Fathom thy eccentricities

Addictions

2012-01-16T17:56:00.009-06:00

Not all addictions are bad. I have had many harmless addictions in life through time. When I was a child I had addictions then. I was addicted to story and comic books. I was addicted to collecting matches, stamps (philately) and coins (numismatics). It was the golden time. My friendship with other kids at that age was unfettered and unrestrained by any judgement of religion, color, creed, social status or wealth of the families involved, much to the dismay of the elders who would always be quick to tell us what kind of friendship is appropriate and what is not. No doubt these advice over time have a tendency to color our perceptions but even that age we were totally and happily corruptible. The promise or the premise of an exchange of comic and story books, stamps or coins used to be a good enough incentive to disregard everything being taught to us, to be able to gain a quick entry into the privileged club of my friendship circle.

Alas, childhood doesn't last forever. Those stamps and coins are still stored back at home somewhere stashed in some dark cupboard. The matches were not that lucky though!

Now as an adult I have different kind of addictions. I am addicted to news. Every morning I want to find out as to what is going on the rest of the world. In the evenings I want to go to coffee shops and read. On the weekend I want to meet people and go places, see things and live life. But all these addictions are not enough to satisfy and give me enough adrenaline rush for me to keep going through the week. I feel a need to play and to exhaust myself to do it in such a way that I do not have to be dependent on others to be able to get my daily and weekly fix. Running seemed like a perfect addictions where I do not have to wait on others for me to be able to run. I can run and run and run and not look back. I can push myself to limit. I can run on the street and I can run on the pavement. I can run in shorts and I can run in snow. Running basically requires nothing except tons of enthusiasm and a good level of physical fitness. After a year long prodding and encouragement by Amitava, I have finally decided to start running sometime around Christmas. Since then I am proud and happy to say that I have been running regularly most of the time from my neighborhood to Highland park which is about 5K and I love it. I plan to become better at it with time but for now nothing beats the fresh, chill, cold air touching your face when you are busting through the air in the darkened street and a quiet park. It's time for a quick run now!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

2011-10-16T22:00:00.008-05:00

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,

it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair ...

You probably all know where I found the lines above. What you do not know is that they also pretty much defined my last few years of life. The last few years have been madness. I used to blog and then I stopped. I learned how to dance and became bloody good at it. In the meanwhile I played squash, partied hard with close friends, chased after girls, fell in love, almost got married (good thing that didn't happen but we are not going to talk about that here). Looking back at all the fun I had during grad school, it almost seems as if graduate studies were more or less of secondary activity for me during those times. At some point last year I woke up from my deep slumber, decided to have a change of pace in life and so found a real job, moved out of Birmingham, finished my PhD, learned ice skating and skiing and now I am trying to adjust to Pittsburgh.

It is time to change gears again in the life. Time to move on from the past, to get a grip on myself and to think about what I want to do with my life. There was a time when goals were set by others i.e., doing good in school, graduating from school with good enough grades, getting into a good college, getting a job, earn money and blah blah blah. I have done all that and more and I certainly do not want to just keep on doing what others expect of me. Time to figure out and do what I expect and want myself to do. It is certainly not going to be name, fame or money because I do not really care for them. While I figure that out during the upcoming gloomy Pittsburgh winter, I would probably start writing again on my blog. So this season will see a lot more posts and random musing from my life. Stay warm, stay glued!

Illusion

2010-09-09T02:00:00.005-05:00

I am reading a women's book (you read it right ... a chic book :P ) these days just for the kick of it. It is called "Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough" by a smart and wise author whose name is Lori Gottlieb. I found an interesting quote from Sigmund Freud in her book. Regardless of how much I disagree with Freudian psychoanalysis, this is something that I have no choice but to completely agree with...

Illusion commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometime collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.
-Sigmund Freud

Moonfleet

2010-06-21T10:44:00.011-05:00

Rating: 4/5

I read this book again last week after 15 long years. First time I read this story, I had to do that lying awake late nights when everybody else at home would be fast asleep. In those days I had to read novels hiding from my dad who wanted me to study for the impending class X final exam rather than waste time on a novel. The book was written by English novelist J. Meade Falkner and was fist published in 1898. It used to be a quite popular read among the teenagers due to its tale of adventurous smugglers in a small seaside village called Moonfleet, life on run, a cursed diamond hidden deep inside a well as well the story of love between an orphan boy and a good daughter of the villain of the story.

It has been a long time and I have but only faltering memories of how or why I liked the story so much fifteen years ago. I imagine it was so perhaps because of its gripping storyline. However I found it to my great surprise that the allure of this story for me has not diminished over time when I read it for the second time a week ago. The reason for my liking the story it seems is quite different this time for I am fifteen years older and the same things perhaps would not appeal to me as much it did in my teenage years.

The hero John Trenchard comes back to his village after ten years of prison time, surviving a shipwreck and losing his mentor and friend, who gave away his own life to save John's. Inconsolable due to his loss, he finds that his lady love, Grace Maskew, is still waiting on him since she saw him last ten years ago not knowing if he is ever going to come back. However he is too ashamed to go and meet her as he has no wealth to speak of after all these years and expresses the same to her when she comes to visit him herself. She says

"Speak not of wealth; 'tis not wealth makes men, and if you have come back no richer than you went, you are come back no poorer, nor poorer, John, in honour."

Indeed I find this quite important because in today's world many a times people base their love for each other on the basis of how much the other have or have not. In the western society I find it sometimes even more depraved and depressing where I see people wanting to sign prenup agreement of how much more could one get or how little could one lose if the the marriage breaks down, in other words, potentially how much more potential profit or how little loss could be made out of this business. They want you to have a million dollars before they could respect you and trust you. Some of them would even want to look into your bank account to determine what kind of person you are rather than looking into your heart and mind and trusting you to be a good person.

In my opinion any relationship which is based on monetary security rather than love and respect is doomed and the people who justify this and want to perpetuate are quite shallow. They, in my opinion, should be kept at poles length in life because they can not be good friends, good partners or good people. J. Meade Falkner conveyed the same through his book that wealth and fortune is not the most important thing but it is the other kind of wealth i.e., friends, people and the good people who care for happiness and sorrows of others and do not base in on the basis of money.

"Have a care, have a care how you touch the treasure; it was evilly come by, and will bring a curse with it."

New post?

2009-06-22T13:47:00.001-05:00

I have been told that "I suck" because I haven't posted anything in a while! There you go you unhappy creature .....

Respect

2009-03-19T11:18:00.010-05:00

Recently I became aware that someone dug through my blog posts to get a better understanding of me and my psyche and in that process found out that I might be agnostic and "hence" may not have respect for their religious belief system no matter how little sense it may make. That "hence" above has been troubling me.

1. I can not really wrap my mind around the idea that how mine not agreeing with anyone belief system could be disrespectful to them when at the same time them not believing in the same things as me is not disrespectful to mine?
2. Respect is not something which could be demanded. Many autocrats and despots have demanded respect through blade of sword, barrel of guns or threat to life and liberty and they have all failed. Respect is something which needs to be earned. It is not automatic. If one wants my respect for their beliefs then the quickest way to do it is if they be equally respectful to mine and that is probably only way it is going to work.
3. If you want to prevail upon me in matters of beliefs using false arguments then I am ready for a no hold barred debate as well where I WILL call out every argument one tries to make such as "because I believe in something or read it somewhere that is why it has be true" as a specious and farcical argument.
4. If one fails in persuading me with one's farcical arguments and as a last resort tell me that he/ she will pray for me then I consider that a lack or respect for my positions on their part hence they would get no respect from me either.

Having said that let me be clear, I have nothing against your religion or your religious beliefs as long as you keep them to yourself. As a matter of fact, I have nothing against any religion if it helps someone in finding the right path, taking moral decisions and becoming a good person in general. All power to you if religion and your religious beliefs helps you in anyway in becoming a good person but please do not go out and try to evangelize me or others thumping your chest or discriminate against others if they do not have the same religious beliefs as yours. That is not helping your cause!

More on free speech

2009-02-17T15:59:00.010-06:00

Another amazing article worth being read. The article is titled "Despite the Riots and Threats, I Stand By What I Wrote". It was written by Johann Hari and first published in Huffington Post. Here is an excerpt from the article...

... Every word I wrote was true. I believe the right to openly discuss religion, and follow the facts wherever they lead us, is one of the most precious on earth -- especially in a democracy of a billion people riven with streaks of fanaticism from a minority of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. So I cannot and will not apologize.

...The protesters said I deliberately set out to "offend" them, and I am supposed to say that, no, no offence was intended. But the honest truth is more complicated. Offending fundamentalists isn't my goal -- but if it is an inevitable side-effect of defending human rights, so be it. If fanatics who believe Muslim women should be imprisoned in their homes and gay people should be killed are insulted by my arguments, I don't resile from it. Nothing worth saying is inoffensive to everyone.

...The argument that I was "asking for it" seems a little like saying a woman wearing a short skirt is "asking" to be raped. Or, as Salman Rushdie wrote when he received far, far worse threats simply for writing a novel (and a masterpiece at that): "When Osip Mandelstam wrote his poem against Stalin, did he 'know what he was doing' and so deserve his death? When the students filled Tiananmen Square to ask for freedom, were they not also, and knowingly, asking for the murderous repression that resulted? When Terry Waite was taken hostage, hadn't he been 'asking for it'?" When fanatics threaten violence against people who simply use words, you should not blame the victim.

The solution to the problems of free speech -- that sometimes people will say terrible things -- are always and irreducibly more free speech. If you don't like what a person says, argue back. Make a better case. Persuade people. The best way to discredit a bad argument is to let people hear it. I recently interviewed the pseudo-historian David Irving, and simply quoting his crazy arguments did far more harm to him than any Austrian jail sentence for Holocaust Denial.

Hushed into silence

2009-01-10T12:32:00.009-06:00

This is pretty much the best article that I have read about freedom of speech. Here is the link to it. It was written by Kenan Malik and published in Outlook India News Magzine. He asks the question if it is morally unacceptable to cause offense to other culture? Why is freedom of speech important and and why should we not be hushed into silence by religious far right. It is a pretty good read.

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Update: How cool is it that Kenan Malik would himself check my blog after I wrote this post?!!

It turned out if you had searched for "Hushed into silence" on google, my page used to come as the second result on it but that is not the case anymore.

Looks like Outlook requires a subscription to read older articles. Here is an alternative link for reading "Hushed into silence".

Installation of Java-VTK on windows xp

2009-01-05T00:11:00.009-06:00

In my quest for creating a binary distribution of Java-VTK I am facing a lot of pain and have decided to create a DIY for the benefit of humankind. Here is a partial list of what you need to do in this quest.

1. Install the latest version of Java Development kit (JDK)
2. Install Visual C++ Express Edition, complete Visual Studio Express Edition 2005 or 2008 version whichever you fancy most. It will require windows genuine check and a lot of other hoops to jump through.
3. Install Microsoft Platform Windows Server SDK II. It will require windows genuine check and a lot of other hoops. Make sure you follow the instructions given on this page to the last detail. To save time during web-install uncheck all the documentation and example option. that should bring down the download size from a horrendous 1.2 gb to somewhere around 80mb.
4. Install the latest version of CMake (2.4.5 or higher)
5. Download the latest version of Eclipse.
6. Download source code for VTK library from its website www.vtk.org
7. Now follow the instructions given in this file. The writer's instructions regarding cmake options are incomplete. You may have to change the java path as well as java virtual machine library path for complete compilation in the later stages.

Note: If you do not have installation privilege on your windows machine then none of this is possible.

Got 2 hours 45 minutes and 9 seconds?

2009-01-03T13:57:00.003-06:00

Geopolitics

2008-12-30T19:19:00.007-06:00

I don't write about my views on geopolitics but today I am making an exception because something that I read made me laugh very hard! I thought it was amusing, funny and disturbing in a perverse sort of way -- all at the same time. Here it goes ...

Its this business of crippling the cripple who lands a blow with his crutch because you made him a cripple to begin with that is bothering us. If you don't have the guts to kill the animal you wounded and keep shooting him everywhere except on his head, to "persuade" him to leave you alone, there's something wrong with you, not with the animal.

Calvin and Hobbes on the economic crisis

2008-12-30T01:15:00.008-06:00

My revenge on Volkswagen

2008-12-25T17:39:00.017-06:00

In the summer of 2007 I bought a silver 2001 Volkswagen Jetta 1.8L Turbo sedan which had only 70K miles on it. When I was buying the car I was confident because of its low mileage that I would have very few problem if just I keep changing the oil on regular basis because I believed in Volkswagen. Turned out that I was wrong. I have been bleeding money on this car ever since at regular intervals. In case you don't know Volkswagen makes shitty cars. Their workmanship leaves a lot to be desired. Here is what happened recently.

My car was running hot. As a result a coolant flange burst leaking coolant all over and AC stopped working because engine was running hot. That was an indication that something serious was wrong. So I took the car to a shop and they changed all that was wrong except the problem which was causing it and it was very costly considering the problem was not fixed yet. The problem was very simple, the water pump's impeller blades which drive the coolant to cool the engine were broken. The reason was that the blades were made of plastic. No other car company really indulges in something so reckless and stupid. It is as if Volkswagen was trying to construct Golden Gate bridge out of butter and incase the bridge broke down, they want us to pay for their infinite wisdom. Here is the proof and you have to see it to believe it.

For goodness sakes, it you can't make good cars atleast learn to make good parts! Is that too much to ask for? If you can not even do that then please don't put your logo on stuff which breaks down so that you could delude the consumers into thinking that the parts broke down because they were not original Volkswagen parts certified by Volkswagen company!!

As you can see this is an original Volkswagen waterpump driven by timing belt. You could even see their logo on it. I bet those stupid, good for nothing, piece of garbage, shitbag Volkswagen guys must be feeling real proud of their superior German design ability looking at this picture!

Ohh by the way, if you are from Volkswagen and you are worried about your corporate image due to the fact that tomorrow hence this will be allover google search results if you type Volkswagen Jetta along with revenge, heating or problems in the same line then you know what to do. However please don't send your goons to torture me and make me delete this post under duress. I would happily fix this pesky problem for a far lower price!!!!

A conversation about economics

2008-12-25T00:49:00.013-06:00

Amit Shukla: When is US economic crisis going to upturn?

me: Did you not see the wall street cartoon?

Amit Shukla: Economy is more than wall street.

me: But economy is speculation driven. The demand and supply no more drives the market.

Amit Shukla: stock market is speculation driven, economy is sentiment driven.

me: US dollar is not regulated. No one is worrying about financial deficit! Whenever there is a need they just print more dollars causing glut of US dollars in the market.

Amit Shukla: printing dollar wont bail them out

me: That is what I am saying, Market itself is no more sentiment driven It is being driven by commodity prices and commodities themselves are speculation driven these days, even energy. Case in point, NYMEX. As long as there is a demand for dollars they can print however the hell much of dollar as they want.

Amit Shukla: commodity prices have crashed, monetary policy is exhausted. It cant go below zero rate.

me: Yes commodities prices have crashed but its effect in the economy will not be visible for atleast one year from now because when the prices were going high everyone was buying heck more than they could consume or sell. Now there is a glut in the market and no buyer. Result is that companies are going bankrupt. Hence jobs are going away.

Amit Shukla: hmm

me: which means less and less circulation of money and more and more recession. This is a vicious cycle which is only going to stop

Amit Shukla: when?

me: when the money involved in speculation sinks in this recession causing loss of wealth for those company who were trying to make money off speculative trade rather than producing anything tangible. it is only then that the whole capitalist economy will come a full circle. It will take a while.

Amit Shukla: Marx was right ;-)

me: basically due to recession the floating and excessive cash will disappear due to losses from the market which destabilizes it.

me: In what way was Marx right?

Amit Shukla: He said capitalism has seeds of its own destruction.. it will have regular crises, each one more severe than last.

me: Pure capitalism is inherently unstable. That is why there are after market regulators which try to regulate the manipulative tendencies. Problem is that the regulator oversight in the market didn't work at all. Security and Exchange commission (SEC) has oversight over only stocks and bond trade. Nobody gives a crap about commodities prices.

Amit Shukla: well..people wanted regulator to be weak -- Reganomics and Thatcherism.

me: And it is the commodity prices which drives the market sentiments

Amit Shukla: free market -- invisible hand of market. Roll back the state!!!!

me: A completely free market is theoretically not possible. It will cause capitalism to collapse on its head.

Amit Shukla: people come to government in times of crisis. When it is booming...they want to keep off..

me: Exactly, this is their tendency. The "political right" here are all about a completely free market driven on its own so in the last couple of years they almost completely dismantled all the oversights.

Amit Shukla: hmm

me: and now you can see how the market went bust!!!! Shukla I want to publish our conversation regarding economy on my blog with spelling corrections. Will that be okay with you?

Amit Shukla: Send me some dollars..as copyright fee :-)

me: Sure will do whenever I come around to make some money off it. :D

Anonymity on internet

2008-12-19T16:15:00.011-06:00

The whole idea that you do not have to show your face while retrieving information about someone on internet through his/her page seems very enticing. However to think that you could do all you want and nobody is going to know about it, is pretty much a pipe dream. This information is especially important for those folks who were not born in the internet age and find internet as a divine blessing as it seems to makes everything easy in life. They however are usually not aware of the fact that the good age old ideas of freedom, liberty and privacy along with interconnectedness is inherently incompatible. Let me tell you how.

Every digital device that you use in your day to day life can be identified using a number of unique identifiers or unique signatures. Every signal emitting device has to follow some standard protocols and has to follow some regulations such as encryption standards, emission standards, identification standards etc. Now those identification standards as a mean of identification are very important. Every mobile phone, wireless internet card, wireless modems, standards modems or any other kind of digital communicating devices are assigned a unique Media Access Control (MAC) address which are identified by 12 digit alpha-numeric character resulting in potentially 16¹² = 2⁴⁸potential combinations. What it means that potentially your device could be traced not only to the factory which manufactured it, the batch in which it was produced, the date on which it was produced but also who bought the device. Now when you communicate through internet, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigns you a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. When one sends or requests an information, one does so using a number of small packets of informations. Each information packet contains the IP address of the source and destination, the MAC address of the device as well as data which is being sent. That packets is routed through a number of servers on your ISP switch as well as a number of independent DNS (Domain Name Service) servers on the internet while trying to find a path to the destination. Every time a packet goes through one server the packet is replicated, which means that if anyone wanted to copy all that data that is being routed through his server then he could very well do it (although sequencing and decryption of the packets is a headache). Does someone really do it --- Sure .. hint hint *NSA*. This means that if government really wanted to go back in time and look at your chit-chatting and surfing habits then it could very well do that i.e., if you are important enough for them but that also means that you are in some serious trouble.

The point I wanted to make here is that the sender or requester of information on internet can be uniquely identified based on his IP address, mac address and the timing of the request. What that means in plain English is that you are not anonymous! What I write here may give you an insight about me but what you do, acknowledge here or lack of that along with the timing also gives me an insight about you. Ever thought about that? :-)

The last piece

2008-12-16T01:14:00.010-06:00

Ever wondered why is the last piece is ever so important?

If you performing in a musical ensemble and you screw up the last piece of music then you have pretty much screwed up the whole performance in the people's thoughts, never mind if you had performed brilliantly through the first 29 minutes and 30 seconds of the 30 minute musical ordeal. However if you messed up in the first 30 seconds of the performance but made no mistake during the rest of it then no body seems to remember if you have made any mistake at all. To me this seems very unfair towards the musician.

Now if you had tons of candy with you and if somebody asked you for a single piece of it then chances are that you would have gladly complied. However if you have eaten all that humongous quantity of candy and only last piece of it is left then you probably would not want to give away the last piece either. On the other hand if somebody wanted to ask you for that last piece of candy then he or she would hesitate as well thinking how can he or she ask for the last piece as if asking the last piece is tantamount to moral debauchery. Shouldn't asking for and giving away one candy in the middle or in the end should have equal value regardless of the order? Perhaps we should investigate it a little more before we jump to conclusion.

