In search of randomness.....

solitude walker

2011-12-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

"Hey, am still here, very near to you. Still I feel your voice is dissolved in the sounds of the waves!!!! What is it, that is so buried in you? Wish that to be a seed which thrust itself to come out to make a greener life", she said.

That was a wake up call. Wish it is better to be alone for some more time, to enjoy the silence. With a smile he said "did you see how blue the sea is? They say, the more blue it is, the more deep and dangerous it can be"

"I should believe this blue sci-fi?! Better be poetical".

"I rather like to be philosophical. There is a saying that no calm sea made a good sailor. That is something I believed and still believe. Whenever I spend time on beaches, it always come to me with a lot of inspiring waves of thoughts"

"mm... I used to wonder, how stubborn you are, bit boring at times. From outside, you are quite jovial and pleasant. But the more I try to learn you, either I hit the rocks or you end it with your usual smile. Why is it always complicated with you?"

" well, I may not have a clear cut answer to that. As I said, life was bit different just as everyone claims. I might have developed a taste of refusing to be like others, preferring to be on the tougher side of the sea, wandering around. And I enjoy being different and being unquestioned"

walks: to forget and forgive

"Oh! the solitude walker philosophy."

"May be!!!"

"Most of the people like to be in a flow. When you swim across, people think you are not their type. May be that attitude is what made me to be with you"

"Ahh! ! people in a flow always resist changes. Attitude to swim across made many people angry, making me arrogant/boring ..whatever!!! "

"Okay mr arrogant, we may go back now. It is getting late"

Though he wished to hear the voices of the waves, he said "let's go"

Another (ordinary) day

2011-11-24T07:12:00.000-08:00

Days pass by. Sometimes they notify you, some itch you and some are so feeble to make an impression. It is 11 months since I left IIT and still enjoying the fruits of the life there. But the quest for change and do better, I tried to keep it alive.

At times I wonder what I stand for exhibits the true self. It is like "to be me" or to be me through someone else's eyes. It is rather puzzling, I know and I try to keep telling to myself "so far I enjoyed the life as it comes and it was always pleasant and gave a lot of surprises". Those were well balanced with good and bad.

impressions.. whether u like it or not, some lasts longer!!!

One thing I still have to gain control over is the volatile reaction as if I can improve things if the surroundings co-operated a bit. Then comes an argument back in my mind that, raising the voice for something I believe right; is a good thing. The question still remains "should I polish the reactions and pour out with a bit of honey?" If I do so, will my voice be ignored? I don't know. And I don't think anyone else would know it either because we can't walk back and try the other.

Engineer by profession

2011-09-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

Memories!!!!!!
They tease me, make me afraid at times, but that is what inspired me to be persistent when I felt the world has turned upside down. I was actually puzzled again, for I got a comment that "my persistence is scary". Still I persist, for those who looked beyond the scary, high air nature and made me believe that I can. The first and foremost persons being my parents.

I remember, my father taking me to Kanakakkunnu palace and Nishagandhi, through the Museum-Zoo road to see Onaghosham. By 7th standard, I could read English and probably at that time, by reading the board which stood near to this Nishagandhi-Muzeum-Kanakakkunnu area, "Institute of Engineers" made me puzzled. At that time I know what a mason/carpenter/painter/plumber/mechanic/police/doctors does. But I hardly had a clue on what "Engineer" does. I think someone explained me that these are people who "makes vehicle/construct dams". "Oh, what is big difference between them with mason or or mechanic?"

Well I did not know the answer at that time. Don't ask me if I know it now :P. But by profession and by degree, I am that.

The passion or craze to do things is the start. Then "bad experiences and failures", follows, where you feel "u r n deep shit". From this point if u persist and make it work, that may be called as engineering (my own defn... please don't jump on me and stamp me for this). Software engineers are special category in this. They create "bugs", follow them with "mouse" and smile when they see others also running with "baygon and hit". I still like to be crazy, jump in deep pits and then come back to tell "f***", I should not have done that.

When I see the outcomes of such craziness, which forms different shapes and becomes a part of human life, improving the difficulties we face and make us enable writing this blog or interact with people around the world, to help and to stand each other, I feel to be proud of a "software engineer".

Belated "happy engineers day"

Oooooops!!! This day differes in different countries. Another craziness :-)

India celebrates it in memoirs of Visweswaraya of Mysore. (VTU and Visweswaraya Technical Muzeum of Bangalore are named after him).

VidyaDHANAM

2011-09-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

Today September 5, birth day of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan or Teacher's day. I think for the first time after 2004, I did not receive any "happy teacher's day" message. Luckily saw the placards in the hands of kids going to schools. Wished my professor and a few of my old colleagues.

Afternoon lunch was with the "family people". Today's topic was somehow on the "struggles" of parents for giving education to the kid. Should I call it interesting or scary I am not sure, but it seems like there is a lot of activities going on in schools. One such interesting exercise is to do "cultivation". What the ....?
So my colleague explained the modern cultivation. Make a base with waterproof paper, make a small layer of mud over it in the shape of Kid's name. Then make sprouts over it. "Spray water".
I have heard of DPEP (District Primary Education Program) where students are encouraged to do group activities and assignments. But this was something new. Also there were discussions on "good schools" in Bangalore. I was curious to know what could be the answer. Came back and searched for the same. To one school which was named "the best", I just checked the fee structure and felt that I am out of place (as always), wondering is it just a nightmare or a reality.

Kindergarten - About Rs. 1.35 Lakhs.

Whoa!!!!

I could not figure out what can a kid aged 3 can do with that much money. That too "education".

Thanks to the vision and planning people like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru without which I might not have studied from my first standard till Masters. It should be noted that, if Tatas and Birlas did think of educating their children and only thought about them; we might have missed some of the best schools in the world namely Indian Institute of Science (Formerly Tata Institute of Science), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS Pilani).

I am also proud of the Maharajas of Travencore for their service to the people in south kerala. This family has started institutions like

Kerala University where Einstein was invited as the first Vice Chancellor to which Einstein replied stating that his health is not good enough
SreeChitra Medical Centre (which is one of the finest research institute in the world and contributed the lightest heart valve)
College of Engineering Trivandrum
Government Arts college (where people like K R Narayan studied. I was fortunate enough to study there)
Medical College Trivandrum

I take a bow for those who enlightened and ignited the generations with wisdom and showed the alternate paths to choose from

PS: Heard that kids assignments and affordable fees can positively control the birth rate

"Education means that process by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, and intellect is sharpened, as a result of which one can stand on one’s own feet."
...... Swami Vivekanda

The struggle for betterment

2011-08-16T17:43:00.000-07:00

Well, this is supposed to be posted on 15th of august, but better late than never. What I write here is my voice (Mera aawaaz). I could not post it on 15th, since I was travelling through mangalore on that day. Let me start from the Aug 15 of this year. We, a group of 8 were at kaup beach near udupi, Karnataka. After many years, I was attending a flag hoisting ceremony.

Then we walked to the beach. As usual the roads were dirty with so much of plastic waste. A while after we reached, a big group of school children came with the teachers. They were there to clean the beach as a part of Independence day celebrations. I was happy to see such initiatives. As I always believe, we don't expect everyone to continue this culture of keeping the public places clean; but it sends a message to all. If one out of 100 such children could make it a part of his/her life; it is well and good.

I was wondering about the attitude of the mass. People started protests supporting Anna. I am really happy for what he stands and no offences to the supporters, including my close friends. I really don't believe that India is that worst in corruption compared to other countries. I should say that heights of corruption in US may be to such an extend along with the biased media that the common public won't even realise what is happening

Here I need to ask a question. It is a re-post from my thoughts sometime back on Jan-Lokpal bill and Anna. Out of all these big talks, how many are really ready to take it as part of their life? How many people does not violate rules? No high expectations, but even simple traffic rules?
Will you bribe 100 rupees for the police for a rule violation or will you ask for receipt? Will you really stop littering or even try to carry a waste bag, collect the waste you are creating and put it in next dust bin?
A lot of questions I have, but in one sentence can "we" have a better civic sense which comes as a part of our culture?

