Quantemplating 0

Four pegs of Cognac, four "smart" humans and five hours of pondering fail to agree on the definition of smart, let alone understanding the problems you should think about.Solutions to these problems are still a distant dream.

Life is just one damned thing after another.

-Elbert Hubbard

Inglourious Basterds

Watched this movie yesterday. A definite thumbs up and would rate it 4/5.

Its not as good as Pulp Fiction, but its a pretty good watch. I found it a little hard to understand Brad Pitt's accent in the beginning, but what the heck..half the movie is in French and German and subtitles help. 

Its about two independent plots to blow up hitler and some of his key men who work in the SS and Gestapo. One being set up by the Basterds(who land in France before the Allies came through Normandy) and the other by Melanie Laurent (Shosanna). Melanie Laurent is refreshingly beautiful, esp in the red dress she wears for Operation Kino. The shootouts, gunfights, flying bullets and blood splashing scenes are all wonderfully choreographed and stylistic in the usual Quentin Tarantino's fashion. Also watch out for Christoph Waltz who has done a damn good job as the Nazi officer who is nicknamed 'The Jew-Hunter' in the movie and is a central character.

I wouldn't mind watching it again. If you are watching it for the first time, it has to be in the theaters.

Budhdhism

All compounded things are impermanent

All emotions are pain

All things have no inherent existence

Nirvana is beyond concepts

What makes you not a Buddhist is an easy to read book which highlights some of the basic tenets of Buddhism. The above four points are, he says in essence sums up what Buddhism is all about. I somehow disagree with the second point. I would have rather have it to be All emotions are ephemeral or All feelings are ephemeral. Of course each sentence has its own interpretation.

Man is ever greedy. One always seeks for a better state of bliss and happiness, joy and meaning in life. If one realizes that even these states are impermanent, he can continue to be in a state of infinite happiness. For the purpose of practicality, one doesn't need to cease to live the way he has been living. Instead, if one leads his life being aware of the point that all compounded things are impermanent, it's a much easier life to live.

Often, each day begins with so much baggage in one's mind. He often forgets that the mind which is carrying so much of unwanted thoughts is finally what brings him down. The world around is our own creation. Let go of the mindless thoughts to sense the true meaning of being free.

Because of our lack of mindfulness, our creations are transformed into something solid and real, and we become ever more enangled. When you fully realize , not just intellectually that everything is just your own creation, you will be free.

Violin lessons

Its been a few weeks into my Violin lessons. I've got the fingerings right so far. Unlike many other string instruments such as guitar and veena, violin doesn't have frets which in some sense demarcates the boundaries between notes. The distance between ri and ga can vary. Only if you have a good ear for music, will you be able to figure that soon enough.

My teacher's pretty strict about one thing. She will not proceed to the next lesson unless she is satisfied with the performance in previous lessons. This is pretty good...but the problem is that she insists on knowing the lessons by heart. That does take a tremendous amount of practice. Of course, there is no point mugging those notes like the way I mugged tables during school days. These notes get (pretty much) permanently embedded into your brains when you practice and practice. Perhaps this is her way to get her students to practice as much as possible. As she puts it, knowing where to place the fingers right, practice, an ear for music and bhava (feeling) constitute in being a good Carnatic Violinist. She gives a very good example of how important bhava is. I should write it in a separate post.

After a month of classes, I am still stuck in the 1st two lessons. And tomorrow is again a test for me. Aaahh I know I can't clear. The second lesson is still not in my mind.

Modeling zombies

I am wondering why anyone would want to do this, unless of course someone wants to practice a few modeling excercises. They could be better off modeling something more useful and worthwhile.

Here is the link for this paper. Picked this piece of news off slashdot.

fiddle-a-doodle-do

I had my first violin class yesterday. Bought a fairly cheap one too (Chinese made), but its more than enough for beginngers. The teacher is an old lady who specializes in Carnatic music (Vocals and Violin). A lot of information on the Carnatic music went over my head. Should be able to deal with this better in the coming days. When I am ready to play one of the raagas or tunes, should be able to post that piece.

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Books on Probability Theory

I am going ground-up to get my basics right with probability. One of the free online book I came across seems to be a good find."Introduction to Probability ", by Charles Grinstead and Laurie Shell. Check this link for more resources.

