Whats next

My most sombre and sober new year celebrations as far as I can remember. Toned down. Some hopes towards a more peaceful year ahead.

2006, I spent the last few nights in the midst of jungles. After successfully survived whitewater rafting in the river Kali, near Dandeli there were some tribals of African origin who provided some entertainment. An African dance on local songs that was.  Yeah, they are descendants of slaves which the English, Portuguese picked from Africa who survived ship wrecks and escaped slavery to swim to safety to the jungles of south-western India. With bonfire, sipping rum we checked on what would be our fate 365 days later..well more precisely how would we wish our life would be a year later. With some hope I said, "Back to school in a year". The other pitched in to tell their part. Back to academics, get a foothold at work and some said, hopefully we'll marry.

2007, wishes of all the four come true. This time, the same four of us, in their terrace-barbeque party hosted by V's dad. An Army family is truly liberal. Drinks poured in plus the yummy chicken followed by song and dance. Same question again: what next..I mean, where would be a year from now. Half-way through studies, working on a book and some said "I dont know" as alcohol had numbed their brain cells. 

2008, some wishes come true. Mood is so sombre and scaled down. Met a friend over Java and Jamaican coffee and middle-eastern sandwiches. More friends at a party in a pub nearby. Sneaked in without paying cover charges. Hugs and embraces, quick wishes and out again. Not surprised to see so many cops around with barricades and naka-bandi. Everything was to close down by half past midnight. Was home by 11:45pm only to hook onto my laptop. Dad was working on his. Mom sleepy pleading me to have my dinner while my bro watched Pirates on Star Movies. Some more wishes and greetings at the stroke of midnight and everybody continue to do what we were doing before.

As I write this post, am still thinking where will I be a year from now. Am still not sure. Hope to continue to be a student for more grad studies. Hope to be out of Singapore. Hope not to be India. Hope to still stick on to my flat. Hope that 300 pages of my better half's book is out. On a serious note, with so much of uncertainity over the economy, job market and how much will be available in my bank account not sure where things will head. 

One thing I surely need to work on is my problem with inertia. It takes so much of time to start getting into action. It takes tons of BHP to make me move. And if I am on the move, takes significant effort to take it easy and calm down. Need to be less lethargic as well, save time, study harder and reduce some unwanted conversations at tea. With so many Chinese friends/lab mates around I need to pick their art of being so focused at work. If these can be dealt with, I guess the rest of the hopes will be taken care of. 

Well its 2am, already the first day of the new year. Good morning and have great year ahead.

Present-tense and future-tense

My Phd plans are abonded for the moment. Looking forward to completing my Masters project to end the course in a good shape. My savings are depleting and probably will have to get back to earning mode before I attempt to join a PhD course soon.  If only I didn't have to get myself entangled in mortgage web. With the economic scene looking quite bleak I am not even sure if I can get a decent job post studies. Which means, it makes sense to still apply for PhD position somewhere. Atleast there will be some source of income albeit of a small measure. I am not sure where this will get me. In the bigger scheme of things, I dont know how much all these things really matter.

My sup wasn't too bothered about the changes in plans. Have to find a project with boundaries and scope drawn. I am now familiar with sensor networks and with the 120+ node testbed coming up, we can cook up some work to do but still nothing concrete is there. There is someone working on performance improvement in TCP to support bandwidth greedy applications. Might hitch a ride with him on his work to completion. Whats left is the implementation aspects and carry out some measurements. This should take probably around 6 months or so beginning Jan.

For now, I am off to B'lore tomorrow night. For some reasons, I am not too excited. Not sure why. Hope it will be a nice pleasant 3-week ahead. 

Stuff to read during the vacation:

1. Papers (most of it related to TCP/networks)

2. Algorithms (CLR)

Hope to wind this book by the time I return. Guess its too optimistic. Lets see.

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And for some good news. Rash has started writing her book finally. Still a lot of research pending though, but after some good inputs and a lot of encouragement (after seeing her snippets of writings) she is all gung-ho about this project. The workshop she attended recently was conducted by some literary agents. All were in awe with her work and hoped she would complete it. They have no doubt in her talent but since its a very ambitious, complex and time-consuming project its difficult to predict when this project can be wound up. Hopefully in 18 months time, it should be ready.

Nation Building in Troubled Waters - II

Inspite of the odds, towards the end of first year of the reconstruction program, some wildly programs were quite successful. The 'Back-To-School' program funded by UNICEF, USAID and other numerous NGOs saw millions of Afghan children picking up books. This was by Mar 2002.

