Of Blogs and a Geek

Of Laptops and Futures

2009-05-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

I was looking at my now 3.5 year old laptop, typing up some documents that I need to be sent. At various points in the last few months I have seriously contemplated buying a new machine. My trust machine despite being unstinting in its service and ever willing to run for its user, sometimes shows it limitations, in size, in speed, in bulkiness and in box shapes. Right across my house is a neighbhor who has one of the new Macbooks thats excruciatingly thin and small and lightweight not to mention packs in twice as much number-crunching capabilities without breaking a sweat as my machine could hope to do at its peak (no side processes, hard disk clean, no windows .. so on).
This got me thinking.. what do I think laptops will look like in the future? Hmm.. a short answer will be.. smaller, more powerful. Another answer would be that laptops won't exist at all. Simply put, we'll all have iPod like objects that will be twice as powerful as any laptop that exists today, while consuming very less power and capable of connecting to any wireless device or display.
For now, I am going to look into only the next 10 years and see how things can change. Of course two things can happen here: I might make categorical statements that will be proved horribly wrong and make me look like an idiot in 10 years time, or I will grossly underestimate how technology can change and things will look much better. Another remote possibility is that global warming will get to us and destroy humanity, before any of these devices can come out, oh well, let's see..
1) Displays: LCDs will be history, Plasma TVs might be also-rans, most likely, future display technologies will run on OLEDs. Not only do they consume less power, they are seductively thin, and will most likely be foldable, thus bringing about the minority report kind of paper that we have all been waiting for. Apple is expected to come out with OLED versions of its products in the next year and already we have 40" showcase TVs from Samsung and Sony.
2) Processing: Bring on the multi-cores! Won't be surprised to have 64 cores in one computer connected and working with each other to produce mind boggling processing. Graphics cards might be obsolete and the lines will finally merge, unless one needs extra graphics processing ofcourse. Another philosophy, might be that all future laptops will be netbooks that delegate processing to a stationary more powerful machine and only take care of local caching and minimal processing.
3) Hard disks: Magnetic drives might stay for a while since they are a mature technology. However, don't count Solid State drives out! They have no moving parts, are so much lighter and pack a lot more data per weight and if the technology matures enough to become consumer friendly (as it is slowly becoming) harddrives as we know it might be a thing of the past. I wouldn't discount a breakthrough in nanotechnology or holographic technology leading to dramatically increasing storage capacities either.
4) Supplementary drives: A couple of optical drives might stay, CD roms will be obsolete, Blu-Ray and its derivatives will work for a while, but ultimately all data transfer will be from a remote source eliminating needs for temporary storage drives.
5) Wireless: Hmm.. tough one.. there would ideally be two wireless receivers one for short range and one for more steady needs such as data transfer. Both would consume less power in a week, than a light bulb does in an hour. But most future laptops will bank heavily on wireless technology to transfer and store data. The days of CDs and DVDs might be over, just download the software or movie or song that you want and use it (I never liked those stores anyway).
6) Speakers: Why have speakers when you can wireless communicate to a speaker set or headphones nearby :) Speakers might exist as a rudimentary case though, just so people don't crib.
7) Wires: Ugh.. no external connections. All wireless please. Especially to those annoying projectors and TVs!!!

This is by no means a full list.. so many things could change and comments are invited to add or subtract from what I wrote.. Can't wait for the future :)

Berhael

Of BC and Roy

2009-03-23T19:04:00.001-07:00

I was reading this article..
http://209.97.214.175/~scholars/wordpress/?p=1024
What impressed me the most about this was the idea that if enough people get together and fight for a cause, together with intelligent reporting, anything is possible. I'd like to think that this was how our independence was won. The only unfortunate thing was the use of violence and destruction of property. Hope that does not happen again and also hope that this results in real change. But still, it was a valiant effort.
Also hope the reporting was objective. Seems so.
Berhael

Of Legos and Fridays

2009-02-07T11:35:00.001-08:00

It was Friday night, 7:30 pm, didn't really have a party to go to nor was in any mood to work or go to the gym after 3 hours of meetings. It was raining heavily outside and there was no one else in the lab. Felt really bored. Thats when I remembered something. My cubicle neighbhour had recently got a Lego Mindstorm set for Mentoring school kids next fall. I've always loved Lego Mindstorms, it has and will always be my dream birthday present. The nerd/child/self-obsessed-engineer in me will always make sure I will spend hours working under a lampshade making some new creation. And the beauty of Lego Mindstorms is that, it is somewhat like Windows, it is meant for people who don't want to tinker around with settings and innards and just want to whip something up real quick. But how it differs is that if you DO require to tinker, you can start interfacing python code or C code to create ever complicated robots. So when he gave me the license to play with the toys over the weekend, I couldn't resist.. So I spent about 2.5 hours pouring over the instruction manual and constructing the robots, and loading the programs. I wanted to do more, but the fear that there would be nothing left to do if I finished everything in 1 day, there would be nothing left to do later, kept my enthusiasm at bay. Here are some videos:

Who needs a social life when you have THIS!!!

Berhael

Of Kaakas and Naris

2009-01-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, there was a Kaaka (no not this one, but this one)who was very hungry. True to satisfy his wants, the new-age Maami wearing a T-shirt bought by her son from Walmart and sent across just yesterday, made him some Masala Vadais and gave them to the Kaaka. The Kaaka of course was used to the best food from across the world thanks to food at Ascendas, just a few potholes away. But since he was hungry, he decided to indulge the Maami and took them to his new Penthouse nest on top of the latest YAIT*.

Just when he was about to munch his sumptuous feast, a Nari (no not this one, but this one) saw him from the bottom. The Nari didn't want to waste any energy shouting out to the Kaaka so he decided to SMS him with his new BlackBerry Storm. The text convo went something like this:

Nari: hey dde sup?

Kaaka: nthng mch dde. jst got thse vds frm tht mmi

Nari: wtf it's bn ags snce i had vds pass sme ovr!

Kaaka: lmao ..no way jose, i'm fckng hngry now & no 1's gnna bt MY ass 4 these vds

Nari (strikes Vairamuthu pose and walks at the footsteps of the YAIT..thinking deeply and then):

yo kka kka UR the brd i'd eat

if i didn't hve UR vds 4 a trt

i'm sre UR vce is vry swt

so sing me a sng 2 the aadhi bt..

Now this was too much for the Kaaka and he immediately started his own hand at rap while the Vadas were still in his mouth and they all fell down faster than Satyam's shares in the stock market, for the waiting Nari.

Nari: rotflmao!!! so lng sckr!!!

In this way the Nari managed to dupe the innocent Kaaka out of all his Vadas.

Update : This is to announce that the Kaaka has officially been granted a bailout package, approximately 70 billion vadas and tax-cuts worth another 70 billion whenever he goes for dining at the San Jose Saravana Bhavan. Some creatures have it made. *Sigh*

* - Yet Another IT Tower

Of Coffees and Winters

2009-01-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

4 sets of crispy, thin dosais with Thaengai Chutney, followed by Bru Filter Coffee on a cold winter morning.
Of all the pleasant surprises I expected in the US this was the least expected.. :)
Berhael

Of Macs and Worlds..

2009-01-02T21:57:00.001-08:00

Macworld is around the corner and from macrumors.com I saw these two pics..
Even the Small Talk Will be BIG

There are widespread rumors that Apple is going to release the iPhone Nano very soon, this could just be the announcement that portends it. I am waiting with jollu to see how it looks like.
And also..

The Start of a New Era

This probably signifies that Apple is not going to be @ Macworld from 2010 onwards. But I am going to go one step further and say that the big Kahuna of Apple is not going to be at the helm of affairs anymore come 2010. Praying to God that its not so!

Update : Both my predictions were wrong! :(

Berhael

Of Trolleys and Bowls

2008-12-22T14:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday:
Location : Los Angeles
I walk down the road on my way to college and spot a person moving along a trolley. Its a woman, about 5' 6" wearing a green-checked shirt and worn out jeans. She wears brown boots that have four stitches in them. She is rummaging the trash can looking for plastic bottles and cardboard boxes. The only thing protecting her from the cold is her withered sweater and an olive green jacket that she has tied around her waist for now. As she collects each box, she places it carefully in her trolley so as to create maximum space for impending items. As I walk across she smiles at me and says good morning. And just as I cross her a face pops up from under the boxes in the trolley, its a kid, perhaps 5 or 6 years old. His face is all dirty betraying his lack of bath for the day (at least). He has a cookie in his hand and waves it at me showing his half-broken teeth. I wave back at him, smiling, and show a thumbs up as I walk across.

One Year Ago:
Location : Chennai
I walk from the Besant Nagar bus stand back home after escaping my classes for the day. Right opposite my house, near the school, there is (and has always been for as long as I can remember it) a green trash can. As I cross it, I see a woman with a wrinkled face and natted brown hair probing it hoping to find some plastic packets and cornflakes boxes that the people would have thrown. She is about 4'5". She has two bags, a dirty greased sling on her left shoulder into which she puts each box or dabba and the other bigger bag on her right shoulder from which an infant peers out looking wonder-eyed at the world around him. I can't help but smile that in this world there are still innocent faces that are goodness personified. The woman gives me a cold stare, I walk on.

Of Gestures and Robots

2008-12-07T15:41:00.000-08:00

Here's what I did for my class project in Sensing and Planning in Robotics . This was done as part of a 5 member team. The gesture recognition is tracked with an Inertial Measurement Unit that I hacked up. We use Hidden Markov Models to identify gestures. The robots actually track the leader through a pair of Wiimotes on each robot that track a Sensor bar on the leader. This is one project that uses 5 different languages on the same framework. :P

Oh and for those who might have questions feel free to comment. :)

Berhael

Of Daminis and Dosas

2008-12-06T10:26:00.001-08:00

Siiigh.. Why can't they have franchise outlets like these....

Of CMs and Dogs

2008-12-01T17:26:00.001-08:00

Why calling a politician a dog is a compliment:
1. A dog is a honest and hard working animal, a poitician is a scoundrel, a thief and a hardly working animal.
2. A dog guards his territory no matter what; a politician sells his territory if the price is right.
3. You can always trust a dog not to bite the hand that feeds him, you can expect the politician to always bite.
4. A dog looks cute and good while a politician .....

Copied and pasted by Berhael

Of Rest and Peace

2008-11-28T23:07:00.000-08:00

May God bless the souls of those who gave their lives for our country's security.
You make me proud of my country.

Of Blues and Dots

2008-11-27T17:09:00.001-08:00

Look at the image above...
Who would think that on this blue ball are organisms ready to destroy each other?
Who would think that on this blue ball that religion exists?
Who would think that on this blue ball is pain, suffering, loss of loved ones and carnage?
Who would think that on this blue ball is fear, hatred and anger?
Who would think that on this blue ball is panic?
Who would think that on this blue ball is us?
Who would think... Who would think...

Berhael

Of ISRO and Myths

2008-10-21T23:36:00.000-07:00

Top 5 myths of Moon Mission
It's a waste of money:
India's GDP (adjusted for purchasing power parity) = $4.156 trillion
ISRO budget = $ 940 million Or 0.02% of our GDP
Amount paid as bribes in India per year = $4.6 billion
Total Consolidated revenue for BCCI = $ 1 billion
Cost of Pirates of Caribbean = $300 million or 1/3rd the cost.
Total revenue of Bollywood in 2007 = $ 1.3 billion
(All costs in US $)
So you decide what's a waste.

US has achieved this before:
Yes but they did it 30 years ago. All the data from those missions is 30 years old with not much added after that. The image/terrain resolution is of a bygone age. The main scientific objective of the mission is high resolution remote sensing which involves mapping detailed terrains of the moon and determining what the soil of the moon contains with a sophistication not seen before. THAT is new and is data the whole world would want.

Why should India do this anyway:
Some of the US, Russia, Japan, China are all planning on establishing bases on the moon eventually. We would definitely want to have some moon real-estate of our own and not end up at the mercy of other nations. As a country willing to assert its authority in the world stage, the capability that we demonstrate is important.

It won't benefit common man:
There is hope that the helium found on the moon would be useful for electricity generation in the future. Helium is found in abundance on the moon. If the ISRO is able to tap even two tons of helium from the moon then it could be considered a major achievement as it could be used to generate power supply to the entire country for a year. The mission will also explore minerals available on the earth's only satellite. So if they are found in abundance, we would definitely want to be the first to stake claim on them. Even besides that, the fact that ISRO can send a probe to the moon means it has the increasing capability (and confidence) in its launch vehicles, very similar to the ones used for satellites. These could be used for launching further satellite systems, India's own GPS system for example.

Whats the point? Its just going to the moon:
If you can send a space craft to the moon, it means you have the technology in
- Electronic Systems
- Advanced compound materials
- Advanced Rockets
- Control systems that can precisely control an object all the way to the moon
Roughly, if you send a probe to the moon, it also means that you have the potential to send an inter-continental ballistic missile half-way across the world. The technology just has to be re-arranged.

AND CONGRATS TO ISRO!!!

Berhael

Of Just and Lyrics

2008-09-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

Throughout life people will make you mad
Disrespect you and treat you bad
Let God deal with the things they do
Cause hate in your heart will consume you too
Always tell the truth say your prayers
Hold doors pull out chairs easy on the swears
Youre living proof that dreams do come true
I love you and Im here for you
--Will Smith

Copied and Pasted By Berhael

Of Dogs and Misses

2008-08-15T05:05:00.000-07:00

To my two brothers..
Socks

and
Prince

I'm going to miss you guys crazy... You've taught me a lot about how to live life and I hope we will be friends forever. Keep yourselves safe and out of harm's way.

Berhael

Of Olympics and Predictions

2008-08-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

The Olympics is around the corner. It is highly likely that China is going to (finally) overtake USA in the medals tally. Last time, China won 32 golds. It might win at least 40 this year around.
On the downside, I am expecting at least 3 athletes from the USA to end up in a dope scandal and at least 1 from China.

Interestingly, a list of "Medal density", i.e. the number of medals won divided by the population of that country (unit is Parts per million or ppm) gives the top 5 countries as The Bahamas, Norway, Australia, Cuba and Hungary! USA is ranked 34th. Also the medal tally divided by GDP ranking yields, Georgia, Ethiopia, Cuba, Jamaica and Uzbekistan! Now there's something that tells you that a country need not be rich in people/resources to produce medalists! Just two or three good ones or a strong program in a particular sport.

India first participated in Olympics in 1900 in Paris. The country was represented by Norman Pritchard, an Anglo Indian. Mr. Pritchard was holidaying in Paris during that time. He bagged two silver medals in 200m dash and 200m hurdles. (How's THAT for a productive holiday?!?).

One of the most consistent medal winners for India has been the Men's Hockey team. At one time, 7 successive Olympic Golds were won by the team right from 1928 to 1956. The Goals scored by versus against in all these matches was a very Federer-esque 178 - 7. Of course they also won two more Golds in 1964 and 1980 apart from 2 silvers and a bronze. With such a rich history, you have to wonder whether bad management, apathy of the masses or just the drying up of talent has brought Indian hockey to a pathetic state of not even being able to qualify for the current Olympics.

We are yet to win an individual Olympic Gold, having won 2 silvers in Athletics, Bronzes for wrestling, a bronze in tennis, a bronze in weightlifting, a bronze in shooting and a lone silver in last time in Athens.

