Solitary Wave

Truth Is A Pinprick

S. G. Rajeev — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 18:26:22 +0000

Nazir had a friend who loved to blow big bubbles. The bubbles get bigger each day,defying gravity. He seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of hot air. Nazir encouraged him in this dubious talent. Except one day Nazir pricked his latest bubble with a sharp pin. It burst, creating [...]

Singing To The River

S. G. Rajeev — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:30:13 +0000

Akbar loved his singing and wanted to appoint him the court singer. He refused. ” I am not the best singer in the country.” “So, who is?” asked the King. “Come with me, you will hear” They went to an isolated rock next to the river, a day’s travel away. The most divine music was pouring [...]

Where Every Student is the Best Ever

S. G. Rajeev — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:55:29 +0000

Lake Wobegon is a fictional town in Minnesotta where “every child is above average”. I can do Garrison Keillor one better: I live in a land where every student is “among the very best ever”. It is that time of the year when we read through applications to graduate school.

Prayag

S. G. Rajeev — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:37:30 +0000

The Harish-Chandra Research Institute is located on the banks of the Ganga, within sight of where the Yamuna flows into it. From its magnificent gardens you can see the sand bank that marks the confluence of the two most sacred rivers of Hinduism. Everyone-mythical figures such as Rama and Krishna, poets such as Kalidasa and [...]

My Name Is Khan

S. G. Rajeev — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 04:37:57 +0000

Shah Rukh Khan, the hero of many Bollywood movies, was detained by US immigration for two hours because his surname popped up on a watch list. Khan is the most common last name among South Asian Muslims; there are more Khans in the world than Smiths. Even in the US, it is the 665th most [...]

The Entrance Exam Frenzy

S. G. Rajeev — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:02:16 +0000

Here in Kerala, the teenagers are the busiest people. They start their day at 7:00 in the morning with classes to prepare them for the brutal competition in the entrance examinations to publicly run colleges. 9:30 to 3:30 is school. Then its off to classes again. Often till 9 pm. Weekends are even busier. Classes [...]

Mechanics In One Dimension

S. G. Rajeev — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:07:58 +0000

Finally I post something about physics. Here are notes from lectures on mechanics to freshmen at the IISER-TVM. I didn’t have time to edit it. Any corrections ( spelling mistakes, algebraic errors etc.) are welcome. It usually takes me a few iterations to get everything right.

eHow To Watch A Chick Flick

S. G. Rajeev — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:34:08 +0000

There are three kinds of chick flicks. Type A often has Meryll Streep and always involves a disease. There is no way to watch this type. Run. Don’t walk. May be there is a hospital fire somewhere that only you can put out? Doubly beware if the name of the movie ends [...]

The Legend of Lawrence of Arabia

S. G. Rajeev — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:08:03 +0000

T. E. Lawrence, the illegitimate son of an Anglo-Irish Baronet has been immortalized by Hollywood as Lawrence of Arabia. But there is another, less well known, legend about his years as Assistant to H. E. Hogarth, the renowned archeologist.

Moussavi Is Not The Obama of Iran

S. G. Rajeev — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:58:29 +0000

Duh. Next week’s revelation: Water is Wet. Really. The Liberal blogosphere has turned Green. TPM and Rachel Maddow have become cheerleaders for what they think is the democratic movement of Iran. Obama and Kos have decided to stay out of the fray, while not criticizing others for commenting on the situation. On the Right Wing, there [...]

Highly Trained Individuals

S. G. Rajeev — Sat, 16 May 2009 07:06:10 +0000

When I came to the US thirty years ago, coffee was this brown muck that cost about a dollar per gallon. In the generation that has passed since then, coffee has become a spiritual experience, a political statement and a way to save the planet. Sleek new devices that hiss and [...]

The Indian Railway II

Staff — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:39:17 +0000

What Went Right? The Railway was a failure when it was a monopoly. Now it has competition from trucks plying the recently built highways. So they had to shape up to survive. The Government owned airlines are struggling due to competition from the newly licensed private carriers. The Indian Airlines (the domestic airline) [...]

The Indian Railway I

Staff — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:38:54 +0000

The Indian Railway is the world’s largest employer. The main lines were built in British times. Mostly to move the army around to quell rebellions in different parts. The Madras regiment in Punjab, the Punjab Regiment in Assam and so on. But later, it also became the common man’s mode of travel in India. For [...]

A Certain Swagger

Staff — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:37:24 +0000

I mentioned to a colleague that Varadhan, a mathematician of Indian origin at NYU, won the Abel Prize. One of the top honors in the field. My colleague turned to the person sitting next to him, a visiting academic, and said: In the middle of all that corruption, they are good in statistics. [...]

An Order Or A Request?

