nd words are all I have...

I've moved

2008-05-08T11:55:00.001+05:30

OK, this should in most likely case be the last post on my blogspot account. I have shifted to my own domain where I will continue to blog with the same name.

You can follow me here.

Regression

2008-04-29T17:24:00.001+05:30

OK the migration did not work out as I expected it to. Even after paying for the hosting space, the service I got was terrible. The phone helplines were supposedly meant to be musicDJ with IVR and cPanel was pathetically slow. Online Help always showed as unavailable and after almost 10 conversations the problem was not resolved. And the most ironical part - the name of the service provider was 247-host.com, claiming to be available 24x7 service providers. I think they had a different definition of what 24x7 means. They almost tested my patience by repeatedly responding with useless information about how to solve the problem. I gave up after two days and asked for the closure of account and refund for the payment made. Haven't still received the money back in my CC a/c. Will wait till this gets sorted out and then go for another hosting service. Till then this is the refuge for the blog.

From Taking Pride to Being Paranoid

2008-03-18T12:58:00.003+05:30

From '10 Things I Hate About You'

You can be underwhelmed , you can be overwhelmed , but can you only be whelmed - ?
I think you can - In Europe.

The movie got me in to some serious trouble yesterday and I recalled this conversation from the flick. Not to mention - This was not a copyrighted version and was lying on my corporate machine (I in turn copied it from somewhere on the LAN). I did took pride in having it on my machine but all that was washed off by the formal warning.

Anyways , I've removed all copyright content now and anything now which remains is all licensed, openSource, GNU and FreeWare stuff.

65 Posts, last published on Aug 23, 2007

2008-01-23T19:03:00.000+05:30

Surprisingly enough I noticed the date only after I took up my lazy step to write after such a long time. So it's been exactly 5 months. Not a day less or more. Too perfect to be a coincidence.

Anyways complaining about not being able to extract out time or having a writer's block is what I wouldn't resort to this time. No point in actually cribbing about even. What's the big deal after all :P.

And the traffic ?....nah..like I care.

However a lot has indeed changed since then. I have started to get a feel of the micro-blogging business (not that am regular even there..). I have also started to devour and look into the social-networking/social-media buzz more closely because of the innumerable links and resources I receive daily, thanks to both twitter and RSS feeds and of course their authors.

I have started to think more seriously about the SOA revolution and where does it lead to in the future from the point of view of business application software. It still remains to see whether it's a buzz, hype or a bubble.

And finally , after more than 3 yrs I moved a step higher in my organization hierarchy after the much awaited roll out of promotion cycles. That happened although a month back. Still to realize that nothing much has actually changed because of it.

With no resolution or promises of being regular i'd rather let it be like this with sprinkles of updates as and when they accrue to a size worth posting here. It's true that taking first step is half the job done, only that in my case I believe it's definitely more than half ( maybe full :D).

Search --> Discover --> ??

2007-08-23T21:31:00.001+05:30

Search --> Discover --> ??

0.0) Since the time of its inception, web has moved leaps and bounds. It's genesis has created nerve-wracking problems and also wonderful creative solutions. Nothing apart from human evolution could compare to this so intriguing development (both good and bad) of the web. The difficulties which cast doubt on the evolution of an entity are iconoclastic problems which always push the entity to either mutate, compromise, or find a solution to end that problem. Growth of the internet has remained no exception and has led to some very amazing and intelligent answers during the course of its development.

1.0) First it was the problem of searching information/resources on the net. Google and other search-engines have solved it well and in a more than efficient way. One could search possibly everything that is there on the web by keying in pertinent keywords and reach out to potentially exhaustive list of resources relevant to that keyword(s). A peculiarly inconclusive and futile search for the letter 'a' on google would return somewhere around 8 billion resources. Of course an incalculable percentage of it is basically redundant because it's one of the most ubiquitous and canonical search arguments that can be passed to any search engine. The reason to quote that example here is to give an idea of the thoroughness of the searches that are performed over the net. As an indirect consequence of this, people have found ways to derive fun and challenges out of such systems for example by trying to figure out a combination of two meaningful keywords which would yield a single result. However, their discoveries only last for second after being published as the new GoogleWhack !!

2.0) With an almost incessant influx of data and ever increasing amount of information being put online, came the problem of discovering the information. StumbleUpon(SU) and the likes(del.icio.us, digg etc etc) provided a tool to do that. This was a paradigm shift from the way search engines work in the sense that unlike the dedicated crawling spiders/bots which generate the content for search engines systems, here the users themselves were the source of the discovered content. Any content deemed fit by a particular user would get automatically added to the stumbleupon's repository with proper topics/tags/subjects/contexts and would thereafter serve as the results of discovery by another user for those particular tags/subjects/contexts. Web-surfers could possibly keep stumbling around a particular set of their pre-defined subjects on the net and in the process rate the particular resources based on there relevancy. Thus, in essence it is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy for the systems such as SU to generate their content and also maintain the quality and reliability of that content in an almost perpetual process of information retrieval.

2.1) However, there is also a fundamental similarity in terms of the user interaction between these two kinds of utilities, services, information retrieval systems or whatever you wish to call them. And that is the user in either of these two cases has to explicitly reach out for the information whether intentionally or unintentionally. While in case of search the user intentionally seeks the information, in the other case he or she unintentionally discovers the information based on what others have qualified as the relevant resource for a particular subject. We can therefore in the language of business process classify these activities as outbound or on-demand from a user's perspective because the user has to actually 'reach-out' for the information. On-demand is a term more often used in the context of enterprise services, wherein a particular service or functionality is made available to the customers on as-and-when-required basis and it clearly represents the manner in which search and discovery work on the net.

2.2) Also an interesting common trait for these two kind of information retrieval systems is that they both are reactive in nature from their user's point of view. The process of accessing information from these system is more of a reactive(on a need-to-know basis) nature rather than pro-active(on an ought-to-know basis)

3.0) The question therefore is : What next? Well, any more obviousness would be killing and hence the next thing that demands focus is the need for inbound information availability. Not that anything of that sort does not exist, but there is a greatly felt need for an inbound Information Radiation System(IRS). Feeds, alerts, subscriptions to newsletters, spams(yes spams and junks) are all examples of these inbound information radiation systems, because the information automatically flows to the user without him or her having to do anything necessarily and continuously. This idea is not at all new in its original form because TV advertising, newsprint and radio are all quintessential legacies of these inbound information radiating systems, which we use till the very day. The way perhaps these systems became inbound had more to do with the limitations of technologies rather than the way they evolved as in one cannot imagine the invention of an interactive television in the first place.

3.1) An ideal inbound IRS should qualify by having the following characteristics.

a.) It should be a two-way communication system between the user and the radiator (radiation and acknowledgment).
b.) It should be symmetric, i.e. the roles of user and radiator should be interchangeable.
c.) It should be adaptive, i.e. to say the system should adapt itself to the radiate information which has utility for its recipient.
d.) It should be pro-active in nature and not reactive such as the search and discovery systems are.
e.) It should be non-invasive in the sense that the information should be acknowledged by it's users and should not in any way be treated as unwelcome.
f.) It should be non-binding, .i.e. the expectation of any returns from the members of this system should be ideally zero. (way to be 'leechers' !!)
g.) It should be non-redundant in a liberal sense. i.e. to say a particular information should not be repetitively radiated for a very long time.

3.2) Before going forward there are some classic example of systems which act as both inbound and outbound - Telephones and Snail/E-mails. Telephones are however not well-defined and ideal inbound IRS (according to the definition above) as these tend to violate the e.) charter of being non-invasive ( I would not believe someone thinking otherwise).

3.3) The basic motivating factor behind any such inbound system is probabilistic filtering of the relevant information over the web over a period of time. An almost infinitely vast expanse of knowledge base exists on the net ( both verifiable and true vs unverifiable and false) in the form of wikis and it's derivatives. However reaching out for the information that is of any utility or interest still remains a far cry for any given user. The probability of finding out a relevant piece of information on a reactive basis is continually decreasing in a system where information comes from a multitude of sources. No wonder people talk about information overloading, which is nothing but an indication of the inability and the associated stress in finding useful and appreciative information.

3.4) Coming back to the examples of inbound IRS, the problem perse is that first these examples are not pro-active in nature which is an essential characteristic requirement for an ideal inbound IRS. Pro-active systems are ones which do not require any or require very limited input from its users in order to radiate the information. For e.g. The user has to always first either search/discover a feed URL and then eventually subscribe to it. Similarly a user creates an alert for the events for which he/she wants to get notified. And the other examples also follow a similar pattern. Spams/junks however behave in an ambiguous way in that although they are more closer to the inbound IRS (because a user never explicitly does anything in order to receive them) than other counterparts but because by definition they are something unwanted and not obliged by their receivers they do not qualify as an ideal inbound IRS.

4.0) Instigation: Why should such a system work. Or become popular. Or more critically, is something like that even required. Two answers to support the argument that indeed there is a place for an inbound-IRS to exist - First it broadens the horizons and usability aspects of the information on the web. In a democratic setup of internet anything which is not acceptable would eventually wear off and be replaced by either something more efficient or revert to its original and enduring previous system. Hence the only litmus test for the feasibility of such a system is to first bring it into existence.

Besides an inbound IRS is in no way mutually exclusive to the existing outbound information retrieval systems or even close to become a perceptive threat. In fact both kinds of system would in time create a symbiotic ecology of their own which would not only benefit the consumers, but also bring more tangibility to the concept of Information Superhighway which we hear about in day to day talk. To grant the feasibility of anything like that would certainly add value to the way we treat information (sometime ruthlessly and casually), and help change our outlook for our own good.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Vital Stats for this article. (acknowledgment Google Docs)

Flesch Reading Ease: ^[?]	52.65
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: ^[?]	10.00
Automated Readability Index: ^[?]	9.00

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Rich Grad, Poor Grad

2007-08-13T22:25:00.000+05:30

Francesco: Milano è tanto meglio di Napoli. Milano è la citta la più bella di tutti… nel mondo…

Giuseppe: He say "Milan is better than Napoli".

Instructor: Oh, he shouldn't be saying that — we haven't done comparatives yet.

(From Monty Python and The Holy Grail..)

Well, neither have I (and yes, I dare admit, I saw the whole movie !). But when I stumbled upon a link by name similar to the pre-conjunctive part of this post's title, something popped up immediately in my head... - the post-conjunctive part of the title. I must confront that my proclivity towards the titles of an article by far exceeds that towards its content and hence it's more often my failed search for titles rather than my incompetency which eludes me to write a new post. This proclivity is in part abetted by my penchant for quotations/quotes/aphorisms/proverbs and the likes.

Of course, to get opinionated about any article just by the heading or the subject would be like proposing that 'beauty is not skin deep' and hence if the interest of a reader starts shaking just after the first few lines the post is certainly not its worth.

Now what about 'Rich Grad, Poor Grad'. Of course nothing. You know it's just a skewed form of plagiarism if you've read 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' which talks in practical terms about what not to do in order to be rich and what poors do to become what they are. Obviously the book talks about usefulness of money handling and cash flow concepts, of being penny wise and pound wiser, and above all of being a smart investor on a very carefully defined comparative platform. All in all it's a book with a single track money orientation and materialistic outlook.

However far from the moolah-land, the definition I am trying to proclaim here of being rich or poor is how smartly one invests his/her assets (time, intelligence, aptitude and judgement powers) to increase the knowledge base. Being a mere graduate today is normal-middle class stuff which does not distinguish you from other bricks in the wall of averages. It leaves you poor at the end of the day. It tags you as a poor grad who just like a pitied poor on street, was somehow unable to do something different or rise above the levels or normalcy.

I think if at all this world continues to move ahead, it is not because most of the people behave normally, but because everyone behaves differently and uniquely. And if you lag in that race of abnormality and doing something off track you are no better than a literally poor man who has never looked beyond the horizons of normality. And that's where the comparatives appear : Rich Grad is one who in simple words either has a upper hand in the level of education or is credited with producing something unique and different on the basis of her knowledge capital. A poor grad is someone similar to a running rat in a race who even though wins sometimes, but still remains a rat, content and calm with whatever comes on the way and does not strive towards excellence or improvisation in whatever knowledge base she has.

Wordpress vs Blogger.

2007-08-06T15:38:00.000+05:30

Having fiddled a lot with blogspot(domain blogger.com) , getting a taste of open source blog hosting and publishing platform Wordpress(WP) was a mix of sour and sweet for me.

As always the open source thingies are supposedly more intelligent, behave in a sane manner and embrace that air of 'this is no crap' around them when compared to their counterparts and WP is no exception to that fact. WP is not only a blog host but also a standalone platform which can be installed on any host for personal domains. I haven't switched to installing the platform s/w for my domain, but instead hosting my new tech blog on the free host itself.

WP stands as one of the most preferred blogging platform amongst migrating bloggers , because it provides the flexibility and extensibility to its users through plugins.
That is one of the advantages the user community enjoys by being the part of the developing community.

However, there are also some drawbacks of being an OS community project, because there's a plethora of information available from infinite sources and every TD&H like me would post something about the project that within minutes you find yourself drowned in that information deluge about "how to do.." questions. Second, for beginner's it is at times difficult to grasp what all, the technology has to offer and what is best suited for their purpose.

The lack of standardization leading to security vulnerabilities is another big problem as with any open source community project. Although, it seems the things are not as tangibly bad with WP but it took me some time to figure out that certain things unlike the blogger platform are not possible on the standard free WP.com host. Maybe there are ways to do them, which will have to be unearthed and that will take some more time.

Whatever it be I think I still need to dig in more into the trivialities of the platform and see if I can continue to use it on as-is-basis.

Not to be continued

2007-07-27T15:44:00.000+05:30

Every time I pledge to write a second in-part series of a post, I end up not writing for exceptionally long time. I've seen this happening twice, so from now on most probably the unit of work will be defined as a single exhaustive and comprehensive post without any "to be continued" tag lines ;) .

Now something which struck me today was this post from Copyblogger, which pushed me back to my writing.

Write.
Write more.
Write even more.
Write even more than that.
Write when you don’t want to.
Write when you do.
Write when you have something to say.
Write when you don’t.
Write every day.
Keep writing.

I should also acknowledge that this is partly an abstract inspiration from ' A post a day ' ;)

Where's the cabbage -I ?

2007-04-30T19:22:00.000+05:30

This question has had too many answers with varying degrees of contention, satisfaction and perhaps their truth content. However if we are to take a non-analytic view the answer is sheer blatant and all exposed and pervading in front of our eyes.

Just like the circulating molten core of earth which enlivens it, the life on earth in more than what we can afford to believe is surviving predominantly on these two money-churners : advertising and arbitrage.

Where advertising on one hand has the effect of concentrating the money from that vast pool of populace into few hands, or more discretely it is the supply of cash from many to the demand of few, arbitrage on the other is exploited by few who leverage the difference of money values across different markets and thereby sustain the tautness of the demand and supply curve. To put it in other way it's the flow of cash from the supply of few to the demand of many. Maybe these two things don't sound too instrumental in the first glance, but just give a thought -that if half of the world's money is in one or the other way scanned under the mechanisms of these two money-churners, one cannot but shed any skepticism about them. (the other half probably sleeps as a secured money in the pits..)

The power these two things hold individually is too humongous to be grasped unless we get the real hard numbers to put across, but then statistics is something which surpasses dammed lies and hence it's only a matter of self-realization and self-enlightenment.

Through advertisements, whether they entice or create a revulsion in masses for a certain product, one process that always gets initiated is the flow of money. From a pressure-margin business of selling a Re1 sachet of hair oil on television to a completely soft advertisement of social-networking on web to the star-studded apparel commercial asking you to spend more than 1000% of the production cost for a shirt or whatever, the wheel of money game start spinning, streaming trifle amounts through millions of pockets eventually landing in to the hands of few. It's this convergence which is followed up again by a divergence of the cash flow which keeps the moolah rolling. The divergence comes in the form of investments in financial instruments, infrastructure building, generation of new businesses and employment essentially disbursing out the cash packets back to the masses. Surely the influx and out-flux are not the same and that accounts for the rising no of billionaires in the world and acute disparity in the money possessions.

Arbitrage if we go by dictionary definition shows up as a see-saw in the money-park wherein the key players try to cash-on the imbalance in the values of almost anything, yes literally anything - from interest rates to currency to commodities to stocks and what not. Arbitrage is again an immensely pressure margin business which relies on the multiplicative power of the volumes. The torrential sums when multiplied by a fraction of the cent produce millions of dollars as pure profits in a single day and in the process reconcile the difference in the underlying entity. However, just like a see-saw in action the equilibrium is never achieved in totality or eternity in the world of arbitrage(s)

ps: cabbage is the informal term for money

hopefully i'll not ditch the second part of this article [;)]..

Issued in the blogger's interest.