Q & A

A couple of weeks earlier, I was held up in giving so many interviews..so many that:

first, I have lost count, second, I did manage to screw my schedule so badly that some of my interviews overlapped.

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Here are some of the questions I faced by MS, Netapp, Juniper, Akamai and Movik.

Data structures/Algorithms

1. In a singly linked list of integers, find out two numbers which sum upto a given third number..

and yes, take care of time complexity..

Ans1. traverse the list from both the ends, O(n/2)

2. How do you check if a single linked list can be merged ???

Ans1. ?? check for loops/cycles ??,

3. In a question paper, you need to answer just enough questions so as to minimize the time spent in answering and getting jsut enought marks so that you can pass the paper. How will your strategy be ?

Ans1. This is an open-ended question. Its basically an optimization problem, LPP...define the constraints, you have the objective function...where..blah blah blah..

4. System Calls

5. Implement sizeof

Networks

1. Purpose of IP, TCP, ATM

2. Life cycle of a packet

3. Questions on MTU, ping, traceroute

4. General questions on performance, scalability w.r.t routers

5. TCP - slowstart, congestion control { this since my thesis is based on congestion control }

6. UDP, port numbers, segmentation, reassembly

7. Questions on DNS lookups

Puzzles

1. A farmer has a 20 pound stone which he uses to measure his grains. His friend borrows it to to use it for a day. When he returns it the stone is broken into 4 pieces. The farmer who lent it is troubled wondering how can me measure his grains now. The other farmer consoles him saying, "Not to worry, you can use these four smaller stones to determine the weight from 1 to 100 pounds". What are the individual weights of the stones ?

2. 25 horses, 5 tracks, find out the least number of races that can be conducted to determine the fastest three horses. You have no stopwatch to clock the timings.

Ans. Should be around 7-8 rounds of races...The solution can be worked..Its fairly easy

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Some questions were really..banal. The only interesting ones were the puzzles and the ones related to datastructures. But none of the interviews were really enjoyable. The last time I enjoyed the entire interview process was the last time I was interviewed by Netapp in 2003. This time around, in many cases, the interviewers seemed bored and uninterested. Most questions were to easy to answer. There were some real real turn-offs as well. Unfortunately you have to go through this process whether you like it or not.

Was scheduled for telephonic interviews with Google and Citrix....but never happened. They rescheduled the interview slot..and again they didn't call up. And the third time they tried to schedule a call, I was already on board. I'm sure the interview with Google would have atleast been a good experience.

The quote below is from Isaac Newton, by James Gleick.

"I don't know what I may seem to the world, but as to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

- Isaac Newton

While the fact is that Newton has never played as a boy or a grownup on the seashore. He only understood the sea by abstraction and computation. Such was the genius in him and such is the power of the tool(calculus) he developed.

This books seems to be a good read.

Back to work

It’s been a while. Back with my ex-employer. Fortunately there are still a number of familiar faces. That doesn’t make feel all that new to this place.

The HR lady was walking me through the new-hire formalities. She told me, “I know you would be new to this place, you might feel lonely and left out, but don’t worry….we have..this and that and this as well…”. I said, “Relax, I am an ex-employee of this company. I have been here for four years before.” Yippeee I like the looks on the faces when I take them by complete surprise. I was quick to correct some of the information on the VPs they put in the ‘intro to the company’ documents.

And then there were a paragraph on the company’s soccer team which is active and regular. I smiled reading that. The last time we played a match was the year I left. And following that was in-house rock band…and again I thought, the last time we really had a band of our own and played a nice jig was just before the year I left.

C’mon whom are you trying to fool.

Lot of fresh grads are being hired…works best for the company, cost wise. All of them including me are bundled into temp cubicles for now (space crunch here). My cube’s surrounded by constant chit chats of freshers around..girls giggling…everyone wishing each other ‘happy friendship day’ early this week. Discovering their first days of earning. I’m sure it must be fun for them.

Coming to adults (late 20s and above), they have lost enthu. They so much get sucked up in the corporate life, shuttling between home and office. Sadly, I see so many around being stuck in the rat race I don’t want to be a part of. It can be worse or better (lemme be politically correct J ) if you are married and definitely _____ if you have a kid. It’s not about this place. Any work place you see here or outside India, it’s pretty much the same. Humans everywhere have the same vices and virtues. They are only a shade apart.

