can send a story to only a particula rperson and the person will do the same. And, you can create a story for each different person. You and your contact can keep sending photos everyday to maintain a ‘streak’. That’s the gist.

La conte des colombes foncees

3 minute read

Published: September 14, 2022

Rebonjour ! Ça fait environ quatre mois que j’écris quelque nouveau. Mais, j’était occupé avec beaucoup de choses à faire et j’ai pas l’inspiration à écrire quelque chose intéressant. En plus, cette fois, j’ai trouvé écrire quelque truc très difficile (vous connaîtrez bientôt !) L’été pour moi, c’était époustouflant. Je suis allé en France pour la première fois et j’étais complètement surpris que je parle français sans difficulté. J’ai souvent fait des conversations banales à l’arrêt du bus ou des restos ou des gares et beaucoup de gens m’ont apprécié. Ça me fait très encourageant et motivant. Quand j’aurais dit que je viens des États-Unis, on m’a souvent demandé si j’ai grandi en France car mon français était génial. Mais moi, vous connaissez si vous coupez ma main, à place de sang, vous allez voir le merlot qui vient de Bordeaux :P


Aujourd’hui j’apporte un poème qui je n’ai pas écrit. Le poème était originalement en espagnol par M. Federico García Lorca au nom de « Casida de las palomas oscuras ». C’était un très beau poème avec beaucoup de sens caché surtout sa sexualité. Pour moi, il représente l’idée du secret et comment on cache notre identité à s’intégrer dans un groupe ou car on ne semble pas comme faible ou sensible. Puisque le poème est écrit en espagnol, j’ai dû comprendre sa traduction, son sens et essaie à traduire en français mais pas perdre sa signification. Donc, pour les mecs qui comprennent tous les deux ou seulement espagnol, voici le poème original :

Casidade las palomas oscuras

Por las ramas del laurel
vi dos palomas oscuras.
La una era el sol,
la otra la luna.
«Vecinita», les dije,
«¿dónde está mi sepultura?»
«En mi cola», dijo el sol.
«En mi garganta», dijo la luna.
Y yo que estaba caminando
con la tierra por la cintura
vi dos águilas de nieve
y una muchacha desnuda.
La una era la otra
y la muchacha era ninguna.
«Aguilitas», les dije,
«¿dónde está mi sepultura?»
«En mi cola», dijo el sol.
«En mi garganta», dijo la luna.
Por las ramas del laurel
vi dos palomas desnudas.
La una era la otra
y las dos eran ninguna.

Les Amoureux

3 minute read

Published: May 16, 2022

Bonjour encore ! Ça fait longtemps que je viens ici mais vous me connaissiez : j’ai souvent l’air d’humeur changeante ou, comment est qu’on dit, peut-être lunatique ? Comme je m’ennuie et j’essaye de trouver quelques bons passe-temps, j’ai commencé à lire et, bien-sûr, à écrire de nouveau des poèmes. L’anglais, c’est une langue pour les insipides et j’ai trouvé la poésie de langues romans sont très belle- de quoi m’inspirer ! Ce n’est pas facile mais on trouve de faire quelque chose qui représente un défi, n’est-ce pas ? Et ce n’est pas mon premier poème en français (je vous dirai plus tard). J’espère que vous le trouvez satirique, comme je l’ai fait. Le rythme est inspiré par un poème du M. Georges Brassens, au nom de *Les Copains d’abord *. Il a pu l’air de sophistication mais si vous ne comprenez pas, ne vous inquiétez pas !

Les Amoureux de l’année

Those Incorrigible Books

4 minute read

Published: April 13, 2020

Hello down there! I kno it’s been almost a month but were you thinking I would document every single day of this lockdown? well, you could not be more wrong.

What do these damn numbers mean

6 minute read

Published: February 23, 2020

This week I gave a student seminar at CREATe (Cnetre of Renewable Energy and Aerodynamic Technology). CREATe is a big collection of research groups aimed at working in aerohydrodynamics and has these seminars every friday afternoon where a social (it’s generally coffee and donuts) takes place followed by a studetn giving a talk. My talk? It bombed. I tried to make a lot ofjokes but from some whispered giggles I heard nothing. I got some insights from Agastya, a senior Ph.D. student who said I did well for my first CFD talk but I feel I bombed this whole thing…well you always got something to improve.