I wish I could make a positive effect at least to the people around me and pray that let god give courage to stop me if I am wrong.

To end this I would like to quote one note from Gandhiji, our father of nation.

"Be the change you want to see".

lazy and legacy

2011-06-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

What is it like being lazy?
While I was in IITM, there was no much difference in a weekday from a weekend. I never used to plan ahead for weekends. When I joined Bosch, I started realising the "week" and "weekend" concepts. Every Thursday/Friday I used to hear "what plans?" and every Monday "how was the weekend?"

Trying out things which were never tried so far is one thing I started. Cycling on Sundays or short trips with photography is what looked like "my weekends". An interesting fact I noticed was that many a time I used to hear lazy weekend, slept off, movies etc. With a bad pain in my ankle coupled with back pain which prolonged for more than a month; I could also say similar things.

At the same time I wanted to restart learning violin, learn kannada; travel at least one weekend in a month. Nothing really worked so far. From the previous post; where I was describing about "paying forward", I am also becoming someone who is lazy.

There was a time when I felt pity about people who are "high ranked" acted in a strange manner. For example; people complaining that "linux is very difficult" or "I do not know how to use power point for presentations". I literally hated such people who are gifted, spent their effort and time to reach there and after a while "get used to" the system. They resist any changes or depend on others for getting the "job done". I used to wonder, how such an attitude can come. I used to call them "legacy". For me, such people are those who inevitably destroy the synergy and positiveness by not adapting and getting accustomed to the current systems.

The answer to the questions came from a month's rest (rust) where I hardly did any learning. Nothing literally creative. Not even trying to do something different.
This is something I should be ashamed of. I have been given an opportunity to be a part of a great university of India. And I am not doing anything to pay that forward.

Though in a hard way; I learned how to be legacy. Only thing I am wondering is will I also start saying things like

"oh, I did not get time " "I wanted to do, but you know"
at the same time having lazy weekends

Paying it forward

2011-03-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

It is an interesting thing, to study about human behaviors. I have seen people coming to me for they want to be heard. I always had and have people to hear me as well. More than that, three were angels, I do not even know names of many of them. When I was going to my college, 28Km away from my home and missing the only morning bus, I see angels in the form of people who picked me up.

More than that there were people who came to my life for a very short span and made me think, what did I do to really meet such people. There are three incidents I would like to tell. First one is when I met a lady at music class. She was from CSIR. It was just an year after my B-Tech when I had my GATE score. She told, there is a scheme in CSIR where I can do PhD directly with complete CSIR scholarship and asked me to come and meet her next day. I went to CSIR next day, met her. She made a few phone calls for getting two people who are heading the research there. All these people she called, really spent time for explaining to me, about the work they are doing and possibility of an admission and the risks.

Second time again was about PhD. This time Dr Achut Shankar (Achu) who barely know me; spent an hour with me and wrote a recommendation letter for my application to IIT Kanpur. At that time, he was the director of Centre for Bioinformatics. The third incident was when I was applying for passport. I already have two posts in this blog on that. The only reason I got the passport from Thiruvananthapuram passport office was because of a lady. She was verifying my documents. That is her job. She signed it and forwarded to senior passport officer, who denied it. I came out, disappointed. If I get it, I might get a chance to go to Switzerland for presenting my paper. She found out from my face that I did not get it and said, "anyway u came till here, spent ur energy and tried this much; why not just speak to the Regional Passport Officer?". And I got the passport approved on the very next day.

Did I join CSIR? Did I succeed in IIT Kanpur admission? Did I go to Swiss for presentation?. Well I did not join CSIR, failed in IIT Kanpur test and department did not give funds for my Swiss travel. I learned one thing from these incidents and tried to keep that as a quality in me. These people who helped me, all of them were strangers, holding very high positions, having so much things to do. They never said "I do not have time". They did not even ask what was the result. They did not expect anything in return as well.

Later I tried to improve myself. Blogging was a new method I tried to reach out to more people and to see if the things I learned as a part of my MS program at IIT Madras was helpful. I started a technical blog apart from this one you are reading. The response was overwhelming, from almost all parts of the world.

So many people wrote to me in person, came to chat. One such incident was when a lady from GE called me. She wanted to learn the technology I am working on. I was totally busy on the day she wanted to come. Still I said, please come and meet me. She came and learned quickly. In return I said, I do not expect anything back for me. Write the application you just understood, and post it in my blog. Coincidences, I believe in that. On next week I had a request from someone asking for similar application she was developing. I made a request that, please send it since there is a person who is waiting. I did not get a response in time, wrote a mail saying that,

"So, your priorities are still not up to "pay it forward". I could have said the same excuses of priorities and meeting with "bosses" to you. At least a curtsy reply that you could not do it
Or am I expecting too much for a "silly help" to you". There was a link of the new blog post with the basic application along with that mail.

This was just one incident. I have received appreciations as well. Just while I was writing, I got a mail saying that "Hi, Girish, Your post really helped me. B'cos nowhere is the amt for a non-judicil stamp paper specified. It is assumed that all indians are born with this knowledge much like the salmon which knows...." .

As a matter of fact, this job I am holding currently, was because of the technical blog, despite the fact that I did not answer even simple technical questions in the interview.

I later thought that I should avoid such comments like I did to that lady from GE. Thanks and sorry does not make sense to me unless it is supported by an action. That is something I learned in hard way. I hope it stays with me and will continue to inspire me for paying forward, while ignoring the behavior from others or expect others to act on my request.

Welcome to Bangalooru, my dear

2011-02-13T08:58:00.000-08:00

So what made me write something on valentine's day eve? A lady sitting beside me in a nice T shirt and blue jeans with a brass bracelet in her right hand and a silver color watch on her left hand. She should be around 21, not a regular book reader, having a nice sence of fashion especially in light ornaments (like platinum) and aesthetic eye on things
She tried to keep her elegance even while she was desperately trying to sleep. Beautiful eyes wide open with a nice smile on her face, she is talking in my mother tongue (ob not to me ), what (else) I can do?

My thoughts went back to the Post iit era, which had a breath taking kickoff. Literally I was running around to finish off the formalities with no time to breath.
The rules are so simple like chicken-egg problem between department and hostel management
On the other side Bangalore was not ready to receive me. The HR lady was not returning my calls or emails. What I had was just a letter to report on thursday. Temporarily destination was set as abhilash's room. Poor him, I have not taken his photos despite 2 months stay at Bangalore

At bosch they hardly had any clue of me joining. That was a Thursday. That weekend I bought a cycle for commuting and took a small hall kitchen for stay. Thought it was a geat day. Oohhaa.. not that great. Bangalore was just starting her magic on me. With a great vanishing act, my mobile disappeared from my hand in no time. That was her way of saying "welcome to Bangalore, dear"

She again tested my patience with a broadband connection application? In my village it may be a fortnight to get it done. But in bangalore 3km away from forum mall, I did not get it in a month. Bsnl and airtel said they can't give connection. Finally I went for the 3G from BSNL. I slowly getting realized that I am in civilization after years of life in academic environment.
With not much work from company and no internet at home it was a different lifestyle altogether. On weekends I was either shuttling to chennai or trying to go out, covering nandi hills, Sravan balagola, musical fountain and bangalore air show till date.

This is the return shuttle from Chennai where I reserved a window seat and in the train, realized that it was not "w". Then again music chair thing gave me a window seat (but there was no window :() and that is how I ended up sitting beside her.

