Silly Symphony

Note

2011-07-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

From now on, I will mostly be writing on http://www.onkarbhardwaj.wordpress.com

Thanks for stopping by!

Emotional blackmail?

2011-04-09T05:48:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we at RPI had planned to come together for candle-light march. It was later changed to discussion session when Anna Hazare ended his fast. It was nice to see 20+ people in such a small Indian community coming together to discuss things.

Some people raised the issue if the method used was tantamount to emotional blackmail. Well, I would say yes. Personally I feel that every method has its appropriate time of use. The times at which such emotional blackmail would work are -
1. To address the issue nothing has been done since ages or there are no chances of something being done in near future. It means that unless you kick the executing body, it won't move.
2. There is 100% public support. The hunger strike worked for corruption issue because everyone supported the cause. It may not work if some group went on hunger strike demanding jobs or reservations.
3. The people going on hunger strike should be of highest integrity. Otherwise general public or government won't listen to them.

It's not that any of the above conditions should hold but all of them (and possibly some more) should hold true if the hunger strike is to have some chances of getting success. In such situations, I do not really care if it amounts to emotional blackmail.

Not a single solution

2011-04-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

A funny thing I noticed while reading the comments on various forums about Anna Hazare's movement. According to different comments -
1. The actual solution was to change voter mentality
2. The actual solution was that good people should enter politics
3. The actual solution was to enact the laws to prevent corruption
maybe some more of these types. Somehow people seem to think that there is just one real solution to such problems. In reality however you need a combination of solutions. Just like effective treatment for a patient needs good environment, healthy food and effective medicines.

We need all the above solutions for tackling corruption, no matter in what order they get done.

Frame of Reference

2011-04-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

When Tendulkar will retire, our childhood will end.

The childhood of my entire generation has been synonymous with Tendulkar. We lunched with him, studied with him, talked with him, played with him, laughed with him, cried with him. We literally grew up on the images of his magical game. His game virtually got woven into our DNA.

When we watch him play, the grown-up person in us goes in the backdrop and a child enters in our eyes. That excitement returns, blithely unaware of the crude realities. The concept of age completely vanishes, to pick up and savor the last few remains of innocent joy.

Tomorrow the childhood of my entire generation will be dying to watch its hero seeking the glory. And it will refuse to leave us until the hero takes his final bow.

2011-03-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

Perhaps for the first time, I feel good about Europe/US intervening in some country. The typical arguments I have read against the intervention in Libya are of following types:

1. The fairness argument:
Why not intervene in Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Algeria, Morocco?
- You cannot do the right thing everywhere, but that does not mean you should not do it anywhere. It may be too huge an area for military operations. You have to have priorities. Oil in Libya may put it on top of priority list, and also because of the momentum the Libyan movement has gathered.

2. The conspiracy argument:
Egypt may have been revolution by people but it was US & co who incited people in Libya for their oil. They are there only for the oil and nothing else.
- US cannot incite people to capture majority of the country. Libyan rebels had captured in majority of the country. Inciting people to such a scale without knowledge of the rulers is impossible task. *Forty-two* years of tyranny is much more plausible reason for the uprising.
And even if they intervene in Libya for oil, its acceptable. If the oil from Libya stops flowing, the rates of oil will go sky-high and break the spine of world economy. Also, trade can benefit both the parties but if not intervened, Libyans suffer alone in massacre. Gaddafi had already promised that he will hunt people going house to house.

3. The peace argument:
War is never right. Peace is the way.
- Too idealistic. War should be used as the last resort when possibilities for peace are none. No further comments.

4. The leave-them-alone argument:
Rebels requested intervention to stop massacre. Gaddafi warned against it. Who will you listen to? If your neighbor starts shooting his family, will you not complain or will you put earplugs and pretend you don't care? The world is connected, you are not isolated. When something reaches tipping point and starts affecting you directly/indirectly, you have to pay some attention to it.

Of course, my opinion is based on assumptions and subjective. My opinion doesn't count too. (That does not mean I should not give it a voice). Also, it may be possible that reality is entirely different. What is real has always been an interesting question troubling proletariat like us.

2011-02-20T21:19:00.000-08:00

There are no democracy, freedom.
There are no Obamas, Blairs, Gaddafis, Mubaraks.
There are only oil wells, economics, guns, bullets and survival.
And there is also you, who still believes that the truth is better than this.

2011-02-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

I wish nothing else but to speak simply
please grant me this privilege
because we have burdened our song with so much music
that it is slowly sinking
and our art has become so ornate
that the makeup has corroded her face
and it is time to say our few simple words
because tomorrow our soul sails away

- Giorgos Seferis (1900-1971)

Appreciation

2011-02-05T16:27:00.000-08:00

A stray thought:

Lots of times we appreciate the wonders that others have created. How did he think of this structure! How could she paint such a miracle! How could he see this formula through all this mess! How in the world she could come up with such a crazy idea! And many more expressions appreciating the spark of brilliance.

Sometimes I feel there is another level of appreciation. Most of the times when we appreciate something brilliant, we appreciate it like a "miracle". Our own lack of creativity in the subject matter also plays a hand. For example, a common man praising Taj Mahal. His sense of appreciation is truly different from the way an architect would do it. When a knowledgeable, skillful architect appreciates the Taj, it is one creativity admiring another creativity. Or take Neils Bohr admiring Einstein's work as another example.

I wonder how it would be to feel this kind of appreciation for the "miracles". I hope to experience this feeling at some point in my life!

A new unit

2011-01-28T18:33:00.000-08:00

Amid the scams galore, the amount of money vanished is simply mind numbing. You hear the numbers of thousands of crores, lakhs of crores. These numbers do not make any sense. They are simply astronomical and humble human brain is unable to comprehend them.

Here is how we can make sense of these numbers! Lets take 2G scam for example. The cost of 2G scam is estimated to be around 176,000 crore rupees. You don't like the number? Well, lets crunch it down to something we can make sense of:

176,000 crore rupees ~ 38 billion dollars

Now Indian population is 1.2 billion, and lets overestimate our daily food bill a little bit to make it 45 rupees, thats 1 dollar. Thus whole India has 1.2 billion dollars as its food bill per day.

Let's define IFC = India's Food Cost = 1.2 billion dollars
Now the cost of 2G scam = 38/1.2 ~ 30 IFC
Whole India can eat for one month free !!!

By this unit,
Telgi scam = 7 IFC = India could eat free for a week.
CWG scam = 7 IFC = India could eat free for a week.
2G scam = 30 IFC = India could eat free for a month (again to remind)

And they talk of taking care of hunger, poverty blah blah blah!!!

Sheer Idiocy

2010-12-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

At RPI, we have an impromptu comedians' club called Sheer Idiocy.
The following is the invite email for one of their shows -
(note Mother's (and Father's) are campus stores)
================================================
Hey Idiot Fans!

Classes are coming to an end this week, and what better way to celebrate than a FREE Improv comedy Show! That's right folks, this Friday, December 10th, at 8PM we will be having one of our world famous comedy shows in Mother's with all of the usual hilarity. So, give your friends the invaluable gift of laughter this holiday season by taking them to the show! Word on the street is we might even have a special guest! Or not! You'll have to come to the show to find out.

For those worried about studying for finals, 9 out of 10* doctors agreed that improv comedy will increase your exam grades by up to 32%. Sounds justified to me.

For those thinking, "That e-mail is too long":
Show on Friday, 8PM, Mothers

-The Idiots
*Doctors heavily bribed. Also not doctors.
==================================================

Perspective

2010-11-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

The actual reason why people are happy about WikiLeaks is not the secrets. People are not voyeurs, at least not most of them. The real reason is that the politicians have lost their credibility and people trust leaks more. People no more believe it when the leaders tell them that the information is to be kept secret in the national interests. Credibility is the key to the cloak of secrecy. But the leaders have enjoyed this secrecy thingy for their own interests, as evident from the scams galore. If they had some credibility left, there would be little to worry about the leaks because honest leaders would have peoples' support in any adverse situation. In such a case, people would have said - we do not want the secrets, we fully trust in our leaders when they say that these documents are to be kept confidential.

Same goes about the Arundhati Roy drama. As a democratic society, we must respect her right to speak. We should answer argument only by the means of argument. But is there a single trustworthy person left in the political arena whose arguments people will believe in? This the real reason government worries about Arundhati Roy. Its not only popularity, its about credibility and these two things aren't the same. Perhaps the only person who enjoyed such trust from people was Dr. Kalam. If only there were leaders of such stature who could stand up and tell Ms Roy that she was wrong - then citizens would pay no attention to whatever she says. Sedition charges against her is certainly not the way to go about it.

Real

2010-11-29T19:52:00.000-08:00

Neo: "This --- This isn't real?"

Morpheus: "What is real? How do you define real? If you are talking about what you feel, taste, smell or see then real is simply the electrical signals interpreted by your brain."

(Morpheus shows a picture of John Lennon's world in Imagine)
Morpheus: "This is the world that you know. The world which never was there. It exists only in your mind, a projection on your mind created by media."

Morpheus: "This is the world as it exists today."
(Morpheus shows slides of war, oil field politics, financial scams, nuclear arsenal smuggling, biological weapons, mafias of religion)

Morpheus: "As you watch the pics of fashion shows in Paris, the nations are fighting for every single drop of the oil. As you see the hero kissing the heroin, most frightening bio-weapons have already been created. While you are kept busy reading about sex, the land is being given to worthless kith and kin at throwaway prices. They give you Pamela Anderson on Big Boss and keep mum about the most gigantic 2G scam in the history."

Morpheus: "Control of the thoughts, Neo, thats the ultimate power. Orwell saw it. Now you in India believe that Arunachal Pradesh has always been yours. Chinese children from their childhood are taught that it is theirs. Once you infiltrate the thoughts in childhood, not even God can change them. You see, they groom you since your childhood, in the most intangible way. Neo, there is an obvious way to hide the truth - to teach lies as truth.... And Neo, this is the world as it exists today. The desert of the real. For a long time, I did not believe it. Then I saw the telegrams, listened to the tapes and came to realize the obviousness of the truth. The media is the matrix."

Morpheus: "What is matrix Neo? Control. The matrix of media is a digitally generated dreamworld built to keep us in control in order to change a human being into this -"
(Morpheus shows a puppet controlled by strings)

Neo: "No!!! I don't believe it. It's not possible."

Morpheus: "I didn't say that it would be easy, Neo. I just said that it would be the truth."

Neo: "Stop! Let me out! I want out!"
(Falls on the floor and wakes up in front of TV. TV is showing the latest wardrobe malfunction of Yana Gupta. Sometimes it is so difficult to differentiate between the dream and the real, he says to himself. The show goes on.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Note: I did not plan it at all, just wrote it. So, technically
it might be as unsound as it gets.

Indian Classical Music

2010-10-31T08:39:00.001-07:00

There are few friends with whom even if you don't speak for months, the next time you chat with them, it feels as if it was only yesterday you last chatted with them. You pick up threads immediately. As if you and these friends are just one soul. It happens same with classical music and me. I sometimes stay away from it for months, forgetting it in the mundane daily life. Then one fine morning I open the classical music folder from my machine and play it for whole day, feeling one with it. (And mind you, I have never really learned classical music.)

I do listen to numbers from all the other kinds of music - Rock, Pop, Folk, Jazz (and even rap sometimes). But what really gets me hooked is the classical music. Often I find people frowning at the name of classical music. Perhaps because of peer pressure, or they don't try to understand it, or because it "ain't cool". To those people, sometimes I feel like saying that Indian Classical Music is like mathematics/logic - very few people like it the first time. But no matter what you do, you can't avoid it. Its because what it provides is sets of rules, like mathematics, to apply to a particular problem you are facing. And then you apply the rules to solve the problem, or create the kind of music that you want to create.

Ragas are indeed like set of rules. You have been given few notes and then you are free to create whatever permutations and combinations you want to create. (Some LISP programmers may find it analogous to LISP environment. They may find C language too boring for the same reason a classical music person would find too much rock music boring for. There is no scope for creating true music in either of those, they will say.) You want to solve a particular problem or sing at a particular hour then select a suitable set of tools - algebra, probability, analysis (or a combination) or select a particular raga or a combination of ragas and solve the problem. While solving real problems, sometimes you need to deviate a little from pure mathematical assumptions or you need to deviate a little from the notes of raga to welcome other notes for a moment for the song of your soul. The way you have the undercurrent of mathematics with some compromises running below all the real world wonders, you have abstract classical music with some deviation running under all the music you see.

But in reality, people love real world wonders but seldom care to see what created the wonder. They love their i-phones but don't really care to know the maths that made it possible. They love the film music but don't love the classical music, seldom realizing the pitfall of irony they are falling into. And then they miss upon an infinite treasure of the classical music while the classical music fans can't get enough of it!

Across the Himalayas

2010-10-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

Today when I was speaking with a Chinese friend of mine, in the course of conversation I asked him if Chinese people knew a thing or two about India. He answered negative and said that when he thinks about India, he does see three images -
1. Jampacked local trains with people hanging from door bars
2. An Indian businessman who is astronomically richer than common people
3. An Indian woman in a saree with a bindi on her forehead.

And that was quite interesting I thought!

He told me few things about China. It seems that they have their own different internet - a different facebook site, a different search engine called baidu. The whole internet world is totally different and the government controls what you can search and what you can't search. Thousands of sites are deemed illegal and thousands of words are deemed sensitive - like "government", "Dalai Lama", "Party" and so on. Youtube, blogspot, facebook, picasa are blocked. All this is a part of "Golden Shield project", nicknamed as "Great firewall of China".

He told me that it all started with the concept of "harmony". It seems that the leaders announced few years back that the society needs to be "harmonious" and later introduced internet censorship and other controls. When people started writing about it online, the word "harmonious" itself was blocked. So now whenever something gets censored, people say it has been "harmonized". Doesn't this usage ring a bell somewhere if you know what I mean?