Not that what I say really matters, but my predictions for this year?
Archery - 1 medal
Shooting - 2 medals
Boxing - 1 medal
Tennis - 0 medals (and I hope that will be the end of the Lee-Hesh story, for the love of tennis!)

And for everyone who would like to know, here is the list of the Indian Contingent. For everyone's information, I had to look for this in a news archive, the Indian Olympic Association does not even have a website (this is the so called address : www.olympic.ind.in ) , let alone putting up names of athletes online to look for sponsors. And we wonder why we don't win medals!

Archery: Dola Banerjee, Pranitha Vardhineni, Bombayala Devi, Mangal Singh Champia.

Athletics: Anju Bobby George, Krishna Poonia, Harwant Kaur, Preeja Sreedharan, Manjeet Kaur, Chitra K. Soman, Sini Jose. M.R. Poovamma, Mandeep Kaur, J.J. Shoba, Susmita Singha Roy, G.G. Pramila, Vikas Gowda, Renjith Maheswary, Surendra Singh, K. Mridula, S. Geetha.

Badminton: Anup Sridhar, Saina Nehwal.

Boxing: Jitender, Akhil Kumar, A.L. Lakra, Vijender, Dinesh Kumar.

Judo: Khumujam Tombi Devi, Divya.

Rowing: Bajrang Lal Thakar, Devender Kumar Khandwal, Manjeet Singh.

Shooting: Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Mansher Singh, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Gagan Narang, Abhinav Bindra, Samaresh Jung, Sanjeev Rajput, Anjali Bhagwat, Avneet Kaur Sidhu.

Swimming: Virdhawal Khade, Ankur Poseria, Sandeep Sejwal, Rehan Poncha.

Table tennis: Sharath Kamal, Neha Agarwal.

Tennis: Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Sania Mirza, Sunitha Rao.

Wrestling: Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Rajeev Tomar.

Weightlifting: L. Monika Devi.

Yachting: N.S. Johal.

Berhael

Of Uncles and Balls

2008-08-01T05:12:00.000-07:00

Today, I was walking through a municipal corporation ground while walking my dogs and there I saw a group of kids playing cricket. Immediately, the youth in me took over and I felt like joining them for a game despite my canine entourage.
And then it happened, one of the boys hit a ball and it came flying towards me and landed right next to my feet. It was a small ball, rubber, blue, shining, inviting. And there it stood, right in front of the three of us, man and beast coveting the ball alike. The kid posted at long on, ran over to me and came up to collect the remains of an astounding shot.
And there I was, waiting for him to ask me to join in their game, maybe even join midway through this one (as they were a keeper short). I was bristling at the opportunity to showcase my sportsman skills. The dash towards the boundary, the rolling in the mud, the incessant appealing, the fright on seeing the fastest opposing bowler, the inventive sledging, hoick over mid-wicket, the satisfaction of finally placing that cover drive, all came to me in a menagerie of frenzy, excitement, lust, exhilaration!
And so the kid ran up to me, walked about to about 10 feet within me. I was just waiting for him to ask the question, quivering with adrenaline. And there, his lips moved : "Uncle.... could you please pass the ball?"

"Uncle?" :|
So much for youth

Berhael

Of IITians and Analytics

2008-07-31T07:59:00.000-07:00

Alright, I confess, I use Google Analytics to monitor which content is most viewed on my blog and what are the keywords, to tune my future content and meta tags better. Long back I had written an entry on why IITs aren't so much a waste of time. And today, I happened to see the search keywords for that article and I am pasting them here. Basically, it means people Googled for these phrases and got (mis?)led to my blog. At this point, I must state I have not cooked up any list item here they were actually used!
Here you go, in descending order :
0) all about iitians
1) blog about iitians abroad
2) blogs of iitians
3) dowry rate of an iitian
4) hate iit iitians
5) how iitian achieve so much
6) iit colleges hate
7) iitian bloggers
8) iitian quotes
9) iitian+software+blog

Dowry rate of an IITian? Priceless. :)

Berhael

Of Lasts and Lectures

2008-07-30T07:34:00.001-07:00

May you Rest In Peace Randy.Image courtesy: Wikimedia
Berhael

Of Hindu, Kalam and Projects

2008-07-26T01:46:00.000-07:00

This article came in The Hindu today. In the paragraph indicating the low-cost technology developed in IIT Madras, one of the two projects shown was mine! :)

CHENNAI: In the eyes of APJ Abdul Kalam, the scientist, there was a Stephen Hawking lurking in every corner of Vidya Sagar, wielding technology from a wheelchair. “This is a very hi-tech establishment,” he remarked of Vidya Sagar, which works for children with cerebral palsy. “What Stephen Hawking is doing, you are trying to do everyday.”

Stepping into the Augmentative and Alternative Communication Centre in Vidya Sagar, which works on various devices used by students who are “non verbal,” Mr. Kalam spent more than his scheduled half-an-hour, finding out how technology could be harnessed to help children with poor motor and auditory skills to learn and communicate.

Rajul Padmanabhan, director, Vidya Sagar, told Mr. Kalam about a low-cost technology, developed in association with IIT-Madras, that opens up the world for a child with multiple disabilities.

Poonam Natarajan, founder of Vidya Sagar and chairperson of the National Trust, and Usha Ramakrishnan, chairperson, Vidya Sagar, informed Mr. Kalam of the various initiatives of the institution.

Mr. Kalam promised to come back to Vidya Sagar, along with a student conducting research on mental retardation, and spend half a day with the students, teachers and mothers.

He took a couple of questions from 12th standard students Anjana and Abhishek.

Mr. Kalam congratulated “his friend” Siddharth, a former student of Vidya Sagar currently employed in a private bank, for his achievements.

Of Singhs and Kings

2008-07-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

After the 48 hour reality show that we just saw.. its been proved who the true Khatron Ke Khiladi is and of course :

berhael

Of Nuclear and Reactions

2008-07-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

Of Kuselan and Krishna

2008-07-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

Kuselan is due to release in a week and I couldn't help but draw a parallel of the story to the Krishna-Sudhama story that all of us have grown up watching, no points for guessing who plays the role of Krishna and who of Sudhama.. :)
Now this kind of provides hints, will Rajini be a God for future generations or was Krishna the true "movie-star" of his day? :D
But for now, here is the story of Krishna and Sudhama blatantly copied from www.balagokulam.org

God Krishna had in his student days a classmate, who was very poor. His name was Sudhama. Krishna became king of Dwaraka later on.

Sudhama remained a poor householder. He had many children. He was, however, a good-loving man.

Everyday Sudhama went out singing bhajans in the streets. People gave him handfuls of rice. He came home and gave the rice to his wife. She cooked it. Sudhama first offered the food of God. Next he gave part of it to his guests. Then he fed his children. The husband and wife ate what remained.

Sudhama never stored food for the next day. He was sure God would feed him everyday, as He had always fed him. When the children grew up, the alms Sudhama brought were not enough. On some days they had to go without food. Sudhama had no fine clothes to wear. He was in rags. So people called him 'Kuchela'. It means a man with torn clothes.

One day Sudhama's wife said to him: "Lord! Why don't you meet Krishna? You were at school together. He will surely help us!"

Sudhama had been wanting to see his friend Krishna, not for money, but for the joy of meeting a beloved friend.

When we go to see a baby, a great man or God in a temple we must not go without gifts. We must take with us some sweets as a token of affection or respect. Sudhama took what his wife could give him-a small package of beaten rice. They were that poor.

Sudhama walked all the way to Dwaraka. When he reached Krishna's palace, he went in. Krishna saw him from a distance. At once he rushed out and met Sudhama at the gate. He gave him a great welcome. He embraced him. He washed Sudhama's feet. He took him to his room, and seated him on a silken cot. Krishna's wife Rukmini gently fanned Sudhama. The maids-in- waiting gave him plenty of sweet food and delicious drink in golden vessels.

Sudhama had never seen such a beautiful palace of such riches. No one had ever treated him so nicely before. So he did not even know how to thank Krishna for the hospitality. After Sudhama had taken a rest, Krishna spoke to him of their student days and about their teacher, Sandipani.

At last Krishna said to him: "Are you married? How many children have you?" Sudhama nodded his head shyly, meaning to say that he was happy and content. "I am sure you have brought something for me to eat," said Krishna suddenly.

Sudhama was ashamed to take out the package of beaten rice. But Krishna saw the bag and pulled it out. Taking a handful from and putting it in his mouth, he said: "How nice of your wife to have sent this to me?" Then he ate two more handfuls.

After spending the day happily at Dwaraka, Sudhama took leave of Krishna, and walked back to his village. He completely forgot to ask for any gift of favor of Krishna. On the way he as thinking how loyal and generous Krishna had been.

When Sudhama reached home, a great miracle waited for him there. There was a grand palace where his old home had been. Many servants went about doing all kinds of work. His wife stood before him. She wore a costly sari and had golden ornaments on! All his children wore gorgeous clothes. He could not believe his eyes.

Sudhama's wife said:"It all happened by the grace of Krishna."

Sudhama worshipped Krishna with greater devotion than ever before.

Hmm... 'Kuchela' ? Kuselan? :) I think we know the story of the movie already. ;)

Berhael

Of Ants and Grasshoppers

2008-06-29T06:21:00.000-07:00

Got this in one of those forward emails.. I've always tried to make my blog politically correct, but couldn't resist this time. All the same, no one get offended please, its meant in good humor.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away..
Come winter ,the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Indian Version

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.
Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance)
Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bharat Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.
CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath '..
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.
Arjun Singh makes ' Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice '.
Lalu calls it ' Socialistic Justice '.
CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '
Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly .

Many years later...

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley .
100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ...

Of 10s and IIT - Part 2

2008-06-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

Alright, this time I am going to focus on 10 things I absolutely cannot forget in IIT, in a good way.

On the side, someone once asked me (actually no one did but I am just providing some build-up) why I say the bad thing first and then the good thing, I remembered what the Mahabharata has to say (loosely), when confronted with two pieces of news, the good and the bad, the ordinary man would be happier on hearing the good news after the bad news than the other way round. The person who has detached himself from the outcomes of actions will treat both pieces of news with equanimity.

Anyways, epic-knowledge-showing-off aside, my points on 10 things in IIT I Liked:

1) Some really good teachers, who've been more than "academic" teachers to me sometimes.
2) My rooms and all their ambience (despite the Pink connotations attributed to me because of them, I'm sure all you guys were jealous anyway :P )
3) The 4 to 5 Gurunath Chat Sessions (4 years of it would give you enough Philosophy to last life I would think!)
4) Literary Competitions, especially the gruelling quiz season, Dramatics, speaking events and word events (except for Last year's Lit-Soc where they cupped it big time with the schedules)
5) All my trips to Ritchie Street and Parrys buying things (half of which I never used)
6) The Institute wildlife population - it's quite a sight to see a grown up handsome Stag eating vegetable puff (not to mention the harrassing monkeys, they have more rights than us i nthe !)
7) My first night-time mobile-phone light experience in Saarang
8) My wing-mates, EP-mates, Cauvery-mess-mates and Ganga-mates (despite all our flaws and incidents we still had great times, all of you are brilliant in your own way, thanks)
9) My final year project, what a learning experience it was (oops no blog post on that yet!)
10) Shaastra, all 4 years of it :)

Besides these there are smaller things like Ambience for Saarang, Tennis, my S in ID110 so on so forth, all-in-all its been one helluva learning experience I guess.

Berhael

Of Interviews and Documents

2008-06-25T05:39:00.000-07:00

Interviewer : SO! Someone's going to be a Trojan. USC!
Me : Yes
Interviewer : You don't sound so excited about it
Me : Nothing like that, just don't follow football yet.
Interviewer (stares at sheets) : Are you getting a TA-ship?
Me : Actually its a fellowship, I'm getting my tuition fees paid and a stipend.
Interviewer (wrinkles face) : Good deal!
Interviewer (looks at GRE) : So, you ALSO applied to Georgia tech?
Me : Yes.
Interviewer : Did you get in?
Me : No (sheepish smile)
Interviewer (pauses for a second) : Oh, well some sins can be forgiven (Smiles)
Me : (Smile)
Interviewer (pauses for 10 seconds) : Well, what to say, against my better judgement, I am going to give you your visa! (smirks) Congratulations!
Me : (smile) Thank you (smile) Thank you very much.

Statistics:
Total no. of words spoken by me : 29
Total time of interview : 1 min 2 sec.
End result : One step closer to Graduate School.

Berhael

PS : Thank you once again Sir. :)

Of 10s and IIT

2008-06-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

Ten things I hated in IIT in no particular order:
1) The academic section and anything that involved getting a letter cross-signed by Fac-Ad, HOD, Officer in Charge, Dean Students, Registrar all on the same sheet of paper (Go Green IIT!)
2) Tendency of groups working on a particular thing to form closed cliques recruiting and working only within that clique.
3) Elections and all associated savagery. In the end if you look at it, nothing much comes out of it in terms of new buildings or different ideas.
4) No parking space for local students (is it so difficult to open up an area and CHARGE for parking instead of asking to pay fines?)
5) Himalaya, Mess Grub coupons, associated signatures. Miss the bonhomie of our first year.
6) Vetti pseud putting junta (associated point 2).
7) IIT Smart card, never use it and pay 500 bucks if you lose/break it. Now there's a deal!
8) Computer Game addicts (nothing against the games, just that you shouldn't get addicted... please)
9) Wing politics (there also ah!!!)
10) No interaction with the society around us. We could've designed so many things for people in villages/poor localities/infrastructure etc, but its not been on our agenda. No one's fault though.

Berhael

Of cooking and learning...

2008-06-12T05:33:00.000-07:00

Exams are over, my university is decided, I am free till August.. I have been using my time in the mornings to practice my cooking. And it is improving by leaps and bounds if I may say so in my humble opinion.
I can now make 7 different standard vegetables, 3-4 sambhars, whatever whatever spice combos to make rasams, some 1-2 thohails. Now it's time to switch to the variety rices.. puliyodharai, tomato rice, fried rice, lemon rice and other stuff like upama and pongal, so on. Let's hope that clicks. :) I must recommend the book by Viji Varadarajan's Samayal its a wonderful book for one who does not have too much time to browse through detailed recipes. However you are sure to grow out of it, as I am starting to find out, but a good book to get u started.
For now, here is a sample of my cooking :)

It's Murungaka sambhar, potato mixed curry and kothavaranga karamadhu. It tasted pretty well too!
--Berhael
PS - THANK YOU MOM :)
Update : Viji's Site can be found at www.vijisamayal.org

Of India and Maps

2008-05-26T20:49:00.001-07:00

I happened to come across this erstwhile Map of "India" while browsing Wikipedia for the Sino-Indian War.. The red regions are British-occupied territory, the yellow represent principalities and independent territories, interesting isn't it? Let's see if anyone can figure out which period this map belongs to. What first struck my mind was that this is where we came from and this is how we were organized once upon a time, how do we feel about ourselves today? Where do our allegiances lie?

Berhael

Of Earth Patrol and Days.. :)

2008-05-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

The day my universe changed... :) :)

Berhael

Of Wings and Videos

2008-04-28T23:12:00.000-07:00

I should've put this a month ago! Anyways.. nice to know that the making of the actual video gave me memories to last a lifetime.. :)

Of EP and Um...