Time pass by and I was taking a candid photo (though not to complement mathew's new efforts for the same during his trek last day).

A glance to the pages she was flipping through, made me a smile. The pages containing valent's day special articles finally landed in" my husband ejacuates before I even getting started" to 'my stomach is still flabby after..... ". Aah that made me remembering reading femina while I was in govt arts college, doing my pre-degree. As they say" magazines like femina and vanitha" are most subscribed by men" ;-)
The next topic was coorg where she actually belong to. Virajpet to kannur is like come in the morning and go back in the evening, in her words. Another phone came in and another break.
Did I miss an essential app in FaceBook? Coz I had an unsuccessful attempt to find her profile and thought" WTF, why don't FB have a photo search instead of name search"? Dear FB my name has to be in your patent if this thing really comes out ;-)

Finally at cantonment station, she left while I was thanking the indian railway for a not so boring feb13 evening.

Annoying collective behaviors!!!!!

2010-05-22T06:10:00.000-07:00

I used to observe the difference in innocent individual behaviors and bit different kind of behavior when it is a group of these innocent individuals. Long back, at the time when I was doing my bachelors; I read somewhere that these behaviors are used well in many places. One book/article on addressing the gathering and do an effective speech" classifies this as individual v/s mass psychology. This is the same concept used in political/religious speech. I tried using, while preparing my own slides as well. As they say 1+1 != 2, it is 4 or more in case of collective effort. Positively, this psychology is best used in military. This is the power the group brings to individuals basically due to the safety an individual feels when inside a group.

Interesting studies in this direction in recent times include the social network analysis in modern Internet age. For example, in his book Six degrees, Duncan Watts starts the topic with a question how does individual behavior aggregate to collective behavior. As he says, it is the way norms and conventions emerge, exist and all on a sudden perishes, only to create new ones. The revolutions which happened in the world to the cascaded fall of real estate are well known examples of these collective behaviors. What is more interesting for me is not the chaos, but the situation after the chaos. It is the same concept I used as my blog title in search of randomness (but very much before reading Watt's work).

Though not in large scale like the above situations, I used to see these kind of effects and ironies in my own social circle. Often I used to hear comments "damn, the bus is late; what the heck is the driver doing?". Ironically, he/she comes late even more than half an hour and says "sorry... could not make it". And there may be an addition "you know, IST, Indian stretchable time". Some other time, the entire group is late by an hour and say themselves the "IST" thing. Being stupid, I actually try to be on time (in my mobile time). The only case I may enjoy such a half an hour or more waiting situation is that, some beautiful girl standing next to me (who is stupid enough to come in time like me), waiting and we are having a nice chit-chat. Or in a film style way, drizzling where I have an umbrella and she does not have.

Another nice incident which annoyed me a lot is about a temporary place for our group to work, because the lab was "announced to undergo a renovation". We are about 10-12 "individuals" and there are other group of people working under different professor. One friend from the other group asked me, "hei please coordinate and let me know how many people will be there in may-June. We can see the alternative locations". I thought, okay; let us have a discussion and see what we can do. I sent a mail, after which I had to plead to many of them to reply, tabulated it to see that almost all of them will be here at one time or other. 4 of us including me, agreed to use laptop.

I thought of different options, including requesting departmental computing facilities (DCF) which has 3 common labs which are almost empty due to vacation. All I needed to do was to set up a file server as well as a simulation server. Then I left to kerala to attend our lab mate's marriage (of the other group) and on my return journey, I received a mail from one the 4 laptop users; "only we are left out, all others shifted already to lab " (let us call it lab y). I felt sorry for my friend from other group for his sincere efforts to coordinate the entire lab. Interestingly, one of the 4 laptop users has already shifted desktop. 3 left out laptop users and a namesake list. One of my friend from our group asked " when r u shifting". I asked "to where?" and another comment next, "its not tat we never thought about the remaining people. since u use laptops we thought its possible to fit in anywhere". Hmm, "fitting in anywhere". I was wondering to laugh or blast. First of all, if I wanted to "fit in", all I have to do was to find a lab which is not so crowded and to make a request to the professor in charge of that lab.

Then in two days, rest of lab also squeezed in to this lab y and another lab z. May be "provoked" by this, I fitted myself in to the DCF. I still wonder " what people gain by just saving their own asses". But I would like to see the comments as an Individual on your reaction if you were in my place.

PS/Valkashanam (in malayalam) :

Some1 told me that he/she was stupid enough to shift like that and sorry for it. Well I don't take sorries by word, better I see some deed
Some1 said "ah gireesh, your mobile is 30min fast, that saved extra time while u were in ranthambore". Well I should say, 30 was again IST, in my mobile it was 35 minutes.
I am wondering why people are annoyed, when I attended a 2.30 PM IST 5 minutes earlier (that is 3PM in my mobile)

Concluding remarks: Manushya in sanskrit means the one who has ability to visualize, analyze and act. I think, the group psychology overrides this ability knowingly or unknowingly. And it really affects an individual in positive or negative way. The concept of how badly an individual can be affected by such a group behavior was shown well in the movie "kill with me".
It may be childish to say that above incident is something big, but I just wanted to convey what I felt. After all it is my blog. :P

adios for now!!!!

Business, Marketting and Innovation: Things I unlearned

2010-01-28T10:03:00.000-08:00

As my friend Nesmel told, I had to write about unlearning things. Unlearning as in what? There are so many things I learned. So I was wondering what did I overlook before coming to IIT and had to completely change my views and opinions about it. One main thing is about Product development and making business out of it. This topic evolved mainly after talking to a guy I met in Bangalore, who liked Physics but working in Biochemistry (or related areas).
He was asking me, what did IIT do to Society? It was a question every IITian would think and answer. I said, well all these telecom revelution I can say is from IIT Madras. Even there was an ATM Machine which costs 1/10 or lesser than normal one and can count even old notes. Then he was asking me, why did it not come to market.

Well that was something similar I overlooked while I was in my teens or in engineering. I thought making a product working, with much efficient way than currently existing one is called innovative business. Now I know, there are million ideas like this ATM. There will be a thousands of them successfully implemented out of which not even a hundred of them will go to market. If you feel this is stupid statement, please rethink. Simplest example. Taking the same ATM machine. Assume that it is functional. And you approach me and I am head, business operations for a multinational bank. The maximum I will do is to give you a job as a technical advisor, but not to take that ATM. It is fairly simple. For me as a head, I need a machine which is not foolproof; but with strong backup from another multinational firm. Will I risk the decision to take this where you fail to prove that you can supply it in bulk to establish throughout the country, give support for faulty machine round the clock and your company will exist for another five years.

Business is not about ideas into reality. It is reality to selling and to customer support. So is that the fate of all research? No. Absolutely not. For example there is another idea. This is a program which made an interface between Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) and a human using an emulator which mimic dialling. All that he had to do is to make the program working in small scale and to sell it. So is the ATM. You sell it to an MNC and do jump to next venture.
Well is that the way to do business? Is there any other way? Well for me, as my understanding is concerned, the best thing to sell is something of the cost of one day's food expense of a middle class person. In India, it could be in range of 100 to 200 INR. If it can be used by common people; your business will grow. That is the place where a beginner in business may try his/her idea.

I left this post here.. some time back... and continuing now. :-). Again Nes inspiring me to write more. He quoted the ""KISS" principle. No !! he did not mean to "kiss" someone to get inspiration. It is "Keep It Simple and Stupid". The idea of KISS is one good way to start.

