Welcome to Samita and Arani's home page

We live in Santiniketan, where Tagore's unique experiment with education was carried out and is still being carried out .... with varying degrees of success!
We stay in a house atop an artificial mound (hillock?!!) in the village of Kalapukurdanga. You can see a picture below :

Chiti Chiti Bang Bang, our house

My name is Arani Chakravarti. I am a lecturer in the department of Physics, Visva Bharati.

Rukminikumar
Chandrabati
Ducks in our pond My family consists of my wife Samita Seal who is a lecturer in Physics at Suri Vidyasagar College, three dogs, (two staying inside the house and one outside, since they fight!), nine unruly and, I fear, rather spoilt ducks, two cobras which have their holes by the side of our pond, and myself.
We have no electricity, so no TV / refrigerator / computer / bright lights / high-power music system / electric water pump / fan / etc.
It is great fun - I can assure you!

Our velomobile

We are currently engaged in trying to build a Velomobile - a four-wheeled two seater cycle with electrical/solar assist. Our budget being very small (Rs. 15,000/-), the materials commonly used elsewhere like carbon fibre parts are not available for us. What we are doing is the following:

We have joined two standard `Hero' cycle frames with the help of slotted steel angles. The cycle frames are not fixed with the frame, but connect to it via six cycle seat springs. This allows both cycles to move slightly with respect to each other and the frame, thus providing some form of suspension. In order to restrict sideways movement, hinges with slots have been used to hold the cycle pillars in place while allowing up-and-down movement.

The normal cycle wheels have been replaced by small wheels used in kids' bikes. These have tyres with nice grip, have less weight, lower the centre of gravity and allow the front wheels to turn without too much fouling with the legs.

The two rear hubs have been replaced with aluminium hubs with drum brakes - basically spare `Hero Majestic' moped parts. Thus braking in wet weather becomes safer. The calliper brakes have been retained in the front wheels. The brakes are operated by the left hand with the help of a lever.

The two front forks have been joined using a standard `Ackermann compensation' link which allow the inner wheel to turn at a slightly larger angle during turns. This is necessary because on a curve, the inner wheel is essentially traversing a circle of smaller radius than the outer wheel.

Two joined cane seats have been woven directly onto the central frame. Cane is very light and quite immune to termites.

`Sunglow' commonly known abroad as corroplast (corrugated plastic) is being used for the fairing, which is not yet ready.

A starter motor from an old Ambassador car (Basically Morris) is being coupled with the rear right wheel by a short chain. Since the dc motor can double as a dynamo, it can be used for regenerative braking by charging a battery. The rider on the left will pedal a dynamo which will deliver some power to this motor. In this way, the two riders can pedal at different speeds and with different effort. This is particularly important for us because my wife suffered from rheumatic fever as a child and as a result her heart is not too healthy (of course she has a heart of gold in the figurative sense!).

The transmission from the right-hand pedal is not yet complete. In fact, I am not too sure of the system as yet. I want to implement a cheap gear-like mechanism with pressure pads pushing directly on the ground. The problem with wheels is that the portion that is in touch with the road surface, which does all the pushing, is constantly being pulled away from the surface as the wheel rotates. Thus a certain amount of slippage is inevitable. On the other hand, systems like poles latch onto a portion of the road for a certain length of time. Could I do something similar to the mechanism people use for propelling skis? I am not very sure.

That is all! The other parts are simply not ready as yet - so if you want to ride this fellow you will have to bring a donkey (too demeaning for a horse) to pull the contraption along!

More about us

The tale of Muni Mao ... or how we came to Kalapukurdanga

We came to Kalapukurdanga at that particular time and in that particular condition mainly because of a cat. But what a cat!! ...
The tale of Ruku and Dobby ... or pandemonium at Kalapukurdanga

We have two dogs living inside the house. Chandrabati is the female. She has ways very like the house-elf described in Harry Potter and so has a nickname - Dobby. Ruku is actually Rukminikumar a strapping youth - and one of the most beautiful and noble individuals I have ever seen. How and why ....
Gargari and Ghanashyam ... dangerous Kalapukurdanga

Two snakes who own the plot have graciously allowed us to stay. We are the trespassers, not they. How they behave and how we try to reciprocate ... .
The naming of the house and Phuchphuchi
The true owner of our house (our lives?) is Phuchphuchi. Want to know more?.
Some links

The Department of Physics, Visva Bharati - unofficial page.
My research fellow, Subhasish's home page.
Peak oil page - very interesting, although scary ... maybe we will breathe fresh air in our cities within our lifetimes after all?
Stirling Engines - one of my passions. I am trying to make some ... probably will never succeed!
Solar chimney - another very interesting site to keep an eye on.
Velomobiles..... and all my colleagues are buying cars!