2008-03-01T05:45:00.001-08:00

The things that come out while you doodle... Click on image to enlarge.

Of Names and Cricketers...

2008-02-27T06:23:00.000-08:00

= ?!?!?!?!?!!

Of IITians and Hate

2008-02-24T23:48:00.000-08:00

I was reading an article online and also many blogs in which I was shocked to see the hate-them attitude towards IITians. I would like to offer a few points.

I do concede that a lot IITians have a so-called attitude problem. But no one is inaccessible. Many of my friends complain that when non-IIT people meet them, they say, oh IIT you're so smart! Firstly, thats not always true. Secondly, see me as a person first and judge my intellect skills later.

It is not true that not a single earth shattering invention from an IIT-ian - Sun MicroSystems was co-founded by an IIT-ian. India's premier software service provider was founded by a group of IIT-ians. In IIT Madras, there are many Multi-crore companies that have spawned out of research projects in the final years in the TeNet group and some of these companies supply products that are unique in the world and only they have the patent rights for. Many of them also work for social benefit. Some of the world's fastest Analog to Digital Converters are made in a lab thats ten feet away from where I work. Hi-speed network protocols with hitherto unseen data rates are made a floor above me. Some of the world's most accurate quantum optics/electromagnetics based devices are produced right next to my work desk. Aren't these achievements? True they are not publicized like an ipod or a sony walkman but they are earth-shattering nonetheless. All these are components of products that shake our world. You must remember that research does not always lead to products immediately and while it is the products that get the limelight, none of them would be possible without all these components. Having said this, there is such tremendous scope to expand in terms of facilities and ideas and we really need an environment conducive for this.

Another point should be noted, as a student preparing for the IIT, I spent two and then three years of my life in social isolation preparing for it. I worked very hard. When others were relaxing in well-established coffee joints, I had to sit and prepare for my coaching class tests and completing both school and coaching class assignments. I studied sometimes 14 hours a day and the best part is I would NOT have been classified as the hardest working even with such numbers! I'm not trying to blow my own horn, but my point is, given I worked so hard and sacrificed a significant portion of my life towards getting in, don't I deserve a pay packet that matches the work I put in? Don't I deserve the 2 lakhs the government spends on me? After all, I worked for it.

I do know that all that hard work definitely raised my analytical skills from an above average level to one slightly higher. That is not to say others are not smart, in fact many non-IITians are much smarter than IITians, but my skills definitely got fine-tuned by all that practice. I can't help but feel that it is these skills that companies want when they hire.

I agree with the fact that as IITians we are respected (I think) for our core skills, in fact we are trained in that area. What comes to my mind is what was discussed in the task force meeting for revising the curriculum, you must remember the overall goal of education, it is not to impart you with expertise in a particular area but to develop you in an all-round manner and to give you a skill-set that will help you to 'get better' in any area you wish to pursue. In that respect if an institution is allowing you do that, to find yourself professionally, thats the best thing that can happen.

Also, in my own personal experience, many students after joining IIT have discovered that their set of skills is more suited to negotiating, organizing, procuring, communicating all the time, all skills that are common traits of management. Why should we as a society prevent them from climbing that ladder? IITians have tech skills, and as a person they might want to develop management skills to complement them as well. I don't see why we should prevent them from doing so. Individual freedom should not be curtailed.

Individually, I am more than willing to contribute to my country in its path to progress. But before that, I need to hone my own skills. In my case, it is to develop research based skills : a strong analytical ability to logically work out a path from the problem statement to a solution, which I hope to achieve through higher studies. In my humble opinion, I would want to work in an environment where there are stringent demands on quality of work done and where I receive exposure to demanding needs. When intellectually mature, I can then impose these same demands on anyone I work with professionally, and this is very important when developing our nation as a whole too! This is most achievable outside my country in my particular area. As you can see, the whole thing is entirely individual and for each person his/her decision will vary as per what they want. I do not think any of my friends would say let's just live out of the country thats better for us. They would only say, let's go where we are respected as individuals, presented with challenging problems to work on and are given the necessary means to work them out as seamlessly as possible. These problems could be solving bottlenecks in management and running of companies or solving equations in quantum mechanics or building up infrastructure for our own country. The ideal case is to provide yourself with the "ability" to solve them and develop yourself accordingly, not to get a B. Tech degree and work only in that area and try to make money out of it.

Its definitely a bit sad that people who do BioTech and Aerospace in IIT end up in generic software companies. True it would be nice if they at least stayed in related areas. But I would also like to know what a person doing his aerospace engineering in IIT Madras would do sitting here, other than a few mid-level companies that do not hire 200 people per year there is hardly anyone who would take them up. The only option if working in their core field is to move where they have jobs and that is outside this country. Again the question arises, wouldn't you as a person want the best environment around you as professionally where you can grow and let others grow with you?

True, money is a driving factor but it is only a means to an end, not the end itself. Money is what enables you to invest in new machines, build new roads, it buys you power, and a lot more. I would like to think that as a professional, I have a certain set of skills attached to me. These may be very good or average or below. If they are exceptional, don't I have the right the charge for them? I guarantee a certain quality of service and a certain advanced skill-set that I provide with the money. Don't I deserve some amount of means to comfort that assuages the stress and strains of my job? That is the whole idea behind paying IIT-ians such salaries I expect. Needless to say, if I were a good manager and I found out that I DON'T get the quality I am paying for, I have every right to remove the concerned party.

It is true that companies with money-muscle power recruit IITians and entice them with high salaries. But these salaries are commensurate with the work they do. In addition, they are not meant to be long term jobs, in the sense that the person concerned will not go far if he/she doesn't take the effort to improve his/her skills further and more importantly shows the willingness to learn and in the short time he does work, he will be subjected to horrible, horrible timings/deadlines. And if someone wants to work in such a place, if he enjoys the thrill of it, then why do you want to stop him?

Lastly, I DON'T think IITians are a waste of taxpayer's money. The 250 billion dollar odd foreign exchange that we have today is in a large part due to sons and daughters sending dollar notes to their parents. The 60,000 jobs a year from Infosys are because of a dozen odd IITians dared to dream and rise against the odds. Even excluding these, IITians contribute tremendously in management circles, Tata,Reliance being cases in point.

For research, you need good infrastructure, talented workers and the ability to spend without expecting anything in return. Our country is only just beginning to support that kind of culture, it is something that has been perfected outside. It will happen but only as we get richer as a nation. Also, it is not easy to perform research after you've just completed your Bachelor's degree, you need expertise, either working in a Core R&D company, which in India is just beginning to show up, or to work with a research group in a university. Also, I do NOT want to do research in a society that awards degrees and accepts people based on what caste they come from. I want to work in a meritocracy. I admit that working abroad will invite racial taunts, but if you have something good to offer, all racial discrimination you'll find will be ignored.

The bottomline is this, if one is going to keep a closed mind, not willing to learn,to not keep his attitude in check, and not keep high standards for himself, he will never grow. That is true whether he is an IITian or not. Such people should not be encouraged. The other side is true as well, I'd like to think that a person who did well and were from IIT would have done well even if they weren't in IIT in the first place. It is the never-say-die-attitude that is very important. You have to be willing to cooperate, accommodate everyone else and communicate yourself well.

Berhael

Of Buses and FootBoards

2008-02-24T00:42:00.001-08:00

This picture is courtesy www.enidhi.net . I just HAD to share it!
Talk about innovative ways to prevent footboard travel.

Of Being Indian and Dilemmas

2008-02-15T21:46:00.001-08:00

An interesting article from rediff.com
Click here to read.
Berhael

Of Constitution and Articles

2008-02-15T21:41:00.001-08:00

Article 19 of the Constituion : Expressing Right to Freedom :

19. Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc.-
(1) All citizens shall have the right-

(a) to freedom of speech and expression;

(b) to assemble peaceably and without arms;

(d) to move freely throughout the territory of India;

(e) to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India;

(g) to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business.

(2) Nothing in sub-clause (a) of clause (1) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests of [the sovereignty and integrity of India,] the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.]

(3) Nothing in sub-clause (b) of the said clause shall affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it imposes, or prevent the State from making any law imposing, in the interests of _16[the sovereignty and integrity of India or] public order, reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause.

(4) Nothing in sub-clause (c) of the said clause shall affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it imposes, or prevent the State from making any law imposing, in the interests of _16[the sovereignty and integrity of India or] public order or morality, reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause.

(5) Nothing in [sub-clauses (d) and (e)] of the said clause shall affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it imposes, or prevent the State from making any law imposing, reasonable restrictions on the exercise of any of the rights conferred by the said sub-clauses either in the interests of the general public or for the protection of the interests of any Scheduled Tribe.

(6) Nothing in sub-clause (g) of the said clause shall affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it imposes, or prevent the State from making any law imposing, in the interests of the general public, reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause, and, in particular, [nothing in the said sub-clause shall affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it relates to, or prevent the State from making any law relating to,-

(i) the professional or technical qualifications necessary for practising any profession or carrying on any occupation, trade or business, or

(ii) the carrying on by the State, or by a corporation owned or controlled by the State, of any trade, business, industry or service, whether to the exclusion, complete or partial, of citizens or otherwise]

Of Gandhi and Castes

2008-02-15T21:20:00.000-08:00

Inspired by recent events in Maharashtra I will be publishing a series of reports pertaining to regionalism/casteism/national integrity.
Here is the first one from the Father of our Nation Gandhiji and his view on casteism, note the evolution of his ideas with the years gone by :

1920: "I believe that caste has saved Hinduism from disintegration. But like every other institution it has suffered from excrescences. I consider the four divisions alone to be fundamental, natural and essential. The innumerable sub-castes are sometimes a convenience, often a hindrance. The sooner there is fusion, the better....
"One of my correspondents suggests that we should abolish the caste [system] but adopt the class system of Europe - meaning thereby, I suppose, that the idea of heredity in caste should be rejected. I am inclined to think that the law of heredity is an eternal law and any attempt to alter that law must lead us, as it has before led [others], to utter confusion.... If Hindus believe, as they must believe, in reincarnation [and] transmigration, they must know that Nature will, without any possibility of mistake, adjust the balance by degrading a Brahmin, if he misbehaves himself, by reincarnating him in a lower division, and translating one who lives the life of a Brahmin in his present incarnation to Brahminhood in his next.

1920: "The beauty of the caste system is that it does not base itself upon distinctions of wealth-possessions. Money, as history has proved, is the greatest disruptive force in the world.... Caste is but an extension of the principle of the family. Both are governed by blood and heredity. Western scientists are busy trying to prove that heredity is an illusion and that milieu is everything. The... experience of many lands goes against the conclusions of these scientists; but even accepting their doctrine of milieu, it is easy to prove that milieu can be conserved and developed more through caste than through class.... As we all know, change comes very slowly in social life, and thus, as a matter of fact, caste has allowed new groupings to suit the changes in lives. But these changes are [as] quiet and easy as a change in the shape of the clouds. It is difficult to imagine a better harmonious human adjustment.
"Caste does not connote superiority or inferiority. It simply recognizes different outlooks and corresponding modes of life. But it is no use denying the fact that a sort of hierarchy has been evolved in the caste system, but it cannot be called the creation of the Brahmins. When all castes accept a common [religious] goal of life, a hierarchy is inevitable, because all castes cannot realize the ideal in equal degree."

1925: "There is no harm if a person belonging to one varna acquires the knowledge or science and art specialized in by persons belonging to other varnas. But as far as the way of earning his living his concerned, he must follow the occupation of the varna to which he belongs, which means he must follow the hereditary profession of his forefathers.
"The object of the varna system is to prevent competition and class struggle and class war. I believe in the varna system because it fixes the duties and occupations of persons.... Varna means the determination of a man's occupation before he is born.... In the varna system no man has any liberty to choose his occupation."

1931: "I do not believe in caste in the modern sense. It is an excrescence and a handicap on progress. Nor do I believe in inequalities between human beings. We are all absolutely equal. But equality is of souls and not bodies.... We have to realize equality in the midst of this apparent inequality. Assumption of superiority by any person over any other is a sin against God and man. Thus caste, in so far as it connotes distinctions in status, is an evil.

"I do however believe in varna which is based on hereditary occupations. Varnas are four to mark four universal occupations - imparting knowledge, defending the defenceless, carrying on agriculture and commerce, and performing service [to other humans] through physical labor. These occupations are common to all mankind, but Hinduism, having recognized them as the law of our being, has made use of it in regulating social relations and conduct. Gravitation affects us all whether one knows its existence or not. But scientists who knew the law have made it yield results that have startled the world. Even so has Hinduism startled the world by its discovery and application of the law of varna.

"[Yet] according to my definition of varna there is no varna in operation at present in Hinduism. The so-called Brahmins have ceased to impart knowledge. They take to various other occupations. This is more or less true of the other varnas."

1932: "No matter what was the position in ancient times, no one can nowadays go through life claiming to belong to a high class. Society will not willingly admit any such claim to superiority, but only under duress. The world is now wide awake....
"When it is suggested that everyone should practice his father's profession, the suggestion is coupled with the condition that the practitioner of every profession will earn only a living wage and no more.... The lawyer or doctor ought by practicing his profession to earn only a living wage. And such was actually the case formerly....
"Boys [between 9 and 16 years of age] should be taught their parents' avocation in such a way that they will by their own choice obtain their livelihood by practicing the hereditary craft. This does not apply to the girls.... [From] 16 to 25..., every young person should have an education according to his or her wishes and circumstances."

1933, Ambedkar: "There will be outcastes as long as there are castes, and nothing can emancipate the outcaste except the destruction of the caste system."
Gandhi: "Dr. Ambedkar is bitter. He has every reason to feel so.... [Yet] I do not believe the caste system, even as distinguished from varnashrama, to be an 'odious and vicious dogma'. It has its limitations and defects, but there is nothing sinful about it, as there is about untouchability, and if [untouchability] is a by-product of the system, it is only in the same sense that an ugly growth is of a body, or weeds of a crop."

1919: "Interdining [and] intermarrying, I hold, are not essential for the promotion of the spirit of democracy.... But as time goes forward and new necessities and occasions arise, the custom regarding... interdining and intermarrying will require cautious modifications or rearrangements."

1925, Correspondent: "I was surprised to read in a recent article [your] repudiation of intermarriage between touchables and untouchables...."
Gandhi: "I have repeatedly expressed my view of caste and intermarriage.... I cannot picture to myself a time when all mankind will have one religion. As a rule there will, therefore, be the religious bar; people will marry in their own religion.... The caste restriction is an extension of the same principle. It is a social convenience.... I am opposed to untouchability because it limits the field of service. [But] marriage is not an act of service."

1942: "When I said that removal of untouchability did not include the removal of restrictions on interdining and intermarriage, I had the general Hindu public in mind, not the Congress workers or Congressmen. These have to abolish untouchability from every part of their life."

1935: "It must be left to the unfettered choice of the individual as to where he or she will marry or dine. If the law of varnashrama was observed [with regard to hereditary occupation], there would naturally be a tendency, so far as marriage is concerned, for people to restrict the marital relations to their own varna."