Before coming to IIT, I did not believe much in "branding". But this is a part of that unlearning process. Here when I write the post, this "business" I am talking is in large scale. In the scale of sales in a populated country like India, where you want to have a "brand name" of your own. The breakthrough research success to have a quality product is merely a beginning. With this you can convince your friends' circle; your city or at the maximum two-three cities. You want to scale to national level, you need

A good bank with strong support with prompt transactions and healthy policies which fits in to your needs
Good finance advisor who understands the fluctuations in the stock better than the financial advisor(s) in competing companies
A clear awareness on competition
A good way to get customer feedbacks
A strong and dedicated core team whom you can trust and who complements each other by understanding the strength and weakness of the team members
God father(s) and media coverage to get grip in the market
......

List is long as the company grows. As per my current understanding, this is what makes a "brand". Hei am not in to business. This is just my thoughts on this line because I designed simple devices from locally available things, for our labs which I found much better in functionality and it is value for money thing. My friends asked me "are you going to launch it?" If it was the attitude and knowledge which I had, like the friend in bangalore; I might have said "yes, why not". Now what will be my reply, I am leaving it open for you to imagine.

The length of the Emperor of China's nose and a few simulation stories

2010-01-06T20:59:00.000-08:00

After getting in to IIT and in two years getting a campus placement; is not uncommon. On one side appreciations from people, asking for treats etc etc. On the other side it is a puzzle if I complete MS in time or not and you will kill your time lost in thoughts.
One funny thing facing me is that one year back I proposed a way to improve the existing wireless system. I could envisage it beautifully. I was so happy at that time that it is something unique. Now it is time for Annual Progress Report submission and I am puzzled again on what to write. I never implemented it. In fact I am not even convinced that there will be any use of such a "theoretically beautiful" protocol to be implemented.
If you are not wondering why such a situation; surely you might have done research. Anyway; let me try to explain my situation. The proposal came after a series of articles and scientific publications on the area I am working on. It is a 10 year old technology and still results are in simulation. People propose millions of ideas; simulate it and says "oh my way; look at it!!! it is awsome... it improves performance by 200%". Then another one says "oh yeah I have changed parameter x to parameter y, reason being a probabilistic modelling using ...blah ..blah . and improved results by 300%". I being stupid or what; believed such things will actually work in real hardware. Thus my proposal was based on previous results of my great predecessors.

I tried to implement my solution in real hardware. Learned a new operating system, learned to work with a system which does not even have a monitor or a display to tell me if an error occurred. I got initial results. Weired!!!! It does not even give me 10% of what it is capable of. If I implement my method; that will give another overhead and will reduce performance. Huh!!!! Now the puzzle comes back to me. Do I need to believe that someone will find it fascinating and will implement. We are researchers; we just create models.

I felt the whole research is like the story of "length of Emperor of China's nose". Nobody was permitted to see the Emperor of China, and the question was, What is the length of the Emperor of China's nose? To find out, you go all over the country asking people what they think the length of the Emperor of China's nose is, and you average it. And that would be very "accurate" because you averaged so many people. But it's no way to find anything out; when you have a very wide range of people who contribute without looking carefully at it, you don't improve your knowledge of the situation by averaging. It is not that I can also tell, mine is more accurate by adding survey with another set of people and says "oh mine is 300% more accurate ".

If you try to build the system; it is more funny. You need to average at least for 100 nodes, because predecessors did it for 10000 or even more. Purchase of 100 nodes will take its own time. Then you realize that off the shelf devices does not give any performance you wanted. Design new one. Another purchase!!! Funniest thing is that it is always a story of re-inventing the wheel to come up with a design. Once the prototype is built; which costs 1/10 or even lesser than that of imported one and perform better; you try to scale it to 200 nodes. One node will have say 4 components to be assembled, manufactured by four companies. You need to get quotes at least 3 for each. You will try to call up persons in India. If not you need to figure out how to ship from country X to India including customs clearance and taxes. Once it is done, after 2 weeks reply will come from purchase that; quote is no longer valid. Then you try for re-quote. It take another month to give Purchase Order. Each component may take their own time from 1 to 3 weeks. If you are lucky; it will stay in customs office for another month because there is additional free cd came with that consignment which was not mentioned.
Meanwhile you try to find people for making custom boards. It take a month to get and you will see that the connection is reversed. It goes for revision. Once it comes out well; you place the devices and try to do measurement; it fails for no reason. You debug the circuit and see that component x and y do not inter-operate. You go for another revision. Then integrate 200 of them and verification will take weeks. Then you need to implement your algorithms which might not have considered the models we integrated. That will take another fortnight. To deploy and test with one setup takes hours in ground. You need at least 5 people with average of 20 nodes per person. To have a common time for them to measure one setup will be once in a week. Assuming you have 3 parameters to change; you need all permutations and combinations of them to measure. Each one needs update of 200 nodes and do the measurement. It can eat up months.

And if it works; your results will be pathetic compared to supermodels in simulation. By this time you will see hardware advancement and your design is no longer valid. Now you can at least think yourself; how to find the length of Emperor china's nose.

FAQ NAQ and Fermat's last theorem

2009-12-26T05:40:00.000-08:00

!!!! Milestones!!! Coincidence!!! Moments I missed!!!

Last saturday was 19th December. Completed two years after enrolling as MS student!!! What did I learn from this great Institution? I can not clearly number them and sort in any priority. One thing is certain. I learned!!! Learned to observe the nature!!! As my friends used to say; "you are in forest; your home". Yeah; it is true. home away from home. And what did I do? I tried to capture the moments for my friends; current and the future; to enjoy a few of the moments of mine with the newly added hobby "photography".
Hey Gireesh
"
how did you get in to IIT?
It is a place of GEEKS na?
How much salary people earn after IIT?
Is it like 5.Some1?
You people don't sleep; eh? Oh ya you always sleep n lab na?
Is the current research happen to be bird watching?

..........

So; what next? PhD in US? Starting new company? Marriage?
"
One simple answer to all these is "I do not know"
What I know is GATE score is a way to enter IIT for doing masters. I do not know if that is the sole thing someone need to get into IIT; especially for MS-Research program. I do not see any "GEEK" here. If someone call me so; they can come and visit IIT to meet more of that species. Salary; current upper limit from campus has gone up to 28Lakhs per annum. Sorry; I did not do research in salaries to give a statistics and give a "powerpoint" on it. 5.Someone? Yeah; if we take an average it will be 5.someone percentage of "women" category. "girls may come in the some1 category" . Of course we do not sleep when we are awake; watching endless movies from LAN; playing; chatting; blogging!!! and if you ever happen to see the rush in mess at 830-930 time in morning; you know well that we do not sleep. My hobbies include "bird watching".

Indian Pitta

But there are not enough birds in IIT, to do a research on it. :(
What next? Hmm!! same old question. Same old answer. Rather it is a coincidence that I got the offer from Robert BOSCH on 19th; which turned out to be a dramatic one. This post is not big enough to contain that story.
Instead of all these; I have one "not so frequently asked or never asked question"
Is IITians passionate about what they do? I could see a few people who fall in that category. But I am bit lazy; still confused on doing publication business versus experiments which may work in reality. I wished I could do better.

I wonder how different is current system; which forced us to learn things without even excited about them. Especially I felt I missed so much of mathematical fun when I completed reading "Fermat's last theorem" by Simon Singh.

It can be rather called as a history of mathematics from Pythagorian schools to modern mathematics. I was wondering; why we do not have history of mathematics or science as the way they invented. I do not know if things were there in curriculum; it might have been a better way. At least it could ignite some young minds who may become another Fermat or Andrew Wiles or a Feynman who could observe things as a passion than mere way to get degrees.