Recently I cooked lasagna with the help of some of my distinguished friends. It was by far the most complex undertaking of my cooking career with all the zillion types of cheese mixed together but not mixed with the vegetables, sauce and the noodles, who would form their own distinct and separate and sort of sedimentary layers in the preparation. Long story short, at the end of gorging ourselves on the wonderful Lasagna, half of what was prepared was still left untouched to the mercy of my whims and fancy. I on the other hand had other plans in my mind and I showed no mercy at all. NONE! For the next two days I had Lasagna for breakfast, lunch as well as dinner and I never got tired of it for the heartless foodie that I am. On the contrary, the more I ate the cold, microwaved and stale lasagna, the more I liked it. The longer I kept it the freeze and afterward heated it in the microwave oven just before gorging on it, the more flavorful I found it to be. Last piece of lasagna was the most utterly delicious and succulent piece of lasagna I had ever had, in my perception. Words can hardly describe the the mouth watering taste of it when it came out of microwave oven. The middle cheesy portion when topped by a layer of Italian tomato sauce only added to the flavor of it. However the description of taste does no justice in describing the magnificent but subtle smell of the cheese with mushrooms and spinach juxtaposed with the sharp flavor of garlic and sauce all mixed together in lasagna when heated. I suppose freezing lasagna and then reheating it only adds to the taste and flavor but it is something that only those could know who have actually savored it in its full glory. The people who didn't have an opportunity to taste a reheated lasagna out of freeze are living an incomplete life in my humble opinion!!!!

But coming back to the topic, would I have shared my last piece of lasagna with you... probably not. Would I have given away lasagna when anyone (by that I mean ANYONE) would have wanted more when plenty was left ... absolutely! Why such double standards?

Post spill hands on for your ThinkPad (T60)

2008-11-23T09:47:00.015-06:00

Recently I threw a big party which had a tragic end due to unforeseen mishaps compounded by a drink spill on the keyboard and touchpad of my T60 Thinkpad (2623D6U). It was not until the next morning when I found about it with the laptop smelling sweet from high fructose corn syrup, which is used as an artificial sweetener in most of the commercially available soft-drinks. I figured that it is too late to try to drain it with the gluey syrup at base of keypad and touchpad, which had completely disabled the left and right click buttons on the touchpad by then and some of the keys on the keyboard were barely working.

Thinkpads are designed to stand small spills. Its keyboard is touted as spill proof with special channels to direct the liquid away from the sensitive electronics. But they don't tell you about what to do if the spill is not water but some sticky liquid such as soft drinks with fructose syrup or coffee which when dries forms a sticky glue progressively. At this moment you really have have only three options:
a. Buy a new laptop.
b. Send your laptop to the Lenovo repair/service agency and be ready to pay a fat amount of money. They will probably replace the keypad and touchpad of the laptop and will charge your for parts, labor and shipping.
c. Try to fix the problem yourself.

Being a poor and cheap student I decided a hands on approach and completely fixed the problem. Here is what you would need to do to fix the problem yourself.
1. watch the video on the lenovo website on how to install extra memory on your laptop. It will teach your how to disassemble the touchpad of your T60 and put it back. Alternatively you could also go through official T60 Hardware Maintenance Manual which has detailed instructions for taking apart your beloved T60.
2. Do a complete shutdown of your laptop and not merely a hibernate. Use an external mouse if you have to for this.
3. Remove the battery pack and do not put it back on until everything else has been done. DONOT try to disassemble your laptop with battery pack still attached to the laptop.
4. Remove the 5 screws from the back of the laptop where you could see the keypad logo.
5. Pry open the touchpad from the corners (top right and top left) where the touchpad meets the keyboard. Remove the underlying connecter strip which is connected to the base using a latching mechanism to completely separate touchpad from the base.

6. Remove the keypad using the same mechanism as number 5. Make sure you don't damage the connecter strip from the back of the keypad to the base while saperating them.

7. Prepare a hot water bath with only water, no soap or oil in your bathtub and drop the keypad and the touchpad in there for 5 minutes. Try to press all the buttons on the keypad and touchpad while keeping them still inside the warm water so that the suger stuck on the base of the key is dissolved in the warm water. You are taking advantage of the fact that thinkpad keypads and touchpads are designed to be spill resistant.
8. Remove the keypad and touchpad from the water and leave them to dry for atleast 24 hours in a vertical position possibly with the help of a wall so that all the water gets drained out due to gravity. Make sure they are completely dry before you put them back.
9. Wipe the inside on the laptop with a piece of cloth or tissue paper damped either in alcohol or in water and then wipe again with a dry tissue paper or piece of cloth. This should remove any spill which somehow got beneath the base of keypad and touchpad.
10. Reconnect the keypad connector strip, keypad, touchpad connector strip and touchpad in that order and put the screws back on. Make sure that the keypad and touchpad fits snugly on the base after you have done this and no gaps are visible where were not present prior to disassembly.
11. Put the battery pack on.
12. Start your machine.

If the steps 2-12 don't or only partially solve the problem then I suggest that you repeat them again. If these steps still don't solve your problems then you always have the option of exercising choices a and b. Goodluck!

What I did!

2008-08-12T01:30:00.007-05:00

You know what I did this weekend, I spent my time reading a book and I feel that it was the best fiction that I have ever read in all my life so far and probably the best investment of time I made this year. The book is named "East of Eden" and is written by John Steinbeck. If I had to describe the book in one word then I would describe it as 'Timshel' which is a Hebrew word meaning 'thou mayest' or 'you may or you may not'. I have always wondered who is my favourite author and today I have no doubt in my mind that it is Steinbeck. I plan to read all of his writings in time.

Rating: 5.0 stars out of 5.0

XKCD does it again!

2008-08-11T14:33:00.001-05:00

Logic

2008-07-28T16:17:00.004-05:00

I am doing a self educating crash course on logic and logical fallacies i.e., how to decide what is logical and what is not. So in the process decided to put it here as well as it just might help some who visit my post from time to time. Feel free to not get offended and yes almost everything below this sentence is not my creation. I am just copy-pasting it for your benefit.

1. Abductive Reasoning: It is the process of reasoning from effects to (probable) causes. For example, if I observe that every time it rains at night, the grass is wet the following morning, I may conclude that if the grass is wet, it rained last night.

2. Deductive Reasoning: It is the process of reasoning from general principles to other general principles or specific examples. For example, a reasoner, knowing that all crows are black (a general fact about crows) can conclude that my pet crow (a specific example) is black. Similarly, the same reasoner, knowing that crows are birds, can conclude that some birds are black (another general principle regarding birds).

When properly performed, deductive logic is sound, which is to say that if the premises of the argument are true, the conclusion is guaranteed to be true (or alternatively, if the conclusion is false, at least one of the premises must have been false; if my pet is white, then either I am mistaken in thinking it to be a crow, or not all crows are white). Also, just because an argument is fallacious does not necessarily invalidate the truth of its conclusion (to believe otherwise is to commit the Fallacist's Fallacy). Deductive reasoning can never generate "new" truths, therefore all genuine experimentation or empirical research will of necessity involve elements of inductive reasoning.

3. Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem: Gödel provided two theorems the second of which is a corollary of the first. The first theorem states that "A formal system is either incomplete, or inconsistent." The second theorem is "If a formal system can prove its own consistency, then it is inconsistent."

Its implication is that remaining as a part of a system we can never be able to completely explain the origin, existence and purpose and the principals guiding a system. If however we claim that we know everything about a system of which we itself are a part of, then either or logic is fallacious or our description of the system itself is inconsistent.

4. Inductive Reasoning: It is the process of reasoning from specific examples to general principles. For example, an observer might notice that all of the crows in a particular flock are black, and from that try to infer a general proposition such as "All crows, including those not yet seen, are black."From a philosophical position, the problem of induction is that inductive reasoning, while often cogent, rational, and indeed compelling, can never lead to an absolutely valid conclusion. Although I have never seen nor heard of a blue crow, that is no guarantee that I will not find one on my front porch tomorrow. A specific kind of induction, called mathematical induction, by contrast, is a legitimate and deductively valid method of proving statements about numbers or other objects capable of sequencing.

5. Laws of thoughts: It refers to three axioms put forth by Aristotle. They are:

i) The Law of Identity: Each thing is identical with itself.

ii) The Law of Non-contradiction: Each thing cannot both have and not have a given property.

iii) The Law of the Excluded Middle: Each thing either has or does not have a given property.

These are put forth as unprovable, and unfalsifiable axioms. As one medieval philosopher put it, "Anyone who denies the law of non-contradiction should be beaten and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned." 19th Century philosopher George Boole created "Boolean operators" using 'and', 'or', 'nor', 'not' etc. by developing a system where true and false were considered as mathematical values. He thus gave laws of thought a mathematical form immune to linguistic equivocation and imprecision.

6. Occam's Razor: It provides that given two explanations that equally describe a given situation, the simplest one is most likely to be the correct one. Occam's razor concerns the choice of which alternative theory to tentatively accept; it by no means constitutes proof that the simpler theory is, in fact, correct. It's very tempting to believe that "simpler" means "fewer words", but meaning of a "simpler" explanation has a very precise definition in the context of Occam's Razor. Formalized, Occam's Razor states:

i) Unfalsifiable theories should be rejected as useless. This is an epistemological position, and is based on the simple observation that an unfalsifiable theory can not be used to learn anything that you do not already know.

ii) Any claims within a theory which are not logically necessary to account for the testable claims of the theory, must be rejected. This is just an extension of (1), since such a theory could always be split into one theory which possesses no such claims, and one theory which is unfalsifiable.

iii) Given two theories which make exactly the same testable claims, if those two theories differ in any way which is not simply semantic, then at least one of them must possess claims which are not logically necessary to account for its testable claims.

There are infinitely many possible "theories" that can explain a given set of facts. Consider the following two possible laws of nature:

i. The force of gravity diminishes with the square of the separation of two bodies.

ii. The force of gravity diminishes with the square of the separation of two bodies, until December 21, 2012, at which time it will become a linear proportion.

Both of these laws predict equally well the observed effects of gravity in the universe. We cannot say for certain that the second one is wrong. However we may tentatively accept the first one as correct in the absence of any contradictory data, since it is simpler. Without Occam's razor, there would be any number of different rival theories, and the pursuit of general knowledge would become impossible.

Here are some examples of fallacies associated with incorrect use of the razor.

Fallacious Argument #1:

The existence of the universe may be attributed to the complex interactions of numerous elementary particles, which are described by equations so complex that they are inaccessible to anyone who has not spent years studying them. Alternatively, the existence of the universe may be attributed to God. Since the second is a simpler explanation, it is more likely to be true.

This argument is fallacious since it assumes that the concept of "God" is simpler, since it can be referenced with fewer words. The attributes that God would need to have to create the universe are at least as complex as those used in fundamental physics.

Fallacious Argument #2:

Chemical interactions can be described in terms of 91 naturally occurring elements, or in terms of the four elements known to the ancient alchemists. Since the second theory postulates fewer entities, it is more likely to be correct.

This argument is fallacious since the two theories do not equally well describe the observed facts. Occam's Razor can only be applied when the theories have (so far) been equally accurate.

The next part will talk about fallacious logic.

A Tale Of Two Cities

2008-06-18T22:26:00.039-05:00

I had no clue what I was getting into when I promised under emotional blackmail that I would read "A Tale Of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens and that I would not only read it but I would finish reading it. Looking back at it, it is only now that I fully comprehend how foolish was I when I thus gave away my freedom and peace of mind. But today I am happy, glad, ecstatic and delirious with joy after having finally wriggled myself free of this bondage by finishing the book. This no less than superhuman feat was achieved with dogged determination inspite of falling asleep countless number of times while trying to read through it and then having to start all over again in the pursuit of comprehension of the story that Sir Charles Dickens writeth. The story itself dates back to the time of French Revolution when the oppressed becomes the oppressor and the oppressors and their erstwhile associates are summarily either sent under the guillotine or handed over to mob of people waiting outside the courtrooms in the name of Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death. The common people of the new republic would rejoice to this barbaric dance of death in a ghastly fashion.

"It was the best of the times, it was the worst of the times, it was the age of the wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short the period was so far like the present period that some of the noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." Why would people not read a novel which starts with such a linguistic aphrodisiac as this which, by the way, makes absolutely no sense!! To the literary snobs -- I SUSPECT that this paragraph which is only one sentence, is incomplete as to what incompleteness of sentence means in the parlance of grammar and literature. I am aware that it is almost a blasphemy in the eyes yonder literary critics, grammar snobs and literary nazis to question the wisdom and judgment of Charles Dickens for writing this first line but oh well I think I can live with that. (Mind you, I am only guilty of suspicion here, I am not accusing him of anything so please do not firebomb my house which I don't own) . Maybe I forget the first half of the sentence by the time I reach the second half, but that is besides the point! Well this is pretty much how the whole story was written where the weak and unconvincing story is lost in the glitters and ornamentation of the words. The novel is like a beautifully ornated taco shell with no meat or filling in it. Gladly and proudly I am not one of those who fall for the sparkle and embellishment but the content of a story which is really weak in this novel!

The story is written in the form of three books (or three parts). The first book brings an introduction to the story where each chapter is disjointed from every other chapter where none of the character makes absolutely any sense as to why are they there in the story in the first place. May be if we are lucky and patient enough to finish this novel (which means, yes all three books) in spite of our natural instincts to run away, then we might know the answer given if we had read attentively. The second book sort of starts to provide the glue of the story to bind it and only in the third book we completely understand what really is going on in the story. In the end it is just another story of wortless self-sacrifice for a love which can not be attained. Also I must warn you, there is only one twist in the whole novel which is about the hero of the story. Who we think as the hero is infact not the real hero but someone whom we never thought could be a hero turns out to be the real hero of it. Yes my friends, that is the only twist otherwise the story of pretty plain and simple. It is the cliché story of love, care and affection, of the oppressed and that of the oppressors, of forgiveness and of vengeance, of the bliss and happiness as well as of gaol and death. As the name suggests the story is intermittently set between two cities which are London and Paris and provides a beautiful and unnecessary description of the life of aristocrats of that era and their complete disregard towards the lives of common people in the pre French Revolution times. Post French revolution, the tables have turned and those aristocrats are being hunted down and summarily executed under guillotine after farce of a trial for their past misdeeds. Caught in this whirlwind are Doctor Mannette, his daughter Lucie Mannette, his Son in law Charles Darney Evremondé, a person of aristocratic lineage who has long renounced his family surname due to disdain for the deeds of his family. Doctor Mannete is helped by his friends of business and countless loyal servants but has a sordid history of having been incarcerated by Darney's father and uncle for decades where he loses his mental balance and then later on regains it only to lose it again then regain it and then lose it again presumably as a result of post traumatic stress disorder induced psychosis .... bloody hell! I think this flip-flop of docter-cobbler personalities would be bewildering not only to me but to any reader who cares about the story even a little bit. Getting back to the story, after the French revolution Darney is held and is condemned to death under guillotine just because he has Evremondé as his surname. However the hero of the story is an alcoholic lawyer named Sydney Carton who gives away his life for happiness of the love of his life Lucie Manette who is incidentally married to Charles Darney. Carton saves Darney's life from a certain death by impersonating him in the end and thus giving away his life. The hero of the story has been pretty much ignored through out the novel except at the places where he is needed to fill the gaps, this I call as willful malfeasance and misrepresentation by the author towards its main character and towards the readers who are going to read his book! If one happens to look closely, Dickens actually portrays Carton as a pompous egotistical fool in the first book! I really want to ask him that what was the need of doing that when he could just as well have portrayed Carton in a good light from the very beginning rather than demonizing him in the first book, showing him as worthless, pitiful dipsomaniac in the second and then eulogizing him in the end for his supreme sacrifice? Maybe he wanted to hammer in the point that unrequited love can change the most buffoon of a person but then this is hardly an original idea for the sake of storytelling or is it? I wish if and when he comes to his second life on this earth, he should modify this book by borrowing some ideas from Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and by improving the character of Sydney Carton as well as by making this book a tad more readable!

Rating: 3.0 stars out of 5

Note to the readers: In this review I have not talked much about Lucie Mannette as a statue of virtue and beauty whose only job is to take care of her father, nurse him back to mental health and worry about her husband. Her character in the story is so very weak and unconvincing that it would not be just to try to even talk about her in the main trunk of the review. She exist in the story merely because she would be needed to plug the holes in it rather than provide any strength to it. I would go as far as to say that evil Madame Defarge is more of a central character to the story than Lucie Mannette. We should also ask the question that why is Madame Defarge portrayed as evil anyway when she is just trying to get revenge for the unjust death of all her family members by aristocrats and thus had to spend an unhappy, angry and orphaned childhood besides having to conceal her identity! I mean who wouldn't want a revenge in that situation? Just because Lucie Mannette is too pretty to be on the wrong side of the story doesn't make Madame Defarge a statue of evil by itself!

Funny comparison

2008-06-11T16:02:00.006-05:00

Computer problem: help, advice, troubleshooting tips?

2008-05-27T02:15:00.009-05:00

I have an old emachine desktop circa 2005. I had opened the case a couple of times to try to put in a new card and stuff but never bothered to clean its interior (who does that anyway?). It is configured as a dual boot machine with Windows xp and Ubuntu Fiesta. Because Emachine uses only the worst and cheapest kind of parts on their desktops so I hardly ever run windows on this machine as the machine stutters and crawls on microsoft's OSes. I mostly run ubuntu on it and that used to work blazing fast on this machine. Anyway coming back to the story the pc froze two days ago while I was using it. Now freezing on linux means serious-serious trouble, not so much on windows though as that is pretty normal for Windows. I was not sure what happened so I tried to restart it but it didn't even go as far as boot option. I let the machine cool down for an hour and restarted it and this time it loaded the OS and then froze. Again, I left the pc to cool down a day and then started it and this time it booted and ran ubuntu for close to half and hour and then froze. This type of erratic behavior made me think that somehow processor/motherbard is frying/dying! To confirm my suspicions I put my ears to the cabinet but I could listen that the fans inside the cabinet were whirring with their full might, now this was just baffling for me because if the fans are working then it surely should not be a overheating problem. Nevertheless I decided to open the pc cabinet and try to find some black spots on the motherboard to confirm my suspicion if motherboard/processor is indeed dead as a dodo. To my horror motherboard was almost squeaky clean with no black spots but when I removed the fan from the top of heat sink I found that heat-sink fins were covered with such a thick blanket of dust that there is no way in this world even a speck of air could have been transferred by the fan to the processor for cooling down. I am amazed when I think how in the world could the processor have survived lately. Anyway, I have not been able to remove the heatsink from the processor-top to determine the damage on the processor as it was securely tightened on its top by some weird mechanism (using glue and screws both?) So at this moment I am am not sure what should be done next? Perhaps I should clean the interior using a vacuum cleaner, if only I had one! Anyone willing to let me borrow his/her vacuum cleaner? Help will be much appreciated!

At this moment I am only speculating that it is an overheating problem. If the CPU is not a toast yet then I believe if I just clean the heat-sink, fan and the motherboard then it should be able to work flawlessly for atleast another year. However if I am wrong then I might be staring at a hole in my wallet, the size of a couple of hundreds of dollars. Given that I am almost broke, all this doesn't portend quite well towards my financial future.

Update: My hunch was right. It was just a heating issue. At higher temperature the performance degrades. So most likely at an unacceptable performance level the OS just could have froze. Anyway after I cleaned the heatsink and the motherboard, every thing has been working as if nothing ever happened. Who knew computer also needed periodic cleaning!

To kill a mocking bird: A synopsis and review

2008-05-11T19:26:00.016-05:00

I have read this book twice, first time a couple of years ago when I didn't quite grasp its importance, when I didn't know that I would one day end up in Alabama and recently again when I didn't remember that I have already read this book before. I always had a mild bewildering sense of of déjà vu while reading the book that the story seems familiar and only later did it dawn on me that I have read this book before. I enjoyed reading this book both the times and now consider this work by Harper Lee as a literary masterpiece.