There’s so much more to write and share. Falling short of time. Besides my new apartment’s not been setup completely. Broadband not yet available at home and that makes me feel disconnected. I still have to start experimenting with my Canon. More to come later…perhaps on a different blog.

Picked this from my friends blog.

Beware of having an over concern for money or position or glory. Some day you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are.
-Rudyard Kipling in an address at McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Now, that I have loads of time on my side, I have to catch up for all the time I didn't spend reading non-technical books.

I hope to read this next: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Here is a link for that from MIT's website.

Redistribution of wealth

This is really an interesting perspective on redistribution of wealth.
Check it out at http://the-post.net/

back home

Having finished my Masters, am back to my hometown, after a brief interlude in Cambodia.

I owe a BIG thanks to my family and friends who have helped in some way or the other during my short stay in sg. I have left NUS with a lot of warm memories. Made a lot of friends with whom I hope to maintain long lasting relationships. Specially some of my lab mates, my flatmates, folks from the Physics, Pharmacy, FASS departments made my life quite interesting.

If there is anything that I would regret is that I traveled so less. The only place noteworthy that I visited was Cambodia. Need a separate post to cover my Cambodia trip, which I hopefully will in this week itself.

Right now, enjoying the laid back life. Although things still remain uncertain on what I would be doing next, for now, I don't really care.

I need to stop being lazy and write more and read more. Looking forward to the Krav Maga training session this weekend.

Secret to get best help from cust. service

I have been a die-hard fan of TED ever since I saw one of the talks. One of the most informative, jaw-dropping and visually captivating is the one by Hans Rosling on Debunking the myths on...
Watch it to believe me...

Now TED has a blog in which, Hans Rosling, in one of his interviews shares this little secret. Here is the link of the complete interview.

"In fact, I have the secret to how to get the best help immediately from any customer service, like the phone company or the bank or anything. I have the best line, it always works. You want to know what it is? When I call, I say, “Hello. I am Hans Rosling and I have made a mistake.” People immediately want to help you when you put it this way. You get much more when you don’t offend people."

This is so true. Even though this is just a feel good factor, I'm sure, it will work. Next time around when I call up some customer care, I will try this out.

On a side note, after years of speaking to customer care execs. located somewhere in India with fake US accents, I landed up speaking to someone who is actually an American situated in the US who helped me postpone my flight tickets. Expedia strangely does not allow you to do this online, but a pleasant change nevertheless.

Restless in Sg

My patience is being tested. Due to some goofup I am not where I should have been now. Should have been enjoying my time in Siem Reap. All that and my trip back home has been postponed by two weeks. Barca won the finals defeating ManU. When Thierry Henry said, the last 5 minutes of the match were his longest in his life, I do understand. Many of us do as we would have been through similar situations in life before. Although I don't have as much stakes as he had but as far as I can remember, the next two weeks are going to be the longest two weeks for me in recent times. Its gonna be a bloody long wait.. :(

Back to TinyOS programming helping a l-mate in getting some results.Cant avoid..I can't even head back home without finishing it. Work wise there is nothing much to be done. I still need to finish my application process for my PhD at NUS which I am doing it so unwillingly. Awaiting results from two more Unis. I know its gonna be negative, but even having a 1% hope is sometimes bad when you are sure you can't make it. Even if its bad news, it should come soon...atleast some uncertainities will come to an end. Worst case, I will have to put up with a job on a more permanent basis. Not a bad choice esp. when its gonna give me a more relaxed life...and to add, there will be more joy when I buy an Enfield Bullet. My D-SLR is already waiting for me and so are many road trips which I have been missing for the past 18 months. I can think of a part-time PhD sometime later from II*c or I**-B.


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Have been shopping off late..like crazy for my parents..her parents, her friends...aargh..and when I am tired,we go catch a movie at a nearby cinema. I have probably seen 4-6 in the last 2-3 weekends. The best has been a German movie I watched yest., 'The Baader-Meinhof Complex'. This movie deserves a separate post. The rest{Angels and.., Terminater Salvation, A Night at ..., X-Men, 99 } really dont deserve much attention.

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The countdown begins. My thesis defense is on next Tue. That means I can safely go for a vacation on 31st and reach home on 4th June. I don't really whats next in store for me. All I am looking forward to is a good break. Before that I have around a dozen things to complete..and these dozen things seem like a zillion items in hand and I still hope to have a tattoo on my arm.