2007-04-24T19:52:00.000+05:30

In a follow-up to my last post (technically speaking the penultimate post, coz' i had to slew the last one) on the titles of the article which somehow couldn't manage to see the living day-light, here's a cross-link to the recipe of making eye-catcher headlines for your posts. And here are some heroic mistakes which you should only be doing if you are contending for the last on the best blog competition ;)

When 'Titles' became the 'Post'

2007-03-23T17:44:00.000+05:30

Although the list is not exhaustive, but this is all what I have attempting to convert into a meaningful post for quite some time now. But as evident the titles itself became the subject matter of this post. Can't help falling in to a pitfall ... :P

1.) Algorithm of Jokes.
2.) Business, e-Business, what next.?
3.) Good Night and Good Luck. ( This I know is plagiarisation..)
4.) The Pun is not intended.
5.) The inverse of Wachaowski bros. 'Matrix'.
6.) Around the world - 7 times in a second.
7.) A Goal is just a kick away.
8.) Index....I need the Index of life.
9.) Make meaning - Right a wrong.
10.) Broadcasting live from nowhere! :D
11.) New Word Salad ... Now fortified with euphemisms ;)
12.) The 64 thousand 256 $ question.
13.) Will Utopian world have stock markets?
14.) Omnipotent Dementia.
14.) My cellphone just smirked.
15.) God's Fantasies.
16.) Another Nickel in the Machine.
17.) Rejoicing the pink slip.
18.) When Murphy's law fail.
19.) Obviously it's not to be read.
20.) In Rome.......Fine you know what to do. ;)
21.) When 'Titles' became the 'Post'

Thankfully , at least the last one did actually materialized.. !!

Ab'z'olutely Random...!! (What do you think ? -->)

2007-03-13T21:35:00.000+05:30

ACK : P-ink (pink is the short form of 'pick up link') from a forwarded post on my wing group.

Cross-domain Access using AJAX-II

2007-02-13T14:27:00.000+05:30

Intended Audience : Small/novice/experimental web-developers looking for free access to cross-domain web-services/data using AJAX.

Target Replication : Experimental/Test/Individual [Non-production]

Reader's Technical Level : Beginner's in web-development with minimal and basic introductory knowledge of AJAX.

Technical Relevance/Benefit : Cross-domain access using AJAX technology has remained a big hindrance for small-time and novice web-developers who want to freely access third-party web-services/data using AJAX on their 'domains'(such as " www.mydomain.com"). This is because most of the free as well as paid web-hosts do not allow setting up proxy server scripts on their shared web-servers for 'domains' in particular, to maintain the quality of service.However certain web-hosts allow setting up proxy scripts only on 'sub-domains'(such as "www.myname.freewebsitespace.net") for their own advertisement benefits.

Although many solutions for cross-domain AJAX requests are already in place,they cater to a very limited set of users. This article demonstrates a simple workaround method to circumvent this restriction on cross-domain AJAX requests for a highly common and widely acknowledged problem.

Problem Statement : Given a 'domain'(http://www.mydomain.com) set up on the shared web-host which does not allow setting up a proxy script(say a PHP proxy script). How can the 'domain' developer overcome this restriction of accessing cross-domain services/data using AJAX.?

Solution : This solution is not completely innovative in the sense that it actually combines two separate cross-domain solutions for AJAX, to provide a highly versatile and zero-cost solution for small-time web-application developers for their experimental/test or individual requirements.

Step 1: First register a 'sub-domain' on a web-host which allows setting up PHP proxy scripts for 'sub-domain' (such as " www.myname.freewebsitespace.net").

Step 2: Since this technique uses the Flash based AJAX solution which uses 'FlashXMLHttpRequest()' instead of the usual 'XMLHttpRequest()' function we need to place a 'crossdomain.xml' file on our 'sub-domain'. This allows us to bypass the 'Same origin policy' and send requests to any required cross-domain.

Step3: Upload a file with name 'crossdomain.xml' having the following entry <allow-access-from domain=" mydomain.com"/> in the root of your 'sub-domain' http://myname.freewebsitespace.net). This will grant permission to http://www.mydomain.com to send Flash based AJAX requests to the 'sub-domain' .Check that the file is accessible by opening the URL - http://myname.freewebsitespace.net/crossdomain.xml .

Step 4: Set up a PHP proxy server on the 'sub-domain'. php proxy scripts are freely available on net. Let's assume the proxy script is 'prx.php' and it takes the parameter 'prx_url' to fetch that particular web-service/data.

Step 5: Upload the following files (a javascript and a flash .swf file) in order to instantiate the Flash based AJAX request objects on your 'domain'.
i) 'FlashHelper.js'
ii)'Flash4AJAX.swf'

Step 5: Now Send AJAX requests from your 'domain' in this manner:

var URL = 'http://myname.freewebsitespace.net/prx.php?prx_url=<any cross-domain service url>';
var fxhr = new FlashXMLHttpRequest();
fxhr.open(GET, url);

'Content-Type' should be set in the requestHeader to match the kind of data returned by cross-domain request.

The diagram below depicts the above steps pictorially and in more comprehensible manner. Click the image to view full size.

This technique is highly similar to the one - 'Use a Web Proxy for Cross-Domain XMLHttpRequest Calls' described here. However since most developers cannot setup up a proxy server on their web-host (especially when the service is free) the current workaround proves quite helpful and lets the start-up developers access the cross-domain facility at almost no cost.

The technique however has few demerits to own:

a) For first this technique requires that the browsers be flash enabled and allow instantiation of Flash based AJAX request objects. However the omnipotent nature of Flash in reality tones down the criticality of this issue.

b) Since the 'sub-domain' web-host service (except for some) usually provides a limited monthly bandwidth, web-developers cannot put this technique to use on the production scale or commercial use, where their bandwidth limit exhausts in a short interval of time rendering their web-application dead.

The resources,demonstration and the example site using the technique can be accessed from : http://jabber.org.in/JAO/JabApp.html

Cross-Domain Access using AJAX - I

2007-01-31T16:12:00.000+05:30

In a fit to catch up with the growing interests in the Web2.0 and the much hyped and talked about - Ubiquitous AJAX, the novice developers have constantly been teased and beleaguered by the browser restrictions and security considerations. With applications such as Google Maps, Gmail, Google Document and many more still in its labs, Google the forerunner of the technology has undoubtedly bucked up javascript from its till now 'underdog' status to a completely new and prospective one. However still, the most interesting and useful aspect of the AJAX which is - Cross-domain access - remains a hot and overtly discussed concern on almost all AJAX forums. Though there are many workarounds in place to circumvent the browser restrictions [See Same Origin Policy ], what I discovered to my dismay was that, none of them actually proves helpful to the beginners and people who live with the 'Open-Source' ideology. Some one willing to experiment and trying to taste the splendid technological advantages of AJAX is simply left with no options at all. The workarounds just doesn't sound appealing to a wider audience.

The second part of this post [will publish in a day or two] would discuss this "AJAX - Cross-Domain Access" conundrum with a different perspective and detail a zero-cost solution for beginner's and novice developers. Till then...

~tech it along !

Ain't there better things to do ?

2007-01-18T19:07:00.000+05:30

I think there aren't. At least for those who don't have anything to do in the first instance. I believe the priorities of Citizen 2006 have shuffled lately. From moral to ethical and now racial policing. How far would we like to go in our campaign to raise voices against each and every thing - big or small, significant or trifle, worthy or unworthy of a cause. Aren't we over-enthusiastic about the whole saga. Aren't we wasting our time and energy, when there are better and more important things to be done. Can we afford to live in the light of such hollow controversies and overshadow the plights and problems which need more attention?

I am not being versus here or undermining the intensity of this melodramatic despair of whosoever it was. Definitely, we ought to condemn whatever happened and especially take it on a serious note when it's related to a citizen of our nation , but come on this can't become a national issue in a country like India. I just don't give a damn if the whole issue is so much of worth in Britain to be raised in the House of Commons , but certainly I oppose anything of that sort happening in India. In a nation of over a billion population, can we yield to waste our precious time in talking and debating with vested interests over a matter which shouldn't even be there in the list of actions.

But see the irony we're more than happy and content in burning effigies of 'XYZ', putting up petitions, devouring prime time on national networks, going ga-ga over the whole issue which I feel is not at all a 'Issue' if looked from a different perspective. Three reasons for that -

First, Uncountable no. of such incidents happen all over the world in a minute here and a second there. And in a game cum reality show where one can least expect for such things to NOT happen, the whole issue has only enthralled everyone with more than its share of controversial pie. So are we going to tackle all such issues with the same intensity and hype just as we are fighting this one. Definitely not. Then why this one??

Second, Just because this whole thing involves a 'beautiful' celebrity with a large fan following, the issue has gathered so much of uncalled momentum and fanaticism. Why don't we bother to raise our voices when the same thing happens to almost every individual of Indian diaspora living in Europe and UK sometime or the other?? No, because we just don't find them worthy of our interest.

And lastly because whether this can-of-worms was intentionally or unintentionally opened by airing the scenes which perhaps could have been easily done away with , the motive is clear cut - toast a controversy and raise money. And undoubtedly the scheme has hit upon us, we are working to make money for them day-in and day-out, by discussing , talking , writing and doing what not to show that yes - We don't have anything better than this to do.

G.U.R.U - the _________ ??

2007-01-16T01:38:00.000+05:30

Now how many movies leave you in a contemplating mode, long after - 'The End' ?? Not many of course and certainly when it comes to the 'produce' of our own bollywood, most of them would only leave you flashed, deja vued, confused, mesmerized and maybe sometimes 'reimbursed' of the ticket amount.

However 'Guru', unsurprisingly belonged to that all together different class of cinema - 'Different' !!
Yes it was different, unique, separated and it wasn't worth its money, because somethings are just as priceless as that feeling of content you get with a glass of water after a spicy meal.
'Guru' could have been just another run-of-the-mill, but for many reasons you find that inspite of some uncalled for songs, technical flaws, and boring scenes, the movie came out perfect from a holistic viewpoint. A much needed (sm ppl would certainly beg to differ here) come back for the on-screen couple Aish-Abhi was all that was needed to ice the cake of their engagement ceremony.

Going all praise for 'guru' is not the agenda of the post if at all I'm sounding such, but the fact remains that after RDB perhaps the only movie which clicked me smwhere was this, which going by the ratio of movies I have watched after RDB would turn out to be 1/80. I believe being subjective about movies is just another birth right and when that right pushes you to raise you voice for a cause such as - 'Guru', you can only find a mass action following behind you.

I was amazed how democratically the same notion ringed everyone's mind while coming out of the theater that the title 'guru' could have aptly been suffixed with such quite evitable phrases like Guru - The Master, guru - the entrepreneur, guru - the visionary, guru - the confidence within...but then it would only have made it resounding and hackneyed and was definitely an intelligent move, unless the crew forgot to put one.

Go watch it for a break from the monotone of watching the likes of - KANK...et al !!

Complexity vs Efficiency

2007-01-12T18:24:00.000+05:30

Ever wondered how much of our effort goes in general to increase the complexity of the system we are working in. People working day-in and day-out to achieve more and more efficiency in their work by increasing complexity of the same. It's amazing that we have reached a point in line of advancement where our notion of development in terms of building efficient models of working system is paralleled with the rise in their complexity and density. Take a self-test - Is your work adding to the complexity of the system to derive efficiency? And no wonder your answer would most probably be in affirmation.

Definitely it's possible and that's why it's happening and that's why the world is moving. The strong covariance between complexity and efficiency, moving the wheel of our so-called development is a clear-cut 'Yes' in everybody's mind. Intelligent routers - at the cost of high intricacies, better and more feature rich softwares - with more lines of code, futuristic cars - with self-controls and the list is perhaps endless for me to mention, but the question remains how long will this schema of progress continue to prove it's worth for our ever growing demands from the respective systems. Isn't there a limit to the complexity we can achieve in a system. Come D-day and we might as well realize that we have crossed the rubicon and there's no way to turn around. That the complexity has reached a stage beyond comprehension. That there are systems, but we don't have the clue to understand them. Our ingenuities forcibly stuck because there's no place to implement our ideas. And slowly and gradually our own creations will surpass us and our ability to maintain them, eventually leading our racing vehicles of development into a pitfall. The only consolation I speculate, for someone could be a step towards reducing the entropy of the whole universe by building complex and intricate systems. But certainly that doesn't help much in the much bigger picture of infinite universe and the longer run towards eternity.

I know it all sounds far-fetched and outlandish. May be !, but we never know. We have effectively progressed in the past few decades ( am talking of scientific progress) more than what our predecessors had in all the time before.

So can we move to an all together different track, and start our quest for increasing efficiency by means of simplifying the system? That clearly is a tough call, coz had it been easier we wouldn't have walked the other way round in the first place. Producing efficient systems which are simple is tough and increasing efficiency by simplification would be like dying. And that's why we would never get to see the next release of Windows backward compatible with the existing hardware as against its requirement of gigs of RAM and multiple processors. I guess somewhere during our evolution we have perhaps ingrained the idea of value-addition in terms of complicating things. The idea however has served well and continues to. We have had the most complex of theorems applied to the most complex of systems in order to achieve fractions of indispensable efficiency figures. But then that is how we have reached this very point where I can take a critical view point towards this hand-in-hand relationship between complexity and efficiency. And if not for this we wouldn't bother to look beyond the horizon and ask this question - Can we simplify things to achieve the desired levels of efficiency. Can we build systems which are simple and less intimidating, and yet can be perfect replacement of their counterparts?

Satan's of the Ring

2007-01-05T15:55:00.000+05:30

And just before i could even type out the words that were raging themselves out of my finger tips, I was passed on this link . And nothing of what I would have written matched the way the article suffices to incarnate the monstrosity of this demented servant & master couple.

Reviewing the hiatus

2006-12-19T19:17:00.000+05:30

Incomplete posts , unrelenting thoughts, borrowed phrases, crazy titles, and finally this. After a much longer typical hiatus though !
At least am not running away this time. Not eschewing what is destined. I tried not to be cliched this time but then that's why they call it cliched ;), because you end up sounding terminally verbose without your own knowledge, and gloating it like a piece of modern art.

Last few weekends, were not so obliquely different when it came to candidly pass them doing nothing just like Calvin would have loved to. However, with some futile violations of doing something in bits and pieces can be completely ignored. Like - reading Dan Brown's - Angel & Demons, and watching completely avoidable serials and movies.

Whatever it be I have decided to start up certain things on a war footing. Yes war footing. The first in the list - to build if not everything then only the UI of my web page on the domain I bought last summer for some very mystic reasons ( I fear not to tell them). And it's more cumbersome than writing this blog. With plethora of new web technologies available at your disposal the phrase - 'More is less' in fact actualized for me. Am still confused what to use - GWT (Google Web tookkit), YUI (Yahoo User Interface), Adobe's FlexBuilder, Ruby on Rails or perhaps something more obscure. Not that I have mastered all of them, but yes I have chalked out the options.
What remains is to find someone who can maybe help me in arguing/coding/discussing how to go about putting the thing in place.

Next in the pipeline is to gobble up the Dan Brown's novel series. For the first time I can recall, in my life I have read any novel as voraciously as this one. And I cannot be more eager to catch up with the rest of them. There's something about him, his writing , or perhaps with the subject itself which can leave you craving for more and with so much to contemplate. Simple and realistic fiction which can be addictive. I hope to get some time to finish up the series without any self-made inhibitions.

The last one is most probably the most crucial one - How to get 'there' from 'here'? That's a bit of abstraction though. Am just waiting for something to turn up. Never ever have relied on probabilities but this time, looks like I have to. No other option. Somethings have to be learned in a harder way.

Currently listening -~~~ "aa khushi se khud kushi kar le" ;) ~~~

Investment it is after all.

2006-11-27T19:10:00.000+05:30

Shakespeare's eternal quote would befit all the time to come -
"All the world's a stage and all the men and women are but actors",
but the quote would perhaps take upon a strikingly different form in different eras- such as this, which I feel befits the capitalized and globalized world we live in today -
"All the world's a stock market and all the men and women are but brokers."

Investment is all what we do everyday. Isn't it?

At the end of the fag day, what we might look back and see is our investment in all manners, big and small to earn what we need to live. To live is to invest - not only money but time, effort, brain, goodwill, talent and beliefs. But then why should I be calling it an out and out 'investment' and not merely a normal way to live or carrying out our responsibilities disguised as jobs, hobbies, obligations etc etc. After all that is how we have been living ever since the day we know. Yes. But then somewhere down the line as our brains evolved , our dispositions switched towards making investments and see whatever we do not as the natural way of living but as a priced future option. Something I have both repented and enjoyed - often.

Our tendency has grounded to visualize and measure out everything ( and i mean everything) in terms of its potential to give back the desired outcome. We study hard to earn good marks then jobs and then salary. We work hard to climb up the ladder of our corporate hierarchy. We spend time reading to improve our language skills. We socialize and make friends to broader our network of acquaintances. And the only thing I can compare all this to - Our investment in stocks to make more money out of it.

Everything suddenly looks so motivated and intentional. Nothing remains natural and without a reason.

Nothing wrong till now. After all we need motivations and goals to move forward and reach out higher.

It's just that our learning have become a by-product of what we study.(Do a reality check on how many thing we voluntarily learn everyday without any future motivation or looking at its potential use).
Our proficiency and accomplishments have become a side-product of our struggle to be the root of the corporate hierarchy.(Figure out how much of your work is oriented in completing the targets set in the last appraisal cycle.)
Our feelings of content and surprise while reading have become ephemeral against our quest to be more skilled in language and to increase the book count.(The last book you felt close to you heart and which was finished seamlessly. Remember??)
Our best friends and confidants are just a result of the random probability of colliding with someone being worthy of from our friends list.(Check your orkut list and find out how many ppl you really have talked to in the last one year).