The story is set in the late 1930s in the fictional county of Maycomb which lies at the center of Alabama and symbolically reflects the general attitude of inhabitants and the society in general of Alabama during those times. The story is told in the words of a young girl named scout who lives with her older brother Jem, her dad whom she calls not as dad or papa but by his name Atticus. They have a black maid servant Kalpurnia who takes care of them and takes the role of mother for Scout as her mother had died years ago. Her dad Atticus works as a lawyer in the county court. He is considered very fair, generous, uptight and overflowing with integrity who understands the faults in the fabric of the society well and has a good judgment of people. Scout also has an aunt Miss Alexandria who comes to live with them in the later part of the story to try to shape Scout as a lady while she is growing up but Scout deeply resents it and likes more hanging out with children of her age and admiring the ethos and work of her dad. There are many other characters which shape the story such as Dill who is a summer vacation friend of Scout and Jem and had promised Scout that he would marry her as soon as he can. There is also miss Maudie who is a wise neighbors and unlike the rest of the white women of Maycomb county of those times, is not prejudiced and enjoys her time time tending to flowerbeds in front of her house. Her flowerbeds are so beautiful that she becomes the target of snide remarks of southern baptists passing through the road in front of her yard that she spends way too much time tending to flower and not praying to god and hence she would burn in hell after death. Boo Reidley has been one of the other central characters of the story who is always elusive and never comes out of his house so much so that no one has seen him in years except his physician.This elusiveness breeds many stories among the kids. The kids think that Boo is very dangerous and they always makes up plans or stories to get Boos out his house. Boo in reality is a very nice person who leaves gifts for children where only they could find it and no one else and in the end saves the life of Scout and Jem from murderous scum named Bob Ewell.

The story is woven around the unjust case of a black man named Tom Robinson who has falsely been accused of raping and battering a white girl in racially prejudiced society of Southern United States while in reality he was trying to help the girl. Atticus is given the job of defending Tom which he does really well in a hostile and racially charged environment, infact proving in the court that it was the Ewells who are not only wrongly accusing Tom but Bob Ewell also battered his own daughter. The jury disagrees and punishes Tom for a crime he never committed as no white person could conceivably take the side of black man against another white person during those times. Eventually Tom loses faith in the white justice system and tries to run away from the prison and in the process gets shot to death by the guards. The Ewells who although have won the case harbor deep grudge against Atticus and his family for defending Tom and laying bare their lies which made a big fool of them. Bob Ewell tries to take revenge on Atticus by trying to kill Scout and Jem in the darkness of night however the children are saved by Boo Reidly who knifes Bob Ewell in the ensuing struggle.

The author presents the fabric of the society as it really was in 1930s around the time when Hitler came in to the power and started persecuting Jews. The uptight southern white Christians were wondering how could Hiter be so unjust towards other people while ironically totally disregarding the unjustified treatment they were meting out to the fellow black people at the same time which was the central theme of the story. The story is really beautiful and you should read it.

Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

Last couple of weeks

2008-04-05T20:18:00.005-05:00

Last couple of weeks have been terrible considering very little time that I had after research and studies. But I am glad I am learning something valuable. I wrote my first parallel code simulating Game of Life of John Conway fame which it turn itself is a simplified simulation of John Von Neumann's Universal Constructor or self replicating machine in a cellular autometa environment. This project was not trivial however it is working flawlessly which makes me happy. I ran it on a few clusters and found out that MPI job submission process definitely sucks. Consider this you write a parallel code, compile with a suitable compiler (note there are many compilers), write a job submission script and then submit is to a job manager which has to run the corresponding version of mpirun. If the compiler and mpi versions don't match then you are definitely screwed. Also not all the compilers installed on the cluster and their corresponding mpirun, both work at the same time. So once you have submitted the job on a cluster the cluster will put your job on queue. If the desired number of processors become available then the process manager will allocate the node for your process to run. Say you are allocated N nodes for your process to run, if any of those N nodes has any problem with the installation of mpi and corresponding mpirun then your process will just quit providing random error messages. And then you are back to the square one. This whole process stinks.

Virulent Diseases

2008-03-16T15:13:00.029-05:00

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Disclaimer/guidelines: Dear terrorists or those doing any research in the area of bio-weapons, this particular post is not intended for you hence you should desist from reading it. Not that I could stop you from reading it but I thought I should give it a try.

(I have always wondered if the disclaimer or guidelines should be on the top or bottom of an article. Keeping the disclaimer on top causes loss of aesthetics while keeping it at bottom would cause loss of functionality as by the time the people concerned would read the disclaimer they would already have read the article/ post. Being an engineer I emphasise the functionality part over the aesthetic part so it is at the top in this case. However if you have an artistic bent of mind then I am sure you would choose to differ with me on this.)
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I believe every normal human being with a somewhat functional brain do end up thinking things somewhat destructive in potential at some point or another, granted they are not stupid enough to actually write about it so as to not self implicate themselves. As I do not work in the area of bio-weapon research and have no reason to pursue that either being a peace loving person that I am, so in my opinion self-implication theory would be laughable at best and this should be a good enough of an alibi. (I know uncle Sam is watching my every keystroke or am I just paranoid?)

Traditionally diseases like plague and relatively new ones like SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) have been considered extremely dangerous because
1. They are communicable, contagious and infectious (spread from one person to another)
2. People do not have to touch each other to get infected (am I right on this?)
3. The cycle of getting infected and showing symptoms is small, i.e, a couple of days at best.
4. They are fatal if left without medical treatment.

But as we know, even if these have been considered dangerous, they are not so dangerous after all as we can see most of the recent outbreaks have been contained in very little time with very few losses of lives compared to that in the past because of rapid advances in medical science and effective organizations like CDC (Centre for Disease Control) which analyses the medical data statistically and checks for deviations from normal sample. If some drastic change are found the CDC or equivalent organizations send special teams to take samples from local hospitals showing the deviant cases and check it at their state of art regional research labs to reach a conclusion. Once a disease outbreak is identified, they issue advisories and try to trace back the occurrence to the first patient or the first locality where this started, zeroing in on the prime causes for the particular outbreak. Once the causes and symptoms have been identified, facilities responsible for the outbreak are shut down and people involved and infected by it and those who came in to possible contact with them are sent into a sort of preventive custody also known as quarantine where they could not transmit the disease if they have already been infected. They are kept in quarantine until they pass the gestation period of that particular disease and if nothing further happens to them.

So the conclusion here is that because of superior statistical technique we are able to pinpoint the cause and even if we do not have the treatment for it. We are more or less able to contain the infected population as well to stop the further spread of the infection. Exception: HIV for obvious reasons as we can never really identify all the carriers because the disease has a long gestation period before the patient shows any signs of infection and people who sometimes die from it do not really know about the real cause because they die from getting infected from other diseases because of immuno-deficiency. This disease is also not really infectious as it doesn't spread without the exchange of body-fluids.

In the scientific community there has been a lot of worry about the H5N1 virus also known as avian flu, the cases of which are being reported on a regular interval from different parts of Europe, south and south-east Asia. The novelty of this disease is that birds carry this particular strain of flu and as they migrate from places to places. It is however not as deadly as the Spanish flu strain (H1N1) but not very different from it either, only a couple of genetic mutations away. H5N1 is also not easy to transmit as people need to be in contact with the infected animals or poultry for an extended period to get infected themselves. However the scientific community is worried that the H5N1 can mutate in to something similar to H1N1 with its ease of transmission and deadly effect, as happened in case of H1N1. But you know what, it is still a slam-dunk as people affected with it will start showing the symptoms right away or within 1-2 days hence the disease will be contained whenever it happens even if people infected with it may not survive.

With these nuggets or knowledge I was thinking what could be a super-disease which could be really serious and more importantly what would make it so dangerous? I think I have the answer which makes me the messenger of doom but what the hell, this is my blog and I could write anything here that I want. Ofcourse I will have to do it within the conditions stipulated in End User License Agreements (or EULA in short) of Google Blogger, which I didn't quite read anyway. Who reads a freaking 20 page document anyway for opening a blog page, duh? I hope the terms of EULA accommodates my fascination with bio-weapons, weapons of mass destruction, atom bomb, hydrogen bomb, neutron bomb or just killings on a grand scale in short. Just kidding, remember me peace loving and all. However if Google-blogger people become unhappy and ask me take down this page then I will have to do it, sorry!!

Coming back to the point, the undesirable disease should show four characteristics to be able qualify as the mother of all diseases:
1. It should be deadly like HIV and Spanish flu, i.e, once the symptoms are full blown there is very little that could be done and preferably that period should be small. (I am not a big fan of keep people hurting for a long time unless ofcourse I desire revenge.)
2. It should have the mobility of common flu for ease of spread.
3. It should have long gestation period of something of the order of a couple of months before the infected start showing the symptoms of infection so that it will be impossible to account for everyone who could have come in the contact with the infected during those months.
4. It is ever changing as to how it attaches with the body such as HIV so no single preventive vaccine could work.

I know this is like asking for a car which run at supersonic speed, uses water as fuel and is like only 1000 bucks each, sounds almost impossible right? However it may be quite discomforting to know that nature is like a vast laboratory where all the permutations and combinations eventually plays out given enough time, space and diversity of conditions which I am sure there are in the nature. Even if this kind of disease were to be naturally impossible to occur in a reasonable period of time I am sure there are humans/terrorist stupid enough working in bio-weapons lab somewhere in world working on exactly similar kind of things hoping it would be used in war some day.

No prizes for guessing, if such disease ever surfaces by accident then humanity is doomed except for self-sustained loners and isolated communities who live on islands beyond the touch of human civilization! 28 days later anyone?

This could happen to you as well

2008-03-13T20:50:00.004-05:00

This afternoon while I was working in my lab I received a telephone call from a 1-847-* number ( a business line). I knew it is a commercial call but I picked it up anyway because I hate to leave my phone ringing.

Women: "May I talk to [my name] ?"
Me: "Yes, this is him."
Women: "I am calling from Chase Fraud Prevention Department. Do you have a Chase Business Card with last four digits ****.
Me: Thinking, wtf Fraud Prevention, what happned?, said "Yes I do."
Women: "Our system shows some financial transactions made from that card which look suspicious. Did you purchase anything in the last few days from Florida, Georgia and Oklahoma."
Me: thinking, ohh man something bad is going to happen, said "No, as a matter of fact I haven't used the card in last couple of months! Last transaction I made with that card was in December on Amazon, I think."
Women: "It seems that credit card's number has been stolen and someone else has been using it. We will take off all the charges made in last couple of days. There is nothing to worry about. We have deactivated the card and we will send the replacement card in 5 business days. Just destroy the current card. What is your address at which the new card should be sent?"
Me: I told her my home address.
Women: "Alright, Have a good day!"
Me: "Thank You! You too!!"

Sometime I do love the banking system of America, there are no hassles, people believe you for most parts and work is done swiftly! There are of course checks and balances in the system but if you have not done anything wrong then you probably do not have much to worry about.

Now lets consider the similar scenario if this had happened in India, what would be the difference? Well, the onus of proving that you didn't make the aforementioned transaction would fall on you. You would have to pay back to the bank regardless of whether or not you used their credit card and would be running around for a couple of business days/week just to get your credit card account closed or canceled and get the matter settled by paying their dues!! The worst part is that no one would ever believe you even after paying back all the money that you didn't spend. Yeah right, you didn't make the transaction, who are you trying to fool?

The continuing tale of woes for Microsoft

2008-02-29T12:08:00.010-06:00

Guess what, Microsoft got fined a record $1.35 billion by European union for engaging in predatory business malpractices, for abusing its position as the market leader and for non-compliance with European Union's earlier order / judgment of sharing information with its rivals. Although I do not particularly like the idea of a company being made to share its business secrets with its rivals as part of market regulations but this was the case of a bad guy being bitch-slapped by a club bouncer for being too cocky and hence it brings me in good humor! A bad thing happening to a bad person or entity is not so bad after all.

Now why do I think that this was justified? Just have a look at Microsoft's chequered history with market and its rivals. This company has had the dubious reputation of making deals with OEM vendors and developers in hardware and software segments for exclusivity for market dominance. It is akin to paying your wife and coworkers to be faithful and friendly in the place of really working hard to be worthy of their love and affection. Rumor has it that Dell used a get a significant portion of the pie for refusing to make any home use machine and laptop sans Windows for a long time and it has been only very recently that it decided to come out with laptops and desktops with pre-installed linux on it after overwhelming criticism and demands on its own website which it had opened for suggestions from people.

I am a firm believer in R&D for the benefit and growth of Technology and people who use them. R&D requires a lot of money and manpower and hence not everyone can engage in it. If a company has had a lot of money and hence can underwrite a lots of costs in certain areas it deems critical for its future business then I think it should be justified to do that even if its rivals become martyr in the process. But as in most segments of life, the end justify the means. Which means we have to look into the consequences of a company becoming market leader after using its money muscle to bring innovation and kill its rival by underwriting the costs. The free release of IE5, which was better than Netscape at that time, caused the sad demise of Netscape and Made IE the undisputed market leader. I was kinda happy with this as at that time I thought the customer got the best deal in the process. But it turns out Microsoft stopped doing any further developments and research on its IE platform for close to 5 years (or may be more) while people keep getting killed by thousands of worms and viruses which found IE as their perfect buddy. It however did come out with a patchy IE6 with Windows Xp (for compatibility issues) but that was it. In the end customer got a raw deal due to the market dominance of a behemoth who refused to further invest in R&D in a particular segment where it had the Lion's share. It only woke up after Firefox threatened its market share by coming out with a far better browser than IE6. This caused a sort of stampede and scrambling on the part of Microsoft and result is that they have come another lousy version of IE called Internet Explorer 7 which is bulky and slow and makes me angry whenever I have to use it. Firefox is a far better browser than IE7 as it is lean, mean, fast, free and more open standards compliant than Internet Explorer. Firefox has also been gobbling up browser share from the market at a steady pace. Just have a look at the browser statistics for your own satisfaction and you can notice that the market share of IE is going through a steady decline. I think the gloomy days for Microsoft are ahead if things keep going on like this and if they do not sit up.

So this is how the evolution works in business.
Stage 1: Here comes a small lean, mean and revolutionary company with innovative market product. It struggles and then wins the market from its rivals and kills them in competition.
Stage 2: The company becomes fat by the virtue of being the only market leader or monopoly. It would even try to to abuse its market position by refusing to further develop its product as it is already the only one in the market providing products in particular segment. Any new or small company which comes out will have to face the prospect of competing against a rival with bottomless pit of money or getting bought out by its rival in its infancy when it has a very small market value.
Stage 3: Regardless of the odds against survival on stage 2 a few small companies with dogged determination and good product do make it and survive and then grown up and beat the reigning market leader and go through their own Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3.

Updates
I just became aware of the fact that Microsoft is coming out with the next version of its crappy browser i.e., Internet Explorer 8. Wonder what people have to say about this? Go to this link for a good laugh and read the comment section!

For the sake of sanity

2008-02-23T19:53:00.017-06:00

For the sake of sanity, I have decided to explore the possibility of going on an internship / job for a year starting fall 2008. Hopefully the company should pay me well too for me to consider it as an attractive option!!!

In between check this funny jab at Windows Vista. I could have sent you the link to the article itself but I didn't, instead I sent you the link to the comments. It seems to me that Microsoft is the most hated tech company in the tech world as of now and that is not without reason. Consider its brand new and absolute crap OS Microsoft Vista. This one is pricey with inflated hardware requirements such as atleast 15 GB of installation size before you could start working on it. As all pervious version of windows it also doesn't have any concept of swap partition and will freely use your C:/ drive space to dump its file there at runtime. Result in layman term is that unless you find the garbage on regular basis and clean it yourself, your pc will seem to become slower with time (mind you they keep the garbage hidden in the hidden folders) and you have to have atleast 20-25GB of disk space dedicated for getting any meaningful performance out of it. Vista is also inefficient! Consider this, you would need atleast 2GB of memory for display to work properly in vista... seriously wtf? The swanky graphics which they purport as their USP is no match for what is available on some of the linux desktops (compiz, beryl)! If that was not enough to deter potential buyers of MS Vista, they have their own ingenious error message and notification system tightly integrated with Vista designed to ask the users stupid questions at every click of mouse button which would make anyone want to bite off the head of Steve Ballmer. Windows XP was stupid as well but it was not stupid enough to irritate its users by asking stupid question. Besides the good old games designed in the haydays of Microsoft like Red Alert will not work on Vista regardless of which mode you would want to run it on. Many open source compilers and development tools also refuse to work on vista. Anyway I do not have to use vista and I hope the same will go for you.

(Disclaimer: It is very unlikely that Steve Ballmer could actually come across this post using his mammoth Microsoft machinery but in the unlikely case when that does happen I would like to reassure him that he should not fear for his life or for his head to be exact, atleast not from me, as I do not intend to use vista in any reasonable period of time. )

Here is a demo of what linux can do for you!

Switch to Linux (or Mac if you prefer!)

The things only I could do

2008-01-30T22:11:00.000-06:00

I play a lot of racquet sports and my court shoes wear out earlier than usual. So I went today to buy a pair of those at a supermarket, bought them along with other stuff only to leave the shoes in an absent-minded manner in the trolley and came back home without them. I realized this long after I came back. Rest assured this is not the first time that I have done somethings like this.

Real smart. ain't it? :( *Head Desk*

I admit

2007-12-06T23:22:00.000-06:00

It is said the admission of a problem is the first step towards de-addiction. So there you go...

I 'think' I have a 'thinking' problem. Yes that is right I 'think' wayyy too much. 'Thinking anonymous' anyone??

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Too much sanity is madness!" - Scraped off from someone's page!

This week

2007-12-05T23:48:00.000-06:00

Saturday 1st Dec: Apprehensive about the coming week yet went to the art show and hung with Jason. Good times!!
Sunday 2nd December: Week is practically at my door stop, regardless I went to Kasman clan piano concert. It was amazing!
Monday 3rd December: Statistical Mechanics: 20+5 min presentation on superconductivity
Tuesday 4th December: Distributed Computing: Homework 4 source code submission - 4 assorted small projects, deadline 9:30 AM
Wednesday 5th December: Distributed Computing: Homework 4 demo - 11:30 AM
Wednesday 6th December: Database: Term Project demo - 10:00 AM (No sleep tonight!!!)
Thursday 7th December: Statistical Mechanics: Take home test
------------------------------------------------

Thankfully yesterday is over and I am ready to hit the bed!

Writing bug

2007-11-19T00:30:00.000-06:00

I think I have been bitten by the writing bug. I like writing not the totally interesting stuff but quite frankly mundane stuff that happens around me on a day-to-day basis. I do not write those stuff on my blog because I do not trust internet enough to tell all my goofy and sordid tales and I absolutely abhor maintaining a diary in which I have to write stuff for my own eyes only. I just can't produce for my self consumption! The capitalistic me wants me to produce only the consumable and profitable goods after all. So the Q arises where do the goods that I produce gets consumed? Well I write to people over long messages and sometimes even argue with them in those exchanges. Mostly I do it by putting my case of why what I am saying is absolutely important, interesting and correct knowing fully well that in reality it would actually be quite unimportant, drab, uninteresting and even pure fabrications at times. I use all the tricks of the trade such as repeating lies so many times that it becomes shiny truth, obfuscating the core of the argument by putting a totally irrelevant counter argument and sometime even making up facts. Most of the times I do it jokingly, sometimes half jokingly and at other times even in a quite serious fashion depending upon my mood and the nature of exchanges. Eventually everyone wisens up with time and this stops. But until then it is a lot of fun and has a lot of therapeutic values for the inner me writing it and reading all of that again a while after all that stops.

So today while doing all that kind of stuff, I realised that I am actually scared of going to India this coming December. Strike that, actually I think I am petrified of going back to my home knowing fully well that I have no choice but to go. The sole reason for my fears are small kids, yes you heard right, puny toddlers and I am scared of them!

There has been a population explosion in my near and extended family since the last time I was there and now there are like 5 new faces. For goodness sakes, I have become a real uncle and my parents have become grandparents since I been to India last and it is freaking me out. Do not take it wrong as I am pretty dang sure everyone (but me) have been playing their new roles pretty dang fine as far as I know however it is me that I am not so sure about.

So what is it like to be an uncle and being around kids all the time?
My answer is that "I don't know," seriously!