Staff — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:32:26 +0000

There is an apocryphal story about Gandhi, said to have taken place when he was working as a lawyer in London. It was unusual for an Indian to have an Englishman working under him, but Gandhi had an English assistant. One day Gandhi asked him to do something and the Asssistant asked, Mr. Gandhi, is [...]

GMAC Chairman Was Also Madoff Agent

Staff — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 02:41:20 +0000

Frank Rich, NYTimes As if to confirm that much of our so-called legitimate financial world has been six degrees of separation from Bernie Madoff, GMAC’s chairman was none other than J. Ezra Merkin. In addition to presiding over losses of nearly $8 billion at GMAC, Merkin had a separate investment management business that threw away [...]

I Recommend

S. G. Rajeev — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:25:30 +0000

Amazon.com Widgets

India Gets Spy Satellite From Israel

Rajeev — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:46:00 +0000

So that is the payoff. A few months ago India launched a spy satellite for Israel, using its PSLV rocket. So why take the risk of doing a favor for Israel, when the political situation in South Asia is so inflammatory? Now we know. Indian satellites lack the Synthetic Aperture Radar that can [...]

Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount of Brenchley

Rajeev — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:49:48 +0000

I had to write a report this week and was looking through my calendar from last year. Noticed a curious entry, a talk I missed because I was out with a cold. Who exactly is Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount of Brenchley, this denier of Global Warming? The magic of Google and Wikipedia allows us [...]

We Just May Have To Lay Off Andre’.

Rajeev — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:36:40 +0000

Hat tip Public D Publisher’s Note The original author of this photo-cartoon remains anonymous. I took it from a post on Daily Kos and added the following speech explaining Andre’s fate. The photo has since appeared on many websites. The second speech below is a totally unfair parody of one by the CEO of [...]

Dumbai

S. G. Rajeev — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 09:49:47 +0000

A couple of years ago I stopped by Dubai on the way to India. Because many Malayalis work there, Kerala is better connected to the Middle East by air than to the rest of India. I wanted to avoid the maddening crowds at Mumbai airport and also look up my brother who worked in [...]

The Inauguration Will Be Televised

S. G. Rajeev — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:03:08 +0000

I come home from a business trip to see a large envelope from the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Inside is a handsome card embossed with a Golden Seal. The Presidential Inaugural Committee requests the honor of your presence to attend and participate in the Inauguration of My heart beats faster. Finally, all those blogs I [...]

Fatwa On Demand

S. G. Rajeev — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:04:29 +0000

Ever since the Salman Rushdie incident, the word Fatwa has had a negative connotation. Perhaps no word has been as misunderstood, with the exceptions of jihad and madrassa. It turns out that a fatwa is a kind of judicial opinion from an islamic religious authority. In nations that have adopted the Shariah as [...]

Who Is On The Line?

S. G. Rajeev — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:17:03 +0000

Hoax phone calls used to be funny. As a teenager, Steve Wozniak, the inventor of the Apple computer, figured out the Bell System technical protocols- he and Steve Jobs had found the manual at the SLAC Library. Woz used this knowledge to call the Pope, pretending to be Henry Kissinger. [...]

Who Attacked Mumbai and Where Are They?

Rajeev — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:03:20 +0000

The Lahore Country Club in Muridke The US National Intelligence Director has taken the unusual step of placing blame in public: AP The same group that carried out last week’s attack is believed to be behind the 2006 Mumbai train bombings that killed more than 200, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said Tuesday during a [...]

What Next?

Rajeev — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:45:42 +0000

Anger in India is currently focused on its own Government. The mindless bloodbath that followed some previous attacks has not happened. What we see instead is a quieter rage, one that can be channeled to something constructive. For, rage has its uses too. Every one, the US Sec State included, seems to be counseling the [...]

The Obama Criteria

S. G. Rajeev — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:23:49 +0000

President-elect Barack Obama is about to announce his foreign policy team.No matter who is on it, Obama promises that the policy will be set by him. Nowhere is his intellect more needed than on policy towards Pakistan. On 1 Aug 2007 Obama said: The first step must be getting off the wrong battlefield in [...]

Mumbai Culprits

S. G. Rajeev — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:07:46 +0000

At this early stage, public information has to be gleaned from the Indian media: most sources here are quoting Indian reporters. Indian TV is aggressive in its reporting. But it can also be even more sensationalist and exploitive than the American media. Imagine CNN on acid and you get their partner IBN. [...]

Mumbai Lesson: Defund The Pakistani Military

Rajeev — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:47:09 +0000

So what do we know so far about what is going on in Mumbai?

The Next Iceland

Rajeev — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:59:47 +0000

.. Until a couple of months ago, Iceland was considered the fourth most productive country in the world with a per capita GDP of $65K. After fishing declined, Iceland opted not to industrialize itself: too polluting. Instead, they went into biotechnology, software and the like. And most of all, banking.