1926: "You are of course a free man; so I cannot force you to do anything. But I write to you as a friend. "What you desire is contrary to dharma If you stick to Hinduism and Fatima follows Islam, it will be like putting two swords in one sheath.... What should be your children's faith? ...It is adharma if Fatima agrees to conversion just for marrying you.... "Nor is it in the interests of our society to form this relationship. Your marriage will have a powerful impact on the Hindu-Moslem question. Intercommunal marriages are no solution to this problem. You cannot forget, nor will society forget, that you are my son. "If you enter into this relationship, you may not be able to render any service. I fear you may no longer be the right person to run Indian Opinion [which Manilal had been editing ever since Gandhi had left South Africa]. "It will be impossible for you, I think, after this to come and settle in India. "I cannot ask Ba's permission.... Her life will be embittered for ever. "In proposing this marriage you have thought only of momentary pleasure.... I want you to get out of your infatuation.... May God show you the right path."

1932: "If anybody asks my opinion, I would say that marriage between persons following different faiths was a risky experiment.... I do not advocate marriages between persons of different faiths as I advocate inter-caste marriages because I desire the disappearance of sub-castes. I would not agitate against such marriages either. This is an issue on which every man and woman should think and decide for himself or herself. There cannot be a uniform law for all. "

Copied and Pasted by Berhael

Of Trekking and Pilgrimages

2008-01-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

A few vignettes from my recent pilgrimage to Ahobilam, was very beautiful terrain and the destination was worth it, seeing Narasimha Avataram in his various forms:

Of wooshies and hugs

2008-01-04T09:41:00.000-08:00

Of Rises and the Rupee

2007-12-30T01:33:00.000-08:00

I have always wondered why the Rupee rising (or falling) is so important, so I did my research and here's what I've come up with, correct me if I'm wrong factually

What happens to make the rupee rise and fall
The valuation of the rupee in the country is handled by The Reserve Bank of India with its policy of managed float along with its external value. The Reserve Bank buys dollars from the market, adding to its foreign exchange reserves. This creates a sort of demand for the dollar (just like you would have demands for rice or apples) and raises its value. As in a shop where if the shopkeeper knows that something is in higher demand and its quantity is limited, its price goes up, the more you demand a dollar the price of the dollar goes up. This price is evaluated (or bought) with another currency and though I don't know the details, I'll simplify it and say it is evaluated with the rupee currency. So if I am buying in rupees and I want lots of "dollar goods" while only a certain amount is available, I have to pay more rupees for a dollar. Also, there are other processes going on, where relatives and friends of those in India send in dollars on their own. So now you have a situation where there are more of the "dollar goods" possibly leading to less demand. This can lower the value of the dollar. In fact, if the RBI did not buy dollars, these inflows would have sent the rupee spiraling in terms of dollars thanks to the forces of demand and supply. That means with more dollars available among people, since more people have their own share of the dollar good, the lesser the demand of the dollar with a certain amount available, the less valuable it becomes. An over-simplified version is, if suddenly no one wanted to buy dollars, you have lots of dollars available and the value of the "dollar good" is very low and the rupee is now stronger.

So What? - Trade
When we buy something from outside our country it is imported. These are bought with dollars but within the country, we use rupees for day to day financial transaction and salaries are commensurate with that. That means if a dollar is equal to a large number (large number > 40) of rupees, it costs more to buy an imported good in India. So as far as importing is concerned, it is favourable to have a smaller dollar to rupee ratio.

The opposite holds for exports, when we make something in India and sell it abroad, we make everything in rupees, but sell it in dollars, if we sell something with more dollars and a dollar is equal to a large number of rupees, n, we make n times the profit. So in the interest of exports, a larger dollar to rupee ratio is preferred.

RBI's Dollar-Rupee Policy
Recently, the RBI policy has shifted to allow the Rupee to rise against the dollar, consequently its on a 9 year high against the dollar. One important trigger for this is reversal is a rising inflation rate or a rise in the price of goods year after year. Inflation rate is controlled by a number of essential commodities like petroleum products and unfortunately, we do not produce them locally (yet!) A stronger rupee would make these goods cheaper (in rupees) in India. But, obviously, the rise in the rupee would make Indian goods costlier abroad and therefore cut into exports. In this way, exports are discouraged and more goods will be available for the local market, thus taming inflation. In a sense, a falling rupee would favour a "defensive" strategy of protecting home industries and hemming them in. Also, under the earlier policy of buying dollars with rupees, an equivalent amount of rupees was being put into circulation. Other things remaining the same, this would push up the inflation rate since you do not have that many goods that can be bought with this new found money. So what the government did was to create "artificial goods" in the form of government bonds, something which can lead to a vicious circle, that is beyond the scope of this article.

Miscellaneous Effects of Rising Rupee

Inflation rate comes down
Exports become less profitable, if the rupee keeps appreciating without contol, exports will suffer
Since our currency is comparatively more free running than others, which are virtually pegged to the dollar, trade with those countries will be preferred since the prices of the goods produced by those countries will be unaffected.
A slow growth rate in exports would lead to a slower GDP growth.
If a company relies more on exports (such as Infosys and other premier software companies and pharma companies), its profits will be badly hit. If a company relies more on imports (such as the diamond industry), its profitability will increase. In our country the former kind of companies are in a clear majority with respect to wage earning and wealth generation. So it will be in general, a good idea to help them out. A similar position holds for the Indian steel industry which relies on exports heavily.
It will be cheaper to travel abroad and purchase from online stores which deal in dollars. Conversely, it will be tougher for foreign tourists to come to India cost-wise and as a result, the Indian tourism industry could have a negative impact.

As you can see, its a fine balancing act, and I hope that this will find a natural course, the situation today is more of the government doing its bit and the private sector adjusting its policies to save costs and improve profits (yes, that means no lights and air conditioning after 8 o' clock for all you software folks :) ). What will happen, time will tell.

Of Disguises and Wooshies

2007-12-29T23:01:00.001-08:00

My God! How do these creatures do it! Ingenious I tell you...Berhael

Of boredom and madness

2007-12-29T22:21:00.000-08:00

Come next semester, this is what I'll be doing a lot of in Professional Ethics Class... Hurray for my Blog. :)

Berhael

Of Pifs and Pafs

2007-12-23T20:53:00.000-08:00

Dear You,

Pif Paf is a brand new... um... brand, introduced in Chennai by the Bongu-Chennaiites association (mostly) with a focus on original methods of killing cockroaches with a deeply pious yet ironic and socially productive tone. A group of amateur, lets-find-a-new-excuse-to-pass-time yet enthu-putting insect-killers in Chennai are the driving force behind Pif Paf– the first avatar of this product will be unveiled on Dec 30th and whenever the public demands it next at the Chetpet Bus Terminus, where people apparently need it the most.

Pif Paf is an idea, an esprit [not the perfume with the hot model in its ad but the word coined by white people with the best seats], an emotion, an invocation, and a cuss word. It is what defines a cockroach killer's life.

Pif Paf cannot be defined. It is however, definitely a gimmick. Not a movement, in fact quite the lack of it. Not a fad but an honest attempt at one. Not the name of a lost Teletubby, but the nom-de-plume of a confused fat bird, plumes included.

Pif Paf is for individuals who are amused and irritated by the synchronized swimming contests that cockroaches hold in the sink water that we swim in everyday, in order to be polite and grown up towards each other. Pif is W rated (yes, we don't know what that means either).

There will be two sprays per day, @ 8am and 7pm (thats the peak infestation time usually)– The show content for the 30th will not be repeated on the day whenever it is repeated. Come on you can't expect us to remember what we did the previous day! Especially since most of it will be cooked up on the spot. Yes, you heard right! That’s two whole days of brand new spraying.

Units are priced @ Rs. 50 if you have your student i.d. and Rs. 100 without (special concessions for IIT hostellites because well, we feel for you). Units available at your nearest Saravana Stores. Or contact me for bookings.

Come experience the Pif Paf festival, which gives a Pif for bad roaches, says Paf off to those show-offs and Shakespeare impersonators, and is indubitably, a @*#&*(#&#*@(#)*@#*@(#*) , if anything at all.

The focus is on collaboration, on the killer, on life, on death, especially ironic truths. Don’t miss out on the Pif Paf parade, on the 30th of December, where loads of enthusiastic cock roaches will perform acrobatic feats before your very eyes.

With a whole lot of things I've never touched before but will talk about anyway because it gives me scene value,

The Pif Paf Parade.

PS - I Hope I still have my job. :P For the original and 'more serious' article, click here.

Berhael

Of Greek Gods and Physicists

2007-12-17T20:46:00.001-08:00

I was reading one of Feynman's writings where he described a Greek Physics student looking at him as if he were a God, and this came to my head.

Siigh I wish I could get the time to sketch again :(

Of slavery and Indians

2007-12-17T20:43:00.001-08:00

Hee hee, talk about racial discrimination :)

Berhael

Of Tshirts (?) and EP

2007-12-06T21:02:00.001-08:00

We've been deciding our department T-shirt for four years, unfortunately no compromise as of yet, it just seems to be getting buried under the plethora of other work that the members of the EP clan have.
Here is one of my contributions:

I've always been bad with slogans, I couldn't put up a better one to go with the T - shirt above.

Of wooshies and love

2007-12-06T20:56:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am jobless.
More on my wooshie theory later, but for now, here is the creature itself, spotted during one of its earth scouting tours. And they thought bigfoots were real!

Of Excerpts and Ideologies

2007-09-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from an Article by Jaideep Sahni, scriptwriter, "Chak De India" on India @ 60, taken from Rediff.com .
Full interview @ http://specials.rediff.com/india60/2007/sep/20slide.htm

'India C is not invited to the party'

In terms of India today, Jaideep is quick to make demarcations. "The way I see it there's an India A, India B and India C. India A is us, sitting here right now. We've come from pretty privileged backgrounds, as normal Indians go. We are the top 1% in terms of resources. We call ourselves upper middle-class, but are actually extremely high class as far as percentages go in India.

"India B is the India of Bunty Aur Babli, who sees us on cable and wants to be like that. Then there's India C, the tribals we used to watch dancing with Indira Gandhi when we were kids. You ask them who the prime minister is, they'll say Mahatma Gandhi. They are completely untouched by all this. So the market economy has touched India A, has touched India B, is on the rise in towns like Kanpur, etc. And India C is not invited to the party.

"They're the ones who are committing suicide," sighs the writer. "So this trickle-down, as they say, is happening. I'm aware it's happening. Whether it's happening fast enough, or in an equitable enough way, I don't think so. We don't make movies for them, we don't make any product for them. We don't even do government for them, some Naxalites are their government. There's a vacuum there, no?

"So they make their own movies. Bhojpuri movies are doing well, na? They have their own system of judiciary. The trickle-down is happening, opening up to the world is helping us and I'm all for it but there's an India which is shining, there's an India which is waiting to shine, and hungry for opportunities, which is Bunty Aur Babli, and there's an India which has no hopes in hell of ever shining, and we aren't even looking at them. That's not fair."

'We are basically decent people'

On the present generation's apathy towards all things rural, Jaideep is more hopeful than most. He considers us decent, unaware people too caught up in an economic boom to look at the rest of us. "We want to succeed and there are opportunities for us to succeed after a long time. We want to make the best of everything, and now. Which is great, I love it. Because we're in a hurry we don't have much time to look at India B or India C. But I'm confident that if our attention is drawn to it, we will. Because we are basically decent people."

"I think we can be more equitable," he says when asked to comment on the current Indian government, "which, in theory, the government seems to be preaching. I just don't know how much it is practising it. Perhaps it is. I love Dr Kalam's idea of urban infrastructure in rural areas. I love the work that micro-credit people are doing. I love the fact that the rural economy is growing in many areas."

"But I don't love the fact that most people are not aware of an experiment we had implemented, which I'd read in the Harvard Business Review 10 years back," he smiles at yet-another invaluable decade-old memory, digressing to grin and add the thought that's there's a movie in the story. "They went and put one telephone in a village in Karnataka. Just one telephone. Before the PCO boom started. They went after three years. The per-capita income of the village had gone up, multiple times. The middlemen were out of the vegetable market. The bank balances of an average villager had gone up many times. Some people from the village had gone abroad for the first time in their lives."

"Just access, and a telephone. What does it take? It takes us nothing to do it. The cable revolution and the telecom revolution have given this country the biggest fillip than what all of us imagine we have done. They are much bigger stories than all of us, and what any of us do."

'We need equality of opportunity'

I just feel that the government's got its theory right, but we're in a time of coalition governments, and coalition governments, by their very nature, don't allow many theories to be converted to practice, because there are too many conflicting agendas. As a computer engineer myself, I'm willing to celebrate a Wipro. I love a Wipro, an Infosys. I love all of it," he says in a relentless rush, finally pausing to collect himself.

"But I believe that if you put the same operating system in Hindi and put it in a village, there will be an equality of opportunity and they'll be as good as anybody else."

-- Berhael

Of Comparisons and Good

2007-09-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

Alright, I've been away a while, really sorry. Anyways, the other side of what I've learned.

We're incredibly incredibly good at math. Yes, we are. I remember thinking before I went, that 3 years in college without number crunching as much as I used to in school has led to the considerable decay of my math skills. But once I got there, I realized, most people don't get math for squat! Simple problem (and I'm not blowing my own horn... I think) where I skipped a couple of steps, would bewilder them and I would frequently be asked to repeat what I explained. Having said that, the focus is more on interpreting the equations rather than solving the equations themselves which is fair enough. I mean ultimately, I would want to know what is the outcome of all that mumbo-jumbo. Moral : you need both kinds of people and don't compromise on math skills in school. It's a definite edge.

We've got much better communication skills compared to a larger and more populous neighbor of ours. Honestly, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how most people from that country got in without being able to say a sentence like "My name is xxxxxxx and I am xx years old", whereas we Indians need to slog it out so much. I'm not generalizing, there are exceptions to every rule, and this by no means reflects on how nice people they are, but its so difficult to even converse in basic English and you wonder how they survive in a place where English is the first language. The only explanations I could come up with is - a strong sense of community working to bring people, good presentation of their work even if in some cases it is ordinary.

There have been some debates about whether we're really learning enough in our college. Well I felt that we're learning quite a lot, it was so easy to explain to students over there about various circuits used and why/how/when they are used. We've got a good bunch of teachers here. The only disadvantage is, our learning is too theoretical and individual oriented. In other places, the course to lab ratio is nearly 1:1 and if you say something like "It's ok, I'll do it all by myself", you'll probably get a reply like "Like @*#(*@& you will!!!!"

We've got a good open society which is capable of absorbing different cultures. That is amazing because it means anyone from another country can come in and fit in pretty well. That gives us a definite advantage. We're a democracy too and that means freedom of speech, which means we can say most things we want (at least in hushed circles).

For the average middle class person, computers are slowly becoming a part of life. I can't talk for the whole of India but in the so-called "society" that I live in, its becoming unthinkable to be not able to communicate via email or order items online or end up chatting all night.

We're slowly changing from a country of savers to one of investors, which means more entrepreneurial ventures and original ideas. That is a big step in the advancement of any country. We're about 60 good years behind the developed countries and if we need to reduce that gap in 20 years, we'll need new inventions.

This and more. I firmly believe that more and more people need to go out of the country and see what is happening in the rest of the world. It's a good experience culturally and intellectually. I for one think it has given me a chance to see my country in a different perspective rather than just what the local news channels show. I've learned that many countries look at India as a strategic partner not because they want to, but because they can't afford not to. A company sees India as a growing market and hence a chance for potential growth for itself, this is what drives investment, not the feel-good factor. Many things like that. Having said that, we need to cash in on this opportunity while it lasts and focus on using this money for our own welfare. It's a brilliant opportunity and with people with both advanced language and technical skills, we really should go forward. And we will. Slowly.