I think a lot of these problems has to do with my lack of knowledge of what my new role in the family would be. I have always been smug believing that family's well being revolved around my well being while knowing fully well that is not true (but at least I had the solace of those convenient lies which would give me strength whenever I needed). Now I do not even have the luxury of believing in those lies as I know for me to even believe that with those kids around me would be not only morally reprehensible but an unpardonable crime (based on the society's moral conscience and standards). I guess with great power comes great responsibility and with no power comes no responsibility..... errrrr.. right?

I am pretty sure I am facing an identity crisis here and I do not know how to deal with it. I do not feel that I have grown up at all in the last 10 years but the world around me has surely zoomed past me at such high speed that it is making me dizzy and confused. No kidding, I am mortified!

videos from another life

2007-11-16T13:24:00.000-06:00

I have always been looking for this original video and here it is. This particular one tells a lot about Indian classical music.

I practically grew up listening and watching these videos on Delhi Doordarshan (Indian National Television Channel).

Hibernate + psql + ant + jsp + java + apache-tomcat = head-desk

2007-11-05T00:49:00.000-06:00

UPDATES:

I finally managed to find all the pesky bugs and squashed them with great pleasure and satisfaction. In the very end here is the nugget of wisdom which I gathered from this terrible ordeal,

"WebServer and web related programming in general is just the crappiest job in the world."

Suck on that Web programmers of the world!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

type Exception report

message description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

org.apache.jasper.JasperException: org.hibernate.
exception.SQL GrammarException: could not execute query
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.
handleJspException(JspServletWrapper.java:541)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service
(JspServletWrapper.java:435)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile
(JspServlet.java:320)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service
(JspServlet.java:266)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.
java:803)

root cause

org.hibernate.exception.SQLGrammarException: could
not execute query
org.hibernate.exception.SQLStateConverter.convert
(SQLStateConverter.java:67)
org.hibernate.exception.JDBCExceptionHelper.convert
(JDBCExceptionHelper.java:43)
org.hibernate.loader.Loader.doList(Loader.java:2223)
org.hibernate.loader.Loader.listIgnoreQueryCache
(Loader.java:2104)
org.hibernate.loader.Loader.list(Loader.java:2099)
org.hibernate.loader.hql.QueryLoader.list
(QueryLoader.java:378)
org.hibernate.hql.ast.QueryTranslatorImpl.list
(QueryTranslatorImpl.java:338)
org.hibernate.engine.query.HQLQueryPlan.performList
(HQLQueryPlan.java:172)
org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.list(SessionImpl.
java:1121)
org.hibernate.impl.QueryImpl.list(QueryImpl.java:79)
dbexample.events.EventManager.listEvents
(EventManager.java:79)
dbexample.events.Eventbean.getEventList
(Eventbean.java:28)
org.apache.jsp.eventmanager_jsp._jspService
(eventmanager_jsp.java:100)
org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service
(HttpJspBase.java:70)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service
(HttpServlet.java:803)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.
service(JspServletWrapper.java:393)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile
(JspServlet.java:320)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service
(JspServlet.java:266)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service
(HttpServlet.java:803)

root cause

java.sql.SQLException: ERROR: relation
"events" does not exist
org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.
receiveErrorResponse(QueryExecutorImpl.java:1495)
org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.
processResults(QueryExecutorImpl.java:1279)
org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.
execute(QueryExecutorImpl.java:186)
org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.
execute(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:392)
org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.
executeWithFlags(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:330)
org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.
executeQuery(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:240)
org.hibernate.jdbc.AbstractBatcher.getResultSet
(AbstractBatcher.java:186)
org.hibernate.loader.Loader.getResultSet(Loader.
java:1787)
org.hibernate.loader.Loader.doQuery(Loader.java:674)
org.hibernate.loader.Loader.doQueryAndInitialize
NonLazyCollections(Loader.java:236)
org.hibernate.loader.Loader.doList(Loader.java:2220)
org.hibernate.loader.Loader.listIgnoreQueryCache
(Loader.java:2104)
org.hibernate.loader.Loader.list(Loader.java:2099)
org.hibernate.loader.hql.QueryLoader.list
(QueryLoader.java:378)
org.hibernate.hql.ast.QueryTranslatorImpl.list
(QueryTranslatorImpl.java:338)
org.hibernate.engine.query.HQLQueryPlan.performList
(HQLQueryPlan.java:172)
org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.list
(SessionImpl.java:1121)
org.hibernate.impl.QueryImpl.list
(QueryImpl.java:79)
dbexample.events.EventManager.listEvents
(EventManager.java:79)
dbexample.events.Eventbean.getEventList
(Eventbean.java:28)
org.apache.jsp.eventmanager_jsp._jspService
(eventmanager_jsp.java:100)
org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service
(HttpJspBase.java:70)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service
(HttpServlet.java:803)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service
(JspServletWrapper.java:393)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile
(JspServlet.java:320)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service
(JspServlet.java:266)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java
:803)

note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the Apache Tomcat/6.0.14 logs.

Electric Car

2007-10-07T13:17:00.000-05:00

Today I watched an interesting documentary "Who killed the electric car??" The documentary resonated with me on many levels in the sense that me being an engineer I care about design of automotive equipment and appreciate the difficulty which goes behind designing one. I also care about the environment in a non intrusive way i.e., I want to do my bit for the environment but do not expect every one to understand or do things the way I do. The third part which was most interesting for me was the amount of politics and millions of $ which goes in defining the development of these technological marvels. People want better, cheaper, reliable and environment friendly cars while at the same time the corporate interest especially in the oil and automotive sector lies in maintaining the status quo to keep their profit margins intact or even greater than in the past as the non-renewable natural resources gets less abundant and their demand grows. They might argue that electricity is more dangerous in terms of environmental pollution but the fact is it is not because of their efficiency. They could also argue that batteries of today are not good enough or reliable enough for them to make any commercial sense and their demand is non existent. They are wrong, as long as they do not understand the importance of electric cars in future automotive industry they will not invest in the electric technologies, hence there will not be cheap electric car and hence very little public demand. It is all just a matter of perception. Just think about oil wars going on in the middle east and Africa and you would know why electric cars are important. This is a good documentary and you should watch it.

There is a new upcoming car company called Tesla Motors. It would be unveiling its Roadster range of stylish electric cars in 2008. Admittedly they are pricey in the range of $98,000 and there is a long line even before they are released but this car seems to be well designed from today's standards. Obviously I can not afford to buy it but if you could, you should and if not atleast try to buy the shares of this company when it goes public next year. It would be a good investment! In short, much to the dismay of the cartel of oil companies and the behemoth Detroit auto companies who are not willing to change their ways, the future of electric car is here to stay and will get better and brighter as the battery technologies improve.

I think I will start becoming more regular on the blog world from now on but the topics would be wildly varying!

My life in fall

2007-10-04T13:40:00.000-05:00

I am grumpy since yesterday. I do not have time to do anything these days. Granted I do not have a life as well so by that it could be deduced that I do not need time for myself, but hey I do still want to have a life and hence time.. right? Right! My life is revolving around classes, assignments, projects, research etc etc. I really want to read one book every week but I realize that it would require one complete day out of each week (yes I read one book in a day that is how slow I am). I do not think I have that kind of free time this month, yes that is right not one day in this whole freaking month and this month has just started! I just look at the three books lying on my bedside every night, salivate thinking that I would read them when I get time and fall asleep.

On the upside I am going to Seattle and then San Diego (work related mostly) in the week of 14th and I hope to see the cities as well. Go me!

Racquetball

2007-09-23T02:33:00.000-05:00

No pictures you said? There you go....

Car Trouble: again

2007-08-29T23:49:00.000-05:00

Today the trunk of my car refused to open though it opened yesterday without any trouble. It is making weird noises as if it needs lubrication but how do I put oil in it if it refuses to open!! I think I am just plain unlucky with cars. :(( *crying*

Updates 09/04/07:

Either my car's trunk is haunted or at the very least is very whimsical/ retarded. It sometimes open manually using the key and sometime doesn't. However it never responds to remote or the button inside the car but I know both of them work as when I press the buttons a lever inside the trunk lid makes a noise of turning. I have already lubricated every nuts, bolts, levers and other parts what I could see connected to the trunk lid. Hence a reasonable deduction can be made that the lever inside the lid of the trunk turns but is not able to latch on to the opening mechanism or is slipping by some reason.

Plan:

I need to open the inside covering of the lid to check out what is going on! The lid is covered by a carpet covering with velvet screws connecting the carpet to the inside of lid body. One needs to be extra careful while opening the screws or the screws may end up being messed up and useless!

Cheese addiction

2007-08-13T01:12:00.000-05:00

Yes this is true, an addiction to cheese!

Recently I bought a quarter of a 1 inch thick disk of aged Provolone cheese having approximately 3 inch radius, i.e., about 7 inch^3 of pure Provolone cheese. This stuff is costly and I bought on a whim while shopping at publix "where shopping is a pleasure." When I bought this costly piece of cheese, I had no idea of what to do with it except with the vague notion that it could be used while cooking certain kind of Italian food. Well I did cook those food items and they turned out to be yummy but I forgot to put this particular type of cheese while preparing those food item as it was hidden deep inside my freezer. Recently I found this quarter disk of cheese again but had absolutly no idea how to use to. So to put it to good use I decided to start eating it in small pieces and whoops now I am addicted to its tangy taste. In the last 2 hours I have run to my kitchen like 12 times to get a small fix of this cheese. Now this creates a whole lot of problems now that I am addicted to it.

1. Cheese will soon be over at this rate of consumption. What then?
2. This cheese is damn costly, meaning I do have the option of going bankrupt if the addiction continues.

Alternative, What if I open a cheese business? On the one hand I could get my fix of cheese for almost free of cost and on the other hand there is the danger of me eating all the cheese and hence having to close down of the business itself due to mounting losses.

Talk about the dilemma of being a geek cheese eater! huh! Not cool ...

Moving sucks

2007-07-09T22:02:00.000-05:00

I have to move again, first time in 3 years, this time within the same city. The place where I live these days has pretty much became a dump with very little parking place and the apt complex almost going in a state of disrepair. The interior has also become unlivable thanks due to the lack of efforts on part of my roomamte and me giving up on his lack of initiative. I think I am going to move in a single bedroom apartment, enough with the roommate troubles. A suitable and safe apartment finding process is underway!

Fictional Kryptonite is real

2007-04-24T15:00:00.000-05:00

This post is solely for those who have watched Superman Returns. The fictional mineral Kryptonite which sucked the power of Superman is actually real. A mineral of the exact same chemical composition was found recently in a mine in Serbia however the mineral is pretty harmless. It is white in color against green as was shown the movie. According to international naming conventions it will be called Jadarite and not Kryptonite as the mineral doesn't contain Krypton, a real element in the periodic table. Follow the link for the complete story. I found it to be amusing.

The blogger inside me

2007-04-06T22:25:00.000-05:00

The blogger inside me has been nudging me to write another post. Infact I have been contemplating about it myself but I am not even sure I have anything to write except ranting about my incompetence. I am not sure that is a good idea.

There has been another thought, why not write about the absolute uselessness of writing a rant. Why not write about why we get affected by things happening around them i.e., why do we become happy, sad or worried? What can we do to make ourselves insulated from the mayhem surrounding us? Will it be a good idea to actually insulate or disconnect ourselves? Do we really need to have sympathy or empathy for things happening around us? I think I have some definite theories which tries to answer these Qs but my thoughts are not very coherent enough at this moment to present lucidly in this post. I guess I will think about it a little more and then start writing again.

Darwins God

2007-03-18T16:49:00.000-05:00

I am sick these days with flu. So most of the time is spent either sleeping or browsing internet. Lately I have found out that my religious beliefs centers around agnosticism, which means that I do not know for sure if God exists, doesn't mean I believe in god. So I joined a group called Atheist, agnostic and non religious. Most of the debates that happens in the group are Christian vs. Atheists. This group has a lot of intelligent militant atheist who are trying to disprove the very notion of existence of god based on Christian theology books, their inconsistencies and historical facts. I guess their anger is justified because theologists are trying to intrude in the territory of science with logic defying concepts such as Intelligent Design. I have to say on a non-partisan basis that atheists have actually been winning all the debates. In that group I came across a funny satire on religious beliefs which I would like to quote.

"I believe in fairies. Fairies are real. Fairies have special dust that makes you fly. I know this because I read it in Peter Pan. Peter Pan is a book so that proves all of my statements. In Peter Pan they mention the stars and the sun. The stars and the sun are science so scientifically Peter Pan has been proven. Therefore Never Never Land is real because it is in Peter Pan and there are kids there that never grow old. I know that someday I will be able to go to Never Never Land because it exists and I only have to believe."

Anyway coming to the point I came across a rather long but well written and researched article in NY times with the title Darwin's God. This article explores the idea of God from an evolutionary point of view i.e., why humans felt the need to believe in someone supernatural? Is evolution responsible for it too? Is the need to believe in something supernatural hard wired in us? I think this article is well worth reading so check it out.

जाने कहां गये वो दिन ....

2007-03-01T13:33:00.000-06:00

जाने कहां गये वो दिन, कहते थे तेरी राह में
नजरों को हम बिछाएंगे
चाहे कहीं भी तुम रहो, चाहेंगे तुमको उमर भर
तुमको ना भूल पाएंगे
जाने कहां गये वो दिन ....

मेरा कदम जहां पडे, सजदे किये थे यार ने
मुझको रुला रुला दिया, जाती हुई बहार ने
जाने कहां गये वो दिन ....

अपनी नजर में आज कल, दिन भी अंधेरी रात है
साया ही अपने साथ था, साया ही अपने साथ है
जाने कहां गये वो दिन ....

Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintainance

2007-01-31T23:49:00.000-06:00

So I have a big job interview tomorrow and here I am reading this book. That pretty much sums up my seriousness and screwed up priorities towards life. Any way I find this book to be quite fantastic although I have read only 3 out of its 33 odd chapters so far.

I have had a feeling for quite sometime that I am at a crucial juncture of life philosophically and spritually. I sometime find this world as unreal, my life as devoid of any purpose and my achievement as quite worthless. Trust me when I am thinking those things I am anything but clinically depressed. On the contrary it feels as if I am thinking everything quite clearly, perhaps in a manner better and clearer than I ever did. It is one of those feelings when in the middle of your slumber on your cozy bed somebody plucks you out and drops you in a tank filled with really cold water. Initially there would be a shock, a little bit of grumbling too as the cold water will snap you out of the slumber in a matter of seconds but if you are in the cold water for a some time you would learn to appreciate it better as it would give you a totally different perspective from what you had on your cozy bed. So I get in to the mood for harmless philosophical tirade a few times a year, what is the big deal?

I want to know and understand what is the purpose for existance? Can it be determined for sure that there is always a purpose? (Before answering the second question the first question is perhaps presumptious.) Was it a quirk of fate? I think I have become disillusioned with the whole concept of religion, God and all kind of supernatural miracles and have decided to believe in only what I can understand, explain or rationalize. No wonder sometime I think our existance is trivial part of a long journey of evolution, part of a series of evolutions in the history of endless time and timeless universe and I believe that this notion could actually be quite true. I know where my thought are coming from, i.e., it is the sumtotal of my education and my belief in scientific discovery. Science and logic as such lowers our self esteem but makes us more humble because it tells us that we humans are not special, we are just another species of animals albeit more advanced in brain development and self conciousness. Why should we always have pleasing thoughts which would in turn nurture our self esteem? Why do we not want to the even bring the notion to our mind that every thing in this universe can not be pleasing and that the universe is not and can not be centred around the needs, desires, thoughts and wisdom of human species? I have been thinking on these lines for quite sometime although not quite scientifically per se but with the guiding principles of scienece in a philosophical manner. After reading just first three chapters of this book, I found that it has a lot of gems of philosophy in it embedded between innocuous talks. Some of the arguments in this book are quite arguable while some others are very convincing and refreshing. A portion of the third chapter talks about science, mathematics, ghosts and our perceptions towards them which is quite interesting to me. I will quote extensivly from those talks in next para but before I start that let me tell you the writer Robert M. Pirsig studied chemestry and philosophy (B.A.) and journalism (M.A.) at the University of Minnesota and he studied Oriental philosophy at Banaras Hindu University, India which makes me all the more in awe of oriental philosophy.

--------------
after a while he say "Do you believe in ghosts?"
"No," I say.
"Why not?"
"Because they are un-sci-en-ti-fic."
"They contain no matter," I continue, "and have no energy and therefore, according to laws of science, do not exist except in peple's minds."
"Of course," I add, "the laws of science contain no matter and have no energy either and therefore do not exist except in people's mind. It is best to be completly scientific about the whole thing and refuse to believe in either ghosts or the laws of science. That way you are safe. That doesn't leave you very much to believe in, but that is scientific too."
"I do not know what you are talking about," Chris says. "One of the kids at the YMCA camp says he believes in ghosts."
"He was just spoofing you."
"No he wasn't. ......."
"what is his name?" Sylvia says.
"Tom White Bear."
"Ohhh, Indian!" (Red Indian :D)
I laugh. "I guess I'm going to have to take that back a little," I say. "I was thinking of European ghosts."
"What is the difference?"
"Well, Indians sometimes have a different way of looking at things, which I am not saying is completly wrong. Science is not part of Indian Tradition."
"Sure I say reversing myself, "I believe in ghosts too."
"It's completly natural," I say, "to think of Europeans who believed in ghosts or Indians who believed in ghosts as ignorant. The scientific point of view has wiped out every other view to a point where they all seem primitive, so that if a person today talks about ghosts or spirits he is considered ignorant or may be nutty. It is just all but completly impossible to imagine a world where ghosts can actually exist."
"my own opinion is that the intellect of modern man isn't that superior. IQs aren't that much different. Those Indians and medival men were just as intelligent as we are, but the context in which they thought was completly different. Within that context of thoughts, ghosts and spirits are quite as real as atoms, particles, photons and quants are to modern man. In that sense I believe in ghosts. Modern man has his ghosts and spirits too, you know."
"What?"
"Oh, the laws of Physics and of logic ... the number system ... the principle of algebric substituion. They are ghosts. We just believe in them so thoroughly that they seem real."
"For example, it seems completly natural to presume that gravitation and laws of gravitation existed before Issac Newton. It would sound completly nutty to think that untill seventeenth century there was no gravity."
"So when did this law start? Has is always existed?"
"what I am driving at," I say, "is the notion that before the beginning of the earth, before the sun and the stars were formed, before the primal generation of anything, the law of gravity existed."
"Sitting there, having no mass of its own, no energy of its own, not in anyone's mind because there wasn't anyone, not in space because there was no space either, not anywhere-this law of gravity still existed?"
"If that law of gravity existed," I say, "I honestly don't know what a thing has to do to be nonexistent. It seems to me that law of gravity has passed every test of nonexistence there is. You cannot think of a single attribute of nonexistence that that law of gravity didn't have. Or a single scientific sttribute of existence it did have. And yet it is still 'common sense' to believe that it existed."
"Well, I predict that if you think about it long enough you will find yourself going round and round and round and round untill you finally reach only one possible, rational, intelligent conclusion. The law of gravity and gravity itself did not exist before issac Newton. No other conclusion makes sense."
"And what that means is that that law of gravity exists nowhere except in people's heads! It's a ghost! We are all very conceited about running down other people's ghosts but just as ignorant and barbaric and superstitious about our own."
"Why does everyone believe in the laws of gravity then?"
"Mass hypnosis. In a very orthodox form known as education."
"The problem, the contradiction that scientists are stuck with, is that of mind. Mind has no matter or energy but they can not escape its predominance over everything they do. Logic exists in mind. Number only exists in mind. i do not get upset when scientists say that ghosts exists in mind. It is only that gets me. Science is only in your mind too, it is just that that doesn't make it bad. Or ghosts either."
"Laws of nature are human inventions, like ghosts. Laws of logic, of mathematics are also human inventions, like ghosts. The whole blessed thing is a human invention, including the idea that it isn't a human invention. The world has no existance whatsoever outside the human imagination. It's all a ghost, and in the antiquity was so recognised as a ghost, the whole blessed world we live in. It's run by ghosts. We see what we see because these ghosts show it to us, ghosts of Moses and Christ and the Buddha, and Plato, and Descartes, and Rousseau and Jefferson and lincoln, on and on and on. Issac Newton is a very good ghost. One of the best. Your common sense is nothing more than voices of thousands and thousands of these ghosts from the past. Ghosts and more ghosts. Ghosts trying to find their place among the living."
----------
Care to comment on it?