We live in Santiniketan, where Tagore's unique experiment with education was carried out and is still being carried out .... with varying degrees of success! We stay in a house atop an artificial mound (hillock?!!) in the village of Kalapukurdanga. You can see a picture below : Chiti Chiti Bang Bang, our house
My name is Arani Chakravarti. I am a lecturer in the department of Physics, Visva Bharati.

Rukminikumar Chandrabati Ducks in our pond	My family consists of my wife Samita Seal who is a lecturer in Physics at Suri Vidyasagar College, three dogs, (two staying inside the house and one outside, since they fight!), nine unruly and, I fear, rather spoilt ducks, two cobras which have their holes by the side of our pond, and myself. We have no electricity, so no TV / refrigerator / computer / bright lights / high-power music system / electric water pump / fan / etc. It is great fun - I can assure you!
Our velomobile We are currently engaged in trying to build a Velomobile - a four-wheeled two seater cycle with electrical/solar assist. Our budget being very small (Rs. 15,000/-), the materials commonly used elsewhere like carbon fibre parts are not available for us. What we are doing is the following: We have joined two standard `Hero' cycle frames with the help of slotted steel angles. The cycle frames are not fixed with the frame, but connect to it via six cycle seat springs. This allows both cycles to move slightly with respect to each other and the frame, thus providing some form of suspension. In order to restrict sideways movement, hinges with slots have been used to hold the cycle pillars in place while allowing up-and-down movement. The normal cycle wheels have been replaced by small wheels used in kids' bikes. These have tyres with nice grip, have less weight, lower the centre of gravity and allow the front wheels to turn without too much fouling with the legs. The two rear hubs have been replaced with aluminium hubs with drum brakes - basically spare `Hero Majestic' moped parts. Thus braking in wet weather becomes safer. The calliper brakes have been retained in the front wheels. The brakes are operated by the left hand with the help of a lever. The two front forks have been joined using a standard `Ackermann compensation' link which allow the inner wheel to turn at a slightly larger angle during turns. This is necessary because on a curve, the inner wheel is essentially traversing a circle of smaller radius than the outer wheel. Two joined cane seats have been woven directly onto the central frame. Cane is very light and quite immune to termites. `Sunglow' commonly known abroad as corroplast (corrugated plastic) is being used for the fairing, which is not yet ready. A starter motor from an old Ambassador car (Basically Morris) is being coupled with the rear right wheel by a short chain. Since the dc motor can double as a dynamo, it can be used for regenerative braking by charging a battery. The rider on the left will pedal a dynamo which will deliver some power to this motor. In this way, the two riders can pedal at different speeds and with different effort. This is particularly important for us because my wife suffered from rheumatic fever as a child and as a result her heart is not too healthy (of course she has a heart of gold in the figurative sense!). The transmission from the right-hand pedal is not yet complete. In fact, I am not too sure of the system as yet. I want to implement a cheap gear-like mechanism with pressure pads pushing directly on the ground. The problem with wheels is that the portion that is in touch with the road surface, which does all the pushing, is constantly being pulled away from the surface as the wheel rotates. Thus a certain amount of slippage is inevitable. On the other hand, systems like poles latch onto a portion of the road for a certain length of time. Could I do something similar to the mechanism people use for propelling skis? I am not very sure. That is all! The other parts are simply not ready as yet - so if you want to ride this fellow you will have to bring a donkey (too demeaning for a horse) to pull the contraption along! More about us The tale of Muni Mao ... or how we came to Kalapukurdanga We came to Kalapukurdanga at that particular time and in that particular condition mainly because of a *cat. But what a cat!! ...* The tale of Ruku and Dobby ... or pandemonium at Kalapukurdanga We have two dogs living inside the house. Chandrabati is the female. She has ways very like the house-elf described in Harry Potter and so has a nickname - Dobby. Ruku is actually Rukminikumar a strapping youth - and one of the most beautiful and noble individuals I have ever seen. How and why .... Gargari and Ghanashyam ... dangerous Kalapukurdanga Two snakes who own the plot have graciously allowed us to stay. We are the trespassers, not they. How they behave and how we try to reciprocate ... . The naming of the house and Phuchphuchi The true owner of our house (our lives?) is Phuchphuchi. Want to know more?. Some links The Department of Physics, Visva Bharati - unofficial page. My research fellow, Subhasish's home page. Peak oil page - very interesting, although scary ... maybe we will breathe fresh air in our cities within our lifetimes after all? Stirling Engines - one of my passions. I am trying to make some ... probably will never succeed! Solar chimney - another very interesting site to keep an eye on. Velomobiles..... and all my colleagues are buying cars!