4 November: Drones and Dancing

Bigger drone

Smaller drone

Drones are used in some areas of agricultural research - some people expect them to become more popular, while others think that they will remain a specialised niche option, particularly for the many, many farming families who have not yet achieved food security.  I had never seen one before; a couple of days ago I saw two in action!








Each drone has four propellers.  The larger, which looks like a mechanical dog from below, weighs around 5kg; the smaller around 2kg.  When in the air they sound like hoarse lawnmowers.

We stood well back from the drones...just in case they dropped from the sky!

The bigger drone flies up to 100m (the legal limit in India) but here it's about 60m up

The smaller drone flies to about 30m...it's eerie enough to have been a good prop for Hallowe'en!

Icarus drone moment

The station is growing basmati rice, largely for research purposes: basmati grows well (with a strong aroma) in other areas of the Punjab, and further south in some parts of Haryana, but not around Ludhiana.  I'm looking forward to seeing it in the field in Haryana - apparently the aroma is noticeable.

Basmati

The workshop dinner was a traditional Indian celebration - we started around 6.30pm with drinks and lots of snacks.  After an hour or so of chatting the dancing began.  I have never seen so many men, of all ages and abilities, enjoying themselves dancing before.  My colleagues threw themselves onto the dance floor - one of the workshop coordinators explained, "When you are dancing there are no rules.  At work you have people above and below you and there are rules about how you interact with them.  On the dance floor you can do whatever you want!"  The most common dancing moves seemed to be big arm sweeps - a combination of it-was-this-big and I'm-an-aeroplane plus drumming involving the whole arms and shoulders.  There was also plenty of fancy footwork and the occasional twirl.  

The sense of joie de vivre was palpable - and not (only) fuelled by alcohol: most of my Sikh and Muslim colleagues don't drink, and they threw themselves into dancing as or more enthusiastically than anyone else.  Some of the workshop participants were very shy and didn't dance much (though no one could escape without at least one dance - it would have been rude!) but one Afghani colleague in particular clearly thoroughly relished the opportunity to dance.  He said it had been 13 years since his last dance.

Around 9 we had dinner - a buffet of curries, some vegetables, rice, curd and breads.  I am getting good (to the sadness of my colleague B who was behind me in the line) at ignoring the standard naan and picking out the tasty besan (chickpea) flour breads instead!

After dinner the dancing recommended.  A few of us went back to the hotel early but the party continued into the small hours.

Today we are up early for two treats: Amritsar and Wagah.