Analysis of me

2007-01-20T12:01:00.000-06:00

Apparently I have too much time to do any good! After answering around 75 odd Qs on Humanmetrics this is what I found about myself!

I am:
* moderately expressed introvert
* moderately expressed intuitive personality
* distinctively expressed thinking personality
* moderately expressed judging personality

My type is INTJ. Incase you wonder what INTJ is go to this page

Summing up '06 and prognosis for future

2006-12-31T15:42:00.000-06:00

So this is the last day of 2006 and 2007 is round the corner. I think I will write about a whole range of topics in this post rather than writing on only one topic. So this Post will have three main focus areas, myself, the world in general and India.

MYSELF
I think a lot of things have changed in my life in last one year. Looking backwards, I was driving towards Miami from Tampa on a Pontiac Grand Prix '06 exactly a year ago and the whole trip turned out to be a complete waste in every aspect except experience. So I decided to stay in Birmingham this New Year and see how grand the celebrations are int his town. Sometime In begining of '06 I started this blog not so much because I wanted to vent out my anger and feelings but on a lighter note of writing things which I found interesting and in the process training myself to be a more foreceful and articulate writer. I think this objective has been achieved as I have noticed that my thought process have become more organised and the train of thoughts donot come in random order but in a more structured fashion. They are also becoming more forceful and persuasive. I always wished that I develop my analytic ability to be more incisive, which means that at the very first glance at a never seen before problem or argument, I should be able to notice its strongest and weakest points. I know it sounds a little abstract but I am also aware that it is a feasible idea so yes it was my goal and I think I am reaching there. On a more personal note I think these days I am more happy and driven than I was before as now I look for objectives everywhere and in everything and they keep me busy.

THE WORLD
The world has become remarkably different in 2006 in a single year than in past. It has become a more dangerous place. The religous and ideological intolerance is gaining ground world over in both active and passive ways. Politics and religion are also becoming two sides of the same coin in almost every country which was not so in the past 50 years.
The whole of middle east and islamic world is becoming more prone to conflict than ever in the past. Look at Labenon, Palestine, Iran & Iraq. Iraq seems to be like a car falling off the cliff and it looks like no one can stop it untill it hits the ground and comes to a standstill all by itself. I know lots of people will die from all the side in this process, blood will be spilled and a many other ghastly things will happen there in the process but this is how the world is! There are different levels of truth and evryone live in their own level of truth and see the realities of the world from their own perspectives which color their thoughts. People there are not sure why these things are happening to them, why everyone is killing everybody else. The American soldiers there are not sure why they are fighting in an alien land for an alien cause especially when their own motherland is not direclty in danger. Is there any persuasive yet potically correct rationale for fighting there which doesnn't deal with BS like need for Democracy and human rights especially when it is hard to explain why situation today is far worse than it was before invasion? However I am not so pessimistic about Afganistan when compared with the situation in Iraq. I think situation there is under better control and peace is returning especially for common people. I know what I am saying is in conflict with the facts in terms of number of fights between allied forces and elements of Taliban and the number of people killed in the conflict there in 06, but the composition of Talibs do not really reflect the common people of Afganistan either.

Pakistan is spiralling towards a path of fundamentalism, intolerance and radicalism. I think the situation there today is nighmarish but we can always draw solace from the fact that it is better than what is going to happen there tomorrow. I shudder with the prospect of even thinking about how things happening there today will affect the future of this world irreversibly especially with its appetite for radicalism and policies regarding its nuke walmart.

In my opinion situation in Korean peninsula is very stable even after all the belligerant postures of North Koreans, exploding nuclear bomb and launching missiles. In my opinion these are nothing but bargaining chips for the North Koreans as after all they can't consume their missiles and bombs when they are having such an acute shortage of food and energy. Moreover no one can't really afford to intervene in the situation there either when you consider that there are more than 80,000 pieces of North Korean heavy artillary up in the mountains barely 40 miles away from Seoul one barrage of which could turn the whole of Seoul in a mangled mess of glass, concrete and steel and would bring unimaginable number of casualities. However I would be willing to grant the fact that North Korean belligrant postures has definitly rattled the Japanse policymakers and they are thinking again of arming themselves to the teeth to be able to prevent or retaliate aganst any untoward scenario.

A short note about Africa and South America. These two continents, in my opinion, are overall becoming more stable and progressive than in past, except a few aberrations like Somalia and Sudan. They are also developing faster with their recent finds of natural wealth and resources like natural gas. The population there have better living condition and better access to sources of livelihood, education, healthcare and sanitation though I have to admit they are still far far behind from the desired level in all these aspects.

INDIA
2006 has been a grand year for India. The year saw BSE sensex shooting past Dow Jones for a brief period of time. The Year also saw the highest growth rate in economy since Independence. Indian companies has started becoming truely global and started expanding its footprint all over the world by merger, acquisitions and good old buying and selling. The economy is booming and it seems the the fruits of economic progress is finally started tricking to the people of small villages. The year also saw marked shift in the perception of Government of India towards naxal menace. I think the overall internal security scenario of India in 06 was better than in any year in last decade. The year also saw some mindless decision being taken by Indian Political class in the name of social justice for which the people of India may have to pay a heavy price in the long run. '06 also saw the pace of developemnt in key Infrasctructure projects slowing down. I believe that '07 will continue to see a booming economy with the GDP increase touching double figure because of the sound economic principles of market.

Wish you all a Very Happy New Year '07. Stay Beautiful!

My Screwed Up PC

2006-12-05T22:27:00.000-06:00

It has been rightly said, the lesser you have the lesser you want and the more you have the more you want. In the winter of 2004 I bought a brand new PC Emachine T3256 from Circuitcity for some $750 with mail in rebate valued around $250. Intially I was content and happy that I bought a really good PC. Slowly I realised that I paid too much for it as It came with an extra $75 sales tax, a garangutan (17 in) CRT monitor which was a piece of crap, key board and mouse which I really didn't like at all, and a speaker which were so small that I could not hear the music even outside my room. But I was still happy as I didn't care if I had spent more, as the PC seemed to looked good, felt good and assumingly had good configuration. To make up for the things which didn't exist, within one year I threw away my CRT monitor, speaker, key board and mouse and bought a Logitech Z3e 2.1 speaker system, microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse combo, LCD monitor, tv tuner card, wireless usb adapter and mic. With time I also realised that the PC which I used to consider atleast good performance wise was not so good afterall because it could not run graphics intensive programs with satisfaction and speed, was extremly slow with some other, was taking a lot of time to boot and other things. As I never really give up on things, so this thanksgiving I bought a really good graphics card XFX GeForce 7600 GS (256 mb) PCI Express 16X with dual head support from buy.com. Today I recieved the shipment and I was excited. I removed all wires attached with my PC, opened the PC cabinet only to find that this PC's motherboard doesn't have a PCI Express 16X slot, which means that this card can not be installed on this motherboard. ............ crap!!!!!

The Economy that we live in

2006-11-26T16:27:00.000-06:00

So In my last post I raised the question that what kind of economy we actually live in and also provided the answer that we live in a quasi-Socialistic partially Capitalistic kind of economy. The question is how? Before I start answering the question, let me describe Capitalism and Socialism in a way which is easier to understand. (Just note that Communism is an even extreme form of Socialism)

Capitalism and Charles Darvin's theory of evolution aka "Survival of the Fittest" are very similar. It basically says that we and all other living creatures in this world are always in a state of struggle to survive. Of all the animals, only those will survive who are the most adaptive and competitive of others in their area of influence. The rest will and should die during the battle of survival so that next generation of species which comes out would be stronger than their predecessor with better chances of survival. Similarly in a capitalistic economy the companies and individuals are similar to the animals of the planet, where people and companies they work for, are competing against each other on the basis of their ideas, motivation, innovation, resources and experience in the market place for survival or profitability.

So in the same parlence of theory of evolution, where would socialism stand? If we extend the Charles Darvin's theory it would sound something like this. All the animals of the planet has a right to exist. It is the weak animals who do all the work of gathering the food and making themselves fat while the stronger animals are opressing them by eating the food gathered by weaker animals or eating the weak animals itself. As this is not right hence weak animals should unite, usurp the powers of the stronger animals and distribute it among everyone so that there is an equal distribution of power (wealth). They do not answer the question, why would it motivate the strong animals to remain strong in that case and strive for being stronger. They never answer the question why would a gazelle want to run faster in case of socialism as there are no lions in the jungle allowed to hunt them. If the lions are not allowed to hunt, will they remain ferocious, powerful and able to hunt a few generation down the path of evolution? It would simply result in them becoming as meek as the next gazelle. No doubt rabbit will become bigger and will have almost the same power as the next gazelle or next lion in this case, but they will cease to produce as many babies as they do today because they would no longer feel threatened. What will happen to gazelle? Well the gazelle would lose their ability to run faster and they will become as slow as the next tortoise. If the rabbit is not threatened then what will happen to the foxes, eagles or lions. Well either they will have to become extinct or they will have to modify or get rid of their basic instincts and food habits. What happens if the lion is not able to change his food habits and decides to hunt, should he be prosecuted by a bunch of rabbits and sent to a labour camp for not agreeing to the collective will of the rest of the animal society? Does it even sound fair? Are you kidding me... it sounds atrociously unfair towards all those animals as all of them are loosing their best charecterstics which defines them.

As we human being like to think of ourselves as not completly animals, evenif that is not true, we actually cant survive in either of the two scenarios. Most among us have an innate belief in the power of personal initiative, ingenuity and enterprise. We like ourselves to be master of our own destiny. We like everyone to be able to get what they deserve or are capable of, if they are making concerted efforts. But at the same time we also wouldn't like a scenario where someone who is incapable of survivng in the the fierce competition is allowed to die. We certianly would not like a really strong company in the market to undercut the weaker competitors by using all the resources it has to become a monopoly. It would be undesirable because the monopoly will lose the motivation to compete and innovate as there are no competitor left to threaten its market share. Most recent example that comes to my mind is Microsoft and its Internet Explorer. After pushing netscape out of business, Microsoft didn't feel the need to update its buggy browser for many years until a credible competitor (firefox) came back in the market. We have certain safety nets like Social security system, Anti trust laws, Bankruptcy protection, Banking regulations among a bunch of others precisely to prevent these unfortunate scenarios. In a pure capitalistic type economy these safety nets are not desirable as they are considered as extra-market forces or regulators. These regulators would ensure that a single biggest fish doesn't exist in a pond but that there are atleast two big fish. What these regulators are essentially doing is that they are taking away the potential of one of the fish which could have become the biggest one, if left without any kind of interfence, and distributing the usurped potential to rest of the fish in the pond. This whole work of the regulator is not very Capitalistic but it is in essence being done to save Capitalism. This shows that Capitalism can't survive on its own.

Take the example of Winn-Dixie. It recently sought bankruptcy protection citing Walmart as a threat to its business, because it could not compete in the market or could not attract enough consumers to its store to remain profitable. Why, when Publix and Target are still survivng and making profit? May be because the rest changed their marketing strategy to compete and Winn-Dixie could not adapt. Target started specialising in things it did while Publix decided to make shopping experience a little better than the rest and hence its slogan, "Where Shopping is a Pleasure." So did Winn-Dixie really need bankruptcy protection for its inefficiency? Should not it be allowed to die, so that its debt burden need not be carried by its shareholders and lending banks. Well the answer lies in both a yes and no.

This discussion can not possibly be over if I fail to write about Walmart as it is in many ways increasingly being used as an indicator of all the rights and wrongs plaguing the economy. People hate it but still can not stop themselves buying their day to day stuff from one of those ubiquitous Walmart stores. No doubt Walmart has indeed become very efficient in what it does due to Capitalism but does it really mean that everyone should hate it? Did anyone of those haters stop themseleves and asked why is it that they hate walmart so much? Their argument could be that it pays too low a wage. Well a news for them, walmart always pays wages above the minimum wage stipulated by the elected goverment in that state and if that wage is still low then the people are at fault and not the company, because their goverment is not increasing the minimum wage. Besides people are not forced to work at walmart for low wages, they can stop working there whenever they want to. I think why people hate walmart is because they think walmart has become too powerful in their lives and it carries a lot of muscle in the market. They do not want to go to Walmart but still end up going there for most of their groceries as they can not find those things so cheap anywhere else. They probably would hate themselves doing what they do not want to do, I know I will. They however, in my opinion, do not understand that walmart indeed has made a lot of companies lean, mean and more efficient, both those who work for it and those who compete with Walmart. Those who have failed to adapt, or modify their competing strategy find people not buying their goods and hence getting themselves out of business. I would also like to say that not everything that walmart does is above board morally but most of its practices, for which it is criticised so much, are as a matter of fact legally valid . So if you really want to find fault with Walmart you better start by first changing your laws and legal system and pray to God that Walmart doesn't change like a chamaleon, how it does business, while remaining profitable and competitive at the same time.

The Great Depression

2006-11-19T22:09:00.000-06:00

They say that a pen is mightier than a sword. I believe them as a sword can only kill one person at a time but a pen instead can conquer millions of minds, which in turn can also control the hands holding the swords.

Recently I felt out of depth with my ideas. It seemed as if I haven't read enough to understand what I should be thinking. So I decided to read more. I chose "Grapes of wrath" by Steinbeck, and I found out it to be a true masterpiece. The novel brings to fore the horrors of unbrindled Capitalism during the time of the great depression of 1930's and the resultant plight of small farmers. The story is centred around an Oklahoma Joad family who lost their farming land and home in which they had lived for generations, to banks. They lost their homes & farmlands bacause of loss of crops due to draught which is considered as worst in the climatologial history, failure to repay bank debts accrued and increasingly lower prices on their crop. The farmers and their family once driven out of their land had no means to survive, as hardly any jobs were available. The Joad family was not the only one in the total destruction of livelyhood and penury as there were hundrads of thousands of of farming families like them in central United States. These farmers desperate to find job sold all their belonging for very small price, left their land and home and moved to California, which was famous for lush green valleys and fruit and cotton farms at that time. Many perished in the journey and those survived found to their horror that they are not the only one there looking for job but thousand others who migrated to California from different states. The migrants were shown to be systamaticaly opressed purely for economic reasons where big corporations would auction the job to the lowest bidder. The small farmers and poor migrants were not allowed to organise and protest against the injustice by whatever means necessary. Economically the problems had many facets which are as follow

An abundance of labour and too few jobs. No restriction on how low wages can go.
Small farming companies can not compete with big corporations as they pretty much control the prices of the products in the market and would stipulate the wages. The banks which loaned the small farmers were also owned by big corporations who controls the land.
Bacause of extemely low wages people were not able to buy and consume what they have been producing resulting in a glut of products in the market which would in turn cause lowering of the prices of commodities and pressururise the profit margin of the small farmers and corporations. To survive, these small farmers and corporations would further lowers the wages. This whole vicious cycle brought the situation to such bleak levels that people would fight between themselves to find a job, and if they could find a job then sometime the whole family had to work the whole day just to be able to have decent meals at the end of the day.
The irony was that the people were starving during theis economic crisis and big corporations were burning and destroying food so as to keep their prices on the level it already was. The rationale was that if everyone gets the food, which is anyway spoiling in the godowns or farms, then no one has any reason to buy them.

I have always been a great fan of Ayn Rand and her ideas of capitalism though not to an extreme that she advocated. According to her, the only reason that people should work is to satisfy their own needs, egoes and selfish motives, with the assumption that these individual small efforts will actually cascade to benefit the whole society and economy by removing the inefficiency and nurturing the hardy and talented. Pricipally she advocated an absolutly free economy where there should be a total absence of license quote regime and only force allowed to regulate the market and economy whould be the market and economy itself. However the crucial question is, will such a model of free market economy actually work? I would say no, it is not possible! We need to look back at the history to learn our lessons. An unregulated market and banking system combined with poor infrastructure and unsound fiscal policies actually caused the depression of 1930's. The second relevant question is, How can one charecterize the kind of economy we live in? My answer to this question is that we actually live in a quasi-socialistic and partially Capitalistic type economy evenif it sounds like heresy. How can that even be true will come in the next part!

Updates on my car!

2006-11-07T21:30:00.000-06:00

So as I mentioned earlier I have a new project which keeps me busy these days, that is how to restore my car to a working condition.

Well I got the car working, fixed the rear suspension (control arm) problem with the help of Aaron, without whose help it could not have been done. Moreover I drove my car today from Jon's scrap yard in North Birmingham to my home in South Birmingham without any hitch, which means the car's engine didn't suffer any damage in the accident and is fine. Thanks Jon for letting me keep my car in your scrapyard for so many days and for helping me in numerous other ways for which I can not thankyou enough. There are a number of other people who have been patient with me and helped me so far in this small crisis whose name also need to be mentioned particularly Amit Singh, Aubery Scott, Jimmy (James Andrew), Kshitiz Neroorkar, Manish Mittal and Nolan Carpenter among others.

I still need to work on the front body of the car as it seems to be a little misaligned because of which the hood is not closing down. Hopefully I will get the car in a respectable driving condition within a month although it may not look good which I can not afford to care about anyway these days.

In between if you got some time then try to solve a really interesting and addictive set of puzzles called Klueless at http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris-2006/irising/klueless/ . I am at stage 11 and eating my fingernails.

Sad News

2006-10-24T13:54:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to let you know that I had a car accident a few days ago. I survived without any scratches but my car didn't seem to. It happened because it was raining, my tires were a little worn out and hydroplaning. I tried to control my car and that is what caused the crash. As soon as I pressed the break sensing that something was wrong with the car as it was gaining speed and losing direction for no obvious reason, its tarted spinning like a top, a good 3-4 spins before it finally came to rest hanging on a ridge to the side of the road, smashed against a mud wall.

On the brighter side I think I have a new source of motivation.... to restore my car if I can get the rear left axle fixed by some one else. So if I could find the part that I am looking for, then I can get started. It would be quite a help if anyone could tell me about any junkyard in Birmingham which could have parts from Infiniti J30 so that I could fix my car.

10 reasons to never clean your house

2006-10-11T00:23:00.000-05:00

1. The House was just too dirty when I moved in. There is just no use trying to clean up.
2. I have never cleaned in my whole life.
3. I do not care about cleanliness. Oh you do not believe me, look at my room!
4. The lease agreement didn't ask me to keep the house clean.
5. I forget about cleaning things.
6. Convenience is the most important thing which should drive the life.
7. I have no time left in my life for household chores.
8. I have smaller room. The one with bigger room should have more responsibilities.
9. I never agreed to cleaning any part of the house, so accepting responsibility for not doing it doesn't arise.
10. I hardly live in the house so I am not responsible for keeping the house clean.

Oh yeah these asinine reasons are for real and were given by my roommate (parasite) of one year for not cleaning or owning up any responsibilities towards the house he lives in. So I just snapped a few days ago and asked him to move out as I had enough of his BS. Well he cleaned the house for the first time in one year. Apparently he wants to stay but I still want him out. I just do not want to call the cop as yet. I hope it doesn't turn ugly!

A Temptation

2006-10-02T01:16:00.000-05:00

I have been thinking to write about myself, about my personality, about how I think or where my thoughts are usually. But it got me thinking, why is it that I want to write about myself or rather write about how I think about myself and what will I accompalish If I really do that? Is it because my vanity is getting the better of my sense of judgement? Is it because I want the world to believe something about me which I am not? Or am I just desperate to boast the miniscule amount of knowledge that I think I have. It occurs to me that truth is always starker than the lies we put in front of others. We always try to arrange things in a way which might look better and thus disturbing the natural order. We call it need for rearrangement for the better so that we look better and feel better .... which is where again the question of vanity comes into picture.

