Gaurav Sabnis Profile picture
Oct 16, 2022 10 tweets 6 min read Read on X
Sawing off a fallen tree and obsessed with how great the rings are! ImageImage
I was wondering about it, and looking at the standing stump, the wider parts are those that face the ecliptic, i.e. the sun. The ones on the other side are thinner.

It's an American Ash, a species in the process of extinction cos of disease.

Today is Saw Sunday for @k_rupal and I at #OurWawar. Our resolution of power-free tools to maintain the land is doing wonders for our physique. twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Image
Phew! Finally got through the tree trunk. With just a saw and elbow grease. #AchievementUnlocked ImageImageImageImage
Yo @SaibBilaval, this section is definitely wide enough for an Ash guitar! Image
29 year old branch.

Tree itself seems 37 years old, cos this is the trunk.

Image
Live example of on the job learning. I realized that sawing off a thin wedge first makes it easier and faster to cleave the thing. Image
Output of our workout of two weeks. Lots of carving wood and firewood and an empty walkway again.

Can't believe we managed to clear all this without an electric chainsaw!

Before After ImageImage
Sure, you read from childhood that trees have rings that can tell you their age. It's something you know theoretically.

But to saw off a branch and actually see these beautiful circles so clearly... Goosebumps!! Literal goosebumps!

I highly recommend buying forest land! Image
Nope, not interested. Our resolution has been to do this without electricity. And doing fine so far. Maybe when my age advances and I can't handle actual saws anymore. But until then, chainsaw seems like random tim-allengiri for the sake of it.

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More from @gauravsabnis

Jul 18
Doing lecture prep for Fall & adding this new story in the product development strategy session. Thought it would make a nice 🧵

Did you know that a lot of calculators & music equipment we have is the result of cigarettes not having filters during world war 2?

Fun story! Image
Cigarettes back then came like this. A fully white paper tube filled with tobacco that you lit at one end and smoked from the other.

This inevitably meant that you "wasted" some tobacco at the mouth end while throwing it away.

Tadao Kashiyo in WW2 Japan saw an opportunity! Image
During WW2, cigarettes that mostly came from Allied countries became very expensive in Japan. Especially American & British brands which were sold at a premium on the black market.

Tadao Kashiyo was an engineer who was into fabrication. He created a new product that sold itself.
Read 10 tweets
Jul 4
One thing Rajnath Singh said in LS that stuck with me

"Such schemes are there even in US and they don't complain so why do you complain?"

That made me sit up.

What?

Surely someone would fact check this cos what is he even talking about?

US military agnipath?

So I checked.
There is NOTHING in US military remotely resembling Agnipath!

At the 18-22 age, the US military actually wants you to enlist for life if possible. And will happily keep you on for life if you serve honorably.

The short term stints are like Indian Short Service Commission.
So yeah, there exist options in the US military where you sign on for a short stint. And can be deployed. But they'll also send you to college for free.

My brother in law got an engineering degree from UC Riverside by enlisting in the Air Force for a few years. Then left.
Read 7 tweets
Feb 21
Very interesting conversation with a gujarati bodega owner nearby.

"I support Modi but something is wrong in gujarat. There are more gujaratis taking the risky border routes in the last 2 years than the 20 years before, from my observation. And they all say, no jobs in gujarat"
"Until recent years, gujaratis wanting to move either came through family visa or arranged marriage or student visa or at the most, overstay tourist visa. But risking life and limb like this in such big numbers? Modi needs to pay attention to gujarat. It's in trouble."
"the family that froze to death on the Canadian border. They didn't have a bad life in gujarat by any means. So why risk your entire existence? Something is wrong, brother, something is very wrong."
Read 6 tweets
Dec 20, 2023
"Wherever you go in this world, you will find a t̶e̶a̶ s̶t̶a̶l̶l̶ great school founded by a Malayalee."

K.T. Behanan was a brilliant Yale educated social scientist & Indian bureaucrat who landed in NYC with his doctor wife & 5 year old son.

Ran straight into systemic racism./1
The year was 1947 & Behanan, a Syrian Christian from Kerala's influential Kovoor clan was a 45 year old superstar in the Babu circles of the brand new India.

He accepted a position for India at the brand new UN, working on education policy with the Trustee Council.

Ironic.
He landed in a New York that was very different from now. "Separate but equal" was still the law.

Schools were openly & emphatically segregated. Brown v BoE was some years away.

By putting idealistic UN in Manhattan, America's mouth had written a check its ass couldn't cash.
Read 10 tweets
Nov 29, 2023
I'm at that age where a lot of my friends are starting to send their kids to college. So getting a lot of queries on US college as an option.

So I'm going to do this reference 🧵 with the basics to avoid repetition. And send it to them before further more specific questions. Image
I'll start off by saying that if you have ₹3 crore that you can spare, it is a nice lifelong gift for your child.

An undergrad education in the US is an amazing enriching experience beyond just the academics & the jobs after. I envy my students a little they get to live it.
I start off mentioning the cost cos I want to be absolutely clear that as awesome as such a college education will be for your kid, it is not going to be cheap.

Unless you have a Sheldon Cooper type kid, there is no free ride for international students in undergrad. That's Grad.
Read 9 tweets
Nov 18, 2023
India & China are almost half of humanity, 2 of the oldest cultures, sharing one of the longest and most iconic borders on the planet.

But how little we really know each other!

Recently, a Chinese grad student shared her love story with me. I repeat it here with her permission.
She grew up the only child of two people who were only children of parents who were also only children, in the South of China.

He grew up in a similar configuration, in the northeast of China.

They both followed the well set academic excellence route to US grad school.
They met in grad school in the NYC area. In a larger Chinese grad student universe, they found each other. And fell in love. And started planning a life together.

And both realized how they had to think about parents and grandparents in China just by themselves!
Read 13 tweets

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