I asked him whether people like it and he said that they get used to it. Some people find some tricks out of it but those tricks become useless after some time. According to what he said, there was no concept of multi-party in China. Since centuries, people are divided into two classes - a power class small in number and common people. If people oppose and fight, they fight for an entry into the power class by displacing others. Then they start controlling it themselves.
There were no multiple dynasties co-existing in history, since ages the concept of multiple power classes has been absent. The government is omnipotent. The people who face the wrath of government simply disappear and you cannot search their names online. You cannot discuss the "sensitive" things in public.

There is a Chinese proverb - a paper cannot hold the fire. He remarked jokingly that in China, the government papers have managed to hold the fire and will continue to do so because since ages people have liked to follow a strong leader. That's the way it has been and it won't change.

Then I asked him a personal question - how do you feel in U.S.? He said that he doesn't find it better or worse in any way. Though the freedom to discuss sensitive things and going against the government is absent in China, you can do everything else in the world. And while saying all this, nowhere I felt a hatred towards his motherland. A sense of mild dismay was there but time and again he remarked that China was and is a powerful country.

Sigh! The whole thing was totally new and different. Himalayas are indeed very tall.

P.S.
He asked me that if we Indians do not have a common language or culture then what makes us stand as a single nation.
And I said "I don't know!" because I too can't really figure that out. You might say that we have some unifying thread underneath but these days its really difficult to see it.

Haiku-ish

2010-08-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

Early Morning
A sketch on the last page
The class goes on

Nothing to do
An attempt to write a haiku
Random and worthless

Divine
Is the beauty sitting on right
Caught yawning

The speaker
Words floating in the air
Nobody catches'em

The eternity
Experienced in finite time
Its all relative

An Amazing Quote

2010-08-21T14:30:00.000-07:00

"It is not to be forgotten that what we call rational grounds for our beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts."
- Thomas Huxley

One more..

2010-08-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

One more group of friends
One more philosophical discussion
One more feeling of nothingness
One more lonely walk to home
One more cup of tea
One more sleepless night
Tomorrow is another day.

- Onkar

P.S. Last sentence is how "Gone with the wind" ends. That line flashed across my mind for last sentence of the poem and it just got stuck there so much that I could not think of any other way to end this poem.

A thought experiment

2010-08-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a debate after dinner. Before telling anything about debate let me tell the thought experiment Adarsh proposed -
Suppose you have been to fifty houses occupied by bachelors. Let us say that in all of these houses you have been offered a glass of water and you have found the glass dirty in all those houses. The next time when you will go to a bachelor's house and will be offered a glass of water, will you not be tempted to be careful?

The debate was about this - will you treat your experience with each individual as separate or will you connect dots and try to infer something from it? Let me clarify it further.

One of the thesis, lets call it "Thesis A", was this -
Don't conclude that generally the glasses in bachelors' houses are dirty. Keep the dirtiness of glass and bachelor status separate, don't connect them. Treat every individual separately and don't connect your experiences of different individuals.
"Thesis B", was this -
Be careful a priori about the glass of water when you enter 51st bachelors' house. This would involve a little bias. If you find the glass clean, weaken your thesis and reduce your bias to some extent.

In fact the debate actually revolves around two questions -
1. Should you connect the dirty-glass experiences?
2. Should you relate it to the bachelor quality of occupants?

As argued, pros and cons of Thesis A were -
Pro) It doesn't limit your actions when meeting an individual for the first time.
Con) Absence of bias increases chances of getting surprised (or hurt). If the person had acted according to your expectations, it would have less surprised or hurt you.

Pros and Cons of Thesis B were -
Pro) It reduces your chances of getting surprised or hurt. It will take time for you to make correct inferences about a person but eventually you might reach there without getting hurt.
Con) It will limit your choice of actions with that individual. You will be slow in reaching inference or sometimes may not even reach there because you are limiting your exploring.

As with most debates, it ended with stating everyone's personal preference.

Whatever my personal preference is, if I go by my instincts, I would be careful with the glass of water in 51st bachelors' house I visit. I think that might be the instinct of most people. (I am not necessarily saying that its the correct thing, but just commenting about my instinct.)

- Onkar

(Damn, this post has become too heavy. I would have left writing it midway had I not been listening to "Tere bina jiya jaye na", the old hindi song from movie Ghar) !

Journey to the battlefield

2010-08-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

My grad school is situated at TROY. And I refuse to believe that the name is a mere coincidence. The future designs of the creator are difficult to decipher, and if there is no creator, its even more difficult.

But the journey to the battlefield was totally different than expected. No signs of impending battle.

1. I was well-fed in flight to Amsterdam and then to Boston. In fact, the food was too good compared to the horrible stories I had heard from people. Unfortunately I caught cold in the strong AC in the flight to Amsterdam so couldn't watch movies on the videoscreen provided in front of each seat. I missed a golden chance of watching Sherlock Holmes, The Hurt Locker and Alice in Wonderland in a single night. The plane from Boston to Troy looked more like a plane in Talespin cartoon series and was the only cause of worry.
2. A young lady tried to decipher the phone calling system for me at the Boston airport. When she couldn't do it, she made the phone call from her own cellphone. (She was real pretty and charming! You see a lot of pretty girls on airports but she did belong to a different class altogether.)
3. The security guards and the shopkeepers not only told the directions clearly but at times came along for some distance to guide to the destination.
4. At Mumbai airport, I could not immediately see public phones after I did complete security check. I wanted to see if I could make a phone call after checking in at Boston. The following exchange then took place at Boston airport -
Myself - Can I make a phone call after security check-in or should I do it before?
Security - (With a chuckle) That depends on how you like it, before or after.
5. At Boston airport, after making the famous call in point no. 1, I suddenly came across my friend at IISc - Nishanth Nair. To call it pleasant surprise would be an understatement, it was a shock. Killing four hours at Boston was a non-issue then.

The final flight kept both my bags at Boston. And my close friend Nikhil, who received it at Schenectedy is going to take all the pains to deliver those bags to me driving some 60 miles in total. Fortunately I had kept a spare set of clothes in my hand-bag. In fact, here it is possible to survive on only two sets of clothes for few days - the driers here dry out the clothes completely. It was known to me, but to actually experience it with only two sets of clothes available is more than a relief !

The details of the battlefield itself will be in the next post. At present, the graduate student's forum at RPI, Troy has provided a week of free accommodation near RPI. So the coming week will be spent battling for finding out accommodation. Oh while writing the last sentence, the hourly church bell sound echoed through the environment. The sound feels real good in this environment.

2010-07-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

As my scheduled flight to US is only 48 hours away, though its difficult to admit, I am feeling very much homesick. Though I was away for two years at Bangalore (managing only 3 trips to home in two years) and at Pune for two more years, I never really got that kinda feeling.

Home is where heart is!

sigh !

2010-07-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

I happen to know few "special" children, though not directly but through my family. A slight thought of them makes me highly uncomfortable and upset, which I am now.

Forget the lofty aims of understanding universe and ourselves, even if science succeeds in healing the agonies of such people I'd say it has done its bit.

sigh! :(

Brain and Consciousness

2010-07-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

"Lofty questions about the mind are fascinating to ask - philosophers have been asking them for three millennia both in my native India and in the West - but it is only in the brain we can eventually hope to find the answers."
- VS Ramachandran, author of "A Brief Tour to Consciousness" and a neuroscientist by profession at UCSD.

Its a highly gripping book I read recently. It is neither deeply technical nor very philosophical. A very down-to-earth book connecting brain and consciousness through a series of anecdotes.

I am really glad that the book affirmed my views that abstract philosophical discussions are of very little use. You can also infer from the book that we should actually know about the things like pain, happiness, sorrow, emotions, desire and so on before we discuss them vehemently. A sentence like "desire is the root cause of all sorrow" doesn't mean much unless we know what desire and sorrow physically are and why they are what they are.

I am not denying spirituality or philosophy here. Any myth or spiritual philosophy is an honorable attempt of human beings to justify their lives with the limited information they have. But I think there comes a point when any branch of knowledge comes to a dead end. After that point, it can progress only after exchanging information with other branches of knowledge. And perhaps it is time for spiritual philosophy to exchange information with neuroscience. No use of engaging in word games.

I am glad of having developed a more than passive interest in neuroscience in past few months.

Lessons....

2010-07-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

So this is a cliched idea for a blog post (but who cares?). I left my first job on 15th July after nearly spending two years. It was my first time to deal with "professional" world. And it indeed did teach me few things -

1. An hour for you everyday keeps you happy and if you really want to do it, you'll find time for you *anyway*.

2. At any moment of distress, remember "this moment will pass". Talk to your roommates and friends. They are the real stress-busters.

3. Its better to spend some of the "browsing breaks" on something else other than social-networks.

4. To err is human. Be little lenient to others. Who knows, you may go wrong some day.

5. Instead of having "I-am-concerned-with-only-my-work" attitude, discuss ideas with others and let others discuss their ideas with you.

6. Identify your most creative time of the day and try to make the most of it.

Did they miss the point?

2010-07-02T17:49:00.001-07:00

Yesterday on google buzz I had posted a news from Times of India - 12 years boy raped an older girl in Delhi. I posted it saying that its a most depressing news I have ever read.

To my surprise, in addition to some frivolous comments, I was also asked what was so shocking in the news and why it was depressing.

To me it was shocking because its something far far beyond my wild expectations of what should happen in the world. Things will happen which I do not expect but this was far beyond the limit I was prepared for. But why was it depressing? Thats the point I'd like to make here.

Of course the world is almost always raw and cruel. But it does not mean we want it to be raw and cruel. We want to make it better. And the good people are putting their every bit of effort to make it better. It was depressing for me because it made me feel such efforts are falling terribly short. That was the point. Now some may say that one incidence does not reflect the fact. But sometimes more-than-bewildering incidents have a power to cause a huge emotional upset.

If even such a terrible news is not shocking (and/or depressing) to people, well, its their choice! To me, if such a news is shocking (and depressing) then it tells me that I am not yet emotionally dead.

That kinda feeling

2010-06-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

Suppose you don't get even bare minimum (or sound sleep) for two consecutive nights with a very stressful and turbulent day between them. You wake up and you want to describe the feeling you are having.

This was the situation with me today morning. I got up and wanted to describe the feeling I was having. Instead of all possible English words or phrases in the Oxford dictionary or any other dictionary on the planet, the following words came to my mind-

Feeling like an unstable isotope

And I thought it summed up my feelings quite well :)

Crossing the quarter century mark

2010-05-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

Many times during last month, I felt the urge to write. I did write some articles too but did not post it. Somehow I felt the articles did not come quite good. Its another question whether the articles that I post too are good enough.

I turned 25 this 1st May. And many people reminded me that I have scored a quarter century. The last year will go down my memory lane as one of the most memorable. Somehow I came out from my nagging and depressing introspection and slowly I'm learning to be more bindhaas. Though I have a perpetual hint of smile on my face, in reality, when I'm alone I did tend to be very serious kinda person. (They say the same about Abraham Lincoln :D ). I was unable to accept changes which threatened my comfort zone. I still am not not entirely comfortable with it but there are signs of improvement. The biggest burdens were my own expectations and the inevitable necessity to control this burden brings about. I read some philosophy and it invariably led me to depressing thoughts.

But somehow last year has made me realize strongly that nothing in life's quirks is worth much bothering about and no philosophy is complete. You cannot have complete control and have the things the way you wanted. In fact, life is fun only because there is uncertainty and chaos galore. Absolute control would render the life very dull and boring. Contradictions are part and parcel of life and the only answer to such situations is forty-two. In fact, I strongly suspect that 42 is indeed the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. (For non-hitchhiker-guide readers, it means that in general life does not make much sense and you must read this book, its the craziest I have ever read). Though it does not make much sense, it does not mean that you should not try to bring a little order in things around you but the key point is that after you give it your best, do not bother much about the results and accept the results the way they turn out to be. If the results do not make much sense, remember that the answer is forty-two and move on.

Talking about my dabbling with philosophy and the resulting depressing thoughts, somehow I have come to the conclusion that no philosophy will ever be sufficient to answer all the aspects of life. In fact the only philosophy that may work in every situation is "Take the best possible action according to situation without being very rigid with do-s and dont-s". Realizing this has had a lot of effect on me. Now I don't spend my time brooding over philosophy but try to be present in that situation, try to be present in that moment. Avoiding unnecessary and futile philosophical conundrums and trying to live the moment has made my life much more peaceful and happy.

Preaching and practicing are two different things but at least realizing this stuff has made the 25th year very special for me.

- Onkar

Nostalgia (or frustration?)

2010-04-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

===========================
PDF -
once probability density function
now portable document format
===========================

A Secret

2010-04-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

Recently via an incredible series of coincidences, I could lay
my hands on a secret document. The secret document is the
employee induction agreement between an aspiring journalist
and the Times of India. To my biggest surprise, the document was
real short and consisted of only two lines. Here it is -

Gulaal

2010-03-16T11:25:00.000-07:00

I recently watched "Gulaal", a hindi film directed
by Anurag Kashyap based on student politics in
Rajasthan. The movie is quite good though
slightly complicated. I could watch it twice, a rare
phenomenon for me.

Apart from the performances and dialogues, what
really stands out in the movie are the songs and lyrics.
The songs are in perfect tandem with the movie,
both in tune and words. In fact, the lyrics hits you
with hammer. The adaptations of "Ye Duniya Agar
Mil bhi Jaaye to Kya hai" and "Sarfaroshi ki
Tamanna" are simply mind blowing, so are the songs
"Aarambh Toh Prachanda Hai" and "Raat ke Musafir".
I haven't listened to to these songs out of the context
of the movie, perhaps the music may not sound that
great out of the context.