I will not claim or say that I do not want myself to look good or seem good in the eyes of others and hence do not do any thing which is aimed towards that end. All I can say that I am always acutely aware of my weaknesses. It is just that it takes a lot of self control not to fall in that trap, the kind which I clearly do not have and hence here I am, writing about myself!

A New Website

2006-09-15T16:04:00.000-05:00

I have started job hunting a few weeks ago and found it annoying that many companies just were not letting me post my research summary with the job application as the research summary file was >500KB and hence becoming too big of a file size to upload in their database. So I thought what the heck, lets create a website where they will be forced to look at the images if I send them the link as part of the application process. The link of the page is here. I guess it has most of the stuff about me which you already know like I dont have a sense of webpage design, have been a lousy student among other things. Let me know your feedbacks especially towards content, layout and design.

A Clarification

2006-08-09T22:53:00.000-05:00

My dear readers,

I want to convey my heartfelt sorrows for my continued absence from this page. I think I owe an explanation to all of you as well. Before I do that I wanted to inform all of you that I am alive and well and still share the same planet with you all. My left ankle which had a first degree sprain has healed since my last post and didn't need to be amputated. The reason for my continued absence form blogspot is that I have been caught slacking almost red handed by my guide and mentor. In a bid to redeem myself I have once again became a laboratory animal as his not so indirect disapproval of my laziness have raised hackles on my side. I can assure you that if and when I have regained his immense faith and my own little faith in myself I will once again revert back to my old ways i.e, posting one blog every week. I also feel sorry to inform my loyal readers that unless the ground shakes, the sky falls or something exciting or disappointing of the same proportion happens I probably wont be writing anytime soon. My sincerest apologies!

Goodluck and goodbye!

4th of July

2006-07-06T16:51:00.000-05:00

Jon Becker and Abby Becker throw fabulous parties at their house almost every three months. On this 4th of July they threw one such party celebrating America's independence day. Their house also provides an excellent and commanding view of the fireworks that goes on at the Vulcan park every year. Below are a few pictures from that excellent evening. More of them can be found at the album

My all time favourite movie

2006-07-04T02:11:00.000-05:00

"Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire."

I have been thinking which movie has been my all time favourite. I have no hesitation now in saying that it is Schindler's List, truely the greatest, most powerful and captivating of all the movies I have ever watched.

I don't think I am worthy enough of writing a review for this great movie as I fear my words are not powerful enough and hence whatever I write may actually somehow end up belittling its greatness against my intentions. So it is only fit that I stop right here!

Finding Neverland

2006-06-22T01:08:00.000-05:00

I watched Finding Neverland today. The movie was wonderful. It has been on my watching list for quite a while but just never could got to watch this movie before today. Johny Depp has acted superbly and Kate Winslet looked absolutly stunning throughout this movie. The movie has been set in Victorian era where the actors speak with a sort of funny accent. Johny Depp is a play writer who sees beautiful stories in day to day life and tries to bring them to stage. Kate Winslet is a widow mother with four small kids. The movie tries to give hope even to the most despondent among us. It sort of rekindles the fire of wanting to give away without having any expectations of any return, just the best of human values which has been sleeping somewhere inside us. The movie ends on an anti-climax where Kate Winslet dies and leaves her four sons to Johny Depp trusting him as their guardian. I was especially impressed with Peter charecter whose father (Kate's late husband) had died and he is still in a state of shock and despondency. Between the periods of small hopes which Johny Depp brings in their life, the cruelty of life starts coming to fore as his mother (Kate) becomes sick too and is about to die. In my opinion this movie is worth every dime you will spend on it! It is based on a simple story but has been superbly acted and is worth watching!

I am not the kind who lose hope easily and would run away at the first sign of trouble. I love to struggle once in a while when the odds are slim just for the heck of it. But when the odds are slim every day of your life then trying to struggle out of it each day is plain stupidity because after initial excitement it becomes tiresome. Moreover one develops a cynicism in his perceptions and thoughts about the people around with time, sometimes even unjustifyingly, which are rather tough to go away.

I have been rather depressed lately. The despression has been as a result of monotonisty, loneliness, lack of friends I could spend some time with and absence of goals and motivations which could keep me busy all the time and not give me time to think crap. Things have come to such a bad situation that for quite a while that I have seriously started cotemplating moving away from AL to somewhere in the north or west after I graduate where people are friendlier the and less religion centric, where they dont so much hesitate making friends with you before thinking about what religion or ethinicity you belong to, where their politeness is not sugarcoated, where I wish I wouldnot have to deal with these things on a daily basis. Am I trying to find a neverland myself? Does that Neverland exist?

Travellogue: The final part

2006-06-07T00:03:00.000-05:00

I am not going to write the final part as I did the first three. Let me just give you the main attractions of the last part

May 14th, 2006

I mastered the art of taking wrong exits on highway.
If you dont want to be extorted by toll booths then don't bother driving on I-95 between NY and DC.
Capitol doesn't always mean Capitol hill. It can also be the most dangerous neighborhood in the whole wide world.
It is always best to stick to last ditch effort to prvent ourself from getting mugged like calling International youth hostel for accomodation after reaching washington DC.
We didn't get mugged in DC.
We got ditched by our tour guide (someone Sugam knew) so we had to rework the whole DC tour plan.
You might have to remain hungry if you are looking for resturants in Capitol hill area after 5 o'clock on a Saturday.
The only place we visited, the kind which tourists visit, was whitehouse where we got to know the photography paradox. The paradox is as follows, It is not possible to have both your face and whitehouse in the background to recive proper illumination at the same time on the same photograph. You will need to choose between your face and whitehouse.
Suagm got his parallel parking lesson in DC by a homeless gentleman only 4-5 blocks away from White house. Just to put things in perspective he only had to appear for driving tests like 5 times to get his license. :))
If you are going to party district of DC you might as well dump your car and take a taxi because it is possible that you may not be able to find a place to park within 1 mile radius of the party district. It is also possible to drive for close to 2 hours to be able to look for the party district which is actually 5 minutes away from where you are staying. I am telling you all these things are quite possible.
I also had a fruitful argument with Sekhu about Chaos theory which is based on the numerical solution of a 3D partial Differential equation used for predicting weather in 1961. I still think that right conclusions were drawn based on wrong model (numerical scheme) in this case as afterall numerical scheme do influence the sensitivity of the solution and hence the result on the basis of which this theory was propounded. Different conclusions could have been drawn if a different numerical scheme were used to solve the PDEs which sadly were not present at that time as CFD was still at its nascent age. Wait this discussion happened on the way to NY from Amherst which means that my memory is still quite muddy from the amount of fun we had in DC. lol

May 15th, 2006

Rise, shine and drive.
Expresslane on highway can be slower than usual lane.
If you remain on express lane for too long on I-95 you may start having doubts whether you are on the same highway you originally intended to be.
There can be 10 mile long traffic jams on highway in NY and can take around 2 hours to get out of it.
If you are on a roadtrip with your friends then even the dumbest of trip can become the most entertaining and memorable one. :-)
There is no way avoiding fast food resturants like Burger king & MacD if you are on a road trip or otherwise you might as well make do with the idea of death due to hunger.
The weather in Amherst can be cloudy and wet for 2 weeks on a continious basis when the rest of the United States might be enjoying beautiful sunny weather of spring.

A few random pictures below from my trip to compensate for the lack of anything interesting in this post

Travellogue: Part 3

2006-05-30T16:15:00.000-05:00

May 12, 2006

Its Friday 9 o'clock, early morning for all those who were in the party last night. Found out that Sekhu is sober now and all the clothes and bedsheets from last night are in washer, coutrsey Sekhu (well he sorta had to because of what he did last night otherwise everyone would have beat him up)! We decided that if we dont want to get too late in NY then we need to leave Amherst as soon as possible After that time flew in jiffy untill we packed our bags. Time to leave. As soon as we came out we found that it was raining really hard. The weather has been cloudy and wet since I arrived in Amherst so Sekhu and Sugam declared me as the reason for bad weather. They voted (democratically) that I had to pay the price for it as well and hence will have to bring the car to the apt's door so that they could be able to load the car's trunk with our backpacks without getting soaked in the rain. I ran and ran and ran in the thunderous rain and dutifuly brought the car to their service cursing them all the way. The quantum of punishment didn't just stop here. They also ordered me to drive till NY which was one of the biggest mistakes on their side as you will know later on.

Now lets rewind to yesterday. Sugam went to ask his guide for a verizon data card which will prove to our lifesaver during this jouney. It is a card which provides internet access even while on the move though speed is really slow. So when he went to ask for the card she remarked, "So Sugam you are going on a business trip, huh! " From that moment onwards we declared our road trip as Sugam's Business trip.

So I am Sitting at the driver's seat in this swanky and Shiny black Pontiac Grand Prix '06 with only 6k miles on it. Suagm is my navigator and sitting on the front right seat while Sekhu is our official photographer for the trip who is sitting on the backseat. Sugam's business trip finally gets started. We drive a little out of town, started going on Highway I-91 and then Sugam remebers that he forgot to bring the mapbook. Ahh .. its not too late to turn back and get those maps, but we decided that we are too lazy for that, afterall we were under the impression that we can use internet to find our way through the maze that we call highway and city streets. We were so wrong about that! So as you might not know, Sugam, our navigator for the business trip has a habit of talking at the most crucial moment whenever we are supposed to take a turn. Our destination in New York was a hostel on 118th st and some avenue (the name of which I dont remeber), Manhattan. So I was driving and Sugam was talking and we were supposed to take an exit on I-95 to our destination but he didn't tell me that untill we were crossing the required exit at 60 miles/hr. In his words there still was enough time and I thought if we take an exit the car will go off the highway and fall below somewhere. I decided lets take the next exit as it didn't seem worthwhile jumping the highway at that time (we were also wrong about that). As soon as we moved toward next exit we found that we are at a toll booth and they were demanding $5.75. Alright we missed the exit but that doesn't mean we will not have to pay the toll, which we did. After driving for a little while we found the next exit which comes after a river ? or a water body dividing New York. So we took the exit and found ourselves at 34th street (I think). We decided to drive in city and look for the desired street and avenue. So we started moving in a direction in which the street numbers were increasing. An hour of driving through the maze of traffic lights we finally found we were finally on 118th street but we were still not at the desired avenue. We took a direction and started driving hoping that the avenue we are looking for will come. Another 15 minutes and it still didn't come and we were running low on gas by now. So we decided to look for a gas station and ask for the direction from someone. Man, finding a gas station in New York in tough! We found an Indian cabbie on the gas station and he gave us the best news of Sugam's business trip
1. We are in Queens
2. The street numbers in Manhattan and Queens are independent of each other
3. We need to retrace our path or take the nearest exit towards I-95 and take an exit towards Manhattan.

We came to our senses and decided to heed to the advice of the cabbie. We went back to I-95 and a few miles later found ourselves at again another tollbooth demanding $5.75. We had no choice but to pay them and confront our stupidity. We did that merrily blaming Sugam for all that happened. Then we moved again on I-95 past that damn toll booth and saw an exit for Manhattan. Really that exit seemed godsent at that time even after paying 11 dollars and 50 cents. But the worst part was yet to come we took the exit and found ourselves at an almost abandoned road with not a soul to ask for direction. Finally looking at rusty direction board we took road which said towards Manhattan. All of us believed that it was a good sign. The direction took us to a ramp and after that we again found ourselves on I-95. To our horror we could see the $5.75 toll booth fast approaching us. Is it some kind of painful joke? Are we moving in a circle run by these nasty toll booths? There was no choice but to approach the toll booth and see what happens next! We were soooo mad with Sugam at that time! However to our relief we found ourself in a lane passing though a toll booth where there was no person demanding money. So afterall all these signs on I-95 were correct. Suagm's life was spared for that moment and we decided to continue our journey merrily as soon as we hit the final exit towards Manhattan. Driving in the streets of Manhattan is a mind numbing experience. Let me warn you, driving there can kill your brain cells or may even cause brain hemmorage. It is not because of heavy traffic that goes there but because almost all of the streets are one way and only a few of the avenues are bothways. By this time Sugam's laptop's battery had died because of the wireless antenna popping out of his laptop which was draining all the energy from its batteries. Left to fend on our own sense of direction, we fixed our priority for finding the destination. First we are going to find the correct street and then we will look for correct avenue. So I started driving in a direction in which the streets were increasing .... 115th street, 116th street, 117th street, 119th street ..... wait, where did the 118th street go? We guessed that 118 should be in between 117th and 119th street, right? so we took a right turn on 120 street because 119th street was left only. After another right turn and going some distance we found ourselves on 118th street. That 118th street is also a one way street and we were not sure which direction we should go to find the avenue we were looking for. We did the best we could we drove to the only direction in which driving was permitted. after a few blocks we noticed as if number of people on this particular street is decreasing and trashcan and debris started appearing on the side of the street as if we are driving towards a blind alley, which caused the question ringing in our mind, about the diection in which we should be driving to find the avenue we are looking for, to only grow louder. We stopped a Mexican lady walking down the street and asked her which way we need to drive to find the avenue we are looking for. She proudly and confidently pointed to the direction opposite to which we have been driving. We could't turn around in this street as this was one way so took a right turn and another right and we were on 117th street. Incidently this was also oneway, A few blocks down the road we to our horror found ourselves looking at an approach towards a highway which we never intended to take. To hell with New york and its oneways! We turned around on the one way, took the nearest right turn and then a lef turn, stopped the car in front of an apt complex undergoing construction and asked a guard the direction for our salvation. He told us that we were going in the wrong direction and were in the right direction before asking directions from the despicable Mexican woman. By this time we were cursing the mexican woman with the choiciest of decorative words. We went back to 118th street and after further 30 minutes of driving we finally reached our destination. The time was around 6 pm. We had to find a place to park our magnificent car. The tragedy with us was that there were empty slots all over but we could also see a waterhose proudly standing on the pavement in front of the empty slot waiting for fire extinguisher. At another places "No Parking any time was written in big bold letter. I am not a stickler for rules but my friends are. Not that I didn't recieve a parking ticket ever but my good senses were telling me that its 6 pm, the time when the tired Parking enforcers go to their homes to their waiting wives and kids. Even if we park at a wrong place they are not gonna ticket us. Comeon the odds of the building catching fire, infront of which a waterhose lies, the one infront of which we would be parking illegally on one night in our whole lifetime is atleast one in a billion. If that building doesn't catch fire on that fateful evening then the firetenders have no reason to want to park in front of that waterhose and hence we will not be given ticket after 6pm. But as I have told you earlier my friends are stickler to rules and not amenable to reasons. Hence after another 15 minutes of driving we could find a place to park legally which was a mile away from hostel. We gladly parked our car there and walked a mile back carrying our heavy backpacks. We went to the hostel and on the reception desk was a beautiful Latino girl . She told us in a very sweet manner that they accept only cash and no credit cards. We didn't have so much cash especially after the blood sucker toll booths and told her the same. She pointed out to a atm standing besides the counter. The atm demanded a commision of $2.50 for dispensing cash. We can not deny that the thought of going back to Amherst rather than paying a ransom to the ATM didn't cross our mind but the receptionist was just too beautiful to leave. We emptied our card and did whatever else she demanded. At the end of all of it she handed us a key to a room on the third floor warning us that elevator doesn't work in that building so its better to use stairs. We heeded her advice and found ourselves on third floor. we found the room and opened it and found a room divided in two parts. One part had a double bed and another part had bunk beds. I decided to take the double bed and they took the bunk ones. The room was nicely filled with the pungent odor of bird poop. We were just too tired to take notice of all that. All of us decided by consensus to sleep in the evening and not give a damn to what NY has to offer. It is 8:15 in the evening when I woke up and found myself to be really hungry. Sugam and Sekhu also wokeup hearing the noise that I was making and they were hungry too. We jumped out of our beds and decided to the pander to the demands of our stomach. What could be better than to eat at Times Square! We took subway as there was no point trying to find directions and parking spot (again). Finally we reached Times square and let me tell you Times square is nothing like I had ever seen before in my life. In one single moment the revealation hit me why times square is so famous. You really have to see it in night to believe it. Chicken kabob is what we ate at a roadside food place, and it was delicious! However it was peanuts to our hungry stomach and hence thereafter we feasted at a nice Italian resturant that night. Many other memorable things happened that night but I am not at liberty to tell you all that. Let us just say that whatever happened that night redeemed all the trouble that we took and money that we spent to reach NY.

Manhattan Skyline

Travellogue- Part 2

2006-05-20T13:18:00.000-05:00

May 11th, 2006

Gooooooood Morningggg Amherst! It is 9 am in the morning and here I wake up. The weather is cloudy and there is no telling when the sky will burst and make everything soggy. After last evening 's disaster on the racquetball court and one long scar on Sugam's nose later, which is no longer red but has turned brown by now, Sugam and I decided that what would be a better way to start a morning than by playing some Tennis but he made me promise that I will not try to kill him again. So off me, sugam and two of his friends went to a tennis court a short walk from where he lived. At the end of 1 double set and two singles sets, the results were conclusivly out, UAB defeated UMass. By the time tennis was over it had started drizzling a little. Time to leave tennis court go back to his apt and have shower and brkfast. His second half of the day entailed once again that I be imprisioned in the pigeonhole which he calls his lab for the most part of the afternoon which I gladly did. I had lunch that afternoon at Antonio's Pizza, one of the best gourmet pizza shops in Amhrest. Sugam and his labmates/classmates have been picking on me since I been to Umass. They told me that their guide has been to Alabama and she says that obesity is a big problem in this part of the United States . I couldn't deny this fact but tried to rationalize it by telling that food and drink in this part is very protien rich and in the absence of enough excercise tend to have an adverse effect, but ofcourse it didn't cut much ice with them. At around 5:30 in the evening all of them left me alone as they had some class to attend. The monotonosity of staring at Sugam's laptop while they were gone made me fall asleep. When I woke up I found the laptop locked, the password of which I incorrectly remembered. Having nothing to do I came out of the pigeonhole to pace around the corridoor. As soon as I came out I found to my horror that the lab door was set in one way which means that I can come out but I can't go back in without keys. Oops.. nothing better to do I decided to walk randomly in Umass campus to get an understanding of what makes UMass a good university. Sadly this goal remained unfullfiled untill later that night, as their class got over before I get enough idea of the campus and turns out they were looking for me. Thus the boring part of the evening got over.

Umass is set as a rural campus with tons of space lying around. However one can see a few of really tall building sprouting around empty land which somehow looks weird. The funniest thing about Umass is its Library building. It is a really tall building like an obelisk towering around dwarfed but sensible looking buildings around it. The funny part about it is that the book section on this building are on alternate floors because rumour has it while constructing the building they didn't take in to account the enormous weight that books carry.

My friends at UMass had planned a party for that evening, so we decided to go liquor shopping. We bought bottles of Rum, Vodka and a lot of beer. We didn't know while buying that the huge amount of liquor will prove to be insufficient later that night. The crazy party started at around 9:30 pm and got over only around 4 am the next morning. The highlight of the party was Sekhu who passed out rather early that evening in the influence of alcohol and was swearing in Hindi at anyone and everyone present there.I am sure everyone had a lot of fun that night! So fellas, what really makes UMass a great university? I came to the conclusion that it is the wild parties that goes on there all the time surely makes that a great university, and those parties my friend are usually open for every one! :-)

Travellogue- Part 1

2006-05-20T01:02:00.000-05:00

Actually I should be writing my thesis proppsal report but here I am writing a blog! Well it all started a few weeks ago as I have been feeling restless, friendless and alone for quite sometime. The last time I met my buddies/friends/classmates was when I was graduating from IITG which was more than two years ago. Since then I have managed to stay in touch with them only through email/chat or phone. All of them are either in India or up in North, east coast or west coast. It was high time that I paid them a visit. So I talked with Sugam, who is graduating from UMass after completing his masters, that we need to make a road trip to NY, Washington DC and then Virginia if possible. I was supposed to fly to Hartford CT (the nearest commercial airport from Amherst) on 10th May, where he will pick me up, will spend a day or two at Amherst and then Road Trip will start. The only constraint was that my return flight was on 15th morning. So here is how the trip goes.