In 1974, 54% of boys and under 2% of girls had some schooling. After the Taliban rising post 1974, girls were forbiddened to go to schools and the entire education system was decimated. So now in 2002, when around 4.5 thousand schools were setup (some temporarily in tents) the excitement brewing amongs the locals was understandably enormous. NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) provided help w.r.t security and construction of buildings/tents as schools.

Some 8 million text books and supplies to 52000 teachers all across Afghanistan even in the remotest regions were provided by the ISAF. Eric Laroche from UNICEF said "It  is the largest educational program in UNICEF history and for the first time we have started nation wide primary education." Around 1.8 million were expected but 3.0 millinon tured out. 45% of the attendees in Kabul schools were girls. These included the Hazara children from the poverty-stricken areas of south-west Kabul. The numbers registered increased to 6500 from 2000 in a single school. So much that the headmaster was puzzled about how to handle things. They operated in shifts with a mere 118 teachers. By 2005 5.2 million children were attending school from grades 1 to 12.  This became the new-age Afghan symbol. A symbol of a progressive nation.

This literacy program became the largest ever program in a Muslim country. 

Another success story is that of the resurgence in Media..newspapers, television and magazines.

Within a matter of 2-3 years, there were 8 TV channels which operated, 350 publications and 42 radio stations operated in the country. Tolo TV, a popular channel aired everything from exposing corruption to warlordism to Afghan versions of Candid Camera and American Idol. Several media persons were killed but that did not stop the enthusiasm of the news hungry Afghanis. 

Nation Building in Troubled Waters - I

Marshall plan is synonymous to successful nation building after a war. Patronized by Uncle Sam many times..over and over again..Germany after WWII, Japan after Hiroshima and in the recent years in the Balkans, Fiji and other relatively unknown places. I wish the non-existent god came in Bush's dreams to remind him to also focus on nation building post Afghan and Iraq invasion.

I dont understand why Clinton was impeached and Bush, Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney and Co. are not being considered. What Bill did was quite natural..what most people in the world do..he didnt screw an entire nation..just another person who happened to not be his wife and he was pulled to the court...and the other team did so much damage to their own country and screwed their people's happiness (apart from people in other countries), they ought be tried and prisoned..perhaps at Guantanamo hehehe before they close it down. How would you feel if foreign soldiers are patrolling your streets, sometimes killing innocent people and not dont care a shit of setting things right ? I am of course all for the war on terror and appreciate what NATO and US intentions..but if they ignore the fact that its their responsibility of setting things right..what the fuck..I dont simply get it.

This is Deja Vu..really..towards the end of the cold war and after the Soviets pulled out of Afghan, US simple pulled out ignoring they had to set things right there. They paid tons of money(literally) to anybody who would fight against USSR...thus came Taliban. After the war they simply packed bags and went off leaving the troubled nation in rags. A total vacuum. Somebody had to fill in. Yes, you guessed it..it was Taliban. Of course there are factions within the Afghan province (Pashtun, Hazara, Tajiks, Uzbeks etc.) that each faction controlled by its own warlord had a cooked up a perfect recipe of disaster. Dont forget, now enters the other important characters..ISI, Pak army which covertly and sometimes overtly nurtured these extremist groups with the strategic interests of using them when time comes. They are the real kingmakers. Hats off to them for that.

Circa 2003, we see a repeat. Some people dont want to learn from past mistakes. Rumsfeld had one main aim in his life..Al-Qaeda...and leave nation building to the other insignificant groups. Time and again the hopeful Afghan ruling faction (Hamid Karzai) would plead Washington to do something, but they would give a deaf ear. While Musharaff took them for a ride, they did nothing.

// more to come later..

P.S Of course things are a little different now. Will talk about it towards the later editions.

am back again

am deleting my new blog memyselfandobelix. I dont know why I created it..

no real reason lah.. so sticking back to chota chetan.

time to write more posts before I take a break after a year...

waaaaaaaaahhhhhh its been one long year... time to smell my own 'red earth and pouring rain'

new blog address

My new blogsite:   http://memyselfandobelix.blogspot.com

Its not very cryptic, to break it up the name is actually simple: me, myself and obelix . blogspot . com  :)

Thinking of using the new one for further posts and will subsequently purge the old one.

On a lighter vein

My Persian flatmates have their youngest sibling planning to study in India from Jan. Apparently their country's news papers didnt carry much about the blasts, they were virtually unaware of things happening there. This explains why they never mentioned or talked about this since the past few days. Guess they will have to postpone their sightseeing tour to Rajasthan for some more time now.