Mobile payments: Some thoughts

2009-10-24T22:47:00.001-07:00

I am wondering if this topic fits in to this blog or my techie one. Since it can be of public interest than a technical report, I decided to put it here.
A few months back I was attending a talk by my colleague about this topic. The talk explained the need of mobile payments, the vision and the implementation strategies. The study says that there is a good amount of mobile phone penetration to rural India. An exclamatory mark here is that it is much greater than the bank accounts. In villages it is difficult to walk to a bank miles away and do the transactions, thus they are away from all these systems. Why not use mobile phone as a payment system. This is indeed a great thought and I was very much excited to know how it works. The assumptions (as I understand it from the slides) are

People are comfortable using mobile phones, using numbers; but not english
The service providers are not allowed to handle cash transactions as they are "private" and RBI rules prevent them from this.
It can turn a mobile phone in to a remote banking system for rural India.

With this, companies like NGPAY and MCheck opened service in India connecting banks and mobile phone subscribers. These companies offer banking services by creating a connection to a customer's bank account through mobile phone. People need to enter only pin which is a number apart from the beneficiary's mobile number to pay the amount.
A slight confusion here in my mind is that " how come Bharati and Reliance which are private can not handle money but these mcheck and ngpay can? Are these companies excluded from definition of private companies for banking?
I queried whether it uses SMS and other service messages for handling the payments or some other technology. Because sensitive information is involved and mobile service providers can actually see all these transactions if they use these things. Interesting answer was "GPRS". I was stunned by that answer.
If the assumption include GPRS, is it "affordable" for rural india and those villagers who use normal handset supporting basic facilities?

Second query " if gprs is available; why can not RBI ask banks to create a secure java client which can use voice biometrics and /or number based user interface with vernacular support. An agreement between mobile service providers and banks to share the information of mobile clients can do the same functionality like mcheck or ngpay. Any customer can download this from his bank site/ from local bank directly and use it. It avoids all these third party business and security issues since it is like normal payment portal with a more user friendly application for mobiles.

When IIT Madras is involved in this program and is the certifying and standard setting agency for mobile payments, what benefit will it make to Rural India ?
Or is it just another exercise which ultimately aims the urban people?

How to apply for Tatkal Passport

2009-09-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the responses for the previous post on how not to apply for tatkal passport. This time it is the other way. As you know, I found it is not good to struggle at Chennai for passport because filing RTI and meeting RPO appeared a difficult task. So I filled another online form to Trivandrum passport office. All the documents I hold contain same address, my home address. I expected similar behavior of standing in the queue from morning, though my time was written 2PM. But the security told me, online application processing is done only in afternoon. In between I came to know that there is a yellow file which we have to buy and the shops opposite to passport office will arrange everything in the yellow file so that I can submit the application directly. For my case, even they were confused. I am staying at Chennai and applying at Trivandrum. I filled two extra forms for Police verification, one set for native and one set for Chennai.
At 2 I went upstairs of passport office. It was not long queue as that of Chennai. But apparently when I reached in front of the queue, it was 4.15. The madam who verified the documents told me, "the certificate from an institute is more valid than even a declaration in front of notary or other proofs for identity, and you are holding institute identity card, so we will issue the passport. Please get signature from Senior Passport Officer (SPO).

Lol . Another queue and I met SPO at 4.45. He simply said "you are hiding the details that you are staying at Chennai". I said "of course not. I have submitted the letter from warden that I am residing at so and so hostel and so and so number for past 1.5 years". He said "then you apply through Chennai passport office". I felt "oh god, the same old story of Shankar" ( For non mallus, we use the term "shankar again on coconut tree" to express that after so many struggle to change situation it remains same or went back to its old state). I said "sir, it is not possible; I am native of Trivandrum, I do not have magical 3 address proof at Chennai". Then he says "then you are not eligible for tatkal passport. You come with signature of Rural SP of Trivandrum and Chennai SP, I will issue a passport". I said in mind, "oh If I could get one signature from Chennai, Chennai passport office will give passport. Now it is two". He wrote "normal " on the application file, means accept the application as normal.
I came out, then spoke to the madam who verified the document and I was bit confused. I do not know if I have to get prior appointment for meeting RPO or so. Then She told, "no need son, anyway you came up to here, you just get in to his room and tell the problem. We will see". That was a great relief to me. Kind of an angel from nowhere. When I met RPO it was 5PM. Straight away I said "Sir, I am a student of IITM. I could not apply for Tatkal passport from Chennai because I do not have three address proofs. I have gone through entire passport act and the web site. It says I can apply from my native also. But that gentleman is telling that I am not eligible. Please tell me why I am not eligible, sir". He looked at me, then took the application and gone through all the documents and said "who told you that you are not eligible; you are eligible. But you need a notary declaration from Trivandrum; not from chennai." I said "Sir, the documents says notary certificate in your region. So I thought it was at the jurisdiction I am staying." He said, "no it is the jurisdiction of this passport office. You can come any time tomorrow, meet me, I will approve the application, by producing the new notary form". I said "Sir, please write it over the file, currently it is written normal". He did that. I left the office with joy.

The next day I found a notary. At Chennai, I spent 250 Rs. for it for a declaration on non judicial stamp paper of 20 Rs. and notary stamp of 10Rs. In Trivandrum the rule is to have paper of 50Rs, with notary stamp of 50RS., notary fees of 150 and typing charge 50. Total 300Rs. I was not in surprise this time. If ID proof can change to address proof, this is a minor change. More funny part was the way in which the notary made me sign the bill. He wrote everything except the bill amount, and asked me to sign. We both know in mind that it is just formality. Then he wrote something in the bill and kept it and asked me 150Rs. I was laughing in mind. The standard rate for a notary is only 15Rs.( If you want to verify please visit http://lawmin.nic.in/la/notaryrules.doc and search for affidavit) which I know. But why my face was pleasant, that fool will never understand.
Anyway I got the passport application approved and in two days I received the passport.
If you think the story is over, I should say no. Two weeks back police verification came at home. Policeman asked to see me with all the documents I have submitted. I never understood why. My current address is at Chennai. They are supposed to verify only that my permanent address is correct. When I was going, my seniors and other people told, give him money. I said "let me see". I went and met the police officer. He verified all the documents, and address proof. Then asked "what should I write for the question is this person staying at this address for past one year". I said, "write that I am at IIT Chennai, staying at so and so address and under so and so police station". He said ok and I left.

So, that was the story of my tatkal passport. Your comments are welcome

Footnotes:
There was a point raised by my friend. She told "warden's letter is not a valid address proof for tatkal". I should say that "address proof for a passport application is same irrespective of tatkal or normal and for students, that is the best thing available".
Another valuable information is that "I can get an address proof by paying Rs. 250 to our post office". Thanks to the person who suggested it.

"Both cat and mouse know what is happening in the game. Cat think he is strong and he is better. Mouse knows that cat thinks so. Mouse also knows that cat is afraid of dogs. So does cat in front of dogs......"