Of Comparisons and Bad

2007-08-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

A few 'bad' lessons learnt from my trip to Australia, I don't claim to be a know it all, and many may not agree with what I say, but this was very plain when I saw it:

We're not as well known as we think we are. When I was in my internship, I was actually asked by someone if I had learnt English only after I had arrived or if I knew it before. Even assuming that this person knew nothing about the outside world, it's enough to make any educated Indian gasp. This is the level of awareness about India.

Majority of the people (at least the lesser travelled ones) consider India to be an impvoerished country full of famine and hunger. And we are people belonging to that impoverished country.

One of the main reasons we're hired from India is not because we're smart, but because we are smart AND cheap. Indian people can be supported on up to one - tenth the wages of a person with a similar skill set in the western world. Plus, we have a different work ethic, to slog and slog, and that is why a company would want to hire Indians. And that is why many software companies are succeeding in a way. In a sense, we are slaves to the western economy working as cheap labour. And Indian companies are more than happy to use this formula.

We're not bold enough to assert ourselves. We don't talk back or fight back.

Most of the Indians who had newly arrived, had a poor set of soft skills, its not that I am a smooth talker and a perfect example for all, but it was very evident. One could of course easily argue that small talk in India is different from small talk in the west. Even then, we don't have tact in approaching people, or tact in giving a presentation (exceptions to this rule are there among my own friends) or tact in what topics to speak when. We've got to learn that talking loud in a restaurant is rude!

We give too much correllation between age and seniority, which is stupid. The better correllation would be between merit/skills and seniority. Thats why in a sense, the office environment outside India is different.

We have a long way to go in terms of infrastructure. Our roads are horrible, our airports are too slow, our banks require kilometers of red tape to be cut, our people don't have civic discipline (myself included), we don't have adequate support for people with disabilities and so on. Having said this, we're improving, but too slow, too slow.

We follow the herd, and keep thinking about doctors and engineers, not many people realize that some of the highest salaries for jobs in my college placements are given to people working in Mining and Metallurgy or Civil or Naval Architecture. Yet these branches are ranked really low, because they're not "the in thing". What good is an electrical or computer engineer without roads to travel to work or ships for goods transfer, metallurgy deals with nano materials promising to replace our current silicon technologies. Every field has a scope, from what I saw, it doesn't matter if you're a plumber or a district magistrate, two things are most important, first your character, second your skills. They decide your position, not your degrees.

We're horribly late for appointments as if is fashionable to do so, we don't plan our ways, we hustle and bustle and push for our means, rather than letting the pedestrian cross the road and slowing down a bit.

There are a lot of good things I learnt too, and I'll put them up in my next post!!! So don't kill me yet!

Berhael

Of speeches and Inspiration

2007-06-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

A speech given by Mr. Narayana Murthy at the New York University (Stern School of Business), really enjoyed it. Hope you do too.

Dean Cooley, faculty, staff, distinguished guests, and, most importantly, the graduating class of 2007, it is a great privilege to speak at your commencement ceremonies.

I thank Dean Cooley and Prof Marti Subrahmanyam for their kind invitation. I am exhilarated to be part of such a joyous occasion. Congratulations to you, the class of 2007, on completing an important milestone in your life journey.

After some thought, I have decided to share with you some of my life lessons. I learned these lessons in the context of my early career struggles, a life lived under the influence of sometimes unplanned events which were the crucibles that tempered my character and reshaped my future.

I would like first to share some of these key life events with you, in the hope that these may help you understand my struggles and how chance events and unplanned encounters with influential persons shaped my life and career.

Later, I will share the deeper life lessons that I have learned. My sincere hope is that this sharing will help you see your own trials and tribulations for the hidden blessings they can be.

The first event occurred when I was a graduate student in Control Theory at IIT, Kanpur, in India. At breakfast on a bright Sunday morning in 1968, I had a chance encounter with a famous computer scientist on sabbatical from a well-known US university.

He was discussing exciting new developments in the field of computer science with a large group of students and how such developments would alter our future. He was articulate, passionate and quite convincing. I was hooked. I went straight from breakfast to the library, read four or five papers he had suggested, and left the library determined to study computer science.

Friends, when I look back today at that pivotal meeting, I marvel at how one role model can alter for the better the future of a young student. This experience taught me that valuable advice can sometimes come from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors.

The next event that left an indelible mark on me occurred in 1974. The location: Nis, a border town between former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and Bulgaria. I was hitchhiking from Paris back to Mysore, India, my home town.

By the time a kind driver dropped me at Nis railway station at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, the restaurant was closed. So was the bank the next morning, and I could not eat because I had no local money. I slept on the railway platform until 8.30 pm in the night when the Sofia Express pulled in.

The only passengers in my compartment were a girl and a boy. I struck a conversation in French with the young girl. She talked about the travails of living in an iron curtain country, until we were roughly interrupted by some policemen who, I later gathered, were summoned by the young man who thought we were criticising the communist government of Bulgaria.

The girl was led away; my backpack and sleeping bag were confiscated. I was dragged along the platform into a small 8x8 foot room with a cold stone floor and a hole in one corner by way of toilet facilities. I was held in that bitterly cold room without food or water for over 72 hours.

I had lost all hope of ever seeing the outside world again, when the door opened. I was again dragged out unceremoniously, locked up in the guard's compartment on a departing freight train and told that I would be released 20 hours later upon reaching Istanbul. The guard's final words still ring in my ears -- "You are from a friendly country called India and that is why we are letting you go!"

The journey to Istanbul was lonely, and I was starving. This long, lonely, cold journey forced me to deeply rethink my convictions about Communism. Early on a dark Thursday morning, after being hungry for 108 hours, I was purged of any last vestiges of affinity for the Left.

I concluded that entrepreneurship, resulting in large-scale job creation, was the only viable mechanism for eradicating poverty in societies.

Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist! Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding of Infosys in 1981.

While these first two events were rather fortuitous, the next two, both concerning the Infosys journey, were more planned and profoundly influenced my career trajectory.

On a chilly Saturday morning in winter 1990, five of the seven founders of Infosys met in our small office in a leafy Bangalore suburb. The decision at hand was the possible sale of Infosys for the enticing sum of $1 million. After nine years of toil in the then business-unfriendly India, we were quite happy at the prospect of seeing at least some money.

I let my younger colleagues talk about their future plans. Discussions about the travails of our journey thus far and our future challenges went on for about four hours. I had not yet spoken a word.

Finally, it was my turn. I spoke about our journey from a small Mumbai apartment in 1981 that had been beset with many challenges, but also of how I believed we were at the darkest hour before the dawn. I then took an audacious step. If they were all bent upon selling the company, I said, I would buy out all my colleagues, though I did not have a cent in my pocket.

There was a stunned silence in the room. My colleagues wondered aloud about my foolhardiness. But I remained silent. However, after an hour of my arguments, my colleagues changed their minds to my way of thinking. I urged them that if we wanted to create a great company, we should be optimistic and confident. They have more than lived up to their promise of that day.

In the seventeen years since that day, Infosys has grown to revenues in excess of $3.0 billion, a net income of more than $800 million and a market capitalisation of more than $28 billion, 28,000 times richer than the offer of $1 million on that day.

In the process, Infosys has created more than 70,000 well-paying jobs, 2,000-plus dollar-millionaires and 20,000-plus rupee millionaires.

A final story: On a hot summer morning in 1995, a Fortune-10 corporation had sequestered all their Indian software vendors, including Infosys, in different rooms at the Taj Residency hotel in Bangalore so that the vendors could not communicate with one another. This customer's propensity for tough negotiations was well-known. Our team was very nervous.

First of all, with revenues of only around $5 million, we were minnows compared to the customer.

Second, this customer contributed fully 25% of our revenues. The loss of this business would potentially devastate our recently-listed company.

Third, the customer's negotiation style was very aggressive. The customer team would go from room to room, get the best terms out of each vendor and then pit one vendor against the other. This went on for several rounds. Our various arguments why a fair price -- one that allowed us to invest in good people, R&D, infrastructure, technology and training -- was actually in their interest failed to cut any ice with the customer.

By 5 p.m. on the last day, we had to make a decision right on the spot whether to accept the customer's terms or to walk out.

All eyes were on me as I mulled over the decision. I closed my eyes, and reflected upon our journey until then. Through many a tough call, we had always thought about the long-term interests of Infosys. I communicated clearly to the customer team that we could not accept their terms, since it could well lead us to letting them down later. But I promised a smooth, professional transition to a vendor of customer's choice.

This was a turning point for Infosys.

Subsequently, we created a Risk Mitigation Council which ensured that we would never again depend too much on any one client, technology, country, application area or key employee. The crisis was a blessing in disguise. Today, Infosys has a sound de-risking strategy that has stabilised its revenues and profits.

I want to share with you, next, the life lessons these events have taught me.

1. I will begin with the importance of learning from experience. It is less important, I believe, where you start. It is more important how and what you learn. If the quality of the learning is high, the development gradient is steep, and, given time, you can find yourself in a previously unattainable place. I believe the Infosys story is living proof of this.

Learning from experience, however, can be complicated. It can be much more difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail, we think carefully about the precise cause. Success can indiscriminately reinforce all our prior actions.

2. A second theme concerns the power of chance events. As I think across a wide variety of settings in my life, I am struck by the incredible role played by the interplay of chance events with intentional choices. While the turning points themselves are indeed often fortuitous, how we respond to them is anything but so. It is this very quality of how we respond systematically to chance events that is crucial.

3. Of course, the mindset one works with is also quite critical. As recent work by the psychologist, Carol Dweck, has shown, it matters greatly whether one believes in ability as inherent or that it can be developed. Put simply, the former view, a fixed mindset, creates a tendency to avoid challenges, to ignore useful negative feedback and leads such people to plateau early and not achieve their full potential.

The latter view, a growth mindset, leads to a tendency to embrace challenges, to learn from criticism and such people reach ever higher levels of achievement (Krakovsky, 2007: page 48).

4. The fourth theme is a cornerstone of the Indian spiritual tradition: self-knowledge. Indeed, the highest form of knowledge, it is said, is self-knowledge. I believe this greater awareness and knowledge of oneself is what ultimately helps develop a more grounded belief in oneself, courage, determination, and, above all, humility, all qualities which enable one to wear one's success with dignity and grace.

Based on my life experiences, I can assert that it is this belief in learning from experience, a growth mindset, the power of chance events, and self-reflection that have helped me grow to the present.

Back in the 1960s, the odds of my being in front of you today would have been zero. Yet here I stand before you! With every successive step, the odds kept changing in my favour, and it is these life lessons that made all the difference.

My young friends, I would like to end with some words of advice. Do you believe that your future is pre-ordained, and is already set? Or, do you believe that your future is yet to be written and that it will depend upon the sometimes fortuitous events?

Do you believe that these events can provide turning points to which you will respond with your energy and enthusiasm? Do you believe that you will learn from these events and that you will reflect on your setbacks? Do you believe that you will examine your successes with even greater care?

I hope you believe that the future will be shaped by several turning points with great learning opportunities. In fact, this is the path I have walked to much advantage.

A final word: When, one day, you have made your mark on the world, remember that, in the ultimate analysis, we are all mere temporary custodians of the wealth we generate, whether it be financial, intellectual, or emotional. The best use of all your wealth is to share it with those less fortunate.

I believe that we have all at some time eaten the fruit from trees that we did not plant. In the fullness of time, when it is our turn to give, it behooves us in turn to plant gardens that we may never eat the fruit of, which will largely benefit generations to come. I believe this is our sacred responsibility, one that I hope you will shoulder in time.

Thank you for your patience. Go forth and embrace your future with open arms, and pursue enthusiastically your own life journey of discovery!

Berhael

Of Trust and Classes

2007-04-29T23:41:00.000-07:00

It's a new concept to me, I must admit. Maybe because before I used to feel it, but only now am i grappling with its definitions. Why definitions? Because my mind needs to characterize and analyze and then implement (very comic trend if you ask me). I seem to have to deal with and fill myself with one word - Trust.

Until a few months ago, I used to wonder what trust is all about. Now it seems to be kind of clearing up. It's like when you trust someone, you tell yourself, there is no way they could possibly mean bad for you consciously. True they might muff up sometimes or might hurt you with their comments, but in the long run, their desire is to see you successful, see you do well in life. And if do something good, if something good happens to you, no one is more happier than them. You've got to believe that about them.

I've learned that it means you've got be honest with the other person, not worry about whether he or she will get angry, and that you shouldn't hold anything inside. If you have some problem, say it, all the while remembering that he/she will not judge you in anyway based on this single incident because in the long term you are a good person and have been then when required and thats what they appreciate about you. True sometimes, people might be busy, have other issues which they might not want to talk about, but then again, you've got to trust them and think, ok no problem, he/she will tell me if its important, otherwise, its something they can deal with on their own. It doesn't mean anything else.

I guess it also means, that if two people fight, you tell yourself, its only temporary and that you both truly care for each other and want the best for each other. And ITS TRUE!!! Thats where the trust comes, where you believe in the other person. This belief is not based on past history or on whether or not you had cornflakes for breakfast, but its just belief. Sometimes for no apparent reason, you believe in them because you do. Thats it. There is no logic to it. And that gives you a sense of security, that you can "trust" them, whatever it is. That kind of comfort is unlike any material comfort you can ever have. It gives you a sense of confidence in yourself too.

You might have your differences, your own quirks, your own idiosyncrasies, sometimes even to the point of irritation of the other person, but thats what makes you unique and thats what makes you crazy. And guess what, it doesn't mean squat, because the bottom line he/she trusts you and vice-versa.

It's very tough to trust, much more when your trust is broken by someone else. You keep putting one foot forward and are scared to lift the other leg because you don't want to trip and fall and get hurt. You get very scared to take that big step and in some sense "sell" a part of yourself to someone. But it has to happen man. I mean come on, sure you've made mistakes, sure there are times when you feel, oh shit, what if it doesn't work out, what if the same thing happens again and I feel more hurt. But don't let that one bad experience prevent you for going forward, there is/are one person/many persons who will be there for you and seriously you'd be losing a hell of a lot if you don't believe in him/her/them. You'd lose all those joyful times of hanging out, sharing your successes, being there for sad times, those bear hugs, those beer parties in the night, getting sincere congratulations, listening to the sound of their laughs, laughing at their antics/wise-cracks, and being there. And nothing in the world compares to the joy of watching a smile on the face of someone you trust and knowing very well that you put that smile on his/her face. It literally makes your day or even your week. :) And honestly, it's there for the taking for everyone.

You've got to stop picking on the bad points, and blind yourself to the good points. You've got to say hey we've had so much fun times, why don't I use those times and tell myself oh my god, I've got such a good friend! What the hell am I doing with the times he/she missed out. Those are like few and far between anyway and even if they missed out every time, even though I feel bad, I'll forget it, because they would probably be feeling worse than me about it, very sincerely. And they might be having genuine reasons why. And even if they've not come, forget it dude! Talk to them and say its okay, and that next time they should come. And still ask them the next time. THAT is where the trust comes in.