Nevertheless, the lyrics had been a great experience
and after a lot of days I found myself paying attention
to the words of songs. Pasting below lyrics of one of
the songs in Gulaal : "O Ri Duniya". This is an adaptation
(not exactly though) of the song "Ye Duniya agar
Mil Bhi Jaaye To Kya Hai". For a better
understanding and impact, you may watch the movie :)

======================================
O ri Duniya
----------------

Surmayi aankhon ke pyaalon ki duniya
Satrangi rangon gulaalon ki duniya..o duniya
Alsaayi sezon ke phoolon ki duniya
Angdaai tode kabootar ki duniya
Karwat le soyi haqueeqat ki duniya
Deewaani hoti tabeeyat ki duniya
Khwahish mein lipti zaroorat ki duniya
Insaan ke sapno ki neeyat ki duniya..o Duniya

O ri Duniya

ye duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai…

Mamta ki bikhri kahaani ki duniya
Behno ki siski jawaani ki duniya
Aadam ke Hawwaa se rishte ki duniya
Shaayar ke pheeke lafzon ki duniya

Ghalib ke Momin ke khwaabon ki duniya
Majaazon ke un inqualaabon ki duniya
Faiz Firaaq aur Saahir o Makhdoom
Mir ki Zauk ki Daagh ki duniya

Ye duniya agar…

Pal chhin mein baatein chali jaati hain hain
Pal chhin mein raatein chali jaati hain hain
Reh jaata hai jo savera wo dhoondhey
Jalte makaan mein basera wo dhoondhey
Jaisi bachi hai waisi ki waisi bachaa lo ye duniya
Apna samajhke apno ke jaisi uthaalo ye duniya

Chhut put si baaton mein jalne lagegi sambhaalo ye duniya…
Kat pit ke raaton mein palne lagegi sambhaalo ye duniya..

O ri Duniya…

Wo kahein hain ki duniya ye itni nahi hai
Sitaaron se aage jahaan aur bhi hain
Ye hum hi nahi hain wahaan aur bhi hain
Hamaari har ek baat hoti wahin hai

Hamein aitraaz nahi hai kahin bhi
Wo aalim hain faazil hain honge sahi hi
Magar falsafaa ye bigad jaata hai
Jo wo kehte hain

Aalim ye kehta wahaan Eeshwar hai
Faazil ye kehta wahaan Allah hai

Tumhari hai tum hi sambhalon ye duniya
Ye bujhte huye chand baasi charaaghon ki
Tumhaare ye kaale iraadon ki duniya…
==================================

Jack Sparrow Says

2010-03-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

Recently two of my friends said that I am a boring
person because I am too sincere in my attitude.

I'll try my best to be little insincere, sincerely !

मा फलेषु कदाचन |

2010-02-04T05:47:00.000-08:00

I have been reading one of the articles by one of the persons
who happens to be my friend/philosopher/guide in some sorts.
In the article, he spoke about how powerful is the following
shloka from Bhagavdgita

"You have the right of only performing the actions, not of
the fruit. Do not live for the fruit of your actions, and do
not shirk from actions."

He explained it quite beautifully and quite in the same
spirit as I understand it (others may not agree!).

Here is a very brief summary of my understanding : You
don't have the right to consequences(fruits) of an action
because there are many factors involved in determining
the consequences, most of the times taking the control
out of your reach. But what you can definitely claim
as your right is the right to perform the action
because there are no other factors involved in it.
If you cannot control the consequences, you should attach
no importance to the consequences in your life. And though
you should practice detachment from the fruits, you
should not turn away from action.

Of course, it is a powerful message and I completely
agree with it except a small part. I find this
detachment-from-the-fruits-of-action part quite
difficult to cope with. I have thought of an alternative
which I feel offers more psychological support to me.

Instead of completely detaching myself from the consequences,
why I should not take a little joy in the thing that I
performed at least one of the multitude of the factors?
(If the consequences are bad, then regret a bit).
I will not claim that I am fully responsible for
the consequences because I know that I am not! I will not
claim joy/sorrow for the part for which I was not responsible.
But I would definitely like to feel pleasure/pain
for the part, even the minute part for which I was
responsible, because this gives me a motivation to move on,
and do more action, to live. Without this little
little joy/sorrow I will not be motivated to live.

Of course, different people will have different interpretations,
different justifications and so on. But I feel that
this little attachment makes me human, to enjoy life, to
give some justification for why I should perform the action.

And the above is also the way I interpret one of my all
time favorite quotes from Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore:
"Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is
no freedom for the tree".

- Onkar

...and the world lost an Euler !

2010-01-04T00:39:00.000-08:00

Euler, the legendary mathematician went to the city of Konigsberg. The city was divided in four parts by rivers. The rivers had seven bridges on it. There he was asked if it was possible to travel all the bridges in a single journey without going twice over any bridge.

Euler realized that it was simply not possible !
He redrew the graph drawing edges for each bridge.

He said that traveling each bridge exactly once is same as drawing the graph without lifting pencil. Then he generalized the problem saying that drawing any graph without lifting pencil such that you start from point X (source) and end at point Y (destination) is possible if and only if each point (technically "node") had even number of edges connected to it, with possible exceptions of X and Y.

I had read about this long back but few days ago I tried to prove it and finally proved it. But proving it reminded me of my childhood days.

Someone at my school, mostly a classmate gave us a puzzle. We had to draw the figure below without lifting pencil.

I solved it after a few attempts. It turns out that you must start from point A and end at point B (or vice versa). Because Euler's theorem tells us that only source (A) and destination (B) are allowed to have odd number of edges connected to them, but every intermediate node must have even number of edges.

In my schooldays puzzle, only A and B had odd number of edges. So if your starting and end points of journey were not these points, it is impossible to draw the figure without lifting the pencil.

Though I solved that puzzle, I never realized that it was not the answer but the nature of question that was important.

But I never thought it that way.... and the world lost an Euler ! :P :P

Nescafe !

2009-12-02T21:31:00.000-08:00

I love this Nescafe song ! Today I started out my day
putting this song in repeat mode. Not only its a
refreshing tune, but being designed for an
advertisement, its lyrics also makes sense !

=====================================================
"Open up !"

You can be rich with no money to spend,
you can be everything when you understand,
you can be mother when you are a man,
open up - you know that you can.

Open your eyes, open your mind, open your thoughts
- Don’t stay behind!
(Open up, open up, open up, open up)
Nescafé
(Open up, open up, open up, open up)

The key is inside you to open your mind,
you know what is out there - your heart can’t be blind,
open your eyes and open your mind,
open your thoughts - Don’t stay behind!

Open your eyes, open your mind, open your thoughts
- Don’t stay behind!
(Open up, open up, open up, open up)
Nescafé
(Open up, open up)

You race all the boarders and start in your head,
open your mind to thoughts seldom said
open your eyes and open your mind,
open your thoughts and don’t stay behind.

Open your eyes, open your mind, open your thoughts
- Don’t stay behind!
(Open up, open up, open up, open up)
Nescafé
(Open up, open up, open up, open up
Open up, open up,
Open up, open up)
Nescafé
(Open up, open up,
open up, open up,
open up, open up,
open up, open up,
open up, open up)
Nescafé
=======================================================

Lateral Thinking

2009-12-01T23:50:00.000-08:00

(Thanks to Nachiket for this amusing real
life story. The boy in this story is
actually one of the family friend of
Nachiket's family.)

There was a boy at IIT, Kharagpur. There
were a lot of mosquitoes at IITKh so he had to
set up mosquito net before he could sleep.
Once unfortunately, this mosquito net
got a hole. Mosquitoes used to enter the
net through that hole and trouble the boy.

He simply made another hole in the
net and connected a flexible tube from
one hole to the another.

Poor mosquitoes, they did not know who
they were pitted against !!! :D

Coming of age

2009-11-17T21:18:00.000-08:00

He was 60 years old.

He had retired as top exec.
He had two children, doing well.
A top investment firm managed his money.
His wife (still) loved him.
He reclined on his chair, sipping tea.
And he thought,
What was the purpose of my life?

He woke up.

He was only 60 years young.

The One

2009-10-31T07:54:00.000-07:00

I often hear or read about people seeking the ultimate
truth. They speak with a sort of fantasy in their eyes.
To be one with the universe or to be in sync with the
universe, to experience that deep sense of unity with
the universe where there is no subject or the object,
just the one.

I do not want to speak about what that state might
bring about. I have a question about the ultimate
truth. Does it exist? And I want to present a
different point of view on this.

Human beings need to make sense of what they see.
They need to make abstractions in order to store
information and use. They need to make abstractions
of abstractions to simplify things. They tend to
seek invariant patterns in everything they see,
everything they do. It is perhaps necessitated
by how our brains work, tending to remember
patterns and attributes.

So humans are compelled to make a ladder of abstraction
chain. Perhaps the notion of the ultimate truth
which is the highest abstraction originates from
this tendency. It is the way we think, the way we
hypothesize that has created this hypothesis and
so it does not guarantee that such a concept exists.
It may be just a by-product thought generated
because of the way our brains work.

It does sound crazy but who cares !

- Onkar

Of food etc !

2009-10-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

I went to a supermarket (actually it was a general commodity store) this Sunday after many months. AndI just stood looking at the prices, totally stunned ! It must not be a news to many peoople. Tur-dal Rs 110/kg, Mung-dal Rs 90/kg, Udal-dal Rs 85/kg, Rice Rs 40/kg (standard and non-exotic), Sugar Rs 40/kg! What a menace. One of my friends recited the story about buying Tur-dal. Three times he went to buy Tur-dal in few weeks time, and he heard rates of Rs 55,75 and 100. Crazy stuff !

According a not-so-recent govt survey, on average, per capita Indian expenditure on food was Rs. 440, for the duration of 2006-07. For a four member family, it amounts to Rs. 1760. Considering the spiraling rates this year, it must have crossed Rs. 2000 per month. I really am stupefied how poor people manage to have four meals a day. Here most BCom people or even BA people, hardly get salaries above Rs. 8000-10000. Considering some of the major expenditure channels like food, rent, travel, telephone, healthcare; I really cannot imagine their plight making both ends meet.

Government cannot provide jobs to all. Thats OK, in my opinion, the government should only foster the growth of employment. But food? As a touted superpower-to-be, we should at least succeed in providing food to people. This is the least you should do as govt.

Not that I did not know of the rates, but going to the shop this Sunday made me acutely aware of these rates. Just a glimpse of reality shocked me to the core.

If we are depriving poor of the food, we are doing them no good by the fake austerity drive. Austerity is a virtue, not a showcase item. I am not really against the leaders but against this showcase politics. We lament Shashi Tharoor's comments without understanding the English meaning and connotations of "cattle-class". Not only demonstrate our lack of maturity by flogging Shashi Tharoor, we also show lack of sensitivity by transforming the real issue into a totally unrelated one. We attack Shashi Tharoor for the so-called-meaning of calling them cattle but do not try to improve the conditions of cattle. In fact, we want to make them stay as hungry cattle so that we can feed them at the time of elections and get votes, then forget about them till the next election.

I am aware that as Shashi Tharoor issue was a superficial one, so are possibly my comments too, as I do not know a lot about theoretical government efforts. Still, you can get a feeling from the local news, local mess rates and from speaking to common people like auto-drivers, bus-conductors, hawkers. I also believe that if a politician has enough will power, he can definitely do most of the things in his scope.

Anyway thats the end of gibberish about the inflating prices. A small story to add a positive note at the end : Few days back I went to a State Transport bus ticket reservation center. And they were using Linux for booking tickets online! Yes, we can ! :)

show me!

2009-09-15T03:45:00.000-07:00

These are lyrics of "Show me" from my fair lady! Wow, the words rhyme, chime
and sing and resonate. I haven't listened to the song yet but the words
themselves are enough to produce magic!
========================================================================

Words! Words! Words! I'm so sick of words!
I get words all day through;
First from him, now from you!
Is that all you blighters can do?
Don't talk of stars burning above;
If you're in love, Show me!
Tell me no dreams filled with desire.
If you're on fire, Show me!
Here we are together in the middle of the night!
Don't talk of spring! Just hold me tight!
Anyone who's ever been in love'll tell you that
This is no time for a chat!
Haven't your lips longed for my touch?
Don't say how much, Show me! Show me!
Don't talk of love lasting through time.
Make me no undying vow. Show me now!

Sing me no song! Read me no rhyme!
Don't waste my time, Show me!
Don't talk of June, Don't talk of fall!
Don't talk at all! Show me!
Never do I ever want to hear another word.
There isn't one I haven't heard.
Here we are together in what ought to be a dream;
Say one more word and I'll scream!
Haven't your arms hungered for mine?
Please don't "expl'ine," Show me! Show me!
Don't wait until wrinkles and lines
Pop out all over my brow,
Show me now!
=========================================================================

religious riots

2009-09-08T02:28:00.000-07:00

Recently there have been riots in southern Maharashtra. There
was some trouble with the scene depicting Shivaji killing Afzalkhan.
Somebody committed some mischief and then religious sentiments
took over. Then it was all riots, murders, damages to the property, attacks on religious places and so on.

One of my close friends messaged me on a social networking sites.
The message said things such as "Hindus, realize whats going on, if
you do not come together now then blah blah..."

We are so quick to draw conclusions. I just thought about alternate
hypotheses about how the mischief could have occured.
1. Some people thirsty of wicked social entertainment acted
as miscreants. Religion does not matter to them, only gore does.
2. BJP paid crooks to go for the mischief. After all this is
election time in Maharashtra and there is need to consolidate
Hindu vote bank.
3. Congress paid crooks. They wanted to malign BJP on the
verge of elections and consolidate their Muslim vote bank.
4. Possibly Shivsena/MNS paid the crooks.
5. It was all spontaneous. Perhaps hard to believe but there
was no political involvement.
Many other hypotheses can be formulated. But why should we wait?
We are quick to jump to conclusions. Yes, "X" religion was
guilty and "Y" religion must avenge it.

Someone once said to me that human beings in group are not much
different than a pack of dogs, let one begin barking and others
will follow. I do not know exactly but at least in religious
matters it looks to be true. Religion has such a blinding effect
on a person's mind. Perhaps this effect stems from the old maxim
of religion "don't question, just follow". When people listen to
some so-called authority speaking on religion, they just follow
it without raising even an eyebrow.

