Friday, November 29, 2013

Will it Float?

The Tata Nano is a fun car. It's got a great pick up, is nimble for city driving, and chock full of tech features. And while it may not sell for Rs.1,00,000 any longer, it can still fit 4 for a comfy ride and give 30 km/l. All of this thanks to a rear-mounted engine, low centre of gravity and a spacious, light frame…all of which is both good and bad, as I found.

The serene IISc campus is self-contained. One just does not want to leave it for the hustle and bustle (and the occasional wrestle) of the city. The couple of jaunts I have had off-campus with the Nano have been to some spanking new malls nearby. The Orion Mall and the Mantri Mall are a world of their own. A rich blend of up market international brands standing shoulder to shoulder with locally grown shopping chains. Subway and Shanti Sagar are cheek by jowl. Levis and Crocs lie alongside Landmark and Bata. Fancy a massage to relax after some heavy duty shopping? Coin operated massage chairs line the aisle! You might as well be in any large mall in the US, but for the sea of desi faces. If you were in the Bay Area or New Jersey, even that is moot. But then, there are still those oddities and niggles that remind you that we're still growing into the consumer-driven economy (Is that good? For a different post). Like the water fountains whose spouts are 5 feet high (maybe it's a shower?!!). Or the eternally empty towel dispensers. Or the strategically placed buckets to catch water dripping from the roof during a downpour! Jugaad is in full flow. 

And yes, it does rain a lot in Bangalore, as I've found. While the first couple of weeks here welcomed me with sunshine, last week more than made up for it with several showers. One might as well have been in Redmond. In fact, last weekend supposedly recorded a 30 year high rainfall! Not that I knew about it then when I sauntered out. But in all, it's been fun watching the showers through the tree tops from my vantage office at the top floor of SERC (whose roof wasn't immune to the torrent either :-)).

Maybe there is something about water that spurs innovation, reflecting through showers or musing in the bathtub . Archimedes would agree. Even Prof. C.N.R. Rao, during his recent Bharath Ratna felicitation on campus, drew inspiration from Archimedes discovering the science behind buoyancy and rushing out his bathtub shouting 'Eureka'. Which reminds me of my PhD co-advisor, who often used that expression when he regaled our lab group with anecdotes. I guess it is nice to be able to explain something as fundamental as floating that we take for granted. But one thing I never understood was Archimedes' rush to share his discovery in his state of undress (as the story goes). It was not like he had to publish it soon out of fear of being "scooped".

So what does Archimedes share with David Letterman? For those not familiar, Letterman is a late night comic, famous for this toothy grin. And, maybe picking the wrong message from Archimedes' story, he runs an occasional segment called "Will it Float?". It is one of his better bits where he'd try to dunk commonplace stuff into a tank of water to see if they would float or not. He's tried things as odd as a canaloupe (floats!) and 500ft roll of coaxial cable (floats!!). It was never an easy guess, so maybe there is a science lesson there? But one thing I'm sure he's not tried this on is a Tata Nano. And (drums please) ladies and gentlemen, today, we have an answer!

Finding the right entrance into IISc campus is a bit troublesome, what with road construction that makes many gates inaccessible. I had finally figured out a reliable route through Maramma Circle. But then, there are always boundary conditions one finds out about. As I was driving back my Nano from Mantri Mall last Sunday night, in poor visibility caused by the record breaking rains, the comfort of being able to find the gate soon gave way to the boundary condition of navigating the flooded underpass.

So how many engineers does it take to estimate the depth of water in an underpass (caveat: at night, and in a downpour)? The answer, apparently, is Not Enough! My cousin, a partner in crime, and myself "pool" our collective aeronautics engineering and computer science skills together and make a quick decision: Nah, it's not too deep. So I rev up the engine and head down the slope at a measured pace…

Well, the good news is, if you always admired those cool cars that Bond has that you can drive on land and skim through water, Nano gets you close! But in the absence of a hydro-propulsion mechanism , you are (literally), a sitting duck in water. Long story short, we almost make it to the deep end, the wheels loose contact with the road -- the car floats!! -- and the low-slung rear engine splutters out. In hindsight, we should have tried to get out thru the window but, oh well, 2ft of water pours in as we step out the door. A few heaves and hos, and me manage to push the car uphill. Our escapade at least proved a cautionary tale for several cars following us, which soon turned tail and headed off to better pursuits.

After all these amphibious adventures, the Nano had to suffer the ignominy of being paraded through Bangalore streets on its hind wheels by a tow truck, as passers-by gave it a sad look. The little car that almost could…

P.S. I know an unnamed student of mine is rolling with laughter now, after the ribbing he got after a similar incident, though with better results!

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1 comment:

Venkat said...

I enjoyed reading about your adventure Yogesh. FYI, I had similar incident at Dubai two weeks back. But on a sunny Friday morning, on the most famous Sh Zayed road, approached a pool after crawling in the traffic for about an hour. I could manage to pass through without floating(!) but lost an hour in the process. We could tell TATA to make it a dual purpose car and float. Keep writing.