It means not talking for days on end and still knowing then when you talk later, you can smile and give each other a hug and catch up and talk like nothing ever passed by. It means always knowing that whenever you're in times of need, the first person you can turn to will be them and though they might not say they're sad or that they are feeling bad about it, they do really really care for you and would do anything for you if they could (okay maybe not sponge baths, but we'll be lenient). That is very important, because it gives you stability.

Oh and develop some self confidence while you're at it, because you are a nice person, and there is absolutely no reason why no one should not like you.

I hope this wasn't too naive. I certainly believe in everything I said and I hope my message is clear to all.

Yours Sincerely

Berhael

Of questions and doubts

2007-04-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

I've always wondered, if you're hurt real bad by someone, what is the justified reaction? Do you shout back at them, fill yourself with hate for them, and wish bad for them so much that you just don't want to do anything with them for good? Or do you tell yourself, forget it, whatever it is, I will love you as I love everyone else. I've been wondering.

Another question I've felt is, why are some people the way they are, one day, they are your best friend, perfect compatriots, participating and listening to everything you do or say, and then the next moment, they're not there anymore. Anything you do or say, just doesn't matter to them. And while your feelings to them of care, good will, wishing them the best remains the same, the only feelings from their side are ignorance, sarcasm, waiting for the opportunity to bite at you, and making you feel bad. It does make you feel bad about yourself, about what happened to all that trust you place in that person. Why was that trust betrayed, where you the only one responsible? Or was it something combined, do people just go out of wavelength with each other like that? Or do they suddenly think they are more important to themselves than to you? I mean why did this happen? Could it have been corrected? And MOST IMPORTANTLY, can you place your trust in someone else again? Are you willing to place your foot out and tread the waters with someone else. And open up to that person. Would you trust them, maybe even blindly to believe anything they say, because of the simple fact that they are your friend and dedicate yourself, fully, mind body and soul to their trust.

And also, would you as a person, keep your thoughts private or public. Would you if you're hurt, keep it to yourself, or go and tell someone else about it. What if your trust in people is so badly mangled that you wouldn't wanna tell anyone but cannot keep it inside as well. How would you handle it. How would you take it.

Berhael

Of friends and timepass

2007-04-10T03:59:00.000-07:00

I was lost, Searching for Answers
Many days, And nights of forlorn
Didn't know, the Meaning of Prayers
Had no one, To depend upon

Oh why is it me, just only me
I would sing to myself, in a tone so deathly

Then God sent me, A prophet of glee
An angel on earth, To set my soul free

Cause you are my heart, you are my soul,
You are a person worth yourself in Gold,
If there was a truth, A truth in life,
You're my true friend.

Those words, they would pierce my conscience
All days, and pangs of malice
Many nights, Of no existence
And tears, that were tasteless

It would hurt so bad, and Fill me with hate
And make me wonder, and create so much spate

Then my world changed, beyond my dreams
Through the darkness of hate, I saw your beam

Cause you are my guide, you are my teacher
You are the one, I turn to in danger.
If gratefulness could be paid for, you would be priceless,
You're my only true friend.

True friends for good, we'll share our joys forever
True friends for bad, We'll hold each other together.
True friends in all of life's mysteries
True friends come whatever travesty,
True friends comrades in life
What more in life does one need.

Cause you are my heart, you are my soul
You are a person worth yourself in Gold,
And now I have learnt, a lesson for life,
You're my true friend.

Written by Berhael

Of willows and exposure

2007-04-08T03:44:00.000-07:00

New Manager for Indian team, one bowling coach, one batting coach, one fielding coach.
Player X says this, player Y says that, Coach X says this.. Player F is out of form, The team lost to minnows.. End of life as we know it.. Our national Pride is hurt. The Economy is going beserk.
Come on guys! National pride??? Look outside your window and see the slums! Oh wait.. this doesn't sell money, and I'm beginning to sound like Medha Patkar... Oh whatever.

Berhael

Of evolution and me

2007-03-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

I seem to be changing. Something is happening inside of me. It's like, the things I considered important to me, things I gave my priority, things I would die for suddenly seem so trivial. And what's more? The feeling that I have control over my thoughts and wishes gives me a calmness I've not seen in years.
I've learned that most people are in effect insecure about their ambitions, their deeds, their loves, their future. And many people are willing to go ahead and make their moves to get rid of insecurity. A lot of them won't admit it though to others I mean, and sometimes even to themselves, I don't know why. Some even pretend behind a mask of humor, a stern face, silence, change of topic. But they are, and as long as you know that, point made. But for the most part it pays to just concentrate on what you're doing, mind your own business and work hard and enjoy it.
And I guess I am learning where my priorities are, and that I have to place a premium on my skills, and realize that there is no such thing as a favor. Doing things because you like someone maybe good. But beyond a point, you get taken for granted. And you should emphasize that you will give it your best.. but a price. There is a price to be paid for everything and so too for your skills.
It kind of makes me proud that I have something I can give... something others want. And I guess I am going to have to exercise caution from now on. Respect myself. And after going out on this trip to China, where I met so many people, I have realized that this IIT community and all the stuff that goes along with it is really a very very small world. We are so cocooned in our shells here and there is this whole world that needs to be conquered. To do that, you need to back yourself regardless of what others think of you and be not afraid to demand payment for your services or ask for what is rightfully yours.
On the plane back I saw a movie and a quote I remember is "If you want something real bad you have to be willing to fight for it and fight for it hard". I guess I need to find that thing I want bad and really work for it. Therein lies my salvation, therein lies my triumph, but its certainly not whats going around me in this small world.
>>Berhael

Of Rangolis and Translations...

2007-01-28T11:09:00.000-08:00

Someone I know is obsessed with this (not that It's bad). Thought I'd introduce the translated version.
See if you can guess...

>>Berhael

Of Years and ends

2006-12-31T03:06:00.000-08:00

Well the year has finally come to an end.. What can i say, its been a very tumultuous time period indeed. I started out with a totally different set of friends and now i end up with a altogether new ones (old favorites still count). I've had more than my share of disappointments and very few spectacular moments, but all in all, I'm happy that i've gone through this year.

You see, this year has been one where I've really grown up, thoughts have changed, ideologies have started to form, viewpoints have been made and all in all a character is slowly carving out. I've slowly started getting a sense of self-belief and the soft skin is giving away to some hard shell.

I started this year out as a complaining, person, with total lack of self-belief and always dependent on others to reaffirm who I was, requiring emotional strength at the slightest drop of a pin, and having breakdowns at a frequency higher than the fake laughs in FRIENDS. I guess it was due to the company I was keeping then and the fact that I used to keep putting the blame on myself and always try to bandage the situation by absorbing all the hate, rather than confronting anyone head-on.

A few lessons I've learned (partly for my reference in case I forget them)

No one can tell you who you are, you are who you think yourself to be. In short, if you think you are an insignificant speck of humanity, then you most probably would turn out so. You could also think of all your strong points and say, ok I have my faults, but I am good at these things to, lets try and develop these things, and iron out the ones that hold me back, lets try re-inventing myself and always KEEP TRYING. Self-belief is very important, if you don't believe in yourself and back yourself up, man, you're gonna have a tough time convincing others.

Never get bogged down by failure, Colonel Sanders, the founder of Kentucky fried Chicken was rejected 1009 times over a period of two years (during which he was unemployed at age 65) for his chicken recipe. If he had given up, well, we would have lost a lot. Edison tried a hundred different times, each time different before he came up with the light bulb, so many others did the same thing, so it makes no sense to try once, and say you are bad, try once, see where you went wrong, improve, try again, repeat, and pretty soon, you'll see that you will be way ahead of where you started. And what the hell, let others laugh at you, make fun of you, jibe at you, the point is you are doing something you believe in.

Forget about what about what other people thing about you. Again, as long as you are doing something that you like, something you can lose yourself in, and something that is hopefully legal, you don't have to explain yourself to anyone. Others may spark rumors, blame your success on luck, say you are useless when you fail, but no one controls your future but you.

I'd rather be friends with a guy who fags and boozes, but helps his friends out when they are in need, than a person who is the proverbial ideal student and scores grades, but doesn't as much as lift a finger to help others.

It really doesn't pay to talk about others behind their back. Get a life, do some work.

Beyond a point, it doesn't really pay to worry about others. Sure you've got a friend who might be down, you can at best be there for him/her and if it goes too much, try and helping them out as any good friend should and would, but importantly, finally its up to them to change their thoughts and come back.

Some people are really not worth your time. In fact, anyone who doesn't respect you as an individual for who you are, keeps putting you down or treats you inferior, is not worth your time, just show them the finger.

And yes, make allowances for others moods and crankiness, no one is perfect and everyone has their own problems to worry about. Try and help them about by being sensitive to their situation, need not overtly show care, but just this little step.

Good friends are very hard to come by, this is one question I've still not answered, who is a good friend, I guess you just know these things. I've got a small set of good friends and I'm not leaving them for squat!

Never abuse someone, that's wrong. But due to a bad situation if you do, apologize.

Never do anything in anger or haste. That includes talking out a situation or dealing with an issue. And never bottle up emotions, someday, it'll come out and boy it won't look good and the person at the other end surely won't deserve it.

Set goals and work towards them, thats a lot easier than just hanging around and going along without an aim, imagine a destination and see step by step what you need to do and work towards it. Any goal.

This is an age to study, so get up and learn as much as you can, it could be DSP or Cultural fest organizational work or Inter IIT sportsfests, learn man, you'll never get this time again.

In most cases, its better to be honest in your opinions and motives. But there is also something called tact. As Gandhiji said, an truthful person should also be a careful person.

AND MOST IMPORTANT - YOU ARE ONLY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ACTIONS AND YOUR RESPONSES, NOT THE RESULTS OF THEM. SO QUIT WORRYING ABOUT THOSE.

Yes, these and many more, I hope some of them are good ones, and well I hope I keep improving in the years ahead. Bottom line is be yourself and try and keep improving and challenging, don't ever lose heart and give an honest effort. Thats all that counts. I am pretty sure that I haven't stuck to all of these in the last year but I hope that I can try and incorporate everything. Lets hope something good comes out of that.

Keep smiling...

Happy New Year to all.

Berhael

Of Movies and Quotes

2006-11-30T00:03:00.000-08:00

Finally the holidays have arrived!!!
This means I'm gonna be posting a lot more over the next few weeks. Lets hope I keep my promise. Well I've been thinking (a dangerous ploy, I admit) a lot people have been asking me to get a little more personal in my blogs, to see some more of my life as opposed to my views. So i thought why not. So from now.. I'll probably be posting a lot more of my feelings (again a dangerous ploy) and daily occurrences. Hope it works out. As of now, you'll have to be content with I'd like to call my "top ten movie quotes list". These are quotes I feel are the most memorable (chiefly because I remember them) and well... I'd kill to be given a chance to use them. So take a look... In, no particular order.

Bond. James Bond

I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse - Godfather

Certainty of death, small chance of success... well, what're we waiting for? - LOTR

I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. - City of Angels

SHOW ME THE MONEY!!! - Jerry Maguire

"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Well, who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here. Who the f--k do you think you're talkin' to?" - Taxi

Go ahead... Make my day. - Dirty Harry

Aye, fight and you may die, run, and you'll live...at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade all of that from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take away our lives, but they'll never take our freedom! - Braveheart

I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you. - Last of the Mohicans

I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. - When Harry Met Sally

Compiled By Berhael

Of Pushes and Power

2006-11-10T05:19:00.000-08:00

Man.. the end sems are approaching and suddenly I realise I have a lot to learn. Blogs are becoming a luxury i refused to take before. But what the hell, I need a break and a chance to vent my frustrations. What better place than this...

We might've recently seen news bytes involving a certain 'power-play' by a leading cricket team to a very important person as far as Indian cricket concerned. Lets just call the team Z and the person A.
There has been a whole lot of brouhaha over this, what with leading media personalities and sportsmen alike coming forward and stating that this is very irresponsible behaviour on part of the Z team and they should show more respect for Indian cricket, especially for its top brass.

By showing disrespect and literally pushing off Mr A, they feel, the Z team acted like a bunch of ruffians with no idea of class. The media attached a colonial angle to this, taking it is a post-independence domination of the fair skin and it became a matter of national pride. Certain sections were even quoted as saying, that the Z team has offended Indian pride as a whole.

I've been to places where people push each other for very important reasons... some of these include,
1) The local cinema hall, where people don't know about the idea of a queue and promptly push each other all for the idea of purchasing a ticket worth in most cases 3- 40 rupees. I've learnt a lot about shear forces from these queues.

2) Our cycle stand, where (in the good old days when I really did own a cycle) cycles would keep getting pushed down because someone decided to stuff his/her own transport machine between two more trying as best as possible to stretch the definition of the phrase 'cycle gap'.

3) In super market halls where I simply fail to understand how waiting in a few queue for five minutes longer will spoil the day of certain people. I mean, everyone else is there to buy things too. If there were really in trouble, they should've come early or asked someone else to come in their place.

4) Our very own cafeteria right opposite my hostel when at certain times of the day, it is almost impossible to buy a cup of coffee because seven or eight more people are breathing down your neck, running their hands through odd regions of your body in a effort to reach the front desk and show the shop keeper that they have 5 rupees and hence deserve purchase rights for the world's most addictive beverage. A queue in this area? If I were to suggest to my friend's they would laugh at me, but thats just how our psyche is I guess, we laugh at this basic habit. Such a queue would be compulsory where I used to live in the Gulf

And so on.

It is indeed sad that we play into the hands of the media. The media in addition, in keeping with its policies keeps sensationalising every single news item, ordinary or extra-ordinary. Alright, granted, Mr A is a very important person and its a matter of pride that he is not pushed. But seriously though, about 12 countries in the world actually play cricket. In the 150 odd, most people wouldnt even know who the captain of Z is. And even most people in the 12 countries wouldnt know who Mr A is! So is it really important?

I understand the team acted badly. But they did apologise. Let's leave it at that.

We might argue that our national pride is at stake. I'm very happy we have pride in our country. But, let us ask ourselves, we push in cinema halls, throw down vehicles, don't stop in the road when a vehicle attempts to cross in the perpendicular lane, push and jostle each other in metro rails and a plethora of other places. Will our pride be lowered if we follow some ettiquette and try to avoid these things within ourselves instead of harping on about how some foreign team players pushed one of our own.

Mr A has said the right thing by being a sport, saying its a small matter and that the media is simply blowing up an honest mistake. The Z team has apologised personally saying it was a brash break of protocol and they should have been more responsible. That was good. Let's hope they don't repeat it. However, I have to say that I was honestly disappointed when I saw pictures of the 'followers' of Z burning effigies of the team and portraying them as species of the asinine variety. Made me feel real bad that THIS is where we are after 60 odd years of independence. Still I dont know the full story and am young so I probably have to learn.