The makers of the game exploit this very fact. The real culprits
stay aside and watch the fun from outside the ring. Unfortunately
our government is such a weakling that it lacks the will to stomp
over the culprits. Perhaps the government too is one of the culprits.

Some of us were discussing few days before. A question was raised,
did we gain more or lose more because of religion. The fact that
one has to think for the answer evinces the fact that the concept
has not been entirely beneficial.

Perhaps religion helped human beings in the beginning of civlization
by giving them a set of rules. Perhaps religion will also help
humans with the end of the civilization.

(note: Of course the problems run deeper than discussed and are
more philosophical in nature)

Point

2009-08-19T23:26:00.000-07:00

Why ?
What ?
What is life ?
Why do we live ?
Why do we breathe ?
Why do we think ?
What is the point ?
Why should there be not limits to what we think ?
Why should always be there something "higher" ?
What am I doing here ?

These are the usual topics of discussion with few of my friends.
Usually there is no outcome. Usually everything is just gibberish.
Staying alone, it gets over you. These questions will either be
your best friends or sworn enemies.

What is the point ?
Why should there be any point ?

You begin thinking that everything is pointless. You lose interest.
I found that every important question I face is ultimately connected
to "why am i here". For example, when I think of whether I should
go for a PhD, the actual question is different.

Probably it is like an axiomatic system. You may not be able to
question the axioms from within the aximoatic system. Perhaps there
may not be any point to life unless you give it. Different views
from different frames of reference.

I am just sick of it. There may not be something "higher". It may be
simply a consequence of biological needs of improving our skills
translated into the domain of thoughts. Perhaps life is just life.
Perhaps it is just like soil in a potter's hand. If he keeps thinking
about what is soil, nothing comes out of it but instead if he shapes
the soil, there comes the meaning.

I'm leaving it at that. Let us live.

अथातो आम्रजिज्ञासा ||

2009-05-10T23:05:00.000-07:00

I simply love Mango ! Recently while eating mangoes, some thoughts and revelations crossed my entranced mind. These are few chosen ones:

1) If genesis had been written in India, Adam would have got tempted to eat Mango in the garden of Eden instead of Apple. Is apple a fruit to get tempted for?

2) There is another theory that Adam intentionally ate Apple so that God punished him and sent to the earth. He wanted to eat Mangoes on the earth. How clever of him to fool the god into "punishing" !

3) If Harry Potter would have got written in India, he would have remembered Mango eating sessions while casting a patronus to thwart dementors.

4) If Queen Mary Antoinette had known Mangoes, she would have said "Let them eat Mango" instead of "Let them eat cake".

5) If British had known Mangoes much before:
a) Alphabet would have started with "M for Mango".
b) The celebrated proverb would have been "A mango a day keeps the doctor away".
c) There would have been no color as "Orange". That color would have been named as "Mango".

6) But it looks like Italians and Spanish knew Mangoes. That is why Amerigo Vespucci was named Amerigo by his mother and Amerigo named America as America. Not many people know that Sanskrit name for Mango is "Amra". Thus Mango has been instrumental in founding the superpower. The Spanish and Italian knowledge of Mangoes also resulted into their names generally ending with the letter "o" to rhyme with mango. (Fernando, Fransisco, Alessandro, Figo etc).

अथातो आम्रजिज्ञासा ||

An Unforgettable Week

2009-05-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

After a long time I am giving a non-fictional update with real names. The last week spent at IISc with my friends was one of the unforgettable ones. Perhaps it'd be one of the last things I'd forget if Alzheimer attacks me ever. This post is going to be an incoherent because I don't want to judge my thoughts but just go on writing them as they keep coming.

I had been to IISc, Bangalore from 25th April to 2nd May. I sorely needed a holiday to rejuvenate myself and I could have got nothing better. The idea was to be at IISc for a week in which three of us (25th-Prajakta, 1st-myself, 2nd-Mukta) celebrate birthdays and to grab this opportunity before junior batch graduates out. Once they graduate, there would be no scope for free stay, free food in IISc :). And of course there would be no one to chat with.

Highlights of my birthday:
1) Logically it began on 30th night with a treat from Pushkaraj and me for convocation. These people have extorted treats from me for all occasions - campus placements, farewell and now convocation. And no party in return ! I wonder whats more responsible for this - friendship or gangsterism. Anyway, I should check whether any insurance company could classify "partying" as natural calamity. This was the biggest treat I've given so far.
2) Some real birthday bums! All the past ones were mere caressing ! Madhumita wondered how I could be so silent during the brutality. I was actually lucky not to be silenced.
3) Most memorable gifts I ever received. To divulge it and to try to catch it in words would spoil it.
4) I taught all my friends some basic steps of jive after birthday celebrations at 2:00 a.m. in morning with cake in my hair. It was a real fun to give them orders after the ordeal of cake smearing and birthday bums.
5) In the following morning, I spotted a more than 5 feet long snake. I called up Vinay and meanwhile followed it for 20 min. Later some snaps and videos. It was such a terrific site with snake wiggling its tongue and slithering through the grass and trees. At times, we were as close as 5 feet. Later we came to know it was non-poisonous :(
6) It rained in the afternoon which reminded me of Mumbai rains. Kalpesh and I rode on bike almost all the IISc. The daring act was to bring down some tamarinds in faculty quarters and to eat while watching faculty pass by.
7) Evening movie in 9 rupees! Firaaq. The acoustics was so screwed up that I couldnt understand even 50% of dialogues.
8) It ended with Mukta's birthday at midnight, the theme for her being pink. It'd be better if Mukta uploads the snaps. I have never seen such an overdose of pink. They say on north/south poles your eyesight could get into trouble because of seeing white everywhere. Here it was replaced by Pink ! And yes, I avenged every morsel of cake she had smeared in my hair.

Some other things to mention:
1) I never imagined I could play Dumb-charades through the night till morning breakfast. This time it happened! Thanks to Pushkaraj, Mukta, Madhumita, Vinya, Vinya's-bro-Akshay and Swati.
2) We brought down some green mangoes one day and played catch-catch with it.
3) I managed to study for 30 minutes for 5 days even in this chaos. Its a feet well accomplished given that everyone had vowed not to let me open any book even for a moment.
4) I didn't buy a single book. Generally whenever I go to IISc, I make it a point to buy books as Tata Book House offers 20% concession on all books.
5) I wonder how my friends could keep aside so much time despite of their projects and research. It was mighty generous of them !
6) Darshan got into UIUC and its such a great news !
7) I didn't have to go to health center even once ! Generally the change in weather affects me quickly and the effect lasts for few days. My friends say it was their mistake that they didn't stretch me to limits.

bhOndOO celebrates Valentine's day

2009-04-22T03:00:00.001-07:00

bhOndOO entered the premises of Advanced Computing Ltd
and headed straight for his cubicle in the Performance
Analysis section. Today he walked rather fast and never
looked anywhere else, especially towards Shami's cubicle
in the HR section. Today was the Valentine's day and he
had a right to be nervous. He wanted to tell Shami what
she meant for him but like any geek, he could never
muster courage.

He sat on the chair in his cubicle and switched on his
PC. Like any geek, he should have opened his mailbox
first. But today even his Team-Lead's mails didn't mean
anything to him, and the usual technical support forum mails
never meant anything to him. He just fiddled with mouse,
adjusted the speakers, again fiddled with mouse and
then switched off the PC.

He thought and thought and thought. Nothing !,
nothing came to his mind. He was numb, dumb and slow.
It was as if 64 bit processor was replaced with 8 bit
8085 processor.

"hey bhOndOO, are you there? Good morning",he heard
Gullu's voice. He got up and looked over the wall of
his cubicle. Gullu was waving with a gift wrapped
in pink paper in his hands. He never wishes me good
morning, bhOndOO thought and all of a sudden, 8 bit
processor worked magic to give him the answer.
Gullu had waved at him only to show the gift to
him, definitely meant for Shami.

This is it. bhOndOO decided to go to his closest
friend, philosopher and guru. He went straight to
benJi's cubicle. Hearing the footsteps, benJi closed
few windows with lightening speed. He wanted to retain
his spiritually superior status.

"Guruji, mujhe bachao! Yeh shishya aapke sharan me aaya hai!"
"Vats bhOndOO, daro mat, apne man ki baat saaf-saaf kaho."
bhOndOO told benJi his troubles.

"Ok, child, I got your problems. The root of problem
is your high G.Q. i.e. Geekiness Quotient. And this
cant be done away with because one is born with G.Q.,
woh toh bhagwaan ki den hoti hai. Because of high
G.Q., you can neither give her rose, nor gift her
some smart greeting, nor ask her for a coffee which
could have been indicative. In fact you cannot even hope
to talk to her on your own on Valentine's day. This is
all fault of high G.Q."

"Then what should I do, soothsayer? Please show me the light".

"Yes, there is a solution. You must write a poem for
her and post it anonymous. Post it before the noon.
If you have it in your destiny, she will know that
you have written it. Remember NOT to mention your
name. It can make the girl coming to your cubicle
and the geeks won't be able to handle the pressure
of further consequences on Valentine's day. Put the
letter in the incoming letter box of office so that
it quickly gets delivered to her. One more thing,
nobody should see you near the letter box. Don't ask
me why. Reason is limited, faith is not. Keep faith
in me. May the almighty bless you!".

bhOndOO bowed to benJi and walked to his cubicle.

He thought and thought and thought. Things started
working for him. With a flash of inspiration he
wrote few lines and drew a heart around it. Then
he carefully put it in an envelope and wrote
"Shami, HR Section, ACL" as address. He looked
at the watch. It showed 11:59 a.m. Only one minute
for noon ! He ran towards the office letter box.
It was three passages away. He quickly passed
first two passages and..

Wham Bam ! He had failed to notice that the floor
of the third passage was wet because of being
mopped few moments ago by the sweeper. He started
searching his spectacles. It was below the couch
but now it had only right glass. He put on
spectacles and looked at the watch. It showed
12:01 a.m.. Listless, he started searching for
the envelope which he never found.

Somebody else found it.

It had flew around the corner of the third passage
and came to rest in second passage outside the
meeting hall. Shami, having just slept through
the meeting, came out of the hall and saw a letter
lying on the ground and a glass beside it. Gem
of a soul, she picked the glass and the letter
herself instead of calling the office attendant.
To her surprise, she found that the letter was
addressed to her. It had a heart drawn with
following lines in it:
-----------------------------
Your beauty is like Einstein's relativity
Even the sun-rays bend towards you while passing by

Your innocence is like Ramanujan's conjecture
the truth of which the world can only hope to guess

Your smile is like Boltzmann's entropy
the radiance of which never ever decreases

Your presence is like Godel's incompleteness theorem
without which I can never hope to be complete
without which I can never hope to be complete...
----------------------------
She heard footsteps. She quickly hid the letter in her
notebook.

"h.. hi , did you find a let... no, no.. a glass?"
bhOndOO stood near the corner with one-glass-spectacles.
"Oh, yes, here it is, d.. d.. dear!" Shami gave him the
glass and tightened grip on her notebook. bhOndOO
pondered on the word 'dear' but soon discarded the usage
as one of the many phrases that girls have habit of saying.

It was not. Not at least in Shami's case.

bhOndOO never found the letter.
Someone else had found it.
As benJi had said, if you have it in your destiny,
she will know that you have written it.

Shami goes to Salsa

2009-04-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

Now this the version of previous post from Shami's eyes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I entered the premises of Advanced Computing Ltd and headed straight for bhOndOO’s cubicle in the Performance Analysis section instead of my own in HR. I was rather late today having spent an hour dressing myself up for today’s Salsa class. Oh! I just can’t wait to show bhOndOO new high-heels I bought yesterday for Salsa, he would be so happy to have a look ! After all, he likes me, though a seedha-saadha geek like him doesn’t have the guts to tell me that. But he doesn’t even know that I too like him precisely because this very simplicity he has.

I skilfully took a roundabout way to bhOndOO’s cubicle to avoid that sticky Gullu. He has this masterful art to barge in and to become kabab-mein-haddi whenever bhOndOO and I are alone for barely five seconds. I tapped lightly on bhOndOO’s cubicle. No response! I looked inside. Oh my God! bhOndOO is practising Salsa on his PC! Just look at him! One hand behind the monitor, another on the speaker and moving feet below the table. And there is a youtube video being played on monitor. Awwwww bhOndOO, you don’t have to do this to impress me. You always try too hard and mess up somewhere. On Valentine’s Day celebrations, you wrote such a romantic poem for me and while hurrying to letter box, you slipped on the wet floor. You don’t even know that it was me who picked up that poem. You will never know!

Wham Bam!! Something broke my reverie. Oh no! it was him lying on the floor with monitor on his face and wires entangled with his feet.

“How did you manage this!!” A scream escaped me and I stepped forward to pick him up.
“Oh, at least he managed something!”. Curse that nalaayak Gullu, he had to come here just at this moment! I stepped back and watched bhOndOO slowly get up. How embarassed he must be to find me here! Look at that poor lamb!

“h… h… hi”, he couldn’t manage more than this trying to recover from the severe shock. Oh somebody help this geek! I just smiled at him.

“I h… hear that we are having s… salsa classes t.. today”, he said.
I saw that he was yet to recover from the shock, stuttering at every other word.

“Oh I know… My boss told me yesterday.. See I am wearing new high-heels today.. How do I look?”.
Oh my god!! What did I just ask him! How do I look! This is too much for him in this situation. Just look at him, he is grappling for words. Honey, don’t say anything, you don’t have to say anything, your eyes are telling me everything you want to say.

“Oh, you look fabulous!”, Gullu took charge.
Gullu, gullu, gullu!! goddamn it!! Stickier than Fevicol!!

“Oh, you are a so cutie pie!”, I controlled myself from slapping him hard in face at the last moment my fingers touched his cheeks. You are going to get these very fingers permanently etched on your cheeks one day. Phir mujhe marte dum tak bhula nahi paoge, mere pyare Gullu!