How (not) to apply for Tatkal Passport- Part1

2009-09-01T05:37:00.000-07:00

By this time I am confident enough to write many how(not) tos'. As I have written about how not to complain when AC is not working, this is second one in that series.
Here is the story.
I wanted to take a tatkal passport. I went to passport-gov-india website. Nice work. They have given information on everything you need to apply. Also an online application submission, which gives me time and date at which I have to be present in passport office for document verification. WowWWWWWWWWWWWWW !!!! That was my first impression.
The tatkal scheme page says "The applicant also has the option to obtain a passport under Tatkal Scheme on submission of three documents from the Fourteen documents as mentioned below" . I have 4

Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC)
Income Tax Identity (PAN) Cards
Student Identity Cards issued by Recognized Educational Institutions
Driving Licenses

So I filled the online form. Got the appointment with date and time. Went to notary to get a notary-affidavit.
Then in the passport faq , question 13 "I am a student staying away from my parents. Where do I apply for passport and what proof of residence shall I have to furnish?" answer is "In case you are studying and staying in Bangalore , you can either apply to the Passport Office Bangalore or in the Passport Office in whose jurisdiction your parents’ address (permanent address) "
Documents in support of student are bonafide certificate from institute and warden's letter as proof of residence.
My seniors told me, please go early at around 8 at passport office, there is tatkal line and stand there. I went and stood there. By that time there were at least 40 people in front of me.
One girl tried to directly enter in to line's front, we protested. She was smart, the sweeper there managed to get her to the front of the row in the C,D,E,F counters there. (Oh my god, even the sweeper there is wonderful)
It took3 hours of standing to reach in front of the line. By the time I learned that there is an order in which the documents to be arranged which was not there in F**Q. And I submitted the application.
The passport officer saw my degree certificate "Kerala University", then he looked for identity proof, he simply said "get signature from some one who is in rank of under secratary". I asked "why not the option B?" . "Oh option B requires LOCAL address proof, 1 year LOCAL bank account statements, water bill, phone bill, electricity bill... long list of bills. I had print out of the F*Q and all, but he left his chair and so many waiting.
I am using core banking. So how will it give local address proof?
I have PAN card, where did it mention an address?
I have Voter ID which is taken at my native place.
I have driving licence, which is from Kerala.
and
Why should I have phone
I left the office at 11.15 with mission that can I get "UNDER"secratary signature.. As per my knowledge, there is no one I can directly call. I tried my friends. But why their bosses should sign a statement that (s)he knows me and there is no problem in issuing the passport.
No one including the professors could help me ( If it is project implementation or some VIP visit at department, I have seen the enthusiasm in their faces. Same I did not see in any of the professors for finding a VIP for me. Great!!!!)
Got no from my friends also. I am of my own!!!

The passport act clearly differentiate LOCAL with normal.
Where does PAN card says address?

I mailed Regional Passport Officer chennai, after going through entire passport act, for clarification of the magic behind "Identity proof to LOCAL address proof". As expected, no reply.
"Indian online appointment is still a myth" and "rules can change beyond the understanding and expectations of common man"

So, I decided to try it in native, because rules "says" I can get it from native.
To be continued in next post, part 2.

Assets

2009-07-04T07:11:00.000-07:00

Lately I am thinking of blogging about assets. When I was in school, I used to hear a lot about stage artists especially when it is youth festival of schools. The rates they charge, for me was very high. Same stories about troups which comes for festivals. So it was natural to believe that people who are masters in their field, whether it is in singing or instrumental are well paid. I used to imagine them living in big bungalows, travelling in Contessa (that was the best I knew at that time: BMW was far from dream even). Later when I was doing my engineering or so, I read a news about Padmashree K J Yesudas.
Malayalis call him as "gaana gandharvan" or angel of songs. The news was, he demanded royalty for songs he sings. I was wondering, someone who is earning this much, is still after money than music.
When I joined IIT, I was thinking to understand this music and art culture of madras, the land who nurtured and made most of the legends in Carnatic music. To start with, I have attended a concert by Shrimati Bombay Jayashree and T N Krishna. The ticket costed me 200 Rs and hall was full. Another one attended was a stage show "heart beats" by Shankar Mahadevan, Usthad, U Sreenivas, Shivamani and Selva Ganesh. The show was awsome.
I am not an expert in Carnatic music, I just appreciate it, when I understand its rhythm. I used to hear instrumental music by Padmashree Kunnukudi. I just like the way he do the improvisations in violin. At this time, I happened to get acquaintance with Nadabrahman Shree V V Subramaniyam. I had heard of him because he did a concert in Saarang , IIT Cultural fest. But did not know how much talented he is. When I visited his house, it was not some kind of "showcase". It was simple. When I saw the way he use violin, I was dazzled. Here is another master, who live in violin.

Now as a reader, you might think, "what the heck? Where is it going?". Yep I am going after the money these people make. Apart from the top people like Usthad, others are simple. Just live as an ordinary person. Even in this internet age, hardly 3-4 web sites talks about these people. A natural question came to me. How much IIT paid for the programs in Saarang?. I do not know. But without going in to that, let us ask a few questions. "Any idea about the rate of band Opeth to play in a stage?" To compare it, just check saarang ticket rate "Rs 1000" per person whereas violin concert by Shrimati Kanyakumari A accompanied with 50 people, was ".............." ... you know f** "free".

Though I did not follow up these things, I happened to hear a few more stories. One was an incident in Kerala where Shree Harigovindan Njeralathu was in news for trying to auction the Idaykka (a percussion instrument) of late Shree Njeralathu Raama Pothuvaal. His intention was genuine, to put an effort to make such instruments, and to promote an extincting musical form "sopana sangeetham".
Things of Michael Jackson, even his undergarments can be auctioned, and the people who bids for it will contain a few Indians at least. Unlike Michael Jackson who changed his color and was arrested for "playing" with kids; people who lived in music are in struggle.
We should appreciate efforts of people in premium institutions of India such as IIT to help Opeth to get a few $$$s and respect artists like Shree Kunnnukudi with a Padmashree and not even enquiring about how they live.

(Please note that "images are not mine, I just linked it for a flow)

The kind of integrity

2009-04-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

There is this saying "where there is a will, there is a way". Of course there are n number of ways. Question is, when to choose what. When I was a kid, I used to listen to one of my uncle (who is the youngest in his generation in my family). He asked me, "if we walk in dark, what is the first thing you will observe?" I said, "I do not know, may be the sound of metal, or that of the chappals". He said, "you hear it, but the one you observe is the light. Now suppose you are walking in light, what will you observe?". I said "may be bright light, or darkness" He said, "different colours of light" .What difference it makes in choosing the way is the one which keeps your integrity. I do remember many murmuring in my back about my decision to be a teacher "oh he is crazy. Why not a job in S/W company?" Neither those who asked nor those who got s/w jobs knew what is going on in s/w company". At that moment why I choose it, was not just because I got only that job. In fact I never felt I was up to anything or what I wanted to be. When I chose that profession, I found I am enjoying it. May be my students have a difference in opinion that I am too boring, lol.
What made me to come up to IIT was just my way of taking things as such. When I hear positive comments that "oh you are doing good , great to c you in iit, oh geek, computer guru" what I feel is a kind of pity. I am not a geek or genius. I just do what I feel like doing, trying to make sure that it does not create trouble to someone else.
Many a times I have seen very talented people who gave up things for their family, or because they are confused of what to do, who should have come to IIT to serve our country better, to make themselves better. At times we find ourselves in a dilemma, to go in a path which is very clear or ignore the catcalls and go ahead in our own way.

How would we know whether the path is right? Well, I do not know. If you have choosen the path from your heart, it is your responsibility that you make yourself right. For me, I do not judge anything like that. When recession came, people says "what I did is right" which was wrong sometimes back. It is an exercise for their tongue to tell, and it is for us to decide what they have to tell. If you find colours in the way, enjoy it; else make colours so that you and the next one follows you will also enjoy.
Last but not least, I would like to quote the last paragraph from Surely you are joking "i have just one wish for you, the good luck to be somewhere where you are free to maintain the kind of integrity, where you do not feel forced by need to maintain your position in organisation or financial support or so on to loose your integrity......"

Why did not you complain?

2009-03-01T08:54:00.000-08:00

After a gap, welcome back with a new topic!!!

Every incident is interesting. Instead of thinking of a situation if we think why such a situation; the reasons will be strange!!!! Those who already thought and asked such things often hear "that is the way it is / world is like that........"
So, here is such a situation. In our lab, we have an Air Conditioner. In chennai's "COOL" weather, especially in march time, it stops. Do not think that is the only time it stops, It stops like microsoft windows . You never know what was the reason and at times it comes back of its own. Last week it stopped cooling the air. I opened the doors and windows. Our lab has a partition, section 1 where I work and section 2 where AC is still running. They closed their door to our section, because our AC is off. (But if it was the other way, I hardly see them closing that door).