May 10th, 2006
I have a tendency to believe that those who are not single become less reliable friends and that is not entirely unfounded as I have learned from experience. My roommate was supposed to drop me at the airport at 6:30 am in the morning but he didn't showup untill 5am in the morning just when I was about to giveup on him. I guess I was mistaken . Anyway he dropped me at the airport on time and I didn't miss the flight enroute to Newark, NJ. as I had hardly slept the night before so I spent the whole time on the flight sleeping. After two hrs of stopping at Newark and some more sleeping in the waiting lounge I was finally allowed to board the flight to Hartford CT. It was a short flight and I arrived at the Bradley Intl Airport, Hartford CT before I knew. Now was the time to get myself out of the airport and look for Sugam who was supposed to pick me up. Turns out he was driving from Boston and not Amherst which was 2hrs drive from Hartford and he was an hr late. Against my expections he did arrive an hr later and I didn't have to look for a flight for Bhm from Hartford the very same day! lol. It was 2:45 pm Eastern time when he arrived and he had a meeting scheduled with his advisor at 3:30 pm in his dept, which precisely meant that he needed to drive fast and that I will have to spend some time in his Lab while he will be in the meeting. I had no idea at that point of time that I will have to spend 3 hrs in his lab biting my nail. So after 3 hrs of boredum i.e., around 6:45 pm finally the fun part of the trip started. We decided to play a few games of racquetball of UAB vs Umass. There was a small hitch though as I hadn't brought any sports/runing shoes, socks, racquet and ball to play with. Thankfully he had all those extras which I used till my stay there. He also offered me a pair of protective glasses which I politely refused, and there the irony lies which you will know as you would read on. So off we went to the UMass recreation centre. I beat him blue and black in the first two set. In the final set when I was leading by 7-1 he broke my service and so it was his turn to serve. As soon as he served I decided to flick the ball but the ball went in a completly wrong as well as unintended direction and hit his protective glasses before he had any time to react. The sharp edges of his PROTECTIVE glasses dug into the soft flesh of his nose and I cud see a thread of blood trickling from there. Way to start a trip on a good note.. lol. I am sure if he hadn't wore his protective glasses then atleast the whole thing wouldn't have got bloodied, may be a dark red spot size of a quarter on his chin or forehead but definitly not the blood.
So with a feeling of guilt I had to stop the game right there vowing that I will conclusively save the win for some other day. I have two other classmates in Amherst, Amrit and Suraj and they decided to cook dinner for me that evening the invitation for which I gladly accepted. I think, I spent most of the evening watching a silly movie over late dinner and then went to sleep early.

It seems the travellogue is getting pretty long, I will write it in parts. Stay tuned!

Vox Populi

2006-05-04T16:54:00.000-05:00

I have always asked this question from myself again and again, why does news media need to pander to the taste of Vox Populi (Voice of People)? I hate it when the News is nothing but propganda. I despise it when a group of people decide what is best for the others to know and understand. I find things resentful when newspublishing media does not provide the people with the coice of information which could help people in making their own opinion about the events unfolding around them. Why should News media be so selective that their articles, comments, analysis, editorial and op-eds should serve to the taste of common mass in general so that they have to either cut on the authentic information or spice up nonexistant stories? Is it because the so called "fair" media has its own hidden agenda and ideology and uses the media as an instrument towards that end by selectivly disseminating information? Or is it because it is difficult for the individual publishing house to survive in the age of fierce competition if the truth is too stark for people to digest?

I have been reading and watching News for a long time. The earliest instance of something I remember from News Report was the Fall of Berlin Wall, circa 1989 . I was watching National News on Doordarshan (Govt controlled Indian National Channel) wide eyed on our black & white TV showing people dancing on the street of Berlin and Bonn hugging eachother, burning the the communist Flag and breaking a wall..... a wall???? I was a little too young to comprehend the importance of the events unfolding at that time which will change the world forever. I wanted to understand but it didn't help at all that the newspapers pandered to the taste of local populace. They published (and still do) the news like this in one small para of less than 50 words in some corner with the understanding that no one will read or understand it. How the heck can anybody read or understand something so important if the damn newspapers relegate them to so few words giving hardly any importance. A lot of time has passed since then but the major events are still fresh in my mind like Breakup of Soviet Union, Civil war in the Balcan Republic, Gulf war, Bombay Stock Exchange crash, Babri Masjid Demolitions, resultant religious fanaticism in India, emergence of WTO, French undersea nuclear explosion and Greenpeace defiance and so on and so forth. There are so many things going around us which irrovacably change our world about which we have no idea. The events of those time always prompted me to look for the related information but sadly an unbiased and comprehensive source of information has always been elusive!

Recently I came across OutlookIndia which provides India/SouthAsia specific news magzine. I liked it better than any news portal I ever been to and hence I would recommend the same. It tries to provides both sides of the news where eminent people contribute their account and analysis about what and why things are happening and what are the their implications and effects on our future and interests. Interestingly I have read quite a few published editions of the same Magzine in the past but never found them to be so refreshing! About the things happening in the rest of the world I still think NewYork Times and BBC are still the best source when the news has nothing to do with their respective countries.

Tennis

2006-05-01T02:25:00.000-05:00

Ohh Yeah I have started playing tennis too and I love it! It was a surprise even for me to find out this weekend that I play tennis rather well against my expectations. Truthfully the number of times I have played tennis is still in single digits, primarily because I considered myself lacking the required tennis skills. The memories of previous times when I had tried to played tennis is quite traumatic. Whenever I played with a good opponent I totally sucked because every time I would hit the ball hard, it would seemingly without exception defy the laws of Physics and would head over the fence without even so much as touching the ground, which in a sense is deeply embarrassing. It used to leave my non-existant pride with deep and permanent scars. But this Saturday I totally nailed this game inspite of windy conditions and artifical lights. I won by 6-3, 6-3, 4-6 in a well fought game (I think). Overall it was an exhilarating experience!

Watch out Federer (lol) or Ankit for that matter because someday I am gonna whip you in this game too! :-)

Vulcan Park

2006-05-01T02:05:00.000-05:00

Vulcan Park is home to the world's largest cast iron statue and features spectacular panoramic views of Birmingham. The history of Vulcan is deeply tied to Birmingham's roots and its growth. Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and forge, was originally built in 1904 and has stood as a symbol of Birmingham for over 100 years.

The size of the statue doesn't sink in untill one sees the radio tower in the background.

A view of Birmingham downtown highrise from Vulcan park

Poster Competition

2006-04-27T17:44:00.000-05:00

I won the first prize in the Poster Competition today! :-)

I copy, steal and plagrize

2006-04-24T14:37:00.000-05:00

"To a reader blessed with a reasonable amount of Intelligence Quotient, the facts that I have a lot of time in hand and that I am inconsiderate and profligate enough to squander this entity, which to many, represents the most valuable possession possible but which, if endowed in abundance over someone like me can only result in its criminal abuse, should manifest themselves quiet readily upon his glancing over this piece, which has to its credit, neither one of the chains of logical reasoning which made many an illustrious careers, in fields as diverse as mathematics, philosophy, physics, investigative detection and professions of these sorts, most notably that of the victorian sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, nor does it have the emotional punch which might bring that tear at the corner of your eyes, nor does it claim to be comic, but in essence, is written just to test the sole capability of the writer in conveying his ideas in as long a sentence as his ability allows and the limits upto which a reader might go before turning dizzy, insane and possibly extremely hostile, the latter effect which is affected by the simple fact that it is not at all easy, making sense of all the blabbering which went into the last few lines and to deal with the realization finally that it was all, indeed, never intended to make any worldly sense, is very understandable but I hope that the reader will be able to recover from this taruma and shall read my other blogs which surely make much more sense. "

Yeah this one is Ankit's creation. I liked it so much that I had no other choice but to steal and republish it for the sake of the benefit of my readers! Afterall masterpieces need to be made available to anyone and everyone.

A Saturday

2006-04-23T15:37:00.000-05:00

I want to wake up early but I go to bed pretty late which means I will wake up late. Evenif I wanted to sleep early, I can't because its not 16-17 hrs yet since I woke up.. lol. In a nutshell its a vicious cycle. So this Friday I played pretty intense Racquetball games with Eli and JD and hanged out with them till it was quite late in the night. No wonder by the time I went to bed I was completly exhausted. I slept late and ended up sleeping till noon on a lovely Saturday.

I wonder if it is possible for one to stay put at home on such a lovely afternoon! So off me and Jon went for racquetball (again) and some Tennis. By the time I came back it was almost evening. There was a Latin dance program at I-House sponsered by the Spanish Club around 7 o'clock. How can I miss something so enthralling. I went there and had a wonderful time dancing with a beautiful girl whom I had never met before. In the end I even won a small prize in one of the lucky draws. Yeah I guess I was lucky!

Saturday evenings are, more often than not, reserved for a gettogether with a bunch of European and American friends. They were howling on phone that I am late (because I was busy on the Dance floor :D). So I left for "The Garage." It is a beautiful pub. My stomach was empty when I reached there and dude drinking on an empty stomch is never advised, which I did. Two hour later I was hopelessly drunk... hic .. time to leave .. hic.. and to go to bed .. hic .. with the hope that cops dont catch me for DUI .. hic. I imagine I drive pretty well because I am neither in jail nor in any Hospital.. hic. I have a hangover now. :(

Some Random Pictures

2006-04-18T19:01:00.000-05:00

I have decided to put my camera (Fuji S5100) to some use which has been gathering dust for quite sometime. The Pictures were shot today around UAB Engineering School Spring Fling celebrations and Marvyn H. Sterne Library.

One gotta be in queue to get the BBQ from Jim & Nick's

One of the tables where we ate

Its time to play Volleyball

Sculpture in front of Marvyn H. Sterne Library

The one behind the Honor's House

An Indian Summer

2006-04-17T02:01:00.000-05:00

Today I went to a fancy Italian lunch party where our host, as you might have guessed it, is an Italian. The demographics of the party trupe: 4 Indians (including me), 1 Russian, 1 German, 1 American, 1 Malasian (of Chinese origin) and our host an Italian. It was the hottest day of the season so far, 86 degree Farenheit with as the luck might have been, his airconditioner was out of order. Everyone was complaining and I had a wicked smirk on my face, not the least because people were fbitching, whimpering or whining due to slight discomfort but because after a long time I was finally getting to feel a trace of similarity of Indian Summer in America.

According to wikipedia, Indian summer is a name given to a period of sunny, warm weather in autumn, not long before winter. This time is often in late October or early November (Northern hemisphere) / late April or early May (Southern hemisphere), usually sometime after the first frost. It can persist for just a few days or weeks. How misleading!!! Anyone who has ever been to India or lived there especially in central / north-central india knows exactly what Indian summer can be like. It is very unlike the European or north American summer which brings a lot of cheers, when people whould run to beach to enjoy the sun.

Indian Summer is anything but mildlywarm and extends for more than 4 months. The weather during Indian summer is brutal. The whole atmosphere becomes one giant oven from which the wind blows and the open surface under the sun one giant frying pan. The temperature varies from a minimum of around 25d C (77 F) in the morning to somewhere around 45d C (113 F) at the noon when the summer is at its peak. As you might have known, almost all big Indian cities are situated on the bank of some river. So when the temperature rises the water vapour from the river surface add considerable humidity to the atmosphere. As a result, more often than not, Indian Summer is very humid causing the sweat to take inordinate time to evaporate and making one very uncomfortable. The sun bakes the earth untill anything green left in open turns brown. The scorching wind during afternoon caries with it a sea of dust particles which forms a fine blanket everywhere. To add to the woes, the water table during summer goes down drastically. Indian summer is a big killer too. Many people in India die because of sun/heat stroke. No wonder that people take all kinds of precaution to save themselves and others from it. The streets in afternoon would get completly deserted with barely anyone to be seen walking. The hustle and bustle would return on the street around dusk.

Enough talking about the brutal aspect of Indian Summer. The reason that the 86 degrees brought wicked smirk on my face was that it brought back the sweet memories of childhood. Infact I remember summer as being the most fun time of my childhood. The reason is still very simple, summer meant small school hours which in turn implies that I would have more time to mess around and remain away from any kind of supervision. However every fun thing comes with a price, in this case early school means waking up early. It is the season everyone will wake up around 5 am in the morning and start their daily chores. I always used to get out of bed hearing the din of utensils in the kitchen. The schools would start by 7 am and finish the day's work by 1 pm (say lunch time). After that the students usually leave for home in groups or alone. The deserted streets used to become one long playground till everyone reach their home. The first things used to come first after reaching home i.e., change the clothes and have lunch. After that my game plan used to be to scurry away from home like a rat. I would tiptoe away from where my mom would be working without drawing her attention because getting caught meant being put to bed untill sun goes down (so that I be not able to play in sun and get myself sick). you tell me, which naughty child in his right mind would even want to go to bed in the afternoon anyway? So this Tom Sawyer used to always have an escape plan. There were 4 dooors out of the house, 1 on the 2nd floor which will take to stairway outside on the street and rest 3 on the ground floor. Of the three one would be through garage which is always under lock so no luck here, another one to a little kitchen garden behind the house which is surrounded by high walls on all four sides so no luck here too. The last and my favourite exit was through a (back) door to the rented shop which used to be on the ground floor touching the street. Once I succesfully made an escape I used to be on my own or with friends or would go to my aunt's house. If I am with the other little devils I would play with them in scorching sun, would run behind kites or would go to their home and play carrom board (i used to be a little devil in that game) or if nothing else would go wherever my feet would take me. However sometime my little friends too used to get busted by their mom too which effectively meant that out little rendezvous would get compromised for that afternoon. In those heartbreaking situations I would just sit behind the counter in the little hardware shop below my home and would amuse myself listening to curstomers' coversation with the shopkeeper who would be haggling for hours for every penny they could save out of each other's pocket. When the sun would go down, it used to be the time to return to my lair and show my face again with dusty clothes, soily feet and hair filled with a lot of sand. It would also be the time my dad would just be about to comeback from his office and I would do anything in the world to be present when he comes back because he was the only one capable of instilling the fear of god in me (though as fas as I can remember he never hit me) and he used to like to take a count of each kid present in the house and hear their own accounts of accompalishments for the day, if any.

An Irony

2006-04-10T01:18:00.000-05:00

Something happened yesterday onwhich I have been ruminating upon since. Someone asked me yesterday why I have not been posting anything recently. My answer was I don't want to write about my past or present. She said, that leaves only future and I replied I have been saving it for the future. There lies the irony, I am (and have been) hereby writing about (my) past (albeit as stories, and as they say, stories derive their inspiration from past) which in this case happened yesterday (and I have said on record that I don't want to do that). As for saving (writing) it for future, it will probably happen when it has already happened or is happening right now, which means it has become either past or present!

Think before you bite the bait

2006-03-29T22:37:00.000-06:00

Today I saw a commercial which I thought was funny! It was about a bank which claimed that they tell about the costs associated with all of their services.

There is a woman who has come to meet a Customer Service Representative (CSR) in some (other) bank
Woman: Hey I got charged for the overdraft, I thought this service was free!?!
CSR: This service is free if you dont use it.
Woman: Why would I have the service If I dont use it?
CSR: Because its free.
Woman: But I got charged which means it is not free.
CSR: It is free if you dont use it.
Woman: (now exasperated) There are no free lunches in this world!
CSR: There are if you dont eat them.

Truely there are no free lunches in this world. Evenif someone wins a lottery, it is not because he won it as a free gift, but because he was willing to take the risk to buy the ticket where the odds of winning would be one in millions and hence he earned it. Many such people would have been willing to take the risk, for whatever reason, in the process making avialable the money for the lottery prize. I never had a lot of money troubles, not because I was rich or my parents used to provide with with all the money I ever wanted, but because I always knew (or had an idea) about how much I can spend without getting myself in any sort of trouble and knew how much (and in what timeframe) I can repay if I had to borrow money in an eventuality. Financial planning is the key of remaining out of trouble and knowing the source of big returns from your investment will make the situation whole lot easier.

When I came to United States, I came to know about something so important without which life is as distasteful as a burger would be without the patty, cheese & vegetable inbetween. It is called Social Security Number (SSN). The life of every legitimate individual in this country revolves around his number. One can't open a bank account, obtain a driving license, any utility like telephone, elctricity, water and in some cases even a roof over his/her head. Forget about the legitimate salary which you have been planning to sustain on in its absence. So the first thing that I did was to get a SSN. It was only after I got the SSN that my salary forms started getting processed. My first salary came 2.5 months after I came here, which means by which time it finally came, I was almost down to my last $ and was heavily in debt, thanks to my friends I survived those excruciating times. It gave me my first lesson in financial planing after coming here. The lesson is, know the trap you are going to fall in beforehand and plan accordingly, because In my case I was completly unprepared for the money trouble.

The second valuable piece of information was about credit history, credit score (vis-a-vis , how it controls your life rather than you control it) and the wonderful world of credit cards. The Credit History of an individual is associated with his/her SSN. All transanction made on credit are recorded permanently in one's credit history based on SSN which make or break your credit score. The most amazing thing is that without a good credit history no one will be willing to give you any loan or credit to you and hence there will be hardly any credit history if no transanction has ever ever made in past on credit. So in short it is a vicious cycle. Without a credit history, without a doubt, one is always going to get the raw end of stick in most of the long term financial transanction like cellphone, credit cards. So it was imperative that I do whatever it takes to start building on the credit score, but the big question is how would I do that? The answer lies in the world of credit cards. But there is a big contradiction. No bank would ever give me a credit card because I dont have a credit history!! Every time they would check for my non-existant credit history, so that they could calculate my credit score and hence reject my wish for credit card ruthlessly, my non-existant credit score would further go down (possibly even in -ve). But the banks have only that much in them. After a while of being rejected, denied, refused, shunned and side-tracked finally one bank made a mistake and my persistance paid off. Voilà I got a credit card. I have been living my life full of bliss since then. In case you are getting any wrong ideas let me clarify, I have been paying all my credit card bills without any interests and on time too. This gave me the second lesson of my life. The lesson is Dont screw your credit history, if you have any, and do whatever it takes to keep a credit card.

It has been a while since I recieved my first credit cards. The credit cards have been a great help in planning my income and acording expendititure. But with continious use of credit card and prompt repayment of the credit debt has been causing some ridiculous problems. You can't deny that a check in you name sounds very tempting. It is almost like a cheese burger in front of a very hungry man. My banks, whose credit card I own, are sending me some stupid offers where all I have to do is to cash a third party check of some trivial amount and an unknown source will start withdrawing some amount of money from my acount on a regular basis for services that I will never use. They mention in very small letters that to cancel the service anytime all I have to do is call some 1-800 number. Are you kidding me, can anyone ever let go the idea of the possible harassment that CSRs can cause? Did you know that erstwhile AOL used to employ so few CSRs in their sweat shops, as a matter of policy, that to cancel your limited free AOL account offer, you would had to wait for a long time on phone and then CSR will play every trick possible in his kitty to not let you cancel the services, even to the extent of disconnecting your call before you could make a formal request for cancellation of service. The same used to go with erstwhile AT&T. I had similiar kind of trouble with DirecTV. If you think about it, these are all respected names in the industry and on the wall street and hence logically these unfair practices in the industry are very common. Third lesson: There are no free lunches. Know how to cancel a service before you get started on it.

The irony never escapes me that when I wanted a credit card so bad, no bank was willing to touch me even with a pole and now that I don't want another credit card I am being inundated with tons of non-stop outrageous offers of credit cards from unheard of banks. They would want to charge an annual fee or per transanction fee (imagine paying a few dollars to some bank every time just for swiping your card) and atrocious, barbaric, beastly, brazen, scandalous and shocking APRs (which is usually 20+% if you have a good credit standing) or a combination of all of them . If that were not all my troubles I always fear that someone would steal one of these outrageous offers (if he hasnot done it already) from my unsecured mailbox, get a credit card on my account and ruin my credit history. Fourth lesson: Remember you are the consumer! Don't fall for every credit card offer that you recieve, looks for the one which suits you best and keep your mailbox secured.

Do you have an idea of how much money you actually pay as interest to these financial behemoth? You thought you knew all about your money and there are so many things to know!