What Is A Tall Americano?

Rajeev — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:58:22 +0000

At the campus Starbuck’s Coffee Shop: “I would like a small coffee please” “Actually, our coffee machine is broken. So we don’t have coffee today” “Oh.” “You can get a Tall Americano.” I look around. There are many Americans around, most of them taller than me. Confused. “What is a Tall Americano?” “Small coffee”. “Oh Ok.”

Musharraf Loses

Rajeev — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:30:00 +0000

The most important election this year could be the one just concluded in Pakistan. In spite of the rigging, and the low turnout from an electorate in mortal danger, it looks like a fairly credible result. Musharraf’s allies lost. A good first step on a long road to recovery for Pakistan.

North Vs South

Rajeev — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 22:33:55 +0000

North Indian migrant workers in Mumbai are being attacked by a militant organization (known by the acronym MNS) which exploits the resentment of the local population. The most odious of the political leaders egging the violent mob on is Raj Thackeray. A generation ago the same folks (Raj’s uncle Bal was the leader [...]

The Trolley Problem

Rajeev — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 03:22:40 +0000

Whenever a nation has done something deeply embarrassing, which shames its decent citizens, moral philosophy thrives. As though the obvious atrocity can somehow be hidden behind sophisticated reasonings about abstract thought experiments. Psychologists must have some fancy name for this phenomenon. We live in such a time now. You cannot open the New Yorker [...]

How to Deal with Office Spam

Rajeev — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:30:10 +0000

Everyone gets office spam in their email. I don’t mean the ads for Viagra or requests to help a worthy gentleman smuggle millions of dollars out of Nigeria. I mean the email where some colleague (say Tom) is replying to a note about some one else (Dick) by a third person [...]

The New Faith

Rajeev — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:26:45 +0000

I am at my daughter’s birthday party the other day, chatting with the father of one of the girls. “So, what do you do?”

What Would Gandhi Drive?

Rajeev — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:55:01 +0000

Nano Nano Nano has been a buzz word in physics for a while. Now it is also the name of a car, made by Tata Motors of India. It is cute, looking more like a toy car than a real one. It is small. I have seen potholes in Calcutta that [...]

Drona’s Revenge

Rajeev — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:52:04 +0000

Drona was the greatest teacher of his time. He had no peer in his command of the martial arts and sciences. But, at the end of many years of studying and perfecting his skills, he found himself destitute, and with a wife and son to support. He decided to pay a visit [...]

Environmentalism is a Conservative Cause

Rajeev — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:34:34 +0000

Something odd is happening with environmentalism. It is being opposed vehemently by American Conservatives. What is strange about this is that usually the drive to preserve nature comes from conservatives. It is not a coincidence that the words `conservative’ and `conservation’ have the same root.

Names

Rajeev — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:05:41 +0000

Our publisher has described the origin of his name elsewhere. Interesting names are all around us. The Roman Catholic Church had a Cardinal named Sin. He was the Archbishop of Manila,

A Random Pursuit

S. G. Rajeev — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:08:15 +0000

A missile is launched when an airplane is directly overhead, at a height . The missile moves at a constant speed always heading directly towards the aircraft, which is moving along a straight line at constant velocity . What is the shape of the missile’s trajectory? How far will the aircraft fly before [...]

Helluva Job Mushie!

Rajeev — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 03:22:03 +0000

Other articles on Pakistan Excerpt from an interview with President Bush by ABC News Nov 2007. What’s his name has agreed to hold elections in January, and he’s agreed to take his uniform off. Frankly, I think he should do that in the privacy of his own home, but hey, [...]

Complex Time in Quantum Tunneling

S. G. Rajeev — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 11:46:48 +0000

Perhaps the most spectacular early prediction of quantum mechanics was tunneling: that particles can do things that are forbidden in Newton’s mechanics, although with a small probability.

The Geometry of Thermodynamics

S. G. Rajeev — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:57:52 +0000

Thermodynamics is perhaps the most remarkable of all physical theories. We have none other than Albert Einstein vouching for this:

A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises is, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more extended is its area of applicability. Therefore the deep impression which classical thermodynamics made upon me. It is the only physical theory of universal content concerning which I am convinced that, within the framework of the applicability of its basic concepts, it will never be overthrown (for the special attention of those who are skeptics on principle).

Reduction or Emergence

S. G. Rajeev — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:08:23 +0000

Earnest Rutherford used to say that all science is either physics or stamp collecting. This could have been a dig at the biologists of his time, who were still collecting samples and classifying species. He probably would have thought more highly of modern molecular biology, which is a lot like his physics in [...]

Matrix Diagonalization by Sampling

S. G. Rajeev — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 20:10:04 +0000

It is hard to think of a problem more ubiquitous than the diagonalization of a matrix.I will discuss today a statistical approximation method for finding the eigenvalues of a symmetric matrix.

