Raul's Theorem on Indo-European Spending!!

Abstract
When people go abroad, especially students, There is a special problem that we face when we need to spend money. During this trip to finland, and ofcourse my first trip abroad! I have realized very early a little economics lessons and i thought this would be helpful and may be funny too!


Introduction
When i was packing things up for this trip, i also happened to purchase a few euro's. It wasn't a very comfortable feeling to buy out a € for 56+ Indian Rupees. I was thinking while travelling whether this was really that expensive or was i over estimating. Initially i thought, how worse it would be if 1€ in finland = 1Rs in india. Oh! this might be a bit confusing but what i mean was " Lets say if a pen costs Rs.10 in India Then €10 in Finland". Phew!! Amazing numbers, and if things were so, none of us could ever live here. But, what i have found here ( and also proven empirically ) is that if you are earning a little money here, then things are much better than worse.

Theory

Some Theorical standpoints before i mention other things.
Axiom 1: Assume that you are an Indian. And are very comfortable about Indian Rupee. (Notes on Indian Rupee)
Axiom 2: 1 € = Rs. 57 (for latest figures Click Here)

And here comes, the (yet to be famous) Raul's theorem (aka Rahul's Theorem) for Indo-Eorupean Spending!

Theorem 1:
When buying some article in €'s, lets say "X €" then buy the article if you would have been willing to buy the same article in india for Rs. 10*X.

Proof (Empirical):

The following is a small empirical proof what has been laid out in the theorem. Please look at the figures carefully.

Article --------------Cost in € (X) --------------10 * X --------------In India (Rs.) (comments)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bread(Big Pack) -------------- 1.59 --------------~ 16 -------------- 20-25

Jam -------------- -------------- 2.2 -------------- ~ 22 --------------50

Coke -------------- -------------- 2 --------------~ 20 -------------- 20

Beer -------------- -------------- 1-3 --------------~ 10 -30 -------------- 50-70

Room Rent --------------640 -------------- 6400 -------------- 4500-7000 ( Yeah! I really live in an expensive place, something like Single Room apartment near Ameerpet or lets say Abids Main Road)




Conclusion:
So with these little figures and of course with many more to cite. I conclude that if you find anything in Euro's and ofcourse if you have to buy it. Make sure that its 10*X price is less than the corresponding price in indian Rupee. Also, if you are earning a bit here, then you can live pretty well, ofcourse it will always be at the back of your mind that if you save a few € 's they would become Hundreds & Thousands of Indian Rupees. But, well i have realized that it really is worth spending, atleast on food. And, for those who don't earn here, and are depending entirely on money comming all the way from india, You will Starve!!

Hyderabad 2 Helsinki... The Journey & Beyond

It has been a week now that i am here in Helsinki. Quite a beautiful place i must say in first place. I am only unfortunate not to have a camera with me for such a trip. Some poor planning for the trip, surfaced with some very well known Laziness to do some shopping, that i missed out on some crucial shopping such as these!!

Anyways things will be so, if we keep up things for the last moment.(Same old lesson, Learnt again! ;) )

The Journey & Rendezvous with Mr. Chukka Ramaiah ( AKA. IIT Ramaiah )

The Journey has been as much a pleasant endeavour as expected. People told me that Lufthansa is a Wonderful plane, I really don't know much of a reason why they told so, probably in comparision with other airways. But my flight of lufthansa was really good.
If i were to buy the tickets myself, i would have never bought Lufthansa, considering the price shift. FinnAir cost around 30 K & Lufthansa Cost me 58 K. Almost double if i say so.

I had a glimpse of Mr. Ramiah at the Airport, when i was getting my security check done. Ofcourse, as i was nervous, i almost put him aside away from sight. Later as i entered the flight i saw him to my right . I greeted him and he welcomed instantly. What happened could almost be guessed, i said... "I'm a student of CVR"
He smiled and said " ya, i came to your college". Well CVR'ians know what it means!! :P At Dinner & during the breakfast next morning, he gave away his meals to me. ( I still wonder why!! may be he wanted to share a single meal with his wife....WoW!! So Romantic ;) )

Got Down at FrankFurt & headed away towards the next terminal for the flight to helsinki. I was Walking, Walking, Walking & Walking, Walking......
Truly as my pal Suman Kumar had warned me This definitely had to be One of the Biggest Airports that were ever built. Exactly as he said, i must have walked over 2 Kms to get to the place where i had to board the next flight.

Got to Helsinki, a wonderful city, clean, beautiful, scenic, and ofcourse peaceful as any other city in this country!
Saurabh, another student from IIT Roorkee, working as an intern in HUT(Helsinki University of Technology) was waiting there for me. A good sight to see someone waiting for you, even though you don't actually know him. I actually know him through Orkut. Anyways he was waiting for his ciggerettes that i got for him.

Kumpula Campus @ University of Helsinki (UoH)

When the Taxi driver took me to the Campus, My first look at the Campus and i said " sorry dude, you got me to Nokia Research Center, or may be something else, this can't be a university.
Well it was that cool. Buildings that we rarely see in india, security systems that we don't even have for Governament Head's Departments. I can't say more. I'l put up pics when possible!

My WorkPlace & The Culture

My Workplace is amazing, though temporary. I have been promised a workbench to be shared with atmost 2 others, in a week from now. My current workbench could be described this way :
Monitor in front of me, space double as much as we had for a computer at SIEL. A Phone to the left of my monitor. To the left of the Bench there's a Rack...as are at so many other places...in the rooms. And Filled are the space over the Racks with Energy Drink Tins , Wine & Beer Bottles.

(I'l remember 2 put this pic too! )

My Boss here If i may say so!!

Inherently a cool guy, Prof. Petri Myllymäki has been as much a friend as a professor. The very next day i was here, i was told that i was enrolled to a Cruize at the local ferry that day. I cherished some beer with him and had one of the most informal chat i had with any prof. (include Prasad in that list!). At almost the end of the Cruize while he was getting down, he offered me the best Finnish-Vodka Shot his personal favorite choice. Could i deny it ?? Naah!! And then what it went straight down my throat.... Cheers!!.

Note: By the way... he gave me a Nokia 6610 the very day i came here...and he asked me to return it back...i was surprised. He said, take this instead... It looked like a N70. If thats the case i wouldn't miss the Camera that badly!!


Comming up...Hopefully with Pics!!

Moi Moi ! (Bye Bye)

A Journey in time!

Journey in time ??


Yes, its been quite a journey. And now worth mentioning too!
Had a whole lot of things happening in my life, and as always for some reason or other, i haven't bogged for long now!

Here are some of the latest Updates.
It was an amazing academic semester.... with following grades. ( B-, C, F)
The F above indicates that i flunked in a subject...(Yeah! yet again..)
Subject is ANN(Artificial Neural Networks). I can complain about the professor, but well i don't want to.
Now that doesn't mean that i deserved to Fail.
I went to Microsoft Research India for a summer school on NLP.
Anyways next,
I have got a publication, meanwhile. And that was the single most important thing that i have done during the last semester. Also, partly responsible for my poor grades in coursework.

The next good thing(probably) that i had done during this time, was to hang on to an internship offer that came my way, ofcourse via my professor.
I'l be going to University of Helsinki, Finland. on 6th June. I am still waiting for the arrival of my passport from the embassy, but am hopeful of its arrival tommrow.