With Condi aunty visiting India tomorrow to placate people here, things will be more clear in a week or two.

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Before I could finish this post someone sent me this link ...hilarious to the core...

The gentleman with the red hat calls the recent blasts as a conspiracy hatched by the Americans, Indians and Israelis.... and what does he mean by western zionists and hindu zionists.. lol....

and 9/11 was staged by US folks.... haha nice try..but has gone kaput.. Sounds more like a bunch of housewives bickering about their neighbors

The aftermath

I've seen two kinds of people reacting to whats happened. The ones who are touched, angered, moved and frustrated with politicians and the way things are being dealt with and the rest who seem so bloody nonchalant on whats happened. Ashamed to say some of the latter are people from our own country.  I can understand my flatmates who have never asked us how things were back home inspite of the half a dozen blasts in India in the past year, but someone who is not bothered about their own country, community and tribe, somewhat drives me crazy.

A friend of mine told someone: "Did you hear about the blasts ? Its so devastating, no ? "

His friend replied: "So what. This always happens. Lets just do our project." 

He was as perplexed as I am. Is he waiting for something to happen to his near and dear ones for him to change his attitude. 

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Its about time

{ The pic shows children in Ahmedabad holding candles during a vigil held in memory of the victims in the terror attacks. The second one: the Taj hotel, one of the places where hostages were taken }

to stand up and fight, not just show resilience and simply move on with life. I don't understand why the country's political might does have any teeth. I am bloody sure, if this had happened to US or Israel what the reaction would be.

Have been glued to online news channels for a couple of days inspite of my semesters exams. It is so disturbing that I really couldnt study. Now that I am done with the exams, have all the time to follow up with whats happening.

Until the politicians stop bickering about small selfish things, execute administrative and police reforms, NOTHING is going to work out. That makes it so important for the govt. to get up and get going.

Like the pics above, some more heart rendering visuals here to get the essence of what happened..

------------- * --------------

Descent Into Chaos, by Ahmed Rashid gives a true, clear picture on why the US is losing its war against Islamist terrorists in Pak/Afghanistan. Picked this book a week ago. The author is a Pak journalist, a specialist in Pak, Afghan and other Central Asian countries. Obama's team has picked him as a consultant for foreign policies on all matters related to Pak/Afghan.

Quoting from the book, everyone knows that ISI is abetting terrorism and helping AQ, Taliban and Co. in training young motivated men in waging a war in the name of god. You ask anyone..CIA, MI6, KGB, RAW..all know what the issue is. The biggest problem is without Pak's co-operation no one, not even US can erase the camps. The book further claims that the foreign policies, defence budget are all controlled by the army ?

I dont know how much of it is true, what I am interested in is that, terrorists should meet their end soon.

Michael Crichton

He died yesterday. I've read a few books of his most notable (for me) was The Lost World. I had seen the movie before and when I picked the book by chance, I was almost sure that  I would drop it soon as I have already seen the movie before. This is one of the few books which I didnt drop till I read the last page. Its so amazing that you are so really involved in that fascinating world.

It doesn't end here...actually and I am NOT exagerrating, back in India when you drive amongst the herd of holy cows and (not so holy) bufalloes you do feel you are trying to dodge through dinosaurs..and you drive so carefully to avoid their shit flying right on your face..//remember those shots in the movie ???

This was the first time I realized how much of a difference there is between movies and novels they are made out of.  

If--

This ones from Rudyard Kipling...one of the best I poems I have ever come across..

----------

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

------

Isn't this thought-provoking ?  Wish I could read more of such poems..

F1 ends

Hamilton takes the title. Finally. This is not what I hoped for, being a Ferrari fan. Lewis was widely expected to win but since I like the underdogs, I had all the time hoped Massa would pull it off. 

If only Timo Glock could keep his 5th place. 

Am eagerly looking forward to the next season with some more new rules to be introduced, one of them being green-engines. And next time around, I will buy the cheapest tickets available in Singapore GP. Did a big BIG mistake this time by taking the ones on the stands..absolutely of no use. The real thrill is standing close to the circuit..right behind the barricades..thats where the noise and action is...I should probably put up more snaps of the singapore street circuit..hmmmm maybe when I find more time.

Choose a life

Its been a while. Everytime I have something interesting to write, I usually dont have a pen/pencil  and paper or my notebook. There is no use trying to bookmark these thoughts in your mind. By the time you have something to note it down, the thoughts would have gone stale, the charm is lost. 