Medieval Navigation in the Arabian Sea

Rajeev — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 03:28:27 +0000

Read First: Longitude Zero Indians call the bay between Africa and India the Arabian Sea. Throughout the medieval times it was controlled by Arab sailors. They established settlements down the East coast of Africa, as far down as Malindi in Kenya.

Longitude Zero

Rajeev — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 14:29:37 +0000

Continued in: Medieval Navigation in the Arabian Sea One of the early achievements of Indian Mathematical Astronomy (jyotisha) was the system of latitude (aksha-amsa) and Longitude (rekha-amsa). The prime meridian passed through Ujjaini, the capital of the country of Avanti.

The Almanack

Rajeev — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 12:23:35 +0000

What is the date today? A simple question, but with a complex answer. The story of calendars is the story of human civilization itself. The millenial 1 article by Amartya Sen tries to disentangle fact from fantasy in the history of calendars. Never an easy task in history, especially hard in the keeping of [...]

White Elephants

Rajeev — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:01:58 +0000

NASA claims that at The International Space Station (ISS) , “astronauts are working to improve life on Earth”. Originally supposed to cost under $10B, it has cost at least 30 billion of our tax dollars so far; maybe even $100B. It was given the go ahead even as the Superconduting SuperCollider (SSC) was [...]

The Other Pope 2

Rajeev — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 08:55:28 +0000

The Politics Read First Part I: The Theology For some one outside of the two ancient faiths, the power game between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church is interesting as a case-study in politics: the longest continuing political struggle in human history.

The Pope and the Patriarch

Rajeev — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 06:47:22 +0000

The Theology His All-Holiness Bartholomew I is the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the city now called Istanbul. He is considered the equivalent of the Pope for the 300 million Orthodox Christians in the world. He is the `first among equals’ of the four Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and [...]

Kalla Yoga 2

Rajeev — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:58:35 +0000

Continued from Part 1 I need to hurry up and launch my own brand of yoga before the inevitable yoga backlash sets in. It must be distinctive, eye-catching and easily patented. More than a set of exercises. A whole way of life, which will require many accessories.

Kalla Yoga 1

Rajeev — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 18:57:53 +0000

Yoga means `union’ in Sanskrit. It could be your union with the universe. Or it can simply mean a meeting, as in a political or cultural gathering. In mathematical texts, yoga means sum. It is a rather common word in all Indian languages descended from Sanskrit. But in America, Yoga has come to mean a [...]

Macroscopic Fluid Mechanics 3: References

S. G. Rajeev — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 03:11:32 +0000

Part 1 Part 2 SIAM Talk A recent review,closest to our point of view : B. Khesin Topological fluid dynamics. Notices of the AMS, 52:1 (2005), 9-19

Macroscopic Fluid Mechanics 2

S. G. Rajeev — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:07:17 +0000

Part 1 To understand the origin of this non-commutativity, let us again consider the example of a hurricane. It is an extended object, whose radius is of the order of 100 km. It wouldn’t make sense to have two such objects within a 100 km of each other: the two hurricanes will interact strongly with [...]

Macroscopic Fluid Mechanics 1

S. G. Rajeev — Tue, 29 May 2007 19:55:42 +0000

Introduction to Talk at SIAM DS07 Conference Snowbird Utah May 28th-June 1 The equations of motion of a fluid are obtained by averaging over the equations of motion of the large number of molecules that occupy even a small volume: we are not for the most part interested in the details of the motion of [...]

Fuzzy Fluid Mechanics

S. G. Rajeev — Sun, 13 May 2007 11:46:49 +0000

Terrence Tao has made some deep observations on why the regularity of three dimensional Navier-Stokes is such a hard problem. Although he has gone on to many other equally interesting topics, I remain fascinated by his main point there: that Navier-Stokes is supercritical. The nonlinearities become stronger [...]

Grief in The Buddhist Ramayana

Rajeev — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 11:10:14 +0000

The Jaataka tales are a collection of parables about the 500 lives of the Buddha until he achieved Nirvana, salvation. After that there are no more re-incarnations. The stories proceed from simple morality tales in which the Bodhisatva ( the soul of the Budha) was alive in the body of a lower life-form: a rabbit, [...]

Another Namesake

Rajeev — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 13:40:08 +0000

Mira Nair’s movie `Namesake’ is about a man with an odd name (Gogol) for an Indian. I have my own situation to deal with. My name is usually written as Sarada G. Rajeev.

Practical Vedanta

Rajeev — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 19:39:53 +0000

Vedaanta is the end of all knowledge. End as in goal, or as in the ultimate kind of knowledge. It is a theory of what knowledge itself is. What practical use could it be? Volumes have been written on how to translate the abstract concepts of Vedanta to every day life. The ultimate authority [...]