Nothing wrong even now. After all its just a shift of priority and that's a subjective human right everyone has in a democracy.

Maybe this transformation, is the characteristic of our times. Maybe there's nothing wrong in this shift. Maybe I am wrong.

I am not the understand the English :(.

2006-11-22T11:39:00.000+05:30

Egzactly....!!

To someone like me whose inhibitions towards bollywood movies are more or less governed by the opportunity to watch them, what I have written above would definitely make (non)sense and unveil the context. For others there is this post. To begin with, this is yet again the same time of the year when India witnesses an educational turmoil in form of an examination which perhaps would be and remain an imagination for the rest of the world. I Imagine a satellite picture of more than two hundred thousand peoples giving a test at various corners of the country . Yes am talking about the CAT which was back last weekend and just like the festival of Diwali it left the smoke and thundering sounds as its aftermath. The only difference between the two - the proportion of those encashing happiness and those left somewhat burned and blistered. And the bomb which ripped apart everyone was the legacy of our 200 years of freedom struggle - The English language. or more technically the 'verbal' section in the jargon of MBA blues.

I have had an interesting rapport with 'English' ever since the first day of my school. That of unnerving each other. I wasn't built to learn it. If there is something of which I have remained paranoiac all through my life, the answer would come out in a jiffy - English. Somehow I have never been able to make it up to the required levels of English. I hated English as a child. I hated learning the words which looked alien to my mind. I hated making a separate notebook for grammar all through my school days. I somehow remained disjoint from the whole class when it came to English. My second lowest marks would be in English subject (the lowest being in the social science - I luv to hate this subject till this very day ). My library book would travel along in my bag to home, remain untouched for the whole week and then back again to library on the day of the return. The only time I managed to lead in English for a quarter of year, I was almost about to flunk in one or the other subjects. In short English never became my cup of tea.

And in turn English would put me in the background of activities. Devoid me of any deserving limelight. Give me a taste of my incompetency and make me hate it more and more. Nevertheless in recent past ( i.e. the last two years) I have to my surprise been attracted towards English. I have pulled up my self to appreciate the beauty and potency of this language. I have learned to how to take a stand like a connoisseur when it comes to English in all its various forms ( except for the poetry which I still feel is something highly subjective and the subtlety of which can be understood by its writer, and sometime even he/she cannot). The rivalry however still continues to this day. :((

I have invested quantum of time contemplating why is it that English plays a vital role in all my setbacks, and then like a spark of nirvana it occurred to me that perhaps I am here to redefine (???? OK...refine) the standards of English, and be known more as a legendary figure of English language rather than of any programming language. But that may take all together a new incarnation to accomplish. And untill then perhaps the powers that be - would make me struggle again for this new independence I seek from the paranoia of not being an 'anglo-indian'.

Quote me not !........never..........ever

2006-11-14T00:37:00.000+05:30

I like reading quotes. I have been particularly interested in them for quite some time now. I have read the worst and the best of them. I have also believed in the fact that no matter how exhaustive I become in my reading of the quotes, there would still be some under the graves, which are better than the 'best' and worse than the 'worst'. Not unless I hit upon this one today. which perhaps I think is the worst and the biggest loser quote of all times.

"All success begins with spreading your W.I.N.G.S - believing in your Worth, trusting your Insight, Nurturing yourself, having a Goal, and devising a personal Strategy. nd then, even impossible dreams become real."

To a normal eye - this outshines as one of those inspirational quotes which can push people to die for their success. For me this is nothing more than- BULL****. A made up crap. Something written for the sake of writing. Something you can honestly forget the moment your swing your eye balls. Something which can work only for those who don't really want to work. Miles away from the reality and into the futile core world of hyper-philosophical or gyan-darshan. Who's a** can benefit out of such verbose and useless quotes, glamored and enamored like those fugacious Chinese products, which are good for nothing other than creating a mass infatuation.

Call me names for putting it all like this, but I just can't help despising this one. For there are reasons which are quite in parallel to why I hate those stinking K-serials on the idiot box. For first, it looks like something straight out of an evil mind. Someone wanting to confuse people and alluring them with yet another stupid excuse for not working their ways out towards success.

Some people would contemplate after reading - Aaah..am most probably not trying to believe in myself (come on even bush would have believed in himself for all what he has done so far) or I better nurture myself (with what and how only god knows !!), and do I have a goal as yet, I think I better search out(read as waste time) for yet another one....and what not.

So grossly hollow that you can't get a quark of wisdom in them after closely analyzing them and that is why I hate these category of unquotable quotes, meant to be deleted for ever from everywhere - net, books and most importantly from our minds..!

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Little 'Bloggers'

2006-10-31T16:30:00.000+05:30

I am sure Nobody would not have heard/read/listened this -

"While Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, Government is sound asleep, the People are being completely ignored and the Future is full of Shit."

Though it's part of something more trickier and more johhnier ;) , than what it looks here, it says it all and if not read it down.

I know it's one of those things someone puts on the blog, when he/she is suffering wildly from writer's block. Not that am a writer, but yeah sometimes I feel like one,but quite unlike the the ones who feel complete and ingenuous in their writing, tracing every filth they get on board of various tabloids across the net just in order to make yellow journalism more yellower.

Yes am pointing my finger......ok..my fist, on all those bloggers who are complacent in being the next blatantly screaming 'read-me-please---for-god-sake' portal owner, through their blogs. They will regularly post the wild and wackiest of news picked up from the plethora of pathetic news sites and google out fact and figures to somehow make the whole news look like the event of the century. I have seen a sudden surge in the no. of bloggers posting news items picked up seemingly from the last result page of google search, and contrive a mind candy for their regulars, like yet another potboiler story of a soap, as if those sucking K-serials were already not causing enough pain, of every kind.

The question being does that serve purpose? Does that not violate the original idea and concept of blogging?

Well yes and no.
No, because this is the age of remixes and remakes. So these bloggers are no less than their show-biz counterparts in deriving their 'inspiration' from what is happening in the world today. I think blogging has indeed picked up a new show-biz culture paralleled by enormous fan following and the desperateness of the readers waiting for their super-writers to release a new post. Huh !! as if they had choices. ( I think the proverb should be changed to - 'Readers are not choosers')

And Yes because we know it all, the blogging was just a modern approach of maintaining personal diaries only differing in their access to the public as against a method of generating revenues (thanks to google's non-sense adsense), archiving remakes of sensational news, or of showcasing discoveries of obscure facts which essentially only goes to tell the readers about the writing abilities of the associated authors and nothing else.

Ok I know, if that starter on the top of the page still looks alien to this whole post and has been consistently troubling, let me give an explanation. (Just and extempore attempt ... [;)])

"While the bloggers are screwing the idea and concept of blogging, the blogspot is sound asleep, the reader's choices are being completely ignored and the future of blogs is full of shit."

Sounds convincing ? isn't it ... :D

ready for a beating....anyone??

2006-10-12T17:52:00.000+05:30

The last post will continue in the next post ;)......Procrastination redefined...:P. OK it's just that I don't feel like writing, I feel like avenging someone for something...and that someone can be anyone...;). This is perhaps due in the wake of incidents such as these :

The 9/11 being repeated in not it's whole entirety but on a much lesser scale only goes to show that Osama has now his competitors within the US. He's offloaded of the burdens of downsizing the high skyscraper in the states. Pun intended -Of Course !!, and I wholeheartedly extend my condolences for those who died in this mishap. Longing to see this world as a safe place to live in...

The more bolder and more armed media of India, capsizes the Orkut community - I hate India. Now can someone explain if it's not paranoia but something else that makes our media in general to run amok and be instigated by a handful members of a community of eternal Indian haters i.e. Pakistanis - Ggod, bless them, their country and our media.

And the Star-struck pune-ites were no less fanatic in chasing Angelina Jolie's all-black tinted glass Innova, than poor farmers of drought-struck areas chasing relief helicopters for food packets. The result : a chaser getting knocked down by the cab containing jolie-pitt, the couple being pulled in a for a case in court and new channels coudn't have asked for more. But who's to be blamed really? The so called 'roads' of pune, the driver of the cab, the chaser or more interestingly jolie herself. And what does this showcase : desperateness, indecency, frustration, or simply our innate instinct of getting wild.?
Can't help feeling for those two poor souls... :(

as always praying .............\_/

Lost in Transportation... - I

2006-10-05T14:02:00.000+05:30

How many different modes of public transport have you used in a single day? 2, maybe 3, or a max of four. But my trip last weekend to Goa via Bombay ( yep, i still prefer 'Bombay' over 'mumbai'..in some contexts ) was more than a myriad of transport switches. The whole thing went something like this...I biked from my office back to the flat, picked up an auto from there to airport, boarded the flight off to bombay, caught a 'mumbai' local train to churchgate, took a yellow-black taxi to go to my friend's office, and finally got up on a bus off to Goa. Huh..!! so much for a day isn't it. Though the list is not exhaustive, but it still covers almost all of the feasible conveyances which anyone would take during a trip, only that it was a bit uncommon in a time span of a single day journey.

The rides look simple when i say, "i picked, boarded, got up etc etc on different modes"...but each of them has its own story behind the the groovy scenes...so I would start with my bike..
The most important thing i feel for a biker is to ensure that he doesn't run out of fuel and be stranded in an place without a pump ;). It turned out as I was returning from a place in the outer of the city that the bike had run out of fuel...I was already under the impression that the bike was running on reserve fuel, so those jerks from my bike's fuel starved engine gave a 'jor ka jhatka' to me, and only when I pulled out my hand for the reserve knob I happily realised that I was wrong and there was enough reserve to take me back home.

Searching for the auto next, to hop to airport was torturous. I was amazed as I came out of the flat with a 8Kg bag on my shoulders, at the scorching sunny daylight at 2 in the afternoon. The whole morning it was lightly clouded with no anticipated signs of a ray of sun for the whole day. But as luck would have it, the conspiracy was mid-way, and the drivers of the very few autos which were there, refused to earn in lieu of the relishing siesta they were having. Eventually had to walkdown almost half-a-kilometer to catch one of the empty moving autos. :((

At the airport, I was there well before the departure time of my flight. With a single bag as cabin luggage you can be more than comfortable in hanging around at the airport without bothering to keep an eye on your heavy luggage pieces. Certainly being there well before time, saved me from the serpentine queue for the boarding pass and I proceeded for the security check-in. There a CISF security in-charge put me on hold at the check point for I don't know why, becaue I dont think I was looking so pathetic to be put on hold for an informal interrogation. The in-charge asked me where did i work, how much did i earn and all sort of impertinent questions. Having answered them with a broad smile on my face he asked me to move on. As I moved to pick up my bag, the bag scanner pointed out a small bottle of scent I had packed in my bag which eventually I had to throw away in the dustbin kept there. And thus came the end of one of my longest kept bottles of perfume and of course one of the most cherished ones. :((

I took my bag and rushed to the wating lounge. After a boring half-hour wait, the boarding was announced. Seeing the length of the line, I decided to hold on and wait till the line gets shorter. You can do this except for an Air Deccan Flight which is a free seater, and wherein people would not mind even running on the taxi-way to get their coveted seats. Any how, seeing the last few passengers in the line I moved and waited in line for my turn for the last security check. When I reached at the check point, the guard pointed out the missing security check stamp on the tag attached to my baggage. This probably happened as I collected my bag unaware of the missing stamp, because of the perfume bottle. I kept cussing myself for making a fool of myself, as I moved to get that stamp on the tag.

The journey continued in the part - II

A Reflection

2006-09-20T17:40:00.000+05:30

When a lucid and limpid voice, with and elegant yet vivid tone, hits your ear, you are bound to stop, to find out and to hear what that voice has to say....and add to that when the subject of that voice is even more philosophically alluring, you just can't afford to evade.

Well, this is what a friend of mine, infact today confronted me with. Something which I would have missed otherwise. Though it's a mere excerpt from one of the scenes of 'Lageraho Munnabhai' - one of the founding movies of the new age bollywood cinema I should say, it is in essence a gross reflection of the kind of lives we live today.

Will all due acknowledgement to the dialogue writer of the movie and many thanks to my friend for typing the voice back into text, which I have quoted below, here it goes -

/*--
Un sab ke liye jo daude ja rahe hai shaher main
shaher ki daud me daud ke kerna kya hai
ager yahi jeena hai dosto, to fir merna kya hai?

pehli baarish me train late hone ki fikra hai..bhul gaye bhigate hue tehalna kya hai

serial ke kirdaaro ka sara haal hai malum aur ma ka haal poochane ki fursat kaha hai

ab ret pe nange paon tahalte q nahi..ye to aap hi jaane per dil dahalta q hai?

internet se dunia se to touch me hai lekin pados me kaun rehta hai jaate tak nahi

mobile landline sab ki bhermaar hai lekin jigri dost tak pahuche aise wo taar kaha hai

kab dubate hue suraj ko dekha tha..yaad hai

kab jaana tha ki shaam ka gujarna kya hai

saher ki daud me daud ke kerna kya hai

ager yahi jeena hai dosto to fir merna kya hai?

--*/

Sumptuous, food for thought,isn't it. [:)]

Taking out time for 'time out'

2006-09-12T22:28:00.000+05:30

I always wondered how can anyone become so busy as to not be able to even update his/her blog, reply to emails, chat with his friends, make calls or perhaps even realize what the time is in his/her watch. I know, this somehow projects me as a slug or jobless person, but no I always did my work, always had something or the other to engage myself with, but strangely it never happened that deadlines constrained me so much as to live on the edge. I believed that taking a 'time out' was always so easy if you know how to manage your time, because I never explicitly had to do manage my time. Time was always there, for anything and everything. I was never so hard pressed that I could not squeeze in or make space for other activities.

But well, this was true uptill some time back, when I somehow managed to see that it is not only possible but very often that one needs to push in him or herself for so many things simultaneously. And now I have to curse myself especially after getting attuned to take a easy sail in the sea of time all this while, for not being to able to do all that stuff, such as update blog, chat with friends, make calls etc etc. Am not apt to multitasking, but I have made it a point that by the end of it, I learn how not to let things go out of the hand when there's just no end to the tasks pouring in.

'Time is at a premium', has always been the motto, and surely will continue to be, the only change however is this sudden surge in the amount of premium, my time is worth, and the speed of time itself from 1 second per second to surprisingly a few hundred milliseconds less per second for me, and to calculate which I seriously don't have a grain of time with me.

Time up :( .....so long...........

And the answer is

2006-08-18T22:15:00.000+05:30

To the question put up in the last post :- 'C', and you've got to believe me for it's the most precise and best answer among the choices. Yes, there's a logic and rationale behind it, which is too subtle for all our ingenious and ingenuous minds, so as to promptly strike of C as the most plausible wrong answer to that question. However, the explanation goes something like this:

--
Choi's statement is a comparison among individuals: If my parents have earned doctorate and your's didn't, then Chod says that the odds are better that I will earn a doctorate than you will. Choi's claim goes no further. He doesn't claim that children of doctors are guranteed to earn doctorates, and he doesn't even claim that they are likely to earn doctorates. He merely claims that these children are more likely to earn doctorates than their counterparts who do not have a parent that earned a doctorate. So even if only 5 percent of doctor's children earn doctorates themselves, Choi's claim is still correct as long as fewer than 5 percent of children whose parents didn't earn a doctorate went to earn a doctorate themselves.

Thus the irrelevancy of Hart's 70 percent figure, which gives us information on a different goup -- those who already earned their doctoral degree.

Because she has shifted the scope, the data Hart presents can be true and still have no bearing on Choi's claim. An example :Suppose that there are 10 people in the world with doctorates. Choi merely claims that children of these people are more likely to get doctorates than children of other people. Hart comes along and says that of the 10 people, say , 8 of then(70%) come from doctorate-less parents. Does that alter Choi's claim in any way? No. All other factors being equal, the children of those doctors could still be more likely to earn doctorates, even if most doctorate holders don't have that particular heritage. Because of this, Hart's considration doesn't contradict Choi's claim in any way, and we can therefore say that Hart's statement is consistent with it.

--

Choi & Hart

2006-08-11T22:55:00.000+05:30

Dodge this ;) !!!

Choi: All other factors being equal, children whose parents earned doctorates are more likely to earn a doctorate than children whose parents did not earn doctorates.

Hart: But consider this: Over 70 percent of all doctorate holders do not have a parent that also holds a doctorate.

Which of the following is the most accurate evaluation of Hart's reply?

(A) It establishes that Choi's claim is an exaggeration.
(B) If true, it effectively demostrates that Choi's claim cannot be accurate.
(C) It is consistent with Choi's claim.
(D) It provides alternative reasons for accepting Choi's claim.
(E) It mistakes what is necessary for an event with what is sufficient to determine that the event will occur.

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

2006-07-30T18:14:00.000+05:30

Here are some wise answers ;)
----------------------------------

Plato: For the greater good.

Karl Marx: It was a historical inevitability.

Machiavelli: So that its subjects will view it with admiration,
as a chicken which has the daring and courage to
boldly cross the road, but also with fear, for whom
among them has the strength to contend with such a
paragon of avian virtue? In such a manner is the
princely chicken's dominion maintained.

Hippocrates: Because of an excess of light pink gooey stuff in its
pancreas.