Off-late I am back at my introspection-and-what-next-to-do mindset. What is it that I would want to do for the rest of my life ? I have no clear answer...as always. My horizon when it comes to such thoughts are only a few years away. What have I got to do with my life ? Does someone need a purpose to live, to make life more worthwhile ? Why even bother about such thoughts and burden your mind or just take life as it comes. These topics have been beaten up badly in our random coffee conversations at school or with rayben. But there is no convincing answer that I find. 

My newest fancy now is to somehow get involved in Airjaldi.

I hope to spend a summer working there. 

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Trainspotting is one movie which I thoroughly enjoyed. Its one of Danny Boyle's best(I haven't seen The Beach yet). Here is a quote from that movie:

" Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin? "

Doesnt this get you thinking ?  :)

 

If you liked this, watch out for Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle's latest offering. Its a movie set in India and our very own Anil Kapoor and Irfan Khan are in the cast. Releasing Nov 12th.

Reviews

Movie Reviews:

1. Pather Panchali : (Bengali) 9/10. All for its pure simplicity and simple story telling. This is the first part of the Apu Trilogy. Its a black & white, 1955 movie. If you don't like slow movies, this is not for you.

2. Mon Oncle : (French) 7/10. Another 1950s French comedy..actually a satire on mechanized life. Its perfect for a lazy sunday afternoon watch, of course with
sub-titles.

3. Rock On : (Hindi) 7/10. A recent movie of Farhan Akthar's. Once worth.

4. Close-Up : (Persian) 8/10. Another Kiriastomi's masterpiece. Watch this movie atleast for the interesting piece of ending.

5. Where Eagles Dare : (English) 8/10. WWII movie on Nazis and the Allies. If you like reading Alistair Maclean, you will enjoy the movie. Interesting plot. I had seen this movie when I was a kid.

Books:

1. Its not about the bike, Lance Armstrong - 8/10. Lovely book, again, very honest. Stuff about the cancer and the details of chemo are explained in detail.
Surely, everyones got something to learn from this book.

2. Maus, A survivor's tale by Art Spiegelman - 9/10. If you like to read more about the holocaust, this is a must pick. Its a 2-part comic book. Interestingly made. The Jews are depicted by rats for they were considered vermins(pests and nuisances), the nazis as cats since they were the predators here and the Americans as dogs for being loyal and friendly.

Plan B

What set off as an interesting research a few months ago will probably be shunted soon. Someone else has published a research paper last month using the same idea for a slightly different application. Essentially I don't see any reason to work on this. I strangely feel happy for whatever has happened.

Its not been easy talking to g. Hoping the g itself will change :) Having come from a very friendly and fun-loving environment, its been a little difficult to adapt here. I dont know why I have to feel nervous even in meetings. I have simply started avoiding any meetings. I have to start saying 'No' to things I am not comfortable with. I dont know when it would happen. Leaving a cushy well-paid job and a comfortable life, this is not what I expected here. Its about time things change. Need to take control of my life. I hope things change by this year end. Well, its actually easy. Its time to switch to Plan B. Err..I forgot.. no...wait..there is no Plan B. Have to think of one in the coming weeks.

" Calvin: I think we have got enough information now, don't you?

Hobbes: All we have is one "fact" that you made up.

Calvin: That's plenty. By the time we add an introduction, a few illustrations and a conclusion, it'll look like a graduate thesis. "

My tryst with Zen

I have been hooked onto Zen for the past week or so. Here are some titbits which may interest you.

Enso, which is 'cirlce' in Japanese is closely associated with Zen. It stands for expression of enlightenment, experience of completeness. The circle is unique for each individual each moment, just as it is unique each time one draws a circle.

For beginners like me, the book titled Essential Zen, by Kazuaki Tanashi and Tensho David Schneider is probably a good way to get introduced to this concept. Most of the stuff in this post is picked from this book.

The most important thing in Zen philosophy, the one thing which stands out clear and loud is that the emphasis laid on nowness, not the past, nor the future, its just you and the present moment. Each one of us is born every morning and die every night.There is no past baggage that you carry. You start every moment, every day afresh. Some (humorously) say that Zen is nothing but Mahayana Buddhism plus a few Chinese jokes. The word Zen (Chan in Chinese) is derived from the word dhyan in Sanskrit.