Did you ever stop for a minute to think about the interest rate disparity that exists between when you invest your money in a bank and the money you get as loan and credit from the same bank?

What does saving, checking, mutual fund, share, bond, credit card, investment, provident fund, bullion, foreign currency, offshore and various other designation of bank accounts mean? What is the difference between them?

If I will have time and inclination to write in the future about the $$$ again then I will try to ansewer the questions posed above and will give you a guided tour of stock market and investment banking.

Writing this blog had become more important because some of my truely amazing & dear friends have gone in the business of investment & other types of banking and it is only fair that I make my other friends aware of what to expect from them. lol

Ideas are bulletproof

2006-03-27T23:00:00.000-06:00

"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

So I watched "V for Vendetta" today! I can not say that I liked the movie very much because I disagreed with the ideas although the portrayal was compelling and thought provoking. The movie portrayed a revolution with the help of anarchy, where the end would justify the means. To think about it, it seemed a little odd and inconsistent with the script of the movie as the whole movie is about what is right and what is wrong where there is a clear line in between. However when it comes to achieve the right from the wrongs, the means that were used were never justified in the same perspective, they were neither in black nor in white but shades of gray.

Overall the movie was not quite worthless as it did preach something which I very much believe in, which is the freedom of every individual to think and act independently is very important, however the disagreeing the result may be. It is freedom of ideas which spawns new innovations and brings prosperity and happiness to people because of a sense of resultant accompalishment. The part of movie which I especially liked is the one where it is emphasised that it is important not to live in a blanket of fear, where people should be able to have freedom of perspective, where their ideas are not as a result or the effect of propganda, coercion or religious blindness.

A Few Quotes:
----------------
"People shouldnt fear their goverment, the goverment should fear their people."

"In medicine, as in statecraft and propaganda, words are sometimes the most powerful drugs we can use."

"religion is the opium of the masses”

Pictures from the past

2006-03-25T17:05:00.000-06:00

These are some of the pictures that I found while going through one of my friend's page. The pics were shot between 20th -26th Jan 2004 in Tawang, Arunanchal Pradesh, India.

A bridge in the Wilderness on the way to Tawang

A snowy road less travelled

A Picture is worth thousand words

This is how it feels like if one stands above the cloud level- Part I

This is how it feels like if one stands above the cloud level- Part II

I am about to be knocked out in snow!

Group Pic I

Group Pic II

Group Pic III

One of my typical Fridays!!

2006-03-25T01:42:00.000-06:00

Guess what I woke up at 10 am in the morning today, not even slightly because I was done sleeping but because I had to attend ME130 lab class as an unofficial TA, so that I could help poor kids with programming problems. (I know I have become lazy yada yada yada .... but it doesn't bother me at all). The first thing that I usually do after waking up is to check for snail mail. It has become more important to do so lately because now 5 apts in our apt complext is occupied by Mexicans and me and my roommate have a sneaky feeling lately that someone is stealing our mails, from our unsecured mailbox, especially those outrageous credit card offers seeing which I tend to clench my fist with anger and want to burn those banks down. All the letters I ever recieve are from some bank or someone who wants his money .. sigh!! I guess it has been a long time since I recieved any personal letter in my mailbox where the person sending it is not concerned with my money. Today, through my mail, I came to know that I defaulted in my payment for internet last month. Damn it, I distinctly remember tinkering with the online portal where I had supplied my credit card number somehow the money didn't reach the internet company. I guess I will have to look into that!! The 2nd thing to do on my list in the morning is to read various online newspapers and sadly there was nothing interesting in them today.

Seems like I strayed a little bit from my storyline. Yeah so I went to lab to do the TAing but found not a single student present... I had no clue why it happened (Spring break??!!??)!! Well it might be unimaginable for many ppl but I enjoy the TAing part as it provides a window of opportunity to get to know people who are still going through the road which I had crossed a long time ago. Its fun and is the only exciting thing is my otherwise dour working life. I pretty much spent my time in the computing lab sulking till evening after the TAing fiasco today.

Evenings are usually the most interesting part of my day. It provides me with a false sense of "done for the day" feeling. This is the time when I usually go to play racquetball at the UAB Recreation Centre with my friend Jon and with others who might also be playing there. Today Jon could not make it there because of some work trouble so anyway I went alone to play hoping that I will find someone to play with when I reach there itself, as it so happenes most of the time. Usually it is tough to find a single empty racquetball court but today as my luck would be all the courts were empty as no one was playing there. Dang it!! So I decided to see what else was going on in the Rec centre and found that a few guys were in the indoor soccer court with a soccer ball. Nice! So Today I played soccer after a long time and when I left the soccer court there was no injury for a change (as I am a pathetic soccer player and I tend to injure myself or someone else). When I was done playing soccer, I left the soccer court in the hope of find ng someone to play racquetball with and it paid off. I played 7 games. Score: 5 wins 2 losses. By the time it was over I was really exhausted! I drove home relaxed, took shower, went to Deepak/Nitin's place to eat the Konkani style shrimp curry that they had cooked in company of relaxing Killian. It was delicious but a trifle hot for my tastebuds as they have somewhat acclitamised to the american style of cooking. After all that eating and and drinking I figured out that it is the time to call it a day but not before I write all this to give you guys and girls a sneak peak with what happens with my life.

I have been trying!!

2006-03-24T15:48:00.000-06:00

I have been trying to write one freaking blog since yesterday but couldnot produce anything worth publishing on net!!

Holi Haiiiiiiii !!!!

2006-03-14T23:58:00.000-06:00

Holi or Holikatsava is a festival of color which is celebrated over two days over last day of last month, Falgun, and first day of first month, Chaitra, from Hindu Calender. Holi beckons the arrival of spring when the food is aplenty after the recent harvest of crops. It is a time when man and nature alike throw off the gloom of winter and rejoice in the colors and liveliness of arriving spring.

This exuberant festival is also associated with a story in Hindu Mythology. Hiranyakashipu was the king of demons, and he had been granted a boon by Brahma (god), which made it almost impossible for him to be killed. The boon was due to his long penance, after which he had demanded that he not be killed "during day or night; inside the home or outside; not on earth or on sky; neither by a man nor an animal; neither by astra nor by shastra". Consequently, he grew arrogant, and attacked the Heavens and the Earth. He demanded that people stop worshipping gods and start praying to him. But his own son, Prahlad, was a devotee of Lord Vishnu. In spite of several threats from Hiranyakashipu, Prahlad continued offering prayers to Lord Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu made a number of attempts to kill his son but all of them failed. Ultimately he ordered young Prahlad to sit on a pyre on the lap of his sister Holika, who could not die by fire by virtue of a shawl which would prevent fire affecting the person wearing it. Prahlad readily accepted his father's orders, and prayed to Vishnu to keep him safe. When the fire started, everyone watched in amazement as the shawl flew from Holika, who, then was burnt to death, while Prahlad survived without a scar to show for it, after the shawl moved on to cover him. The burning of Holika is celebrated as Holi. It is also said that later Lord Vishnu came in the form of a Narasimha (who is half-man and half-lion) and killed Hiranyakashipu at dusk (which was neither day nor night), on the steps of the porch of his house (which was neither inside the house nor outside) by restraining him on his lap (which is neither in the sky nor on the earth) and mauling him with his claws (which are neither astra nor shastra).

On the first day, a bonfire is lit at night to signify burning Holika. On the second day, people go around until afternoon throwing coloured powder and water at each other while in the evening the meet their friends and elders and exchange gifts and goodwishes.

The children in the pictures above remind me of my childhood. Gone are those cherished days but as a child, for me, Holi used to be the most eagerly waited festival among the three most celebrated ones namely Holi, Dussehra and Diwali. There reasons were not hard to fathom as it used to provide me with atleast a set of new clothes, an opportunity to destroy a set of old clothes in the bath of color, a sudden availability of various kind of sweets, holidays and a carte-blanche to play pranks on unsuspecting people. I would sit on balcony on 2nd floor of my home with big buckets full of colored water and a paintgun waiting to drench passerbyes with all hues of rainbow. Everyone below and from the adjacent houses would also be trying to color me using every trick possible. No matter how much I try to save myself from their color assaults :-), I would still be full of colors within half an hour on the Holi Morning. After 2-3 hours of color war I would leave the house to join a core group of kids who would go to each and every house of the locality knocking their doors and dragging out and coloring those who had managed to hide themselves untill that time. Every one who gets colored would become part of the group and so the group used to grow bigger and bigger untill all the houses of the locality used to get coverd. By noon, when I would return back from all this colorful chaos, even my mom used to have hard time distinguishing me from other kids of the locality. Afternoon would be the time when we would go for a bath for an extended period of time trying to get rid of the colors that we had put on ourselves and others. All these playing with color and water used to take a heavy toll on our childish energy and by mid afternon we will be heavily asleep. It would only be in the evening that we would wake up again and go out to visit friends and relatives brandishing our new clothes and wares. I miss those days soooo much!

For the Last two days Holi has been reminding me of a colorful Hindi song, the first stanza of which is as follows.........

Rang barse bheege chunar wali, rang barse
Are kaine maari pichkaari tori bheegi angiya
O rangrasia rangrasia, ho
Rang barse bheege chunar wali, rang barse ...

My Birthday Week

2006-03-08T23:38:00.000-06:00

I am 25 now. Last week was my birthday week, one of the best among all those that I ever had, thanks to Jon & Abby (my wonderful friends who make me feel at home and part of family all the time), my dear parents, uncles, sisters, brother, relatives from the extended family and all my friends who always remeber me and didn't forget me on my birthday. Jon and Abby invitied me to their home on an evening before my birthday and threw a surprise party for me, complete with cake, trick candles and presence of some of my friends. The surprise was wonderful!

So last week was special not only because it was my birthday week but also because this was the week when I had my first job interview in US and recieved my first traffic ticket for improper parking since I came to United States. It was an early interview for a job that I might get after I finish my masters. The interview went okay but it seems that I am still not too keen for this job. The reason are plenty but for starters, there is still a lot of time left to apply for jobs which will not only pay me better and have opportunities for the future but will also be more in consonance with the research work that I have done for my masters. Last week was also the placement week at IIMs. One of my friend got a job offer from Barcleys in which they are gonna pay him a whopping $185,000/year. Farhan, the party is due no matter how much you whine!

Sling Blade

2006-03-07T00:44:00.000-06:00

Today I watched a fascinating movie 'Sling Blade'. Fascinating would probably be an understatement for the movie here, my guess is amazing will be more appropriate ! Although I watched two oscar winning movies in one night (which needs to be recommended against to the extent possible) but after watching 'Sling blade' I came to the conclusion that it really leaves "The Graduate" far behind in all aspects.

The quiet old guy on the left is mentally unsound but knows what is right from what is wrong. He had killed two people as a child and spent most of his life in state hostpital untill he was deemed fit to be released at such an old age. He doesn't know anyone in this cruel world & nobody knows him as well. He wants to go back to the confines of the hospitals in the familiar surrounding among familiar people but it can't be done as he has been released. His plight is touching and real. I dont think it will be a good idea to tell the whole story of movie here but I will say that I have never been touched so much by a movie since I watched 'Schindler's List' and 'The Painist'. I will recommend that you watch this movie if you can.

This is the Birthday week for me. Looking at the time, it is less than two days away. Birthday weeks are supposed to be fun but they have never been so with me. They always had the habit of creeping in the middle of some impending or continuing exams, projects or assignments which would be keeping me so conveniently busy all the time. Mainly because of mine being aware of a short term goal staring at my face I never really noticed it passing by, untill this year. Partly, also, because I have never really understood the purpose of my life so I never really came to term with the idea of celebration for it. I dont claim that I still understand what I am here for but I believe that there is a reason why I here, I just have to find it! This year I have a lot of free time, free time to think about where I am standing, what I have achieved, what milestones I am yet to pass, what bad patch of road that I need to plan for. Yet, surprisingly, it feels like I am in the middle of humongous desert where there are no roads, no milestones... just the sky touching the sea of sand on the horizon in all the directions! Is it because I have lost a sense of direction?

Goals are very important in life. It keeps one busy. If there is no goal, no determination to achieve then one starts losing the motivation and start thinking all kind of things provided he has ample free time. I have achieved most of the goals I had set for my life within a resonable period of time evenif it took (make no mistake) tremendous amount of effort. I have seen really bad times ... period, struggled through depression... period, but there was always something to achieve, something I really wanted to, like a lighthouse which prevents a sailor from drowning in the dark sea. That lighthouse used to provide me with hope, would keep me hooked to my goals untill I achieve them and would help me swimming through the ocean of hopelessness and reaching my lighthouse. Lately I am having a sinking feeling that I am running out of goals, that I have nothing to struggle for! In 6 months I will be finishing my masters and then what? Probably I or a tech company will be too happy to place me in the quicksand of job & money. Neither do I deny that I like the smell & color of money and all the wonders that money can buy nor do I deny that I understand of the concept of doing work to rightfully earn that money but I completly deny being okay with the idea of spending my life solely to get that money so that It could push me down the deep gorge of hedonism and self-indulgence. I don't want money to be sole purpose of my life, though it could be the means to an end, the end that I have no idea about as of yet!

Role of Guru

2006-03-05T01:17:00.001-06:00

Guru describes a teacher or master who is very knowledgible and full of wisdom. A Guru has the power and wisdom to dissolve ignorance in his disciple. He is the one who imparts knowledge to the ignorant. However selecting a Guru is a very delicate matter. A knowledge seeker must be willing to fully trust and follow any advice of his Guru. In the ancient indic civilization the one who imparts knowledge is highly respected. He is also considered an equivalent to god. Hence are the following shlokas in sanskrit.

त्वमेव माता च िपता त्वमेव
त्वमेव बंधु च सखा त्वमेव ऽ
त्वमेव िवद्या द्रिवनम त्वमेव ऽऽ
त्वमेव सर्वम मम देव देव ||

It literally means that you are my mother and you are my father, you are my brother and you are my friend. you impart knowledge because of your kindness. You are evrything to me. you are my god. (One point that needs to be noted is that in Hinduism god is not considered to be monolithic. He is considered to be all powerful who is present is in everything that he created. So considering the guru as a form of god is not against the tenet of hinduism but very much part of it.)

In ancient hindu civilization life is considered to consist four phases i.e., Brahamcharya, Grihasth, Vanaprastha, and finally Sanyasa with each 25 years of supposedly 100 years of human life dedicated to one of the four phases of life. Brahmcharya is the 0-25 years of age when one seeks the knowledge. One must leave his home in Brahmcharya and seek a guru. He must do whatever the guru orders him to do without a shred of doubt. In the ancient time even the princes had to let go the luxurious life of the places and live in his guru's ashram, away from civilization, as a common pupil. The prince would do as the guru commands in the hope that if he be able to please his guru who would in turn provide him with the knowledge that he has been seeking for.

Continuing from my last blog, that sholka was hammered in my head since the early childhood. A child's mind is very impressionable. He can believe everything that is taught evenif he has to imagine something to support it. So I as a child actually very much believed and respected the revered role of guru (or teacher). In western civilization punishment as a tool of education has become out of vogue but in India it is pretty much in use especially in small towns and village. I had every reason to belive in the teacher being the most respected person. The reason was that I had always been a good student and hence I was rarely punished irrationaly. It is hard to believe but whenever I was actually punished, I used to find a justification for it in its favour. However there are some exceptions to all the beliefs . Those exceptions were really tough to justify. I remember that I used to have a math teacher in 3rd standard (in summer special advanced maths class) who was extremly ruthless. If he gets angry with me then I would be supposed to bring my both palms forward and would spank really hard on my palms using his cane. the mark of cane would remain on my hands for a couple of days. I used to be really mortified of him. Although he was a good teacher in Maths he was quite eccentric. All the students were supposed to do better in the tests than their last tests, otherwise they will be caned. I remember in the very first 3 tests I increased my total on the maths paper, in ascending order, to 100 out of 100 because of fear so that I donot get punished. Now I had put myself in some serious trouble .. i can't score higher than 100 in each test as that is the maximum possible and to it is almost impossible to maintain a perfect score in every test. Thankfully I dont remember being punished too many times as I intentionally answered very few questions just above the passing grade in the very next test although I was severly punished for that but yeah rest of the summer was a breeze as I just had to improve the score a little in every test. That experience sowed the seeds of doubt about how much the teacher needs to be respected. It took me another 6-7 years to fully realise that the teachers too are human and not every teacher can be given the same amount of respect as the other one.

On a totally unrelated topic, yesterday was a bad day for me. I had fever, cold, sore throat and terrible headache since morning. I had an inkling that something was wrong with my system today but I didn't fully realise that I will be so sick by the evening. In the morning I was supposed to play raquetball with Mac. Although I wokeup on time but my body was refusing to obey my orders. I attributed it to playing excessive racquetball on Thursday, ignorant of the real cause. So I canceled the racquetball game. But in the very next two hrs I became so restless and bored that I actually went to Oak Mountain national park for hiking with a couple of my friends. I came back in the evening from the park feverish, cold and feeling like a piece of crap. This cough and cold thing happenes to me once in 1-2 years but gives me immunity against it for a long time. Although next 1-2 days are gonna be bad for me but I think I can live with that considering the benefits!

What is in Name?

2006-03-03T03:17:00.000-06:00

"The difference between fiction and reality ... fiction has to make sense!"
-Tom Clancy

The above quote pretty much sums it all about life where the events in life sometime don't make any sense. Well , they don't have to because it is life where things which sometime happen are very irrational and even if there was a reason that it happened we sometime are not able to understand it correctly because our thoughts are colored by our perceptions of reality.

Everyone has a few stories of their life. This is the story of my name and is true as well. My name is not what it actually was and and here I am telling a freak story of how it got changed.

I was born in the suburbs of a small dusty town in a North East state of India in the early eighties of 20th century to loving and caring parents who would do whatever they can so that their child has a good future. The name they gave me after my birth didn't have the same last name as theirs. It always felt weird as a child but it was done for a good cause as last names in India is always associated with heritaze and hence the caste which one belongs. By giving me a generic last name they were trying their bit to mitigate the effects of caste system that is ingrained in the Indian society.

I studied in a suburban school very close to home for first 7 years of my schooling life where it was believed that spare the cane and spoil the child. Not that I really believe in that but I do know that the fear of punishment sometimes straightens even the naughtiest of children. However I rarely had to get the rough end of stick as I was one of the better students of my class. My duties as class monitor used to be mostly limited to feching the cane for the teacher and not worrying about how and where it will be used. These suburban schools of yore had their own yardsticks of fame. They used to take pride in how many students from their school actually make it too a better and very famous higher secondary school. As a result these suburban school more often than not became very tough prepschool where children were left at the whims, fancies and cane of teachers, who would decide what should be the acceptable academic progress for the child. If the child fails the expectations then there is always the option of using cane or exercising the option of 1 of the many ways a child can be punished physically. It used to be my gulag from 6 am in the morning till 8 pm in the night till my eyes get heavy with sleep for 5 days a week, every week of the year. Thankfully on saturdays it used to be only half day. Well all these preparations used to be in anticipation of a gruelling state level competitive exam where only the brightest can go in. In our school choosing potential student and the filling up their application form for appearing in the exam was the job of a specific faculty member. In my case he decided to paste my photograph of someone else's application form. I was not aware of it untill I was brought in the examination centre and given my admit card where I could see my picture but found my name was different. Ohh well.. my teacher decided on my behalf that I should anyway write the exam as it happens only once in a year. I passed the exam with flying colors and the guy whose name was on the application form actually failed. Hence he could retain his actual name while I had to change my name when I left for the so called prestigious school. That error in my name has stuck up to now. It is in every document that I possess and is a mistake that I will never be able to correct in my life. But these were not the only two names by which I am known. Almost every place where I go gives me a different (nick)name. Not surprisingly, with time I have lost sensitivity to what name I am being called as long as I know that I am the one who is being called. After coming to United States I found out that my name (on the documents) is a little too long to spell for the people here and hence decided to remove last three letters for their benefit :-).

The First Post

2006-03-02T22:48:00.000-06:00

I just created this blog and thought I need to scribble something.