>> Berhael

Of Elvis and She

2006-10-30T23:19:00.000-08:00

She

May be the face I can't forget

The trace of pleasure or regret

May be my treasure or the price I have to pay

She

May be the song that summer sings

May be the chill that autumn brings

May be a hundred different things

Within the measure of a day

She

May be the beauty or the beast

May be the famine or the feast

May turn each day into a heaven or a hell

She may be the mirror of my dreams

The smile reflected in a stream

She may not be what she may seem

Inside her shell

She

Who always seems so happy in a crowd

Whose eyes can be so private and so proud

No one's allowed to see them when they cry

She

May be the love that cannot hope to last

May come to me from shadows of the past

That I'll remember till the day I die

She

May be the reason I survive

The why and wherefore I'm alive

The one I'll care for through the rough in ready years

Me

I'll take her laughter and her tears

And make them all my souvenirs

For where she goes I've got to be

The meaning of my life is

She

She, oh she

-- Elvis Costello..
If I find someone like this I'll let you know. ;-)
>>Berhael

Of Firefox and Extensions

2006-10-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

My god! The extensions that these guys come up with for firefox! Ive found this totally neat one which lets you write a blog within a window without all the hassles of logging in. Brilliant.. Check it out at firefox extensions. And yes I will write more soon.. keep tuned..

Of roads and ideas

2006-07-07T07:31:00.000-07:00

I was on my way travelling from Chennai to Tanjavur today. We decided to break with tradition and travel by car. We took the national highway NH 45 from Chennai to Trichy and my what a national highway it was.

I have to admit, I had slightly low expectations of what a road would be like between two cities in India. This was based on my experience on an earlier trip to Thirupathi.

The moment we think of roads in India, we instantly conjure up images of potholes and ditches and lanes no better than muddy pathways on which vehicles are expected to tread safely. There are no dividers and each vehicle is free to move in any direction it wishes (or others wish). It is expected that there will be all kinds of traffic from dusty bullock carts trudging along under the command of the farmer's whip to the swanky new Mercedes Mr. X would have just brought in from his relatives in the Gulf. You'd have entropy at its best. Such is the character Ive seen.

But on this particular highway, I swear i couldn't tell that I was actually in India. The road was wide, with 4 lanes and neatly drawn lane dvidiers. In the middle was a divider wlined with a series of colourful if not exotic plants, all in bloom. On either side was the thin green haze of planted trees with thin stems with finely trimmed green grass, interspersed with red, ash and yellow.
The road itself had regular parking stops for travellers to rest, with adequate facilities to relieve themselves. The restrooms in these areas were with tiled roofs and gardens on either sides.
And yes, the scenery would alternate between paddy fields just done with the previous harvest or green hills with clearly visible steps cut out from rocks and the odd temple or two at their peak. The road would wind up and down, with crossings being made in flyovers, to ensure smooth flow of traffic.

At regular intervals were green signboards elevated at the right height, neatly displaying in white the location of the 3 nearest cities in kilometers. Power lines regularly crisscrossing, in addition to railroad tracks. Vehicles actually followed lane rules with signals being applied to stop whenever they required.

If I thought the day was good, the night was even better, luckily for us, we were blessed with a full moon. The shimmering pale light, glanced gently upon us and everything else, as trucks carrying sugarcane stems and chopped wood crossed us, causing a minor tremor on the roads. Although the window was closed I swear I could detect a waif of the scent of freshly cleaned rice and molasses, in a rather heady cocktail.

I can't help but feel, this is so non stereotypical of my view. I have to change. We are progressing, its just that we have to look outside and see. The road did stop and I did return to a more conventional road type (rollercoaster ride and all), but I was amazed at the power of what we and the government can achieve. Its a question of time, money, resources, patience, human resource management, people regulation, discipline and many other factors I feel. It is however, definitely possible, to evolve ourselves into a nation which can have global standards in roads and infrastructure. Its upto us, to streamline this and make it more smooth.

Of Positives and Actions

2006-06-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

Affirmative action or positive discrimination, is a policy or a program of giving certain preferences to certain (usually under-represented) groups. This typically focuses on education, employment, government contracts, health care, or social welfare.

There is much debate concerning claims that it fails to achieve its desired goal, and that it has unintended and undesirable side-effects. There are also claims that the practice is itself racist or sexist.

Affirmative action began as a corrective measure for governmental and social injustices against demographic groups that have been subjected to prejudice. Such groups are characterized most commonly by race, gender, or ethnicity. Affirmative action seeks to increase the representation of these demographic groups in fields of study and work in which they have traditionally been underrepresented.

A certain group or gender may be less proportionately represented in an area, often employment or education, due predominantly, in the view of proponents, to past or ongoing discrimination against members of the group. The theory is that a simple adoption of meritocratic principles along the lines of race-blindness or gender-blindness will not suffice to change the situation for several reasons:

* Discrimination practices of the past preclude the acquisition of 'merit' by limiting access to educational opportunities and job experiences.
* Ostensible measures of 'merit' may well be biased toward the same groups who are already empowered.
* Regardless of overt principles, people already in positions of power are likely to hire people they already know, and/or people from similar backgrounds.

The terms "affirmative action" and "positive discrimination" originate in law, where it is common for lawyers to speak of "affirmative" or "positive" remedies that command the wrongdoer to do something. In contrast, "negative" remedies command the wrongdoer not to do something or to stop doing something.

In 1962, James Farmer, founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, held a meeting with then vice president Lyndon B. Johnson.

Farmer proposed that a program that he called Compensatory Preferential Treatment should be put in place in order to advance the equality of the black race. In 1965, Johnson (then president) renamed Compensatory Preferential Treatment "affirmative action" in a famous speech at Howard University, which became the national justification for moving the country beyond nondiscrimination to a more vigorous effort to improve the status of black Americans.

It was a counter-argument to the previously prevailing notion of meritocracy. The skills that merit-based admission rewards are cultivated in children by parents with money. Affirmative action was to be a method by which minorities could eventually develop those skills in their own children.

In the 1960s and 1970s, affirmative action became overwhelmingly popular on campuses across America as mass student protests spurred schools to actively recruit minority applicants.

In the U.S., the most prominent form of affirmative action centers on access to education, particularly admission to universities and other forms of tertiary instruction. Race, ethnicity, native language, social class, geographical origin, parental attendance of the university in question (legacy admissions), and/or gender are often taken into account when assessing the meaning of an applicant's grades and test scores.

For example, the college admission chances of a female university student will tend to be equal to that of a male student with SAT scores fifty points higher than hers. Individuals can also be awarded scholarships and have fees paid on the basis of criteria listed above.

Affirmative action programs at universities benefit mostly African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans and women (in engineering and the physical sciences). Asian Americans, although a racial minority, do not benefit at most colleges because the rate of college education among Asian Americans is higher than the other racial groups (including whites).

The following are problems with affirmative action based on a review[11] of Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study (ISBN 0-30010-199-6, 2004) by economist Dr. Thomas Sowell, himself African-American:
* They encourage non-preferred groups to designate themselves as members of preferred groups [i.e. primary beneficiary of affirmative action] to take advantage of group preference policies;
* They tend to benefit primarily the most fortunate among the preferred group (e.g. black millionaires), oftentimes to the detriment of the least fortunate among the non-preferred groups (e.g. poor whites);
* They reduce the incentives of both the preferred and non-preferred to perform at their best — the former because doing so is unnecessary and the latter because it can prove futile — thereby resulting in net losses for society as a whole; and
* They engender animosity toward preferred groups as well as on the part of preferred groups themselves, whose main problem in some cases has been their own inadequacy combined with their resentment of non-preferred groups who — without preferences — consistently

Critics often object to the use of racial quotas and gender quotas in affirmative action. However, quotas are ILLEGAL in the United States, except when a judge issues an order for a specific institution to make up for extreme past discrimination.

There is dispute over whether this de jure illegality prevents de facto quotas. Much time has been spent attempting to show that these "goals" are not quotas.

An increasingly assertive opposition movement argues that the battle to guarantee equal rights for all citizens has been fought and won – and that favoring members of one group over another simply goes against the American grain.

The debate in the US still continues, is affirmative action applicable or not?

--Compiled From Various Sources by Berhael

Of Frost and Favourites

2006-05-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
-- Robert Frost

Robert Frost was born on March 26 in San Francisco, first child of Isabelle Moodie and William Prescott Frost Jr. Named after Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
His first published poem, "La Noche Triste," based on episode in Prescott's Conquest of Mexico, appeared in the Lawrence High School Bulletin in April, 1890; a second poem, "The Song of the Wave," appeared in the Bulletin in May, in the same year.
He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for New Hampshire in May, 1924., A Further Range, 1937, A Winter Tree, 1942.
He passed away on January 29, 1963.

Of Elections and Lessons

2006-04-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

Well, let me say, its been such a long time since i've written a blog. Truth is, I almost forgot that I has one, until one very sharp soul politely reminded me that its time i write one (actually it was more like "#%$&@*#(@*& your blog!!!!" but we'll let that pass).

This time I would like to share my thoughts on something that has taken my time in the last few days. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, for those who know me, it is THE ELECTIONS.
Democracy (from Greek δημοκρατία (demokratia), δημος (demos) the common people + κρατειν (kratein) to rule + the suffix ία, literally "the common people rule") is a form of government where the population of a society controls the government. The earliest forms of democracy were used by (surprise! surprise!) republics in ancient India, which were established sometime before the 6th century BC, and prior to the birth of Buddha. These republics were known as Maha Janapadas, and among these states, Vaishali, in what is now Bihar, India, was the world's first republic. Later during the time of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, the Greeks wrote about the Sabarcae and Sambastai states in what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan, whose "form of government was democratic and not regal" according to Greek scholars at the time.

The term "democracy" in the original word in Ancient Greek - was coined in ancient Athens in the 5th century BC. Athenian democracy is generally seen as one of the earliest examples of a system corresponding to some of the modern notions of democratic rule. Only a sixth or a quarter of the whole adult male population of Athens could vote; but this was a bar of nationality, like the present German franchise, not of economic status: however poor they were, all Athenian citizens were free to vote and speak in the Assembly. Ancient Athenian citizens made decisions directly, rather than voting for representatives. This form of democracy that was present in Athens is known as direct democracy.

My tryst with democracy started last week and ended only a couple of days ago. It started when I decided to stand for the post of secretary in a particular field. It was a one-off decision based on the fact that I really felt, I had the credentials for the job and in addition, felt this was a golden chance for me to take up responsibility in a post and do justice. I also felt, this was a good chance for me to change things in general in the hostel and to leave a mark, a legacy which any future secretary would then uphold.

For about one week, I campaigned the best I could, talked to everyone. Put forth certain points which i felt should be changed and in general was trying my best to be seen everywhere and with everyone. I talked to seniors, some more willing to listen, some who had already decided and were simply asking me stuff which I had to answer. I spoke to juniors, tried to inspire them with my master plan, and put forth my views on how and why they should involve themselves. To the best of my ability, I worked hard sometimes slept at two, sometimes working for four hours straight. Eating less, sleeping lesser, the usual sob story.

Sadly, when it came to counting day, I was to realise that I am not the winning candidate. Infact, I was polled in as the person with the least number of votes. This left me kind of disillusioned. I was sure, that I was the right guy for the job, I have strong organising skills, efficiency has always been my motto, and the sheer variety and magnitude of my credentials and achievements required for this post itself would have been enough. But apparently, two thirds of the hostel didn't think so. And i lost. Despite this, I don't feel sad, only relief that its over and happiness over one major fact.

The post that i contested for has had one of the most cleanest campaigns ever. None of the candidates in the fray ever said something bad about the other. There was overall goodwill and the feeling that whoever wins, its still a team game and all contributions are welcome/necessary.

I have come to the following conclusion about elections in general:

1) The reason people vote for you is not because you are efficient, really good at your job, or someone who has a really good feel for a position. They vote for you because they know you. You could be the most brilliant guy on earth, but if people don't know you, they don't trust you. If they don't trust you, they feel that you might not meet their expectations, if they feel so, they won't vote.

2) Never underestimate the importance of regionalism, especially in a country like India. It has anything and everything to do with and election. Somehow, there is a sort of security which one gets from a candidate from his/her own region. That automatically translates into a vote. I'm not being idealistic but i feel, it could be different. If you don't speak the common man's language, there is no security for him to like you.

3) Always make sure that you make your target person feel good. Don't talk about big things, the overall picture. Whoever it is, make it personal. Make it affect them. You could have a million plans, but if you don't affect the target, your plans are useless.

4) People always are like a flock of sheep. They will go for who their friends, colleagues, family etc go for. Barring a few exceptions, it will always be there. This again is due to familiarity.

5) It isn't enough to do work for people. It is necessary to work and MAKE SURE everyone knows about it. If required, one should make a big deal out of it. So EVERYONE knows. This is what will impress people. Its not about holding the golden egg, its about making people THINK you have the golden egg.

6) A politician is a politician is a politician. You can never trust guys who play politics. They will say yes I will vote for you and say yes I will vote for you to your rival as well. Ultimately they will vote for the guy who they like/will help them more/is less of a threat to their supremacy. Their aim is not vote, but to put a guy in a post. Atleast that is how I see them. I really don't want to anything with such people even if they help me win. I'd rather lose than go and grovel at
their feet, kiss certain regions of their bodies or make them feel like they are champions (which they are so not).

7) Nothing talks better than money. However temporary monetary benefits are, if people see money coming their way when a candidate is elected, they go for him, without the slightest thought of whether they will actually get their cash.

8) One must be willing to do anything and everything to get elected. To be fair, it requires a lot of hardwork, to be able to talk to different sections of people in different ways. It is a non-stop affair, running around talking. Infact, so much that you must neglect every other sane aspect of your life for the electoral period and focus only on this. If you are not capable of doing this, you shouldn't stand.

9) You must be perceived as popular, that in itself is half the job done.

10) Timing is everything. You have to meet the maximum people in their best moods in minimum time.

11) Anyone who you've never talked to before, but still smiles at you and behaves nicely with you won't vote for you.

12) Temporary sops always score over long term benefits.

13) Last but not the least, to win, it is essential to make as many promises catering to as many sections of society as possible. Whether or not one can implement them is not critical. The fact is people will see only THAT promise that affects them and leave the rest as don't-care conditions. On the whole, it is necessary, to adopt the bombastic, go ahead and impress people saying one can do everything and making sure you please people so much, you get elected.

Yes, this is what i've learnt, some of these lessons might be good, some might need change. The bottomline is this, I am very happy that i've participated in these elections. It has taught me a lot, about the person I should be. In addition, it has told me, that a loss is a loss and that I should really worry about such things as long as I'm doing good work. If I am satisfied with that, then I don't need any popular verdict to tell me who i really am.

Thanks for your patience.
>>Berhael

Disclaimer: All these points are merely observations posted by the Blog artist. They are not aimed at any particular person/group of people, nor are their intentions to hurt the feelings of anyone. Sportive spirit will be appreciated.

Of Phones and Money

2005-11-15T04:37:00.000-08:00

Well, i must admit, its been a long time. But as they say, never late than never right? Well, my biggest hope is that people who were reading my blog, still have enough faith in me to keep checking. If they do, then i'm thankful. I'm pretty rusty having not written for such a long time. But hey, you can't have it all!

This time, i thought i would write about something that has cropped up in my life quite recently - the telephone. This inocuous devil has quite simply wreaked havoc in my life over the past one month. Why? Well, we'll see, i might just explain. But otherwise, here's my blog.

The word telephone or phone comes from the Greek words tele, meaning far away and phone, meaning voice.

In the 1870s, two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically. Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other, Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won.

The telegraph and telephone are both wire-based electrical systems, and Alexander Graham Bell's success with the telephone came as a direct result of his attempts to improve the telegraph.

