Sunday, June 26, 2011

In Mumbai,

I stayed at a guesthouse on the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus by Powai Lake. Since my flight landed at 3:20am, the management was asleep when I arrived at the guesthouse and so I decided to wander around campus for a few hours. Since the campus lies in a heavily forested area, the wildlife on campus is quite diverse. Over the couse of my time at IIT, I saw crabs, monkeys, cattle, dogs, lizards, swans and all manner of other types of birds. Here's a short video I took at sunrise on Lake Powai on the morning of my arrival and a few pictures of some of the creatures that I saw during my stay at IIT.





My visit to IIT Bombay was prompted by my desire to talk with Professor Chetan Solanki about his work in the area of silicon solar cells and about the many projects going on at IIT in the broader area of solar energy technology. As part of the Indian National Solar Mission, the National Center for Photovoltaic Research and Education has been established at IIT Bombay for the purpose of assisting in achieving the national goal of 20 GW of installed solar energy systems by 2020. Towards this end, research across the full spectrum of solar energy technology is being pursued at the center. Additionally, courses are offered to current university students as well as to professionals of all levels of expertise and certification programs for technical workers are being developed. As part of this large research endeavor, the IIT Bombay Department of Energy Science and Engineering is collaborating with government and industry partners to build at 1 MW solar thermal power plant in Delhi which will serve as a technology evaluation and testing ground.

On the first of my sight-seeing days in Mumbai, I visited Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The park is located north of downtown Mumbai and lies between the eastern and the western city suburbs. With an area of 104 square kilometers, it holds the world record for the largest park within a city boundary. In the park, I took a seven kilometer motorbike ride into the forest in order to see the Kanheri Caves. The Kanheri Caves are Buddhist dwellings and religious spaces which were carved into basaltic mountain rock between the 1st century BCE and the 10th century CE. The caves feature carvings of Buddha and other religious figures, ancient inscriptions and stupas, mound-like structures which often contain Buddhist relics. Below are a few photos and a video that I took while exploring some of the 109 caves.







After exploring the caves, I visited the park's information center. The center contains a number of displays about local flora and fauna, as well as about climate change and the importance of the conservation of resources and wildlife habitat. A short hike from the information center is a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi which features a central pavilion and surrounding gardens as can be seen below.


The following day, I took a tour of Mumbai in order to explore the jungle of the innercity. During my tour, I visited a temple of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, a beach upon which a large ship had been forced to make an emergency landing, a public laundry, the Hanging Gardens of Mumbai which feature a variety of animal-shaped carved hedges, Gandhi's residence, Victoria Station and the Gate of India. Below are some pictures from my urban adventures.






After the completion of my time in Mumbai, I flew to Ahmedabad, a city in the northern state of Gujarat, in order to visit Dr. Omkar Jani at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) and the Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI). While both institutions were established through the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, their work does not focus exclusively on oil and natural gas. In fact, GERMI has an entire solar research wing which works in solar energy policy, technology and education. Seeing as Gujarat is the most progressive Indian state in its pursuit of renewable energy usage and established substantial state solar energy goals and subsidy programs before the national government did, GERMI is in prime position to have a very significant impact. Currently, GERMI is partaking in a number of exciting projects including a 1 MW photovoltaic test facility on the campus of PDPU and a city-wide rooftop installation program.

Staying in the university dormitories at PDPU, I had the opportunity to meet some of the students who had remained on campus for the summer in order to do internships with the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation. It was fascinating to chat with my new friends, Larsika and Swastika, about their work and about the differences between American and Indian culture while exploring the areas surrounding campus.

Following the conclusion of my visit to Ahmedabad, I flew back to Mumbai and prepared to depart for Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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