Another 3 weeks and I will be off to my hometown. Lived half a dream and I am already feeling nostalgic for heading back. Also feeling good that I am almost about to graduate. More confident, more optimistic about my work, studies and life in general. Its been a jolly good ride so far, though on hindsight, I see that some things could have been done better..but I guess its ok..
Future is still uncertain, but what I am looking forward to the most, is my trip to Angor Wat.
If my thesis defense doesnt happen before May30th, I am doomed. I will have to cancel this trip and perhaps postpone my flight tickets to b'lore as well. Keeping my fingers crossed on the dates.
Until then I have to finish writing my report and get ready for the presentation.

The great Indian dance of democracy

With results due next week, the great dance of democracy comes to an end for this term. I haven't voted this time and the three-four other times that I could have. I've voted only once in my life. Not that I am proud or ashamed of this. I am not taking any side of this debate.

Post Mumbai 26/11, all of them came on the streets bashing security lapses and sleeping politicians, rightly so. The youth suddenly realized how important it is to vote and make a difference, however small it may be.

Percentage of people voted in Mumbai 2004 elections: ~49%

Percentage of people voted in Mumbai 2009 elections: ~44%
Percentage of people voted in Bangalore 2009 elections: ~46%

The people who will rule in Mumbai and B'lore clearly belong to the minority.

Here is a funny piece: reasons why people didn't vote in the South Mumbai constituency
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Courtesy rediff:


Here are 10 reasons why South Mumbai didn't come out to vote on April 30.

* Clashed with Salsa class
* Election whites not drycleaned
* No candidate a hottie
* Tony Jethmalani contesting from suburbs. Sigh
* No valet parking at booth
* Spotted servant in queue ahead of us
* Driver not come
* Elections over dude, Obama won!
* No party tackling real issues, eg, reduce Goly Gym rates.
* No home delivery!
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And some more genuine ones to add:
1. Name not found in the electoral list
2. Heat waves
3. Fear of Maoists (terror attacks)
4. There is no 'None of the above' option in voting machine
5. All the contestants in my constituents are criminals and scoundrels

Any other reason apart from these are mere excuses. Lovely..urban apathy at its best..I'm sure some of the reasons quoted above are true and wont be much different for B'lore as well. If behenji (Mayawati) comes to power which of course I DO NOT want, whom do you blame. Of course a big part of the blame is on ourselves. I guess we all deserve it to some extent. Now, how do you change all this ?

Clearly, voting alone wont be the solution. I strongly think, by mere voting things are clearly not going to change a lot. But, abstaining from voting wont do any difference at all. I guess voting is important. It is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for better governance. When you have such a rotten system to govern such a complex society, we need an equally strong and influential force to counter it, let alone change it. The youth which has a clear thinking have to join politics at all levels, in all ranks and file of the system. There has to be a movement, right from the Panchayat Rajs upto national level politics. Education at all levels is needed and education does not merely mean learning how to read and write. Whats more important is to question, analyze and think and ACT. Whoever comes to power, should implement the following changes, that will bring in people's confidence in the system:

1. Police reforms
2. Administrative reforms
3. Judicial reforms

Of course, all these institutions, Police, Administration and judiciary have to decoupled from the politicians. They are meant to serve the society and not the ruling parties. They don't have to be accountable to the ruling party, but to the society like the politicians should be.