My friend and senior, Padmanabhan asked me "Gireesh, tell .........sir, he is taking care of this". I said " why shoud I? It hardly runs for a month. Every time we have to "inform" and the cycle repeats. Instead I am happy to work with open doors and windows. If someone else wants to complaint; they can go ahead. AFter a day, the information reached the layer above us. It is not by a complaint, but by seeing that doors of lab are open. AC people came after a day. They saw the AC, went back. We continued with doors open and in fans, for a day more. AC people came, worked for an hour. Then they closed the doors and said it is working. They left immediately.

After 15 minutes, I felt the real effect of AC with heavy sweating. The next level person came. I told him "there is no change". He said, "you should have asked them to wait for some time to see it is working". I said, "oh, but why? Why can not the system has an option to recover such situations where a service provider does not work properly; can not be punished. He said "that is the way it is. I am doing what ever possible". I said "ok, sir please write down how many times AC people has been called, how many phone calls and man- hours spent to repair and how many days it worked. In an year we will get nice statistics". Lol. Now a question to the reader " will you ask me, why do not you complain" when next time AC goes off.
In malayalam there is a saying "kannadach iruttakkuka"; means " you close your eyes and say everything is black". Every one knows that this is the way AC reparing works. Every one knows that AC will go off in weeks. So this is a routine. I just tried to change routines. You may find similar things. The system will make fun of you. If you ask a question reply will be " what I can do". You can either laugh at the system or complain. I always like the first one. What a bout you?

God, who will pay the taxes for me now?

2009-01-06T08:51:00.000-08:00

How many times you heard/found things others say about you which you DARE to dream even!!!!
I had so many such funny incidents, including usual talk such as "my marriage is fixed......... I am already engaged............ " But this time it is more than even imagination.
One of the colleges which I worked is famous for "strictness" and the principal is known to be "legally straight". One "urvasi's curse" happened at that college was training on RHCE ( RedHat certification) which was 5 day course. I was (un)fortunate enough to be a part of that. It's quite common in private colleges to force faculties for such things. But here there was an agreement that if we stay in college for an year, we do not have to pay; else I have to pay something around 12K.(One of memorable moments in teaching. It was taken without my knowledge...curtsy : Chandrakanth)
I have undergone 5day intensive sleeping course and asked to teach the same to poor final year students.
After an year I was FORCED to pay that money back which was against the "line on water" agreement. A notice came to department on which it was written something similar to "Since you have trained a batch, you may pay ONLY 6000Rs. which can be paid in one time or as installments of 3"
I have to say that it was almost one month salary of mine they offered me when I joined.
The same management now pays 15ooo+ to me for free ( I mean 2 years after resigning from that college, the salary reports from that college has my name). Surprised?
Me too!!!
In fact I am confused that I have to submit income tax returns for this financial year, that too without even hearing or imagining about such a sum paid in my name).
(Disclaimer: This is purely based on a file I received recently which contained salary statement of the entire staffs in that college. I trust the source. You may trust it or not, it's your wish)

2 Million Minutes and 1.13 billion people

2008-12-30T09:38:00.000-08:00

This is after watching a documentary screened first time in India at IIT Madras "2 Million Minutes". Produced by Bob Compton, the documentary and various clips screened world wide is about cross examination of education system and trends in India, China and US.

It was very interesting to see how culture differences impact a lot in the ambition and outlook of children. At times I wondered how bad/good is our system compared to other countries in education. Similar thoughts were expressed in previous posts about differences in systems of education in India one year back. The point I understood after this nice video was that, for undergraduate education; somehow the curriculum is good. We knowingly or unknowingly study foundation subjects Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics mainly whereas in US it's insignificant.
When coming to higher education, that is major trouble for our system. We study things mainly of interests of others. We do not choose anything, but merely follow what we see in our vicinity, what our parents/elders/ neighbors are. We hardly analyze at age of 21 or above, what we our heart wants. Probably that is what is lacking in the system. We need better reformers and campaigns from people who proved the best in the world who are Indians to make others know the value of "making our own decisions and learn from failures rather than simply fail and give up" culture.

(Image source "teach india" times of india)

Is it OK?

2008-12-17T07:21:00.000-08:00

This time topic is about a simple thing. Often simple/silly things are more annoying. I bought 2 trousers from Pantaloon factory outlet. The bottom has to be altered before using it. The rate of alteration at that shop was 10INR. But tailor was on leave, so because of laziness to go again I took the pants. There is a small tailoring shop near the gate where I have given it for alteration. The tailor did not mention any rates. Naturally my assumption was that, it must not be greater than Showroom rates.

Pantaloon AD-Embedded from http://www.pantaloon.com/fashion-top10.asp

Rest you can guess if I am writing the post. When I went there for getting pants back, the rate told was 20INR per pants. "It's ridiculous", I replied to the tailor. He said "this is normal rate". It's normal for him, but quite abnormal for me.
There were 2 more clothes I have given for patch work. Total it was 60 and he said "OK, give 50INR". I was quite annoyed. After a dare look at him I gave money and said "this kind of Plundering won't bring any good to you".
That was a curse. It came from the anger. It's not because I was not ready to give money, but because I never felt a 2 minute job for him with hardly a rupee investment can take 20INR. It's Chennai, metro city. Still I felt that there is a limit something can be priced.

There are so many occasion where you spend money, which is extravaganza. Like, I can eat food from my home where making 4 chapatis and curry will take 20 minutes and hardly 20INR. Same thing, in * hotel will take 30INR and may not be as good as you make it at home. Plus waiting time is around 20 minutes.
If it's **, waiting time and bill rate increases. Question is "why I am not annoyed in that occasion but got annoyed by this simple thing?"

From sharavanabhavan site http://www.saravanabhavan.com/

I don't know. Instead of being angry, giving a curse; I should have told the tailor that "get a pant from Pantaloon for your son and keep this extra 10 for alteration of that".
Curse is always disturbance to both parties... Next time , hop I will do the other way.

Hurt enough to feel it's presence

2008-12-07T04:46:00.000-08:00

Any guess about the theme I am going to discuss, from it's title? Let me guess. You may be guessing that someone got hurt, perhaps me. Also about the pain of that wound. You are right. But this is something more. I was thinking how much effort is there to make things NORMAL which I ignore normally. Now you may be asking me, what the h... happened which made me think like that? Or what is not normal now?
As I said, I got hurt. Hurt enough to feel it's presence. I mean, the presence of my big toe. ( thanks to goole in helping me 2 find the right word- big toe). I never realized that so much effort was done by that "big toe" along with others which made me walk normal. I was playing shuttle badminton and while saving one drop near the net, it supported my whole body weight for a second along with my left hand and got twisted. And now after 24 hours, it still pains. It's just an announcement, a notification to me that "I have done enough work to make you stand/walk properly" and you did nto notice my efforts. Now you see, I can't do my work for a couple of days, you feel that it's painful".