“I hear that some interesting conversation is going on!” Oh no! that’s bhOndOO’s boss.
“Oh yes, just now bhOndOO was demonstrating to us some results he had got!”, Gullu the nosy-est parker. Tomorrow he is getting run over by my Activa. Yesterday he must have heard bhOndOO telling me that he is yet to get the results of some analysis of some improvement over something of a code segment.

I went back to my cubicle. Awww, today he will have to work whole day to get the results and how is he going to manage attending Salsa? Let him not come and I am going to stomp these high heels on Gullu’s feet. Gullu, just pray to god that you don’t have to sit on seats reserved for handicaps for the rest of your life.

“Let me check a Salsa video.” I thought. I checked a video and found out. Oh ok, so boys take left foot forward and girls take right foot backward in the first step. Gullu, you are dead. We’ll both take our left foot forward and soon you will be walking with your right foot in hand.

I peeped over bhOndOO’s cubicle while returning from lunch. He was still there working, he must have skipped lunch. Gullu, better memorize phone number of ambulance, it’s going to prove very handy.

Fiddling with my work, it was like ages before 17:00., the timing for the Salsa class. I went inside the hall. bhOndOO isn’t here. Gullu is smiling at me. Smile a lot, Mr. Fevicol, this is the last time you get to smile. When the instructor told us to pair up, I went and stood opposite to Gullu. Ab to sirf bhagwaan hi tumhe mujhse bacha sakta hai, mere pyare Gullu!

Gullu’s cellphone rang.
“Wait a sec, Shami, it’s a call from Hitler’s cabin, that’s my boss. I’ll be back soon”, Gullu went to his boss’s cabin. I wondered, How can his boss call him from his cabin? He had left a few minutes ago. Then I saw bhOndOO standing opposite to me. Oh my God! It must have been bhOndOO who had called him! Gullu, tum saat janam-me bhi mere bhOndOO ki baraabari nahi kar sakoge. bhOndOO held my hands in Salsa pose. I could feel that he was shivering.

“Ok, boys, take a step ahead with your left foot…”, the instructor declared.
“Ahhhhhhhh !!!”, bhOndOO’s cry pierced my eardrums.
Oh no, what did I do! How could I take my left foot forward! It was meant to be for Gullu, not for him. I just can’t watch him in intense pain. I’m so sorry bhOndOO, I’m so sorry.

“Oh no, no, that was for boys, not for girls”. the instructor said. I am not that dumb, Mr. instructor! I just hope that his foot is not fractured. The instructor took him to his cubicle and came back. And then I saw Gullu coming my way.

That’s it. Not anymore. No putting up anymore with that Fevicol. If bhOndOO isn’t dancing, I’m not and not evermore when it was I who injured him. I went straight to bhOndOO’s cubicle. I saw bhOndOO applying balm and heard him saying something-hundred-and-sixth-something-something.

“What !! You are talking numbers even when you are injured !! Oh, you are so.. so.. so.. what-to-say, so .. so a geek !!”, I just couldn’t contain myself. Speaking numbers now ! These geeks are incurable.

“How could I dance when you got injured because of me? Soooooo sorrry! Give me the balm, and say that you forgive me!”.
I saw that he was again unable to speak.
“Say na…… You geeky pie!!”
“yy..y.. yes”, finally he managed to utter.

I started applying balm. There were almost eleven months to go for the next Valentine’s Day.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

bhOndOO-the-geek-goes-toSalsa

2009-04-13T00:18:00.000-07:00

Dear all,

Rupesh (CSA, IISc) has created bhOndOO and his friends on his blog. From a long time, I'm an ardent fan of bhOndOO's adventures. bhOndOO in his stories is a simple PhD student in IISc with a lab and lots of friends and is in love with Shami, his labmate. Like all simple PhD students, he can never express his love for Shami but is in constant search of opportunities to impress her. Rupesh's blog is a beautifully written chronicle of bhOndOO's adventures.

Recently, I tried to dress up Rupesh's bhOndOO as bhOndOO-the-geek who works in a
company called Advanced Computing Limited. This is my meek attempt to describe one of his adventures. Hope you enjoy it. This is a story in which he tries to learn Salsa and of course wants to pair up with Shami. But will he be able to cross the obstacles? Read on.

-----------------------------------------------------------
bhOndOO entered the premises of Advanced Computing Ltd and headed straight for his cubicle in the Performance Analysis section. Like any geek, the first thing he did was to open the mailbox. There were new mails, most of those were technical support forum mails which he never read and the remaining from his Team Lead which he never wanted to read but was forced to do so. Scrolling the mailbox with chagrin he suddenly stumbled upon a non-techie non-geeky word. “Salsa classes beginning from today! First session at 5 p.m.”

He looked at Shami’s cubicle in the HR section. There was no Gullu (Damn him!) floating around her cubicle. It meant Shami hadn’t come so far. bhOndOO calculated that it was his three-hundred-and-ninety-sixth opportunity to impress Shami since he had joined company. Thomas Edison was one of his role models, though the number of 9999 failed attempts sent shivers down his spine.

Quickly bhOndOO went to Youtube, typed salsa and downloaded first five videos logging into a proxy server. He didn’t want today’s opprtunity to go wasted. He started watching the first video. It looked quite easy to him. He quicky grasped that it was a “modulo 8″ beat. Just a simple rhythmic movement of hands and feet… And hands in hands… with Shami… He closed his eyes, put his right hand behind the LCD monitor imagining Shami’s shoulder and held the speaker in the left hand and started moving his feet under the table.

Wham-Bam !!

The intricate mess of wires of speakers, mouse, webcam, monitor and UPS had betrayed bhOndOO. He feared that the monitor on his face could have done irreparable damage to his spectacles which could be absolutely fatal to his salsa plans.

“How did you manage this!!”, he heard Shami’s voice.
“Oh, at least he managed something!”, he heard Gullu’s voice.
With the help of office boy, bhOndOO got disentangled from the web. Meekly smiling, he could say “h..h..hi” to Shami. He tried hard to ignore
somebody-help-this-geek smile on Shami’s face.

“I h.. hear that we are having s.. salsa classes t.. today”, he was yet to recover from the shock of being found in monitor-on-face situation but could manage saying this.
“Oh I know… My boss told me yesterday.. See I am wearing new high-heels today.. How do I look?” Shami asked adjusting a dangling fringe of hairdo. bhOndOO gulped. His best friend in graduate school had told him the geekometer law. According to the law, the attraction between a geek male and a female was directly proportional to non-geekiness-quotient of the female and “How do I look?” question denoted infinity in non-geekiness-quotient. bhOndOO was no exception. With sudden urge, he started grappling with english to find the best word to describe Shami.
“Oh, you look so fabulous!”, Gullu had seized the opportunity. He had to, bhOndOO thought, bhOndOO’s mothertongue being C.
“Awww, you are a so cutie pie!”, Shami slapped Gullu lightly on his cheeks.
bhOndOO always converted his lost chances into learning. He decided to google-search “fabulous” and “cutie-pie”.

“I hear that some interesting conversation is going on!”, bhOndOO heard a gruff voice, which he hated the most, which belonged to his Team Lead.
“Oh yes, just now bhOndOO was demonstrating to us some results he had got!”, Gullu grabbed another opportunity.
bhOndOO cursed Gullu as a “dangling pointer”, he had no new results.
“Ahem, Thats interesting! Let us have a look and”, bhOndOO’s TL stopped short noticing the mess of wires, monitor and mouse behind bhOndOO’s back.
“Ok we will meet tomorrow. I hope this time your simulations would match our analytical results.”
Damn ! So non-stop simulations today till salsa classes! He thanked god for the mess of wires. It had avoided telling hundred-and-sixty-ninth excuse to his boss that he had deleted the plots by mistake.

bhOndOO didn’t have lunch. He wanted to complete simulations as well as look at the videos. He didn’t go to Shami’s cubicle even once. He was all determination now! Let Gullu have his time with Shami till the evening but later it would be me, me and only me. He sniggered.

Linux panel showed 17:00:00. bhOndOO rushed to the company terrace. He was late. The girls had formed inner circle and the boys had formed the outer circle, the pairs were exact, on top of everything Gullu was standing with Shami. With a sudden rush of inspiration, bhOndOO rushed to Gullu’s boss’s cabin, whom he had just seen leaving and gave a missed call on Gullu’s mobile. He saw Gullu making move for the cabin apparently with killing instinct. bhOndOO quickly managed to exit from the cabin, he was expert at this, thanks to seminars in his graduation days and took Gullu’s place. The instructor told him to put his right hand on Shami’s shoulder and hold Shami’s right hand with his left. bhOndOO started shivering. No, I won’t let this opportunity to go, he told himself and pulled himself together in a moment.

“Ok, take a step ahead with your left foot…”
“Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!”, bhOndOO’s cry penetrated the surroundings.
“Oh no, no, that was for boys, not for girls”. The instructor was telling Shami. The high-heels had served their hidden purpose and bhOndOO was barely able to walk. How could she do this, she always moves like like a feather… aaahhhhhh, more than the pain, it was the thought of Gullu dancing the rest of the evening with Shami, that made it unbearable. The instructor helped him to his cubicle. “Three-hundred-and-ninety-sixth opportunity wasted”, bhOndOO whimpered and started applying the balm from first-aid box.

“What !! You are talking numbers even when you are injured !! Oh, you are so.. so.. so.. what-to-say, so .. so a geek !!”. Shami was standing beside bhOndOO.
“How could I dance when you got injured because of me? Soooooo sorrry”,
she was saying. Everything is fair in love and war, bhOndOO thought, and Shami was too fair for a war.
“Give me the balm, and say that you forgive me”. bhOndOO gulped.
“Say na…… You geeky pie!!”. bhOndOO managed “yy..y.. yes”.
Shami snatched the balm.

Geeky pie.. Ah, that sounded better than everything else in the world, even than the level-3-optimized-C-code, bhOndOO could feel the feathers moving on his foot.

Valentine's day test

2009-02-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

Mario, a role model of infinite energy and patience.
Nero aka Niranjan, a role model of human iceberg.

These both fellas clog Idea operator's network services
about 10 p.m. on 13th Feb (Friday the 13th is always ominous)
and decide to ruin my plans of spending Valentine day at home,
dozing all the time except only when I need to have food.
Dozing all the time would be ideal but I have to abide by the
lessons learnt in my primary schools, viz, food is a basic
necesity for survival. And I want to survive.

So these fellas decide to go trekking to Fort Purandar (पुरंदर)
and order me to obey issued commands. I need to report at
6:15 a.m. on bus stand the next day. I manage to make
it at 6:45 a.m. in a kind of stupor. They decide that
this stupor is not good for World Peace (no reason
can be as good as World Peace!) and bung me into the famous
Lal Dabba (red S.T. bus) to wake me up. I firmly believe
that medical researchers should try Lal Dabba as a
potential candidate for pulling people out of coma.

After an hour or so we are walking the road which leads
to the base of Purandar. We see a car coming along. Mario
decides to demonstrate magnetism of his personality. He just
thinks we should ask these locals for information. He doesn't
wave his hands at all but the car stops near him as if it was
stopped by an invisible barrier. Hail Mario ! The car takes
us directly to the point where we start climbing up.

Nero has a point to prove. He doesn't crib, he acts. I
compensate for the void of cribbing he creates. Nero starts
picking up wafers' empty plastic pouches thrown by mortals
on the way and puts them in a bag he is carrying.
I start cribbing about irresponsible behavior that results
in these plastic carpets. But Nero lives up to his reputation
of being a role model of human iceberg and manages to hide
the irritation caused by my high voltage cribbing.

Mario decides that the plain route is no good for intellectual
consumption. Lets take short cuts across the serpentine good
old plain route that leads to the fort. I manage escaping first
short cut alive. Then he decides that not only we ought to take
short cuts but also where there aren't any, make new ones. At
present, he decides to make a new short cut as he can't see
any. I start trudging and ouch !! A species of thorny bushes
proves its existence to the world by means of a red dot on my
finger. Based on this fundamental proof, other species prove
some more corollaries and lemmas on my forehands and feet.
But I manage to stay alive the way I managed it in my
IISc graduate courses and go undeterred against this barrage
of proofs, corollaries and lemmas.

We arrive at a tank and now these fellas decide to test my
patience. With full knowledge, they turn right instead of left,
the route which goes only round and round and round the fort.
I fail the test after trying hard for 30 minutes and we turn
back, these fellas telepathing a wicked laughter to each other
at my glaring failure. Then we take the good old left turn
and after going some distance futher, these fellas decide
to test my energy. Now they turn left instead of right. This
path, with just enough width for a shoe, with valley on the left
and a steep rocky cliff on the right, again starts going round
and round and round the fort. Finally again after 30min or so,
I fail this energy test. We again turn back. Now their wicked
laughter on my failures becomes public and even more vicious.

Finally we take the correct route. How similar it is to
research ! Only after you are done with your patience and energy,
you find the correct route. We reach the well hidden gate after
some time and subsequently start walking towards the temple
far off which is at the highest point of the fort. Surprisingly,
we reach it quite earlier than our expectations.

What a peace ! What a endearing calm ! We lie down in shadow
of the temple with a pleasant cool breeze around. No words
for those 15mins of dozing under the infinite clear blue skies
with an occasional chirping floating around. You can actually
feel the freshness lingering in the air. It kind of reinvigorates
you. Finally we contribute something to World Peace with our
peaceful naps and then start climbing down. After managing
it with fewer shortcuts and some more bruises on feet and
forehands, we reach the base of Purandar. There we have
"Zhunka-Bhakar" (typical rural lunch menu in Maharashtra)
and start off towards Pune. Fortunately after two failures,
Mario and Nero let me free from the torture. We reach Pune
by 7 p.m. with myself accounting for two failures and a feeling
of blissful peace.

What a Valentine's day to have !! In love with nature !!