One of the best ways to appreciate Zen is by reading some of its koans (spiritual puzzles). To quote John Daido Loori :
"A koan is a non-logical statement, question or anecdote most often between a Zen master and a student from the Zen literature. A koan is a means for the student to confront the self, to bypass the logical and conceptual thinking and becomes an object of concentration. "

The first koan has many forms. It could be, "Show me your original face, the one which you had before your parents were born." or "We know the sound of two hands clapping, now, what is the sound of one hand clapping. Dont tell me, show it." :)

Here is a nice one.

Nanquan was on the mountain working. A monk came by and asked him, "What is the way to Nanquan ?" The master raised his sickle and said, "I bought this sickle for 30 cents."
The monk said, "I am not asking about the sickle you bought. What is the way that leads to Nanqan ?"
The Master said, "It feels good when I use it."



And this is my current favourite (not a koan) but a thought from Zen philosophy.

It is hard to even begin to guage, how much a complication of possessions, the notion of "my and mine" stand between us and a true, clear, liberated way of seeing the world. To live lightly on the earth, to be aware and alive, to be free of egotism, to be in contact with plants and animals, starts with simple concrete acts. The inner principle is the insight that we are interdependent-energy fields of great potential wisdom and compassion - expressed in each person as a superb mind, a handsome and complex body, and the almost magical capacity of language. To these potentials and capacities, "owning things" can add nothing of authenticity.

"Clad in the sky, with earth for a pillow".

- Gary Snyder

Book reviews

And now about books:

1. Tuesdays with Morrie: A good read. Lacks the punch tho. I had seen this book on the stands a couple of years earlier. After hearing many a people go ga-ga over this, gifted this to rash.
Wish Mitch had recorded more of Morrie's words. I mean, he should have started the Tuesday sessions much earlier. Morrie's words are truly wonderful. Lot of meaning in them. It does moist your eyes.

2. Quicksilver: I am short of superlatives to describe this book. Gets a little dragged in between but its one helluva ride, littered with treasure and am waiting to read the next volume of the Baroque Cycle.

3. Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, by BKS Iyengar. A gift from an old friend of mine. Each sentence is so loaded, makes you read those sentences again. This book will be more of the reference kind. Cant start this book with a mission to finish it off in one go. Will take a while to assimilate the essence of this book. As my friend describes, its certainly a 'Manual for Life'.

Have picked up a few books on Zen Teachings from the National Library in Singapore. 43$ for a yearly membership is not bad for the access to the books we get here. And have reserved' Herman Hesse's Siddhartha in the college library. Have read it earlier, but want to read it again.

I am somehow drawn to the Buddhist teachings off late. Maybe, I will have to give a serious try to understand their philosophy.

movie time

I have been watching quite a few movies ever since I came to this island. Here are some noteworthy ones, which I definitely recommend. I am damn sure will watch them again in the near future..

In a reverse chronological order:
1. Good Will Hunting (9/10) -> simply amazing..the best part of this movie, apart from Matt Damon is Robin Williams and Will's english girlfriend. I have suddenly started a liking towards the Brit accent.

2. 7 Years in Tibet (9/10), Brad Pitt stars here. Its about Tibet and the Dalai Lama, based on a true story. Don't miss this one. Saw this movie listed in one of my friend's fav movielist. Should thank her big time.

3. Pulp Fiction (8.5/10), seen it before. Will see it again

4. Fight Club (9/10), seen it before. Will see it again

5. La Vie en Rose (8/10). Awesome performance by Marion Cotillard. For a good review of this movie read my wifey's post
I also liked 'A good year' or was that 'A great year', Russell Crowe and his vineyard in France. This is was my first Of Marion's movies. She is an absolute stunner. Also watch the movie numbered 9 in this list if you have a crush on Marion.

6. Spring-Summer-Autumn-Winter-Spring (8/10), (A Korean movie).
Superb. About a buddhist monastery, the master and the disciple. I am truly stunned by the simplicity of the message one gets from this movie. Atleast for the locales of where this movie is shot, watch it. Will watch it again.

7. 2 Days in Paris (7/10), didn't enjoy it the first time. Have to see it again.

8. Husbands and Wives (8/10), Woody Allen's movie as always quite different and realistic, atleast the movies which deal with relationships. I watched his 'Everything you always wanted to know about sex.....to ask', but didn't quite like it. It was funny and bizarre in parts.
I think Annie Hall still scores better than these.

9. Love Me if You Dare (7.5/10). This is a French feast. Stars Guilame Canet and Marion Cotillard. The lead also happen to be an item in real life. Lucky ass.

10. Into the wild: watched in parts. Will see it completely next time around. This one too is based on a true story. I guess this is Sean Penn's movie.