The problem is also with the way our society is, our upbringing is. The Indian society is a highly individualistic society. What comes first is 'me', 'I', then the family, then friends, society, state and yeah if there is some space left, then the country. Right from pre-nursery, kids are taught to study, be competitive, get good grades. Being part and winning the rat race is inculcated right from childhood. Here lies the basis of building the process of 'me-first', 'me-first' attitude. We all grow up being a selfish lot. We keep our houses clean and wont bother to keep our streets and neighbourhoods clean. Who the fuck cares as long as 'I' am clean and happy and am getting what I want. This is the attitude of a typical Indian. Everything else comes later. Even when it comes to issues people face in the country, everything is localized, though people across the breadth and length of the country faces similar issues. Water, bad governance, corruption, safety -- all these problems are not restricted to a single place or state. Its sprinkled all over the country. The problem, as Arun Shourie puts it, there is no one who can clearly channelize these issues to be fought on a national level. There are no national movements. There is no leader who can do this, who can weave a common thread to bind the different communities across the entire nation. The only leaders who can do it were during the pre-independence era - M.K Gandhi, Sardar Patel are no more. Most of the leaders today thrive on caste politics and have myopic view on the country's future. Though, there are some(Arun Jaitely, Kapil Sibal, Arun Shourie) who have amazing clarity in thought, a handful cant make much of a difference. Obviously these people are right at the top, there is no way such clarity is percolates right down to the bottom, to the leaf nodes. Of course, there is no magic potion to to solve this, but a nation, we need to think about this seriously and start executing plans. Change our archaic British-raj laws, have a more practical system in place. While the British have moved on changing the rules and laws in their country, we still are stuck in old-era style of governance. We should perhaps learn a few lessons on administration and accountability from Singapore.

But, I do see things change, however gradual it may be. India, being a democratic country also ranks pretty good in freedom index and in freedom of press. It may not be as high as US is, but its much much better than many nations such as some Islamist and communist countries, where hardly have any say in the affairs of the country. We should make good use of it to make things happen. As I write this, there is a TV show going on hosted by one of India's leading news channel, where some politicians are debating on low voters turnout and if voting has to be made compulsory. Someone from the audience said, "All the politicians out there are scoundrels. Why should I vote ?". One of the politicians commented on that saying, "If you are not happy with the current breed of politicians, please, please assert your anger." People still are not feeling the pinch of bad governance. I'm sure once the tolerance levels are breached, there is going to be a massive movement. I am waiting for that.

Lost, but not lost

To lose is no disgrace
Especially if you have fought the good fight

Given it your all ...
every ounce of your strength, passion, belief

And have not been scared to wounded, to be hurt,
to be dragged through the mud

Because in the end you may just find ...

That you have not lost ...


Courtesy: Tehelka

Movie Compilation

I really cant recollect all the good movies I have watched, but here is a short list of some really good international cinema. I need a separate post to write more about these movies, which I will in a week or two.

Iranian
1. Children of Heaven (4.5/5)
2. Close-up (4/5)
3. The White Balloon (4.5/5)
4. Persepolis (4.5/5)
5. Taste of Cherry (4/5)
6. Through the Olive Trees
7. The Colors of Paradise
8. Each Night of Solitude (3.5/5)

2. Korean
1. My Sassy Girl (4/5)
2. Spring Summer Autumn Winter and Spring (4.5/5)
3. Windstruck (3.75/5)

3. Japanese
1. Letters from Iwo-Jima (4.25/5)
2. Rashomon (4/5)
3. Ikuru

4. French
1. Amelie (4/5)
2. Delicatessan (4.5/5)
3. Trois (3.75/5)
4. Mon Unkle (4/5)
5. 13 (4.5/5)
6. Trois Couleurs (3.5/5)
7. La Mome (4.5/5)
8. Love me if you dare (Jeux d'enfants) (4/5)

Spanish
1. Ton of luck (3.5/5)

Iceland
1. Coldtrail (4.75/5)

Italian
1. The Bicycle Thief (4.5/5)
2. Big Deal on Madonna Street (4.75/5)

Portuguese/Brazilian
1. City of God (Cidade de Deus ?? ) (4.5/5)

strangled by python

I wrote 20 short python programs yesterday. It was wonderful. Perl, I am leaving you.


And this is the reason why I am off for an interview tomorrow.
May the force be with you.

Time well spent

Fri night, we were at the Bora Bora beach bar to celebrate the Persian New Year, Nowruz Had good fun. The best part was their music and the way the Persian ladies dance to the tunes. They are so elegant and full of grace. Lovely. Besides, they are one of the most prettiest races I've seen so far..The pairs don't really touch each other..seemed like a non-contact sport..hehe..bad joke..but was definitely worth watching..Those guys hardly drink..a couple of them smoke..It was quite sober in that sense. I had tequila for the first time in Sg. Me and rash were the only foreigners there..but never felt out of place, thanks tot Y and S.