Well, it's same everywhere. When somebody get hurts (s)he first tries to hide it. But all on a sudden sometimes it comes out to hurt others. Sometimes it will be simple enough that, if you treat properly for a day or two that wound will go off till next time (s)he got hurts. At times it can create total chaos also. Same feeling came when I saw movies AAmir and A Wednesday. Both tell us how people can act differently when get hurt. If they are hurt enough to feel the presence for others, it can pain others, can change the "NORMAL" state of working to a chaotic one.
For my finger, I could figure out a rest of two days MAY heal it. But human minds may not work in that way. Even in case of family situations I personally feelits same. When a member is reacting (or acting) indifferently; is blaming a better option over trying to find out what is going on behind screens and avoid such incidents later.
You are partially right if you guessed that I am trying to discuss the Mumbai
massacre . It could be the same.
( People cool off at popular Chowpatty Beach, with the Nariman Point business district in the distance :Courtsy National Geographic)

(Gateway of India: It was so calm and so beautiful when I took this photo)

Someone got hurt and the response was totally abnormal for us. Thinking in this line tells me that healing the wounds is what we should look forward ( which obviously is a herculean task when there are people who always tries to take gain over the situation- like cutting the branch of tree (s)he is sitting)
Now the million dollar question... who got hurt?

Fwd... Perfect letter to PM

2008-12-03T21:53:00.001-08:00

[disclaimer: I am not the author of this letter. It came to me as a forwarded message. But Liked it very much. This I plan to follow up with a new post on my own views of current incidents]

A PERFECT LETTER TO PM

Dear Mr. Prime minister,

I am a typical mouse from Mumbai. In the local train compartment which has capacity of 100 persons, I travel with 500 more mouse. Mouse at least squeak but we don't even do that.

Today I heard your speech. In which you said 'NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'. I would like to remind you that fourteen years has passed since serial bomb blast in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main
conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our bollywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king meets him but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him.
If any attempt is made to catch him everybody will be exposed. Your statement 'NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED' is nothing but a cruel joke on this unfortunate people of India.

Enough is enough. As such after seeing terrorist attack carried out by about a dozen young boys I realize that if same thing continues days are not away when terrorist will attack by air, destroy our nuclear
reactor and there will be one more Hiroshima. We the people are left with only one mantra. Womb to Bomb to Tomb. You promised Mumbaikar Shanghai what you have given us is Jalianwala Baug.

Today only your home minister resigned. What took you so long to kick out this joker? Only reason was that he was loyal to Gandhi family. Loyalty to Gandhi family is more important than blood of innocent
people, isn't it?

I am born and bought up in Mumbai for last fifty eight years. Believe me corruption in Maharashtra is worse than that in Bihar. Look at all the politician, Sharad Pawar, Chagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Bal
Thackray , Gopinath Munde, Raj Thackray, Vilasrao Deshmukh all are rolling in money. Vilasrao Deshmukh is one of the worst Chief minister I have seen. His only business is to increase the FSI every
other day, make money and send it to Delhi so Congress can fight next election. Now the clown has found new way and will increase FSI for fisherman so they can build concrete house right on sea shore. Next
time terrorist can comfortably live in those house , enjoy the beauty of sea and then attack the Mumbai at their will.

Recently I had to purchase house in Mumbai. I met about two dozen builders. Everybody wanted about 30% in black. A common person like me knows this and with all your intelligent agency & CBI you and your
finance minister are not aware of it. Where all the black money goes? To the underworld isn't it? Our politicians take help of these goondas to vacate people by force. I myself was victim of it. If you have time
please come to me, I will tell you everything.

If this has been land of fools, idiots then I would not have ever cared to write you this letter. Just see the tragedy, on one side we are reaching moon, people are so intelligent and on other side you politician has converted nectar into deadly poison. I am everything Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Schedule caste, OBC, Muslim OBC, Christian Schedule caste, Creamy Schedule caste only what I am not is INDIAN. You politician have raped every part of mother India by your policy of divide and rule.

Take example of former president Abdul Kalam. Such a intelligent person, such a fine human being. You politician didn't even spare him. Your party along with opposition joined the hands, because politician
feels they are supreme and there is no place for good person.

Dear Mr Prime minister you are one of the most intelligent person, most learned person. Just wake up, be a real SARDAR. First and foremost expose all selfish politician. Ask Swiss bank to give name of
all Indian account holder. Give reins of CBI to independent agency. Let them find wolf among us. There will be political upheaval but that will better than dance of death which we are witnessing every day.
Just give us ambient where we can work honestly and without fear. Let there be rule of law. Everything else will be taken care of.

Choice is yours Mr. Prime Minister. Do you want to be lead by one person or you want to lead the nation of 100 Crore people?

About short Journeys

2008-11-16T09:25:00.000-08:00

I do not know when I started liking short journeys...
I used to travel for an hour or so from my village to town. At first, it was boring. Too much rush as it's only bus which reaches city at around 8.30. The add on advantage is that massaging comes free with it.

This was the time I realised that I can not do anything but sleep and fall in to shoulder of next person sitting beside me( getting a seat is a rare case... so people are lucky enough not to carry my head during their travel). Better options were to see whether some charming faces turns up, each time the bus stops or to kill the person standing beside me with my talk. That also became boring after some time. Things changed, when search was for something else. That became the best time to observe what others are doing. The subject of their discussion or the way in which they talk or watching the little children crossing the road, new construction work by PWD (public waste department) doing destruction work for the road sides. There were days where I saw trees cut down and new buildings coming up. Also it's fun to watch people struggling to get out of the bus through the rush, making pain to people standing on the way.

hmmm, that kind of travel makes me feel I am living. You can not engage in your official work/studies nor can do play any games. That is the time I can just think.
Such trips helped to perceive moments of life.
More better way to say/see it is "each journey is different" and beautiful in one way or the other, so as each day, each moment of my life.

A thought on Teacher's Day

2008-09-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

"The aim of education is not the acquisition of information, although important, or acquisition of technical skills, though essential in modern society, but the development of that bent of mind, that attitude of reason, that spirit of democracy which will make us responsible citizens."
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

I am wondering how much it's true after several decades. In fact teaching, regarded as prestigious job and great service to society and formal education, believed to be an achievement irrespective of the work done. As in other post "is quality or culture dropping" , where I was pointing out, it's not the quality drops. It's the culture which does not seem to exist now.
But today in this post I wanted to tell something different. I was attending the classes of linear algebra. May be because of late night bed habits or the presentation style is too abstract for me, I was unable to follow many things taught in the class. The professor was trying to push enthusiasm to learn it, make it as tool for our works. Still I missed continuity in the lecture. Hmm it's not a unique situation. Just before writing this post, I was talking to my old student Nisha, who was telling me "its a great opportunity and life time achievement to be a part of IIT" . I was asking her back; why can't she be a part of that. She is working, so as most of other students of mine. I expected a usual response of "not interested to study more....... or I wish I could, but no time" . Instead I got an answer, "next year.. If god decides so". That was a joyfull moment. In situations where people go for work and can not go to a common place and learn, seems impossible. And to get in to IIT is a tough job. ( IITans say going out is more tougher , lol )
What I am talking is an alternative to learn things in more efficient way. If you miss continuity, or if you wish to learn subject but in a time convenient to you what you can try.
It's a different trend altogether in method of teaching/learning process. People who started thinking in positive lines about this problem of quality and culture, has found excellent solutions. With the help of technology, it's possible now to study subjects from people who make that a passion. I am talking about the internet archives and discussion forums coming up in world wide basis, to collaborate and learn in better ways. Other universities, following the MIT culture to share their resources for other parts of the world. In this way we see a paradigm shift in the teaching learning process. India has launched NPTEL and Ekalavya channel following these lines of thought. Wikipedia has started wikiversity and wikibooks for the same reason
Here are a few links which gives out free resources

http://freevideolectures.com/index.html

http://videolectures.net/

http://freescienceonline.blogspot.com/

I request you to encourage such learning process and contribute to movements like wikis for collaborative learning.
so what we lack now? It's propogation of this to common people. The Information Technology tool is like an unpolished jewel. Polish it well and keep it open to common people. Let's propogate the new trend to make it a success so that vision of our great leaders including our former president, Dr A P J Abdulkalam can be achieved.

Jai Hind