Jacques Derrida: Any number of contending discourses may be discovered
within the act of the chicken crossing the road, and
each interpretation is equally valid as the authorial
intent can never be discerned, because structuralism
is DEAD, DAMMIT, DEAD!

Thomas de Torquemada: Give me ten minutes with the chicken and I'll find out.

Timothy Leary: Because that's the only kind of trip the Establishment
would let it take.

Douglas Adams: Forty-two.

Nietzsche: Because if you gaze too long across the Road, the Road
gazes also across you.

Oliver North: National Security was at stake.

B.F. Skinner: Because the external influences which had pervaded its
sensorium from birth had caused it to develop in such a
fashion that it would tend to cross roads, even while
believing these actions to be of its own free will.

Carl Jung: The confluence of events in the cultural gestalt
necessitated that individual chickens cross roads at
this historical juncture, and therefore
synchronicitously brought such occurrences into being.

Jean-Paul Sartre: In order to act in good faith and be true to itself,
the chicken found it necessary to cross the road.

Ludwig Wittgenstein: The possibility of "crossing" was encoded into the
objects "chicken" and "road", and circumstances came
into being which caused the actualization of this
potential occurrence.

Albert Einstein: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road crossed
the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

Aristotle: To actualize its potential.

Buddha: If you ask this question, you deny your own chicken-
nature.

Howard Cosell: It may very well have been one of the most astonishing
events to grace the annals of history. An historic,
unprecedented avian biped with the temerity to attempt
such an herculean achievement formerly relegated to
homo sapien pedestrians is truly a remarkable occurence.

Salvador Dali: The Fish.

Darwin: It was the logical next step after coming down from
the trees.

Emily Dickinson: Because it could not stop for death.

Epicurus: For fun.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: It didn't cross the road; it transcended it.

Johann von Goethe: The eternal hen-principle made it do it.

Ernest Hemingway: To die. In the rain.

Werner Heisenberg: We are not sure which side of the road the chicken
was on, but it was moving very fast.

David Hume: Out of custom and habit.

Jack Nicholson: 'Cause it (censored) wanted to. That's the (censored)
reason.

Pyrrho the Skeptic: What road?

Ronald Reagan: I forget.

John Sununu: The Air Force was only too happy to provide the
transportation, so quite understandably the chicken
availed himself of the opportunity.

The Sphinx: You tell me.

Mr. T: If you saw me coming you'd cross the road too!

Henry David Thoreau: To live deliberately ... and suck all the marrow
out of life.

Mark Twain: The news of its crossing has been greatly exaggerated.

Molly Yard: It was a hen!

Zeno of Elea: To prove it could never reach the other side.

Chaucer: So priketh hem nature in hir corages.

Wordsworth: To wander lonely as a cloud.

The Godfather: I didn't want its mother to see it like that.

Keats: Philosophy will clip a chicken's wings.

Blake: To see heaven in a wild fowl.

Othello: Jealousy.

Dr Johnson: Sir, had you known the Chicken for as long as I have,
you would not so readily enquire, but feel rather the
Need to resist such a public Display of your own
lamentable and incorrigible Ignorance.

Mrs Thatcher: This chicken's not for turning.

Supreme Soviet: There has never been a chicken in this photograph.

Oscar Wilde: Why, indeed? One's social engagements whilst in
town ought never expose one to such barbarous
inconvenience - although, perhaps, if one must cross a
road, one may do far worse than to cross it as the
chicken in question.

Kafka: Hardly the most urgent enquiry to make of a low-grade
insurance clerk who woke up that morning as a hen.

Swift: It is, of course, inevitable that such a loathsome,
filth-ridden and degraded creature as Man should assume
to question the actions of one in all respects his
superior.

Macbeth: To have turned back were as tedious as to go o'er.

Whitehead: Clearly, having fallen victim to the fallacy of
misplaced concreteness.

Freud: An die andere Seite zu kommen. (Much laughter)

Hamlet: That is not the question.

Donne: It crosseth for thee.

Pope: It was mimicking my Lord Hervey.

Constable: To get a better view.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Picked up from here.

Imagine

2006-07-23T13:20:00.000+05:30

By John Lenon :-

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

?You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Peace ...

Italy takes it all...

2006-07-10T18:41:00.000+05:30

I am not going to write about yesterday's world cup final, because I am fed up, both, hearing and reading about it almost everywhere now and thereby increase the redundant informational content of the universe.

I am not going to write about yesterday's world cup final because, France, my intuitive selection for rank 1, lost [:(].

I am not going to write about yesterday's world cup final, because zizou's capricious last minute act of headbutt (keeping all the logical and rationales behind), was an uncalled death of sportsman ship and in my friends language 'game ki haar'.

I am not going to write about yesterday's world cup final also because,
for the second time in the history of FIFA world cup finals, penalty shootouts had to be used, which I believe, perhaps relegates the glory of a 'team game' such as soccer, relinquishing the fate of two nations and hundreds other in their support, on the potentiality of two ~~mans~~ men and a ball.

And I am not going to write about yesterday's world cup final, because there were other great finals happening which need to get the limelight.

But yes, I am going to write about world cup 2006 because, it bids farewell and extends warm welcome to some great legends of world football.

I am going to write about the world cup 2006, because even though only 10% of the total world's population could manage to watch the Italians toasting with the golden cup, it united the whole world beyond nationalism, racism, like nothing else could.

And I guess I have written about the world cup of 2006, because never before in all those 25 years of my life, I have followed a sporting event in such a religious manner (except for the cliched cricket world cups).

And not for the least, I guess I have wriiten all this because the unremmitting memoirs of these last 30 days, will remain forever with me....

(Brazil & Superman) Returns....

2006-07-03T19:51:00.000+05:30

They are in to the hearts of billion around the world. They both are the supernatural heroes in the mind of people - one in reality and one in fantasy.They both have the formidable capability to twist 'n' twirl, and jump to reach their 'goal' in time. But, despite this parallelism, the return of these two, last weekend, had sent contrasting vibes flowing across the population of the planet - that of joy and of rue. One returned back to its homeland, with moist eyes, the other to the Daily Planet office, with yesteryear memories. Superman returned with a much awaited applause and Brazil with a much awaited defeat following the 12 successive wins in world cup finals after the last FIFA world cup.

To the dismay of half the world and my exultation( coz i ranked France no. 1 in a sweepstake), Brazil gave up on the 'effeminate' French team, fighting tooth and nail, to preserve its dignity and defending championship, only to return home empty handed this time. Like the inevitable rise and fall of a civilization, Brazil had to descend some time from the apex they've occupied for a period now, and is simply following a natural path of observing the rules set in nature - that which rises, has to fall. I am not asserting this loss against France as the pre-cursor to the downfall of sambian supremacy, but only that it may just be the right omen for the Brazil to analyse that indeed its for real.

Superman on the other hand did return with a grace, and charm,maintaining its valor and bridging those 28 years of hangover it spelled way back in 1978 with the release of original Superman. Brandon Routh dressed in simple skin tight attire, as was 28 years back, and with a drooping serpentine mane on the forehead, was stunning and equally enchanting for the adults who liked him in the first place, as he actualised on silver screen, the punch line of Adidas that indeed - 'Impossible is Nothing'. Far from the reality in the fantasy world, this invincible legend has not lost to its adversaries such as Spiderman, Batman, Neo, or even our local Indianized superhero Krissh, because the rules of nature I guess don't apply to the fancy land.

Two legends, two stories, and two different returns. Lets hope this world cup has more of this sort in store for us as the hollywood I am sure would have.

Zidane VS Ronaldinho

2006-06-28T21:31:00.000+05:30

Can't beat'em...never..

My Game is Fair Play

2006-06-17T15:29:00.000+05:30

Football world cup fever is on the surge and so is the enthusiasm of the ubiquitous soccer cult. People all over the world are supporting their nations except for the people here in India, who like me have no other choice but to rejoice on the winning jubilation of other countries. People here are content dribbling the larger look alike of football with their mahindra jeeps as a gesture to symbolise their passion for this sport. Stores in Bangalore even managed to put up a gigantic football imported from Thailand for display. Yet again to show how much love, a population of billion can spare for a sport, wherein its hard to find a team of handfuls out of those who would qualify to play from their side in world cup.

The last time ever an Indian team was noticeable in the world cup league was in the year of 1950. Then too the team had to withdraw from the matches because FIFA did not allow the Indian footballers to play bare feet against the rules. Since then it seems that Indian team has boycotted playing under the auspices of FIFA in world cup for continuously 14 times. And only time has to tell , if ever our team returns on the ground of a world cup league match after qualifying from the asian sub-group team of 4 countries namely (INDIA, OMAN, JAPAN and SINGAPORE).

Indianfootball.com proudly hosts a page on India's qualification matches (tagged as 'India's passage to Germany' ) with these countries. To disprove off the miserable and pathetic show put up in the qualifying matches by the Indian team, the page mentions that :

>> India finished third in a though group, which was won by Asian gigants Japan.

Gigant Japan, sounds hilarious. A strength of hundred million is gigantic for a strength of billion. That definitely is not a fair play on part of the indianfootball.com. With each kick targeted on the goal post, my wish to see indian team doing the same on that field has only risen, and risen to a point where I cannot withstand seeing India not play in the next world cup. But the efforts in that directions are still fruitless as greatbong puts it here. So, all in all for India the game is a far cry and not a fair play for a longer time.

NUMBER 10

2006-06-13T15:08:00.000+05:30

The King of Football- The legendary 'Black Pearl' in action. The background score is definitely not to be ignored.

Fully Faltoo

2006-05-29T22:28:00.000+05:30

What does MTV do to fill up its horde of void air-time? Perhaps the same thing I intend to do right now. Something completely 'Faltoo' or 'Futile' to say in english. Though these two words cannot be technically termed as homonyms, yet somehow both of them can qualify as a slangish translation of the other in their own native languages. That is to say, each is the originator of the other. Somehow we as hindi-tongue metamorphosed the word 'Futile' over a period of time, bounded by our immature penchant to include english words in our daily talks, in to what MTV proudly broadcasts as a full fledged package of so called fabricated 'inter-tainment'.

Or maybe, Brits as english-toungue during their era of Indian oppression, realized that they have been missing a word, whose meaning they would have never grasped by heart, only because of their belief that the sun never sets in the english empire and that they have never done anything, during the whole course of their civilization, which in essence qualified as pointless or fruitless. So they embezzled the word 'Faltoo', transposed the letters 'l' and 't', polished it with some english ascent and ahhaaa...got a whole new word - 'Futile'.

OK, whatever be the background of these words, the reason as I made clear in the beginning, is to spend time writing something 'Fully Faltoo', something without heads or tails, something which has no literary value, or which can be read mechanically like a verbose paragraph but makes no sense at all. And its indeed a tough task- to not make sense. Give a shot on writing something gibbrish, keeping the grammar intact with the proper use of words, and I bet you end up writing something useful for someone.

But is that the case always, and with everyone, becasueI seriously doubt what I opined above. Thanks, to a white paper which I am fighting to convert for the past two weeks, into a more meaningful,informative and purposive document. I think white papers, are more loyal towards their name, by being 'White', in a holistic sense, with not an iota of information to disperse to its readers. And in this fight I have been compelled to believe that 'lingerie' alone is not the only manifestation of brevity, but 'white papers' too are in the same league.

Anyhow, the goal seems to have been defeated here, because the post is not substantially 'Futile' in a satisfactory sense, or may be it is, who knows, except for the one who can make sense out of it. Besides, sleep is one thing , that can make a genius, think not with his head, but tail, and that's what am doing I guess. I'll better cull this down here and get some 'fruitful' sleep.

Despise-List

2006-05-14T18:57:00.000+05:30

Most people are alive because its illegal to shoot them.Someone had said. And that's true to the last of its word in my opinion. To be honest I was a bit apprehensive at first to write a post on the demeanour of others, but after 4(+3) days of futile procrastination, I finally decided to let go it.

Well to put it straight - Man is a social animal. And I just can't stop laughing because that phrase holds a very special and cliched status in my local friend circle. But its pertinent here for the kind of double meaning it circulates, one which implies that Man is unlike Animal because Man is social, and the second that Man is after all an animal. Carrying this foundation forward to the the point I intend to bring in - That its natural for us as 'residual animals' to not like certain individuals, or group of people around us because of their demeanor. So that 'despise list' of ours, consisting of those, whom we despise for one or the other reasons( and at times without reason also), automatically becomes a natural product owned by each of us.

Speaking of which, I would like to present with some quintessential of the very like, who in one or the other manifestations would be present in the despise list of everybody. So the first place in my hit list is occupied by the - The Uncle Jacks' ( basically the jack of all trades..and masters of none..) -
Though you may at first instance not be able to relate them as any distant relative of Uncle Sam, but it takes a few minutes of chinwag, that you start disliking them (like you do Uncle Sam) for the reasons,you cant even dare to tell them. They know more than you about the profession you are in. So, obviously you just cant undermine the complex of self-ignorance by discussing theirs with them. They would not mind giving you advice on anything ranging from a cure for common cold to whether your computer needs a DDR-I or II RAM. They are the best possible local ( and moving) britanica's available around you, without any guarantee on the veracity of their informational content. Personally, I just hate to even see such people around me, but that they unfortunately keep popping somewhere among my relatives, gives me a bad bad time on social occasions.

Next in the list are those who can be straight away classified as despicable for no reason at all except for their mirror cracking,ugly and unwelcome faces that you have to encounter everyday in your workplace because like the lyrics of Enrique's song goes - You can run, You can hide, but you cannot escape - their faces. That's the case, there are faces in your office which make you delighted, which give you a pleasant feeling, and then there are the faces of these second kind - which will keep hitting you, for you dont like to see them. Don't know what's with these faces after all. I agree that an ugly face doesn't qualify as a demeanor at a person's level, but tell you what, most of the times an ugly face entails an equally forbidding demeanor which can piss you off.

And yes, the third kind - Hypocrites. Can be found in abundance everywhere. Maybe you can count yourself as one among them. Infact I have tried many a times during self inspection not to relinquish myself as yet another brick in the wall of hypocrites, but I think its just not possible. Hypocrites in themselves are not bummers, its the preposterous act of boasting the hypocrisy which can make you kill them. They can talk about the impotency of government one minute and in the next flaunt their ingenuity by telling you the ways of tax evasion. They can argue on cons of prostitution if legalised in India, and beg you the same hour for the next MMS clip. They can proudly speak of their agnosticism and pray in the temple next day for the exams. Such are they , that you woudn't feel bad to have them executed for being what they are.

But Off all the reasons one can have for despising others, I feel its this despise list which keeps you from following or doing or behaving in a manner you dont like in others. Thus its as necessary and vile as a list to have one.

Frizza

2006-05-01T14:32:00.000+05:30

Well, that's what you call a pizza, when it comes for free - a Frizza (Free pizza) !. For us however the word fits more cleverly as our weekend luncheon on a more or less regular basis. Hold it dont start clicking for your dictionaries. Oxford is still to give recognition to this word, but only after they recieve a letter of requisition for the same. Any volunteers for that? - do contact me (shouldn't be hard !).

The etymology of this word can be easily understood in the context of Pizzas, because the only thing you can get for free in this world and that too delivered at your door steps is a Pizza(* conditions apply). Thanks to those MNC's and their global objective capitalistic philosophies prevailing in the world today which enunciates - 'Customer is our God'. And damn sure I am, that after a frizza you'll certainly 'feel like a god'.

So, we have devised an almost unfailing and pragmatic plan (the average succes rate stands somewhere at 3 out of 5 times) for anyone to obtain a free pizza, but you will have to read this whole post till the end to get to that. No no, don't start scrolling coz its not even at the end. Because you must always remember - There are no free lunches in this world ;).

Frizza as I would put it in the marketing language, is more of a corporate retaliation of Do-mi-noes against the Freshizzaa of Pizza Hut (Dominoes does not like to promote the same for unknown reasons even I dont know). But somehow I have a definite penchant for the former and an equally strong dislike for the latter. There are blatant differences between the two. We know it all. But what most of us will not know is how to get one i.e. a frizza. Most certainly any voracious pizza eater would some or the other time have had a pizza feast when the delivery man gets late and by the company policy of '30 minutes or free' s/he would be more than happy for not paying for it.

But how about gettting the same at the success rate of 3 out of 5 times. Sounds, interesting, isn't it. So here are some tips -

1.) Always order a pizza at the peak hour. Peak hours include the rush traffic hours when ppl retrun from their offices in the evening.

2.) If you never read the weather section of your newspaper, take up the habit of reading it today itself. Because if your city is going to witness an unwelcome rain or a storm in the evening, you got to make the best of it by ordering a pizza after the sunset.

3.) On weekends, for the lazybones and breakfast skippers like me who would not like to step out of their home or even their room, their lunch orders suddenly start to weigh heavily on nearest pizza shop. So for an afternoon frizza meal, check if your clock shows post 1230 hours, its the best time to order the pizza.

4.) Always start your stop watch the second you put down your phone after ordering your frizza. For a frizza you ought to be on your toes. Counting each second that passes, ready to show the delivery boy his ineptness of missing that 30 minute deadline by a 'second'.

5.) Most of the pizza shops keep a database of number, addresses and the associated person and the name of delivery boy who last delivered a pizza there. So always try to place your order with different numbers of your friends in turn to order a pizza.