Onkar

Notes:
1) The fort Purandar (पुरंदर) was one of the key forts of Shivaji
the great. It commands guard over a huge area. A number of memorable
battles were fought at this fort.
2) For information regarding the fort, trekshitiz website is
the best source
3) These are the treskshitiz photos photos of the fort
4) For some more photos, especially of the area it covers, visit
my orkut Purandar album
5) There is a wikipedia Purandarlink too, though the trekshitiz
is better. But you can find a lot of cross-references on wikipedia.

Gulmohar Marg

2009-02-07T23:06:00.000-08:00

I owe my two years to you.

I can't forget Friday, July 14 2006. I entered the IISc gates with
nervously excited feet. Put my luggage in hostel room allotted to
me and started navigating with help from the maps I had printed.

Destination Dept. of ECE. I go to corner near the aeroplane, refer
map and turn to left. I see a never ending road. The map says
I have to walk until the end of the road to see the place where I
am to spend my most memorable two years of life. I start walking
the road. Somewhere on the way I see a board telling me
it is Gulmohar Marg (Mayflower Road).

I owe my two years to you, Gulmohar Marg, for you really are never ending.
I still walk on Gulmohar Marg, everyday.

You are the distance between the outside world and the dept of ECE.
You are the distance between the outside world and the real me.

You saw me frustrated with equations I fought hard to understand.
You saw me depressed with my disappointing first semester results
and relieved with second semester results. In moments when I had
nowhere to go, you showed me the way to Tata statue and you silently
stood waiting at the corner, watching me sitting near the Tata statue
or the entrance of institute building. After consoling myself I went
back to my room while you perhaps smiled with the age-old wisdom.

You took me to library. Somehow I always chose to sit at such places
from where I could always see you. I could see morning sunlight
seeping through woods, a blue mormon gliding, dry leaves falling
with evening breeze. In due season, you invited me out to walk on
the red carpet you laid for us.

You called me and showed the mehfil of red, yellow, orange and violets.
You called me and showed the celebration of fireflies,
sorry, the stars had come down to earth. At midnight, the moonlight
shone on you as if it would shine on the face of a rishi busy in sadhana
with its eyes closed.

Time and again, you told me that the road is never ending. You just
have to keep walking. You just have to keep looking around and
appreciate beauty of life. Sometimes the road traveled turns out
to be more beautiful than the destination reached.

Fear

2008-11-11T01:42:00.001-08:00

I am tired, I am afraid.
I fear.

I am afraid of the monster that would take me away if I don't behave myself.
I am afraid of every crushed lemon waiting to unleash its curses on the person stepping on it.
I am afraid of the ghosts lurking in the dark waiting to make a nice meal out of me.
I am afraid of the vampires on the trees in graveyard.
I am afraid of mails and sms telling me to forward to ten people or else god would punish me.
I am afraid of god and his punishment.
I am afraid of my name, making it spell “Onkkaar” would change my luck, yesterday my numerologist told.
I am afraid of the number 13.
I am afraid of what the next person would think of me.
I am afraid of what society thinks of me.
I am afraid that I won't be able to give justifications.
I am afraid of the question mark.
I am afraid of Reason, I go for faith.
I am afraid of knowledge, ignorance is bliss, for it creates god and I feel happy when he is responsible for everything.
I am afraid of responsibilities.
I am afraid of my own image in the mirror.
I am afraid of the truth.

I am tired, I am afraid.
I fear.
This fear is consuming me.

I want to break free.
I want freedom from this fear.
I want to live.

Irrelevantly relevant

2008-09-01T04:47:00.000-07:00

"Hello Sameer, how are you pal?"
"Oh hi Ninad, I am fine, how about you?"
"Me too doin good. Hows workload these days?"
"Same story. Fluctuates from 8 to 12 hours, hows yours?"
"Consistent at eight hours."
"Lucky you are!"
(Two minutes of silence)
"So what else in life?"
"Nothing much. Just the same. Chalo milte hain kabhi.."

A typical conversation. Anywhere you can hear it. Anything missing in the above exchange? The "exchange" itself is missing. It just has inquiries hows-ur-workload, how-do-you-do.
This is where the relevance of irrelevance pitches in.

I love calling one of my friends. She speaks everything from the latest book read to latest
movie watched.Also about the workload and everything else inbetween. In the reply I babble on latest olympics or tennis tournaments or irritate her with technical PJs. Another friend of mine, once there is a call,the chat between him and mine will range from girls to ethics. He will overwhelm me with the details of his latest crush bearing all the while my sarcastic comments.

We think that telling about the funny misunderstanding you had with your boss may not be relevant to your friends. We think that its not relevant to say how you ate almost all the sweet dish prepared by your mother yesterday. We think that its not relevant to speak about how a girl at the ice-cream parlour held you spellbound (or eye-bound). We think that it doesn't matter to the next person how silly you danced at the birthday party of some other friend of yours. Nor does it matter how much you liked the T-shirt you bought yesterday.

Then whats relevant? As the lives go on separating due to inevitable circumstances what we have got to tell our friends? Nothing except hows-the-workload and how-do-you-do and what-else-in-life! I believe that all "irrelevant" things are in fact most important to make a friendship survive the barriers of distance. I do not proclaim that I am a master in these things. But some experiences have taught me to ask a lot of questions to the other person and to open the "exchange". Many times these efforts go in vain and the friendship goes on weakening. At least I used to call
some of them before few years/months. Nowadays I dont even scroll over their names in the contact list in my phone. They have become just a memory location in my cellphone. Nothing more that that!

Finally I thought I'd write it up. Lets become somewhat irrelevant. Lets care less about the business point of view of does-it-matter-to-him-or-her. Lets not sacrifice the friendship at the expense of "relevance". Friendship is beautiful.

I think therefore I am

2008-04-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

Who am I?
Whats the purpose of my life?

You are what you are. Nothing more can be said about it.
The question is not what you can do.
The question is what you want to do, what you choose to do.
What you choose to do will become the purpose of your life.

He was an obedient man

2008-03-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

He was an obedient man.

He started walking to the bus stop. Fortunately, today his position in the queue was within the first ten. He felt glad, now he could hope for a place to sit. Somehow the bus was little late than usual so along with the sports column he also finished reading the editorial. Meanwhile, the queue had grown to fill the entire standing space. The bus came to the stop, being late almost filled up but not so filled up to quash his hopes for a place to sit. People standing in the queue started boarding the bus. Suddenly he heard a ruckus. People standing last in the queue had run to the forefront of the battle for boarding the bus. Within a blink of an eye the bus got filled to the last doorstep. No chance of getting in, again he would be late for the office.

He was an obedient man, he wouldn't break the queue even if he is thousand times late.

Lets go for the railway, he thought. He caught an auto to the railway station. Again he was facing a queue of some twenty five people. He would manage to board it just in the nick of time, so he thought. He reached the counter. Just before he could pass the money to the guy behind, a lady barged in. "Sir, please excuse me, thoda jaldi hai", she requested. He obliged. Again feminine sound, this time directed towards the guy behind the counter for three tickets. "Twenty one rupees madam, please give change", the guy said in a hoarse voice in response to a hundred rupee note. The lady said she had none. The counter guy said he had none to pay back the balance. The lady, being late, raised her voice accusing the counter guy of stashing up the change and intentioanlly putting the customers into discomfort. The voice of the counter guy became more hoarse. Meanwhile, the train reached the platform.

He was an obedient man, he wouldn't board the train if he hasn't got the ticket.

He got the tickets but it was the next train he could board. He went in and was standing on the footboard. Luckily, two of the three fellows occupying a bench next to him got up. He occupied the corner seat and was thinking about the positive side of the day, namely being able to get a seat. The rustic man beside him started chewing the tobacco. After twenty minutes or so, he noticed some movement. The man beside him had spit below the bench. His eyes fell upon the board right in front of his eyes requesting people not to spit. He showed it to the gentleman who had just freed his mouth to be able to speak. The gentleman kindly observed that the rules are not made for him. The gentleman was correct.

He was an obedient man. The rules are made only for obedient men.

He reached office and started working like an obedient man. Now it was lunchtime. He opened his tiffin and started munching his daily cud. The honourable fellow in the next cubicle had begun eating much before the lunchtime and it was his habit to have a banana after the lunch. Honourable fellow ate the banana and threw the peel out of the windows. He observed that the dustbin was kept just outside the room. Honourable fellow explained that he hates getting up every time and going to the dustbin, why can't office administration keep a dustbin near every cubicle?

He was an obedient man. He sympathized with the honourable fellow for bravely bearing the torture inflicted by the administration.

Note:
Hello all,
These thoughts were circulating in my brain for so many days. I don't really understand the natural urge of we, the Indians, to break every possible rule while boasting of high moral values. This is pure hypocrisy. And this hypocrisy is everywhere though I mentioned only about breaking the rules in the article. We brag about being most civilized culture and the next moment we shoo away the begger as if he is no human but an animal. We talk against the racism but refuse to accept a lady as bride if she is slightly darker in complexion. We complain about people suddenly changing the driving lane and the next moment we are ready to break the red signal. The person who pays bribe once, decides somehow to earn it back by accepting bribe himself instead of deciding that at least he would not accept bribe not inflicting the similar pain on others.
There is some inherent flaw in the character of our nation. And instead of repairing it, we are hell bent upon digging it into a canyon.

Just friends

2008-02-24T04:02:00.000-08:00

"Mom, I am going to meet Ninad. Cya.."
"Wait a minute. When his majesty wants to be back home?"
"8 o'clock. As usual I'll be late by an hour ! And if you start talking now,
it will be one and half hours.. Hehe.."

Ninad and I grabbed places at a table at Coffee Corner, our usual place for
philosophical discussions. These philosophical discussions are very useful
in the sense that they are ideal for passing all the extra time you have got
by postponing all the assignments to the last day before deadline. On top of
that, though these discussions are completely useless in a certain way, you
don't exactly feel like you have wasted your time.

"Two coffee please. And there is no hurry. Take your own time!"
"Ninad, isn't Sameer coming here?"
"No, as usual some stupid reason. He knows that I know thats a lie. Still
we observe that gentleman-like courtesy of not calling a spade a spade."
"So what has our Mr. Philosopher got to tell me?"
"Today in college, the last lecture was Economics. That professor has the knack
of making it sound the most boring lecture in the world. So I decided to bunk
it and and went to bus-stop. There I saw Priya standing in the queue. And then.."
"Oh is that the lady love in your life? Isn't she a junior of yours?
Cool Ninad ! Sameer told me all about that !! Is she too a Ms. Philosopher?"
"Onkar, I simply hate this habit of yours of interrupting almost every sentence
that I speak !"
"What a coincidence ! I too hate this habit of mine ! Great minds think alike !..
Ok ok, sorry boss. Proceed, Mr. Socrates."
"So Priya and I got into the bus. Thankfully there were empty seats. And after maybe
ten minutes of time she realised that she had forgotten to buy a book for F.A.- Financial
Accounting- of which tomorrow she has to submit an assignment."

"OK Priya, no big deal. No need to go back. You can simply drop in to my home at
about 5 o'clock and collect the book as well as the notes if you want."
"Yeah thats good. Thank god I met you here or else I would have had to go back all
the way in this scorching heat. Yeah, I'll surely drop in by 5 o'clock."
"And yes, I forgot to ask you one thing. You remember, last week you were not
picking your cell so I had to call on your landline number?"
"Yeah, by mistake I had kept the phone on silent mode even after I returned from
college. Why? What happened?"
"The weird thing was that before passing on the call to you, your dad conducted a police
enquiry of me. Whats my full name? What do I do? Where do I stay? Whats my dad's
occupation... Didn't he tell you about that?"
"Nooo and after hanging up your call, you know what, he asked me all these things
he had asked you ! Oh my gawd, my dad is reaaaally orthodox to the core. But I clarified
everything at the end by saying that I see you like my brother.."
"What? Come on! you are not my sister. We are just friends. And thats all. Nothing
more than that, nothing less than that."
"Whats the big deal? Come on, if you are not boyfriend to a girl, you are just like
a brother to her.. Isn't it?"

"Onkar, don't give me that mischievous smile. Let me finish what I want to say and
that too without you making faces. Or else tomorrow's newspaper will have a front
page news - Tortured youth strangles his friend with bare hands ! Ok, what was I telling?
Oh yes.. then after this she got a phone call and we left this topic there itself.
When I got down at the bus-stop, Sameer was buying some stuff in the general stores
in front of the bus stop..."

"Oh Ninad, so sorry. Because you saw me, you didn't get down with her. Extremely
sorry man, I made you miss some of the precious moments of your life. Hey Bhagwan,
agar aapko mujhpe aur meri sachchaai pe jarasaa bhi yakeen hai.."
"Dammmiitt, stop yaar. Come on there is nothing like that. She gets down at the next
stop..."
"But she could have got down here too. Pyar parbat bhi hilaa sakta hai! Aur agar tere
pyaar me jaraasi bhi taakat hai toh..."
"Goddamn you, Sameer. Stop those filmi dialogues. And I told you, she is not my
girlfriend ! We are..."
"Oh, so is she your sister then? Did she tie a Rakhi to you this Rakshabandhan? Tell
me, what has..."
"Look here Sameer, she is neither my girlfriend, nor is my sister. We are just friends."
"Oh don't give me this crap. This is a very standard excuse every lover-boy gives. So
tell me what are the plans for coming Valentine? I tell you, the best thing you can gift
is..."

"And Onkar thats how it went with Sameer. And he must have added extra spice to this
story before narrating it to you. Tell me Onkar, she said she should be like a sister
to me. But I can't call her a sister.You know, what my didi means to me. Its altogether
different. Until some lady means to me like what what my didi is, I can't call her a sister.
Its not a trifle thing for me to call a lady my sister. One has to live up to those words.
But does that mean she is my girlfriend, like Sameer says? She is a good girl, but definitely she can't be my girlfriend. She is not someone whom I may like. Can't we be just friends?"

"If you have convinced yourself Ninad, then why not?"