The party was to begin at 10. We reached there at 11.30 and still most of them hadn't come.
Lesson learnt: Iranian parties...don't expect everyone to be punctual.. Hung around till 3 before a funny cabbie drove us back home. He mistook me to be a burmese..*english burmese* to be precise...haha..Reminded me of the US immigration officier..who asked me to stay back for a secondary check as they thought I looked like a Mexican convict they were looking for..heck..WTF.. I had visited the US atleast half a dozen times before and the last time being barely 6 months ago and never did I have any problems in immigration. There was no harassment so to speak, but just that you have to spend more time waiting for the clearance after a 24-hr long flight is not a interesting experience.
Coming back to the point...yeah...great fun..time well spent.

Sat night, had been to try out hookahs at the Arab street. I wished I had gone to this place earlier. Great time again..with some old friends..followed by late night south indian dishes..yum yum..great music, again it was quite similar to the one we had danced to the night before. Have to cut down on the cigarettes...I can almost feel the dirt in my lungs.
I need to visit this place again before I leave.

Today: lazed around so far..S's bday today, bought a gift for him..and still deciding if we should go watch 'The Reader'

Overall, a great weekend..after spending most weekends in the past 2 months in the lab, this one has given me a much needed break..

Aargh..Monday arrives tomorrow..need to get some good sleep tonight.

Departures

Movie Review
Title: Departures (Japanese)
Genre: Drama
Rating: 4/5

I didn't know this one had won an Oscar in the best foreign film category. Its a lovely movie.
The male protagonist lands up in a job which deals with performing post-death rituals such as cleaning the deceased, changing their clothes, dressing them up..basically preparing them for their final journey after death. The process is itself quite elaborately shown in the movie. A lot of human emotions about death and the profession he is in is what is highlighted in this movie.
The movie has its poignant moments which can make one's eyes moist.

No wonder, the girl on my left, the girl on my right (which is my wife) and a girl behind were all *sob sob*

I heard this movie took 10 years in the making and the hero's wife Ryoko-Hirosue(a very cute girl), the Japanese actress is a pop singer as well.

Remembering Don Quixote

"The moment their arms spun freely in our air, they were doomed -- for Man has earned his right to hold this planet against all comers, by virtue of occasionally producing someone totally batshit insane"
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Those who are familiar with Don Quixote de la Mancha would relate to this cartoon strip :)

Brings back my childhood memories. Its so refreshing. I was around eight when I first (and only time) read Don Quixote de la Mancha, by Cervantes.
The book and that whimsical character Don Quixote made me laugh like crazy.

For those who can't make sense out of those cartoon, there is an incident in that book where Don Quixote mistakes the windmills to be knights and charges at them only to bang against the knight (windmill) and they fall apart..thats he and his horse..or was it a donkey..don't remember..

Its a must read book..pick it up at leisure time.. The original piece is in Spanish..so there are different translations available..its good to review the translated piece before you buy one.

And the top 10 things I miss....

Things that I miss back at home

* road trips and long drives in my swift
* office parties, pranks, fun, beer bash and gossips at office
* late night get togethers at home
* lazy sunday afternoon naps
* mom's food
* half-yearly trips to US {the awesome weather in California, visit to local temples ;) }
* cushy comfortable life (financially)
* festivals/celebrations
* smokes and tqila, honey.*ts and life without a tv
* 24hour sat radio/music
* theatre fests, music festivals, dance fests
* chaotic traffic, cows on the roads
* life's little uncertainties...like there are not enough now.. :)

time to get back to work..

slumdog fever: waiting to get over with it

Am so tired of seeing so much news of slumdog..waiting to catchup with something new. Its like watching a reality show... A couple of weeks back it was about Obama --- when does he get up, what do his kids do..their hunt for a dog..and a dog's name..what do his aides brief him on...blah blah blah..
Thankfully the election is over. He won it..and just when you thought it is over...all I see is slumdog smashed all over TV screens and online print.

I watched the movie for the director. The movie was just ok.. the background score is great and so is the cinematography. Screenplay..hmmm well..above average. The movie does not deserve the hype it got and most certainly not the number of Oscars it won. If it were an Indian-made movie, it would have never won it. As Danny Boyle said..its after all a British movie...haha
Danny has done better movies (Trainspotting) and Rehman has composed better scores. Ask any Indian, its very unlikely they would disagree with me.

The kids acting were the best in the movie..Freida Pinto and Dev do get so much of undeserved attention, fame and adulation they are getting. Certainly not worth it. Whats shocking is Freida getting a role in Woody Allen's next..
This is what I call 'being in the right place at the right time'. You don't have to always be a genius to be a part of the best of the world.