6.) In continuation to the above tip, keep atleast 3-4 different formats of your home address handy. For e.g. an address of the sort - Flat No. -1 , ABC Apt, XYZ Street can be provided as

a) 1st Floor, 1st Flat, ABC Apt on XYZ Street.
b) ABC Apt, Near (some landmark) , Flat No-1, XYZ Street.
c) Flat No-1 , ABC Apt, Near (some landmark) , PIN-xxxxxx.

This would ensure that it takes some time for them to figure out that its the same location where they have already shipped the pizza.

7.) And last but not the least - Ingrain yourself of the fact that a free pizza is your birth right. So dont feel shy or ashamed while demanding a free pizza when your delivery runs out of time even by a margin of a second. Because unless you contain that obduracy and shamelessness to do that, you dont really deserve to eat a frizza.

Ok, I guess those should be enough, unless you have your customized versions in addition to all the above tips which you can add on to the list as your comments. I just recalled a (poor) joke in context to my frizza delivery shop - Dominoes, which goes something like this -
What is the opposite of Domi-noes?
-Domi-does-not-know.(select the white part with mouse if you give up)

And it rightly goes along in here, because Dominoes really does not know that there are people like us who will not forgo a single chance to keep the Dominoes profit short of their share.

A Century - Zipped in a song !

2006-04-25T16:50:00.000+05:30

I spent my most part of today's sedentary work schedule listening to this one song which as the title aptly puts has compressed almost all of the major 'should-know-about' events/legends/wars/inventions and from anything to everything that ever came in news headlines during the last century. And if your guesses are in place it shouldn't be hard ( atleast for those who take the lyrics of 'angrezi' songs a bit seriously and not try to chew the undecipherable ascent of the english singers at times) to hit the bull's eye.

Yes its one of the Billy Joels' selfcomposed (both lyrics and music)song from the 1989 album Storm Front. - We didn't Start the Fire. The song is composed of names and phrases which made history of the 20th century as we know it today. It can be so intriguing to see that each and every single word (except ofcourse the chorus part) hides in itself a news-making story of its time and I am not exaggerating this fact. Take a look here and see for yourself. So much so that one of the sites promotes the song as an excellent education tool for teachers and students and I cannot agree more to that although history has never been my cup of tea at school.

Still I feel that this song is indeed a one stop shop for many of us like me to know and learn those wrapped in time realities, which are so completely different from each other in all aspects, yet have been cornered down at one place and called upon one by one like the siblings of a large family. How much great, fullfilled and accomplished it may seem in its purpose, the song I feel misses that one name from the Songwriter's hall of fame, of that one legend who introduced Piano rock - that of Billy Joel himself.

Success is relative.

2006-04-18T20:43:00.000+05:30

Nearly a decade back a quite popular advertisement took rounds on TV, which sought an answer to this question - "Hum kamate kyon hain (Why do we earn?) " And then precariously assuming that nobody could answer that question, the lead in the ad , with a mouth full of delicacies presented the obvious answer - "Khane ke liye ( To eat )". I bought that answer easily ten years back like any other high-school student for whom working and earning are two big words in themselves. But ten years down the line that answer seems to have lost its convincing touch.

I have never not even once I guess given a thought to why and what for am I working. Definitely my work pays for my bread and butter but unlike the prominence it had in that advertisement, earning my livelihood is not the prime and sole objective of working for me and likewise for others. Because today we don't work and earn only to eat, today we work and earn - to earn more than others, to get an edge over others in terms of financial security. For us pay packages now weigh more than the kind and quality of work they associate to. One has to work hard enough to maintain what s/he continues to earn and strive to look for better opportunities which pay more so that others are behind them in that rat race of eating more than what they can chew.

So, What amount should qualify as a limiting, respectable, good and complacent earning for anyone? Well the answer to this correlates somewhat to the definition of limit of functions and might look something like this with very slight modifications :

For every δ > 0 there should exist ε > 0 such that f (x) − L > ε
whenever x E D and 0 < |x − c| < δ.

Where ε and δ are as always real numbers, x defines your skill set, f(x) defines your expectant salary (which evidently is a function of your skill set). However very interesting are the numbers defined by L and c. L is the salary which others are getting and c represents their skill set. So what I've written above can be rephrased in simpler words as - The difference between the expectant package or cash one thinks one should get and what others are getting should always remain positive even though the difference between one's skill set and that of others can be negative at times.( If you remember the exact defintion of limits you can notice that the modulus has been removed from the first inequality in view of that.)

I guess what Eliot meant in his quote 'Success is relative' - that you are not successful unless you are more successful than others is a much simpler version of exactly the same idea what I am trying to put across here. But should that not be seen as a perptual and eternal effort on one's part. Because there's always someone ahead of you and someone behind you, which although projects a linear view instigating one to incessantly invest their efforts to reach the front end of it , only to realize that it is essentially behaving as a vicious circle.

~ Untill next time happy circular running !!

Obituary: Death of development

2006-04-07T16:53:00.000+05:30

If at all I created an unrest amongst those money worshippers through my last post which proclaimed 500 bucks as not a torrential sum, I would like to present them with this and vindicate myself. I read this article today morning as I picked up TOI with due reluctance after a substantial time gap, only to find a budding parallelism between us (me and TOI) along with a surprise (ahh not again !!) of seeing others who think like me. But unlike me, their thinking has a very mammoth structure( kahan 500 aur kahan 1Cr !! ). Big difference isn't it.

As you might have read by now and even if not, the article says that its not surprising since
after all the Indian economy is booming. Most definitely. Because I can very proudly boast myself being somewhere at the center of the testimony to this statement. Who else if not for India's youth(and that too in IT industry) can be a proper witness to this boom. And for those who still disapprove of this - I would tell them that a Crore is now a middle class term, that even the service class people can now think of buying Mercedes, that luxury cars have kicked off Maruti 800 to the sub-urban roads, that people are prosperous even without worshipping Laxmi and yes that the sensex is moving under the pull of anti-gravity.

But does this all even make sense to those who will disapprove, to those who are completely untouched by this rapidly changing face of urban India, to those who are committing suicide
because of lack of money in a 'booming economy' - because for them a crore is something like a room full of currency notes, for them Mercedes is a car from another planet and Maruti 800 still qualifies as a 'Car' - some thing that runs on four wheels, for them money is just another manifestation of 'Laxmi' and sensex for them is maybe an abbreviation of sensual-sex.

I might be sounding pessimist, in trying to paste this all-groovy face of new India with an ugly and scraped one. But it remains an equally important yet ignored facet which we cannot override or run away from. Not disparaging the overall growth and development that India has achieved in a sudden burst of industrialization over a short period of time, but this evolution has segregated the population in a concerning manner. Rich have become more richer, poor more poorer that too to an extent of ending their lives because of poverty.

This disjoint set of people who have not been benefitted but rather infact exploited for the sake of development of another set is the one which actually needs to see the daylight of the enthusiastic achievements of India. 'Incomplete knowledge is dangerous' goes a popular saying, but I would say an incomplete and broken development which is not all round and that does not benefits all is perhaps more dangerous instead 'fatal'.

500+ and counting....

2006-04-04T11:12:00.000+05:30

I could only imagine. Until I saw the page views of my blog crossing the 500 mark, today. Not as if I was waiting for it to write this post but the complacent feeling it has brought along is definitely no less than that of Kumble cracking his 500th Test wicket or that brokers watching the BSE index cutting-across the five-figure mark. Although unlike the hard earned joy of Kumble, mine has been earned relatively easier and sweat free.
And that kills my exultation.
It took him 16 long and patient years to achieve it. For me it took less than 90 days.
And that inhibits my triumph.
He earned millions on his way towards his 500th wicket. I earned zilch.
Someone I know, would be thinking at this point about this absurd analogy here.... so fine no more comparison of oranges and apples. I rest my case.

But, looking in depth to this crossing of 500 mark revealed no such great achievement on my part. Since a very significant percentage of total views came from the nano-audience of my blog which comprises of very specific two or three or maybe four regular visitors ( including me !). However, the diversity of people from about ten politically separated geographical boundaries who contributed in whatever way to take this count where it is today, is something truly pacifying for me. Sadly, though none of them were regular.

Out of these 500 hits on my blog, I guess even half of them cannot qualify as proper visits because people came looking for the new posts day after day while I wasn't even near to any thought of updating my blog, resulting in an uncalled increase in the hit count of my page. For the very same reason in fact I personally avoid hustling around on the blogs and in the process invoke the site meter attached to them. Instead I subscribe to the XML/RSS feeds from the blog sites which I like to visit again for the new updates. This way I stave off from visiting the site unnecessarily and also remain informed about any new posts on them automatically.

In the very first place when I started writing, there was no intention of mine to trace my visitors and keep count of how many of them walked through my blog page. Slowly yet quite fast I realized that most of the blog owners have used one or the other way to do so, compelling me to abide by that unsaid and unwritten code of conduct. But seriously it goes beyond my comprehension to visualize those bloggers as neo-narcissists who on one hand try to convince themselves of their popularity by looking at their visitor stats and on the other - talk altruism. Quintessential Hypocrites !.

Whatever it be, as a no-earner, 500 bucks used to be a big figure not long back - it still is but has lost its grandeur. I think its just a matter of clock hands before I make myself more accustomed once and for all to this hit count business and not be intrigued by any such 'breaking-news'.

The uptown girl , The downtown train.

2006-03-24T16:31:00.000+05:30

I have been hearing something called as ' Opportunity Cost', quite frequently these days. My flat mate recounted the incident of an interview session at IIMB wherein a girl candidate was thoroughly convinced by her interview panel that she's better off not joining any IIM becuase her cost of opportunity if she enters into an IIM will be far more than what she would otherwise be able to generate if at all shes does not enter into the same. Obviously that was a simple number game played by the interviewers as part of their usual soft beating they do around with candidates . But yes, there's an element of truth, and a hard-headed fact somewhere in that game - That is, MBA is the way to 'fancy money'.

So if the question is 'Why MBA?' , the most common and grounded answer one hears is - ' For Money' and only few would give you an answer such as ' I want to learn', ' Marketing,Finance, Banking are my passions' or ' I need a value addition in my profile'. No wonder with a surge in foreign placements from top B-Schools, and an ever increasing thickness of pay packages, who the hell after all will be concerned with learning and value-addition.

And that's where I think is a thick line of difference between those entering IIT's and those entering IIM's or take it even one level higher - between aspirants of engineering and aspirants of management. For the former, money is not a direct motivation for gettting into their dream institution but for the latter perhaps that's the only one. Money or job is not an issue in the minds of students entering the IITs or mayb other engg institutions also, because aspirations are different. People there enter with a different philosophy, with a different craze and with an insanity of doing and learning the only thing for which they have toiled so hard to get into. But I am seriously skeptical if the same holds with those entering B-Schools.And because money comes easy( now that's something contentious here ) after an MBA, is why every other graduate in this country is bidding on doing MBA.

The other time 'Opportunity Cost' made its appearance, suddenly erupting in the middle of my discussion with someone, I knew that this word is going rounds these days, adding more hep to everyone's post-modernist jargon and that too completely cost free. The issue in discussion was the exorbitantly high fees of ISB, that is providing at least an inhibition towards my inclination to apply in there. And pat came out this word as he tried to explain me that one should think like a businessman even when one is not and see that return of investment one year down the line in terms of saving my whole one year ( the MBA curriculum at ISB is of one year. ) and the package I would earn in that saved on year will eventually pay me back the cost of that opportunity, obviously ignoring the facts of any kind of value addition, or learning or even my interest in doing that at personal level.

Far away from all these real-world implication of the word 'opporunity cost', its business value, economic aspects and what not, I kept wondering is that all left in this world to calculate, to even before grabbing an opportunity see the costs involved and leave it if its exceptionally high but hold it if its not much and meanwhile the TV kept playing an unknown video song on a channel, in which a guy jumps off, of a moving downtown train, beholded by the amazing beauty of a downtown girl walking in the opposite direction of train he saw across its windowpane. I rejoiced at the thought that at least somethings still need not be weighed on the balance of 'oppotunity cost'.

Bloganalysis

2006-03-11T00:22:00.000+05:30

With no Bush around, no political uproars, no new releases and no
substantial turnarounds, it's been difficult for me to write. So
reading loads of blogs in search of content and topics (read as
'masala' in local terms !) has been a gud pass time in last few days.
And except for few definitely good posts I came across, most of them
stood as dead as mine, with no new posts of late. In one such post by
Youth Curry, a complete statistical analysis of the blog world is
beautifully presented.

I will quote some lines from it, and not provide the direct link (Yes,
I want to take credit and also fatten up this post, without thinking
hard ;D). Just kidding, with due acknowledgement to the original
author, here are some startling, some boring and some plain facts
about the blogdom along with some of my own researched ones.

- 98% of India is still unaware of what a blog is.

- In the blogosphere's superpower(who else but the US), most Internet
users - 62 per cent according to a survey by the Pew Internet and
American Life Project - aren't exactly sure what a blog is.

- The Google for blogger is www.technorati.com, a search engine that
tracks blogs.

- A scant 9 percent of net users read blogs frequently.

- Out of the thirteen activities on net Gallup measured in its poll,
reading blogs finished dead last.

- The number of blogs which are 'active in some way' is just 20% of
the 'total'.

- At the close of 2002, there were some 15,000 blogs compare it to the
'total' figure today which stands at somewhere around 28 million.

- More than 56 new blogs start every minute.

- Those updated in the last 30 days account for a mere 13%.

- Only two blogs get more than 1 million visitors a day and the
numbers drop quickly after that: the 10th ranked blog for traffic
gets around 120,000 visits; the 50th around 28,000; the 100th around
9,700; the 500th only 1,400 and the 1000th under 600.

- IBN is the first Indian media company to start 'official' blogs'.

Well, those were some pacifying facts for me, as the figures reflect a
not so intimidating plethora of bloggers and I can count myself as one
of those early birds, who's not in search of any prey. The blogger
community is as varied and diverse as the global citizenry itself. And
so are the posts - from politics to humour to sarcasm, to critcism to
a complete movement, its all there on blogs. Bloggers have realized
the inherent power and reach of this medium that they are overjoyed in
having such a means at their disposal. BlankNoiseProject

is one such social movement which appalls the profanity of eve-teasing in a very silent and organized way. With IIPM issue already handled in a surprisingly unified way
by this community more and more people are using blogs as a perfect
non-violent tool for expressing their outrage.

But its not only about contriving protests, expressing against or in
favor of different causes. There are people who've gained limelight
and popularity as bloggers, by the very style of their writing and
humorous yet sensitive content. With competitions in place for best
bloggers in various categories and readers voting with far more sense
of responsibility than they have for general elections, blogging has
kind of become a serious business. Those like me who don't consider it
any more significant than a bathing exercise cater only to a
nano-audience - which comprises of and is limited to one's friends and
family circles, or ocassionally of few more regular readers, adding up
to not more than 20 or something visitors daily.

Where as the big bullies of blogdom attract a torrential number of
regular readers to their posts. With almost a million daily hits on
the most popular one ( and that's close to the average of 1.7 million
visitors per weekday which the online edition of The New York Times
receives) blogging is catching up pretty fast with the other media in
place.

Certainly neither aiming at such a popularity chart or coming even
close to these types is the idea behind my blogging, but what
certainly intrigues me is how far and to what extent will this
powerful form of tech-media expression go in future.

--

Beating around the 'Bush'

2006-03-03T16:29:00.000+05:30

Bush was...sorry...he's still very much alive and here in India. Infact today's he's unintentionally letting Hyderabad's traffic go haywire. But I didn't let him see me[as if he cared ;)]. You see I have my own priorities to manage . But yes a whole cult of people out there from all parts of the country are more than obsessed to greet him with anything black they can lay their hands on.

So, what is it all about telling Uncle Sam, that he's a persona-non-grata (obviously not officially) in India?. I dont recall Bush's government putting any sanctions, or reclaiming all those jobs which have been outsourced here, or even for that matter doing anything to disturb the childhood of any young Indian. Still the coverage of protests on various news channels against Bush's visit is rivaling the coverage of his own entourage. I doubt even if half of those dissenting, know about the acts of Bush for which he should be despised. I confront, even I dont know with clarity what is the percentage of truth in his dark side which makes him a subject of worldwide reproach, but then am not going to become a part of that black balloon campaign against him. Instead I would rather prefer to sit here on my desk - unprejudiced and unbiased about his actions, and try to decide which side I should take.

The fact that Clinton during his presidential visit did not witness his effigies burning on mid-roads, rules out that certainly the protest this time is not against the American government, or the nuke-deal, or Laura Bush exacting herself as a 'desperate housewife' ( which might have provoked those pro-indian shiv sainiks), but solely and only against that one man - who unfortunately still lags behind, in the process of evolution of human species.

People, I think need a reason to protest, if not all of them, atleast the members of 'Lef t' certainly do. I have never ever heard 'Left' not being a part of protest of any kind. Looks like they are born 'Protesters'. From hike in oil prices, to privatization, to breach of the protocol by the government (incidentally this time they are part of the coalition) , to any god damn thing on earth - they will protest against. Being a leftist is demanding it seems. Whatever it be ( I don't give a damn to these protests), Bush's visit has certainly raised eyebrows - some in contempt and some in hope. But being an optimist I definitely don't like to look at the negative aspects when there are other seemingly hopeful and positive turnarounds. The all hyped Indo-US Nuclear deal is just one of those aspiring things which I somehow have been able to appreciate out of all the crap - whether it materializes ( that depends if bush goes back to convince congress) or not is a different issue.