"OK, convincing myself is one thing. But if Sameer, our close friend says something like
that, what may society talk like? I was just thinking Onkar... I tried to analyse... The
mindset of society takes generations to develop. You know, I couldn't remember a single
legend or story in mythology in which a young guy and a young girl are just friends. When
it comes to friends, its either only girls or only guys. The only way a guy and a girl of same age are related is through love which is either marital or non-marital. OK, the mythology is old stuff. The mindset of the society does change. But have a look around, do you recollect any example in modern literature, which we studied in our schools or junior collges, showing friendship between a guy and a girl even somewhere near to the guys-only or girls-only friendship? Are there even a handful number of movies showing this? After thinking all this, I am really confused.
You tell me Onkar,
Is it that a relation between a young guy and a young girl should always be declared to the society as either brother-sister relation or a relation of love? Can't they just be friends, nothing more than thator nothing less than that?
Do you have an answer?"

Do you have an answer?

He does not understand

2008-02-11T08:36:00.000-08:00

He went inside a home in a locality looking like a slum, along with about ten of his friends. It was home of one of his friends. They occupied the chairs and sofa in the hall. After some introductory chat, his friend's mother went to the kitchen. When she came out, she and her daughter were carrying trays containing plates of sweets and glasses of juice, one each for all the people present. He was sitting at the end. When it came to him, there were more than four glasses and plates. His friend's mother asked him, "Is it ok for you to eat here among us?"
He picked a plate of sweets and a glass of juice. But he did not understand the question.

He was returning from the school along with one of his classmates. He was being teased by him right from their exit from the school. They were walking for about fifteen minutes. Being a shy boy, it was becoming difficult for him to bear the onslaught of teasing taunts which referred to a girl. Finally he screamed at his friend. His friend exclaimed, "No wonder you are a cry-baby. After all you are son of a Brahmin family".
He became more angry and spoke in a wild manner. But he had not understood the remark.

It was one of those chaotic recesses in his junior college. They all gathered together and opened their tiffins. Being a group, they used to eat their tiffins together. He opened his tiffin. It was one of his favorite dishes. Two plain Omelettes and bread. Looking at his tiffin, one of his friends blurted out, "Hey you eat eggs ! You are not a pure Brahmin. I do not eat any such stuff. I am a pure Brahmin, unlike you."
He was not a kid not to understand the remark. But he did not understand what was meant by purity in this case.

He was attending a social function. It was buffet time. There was a long queue. He got bored. The queue was looking like a never ending one as more and more people were accommodating themselves in the queue if they found someone they knew. Irritated, he remarked about it to the person standing in front of him. The ball of conversation started rolling about. It was turning out to be a pleasant exchange. The person asked him his name. He told his name. The person asked him his full name. He told his full name. The person remarked, "Oh, so you are one of us!"
He just waited for his turn for food.

He was meeting a senior from his undergrad college. Academically she was two years senior but agewise the distance was about three years . They were good friends. In the flow of conversation she happened to mention that her parents were looking out for a groom for her. He said it was a great news and it must be funny going through all that process. She said that wasn't funny in any sense as the groom was not only required to be Brahmin but also from belonging to different gotra than hers, not to mention her other demands. She explained that people from a specific gotra are said to be descendants of the same rishi and in that case they all would be siblings. Fully aware of the concept, he tried to argue that if there are only a handful of gotras and if both the parents did belong to different gotra in all the marriages, then all the people of their caste would be siblings of each other as a child would inherit genes of the father as well as the mother. She said the gotra of a child is inherited from his father. She also added that he did not understand the concept at all or else he would not speak of it in such a manner.
He felt her remarks were true. He had not understood the concept at all.

Take care,
Onkar

Pledge

2008-01-29T09:20:00.000-08:00

I am proud of the pledge of today's India.

India is my country
All Indians are my etc. etc.
And my motto is
What do I have to do with that?

Good morning, I open my eyes
Low whispers of crowd echo in my ears
Local don chopped down his son last night
Didn't used to pay him regular hafta
I give out a big yawn
"Oh! Has he shot down my son?
Then what do I have to do with that?"

I leave for office, I walk to the bus-stop
In the square en route I see his sister
A heart-broken ruffian, a bottle of acid on her face
She cries for help
Crowd and I sing in unison
"Oh! Are you my sister?
Then what do I have to do with that?"

I board the bus, watch the beautiful scenery
I hear a loud crash at a traffic signal on the way
His severely wounded brother cries for help
All the passengers echo me gleefully
"Eh, are you my brother?
Then what do I have to do with that?"

I reach my office, relax in my A.C. cabin
He enters staggering, says in a collapsed voice
The boss found in him another candidate of V.R.S.
Warns me tomorrow it could be your turn
I say sympathetically
"I agree but has he fired me today?
Then what do I have to do with that?"

I return to my home, switch on a news channel
A beautiful smile on the face of a beautiful newswoman
There is just another a billions rupees scam
I remember his father was one of the investors
Must have lost all his provident fund
I laugh carelessly
"Has my father lost even a penny?
Then what do I have to do with that?"

My wife and I go to a five star hotel
To enjoy our money with a candle-light dinner
Wife suddenly lowers her voice
Says yesterday his wife got molested
By few friendly political activists
I bark at her
"Don't spoil the romantic mood, was it my wife?
Then what do I have to do with that?"

We enjoy the night, go to bed
Once again I recite my holiest, dearest pledge
India is my country
All Indians are my etc. etc.
And my motto is
What do I have to do with that?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wrote it in the second year of my B.E.
My English was surely weaker then than it is now.
But somehow it couldn't prevent me from scribbling down these lines.
Perhaps things are a little better or my point of view has changed.
Just thought I would post it before it completely loses its relevance because of either improvement or degradation of the situation around.

Take care,
Onkar

Grow up, boy !!

2007-12-06T03:36:00.000-08:00

Personality 1: I am an adult, a grown-up guy. (We call him Adult)
Personality 2: I want to live my own way. (Adult calls him as Kid)
Third person: Any other guy in this world than the two above.

Kid: Oh cool weather this morning. Time to read the Times of India.
Adult: Hey kid, its time to read only Bombay Times. Wow! Look at that babe's pic !
Kid: Yeah, it looks sexy but only after computer processing. Its fake.
Adult: I am going to look at anything as long as it pleases me, be it fake or no fake !
Kid: Time to read cartoons. Calvin and Hobbes,Garfield, Beetle Bailey.
Adult: No, its time to glance through page 3. Cartoons are meant only for infants.
Kid: I don't care. If you can look at what you want, I am going to read what I want.

( Third person tells a Blonde joke at the dining table in mess )
Kid: Oh boy !! That was indeed some joke !! (starts laughing vigorously)
Adult: Stop laughing you moron, you are supposed to laugh only at non-veg jokes.
Kid: And what are you supposed to do for that Blonde joke?
Adult: I am an adult and adults are supposed to yawn at such jokes and say
this is the stuff meant only for kids, not for an adult.
( All the third persons sitting at the table start talking about a girl )
Kid: Damn it, here why is it always the same topic and the same girl?
Adult: Remember, when you are grown up, there are no other topics in your life
to discuss except the girls and their characteristics. And it is a sign
of adulthood that you discuss the very same content round the clock. Heck, get
off, this is not the stuff meant for the kids. Don't listen to it or else
your so so so innocent mind will get spoiled.

Kid: (climbing down the stairs) Yo, lets go down skipping alternate steps.
Adult: You are still a kid. Be a man. This is childish stuff.
Kid: (walking on the road) Oh boy, what a pleasant weather. Feels like heaven.
(Kid takes in a deep breath and smiles to himself)
Adult: Heck, look here baby !! If you want to walk down with me, no such
nonsense will do. No pleasant deep breaths n smiles while walking.
Kid: You jerk, what are you supposed to do when it is so soothing a weather?
Adult: Adults only keep long faces while walking down a road. This smiley
and breathy stuff is so kiddish. Grow up boy, grow up !!

Kid: Ok, so checking e-mails is over. Now lets go to wikipedia.com
Adult: No, lets go to "adult_stuff".com.
Kid: No man, enough of that stuff. You watch that stuff 365 days.
The same edited stuff. How do you manage not to get bored?
Adult: Bored? and of that? No way, that is a ****ing good stuff.
Kid: (jumps) Hey you said a bad word.
Adult: Bad word for kids. A word representing maturity for grown-up like me.
Bad things for kids become a style statement for adults.

Adult:
Nothing has remained the same as it used to be
A time to grow up, to think only about girls for me
Newspaper to dustbin, see the fake pics in the supplement
The four letter word has now become a compliment
No carefree hops and no tears like a child
Com'on people, its high time to go wild
A smile on the face is a sign of insult
Keep up the long face, if you are an adult

Kid:
Its time to forget, time to be carefree
People don't really think much about thee
Smile when you want, cry if you need
To the cries of "adults", don't pay any heed
The world is not only about girls, its also about you
Forget the worries and do what you want to
Enjoy this mortal life, its all that you have got
Have moments of childlike joy, which "adults" have not

Objection, my lord !!

2007-11-05T09:12:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

Well, my last blog post was about the pursuit of happiness. Though one may be happy, it doesn't mean everything is hunky-dory in this world. Ironically enough, after my last entry about the pursuit of happiness, I am forced to write something which may perturb sensitive minds a little. These are few wonderful experiences, two of mine, one told by my friend as you will come to know.

1)
One of my friends and I were heading for a casual chitchat at M.G. road. We both were quite hungry. M.G. road is a place which a person should avoid if he is not particularly fond of continental food. Being students still, we couldn't afford beastly expensive places. And given my deep hatred for pizzas we finally decided to go for a berger or sorts in a restaurant where people generally have "meals happily".
Having rushed from my institute to M.G. road, I was craving for water. After the usual self-service at the counter, I asked the guys there for water.
"Sir, no water," a guy said indicating the tap of cold water.
"Please, I don't need cold water. Just a simple glass of water would do."
The guy goes in, five minutes over. I ask another fellow, he goes searching for water. Previous man re-appears giving me apologies for not having water.
After a desultory chitchat and some food, my friend and I parted our ways. I got myself into an auto to take to nearest bus depot. Another boy, perhaps just 15 or maybe 16 also got in asking he also wants to get there.
He looks tired. Perhaps working after school, or no school but only work.
"Do you go to school?", I generally ask these questions.
"No, I work in a restaurant." And he uttered the name of the same place where I had been.
"What man, your restaurant doesn't even have water ! What kind of joint is it?" I said in a jovial way.
"No Sir, actually what happens is that we have orders not to serve water in rush hours so that people buy Colas and cold-drinks."
Shock and awe.
Objection my lord !!
Objection my lord !!

2)
A typical story in a bangalore city bus :
a) You pay conductor 10 rupees asking for a ticket worth eight or nine rupees. He gives you ticket and tells you to collect the change later. Its a rush hour. You tug conductor's coat for the change twice, thrice. He ignores, just goes on or says two more minutes. Then comes your stop. You somehow wade your way through the crowd to get down. You consider yourself lucky that you could find your way to door and let go your change.
b) Sometimes you just forget to collect the change, so does the conductor.
c) You pay conductor exact change and ask for a ticket. Conductor gives you two rupees back and goes on with a smile.
d) Conductor neither does pay you back a single rupee nor does give you the ticket and moves on. This especially happens when you want to get down at next stop or an immediate stop after the next.
e) You somehow manage to get the ticket and after haggling with conductor. The ticket was worth less than you paid for. You bask in the joy of finally winning the ticket but forget to take a look at it.
Nearly three out of four times I have experienced one of the above scenarios.
Objection, my lord !!

3)
One of my classmates went for a leisurely walk in a garden. He saw few children about ten years old playing with the garden toys.
He feels happy watching them play innocently.
He goes near a child. He gives a flower to him or does something of this sort.
The child asks suddenly,"What is your caste, uncle?"
Objection, my lord !!
Objection, my lord !!
Objection, my lord !!

Take care and enjoy,
Onkar

The pursuit of happiness

2007-08-16T06:52:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,

I wanted to write something on this topic since weeks but somehow these days I am not keen on anything. Yet the impulse to write has overpowered the lack of sufficient material hence this half-hearted effort.

Few days ago, again I was off-colour, once more a bit depressed mood. That shadow it seems always hangs around me. Sometimes it gets bigger, sometimes smaller and only for those precious moments like noon it completely disappears. Enough of analogy, engineering inculcates into you this habit of modelling.

I just went to a psychiatrist, he is my one of best friend's dad. A gold medallist and social worker and so on. I had a heart-to-heart talk with him. I discussed my general problems, namely disinterest in almost everything etc which finally boils down to lack of happiness.

Again discussion came to same point. Where does this fellow called happiness live? Whats its address? Why does it always disappear after giving momentary glimpses? Where do I catch him?

Well, what do you think? Different people become happy due to different reasons. Some people become happy watching sunset, some become sad by the same. Some people like studying, some people loathe it. Some people like walking in rains, others prefer staying at home. Some people like to be among people, others like nothing like solitude. Some people like classical music, others just make long faces when it comes to that. Some people like the sound of coins and there are people who just dedicate themselves to social work not caring a damn about money. This list is simply endless. How can we conclude that there is happiness stored in anything?

And yet there are people of both kinds. People who do things they like and are happy like wee flowers and there are people who do things they think they like and still look unhappy.

Sometimes I just think that running behind happiness is like running along a circle thinking that you can reach the point lying just behind you. The more you run, more you get tired, the more you get unhappy. As many of sages have said, these days are making me realize more and more that happiness lies within you and it is not something to be obtained but something to be created (which Doctor unc told me, some things are not realized without being told :) ).

Just close your eyes, forget all your worries for a moment, remember all those joyous moments and hey, you suddenly feel happy. Open your eyes, start thinking about all those deadlines, all your worries and suddenly Ms. Happiness disappears ( I call it Ms. Happiness :) ) Again forget all your worries and Ms. Happiness is right there, winking at you.