And there is a score of other movies which you can afford to give them a skip.
Wanted-Kung Fu Panda-....err...well I don't even remember the names. Ya and one Japanese pink movie..all not worth talking about.
And of course a few Katrina's movies. Even though her movies are not worth remembering, she definitely is refreshing :)

Theory of Colors

Newton pierced his left eye, underneath his eye ball with a blunt needle. He had read Boyle's Experiments and Considerations Touching Colors and wanted to check how the instrument with which one observes colors, work. In this case, the human eye.

He asked his master,Daniel (Newton was supposed to be Daniel's sizar) to hold an image at different distances from his eye. He made and noted down observations with one hand as he moved the needle up and down with his other, distorting the shape of the perfectly spherical eye ball. The experiments were carried out all through the night. By dawn, Newton had been the one who knew more about the human eye than anyone else in the world.

An astronomer who did not understand his lenses would be a poor philosopher indeed. Am sure this applies to all those who are inventing something or embarking on some field of research.

For a more enriching experience, go read the book. There are more such interesting incidents.
Will try post some of the good ones.

new hairdo

Heres my new look. This was how I looked before I came to Singapore. Then, like a good school kid, I decided to cut it short. But now, I have decided to grow my hair as long as I would want to. Maybe a pony tail in a few weeks from now :)

If I only had a little more time...

Do you ever think, 'only if I had a little more time...I could have done this in a better way or could have done something else too'. You look at a number of scientists and mathematicians and see that most didnt have all the time in their world to dedicate to research and science. Inspite of the constrains they had they have done some truly remarkable things. Achievements which are unparallaled. Well lets see a few of them:

1. Gregor Mendel, father of genetics who in the middle of 1800s spent 20% of his time researching on genetics and the rest 80% he had to spend time as a priest I guess, somewhere in Germany.
2. Gottfried Leibnitz, apart from being a philosopher and a mathematician was lawyer who spent lots of time with practical affairs of the state and politics.
3. Newton's greates discoveries and inventions came around, during the years when the Royal Society (RS) was hit by plague. The theory of colors, gravity and the foundations of the Principia's (the Principia itself, of coursecame later on) all happened amongst the wars the Enlish fought the Dutch with French and sometimes when they fought French teaming up with the Dutch.
4. Rene Descartes, who had signed up for the French military had to engage himself with numerous hopeless battles and inspite of that we know what he did to the field of math.
5. The list goes on...

and I guess I have to stop complaining and do my best in whatever little time I have :)

David Berlisnki's A Tour of Calculus is book, true to its name gives an overview of calculus.This is more than just a mere description. He explains how numbers and symbols came into being with the discvoeries and inventions of great mathematicians. He brings forth calculus with all its splendor, glory and beauty. You literally fall in love with Mathematics in general and calculus in particular. With those little titbits of ancient Hindu and Arab Mathematicians and the symbols which puzzled the scientists in 16th-18th century, you get yourself to think in a different way altogether.

I did study in calculus in 11th and 12th and a little bit more during the under-grad days and conveniently forgot after the exams for two reasons:
1. there was no motivation to really appreciate the subject
2. the subsequent subjects probably didnt need them computer science has more of discrete mathematics and therefore not much was emphasised on continuity and the likes during those 4 years

Now that theres a lot of math that I have to understand and deal with, I picked up this book
to serve me as a starting point to understand math :)

If someone needs to really appreciate the beauty of math and calculus, this is a must read.

And I am back...

After the brief hiatus, now I am back to books and work. The next term starts in August.
I have started reading Quicksilver from where I had stopped last time.

My new works related to network coding at the physical layer in wireless networks. So that means more of physical layer stuff, communications and the likes..mostly electric engineering stuff. All of it is pretty new to me. So more slogging for the uphill task I have. It looks pretty interesting on how things work as far as communications work.


And my favorite new quote: Life is an improved version of a nightmare!
More about this later..

Talk by Vint Cerf at the School of Computing, NUS

Seminars keep happening every week where some noted or distinguished Fellow is invited.
Today was from Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google.
Well, if the name still doenst ring a bell, most of us have heard of TCP and the Internet. This guy is the co-designer of TCP and the internet and is sometimes referred to as the 'Father of Internet', recipient of the Turing award and Medal of Freedom amongst others.