However, for that 70% population comprising of common and general mass, it's a matter of minutest significance whether India gets an uninterrupted supply of Uranium for civilian nuclear reactors or not, the more important thing is whether at the end of the day, all this chaos and gala affair will eventually help to make a better difference in their lives. Sadly No. He came, He saw, He left - is all what Bush's visit to India would mean to a silent citizen who will remain flashed amidst all the limelight thrown over at Mr . President by media. Press would continue to analyze the joint statements and minutes of those high-level diplomatic meetings for few days, untill another sting operation or a new scam would finally take over the front pages and 'exclusive' reports on all news channels.

As I write this, US choppers hovering above in the city sky, giving an impression no less than that of a global emergency similar to the ones depicted in sci-fi movies of alien attacks, have finally touched ground to let president board on any one of the three Air Force One's, randomly decided at the last minute ( That's my guess, for what other than this purpose those 2 extra boeings accompanied Bush's caravan) .

I was just wondering if US could possibly have faked this whole Presidential visit by sending a look-alike of Bush to India (If people can doubt US mission to Moon as being faked, I dont think their is any exaggeration in my thinking the same about Bush's visit to India) because of their exorbitant concerns related to Presidents security that even the food for Bush was flown down from US itself. I guess packaging and shipping of the atmosphere along with the climate and air is still an ongoing research in Pentagon, that left Mr. President with no other choice but to breathe in Indian air.

All's not well that ends well - Bush will head for Pakistan where preparations for giving a warm (rather burning) welcome to him are in progress. A bomb blast ceremony in front of a US consulate took place yesterday in view of this. This guy has his admirers all over the world I must say [;)].

However, my wishes as a fellow human are always with him. ( Whopes !! did I say human.)

This biography of Bush is a good read , I found while researching for the content of this blog.

Avertible Inevitables.

2006-03-01T00:49:00.000+05:30

This off late reticence of mine is no sign of my busy schedule ( It's more than 7 days since my last post !!) or even of my ineptitude to write without having anything in my mind - like those top-of-head posts which I had already attempted to write once, sadly without any voyeuristic satisfaction.
Besides no one was really bothered this time so as to bother me out of their craving to read me. But believe me that wouldn't have helped anyways. I will disclose why, but later.

I guess writing without even having a vague idea of what one is writing is fun both for the reader and the author unless the structure and language control are completely incongruous with that vague top-of-head idea. Not to panic, this one's definitely not from that league. It has all the sense I can possibly put into it.

The past few days, I have spent more time on net than before, yet it comes as no surprise to me, that my blog did not play host to any new post all that while. Not that I completely forgot about it, or that there were other hard pressed issues which digressed me but because of an experiment I was trying upon my own self. The experiment to try to avert all those inevitables I have been living with - Inevitable both in terms of events and objects.

The events which have coup over to govern my life. The objects which have insidiously became an indispensable part of my earlier 'have-lived-without-them' life. These such as the cell phone which has evolved more or less like an organ of my body, its address book which is like my own identity proof (even though it does not have my own contact details), the bike which has rented me that insecure freedom of movement, that debit card in my wallet which lets me wander disembarrassed from hassles of paper money, those email accounts which make me feel my presence and last but not the least- this blog which gives a sense of possession to me, are the quintessentials of those objects.

I dread these seemingly superficial indispensables which have kind of over occupied me and left me gasping for that little volume of fresh air, to which I have the right. I found that the things which I thought I could not forgo or dispense with, can actually be made dispensable and I have decided to stave off from them in turn. Its just that my blog happened to be the first subject of my experiment but nevertheless it does not disparages or lowers it in any manner. The idea of this experiment came about involuntarily when I switched to a new mobile which did not had my address book. It was more than a realization for me, that I could easily manage to live without my address book. It was not something for which I need to be unnecessarily careful about or be apprehensive of loosing just in case it actually got lost.

A similar record which an instructor during my time-management course narrated pertaining to his life abetted this belief of mine. He said that he has practiced to keep his mobile switched off whenever he's in a session. Though at the start of this practice he did feel uncomfortable and concerned about missing any important/urgent calls and of possibly breaking the hell upon him if he did not recieve those calls. However, when he looked back at those 10-15 years of his professional life he had lived normally without the facility of being contacted in any emergency hours by anyone because mobiles were not in use in those days, that he recognized the fact that he still can manage to forgo the use of it, if not at all times then at least for the time he's in session. And since then, he says that he has never felt either the guilt or been vexed because of this practice.

So, the idea is clear, our disposition to make every little, unimportant, and avoidable event or thing, an indispensable part of our lifestyle, is what is killing and torturing. Clearly its not easy to either filter out necessary from unnecessary or discern all of our actions but a little practice would certainly help. Trying to spend one day without a mobile in the pocket, without that urge to check your favorite news site or the email account, without rushing back to watch that episode of your favorite soap, without the notion of that insecure freedom of movement your bike renders, without that sense of security of having the debit card in your wallet and then see the color of the new freedom, the thrust of its wings, which we have unintentionally kept ourselves devoid of.

I know it all sounds puritanical and prudish but I know that I would be the last person on this planet to become a puritan so its not something out of my philosophical inclination but rather out of my experience. The crux to all this crap is - do/use/believe/maintain/produce something only to the extent that if it comes, one can easily manage to live without it and have one's freedom and dependency completely disjoint from it. It's a commonly felt notion that desires drives the necessities of our times which eventually make us our own hostage and bondage to their dependencies.

Thus, Passion->Obsession->Obligation was one series, and Desire->Nescessity->Bondage is the next one I have discovered for my own rejoice.

A Trite called 'Celebrity'

2006-02-21T12:22:00.000+05:30

Every time I watch these 'Celebrities', (more profoundly fingered by today's SMS generation as 'Celebs') either on TV channels or newspapers, I don't know for whatever reasons, I start dwelling into and about their lives. Very often it's because they've struck my fancy just simply with that floating aura around the exotic look of theirs,(that however happens mostly in case of female celebs[;)] ) and some times because I think they are tasteful enough to be included in, as part of my food for thought.

The word 'Celebrities' I use in a very strict sense here which excludes those Page-3 jamborees, who will out of their desire for ephemeral popularity not mind paying out thick sums to get their pictures published on Page-3 of all those untouchable blotting tabloids. Innocent they are of the fact that it is the status quo as celebrity which puts someone on the paper and not the other way round. Celebrity status is something one earns - not by socialising but through exception making.

Now the general perception of a celebrity for a common man is I believe - someone who's glamorous (with a black goggle somewhere on the face), and always escorted by at least one colt armed bodyguard. The underlying assumption - more the number of bodyguards skirting around a celebrity the higher is his or her status and popularity.!! And there's a whole gamut of celebrities one can observe upon a close look around. They come in all various types and can be classified as per their profession, popularity level( as in local, national, global) and the associated enchantment.

The professional classification includes a wide range starting from being the most classy and ostentatious show business capitalists i.e. Film Stars to a little less enticing (but not smaller in any sense when its comes to the control of masses !!) small screen TV serial actors to Cricketing Heroes, Tennis Sensations then to Politicians and Underworld Dons and even extend up to the wildest thing one can imagine - Encounter Specialists.

Although the popularity level correlates quite closely to the profession of the celebrity, there are some who are equally popular as their highest counterparts, when their talent and skill of exception making could not have budged their popularity graphs even slightly above the zilch if not for the controversies which overhauled their image. People like MF Hussein, Mallika Sherawat, Jaya Lalitha, Bal Thakrey etc etc belong to this ordinary league. But who cares, its the limelight which matters in the end, controversies are just the bulbs which generate that limelight!

Coming to the next classification - Associated Enchantment - Now this is something truly materialistic and carnal when looked holistically. So all those quintessential femme fatales and almond eyed -sugar clad dolls rule the celebrity chart of men's while those flamboyant chocolate heroes with egressing sinews do the same for all the women's. Its simple mathematics. Celebrities have always been closely associated with beauty and charm and that's where this classfication plugs in. The pre-req of being a celebrity has for long been, knowing the art of body perfection. So even if you are not a big shot or talented in any way, your god-gifted enchantment will take you places and build up a huge fan following.

Gone are those days when one could count celebrities on fingers. Few could then qualify as a celebrity, since opportunities were limited and there was no deluge of information of the kind which current media has drowned us in. A completly new concept has emerged lately - that of Celebrity-Making, that has materialized itself to become a dissolute profession which in the disguise of Talent Hunts and other Reality Shows has already started to cash in on the dreams and armaans of people. People there, become celebrities day-in and day-out and this has lured others to jump into that fire-fighting exercise.

But this rat race of becoming a celebrity has diluted the very essence of the word 'celebrity'. If everyone becomes a celebrity then does that even leave a space for exception-making, which essentially is all about being a 'celebrity' in the first place. Its decreasingly becoming a game of proving one's self, and instead of succumbing ones dignity, self-respect and integrity to the mercy of those lewd channels, newspapers and dot-coms to gain that elixir called 'fame'.

Celebrity is someone who, according to me, can leave a lasting impression on people, who has the courage to leave a mark on the history and who can give back to make this world a better place, quite in contradiction to the kinds which exist today.

I guess pursuing simplicity and living like the common man of Laxman, will definitely earn me some popularity or even make me one of those 'celebs' in future when everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.

Online 24x7 !

2006-02-19T02:06:00.000+05:30

'The Network is the computer'- Sun Microsystems Inc.

The undisputable truth of this computer age.. Huh.! as if I realized it today!..no..that was almost a decade ago, when I had my first encounter with networking during my school days. 'LAN' was the word, which proudly took its prominence in the vocabulary of our daily talk then. We jumped with enthusiasm similar to that of a small child who gets a new toy to play with and completely unaware of the complexities inside it.

It was not long, before we learned skills to extract whatever little fun we could out of it. But to the dismay our fun was restricted, both out of our fear of the teachers and ignorance about this new technology at our disposal - sending messages across network to different machines and accessing our C++ program files from the server using our logins was all that we did and remained content with. Obviously Internet, Email, Multiplayer network games and Instant Messaging were some of the words we never heard at that time.

Two years down the line LAN became an indispensable part of computing during IITK. A year later Internet came as a mercenary in our lives making us invincible in our wars against those undoable projects and assignments of the courses. Emails took the place of hand written letters and Instant messengers substituted for phone calls. Multiplayer network games like AOE and Counter-Strike became best time-killers. And now almost a decade later internet has almost occupied our time schedule becoming more than a way of living our lives.

And with free internet access at the work place and an equally good access( and yes its free during night hours) at home now, its hard to now even look back at the pre-internet era of my life.

Net is often argued as the inalienable symbol of freedom in all senses, a freedom which however bills us not on our money but our time. Though we do realize how dependent and addicted it has made us on itself, still its something we can not forgo. So much so that its 600 hrs in the morning and I guess its time to get rid of this addiction now.

EXIT.

AdSense or Nonsense

2006-02-16T20:13:00.000+05:30

Make Money - Use Google's Adsense.

No am not advertising AdSense here, in fact that would be the last thing on earth, I would do on my blog - i.e. to have google's AdSense overrun the chastity of my blog page and make it unclean.I don't completely understand if it even makes sense to have one's blog littered of ads patched on it by google's adsense, when the sole purpose of a blog is to provide a personal web space to its owner.

The idea doesn't makes sense, even when looked in parallel to the television industry which sucks huge amount of money for those split second ads becoz in contrast to the ads on television which are more or less controlled by demand and supply economics, the information on net is free, liberal and blatant, not governed by any force, or law, or act.

And that's because Internet evolved in a very different way when compared to other forms of media meant for information exchange as in print, television or radio where commercialization plays an important role. Internet was born free, and intended to remain free for ever.

AdSense is the google's most(or perhaps the only) powerful revenue generating club, only because of the monopolistic control of google over the search market and aristocratic hold on the information we can access. Google.cn is the perfect example of how political sycophancy has played role in restricting access to information to the people at large.

How many of us (not me atleast) notice what those blue colored text ads, on the sidelines of almost every site say. Not even one I guess. It's on the contrary a rather irritating concept in my opinion, which digresses someone trying to locate on an already cluttered webpage, that one piece of information which is being sought. I seriously cannot digest the idea of why would anyone click on those ads, when one can easily search for the same thing on google itself.

Why would anyone reading a Valentine e-card in India be interested in knowing who are the whole-sale suppliers of red roses in US. Or for that matter if I am buying a bluetooth on ebay, does that mean am interested in getting my tooth scaled. No. Similarly, if am already downloading a mp3 song from a site, I dont care what all other sources are there for it. The purpose is defeated in my sense.

Okay I understand that these are just few of the contextual cross connections and redundancy aspects which AdSense owing to the lack of any Artificial Intelligence algorithm, overlooks. But even then somehow I personally feel that advertisement of something on net degrades its image, makes it look cheap and worthy of being despised.Maybe am prejudiced after persistently being slammed by those beleaguering ads on net, which serve no purpose at all except to piss you off.

The 'known' needs no popularity, 'unknown' does, but there's nothing which can be classified as unknown on net. Its all open, nothing is obscured on net and especially if anything is worth being popular then there's no way it can be stopped from being one- courtesy those chain mails, [fwds] and instant messages which will incessantly pass on the very link unless you click on it. You dont need to look at the sun to know if its shining, isn't it !

I guess I have digressed more than I intended. The bull's eye was the concept of floating ads on one's blog. In so far as I can see, it doesn't lead to any increased income as AdSense promises in the first place, coz unless you are a popular and professional blogger there's hardly any traffic hitting your blog site so as to thicken you wallet, except for few shillings you might earn hither and tither. For second, In my opinion blogs are definitely the wrong place to show ads on, rather a blog should be kept untouched and sacrosanct, devoid of any irrelevant stuff (including links and banners) which are not an iconic reflection of ones ideas, thoughts & style. And for last but not the least - a blog is not a surrogate market to sell or showcase something which you yourself don't own.

I wonder

2006-02-13T21:43:00.000+05:30

Quite a many things, some silly, some arbitrary, some completely insane, some heedful, but there's something common amongst them, like the thread of a necklace binding its beads, which makes me wonder about what all I wonder.

I wonder about realities such as these, which baffle me everytime :

How this world will survive when all the petrol is used up.
What is it like to work miles below the earth, inside a mine.
Why is earth looked upon with its north pole at the top, and not upside down.
How does a television work - (though a black mark on my education - television is still one of the most astounding things for me till date ).
What are the physiological differences between the brains of a wise, intelligent and genius person vis-a-vis a dumb, unwise and stupid person.
If there is a limit to the ever decreasing record timings of 100m sprint race in Olympics.

And the most baffling one - If almost all of the engineers like me end up doing software jobs which doesn't help the world in any way, then who's driving the technology train( because the rest of us land up in one or the other management institutes).
Who makes all those beautifully designed iPods, Macs and Tele shopping stuff with increasing complexities.
Who after all is the real engineer, actually putting his brain to calculate forces in trusses and potential differences across the nodes.?

And then there are such philosophical wonders as -

What would it be like to see yourself from another persons' eye, i.e. to say how does another person sees you physically, definitely its not like seeing your own self in the mirror.
Where does that 'I' ( 'I' as in the one which Descartes talks of in his meditation) ,unleash itself after the death of the body.
Does everyone percieve pink color in a similar manner.
How different it would be living in a parallel universe.
What is it like to be a rattle snake, or a tiger or for that matter any animal.
And what it feels like being in love.[;)]. ( I dont know if its good or bad but love is still philosophical to me ..!)
...and the inexhaustible list however continues endlessly.

A bit of past on this -
My confrontation with the feeling of wonderment started off from the most hackneyed poem of our kindergarten times - "Twinkle Twinkle little star, How I wonder what you are".
And I still wonder to this day looking at the sky with the same innocence of a child for whom the stars are no less than the diamonds...only that the meaning of 'Twinkle' has changed with time ;). (No, am no fan of anybody by the name of Twinkle.)

Alice in Wonderland, Topsy Turvy Land,The Far-away Tree etc etc, all contributed in my essential learning of the act of wondering about things. Most of us do wonder about things, but take it as if it was yet another dream after a heavy day only to be forgotten the next morning when our eyes reopen. We re-indulge ourselves back in things around us and continue normally unless something again makes us fall into that trance and we start wondering about something else. But this dilutes the gravity and uniqueness of what one wonders.

Coz' one of the very basic attributes of all what we wonder is our assumption of it being unique within the scope of what we know. Its not always that one wonders something completely new, or else we would be witnessing the deluge of startling, strange ideas every other day. But people wonder and then let that contemplation go off like a puff of smoke, like a slippery fish escaping out of their hands back into the water, never to be caught again, thereby preventing that deluge.

Wondering about things worthy of being wondered like the seven wonders of the ancient world or sudden transformation in our lives along with the causes for those transformations, do not qualify according to me as the proper subjects for wondering. The ones which qualify are both physical and metaphysical, they are subtle yet understandable, they are conspicous yet obscured like the ones which I had already mentioned. And the thread which I reffered to in the very first line, which binds all of them, is that unindebted sense of freedom and glee that comes along anytime and everytime you wonder about something.

so long..