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Movie Review: Amelie (7/10)
Links: IMDB and Wiki
Speaking of movies, I watched Amelie last week in my lab. Lovely movie. You have to be in the right mood to watch it.
* its about a fun loving girl (Amelie) and about her life
* a light movie with loads of comedy and romance
* lovely background score and music.. (my mobile ringtone is from this movie)
* Audrey Tautou who plays Amelie's character is very adorable
* you feel life can be so good when you are done watching. You end up walking with a spring in your step :)

How does it feel

to LOSE a match to a girl. Actually, not too bad. I am not all that egoistic..but what if the girl is actually pregnant..heavily pregnant and still you lose the match. Aaaahhhh feel like hanging my head in shame.
I *used* to play well. Have played for my college before. Am out of touch for the past few years. After much deliberation I decided a couple of days back to give it a try. A friend of mine who is in her 8th month still has an amazing enthu for sports. I lost the match..3-0. She hardly had to move..and I had to jump around, round and round, here and there, up and down to smash it up and get even close to her quality of the game.
My bruised ego needs to be nursed...

Today's matches were better..thoroughly enjoyed it. Drew a set each with her and won against someone else. Ne to play more though. Feels good when you sweat it out. Its good to know your physical limitations.

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La Vie En Rose

One of my favorite songs... english version of La Vie En Rose (Life in Pink)
{ On a side note, the French movie bearing the same title is a must watch. Marion Cotillard won an Oscar for her stellar and scintillating performance. Non, je ne regrette rien, is another lovely track. Look out for the powerful voice of Edit Piaf }

Here is the lyrics for the title song.

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Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose

When you kiss me heaven sighs
And tho I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose

When you press me to your heart
Im in a world apart
A world where roses bloom

And when you speak...angels sing from above
Everyday words seem...to turn into love songs

Give your heart and soul to me
And life will always be
La vie en rose
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kite flying festival

talk about writing posts and publishing it in burstmode..I still have two posts to write, but they can wait..hmm will have to space these out..they can wait for a few days..

Had been to the kite flying festival/competition today. Its been almost a decade and a half since I've flown kites. After a few tries, got a hang of it. Some pics above, more on my album in Facebook.

ki haal hai bhai...

Its been bloody busy for the past month. The new sensor network testbed is coming up after so much of delay. I have started with my dissertation but am spending very little time on that.
With that my first brush with kernel programming has begun. Felt pretty good finishing one small part of my dissertation. Added a logging facility to ip-dummynet in FreeBSD. Still a long way to go tho.

With all these happening, I somehow managed to find time to send around 5 applications for PhD at different Universities in Europe. Getting an admit in NUS seems relatively simple but somehow not to keen on continuing here. My Profs still need to send in reccos. Results should start pouring in by Mar end. If I don't make it to any of the places, will have to find a job :(
My contract ends April and my dissertation will last till May/June, so I still have to find a way to survive till then.

The annual Career Fair at NUS was a joke (well..except for all the free goodies everyone got). Credit Suisse had announced a loss of 8bn USD the previous day and I was wondering why are they wasting money in putting up a stall here..My friend who works there mentioned he might not be on board after dec '08. Most of the companies are looking for interns..a cheap way out..haha.. Lucas Arts seemed to have an opening which suited my profile. well..only in terms of programming skills they need.. But with the downturn still around I cant figure why would they take me instead of trying out some locals first. After all I am still a foreigner in this land. So not much of hopes on that front either..

NetApp, where I worked before has laid off around 60 in B'lore and 5% worldwide. Its ironic that it has been voted for the top spot in 'Best Places to Work For' list for this year, dethroning Google which is now in 4th spot.

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Watched Slumdog Millionaire. Its actually pretty good, tho a little below my expectations. Screenplay and music are the best parts of the movie. The kids acted better than their grown-up versions of the characters. Would certainly give it a rating of 4/5.
The movie's OST is absolutely wonderful, especially Latika's Theme..music, sometimes can be hauntingly melodious..this one too keeps lingering in your mind long after you are done with it.

comics

I cant help laughing at this one. So bloody true.

Arguments should reveal the truth, not create one.

  - Edward de Bono