Right ho ! These days I am trying to learn to be happy. For the first time last month , while watching Fed-Rafa match I didn't get anxious and consequently tense, unhappy. Just told myself that come on, its just there to have fun, both victory and loss are to be enjoyed. For the first time, I didn't flinch in front of my guide here. Just said, its simple, if I flinch, I'll make more mistakes (than I was supposed to make) then suddenly all those tingling sensations disappeared within few minutes which used to haunt me in every meeting with my guide (but not disappeared those mistakes, mistakes and me are like two-in-one pack :) ).

Yes, I am trying to learn to be happy (no guarantee that I'll learn it completely).

Enjoy and take care,
Onkar

P.S. By the way, is there any difference between peace of mind and happiness?

Simple=Difficult

2007-07-16T06:09:00.001-07:00

Hi friends,

Few days ago I was asking myself that why is living so simple routine so difficult?

For a student like me, I made a sample routine:
Get up at 7 a.m.
Get ready till 9 a.m.
Studies till 11:30 a.m.
lunch break 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Studies 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Then snacks and fun!! till 11 p.m. Maybe I can even study for one more hour if its heavy load.

This is so simple a routine! Gives ample time for eating, studying, sleeping as well as recreation!
But an unwritten law says most simple thing is most difficult to do.. You just cant simply do the most simple thing..
Why?

One more "simple" thing to do is living present moment fully. Seemingly so simple. In fact thats all is in our hands. But what we do is to waste present moment in daydreaming and consequently using our life in very inefficient way. Though we all know it well, we just cant avoid idling away like that.

Simple=Difficult?
Isn't it true?

---Onkar

I disappear

2007-06-09T22:18:00.001-07:00

Hi friends,

This post is for some news that were headlines for few weeks and then suddenly disappeared. The credit goes to the media as well as short lived memory of great Indian public.

I am trying to remember as many such news as possible but being an Indian its my natural characterstic to keep forgetting important headlines. Some incidents esp have only one line of memory in my brains.

1. Nithari killings :

Aboe 30 children were brutally abducted, raped, killed (and eaten?).. Made headlines for few weeks. Darted to number one hotspot. It was a favourite filler in programs for news channels. After some weeks there came few revelations that some of the then U.P. CMs contacts may get into little trouble and this news suddenly disappeared from all the media. These media ppl n politicains are amazing magicians! Its so easy to make a thing disappear..

2. Karnataka CMs son vandalises a hotel :

This is a local flavor. I thought I should dedicate at least a paragraph to the state where I am passing through an important phase.
Few months ago, Karnataka CMs son vandalised a hotel- "Hotel New Empire" . Broke glasses etc.. A normal exciting thing. Dear efficient CM vowed with a determination that his son wont be spared at all if proved guilty. Then immediately in 5 days the news disappeared. Disappeared in the thick mists of cloud, disappeared in the blue depths of Kauveri. Cool man!!

3. Miscellaneous :

a) What happened of the case of Kanchi mutt seer who was arrested with so much hoopla by Jayalalitha maybe 1-2 years ago? It was some thousands of crores of scam and even some unmentionable allegations were made towards the holy seer.

b) What happened to those aspiring politicians involved in the famous "Tehelka" case?

c) No action was taken when some supposedly Mr Azhagiri's (Karunanidhi's son)followers attcked a
newspaper office in Tamilnadu with petrol bombs and three people were killed.

d) One among BJP ex-high command Mr Sanjay Joshi, was on the news for involvement in a sleaze CD
recording. It was few years ago. This news too disappeared!

This is very exciting to actually observe this sudden disappearance phenomenon so well executed. I hope that no goon turns up at my hostel and beats me up!

Onkar

P.S. : If you remember some more such "vansishing in thin air" kinds atuff then do a honor to mail me. This can be put in this blog and we'l get some more entertainment!

Miscellaneous topics

2007-05-19T03:24:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,

I warn u guys that its gonna be a heavy/ foolish/ nerdish/ cool/ absurd article. I am tryin to cram up the data otherwise sufficient to churn out 2-3 blogs. Hope it sails through and well.

Topic no 1:
Unification:

Right from the stone age, human beings are trying to compress the knowledge. Most common form is books. Another is artwork. We try to compress diversity into unity. Somehow it seems that human beings like unity. The idea is to "unify" our experiences and to influence the world (this outcome maybe unintentional).
We try to compress specifics into abstract ideas. This capability is unique n thats one of the things that distinguish human beings from other animals. Most elegant example of abstraction is Mathematics.
Another, how we describe India as "unity in diversity".
Another, the ancient idea of panacea.
Another, how the physicists are trying to come up with "the theory of everyhting" which will explain every minute action in this universe.
And what about this?
The idea of "The ultimate truth" or "The only truth". Is it also one of such attempts? To explain everything by tossing up only one answer.
The harmony of unity with diversity is what makes life confusing. Only one form of energy exists but in various disguises. Is that the game? Isnt it interesting?

Topic no 2:
Asymmetry of knowledge.

The author of "freakonomics" says something about asymmetry of knowledge. Its the asymmetry of knowledge and physical limitations that run the world. We all earn our bread and butter by selling our ideas to ppl who dont have as much knowledge as us in that area or who are not enough resourceful to solve the problem themselves. Vegetable monger, shopkeeper, IT professional, fishermen, Microsoft, Autowallah are all governed by the same thing.

That was a cool idea. Asymmetry of knowledge. Freakonomics is an interesting book though I couldnt complete reading it.

Topic no. 3:
Technology wins!

I dont understand the hype about services sector. Whats so much about it? We are giving service to Americans or UK or some other advanced countries. Its bringing us money. Money is ok till one extent. The only thing that brings a nation up is development of new Technology.
They say, US is ahead of us in science by at least 200 years. Doesn't it sound cool? What do you think? Are we really gonna come up? No way. We all buy dumped technology for double price. Where other countries are planning for 4G technologies, we are still at 2G.
Only technology has won wars and diplomacies. You have technology, things ends there.
British won half of the world only with the help of their technology. We are witnessing a upgraded version of that phenomenon now.
We hype about management. But management is an upper layer service. Those guys need input. I hate Indian govt attitude in this area. Being at IISc helps to understand this better. Big MNCs like GM, Microsoft, Motorola, Qualcomm constantly keep an eye on upcoming technology and try to incorporate it. Its a constant effort. Then they develop applications and we buy it after it gets nearly outdated in developed countries. Very few Indian companies do that. Its outrageous. Economic wars are not won by management techniques alone. You need to have something strong as foundation to make management guys rise and take other economies at loggerheads. Apart from tech institutes (number in one digit), we have nothing. There in developed countries MNCs n academicians go hand in hand and keep comin up with something new, something innovative. Here, collaborations between Indian companies and academicians, ha! Not even a thousandth part of that in developed countries. All those ppl do is to buy technology from Foreign companies and sell us. Its just lik a middleman.
Its technology+management wins. Technology is the input. Management is the strategy. And we are not gonna do that in ages if Indian govt doesnt realise it now.

Random thoughts

2007-04-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

Sitting in lab, wasting the time meant for study (Its final exams going on)..

Decided to write the thoughts came to my mind.. These are random thoughts which are circulating in my brains at this moment:

I am feeling sleepy
I am choked, in fact I am a choker
Why is this mouse kept so much away, cant these guys do sense?
Why cant I type fast
I can feel blood flow in my nerve in left temple, i shud go to room
(looking blankly at roof)
Damn man
Maybe tomo i'l get up early n study. But how?
I'm getting pimples.
Thank god i dont hv girlfriend. But shud i be really thankful? what is meant by tht?
This CPU has a green light thts odd.
I shouldnt prop up my left leg on right leg. Then its difficult to bend suddenly n touch mouse
Why n what
Kisi purane dost se baat nahi hoti, sab apne apne kaam mein lage hai
World is strang. Maybe I am
Friends are studying. I should too but forget it
Tingling sensation in fingers
Why there is hexagonal mesh on CPU?
Maybe I shud leave for room
It mabe raining outside. But u cant stay in lab overnight
(its so romantic atmosphere.. Some romantic thoughts)
Damn thirsty but water cooler is so far
I'm lazy n wasting my time
(furrowed my eyebrows)
(Looked behind)
(some un-mentionable thought)
Why do I write blog?
Linear algebra is my real weakness
What are different types of fire extinguishers? (lookin at one in lab)
I'm doin nonsense, writin nonsense, i'm nonsense as a person
wil anybody even care to read this?
I should right some "catchy" page 3 thing here to keep up ppl's interest.. haha
Times is pathetis newspaper
Today I forgot to read Beetle Bailey n solve daily anagrams
(restin chin on hand, perhaps thnkin about what to think)
friend has come bt I am too tired, somebody should pick me up n take to room
Damn, getting hungry
Spectacles are boring
Tomorrow is another day
(now gonna log off)

Summing up this semester

2007-04-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

Dreams n facts are far apart.. Lik two poles of the Earth..

What I wanted to do this semester n what I did:

Wanted: To study well Did: totally messed up. chaotic situation
Wanted: To perform to my capabilities Did: Slipped below average
Wanted: To concentrate Did: Concentration, my foot !
Wanted: To set up a good routine Did: What is meant by routine?

The only thing I hadnt actually wished for n I did is to read novels: three sequels in the Hitchhikers series, The Alchemist n some Wodehouse.

Damn.

"Plastic" People

2007-02-26T02:58:00.002-08:00

Dear Human beings,

This is an attempt to classify all the human beings occupying this planet Earth into two broad categories. A new-found conclusion of research survey conducted secretly on all humans by myself on the behalf of W.T.M., USA. (Read Whatever That Means, USA. USA because we Indians generally dont believe any survey unless conducted by some organization in USA or maybe UK.)

Well, I'll be basically characterizing "plastic" people in this abstract. I'll just brief about non-plastic category later.

(Above all is just nonsense. Its written only for the sake of making few guys to read this matter a little seriously)

So,

Plastic people, we like them. We generally like to talk to them, hobnob with them, share thoughts with them. We generally tend to dial their numbers when we pick the handset or unlock our cell. We SMS them, we ask them to attend parties thrown by us etc etc.

But these people are particularly characterized by their behaviour towards us. First charcteristic is whenever there is a "hi" said between you and them, always its said by you. You ask, "How are you? Whats up? No hear from you in so many days (or weeks or months), kya yaar, its not fair." (Not to mention the divine friendliness oozing from your eyes). The person gives a very attractive "Plastic" smile and says "oooh, sooo sorry yaar, kya hai na, aajkal bahut busy ho gaya/gayi hoon.. Itna load hai na, kya bataoon. U know, i just forgot. Sooo sorry." Very attractive "Plastic" dialogue. You believe it. Faithfully..

You SMS them once in a week or 15 days. They never reply. Somehow, their balance is always over the next moment after they recharge. Logical, perhaps, there is some mismanagement on the service operator's side, you never know.. Sometimes, by mistake there is enough credit to reply "Sorry dude, kya karoon balance hi nahi tha. Aaj hi recharge karwaya. Immediately tuzhe hi pehle message kiya." A very "Plastic", very convincing reply. Sometimes you get very impatient and call them up on their cell/landline. They say, "Arey yaar, you won't believe it lekin today itself i was going to call you up." You believe it. Faithfully..

Some other charcteristics : Whenever you want to meet them, ALWAYS some very very important thing pops up in their schedule. There is no coincidence. Its the divine order proposed by the creator. No wonder, the mistake lies at the creator's side. You cant help it at all. You believe it. Faithfully..

Somehow they "plastic"ly forget to invite us to their parties, though you never fail to invite them to yours. Forgetfulness is inherent in human nature. You cant help that too. Brain is not some computer to remember each and every thing. You believe it. Faithfully..

BUT

There is a large difference between the FACT and what you believe (faithfully).

In fact they never wanted to say hi, never wanted to reply, never wanted to make a call, in fact they were never soooo busy. And they never ever wanted to invite you to their parties.

Some people realize it, many don't.

Some people finally leave all those "attempts", but many don't..

On the other hand, there always are few "Non-Plastic" people in the world for you. They always say a "Non-Plastic" hi to you, talk to you in "Non-Plastic" manner, keep in touch without any plastic emotional touch, enjoy n share their time with you.

But many times you behave like a plastic person with them.

The question is, why not forget running after all those plastic people and be with those non-plastic people, our real friends?

Theorem: But the above thing is one of the impossibilities of universe. You just can't do it.

Any corrections, friends?

Onkar

2007-02-14T07:44:00.001-08:00

Inspiration!!

2007-02-14T07:44:00.000-08:00

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards:
they try to have more things, or more money,
in order to do more of what they want so they will be
happier.
The way it actually works is the reverse.
You must first be who you really are, then, do what
you need to do,
in order to have what you want.

~ Margaret Young ~


Whatever a person's mind dwells on
intensely and with firm resolve,
that is exactly what he becomes.

~ Shankaracharya ~


We do not see things as they are.
We see them as we are.

~ The Talmud ~


Don't believe what your eyes are telling you.
All they show is limitation.
Look with your understanding,
find out what you already know,
and you'll see the way to fly.

~ Richard Bach
(from 'Johnathan Livingstone Seagull') ~ 


It's not them, it's you.
It's not there, it's here.
It's not then, it's now.

~ Author Unknown ~


Though no-one can go back
and make a brand new start,
anyone can start from now
and make a brand new end.

~ Author Unknown ~


What is, is.
What isn't, isn't.
You become so obsessed with what isn't
that you miss what is.

~ Author Unknown ~


When one door closes, another opens;
but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the
closed door
that we do not see the one which has opened for us.

~ Alexander Graham Bell ~


When it is dark enough,
you can see the stars.

~ Charles A Beard, American Historian (1874-1949) ~


What lies behind us and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes ~


Life
is either a daring adventure or nothing.
~ Helen Keller ~

A new beginning

2007-02-12T07:33:00.000-08:00

hi friends,

so again im entering the world of blogging.. hope this blog-innings lasts longer.

take care.