--and yes keep wondering what this post was all about !--

The Rainbow

2006-02-09T18:23:00.000+05:30

I wrote this as my submission for the final heavy weight assignment of the humanities course "ENG436- Writers vision of the future" during my last year at IITK. I will not here dwell into all those philosophical connotations of the 'future' (far beyond the concept of time) we were taught in the course, rather keep myself busy with the work I am loaded with these days and simply put the original text of the story uncensored, unquoted and unplugged - So here it goes ......

The Rainbow

"Future is catastrophic!!” I said, with indignation.

“But I’ve been waitin for this momen..,so wat if am never goin to come bak. Les play this game..Come on...”.

I knew that it was going to happen from the very day, he started to scribble on Magna Doodle, the one his father gifted him on his 10th birthday. The first thing he wrote on it was ‘am comin future!’ The other time he got a Dancing Monster on his b'day, he had flushed it right down the toilet, very next day. And now when he is 18, his instinct to venture into future has leaped off more than his age.

As a pre-matured birth he had always been running ahead of time, be it the homework submissions in school, or the ontogenesis of the moustaches above his lips. I get this feeling every time I see him, that there is definitely something extra or misssing in his genes,

“wat-er u thinkin?" he squalled in my ears.
“Oh...nothing, but we shouldn't do this, it’s...”.

As a mark of self-respect he spoke again before I could finish. His habit of interrupting has never let me say my words completely: 'Interruption' was his make, as if he was destined to interrupt.

" I can’t wait, nemore... am leavin without u, if ur not in here wi'thin a min", he said in anger and desperation.

Nothing but to loose against him in the arguments was the trend and so I decided not to uphold his craving for 'future' anymore. I have known him precisely from the point in timeline, when he was outcaste by his classmates. Ever since then we have been friends, or to say more convincingly 'brothers'. I cannot even dream of living without him. Therefore the next instant when I was sitting beside him in the doughnut-shaped chamber of the Segway Human Transporter, amidst the biggest uncertainty of my life, a rough feeling of content drew over me.

As a research lover, I was privileged to know many things, especially those which were more of a fiction than reality for others. Incidentally, on one occasion I had somehow laid my hands on a research paper titled:'The speed of time' by an Irish Physicist. It was more of a philosophical embarkment rather than a rigorous mathematical proof of something which I still have not been able to mentally digest, forget about assimilating it. The crux of the paper was -‘Time moves, both in forward and backward direction’.

The premise on which the paper was written argued that if time can move forward, then what stops it from moving backward. How outlandish and insane, this concept might seem at first impression to anyone, it had the most severe and disastrous outcome, that could ever be imagined. For it led to a catastrophic collision between the two timelines, traveling in opposite directions, quite similar to two trains moving in opposite directions on the same track, yet so different in physical aspects of a collision. The collision would turn the whole universe around us to a mere singularity. In a way it had also put a limitation on the extent and quantity of time.The paper termed the moment of collision on timeline as a ‘Dent’ and expected its duration to be less than a nano-second.

From that very day, I had this uncanny feeling that if there is someone who will run across this 'Dent', then its going to be no one else, but him. But how I wish I could dump all this knowledge into his 8 pounds of brain, without having to speak a word!

His father was the head of an outlawed company named Segway that did R&D on time machines. The theoretical feasibilities and practical viabilities of making a Time Machine had been worked out already two decades back. It was then that the International Confederation of Metaphysical Researchers popularly known in short as INCoMER, based on an anonymous litigation filed against the advances being made in this field passed a law which proscribed any further researches on these machines, and declared the production of time machines illegal.

The rage and protest of the scientific community which stood against the decision, was easily suppressed The litigation had through a careful risk assessment brought in front of the whole world the implied threat on human life, and the associated vulnerabilities, if these kinds of machines were put for assembly line production. After that even the few prototypes of these machines being experimented upon in the labs were completely destroyed and the relevant literature burnt down to ashes.

And thus it came over the shoulders of those bad guys who await the formation of new laws and regulations, so that they can breach them. His father was the first one to get around this new law, by leading a group of rebel scientists who managed to setup their own laboratories and other infrastructure for a self sustained R&D centre of time machines, which later on became famous by the name 'Segway Transporters’.

This new untested version, in the series of Programmable Human Transporters manufactured by Segway, in which I was sitting with him closely, resembled the picture of ‘Tokamak’ from our Science book. My default habit of reading the manuals, unfolded the capabilities of this new model to me. It was designed to specifically pin point and target any desirable time in future, with an accuracy of a nano-second.

"les goto 29th febuary of twenty-nigh twenty-nigh..", he said in an extremely euphoric voice.
As a freehearted guy, I jolted upon him "There is no 29th of February in twenty...”.
I immediately guessed that he had realized the mistake in his words while punching the keys on the florescent lit board under the dark light of the chamber, because once again he spoke before I could finish.

" ok,..leave that, les try a random time!!".
"Boy! Has he gone mad", I said to myself, but then I could not expect anything more sensible than this from him.

And Before I could realize what he was up to, we were already screaming out of the intense pressure and an unbearable acceleration which made the entire blood gush up to my brain. I could feel the perturbed and periodical motion of the machine, often accompanied by a dissonance. A silence prevailed after this initial hassle and state of commotion. I felt completely drained, with only a last quantum of energy left in me to dream with open eyes. I don’t know if it was in my dream or it was a hallucination but I could see those seven faint colors of an astoundingly bright rainbow.

The symmetrical reflection from a shining surface below projected the semi-circular shape of the rainbow as a complete full circle. However, this ecstasy ended abruptly, because we literally crashed, like an untrained motorbike driver, forgetting how to apply brakes. By this I knew we have reached somewhere in the future, without even a vague idea of ‘where’.

Murphy had said it right , 'If at all anything can go wrong, It will', and even if Murphy had not said this, I would be more than sure, of going wrong if there is someone like him around me. Not to my utter surprise, but with a fearful heart, a line of cold sweat running down my armpits and knowing the nano-second accuracy of our machine, I could feel from the air around, that we had ‘successfully’ struck the ‘Dent’. I needed no more words to prove that Interruption was in his blood; in fact in his genes. That he did not spare even ‘Time’.

------------------------------------END----------------------------------------

PS: Comments and Criticisms are most welcome !!

The temperature outside is 29°C.

2006-02-06T22:58:00.000+05:30

To my utter delight CM today pushed me, asking for my next concoction of words, but being kept so busy by the organization I work for, it was next to impossible for me to steal sometime off and write for any and all who love to savour those concoctions.

So, I decided to extend my already lengthened office hours to publish the next in the sequence. But not much has happened lately, about which I can write or even pluck the title, concept or the hint from. But lets c -

My GMAT was at last, after a month of suspicion over its validity, was officially annulled in absence of providing valid identity proofs.

Oracle IDC finally managed to have a TGIS party ( mind it , its not TGIF - Fridays are not the same here !! ), though organized quite well, it ended up with loads of controversies related to the entrance at the venue and an embroilment between the employee club and employees at large over regulations of the event.

No new movie seemed prospective enough , to over wash RDBs lingering sense of enjoyment, so I kept myself away from the multiplexe(s).
(Yes the desperate, chaotic and maniac population of hyd has finally been presented with another Shangri-la - The PVR Cinemas - which recently opened up its partially completed manifold entertainment offshoot in here.)

The roads are still shining even after the plenary and have maintained their integrity and solidarity with no sign of puddles or holes, while the lane dividers have gradually lost their glitter after having undergone their first million tires sustenance test.

The book 'Fountainhead' which I am trying to read for so long, has shown no sign of getting completed in near future. I am on page 477 right now, I believe.
India lost yet again to Pak in todays ODI - courtesy Duckworth-Lewis.

And if you, like others, believe that there has to be a connection between the title and the post, then I am sorry for rebuffing that unsaid tradition here ;). That's what I call : Blogger's licence. !!

That's it - My conscious incompetence doesn't permit me anymore to continue this crappy, filthy and cockeyed post, and be a shame and disgrace to the whole of blogger's community which however is completely unaware of my presence and such acts of sacrilege , on one of their supposedly sacrosanct platforms. But I love doing that !!! :D

PERIOD.

TechTalk

2006-02-01T10:55:00.000+05:30

Enough of reviews, philosophy, and literature, its time to switch to the tech , the next best thing to 'naked' ;)

Recently I read some white papers and related stuff on the emerging IM (Instant Messaging) technology called Jabber/XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), though not a popular one, it has come into limelight after Google used it in its Gtalk IM client. Jabber is basically a set of XML related protocols with XMPP at its core, for real time IM and comprises of other protocols also apart from XMPP. Jabber to IM, is similar to what TCP is to networking, Java is to Programming, HTML is to web and IMAP is to E-mail, in the sense that it aims to spread interoperability between different kinds of existing IM services and highlight the importance of real time in IM. Being a decentralized and open source tech it gives developers freedom to put in what all they think can be useful in terms of IM.

One of the biggest stresses of jabber/xmpp is on providing the presence information to its users available on different resources. Resources are the mediums through which a user connects to a jabber server, like Mobiles, PDAs or Desk/Laptops, essentially providing users the freedom to be concurrently logged on with the same user name from different locations/resources. The intelligent structure of the protocol then makes it possible for the server to pass on the data to relevant resources only, thereby increasing the possibility of the message to reach its recipient in time. The use of XML for data binding and transport dispenses the implicit hassles and technicalities involved in most of the existing IM protocols, because XML is a human readable format and definitely more easier to work with.

So, where does it lack? What has prevented its growth and popularity, and puts it at the last in IM tech stack? Foremost of all the reasons, is that Jabber/XMPP is just a novice amongst the big sharks of the IM industry. Yahoo, AIM, ICQ and MSN have already set the trend long back and distributed the market pie, each almost owning the piece of it with them. XMPP was popular only amongst free lance and interested developers who took it up for experimental purposes and built clients for their own use. It was because of Google's spree of doing unique things, which leveraged its potential use and brought it to the forefront of competition with other IM softwares. And now when it has rivaled its competitors I guess Jabber/XMPP will gradually become no less than a threat to the existing IM companies, forcing them to either switch their technology or at least provide a support for it.

Though providing enhancement for multimedia support in terms of VoIP and P2P multimedia sessions using XMPP is one of the major issues as of now, but the JSF(Jabber Software Foundation) has already made its move with JEP(Jabber Enhancement Proposal) to provide a complete, standard and robust extension protocol for the same in the form of Jingle which was published recently towards the end of last year, as an alternative solution for both, IETF's Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and the ITU's H.323 technology. Gtalk uses a hardcore C++ API LibJingle for its VoIP capability, which itself as the name suggests is based on the Jingle-Audio and Jingle-Signalling.

Jabber is increasingly becoming a favorite choice amongst corporates as they realize the need for a personal IM system for their enterprises. With its highly secured IM capabilities and easier maintenance and setup cost Jabber XCP is the only enterprise level IM solution available today. This has already triggered participation from more players in this new potential market of IM solutions for enterprises.

And no doubt with Google disseminating Jabber/XMPP, and arousing interest amongst the IM users and developers about this new trend setter, XMPP has a long way to go.

Have a nonconformist day.

2006-01-30T00:40:00.000+05:30

"If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it's another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity."
- Bill Vaughan

Rang de Basanti

2006-01-28T00:30:00.000+05:30

"I always believed there were two kinds of movies. The ones which met their end
happily and others which met their ends with a sad note. And
then I saw the third kind."

Yes for me it was an encounter with the third kind, for others it was 'Rang de Basanti' (RDB).

Last night was the eve of India's 57Th republic day and last night RDB became an instant classic for me. But I think that happens with every other 'all-in-all' average movie I watch on big screen, except that not all of them leave me with a hard pressed hangover to write about them. That this time I didn't need a hangover to pen down on it, is a good enough reason in support of my claim. I would agree for my predilection for the patriotic movies which makes me biased, but then I am still calculating if I can call RDB a full fledged patriotic movie anywhere near to the likes of 'Tiranga' , 'Sarfarosh' and others.

So I quote what Youth Curry aptly decribed this flick in one line as :
If Dil Chahta Hai redefined 'youth' films, Rang de Basanti takes the theme to the next level. Much has already been said in detail in this blog with a beautiful insight to this new turn of bollywood, as it marks the oncoming of a completely new face of Indian mainstream cinema.

People might and I know will argue that this is yet another run-of-the-mill patriotic flick, in the league of Yuva, Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi and Swades, and does not call for such an attention. But then that's a completely subjective opinion, and I rest my case on it. Besides, I don't like to compare bollywood movies, because there is something so strongly and centrally common amongst them, that it takes away their right to be compared at all. I am talking about the 'Bollywood Stamp' which I think snaps away as its cost, the possibility of these movies being impeccable in any manner. I don't have any personal scores against that stamp, its just out of what I have observed while growing up watching the records of idiocy being broken, with each new release out of the factory named 'bollywood'.

Exception however is a one word oxymoron, that takes its toll on its own definition by making its appearance everywhere, and delivers its responsiblities in the form of the movies of the sort Rang de Basanti. RDB was in fact more than a content meal for my starving appetite for the patriotic movies which otherwise for the past 10-15 years was being fed insipidly with the likes of 'Tiranga', 'Krantiveer' etc etc.

RDB has in my view spurred a whole new class of movies, which aim to pass on a message that is obvious to our open eyes yet too obscured when looked from within. Am not purporting RDB as the founder of such message movies, but certainly it can be without a glitch looked upon as the role model for our future movies, which our country needs at this hour. And the end would not be apporopriate without these lines I loved to borrow from one of the song's of the movie flavoured with AR Rehman's music.

DHUAN CHHATAA, KHULA GAGAN MERA
NAYI DAGAR, NAYA SAFAR MERA
JO BAN SAKE TU HUMSAFAR MERA
NAZAR MILA ZARA !!

Of Passion,Obsession & Obligation

2006-01-24T23:26:00.000+05:30

It was during my spare office time which as a matter of coincidence can be aliased as my office hours, that I thought of putting those free flowing hours to use, and at least give a name to those passing moments to which I might look back at some point in time and be happy about them thinking that - not all of it was waste !

Certainly a much needed passion that was missing, kept building itself insidiously all the time while I read others' blog, which were amusing, conptemplative and exemplary, and finally pushed me into the world of blogging, acting as the primary force . And most of the time after that kickoff , I managed to write, I managed to steal thoughts, words and ideas, from any and all sources I could possibly devour. Having passion for something is I guess the most healthiest way to reach successfully towards that objective and in my case it has proved its worth.

But we all know how easily can one's passion take a grandeur transformation and turn into an obsession. And then it can become one of the most unhealthy preoccupations that can be attributed for an objective thereby making it completely obsolete. Obsession can be killing, and it is one's most fearful enemy which appears disguised in the form of a most solemnest friend called passion. Thankfully, I am still far off from letting that happen to me. Though occasionally I do feel that painless guilt of not being a regular, when it comes to my postings, but then it reminds me of never being a regular all my life on any subject. What a consolation, huh !!

And so it comes next in the order after Passion and Obsession - Obligation, yes that's what takes the place in the end. Looks odd ? Indeed its odd, in a narrower sense though, because its passion and obsession which seem to be pertinent here. But in a bigger picture that's what comes off - a disgusted feeling of obligation, a sense of liability. And I have already got a venal touch of it, which at times resists me from taking the pain of writing, arguing on its demanding and consuming nature. It overshadows the element of passion and obsession, and mirrors them not as the motives but rather as inhibitors. If I would cast obsession as a monster then Obligation is no less than a devil in itself.
( Frankly speaking I don't know which of the two - a monster or a devil - is above the other one in heirarchy, but personally I think its the devil ;) )

Unlike those who write in a streaming, impromptu fashion and yet sustain to deliver an interesting composition every time, it takes a helluva time for me to even write a single paragraph which can tie down someone to read it completely. It takes some tens(definitely not hundreds) of revision, proof readings, corrections and a little bit of censorship, as and when required, before I finally let anything go on the net. None of my lines are ever written on their first attempt, they are bound to revisit me for that finishing touch which usually makes the whole exercise tiresome and at times obligatory.

I think I need to give a try on writing at least one blog without doing the quality assurance check and which is completely devoid of any passion, obsession or obligation and then measure its worthiness on the account of, it being read by others let alone getting any appreciation. However, I am pretty much sure that even if I do write anything of that sort, I would dare not publish it.

The Plenary

2006-01-21T22:43:00.000+05:30

AICC is holding its three day long national level plenary in Hyderabad this year and guess what the whole city has been occupied literally by the AICC delegates numbering to almost 15000.
With not a single hotel(all stars), guest house or even the university hostel left with a vacancy, congress is proving its political hold, and the incumbency just trying to make its part more blatant, has left no stone unturned to do its own bit.

The roads have been widened, with proper street lights, shining dividers, and an exorbitant use of traffic police force, the state government has done all the possible pomp and show it could manage out of the public funds. Good for us anyhow , the roads are here to stay atleast !!

My previous assumptions were slammed when it finally became conspicuous that all this was being done, not out of government's philanthropic efforts to rejuvenate the whole city, but rather with an intention of prepossessing itself in front of all those big shots of congress party, who would be gracing the city with their benign presence.