Since he is the Chief Internet Evangelist, he says there are only around a billion people hooked on to the internet and he has got to get the other 5billion people hooked on before he kicks the bucket :)

Few noticeable things
1. Whats most irritating is that students from this part of the world are least bothered about keeping their cell phones in silent/vibrating mode. You could hear all thedifferent kinds of funky ringtones all through out the talk.
2. When this man speaks, everyone is really attentive,not out of politeness, but the sheer experience this guy brings along with himself, shows when he speaks.

Now designing the internet or TCP when a 10MB storage space costs USD1000 is not a joke. This was way back in 70s :)

Whats most interesting about this talk was the last few slides where he mentions InterPlaNetery Internet (IPN). This is something these guys are upto teaming up with Space agencies(NASA) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory for finding ways of communicating between the man-made objects in outer space through the numerous satellites we have in the astronomical space.

For instance, the Mars Rover, when it had to communicate with the a station on the earth after landing Mars was through a radio with a small antenna with at the rate of ~28kbps. Since there is a delay of as much as 20min for the data to trickle to down to planet earth, what they decided was that you instead use the larger antenna that had a higher transmissionrate but could not transmit directly to the station on earth, but instead to another floating satellite nearby. The satellite could then transmit the data that it had collected from rover to the earth's station when it comes within the hearing range.

He and a few of the world's space agencies are now trying to standardize on protocols onecan use to help reliable transmission of data across celestial objects (of course man-made with a tranceiver fitted onto it).

His plan for the weekend -> on sunday 4pm, Pasadena time, they are having an object landing on Mars and need to see if it will communicate to their station through the satellites.

Whats yours ?

Some trivia: Vint got to meet the royal family since he was honored with soem award in Japan. This was last week. The Japanese emperor is a scientist, a Taxanomist to be precise. His main interests got to do with fish and side-effects of desalination in the seas around Japan.

of colors and midterm madness

Its been a while since I wrote the last one. Post mid-sem break, things have started heating up so much that I can't imagine the last 4 weeks flew by. With the sem being so bloody short here (mid-jan to apr end) why on earth do these people even have a mid-sem break. 1 week completely off...phew..
I have cut down on my jogging...played soccer once for 2.5 hrs with a persian gang...and never looked back...never played again that is... :)

having fared pretty well in the modules that I have taken, feels a li'l confident to take on these in the finals... machine learning was one module which is scary..not because it is difficult but because there are far too many things clubbed under one subject called 'decision making technologies'.huh...to list out the stuff covered under this banner.. linear/non-linear prog, genetic algos, neural net, svm, decision trees etc.

Holi 2008.

We somehow managed to squeeze some out of our busy schedule to play holi.. and we had a blast or what..you can find the snaps here.
it had rained all day...but it should have rained, it did not when we were playing. with the outfield being so slushy, it was a new setting for folks to experiment..there is some bhojpuri society which had organized this ( i thought only gujju societies are the ones which organizes events). There were quite a few ppl from other countries..they sure did enjoy this event but they weren't sure why do people still throw colors at each other...well..I dont have an explanation for that..rather..all i know is..thik hai..holi hai to..range se khelne ka..bas..usse zyada poochna mat..why bother. missed the bhang tho.

one month to go before I shift to the new house...the problem is...i still haven't found one.will have to go full steam now..so that I am not in a crunch situation towards the end of this month..cant afford to hunt around for places when I should be busy studying...

Second Life

The grounds here look fabulous and thats the reason for me take up jogging again. Feels good to jog under the flood lights.















Another view of the ground in the evening...well actually on a weekend.

Of languages and friends

Have taken Natural Language Processing as one of my modules. Got to do a lot with english and its grammar. I can speak pretty good english but I never knew how pathetic I am in grammar. I cant differentiate between a preposition and a interjection. Surprisingly most girls who speak english are better at grammar than I am. fux...what an insult...

_M has been a good find as a friend for me. The conversations revolve around philosophy, romance..with Maths that is and of course with little incidents and titbits we know about famous mathematicians and scientists we know. The conversations with him and others in the lab is very stimulating. With all PhDs sitting around me, this is a reason enough for me to continue studying here.

Now that I have mentioned one of my new found friends her..let me make a brief mention of friends and acquaintces.

S is from what is known as the land of Aryans is doing the course with me. A very pleasant chap who considers me as his good friend for I correct his english :) and for me, he is a good source of information about his country which I am fascinated about as much as people from there.
His sibling Y is just an acquaintance seem to be a pleasant person too and lies somewhere between strange and weird. J is the smarter of the two tho and seems to have multitudes of talent. Both of them might end up sharing the same roof as I would.

