Monday 22 Feb Visiting Sardar Patel College

After a weekend of acclimatization, Monday was the day of the first testing. The three of us, visited the Sardar Patel College of Mumbai, where Yash finished his bachelor. There, after meeting the director of the mechanical engineering faculty and some professors, we installed our prototype on the solar cooker owned by the college. We spent a full day on the terrace of the faculty, trying to get some measurements from our system.

We also painted the pressure cooker black, using a mat black spray to improve the heat conduction. However, at the end of the day, we couldn’t manage to get results, because the water didn’t reach boiling temperatures, and the system didn’t manage to pressurize. We thought that this was probably due to the not ideal weather conditions. The day was cloudy and slightly windy. We also figured out, that the solar cooker was old and the mirrors had deformed resulting to the change of the focal point. This was confirmed also from the manufacturer of the solar cooker, Mr Gadhia after a phone discussion we had with him.

Other small problems we encountered were leakages from the pressure valve as well as from the pipe connection between the two buckets, which we managed to solve until the end of the day.

During our staying on the terrace of the college, we had the opportunity to interact with many students, which visited our installation and were willing to learn about our product and technology.

Here, there are some photos of the first installation, more to come!

Namaskar from Mumbai!

Its already the fourth day that we are here, but we have now realized how fast the time flies. The days in Mumbai run really fast, there is never enough time to do all these things that you would like to. A city of 13 million people which never sleeps. Anytime of the day roads are busy, people spring in the middle of the road from all possible corners, vehicles and mostly “rikshas” are moving like dodgems in a funfair and the shops seem that they never close. The extravagant honking from the vehicles reminds you that you are in a crazy place, or as indians prefer to refer to it: in “incredible” India. Every day we are getting more and more overwhelmed by the intensity of the images, sounds and smells we see when we are roaming around the streets. Rides in Mumbai can never be boring. It is always unsure when you will need to brake, close the car windows to avoid beggars, or be stunned from a cow that is walking or lying on the street. Mumbai is the city of contradictions. Two different worlds, the “high” and the “low” world, which manage to coexist, causing in the same time sad emotions when observing the social inequality and poverty. Photos are not enough to depict pictures, sounds and situations we experience every day and most importantly cannot illustrate our expressions and feelings after every cultural shock. Yash, patiently tries to explain everything we see around us, getting us every day a step deeper into the Indian culture. Surely, only now we fully understand the descriptions of Bauke, Anahi and Lisanne when they firt went to India, two months ago. Amazing experience as amazing is the country and the people here.

Valia