But seriously the whole issue is that why does a government need such a reason, which going by public opinion is not even a reason in the first place, to initiate the whole process of refurbishment and developement. For that matter in fact even in most of the parts of the country one can expect to get the roads reconditioned only if one of the ministers has to pass through it or they can expect a seamless electricity supply if the ministers are holding a session in their city for one or more days.

Most of the developmental activities at the municipal level in India need such a polictical incentive to begin. And once started, these so called developmental activities like a cindrella run end up tamely, without the general public even getting the benefit of it due to them. Citizens are no more a reason for the development and definitely not a cause for it. A normal person would never stand up, protesting or rebelling on the pretext of under developed localities in the city, unhygenic open air garbage dumps or whatever, and so in a way it's good that these activities are taken up and executed for reasons such as these political sessions.

Definitely it leaves a commendable legacy for the beaurocracy to have changed the whole map of the city in a short duration, but it did cause a hell lot of trouble to each and everyone of us, who were there to witness and pay the price of this development. People had their houses bulldozed, on the sides of road, without a prior notice for the expansion of the road, the traffic became so clumsy and jam packed, leading to wastage of both time and fuel, because there were no alternatives routes provided or I should say left to move on. The over enthusiastic spree of development made it all the more difficult even for the normal proceedings. The point is that it could have been done in a more planned and phased manner, rather in such a haste and eagerness.

But then that'is the quitessential of how it all goes in here , in our country called India where still most of the well built, far-sighted, and the most useful of the infrastructure continues to be from the pre-independence era. Nothing's better and fitting to end with this quote -

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to
teenage boys.

TOO PERFECT TO BE INTENTIONAL.

2006-01-18T15:08:00.000+05:30

Not something recent, still this Honda Accord COG Commercial is worth seeing.
The height of precision and harmony, cause and effect explained much better than done in 'Matrix' , impossibility set off by two letters - Its a pinnacle of perfection. !! You just can't afford to blink while watching it.
Check it out here.

More details about this ad here.

For some, Luck is also, a form of Art !

2006-01-16T20:29:00.000+05:30

Sadly though, not for me. Not because am not an artist , not because my ancestry is completely devoid of any kind of appreciation for art and obviously not because I am technically an engineer , but because am confused. Am confused between the two schools of thought , rather two completely contrasting philosophies if I may call them so. One which says , Luck is what comes along with you i.e. its destiny which rules your life - in short - Everything in life is luck.
And the second which says that, one can make his or her own destiny through sheer hard work. Luck , fortune , destiny , fate are all coward's recourse and the only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.

Thus , it boils down essentially to a battle of argument between 'hard work' and 'luck', on - what supersedes what. And I have grown up swinging like a pendulum between these two definitions , a second here and a second there. Am confused because I have seen both of these theories in action , in equal proportions , in lives of others and my own , in a mutually exclusive sense with one trying to prove its own self and disprove the other. This is so baffling, so perplexing and so contentious. And every time you fail , both of these philosophies/theories whatever you want to call them , seem to be so meaningless , so superficial and of cosmetic significance that one just feels like giving up any residual faith in either of the two.

I am not advocating either of these two philosophies , because I am in between both of them, trying to figure out what works when ? Which of the two should be relied upon when setting out on a new endeavour ?Its not a million or a billion dollar question, instead a secret which only few know, those few who are the successful, invincible, complete and consistent conscientious achievers , just because they know when to rely on what.They know exactly and correctly , when the the name of the game is 'luck' and when 'hard work' - and that's the key !!

Though in our usual day to day lives, we tend to attribute luck as an excuse for our failures and hard work for our achievements, to eschew our confrontation with the other side which we ignore out of our propensity , I think we need to recognize a more integrated approach towards such conclusions. Like Thomas Jefferson reconciled quite concisely in this quote of his - " I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

I dont think the question here is of believing or not believing in luck or hard work, because most of us anyhow do believe in both of them , but rather of how can these two things- one so tangible and physical in nature, while the other coming straight out from a metaphysical world , can be harmonized together and expected to work. Unfortunately , even I don't have a very sound or convincing answer to this.

Here's a future link to what might be a probable and fair explanation of the word 'luck' , based on some of my untenable hypothesis , which I hope to conceptualize some fine day. Till then keep clicking !! :D

Quotable quote

2006-01-16T17:34:00.000+05:30

Read this quote today , and nothing can be a better explanation of what's going on in this IT/software industry.

"Programming today is a race between software engineers
striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs,
and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots.
So far, the Universe is winning."
- Rich Cook

Though I might have some issues with the conclusion about who's winning , but nevertheless on whole its definitely a quotable quote.

KILLER K's

2006-01-12T16:32:00.000+05:30

The small screen show biz of India has grown up, it has grown up beyond its own age and has outmatched the levels of maturity of an average adult.It all began with so far as I can recall back from serials of like 'Junoon' . Broadcasted on all but one weekday, it gave the indian audience an intial taste of the so called 'soaps' of the future. Other productions jumped in looking for their market share in the potential profits still obscured at that time.

That gave birth to the beta versions of the 'soaps' in the form of 'Shanti' and 'Swabhimaan' , the two eternal soaps, which would not have ended had the directors themselves not got bored of directing the same faces continously for more than half the decade. These two serials were in many ways quite significant for taking Indian small screen to this new height of insensibility at which we see it today.

For first they prepared the whole cult of 'soap' lovers , trained the audience to bear the pain of watching same faces , same time , same channel everyday , forced them to loose their common sense to question the irrationalities and inchoherencies which they would encounter frequently while watching such kinds of 'soaps' and above all they proved their worth by generating easy money thereby luring those high flying vultures of big screen to come down and eat their share of flesh. Thus came the run-of-the-mill - The 'K' series and alongwith came the downfall of the already unstable and poorly handled small screen.

Contrary to most of the coveted and fascinated lovers of these soap operas , I dont find a single reason to watch them, except for the inevtability of catching a glimpse of them, while scanning the whole series of hopeless channels which my cable operator provides, in exchange of 250 bucks a month. Unknown said "The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television." and I have the whole deluge of reasons which make these serials worthy of being despised to an extent of getting tagged as a 'cruel choice'.

Starting with the most strong and most precise way to qualify these 'K' serials - 'Social Poisons'. Yes that's what they are, and I dont need to justify it at all. For those who are on my side, need not be explained, and those who aren't , cannot be explained. These seemingly entertaining and harmless programmes, full of emotional drama, have one purpose for all - to sell crap !! Their storylines revolve incessantly around some fixed issues such as extra marital affairs, illicit children, perpetual business rivalries, family imbroglios, and the most central to all of them - love triangles, quadrangles and if the writers were a little bit more keen towards mathematics , wouldn't have minded introducing even a fifth angle to prove their mettle.

Another important feature of these stories is their inertia. In absence of any external incentives to change, the stories tend to simply ignore the aspect of time. Saurabh told me once that he and gupta could manage to consolidate the in between happenings of these serials when they went home during mid breaks and saw the serial after a break of almost 2-3 months. That proves it.

Today we have the whole bloodline of such 'soaps' originating from this 'K' series . I wont oblige those by referencing there names here, but the fact that people have become so addicted to these poisons in various packings that they tend to overlook their ill effects , is a food for thought for everyone. There are still others trying to get some space in the claustrophobic environment among 'K's, who aim to cash on the already perturbed and delusioned minds of these 'soap' watchers by providing relaxed,humourous, and a healthy time pass. The likes of - The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and Comedy Show , KBC, Supersale , Sarabhai vs Sarabhai ( nd others) belong to this new league.

I cannot but resent these soaps and pity those who religiously follow and make them a point of discussion in their usual gossips. I sympathize with those who still havent realized that these serials are playing with their emotions and even charging them for that. I feel for those who have already been addicted to it, and find no recourse in form of a rehabilitation center to get rid of that addiction. But I am happy that I am not alone in this war, there are others, and still many others .

And I am happy also because "I don't mind what language an opera is sung in so long as it is a language I don't understand."

ILLITERATE ACADEMIA

2006-01-09T22:53:00.000+05:30

From the show on channel V , where in the host by the name Lola Kutti asked, to seemingly educated peoples, some basic fundamental questions on general knowledge picked up from various subjects of school level physics, geography, general sciences etc, and the answers to which were quite intriguing and defintely not even close to being correct . As some of these I quote below:-
Its a series of questions and their corresponding replies given by different people.

Q: What is an orbit?
1st A: Well... ummm...orbit you see is actually a place where all the generations of planets are kept in ascending order.

My my , how can anyone make up such a hilarious yet technically ingrained reply , that too impromptu !!!

2nd A: Yes, orbit is the .......... I mean its like.......aaaa.....you know what I mean !!

Indeed we already know.....After the reply the guy was so relaxed as if he just saved the whole planet by telling where to get the answer from .

3rd A: Orbit is.... I guess it belong to the species of rabbits , maybe the kingdom ....am I right ??

Seemed that this guy was too overwhelmed with his biology classes .

Another question.

Q: What is the Newton's First Law?
1st A: Huh , Law .... I am into engineering , besides I hate lawyers !!

Will someone go and tell him , he deserved to study neither law nor engineering.

2nd A: Newton's ....but I read somewhere it was Ambedkar who made all those laws.

With such a reply I just can't afford to doubt that people in India dont read newspapers and magazines.

3rd A: Pat came this reply : F = ma

Overconfidence is not a good thing !!! Incomplete knowledge leads you no where.

Yet another question:

Q: What is the full form of UNO?
1st A: I dont know !!

This guy loved rhyming things.

2nd A: United Nations......'O' is basically silent !!!

True to some point, it doesn't give a feel of an Organization anymore.

3rd A: UNidentified Objects , I even saw a program on it on Discovery channel !!

Yes my friend even I saw it, with the only difference that it was UFO and not UNO.

This last question was the most entertaining one.

Q: Who invented Telephone?
1stA: Was it BSNL or VSNL.

Sorry, in India we dont invent , and govt undertakings, they havent even heard the world 'Invention'.

2nd A: Nooo...telephone was discovered.

God, atleast there is someone who can discern the meaning of two words - invent and discover - and argue their usage.

3rd A: Mr. Tele Phone. ( with an expression of wonder !!)

=)) ....

I AM ...

2006-01-08T21:37:00.000+05:30

Took this quiz sometime back !! get urself quizzed here

An Idealist. Idealism centers around the belief that we are moving towards something greater. An odd mix of evolutionist and spiritualist, you see the divine within ourselves, waiting to emerge over time. Many religious traditions express how the divine spirit lost its identity, thus creating our world of turmoil, but in time it will find itself and all things will again become one.

Idealist

100%

Existentialist

88%

Materialist

81%

Cultural Creative

69%

Postmodernist

63%

Romanticist

50%

Modernist

44%

Fundamentalist

38%

CAT-ASTRO-PHIC

2006-01-07T20:30:00.000+05:30

Wish , I could do that to 'CAT'- the one we all know !! :(

CAT'05 was catastrophic for many of those who eyed it with reverence, those who deserved it in the first place and those who cared for nothing else, but it. But as luck will have it, they were not made for it, at least this year. Doesn't matter coz it was them who laid the path for the exuberant victories of the rest.
Neways, wishing those who made through it, and those who will in all the coming years.

peace ..

READING THROUGH YOUR EARS

2006-01-06T16:36:00.000+05:30

Came across this unusual site during my usual stint on the net , while trying to catch up with new things. It's a website which provides the audible versions of various articles picked up from magazines, newpapers, novels and what not , beautifully categorised into various genres and presented in the downloadable formats.And its banner goes as follows :

Listening saves. Money.
For just a handful of change a day, Audible can help
you stop reading and start learning.

My goodness !! Just read that again, I mean what has come of this age, we now even get advertisements about such hairbrained schemes and services which can help us stop reading !! Has technology overwhelmed us so much that even before one would have thought about using it to help people start reading , we are designing ever new ways not even to preclude but to completely go against such good uses. If that wasn't much, the audible version of the site promotions has a sweet and charming female android voice requesting its visitors to stay tuned for the next of their series which is - "Learn to Stop Breathing!!".

The shift of print media on the net was the first blow to those who believed in book learning and considered that there's nothing better than holding what you are reading in your own hands . The idea though untenable was to signify the positive effects of direct proximity to the matter being read in hand, plausibly making it more easier to understand and conjoin the two ends i.e. the reader and the content in an uncanny manner.

And even before most of us would have come to this realize the loss of renouncing the task of direct physical reading , came the second blow in the form of this site , which forgoes even the task of reading and makes it more than comfortable for anyone to just sit around or continue whatever they prefer more than reading and hear the whole novel, the whole magazine or the whole newspaper as a background incantation. But where are we actually being led by all this : Children will as with any other cause be affected in a bigger sense, they will give up more tiring and relatively painful task of reading with a book in hand, more casual readers will find an easy way out to increase their book counts without actually having understood what the hell was the book about, and the number of avid bookworms will start plunging in a straight line graph.

I am not trying to criticize the way ppl have started using technology to generate easy revenues, its good in fact and I would have done the same , rather am wary about the growing propensity of ours to see a digital solution to all of our problems. We have reached a stage of human development where technology potentially seems to have answers to all our problems, but what we yet need to learn is how to distinguish between problems which can with precise assurance be solved using available technologies. And obvisouly not all of them can be..

Not an epoch,we just need to wait in time for that day to fall when the conversations will include statements of the form : 'Hey have you heard the second part in the series of H2G2'

so long !...

FOR OUR OWN GOOD !!

2006-01-05T18:53:00.000+05:30

"Everything happens for our own good" ,goes a very popular adage, gives relief from the life's dissappointments , encourages to maintain a belief in life's process and obviously a very good excuse when things aren't just going on the right path.
Quite conspicous from this start , that for me things have been a bit rough lately , which calls for a bit of contemplation on this popular saying. There are two facets to this adage : one that the inevitable happenings and event of our life can be broadly classified as either good or bad and second that these events are preceded and succeded by other inevitables of their like.

Now this classification of good or bad is in most cases based on the result of the events or happenings. We tend to qualitatively and quantitatively judge everything based on the outcomes. Something is good if it results in or leads to something other that is good, and vice-versa, which in my opinion is not the correct way to judge things , because results of a particular event are not necessarily the product of that specific event , rather a complete holistic outcome of innumerable other events. Its like a very fine and delicate blend of all the events combined, which finally leads upto that final outcome and which we generally tend to associate only with the most pertinent causes. Its not about what actually led to what, its about what ALL resulted in what.

The importance of what preceedes and succeedes an event in the light of the results is definitely not to be overlooked. The immediate consequences may not be the ones we are looking for or in the form we expect them to be. A propensity to look beyond the horizon is needed , which brings in the significance of the succeeding events. Preceeding events as I already defended are the necessary ingredients which contribute in the final coming of the results.

Coming back to the interpretation of "everything happens for our own good" , I find a bit of implicit contradiction in it. If at all everything happens for good, why is it then, that not everyone is happy and content with whatever is happening in their lives. Or is it the case that the word 'good' essentially represents something more deep and subtle which we in our normal understandings , tend to keep ourselves away from , intentionally or non-intentionally.

But seriously all analysis apart, how wonderful and beautiful it would be if all things happened really for our own good only !! can't help it to be like that though -:(

so long .......

A cynical take-off

2006-01-05T11:49:00.000+05:30

As promised , I scratched this one off from my msn spaces profile. Luckily managed to break into it and found this orphaned post lying there helpless, waiting for a new home .... so brought it here and now it has wat it wanted ... patience pays !!! isn't it ;)
The title of this post comes from the one I gave to this poem in its first place ..here it goes -

i thought i should write ,
to throw some lite,
on my life's delight,
and express my thoughts
all clear and bright..!!!
but this is all i could indite
in this starting flight..:()

IT'S NOT A NEW YEAR RESOLUTION...

2006-01-04T21:46:00.000+05:30

I dont know why but people tend to take any new activity started by others during the first few weeks of a new year as the resolutions taken by them. To clear off that, I would like to declare this as not a part of any of my new year resolutions, because I escaped taking one this time. Actually am still procrastinating with the ones of last year's .
Starting a blog is no more than a child's play these days, advertised as the 3 step process , its becoming more of a time killing endeavour for anyone. I wish that they make the whole process more cumbersome and uneasy to prevent people like me who dont even remember how many times they have repeated those 3 steps and consumed those prospective blog names which would have been otherwise well used if not there were ppl like us.
I guess I havn't left any of the available free blog services where I have not created my profile, (be it msn spaces , yahoo 360 , rediffblogs or those which I dont even remember right now) wrote an enthusiastic first blog like this one, and then abandoned it only to be savaged by its own past and forgotten like never to be remembered.
But I believe this ones going to go along with me, and there are reasons for this belief.
For first, during the last 4-5 months, I have found myself feeling a definite passion for the blogs, which certainly was missing during my previous encounters with them. I have read more diverse blogs ,rather than being confined to those of my friend's, and understood their effects on their readers, their power to stimulate thoughts , their holistic nature and above all I have realized that writing one is not as demanding as it seemed to me at the first instance.
I have also pulled in the fact that its one of the easiest and fun filled process to actualize the delusions of personal fancy.

Even though I know there are no readers of this blog as of now, because no one knows abt it except for me , still will keep this one short and avoid overdoing it , so as to keep the craving for coming back to it again alive.

Will try to scratch off my posts on those lost, unhatched and abandoned blogs in case I remember their passwords and bring them here for some fresh air.