My roomie A, a PhD student here gives me some information about his state and about chemistry :) I had never found a person who works on chemistry before.
And of course there are other who research on Maths, Physics and Sociology..and yeah I am jealous of them for the subjects as fascinating as they are working on. And then come the few dozen students in my department who seem to know nothing beyond computers and the likes.

The rest are not worth mentioning :)

Madness all around..

I am not sure what should I worry about the most..
home loan
my studies
exams/assignments
research
a different flat to move in
haniya coming here - logistics involved

Its madness all around
If tooth fairy did exist, I am ready to give a few teeth of mine for some money :)

Obscured with clouds

The state of my affairs currently seem to be much like the photo shown above. Not sure if these clouds are going to still, pause and muse at my life or just pass on. Unsure of what the future holds for me, all I can do is just gaze at the beauty of the present.

Its quite common to see such a view of the sky. Shot this on our way to LasVegas from CA - Sep 2007.

Theory of Colors

Newton pierced his left eye, underneath his eye ball with a blunt needle. He had read Boyle's Experiments and Considerations Touching Colors and wanted to check how the instrument with which one observes colors, work. In this case, the human eye. He asked his master,Daniel (Newton was supposed to be Daniel's sizar) to hold an image at different distances from his eye. He made and noted down observations as he moved the needle up and down, distorting the shape of the perfectly spherical eye ball. The experiments were carried out all through the night. By dawn, Newton had been the one who knew more about the human eye than anyone else in the world.

An astronomer who did not understand his lenses would be a poor philosopher indeed. Am sure this applies to all those who are inventing something or embarking on some field of research.

This post is just a teaser. For a more enriching experience, go read.

Readings...

Invocation

State your intentions, Muse I know you are there.
Dead bards who pined for you have said
You're bright as a flame, but fickle as the air.
My pen and I, submerged in liquid shade
Much dark can spread, on days and over reams
But without you, no radiance can shed.
Why rustle in the dark, when fledged with fire ?
Craze the night with frails of light. Reave
Your turbid shroud. Bestow what I require.

But you're not in the dark. I do believe
I swim, like squid, in clouds of my own make,
To you,offensive. To us both, opaque.
What's constituted so, only a pen
Can penetrate. I have one herel let's go.

From Neal Stephenson's first volume of the Baroque Cycle.

Check this out if you have not read it. It's a great read.

Titbits

Learnt a few Afghani words from The Kiterunner

Tashakor: Thank You
Kastha: Tired
Zendagi Migzara : Life goes on
Dostet Darum: I love you

-*--*--*--*--*--*-

How many timezones does China have ?
Inspite of being such a huge country, it apparently has only 1 timezone.

Dreams and Reality

After much deliberation, I've decided to have a blog of my own and keep it updated.

Today is V-day and has been quite hectic. Me being busy has got nothing to do with V-day.My first assignment submission, 2 classes and to make matters worse, I am down with severe cold, headache and throat irritation. Visted the clinic at the University.

I am strangely reminded of what I always wanted to do in life and how my life should ideally be. These thoughts have occurred, maybe because someone asked me if I really wanted to work, why did I quit my job and come here to study.

It really boils down to: what my life should be in an ideal scenario. No, its not easy life, travel and fun and a little bit of work..its not having a family and most definitely not having children and having loads of money.

I have always wanted to struggle(not to interpret this as wanting to be unsuccessful). My answer actually has been this:
Always on the move, a little bit tensed, doing more things that I can possibly imagine I can do, a little bit of perspiration....frantic calls from my stock broker reporting of a possible market crash..trying to check if the flowers that I had ordered reached my gf/wife or not...all this when I am rushing for a meeting where I need to present a business plan and not realizing this that I am already late.

I am not doing business, neither do I work for some corporate and nor did anyone call me, but I did experience most of it today...running around for some reason or the other..being busy all the time and truly, I've enjoyed the day thoroughly.

The essence of my being, has been struggle. It has never been struggle for survival. Its struggle to excel, to go beyond. I've always enjoyed it 'cos the fruits have always been fascinatingly sweet.

Well, now none of this answers my friends' question of why did I quit my job if I wanted to work again. I really have a lot to write, but will cut it short...will answer that later on..some other day, some other time.

The Kite Runner...almost done..another 50 pages or so left.
The flowers have reached my wife ,thanks to my friend who ordered it in blr.
Pops got transferred to Mysore.
Assignment1 of cs5233 submitted.

Those who do not have a mobile, are immobile.
- Confucious
So reads a poster in my college.