When Bell began experimenting with electrical signals, the telegraph had been an established means of communication for some 30 years. Although a highly successful system, the telegraph, with its dot-and-dash Morse code, was basically limited to receiving and sending one message at a time. Bell's extensive knowledge of the nature of sound and his understanding of music enabled him to conjecture the possibility of transmitting multiple messages over the same wire at the same time. Although the idea of a multiple telegraph had been in existence for some time, Bell offered his own musical or harmonic approach as a possible practical solution. His "harmonic telegraph" was based on the principle that several notes could be sent simultaneously along the same wire if the notes or signals differed in pitch.

By October 1874, Bell's research had progressed to the extent that he could inform his future father-in-law, Boston attorney Gardiner Greene Hubbard, about the possibility of a multiple telegraph. Hubbard, who resented the absolute control then exerted by the Western Union Telegraph Company, instantly saw the potential for breaking such a monopoly and gave Bell the financial backing he needed. Bell proceeded with his work on the multiple telegraph, but he did not tell Hubbard that he and Thomas Watson, a young electrician whose services he had enlisted, were also exploring an idea that had occurred to him that summer - that of developing a device that would transmit speech electrically.

Alexander Graham Bell's notebook entry of 10 March 1876 describes his successful experiment with the telephone. Speaking through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, in the next room, Bell utters these famous first words, "Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to see you."

And the rest as they say is history.

My own experience with telephones(which is pretty extensive mind you!) ranges from the slightly mundane to the overly exciting. Some of my best moments in life have come through the telephone. Some of these include
1) finding out that my cousin was a baby boy and that i could now enjoy countless hours of teasing and ragging without ever worrying about how sensitive the little thing was.
2) telling my parents that i had qualified or won in this event or that and listening to the pride in their voices when they say, "Good son! but i'm not proud of you!"
3) talking to special people who mean a lot to me and sharing their lives, happiness, disappointments, successes and dreams in a way only the telephone can make possible.
4) many many more

There was a time when i used to think that telephones were a girl's best friend. Infact, i would acutally avoid talking on the phone for the simple reason that i would have to open my mouth and exercise the only muscle in my body connected at one end. Most of my conversations would last but a few minutes, with only major issues covered and settled, nothing more. In the last month however, events have occured which have made me realise what a beautiful invention it is. I have discovered that in times of distress, or happiness, nothing beats the telephone is sharing one's thoughts. This is because of the simple fact that one's voice is heard and a voice alteast for most of us, is a mirror for our emotions. Now, for whatever reasons, i seem to be hooked on the phone.

Relax guys, it's all not heaven. This is not a happy story or it wouldn't be my blog. There is still the minor issue that most telephone calls have to be paid for. Only it turned out to be not so minor for me. One evening, when i happily return from my bath, after a hard hour's work at the gym. I get a call. It's my friend. Consider the conversation below:
ME: Hey!
Friend: "5413!"
ME: Huh?
Friend: "5413!"
ME: Is that your telephone bill?
Friend: You bet it is you idiot!
ME: I mean, why, how, when, who?
Friend: YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU!
ME: Seriously? That's my contribution to the telephone department's reserves?
Friend: Listen you idiot, it's not the time for jokes. You know how serious this is?
ME: (After a momentary silence as if preparing for mourning) Yeah, i know. So what shall i do?
Friend: SHUT UP,sit there. You don't need to bother.
ME: i'm really sorry...
Friend: Shut up! BYE!
Friend puts phone down....
I'm sure this situation has been encountered in many a life. It's not isolated. A lot of us have in effect taken the phone for granted. As with every technology, once we find that it meets our purpose, we embrace it. After all, the telephone does help us to keep in contact with all those dear to us.

Having said all this, i would like to say that in the last one month, i have realised the power of voice. I have realised that there is nothing more wonderful than to get a call from someone you know and listen to their voice on the other side, their mannerisms, their jokes, their poking fun at you, their laughter, their tears, however bad the phone bill might turn out to be in the end (i'm sure my friend will be cringing, shouting, "EASY FOR YOU TO SAY!!! YOU DID'T PAY THE BILL!"). I'm sure, everyone should agree with this. That is beyond any money, though cash does play a serious limiting factor. Having said all this, it is necessary that like everything else, the phone is used in moderation. After all, too much of a tonic becomes a poison.

Please note, this is not an open invitation to all to share their telephone bills with me. i just thought i might bring out a teeny weeny bit of what i was doing all these months without writing a blog. i think i'll stop here.
Regards!

>>Berhael

Of Robots and Holidays

2005-06-07T03:45:00.000-07:00

Finally, I am posting an entry. It's been a long time. A very frustrating time. I have had my exams, my studies, my gym (we'll ignore that), and a summer project. So been busy. Still couldn't keep away from writing this. The reason i couldn't write for so long has been my summer project, one i have taken up with some close friends of mine.

The project was (and still is) on robotics.

Virtually every encyclopedia or textbook etymology of the word "robot" mentions the play R.U.R. Although the immediate worldwide success of the play immediately popularized the word (supplanting the earlier "automaton"), it was actually not Karel Capek but his brother Josef, also a respected Czech writer, who coined the word.

The Czech word robota means "drudgery" or "servitude"; a robotnik is a peasant or serf.
The word "robotics" was first used (in print) in Isaac Asimov's story Runaround (1942). In it, he referred to the 'three rules of robotics' that later became the Three Laws of Robotics in the short fiction collection I, Robot.

A robot may include a feedback-driven connection between sense and action, not under direct human control, although it may have a human override function. The action may take the form of electro-magnetic motors that move an arm, open and close grips, or propel the robot. The step by step control and feedback is provided by a computer program run on either an external or embedded computer or a microcontroller.

Robots are being used today to do the tasks that are too dirty, dangerous, difficult, repetitive or dull for humans. This usually takes the form of industrial robots used in manufacturing lines. Other applications include toxic waste cleanup, space exploration, mining, search and rescue, and mine finding. Manufacturing remains the primary market where robots are utilized. In particular, articulated robots, similar in motion capability to the human arm, are the most widely used. Applications include welding, painting and machine loading.

We (as in my friends and I) have had our own share of robots. It all started when yours truly decided to get his rear end out of his chair and do something useful during the summer holidays. This was 3 weeks before they actually started. Over here, the summer holidays are a whole 3 months long! So there is a lot of scope to develop and fine tune one's skills in a particular area. Inspired by Isaac Asimov's books (yes, i am a fan) and another cool book that my dear aunt bought for me(Robotics experiments for the evil genius)...I decided to do something in robotics. Ofcourse, a guy in checked pyjamas, a fat book and a t-shirt which says YAWN, is pretty easy to notice around here. And so, within a week, i found that five of my friends were interested in joining me We decided to form a group. We met a professor, who was kind enough to lend lab facilities and his expertise to us. Needless to say, he has been our friend, philosopher and guide till this date.

And so, it was all fixed. We were to start. Our first project was a robotic car (read fancy toy car with motors). It was supposed to move in the direction which had more light on it. It was a monday. So at 8 am all of us group in the lab and START. Within 30 seconds...we hit our first problem! Our various tasks included designing and creating a proper gear assembly to run motors using parts which can at best be described as part of a run-down tape-recorder. We had to figure out how to bread-board complex circuits. How to fix a portable power supply. How to mount the entire thing onto a mobile device. How to send pulses to the motor to basically...kick it into action (the lazy thing always slowed down!). many more. Each thing took us nearly ten days to solve(that was all six of us). We got laughed at by the workshop guys to have the sheer audacity to try some designs and use some parts. Friends asked us...hey..when will that thing move? do you want me to push it from the back? And in between...we were seriously wondering...are we doing things right?

But slowly, we got each part working. And within the first month, we were playing with it, teasing it, teaching it yoga and...ok...this is PG-rated. Nothing gave us more happiness than to see that little thing scurrying across the lab and bumping across all furniture, losing its nuts and bolts along the way. The point was not the robot, but that we developed a methodology to solve an engineering problem. We learnt to argue out different ways to solve an issue, to learn things totally not connected with each other and to connect them, to fiddle with resistors, to not panic when something went wrong and generally to just enjoy ourselves. We have moved on to bigger, better things and are currently doing some homework for our next project, but the confidence is there.

All i can say is that 45 days down the line (sheesh...it's been that long!) we are still going strong. We maybe going very slowly...but still going strong. Who knows...maybe a couple of years down the line, people will see us and have conversations like:
A: Hey look at those dudes!
B: Man, remember how they made that robot which looked like our German prof?
A: Scary thing bud!
B: I know...and the robot wasn't too good-looking either...

As an ultimate aim, I would love to make robots to benefit society. Not those big claw like things you see in a Hyundai factory..but socially viable robots. Robots which might help the visually impaired see, those unable to walk - walk, which give a new lease of life to others. Robots that maybe can explore and remove land mines, which can locate and rescue those trapped under a building. The possibilities are endless. What only remains is for us to think it up.

Robotics will probably continue its spread in offices and homes, replacing "dumb" appliances with smart robotic equivalents. Domestic robots capable of performing many household tasks, described in science fiction stories and coveted by the public in the 1960s, are likely to be eventually perfected. There is likely to be some degree of convergence between humans and robots. Some humans are already cyborgs with some body parts and even parts of the nervous system replaced by artificial analogues, such as Pacemakers. In many cases the same technology might be used both in robotics and in medicine. There in lies the future.

OF Hindi and Tamil?

2005-04-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

RK Narayan once said, “ You may give a man an excellent cookery book, but it will not help if the man has not learnt how to cook.”

Mr. Narayan was not referring to culinary matters. Rather, he was touching upon a rather queer fact: the knowledge (read lack of) of spoken Hindi in Tamil Nadu. He quoted the above when replying to a rather staunch supporter of Hindi who was complaining that the 8:00 pm DD news was given only in Tamil and not in Hindi (this was before the days of FTV). The fact is clear: Tamil Nadu is dismal when it comes to speaking Hindi.

During the first few days of college I remember a lot of “northies” in my class complaining that the moment they stepped out of the railway platform, it was as if they were in a whole new world (linguistically). Right from the auto-rickshaw driver to the traffic policeman, no one spoke Hindi! To make the trip from the station to the campus was an ordeal for many, as they had use signs and contoured faces to describe their destination. Some of the places had nearly unpronounceable names and to top it all, the road signs were all written in Tamil (barring the few English ones that have been put up recently)! It also doesn’t help if one doesn’t know the Tamil numeric system; a street-smart auto-rickshaw driver might actually con an innocent customer into paying double the normal rate.

Without pointing to people or being specific, I would like to put forth two rather contrasting views on the topic.

Almost every politically motivated party in Tamil Nadu seems to be discouraging the use of Hindi in common parlance. Their argument is that Hindi is not their “native” language to begin with. Tamil on the other hand is classical, beyond comparison and even without peer. Why should one impose an alien language onto an alien culture? Also, they say, Tamil “fundamentals” are so ingrained into the psyche of the common man that it would be hard to change. Recently, these views have taken up concrete footing, what with the state government contemplating introducing compulsory Tamil education at the primary level and completely ignoring Hindi.

Hindi speaking “junta”, or atleast those in power believe that it is morally wrong not to speak Hindi in a state. Their view almost reaches dictatorial terms, as they believe that their “soft language” is THE ONLY WAY of dealing.

Are these arguments for real? In my humble opinion…no. I have no right to say which language is better than the other or for that matter whether any other language is better, since I am not proficient in any of them. But I feel that we are all Indians first and whatever language group next. In order for us to develop as a nation we should share a common bond, a feeling of one-ness. For that, it would be necessary for us to have some lingua franca to enable, say, a farmer from Tamil Nadu to be able to talk to a farmer from Haryana or Assam. Right now, Hindi is the best bet for that and so it would be paramount to give them that ability. There was a time as Mr. Narayan puts it, when every family had atleast one or two members who took up serious study of Hindi. All that is gone, though it shouldn’t be.

If Tamil is the cake, Hindi should be the icing. Everyone in Tamil Nadu, should have a sound knowledge of our cultural heritage and traditions but at the same time be able to speak Hindi to convey those very same ideals to others. Let Tamil be compulsory in schools, but let Hindi also be taught, not in an academic, mark-oriented way but in one that would permit exchange of views, even ideas! We should use this tool to forge new bonds and let the ideals of nationalism surge through us. After all, it is only then that every “Tam”, “Dig” and “Be- hari” can prosper.

>>Berhael

OF Hindi and Tamil?

2005-04-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

RK Narayan once said, “ You may give a man an excellent cookery book, but it will not help if the man has not learnt how to cook.”

Without pointing to people or being specific, I would like to put forth two rather contrasting views on the topic.

>>Berhael

2005-03-04T04:39:00.000-08:00

"A SMALL INDIAN village, like a thousand others; an obscure child, like a million others; a non-descript childhood, like any other's; climbed ladders and more ladders, feeling all the while that he was on level ground ...from patwari to Prime Minister: a long journey with no celebration at any stage... ."
Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao, the ninth Prime Minister of India, was one of modern Indian politics' most enigmatic leaders. Born on June 28, 1921, in a feudal family of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Rao grew up in the lush south of India. He was a freedom fighter whose first notable contribution to independence was in the movement that ousted the absolutist rule of the Nizam of Hyderabad, and ensured the incorporation of his sprawling kingdom into the new India. In the new state of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Rao became a hard-working member of the All-India Congress Party, an affiliation from which he never wavered.

A devoted follower of the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mr. Rao transferred his loyalty seamlessly to his daughter and political heir, Indira Gandhi. In 1971, she repaid the debt by helping to propel him into the chief ministership of his home state. Mr. Rao duly proceeded to outrage the notoriously powerful big landlords of Andhra Pradesh by reform measures, including a strict cap on the size of individual land holding. So indignant were they that a short-lived secessionist movement sprang up, upon which Indira plucked her protégé out of Hyderabad to serve in the union government.

Mr. Rao, stayed rigidly loyal to the Gandhi clan, even during the emergency of 1975-77 and was rewarded in 1980, when Indira triumphantly returned to power, with the foreign ministry.

In 1984, when Indira was assassinated by Sikh members of her own bodyguard, Mr. Rao was union home minister, and technically responsible for the most serious breakdown of security in India's history. But instead of beingbrought to account, he was appointed defense minister by the new head Rajiv Gandhi. In 1989, the dynasty lost power for only the second time, and Mr. Rao, already in his late 60s, seemed doomed to obscurity.
Then in May 1991, another assassin struck. A young Tamil woman from Sri Lanka blew herself and the Congress leader to bits at an election rally in southIndia. The party went into a tailspin. One faction announced, just 18 hours after the blast, that Rajiv's widow, would be the next leader. Another group wanted to break the dynastic connection and regroup behind the charismatic chief minister of Maharashtra.

Mr. Rao was pitch forked to centre stage thanks to the very qualities that stopped him from scaling the political heights earlier. If in the aftermath of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, he was recalled from semi-retirement or rather semi-exile, it was because his sobriety and perceived lack of high ambition were widely felt to be the need of the crisis hour. Best of all, from the point of view of all factions, he was unlikely to stay around for long. They were wrong about that. Congress failed to garner the expected wave of sympathy for Rajiv's murder, but it still emerged as the biggest party. Mr. Rao was able to form a minority administration, and scrape together enough parliamentary support for it to survive a full five-year term.
Prime Minister Mr. Rao showed surprising command over his job, more so given the challenges he faced — the absence of a majority for the Congress in Parliament, insurgency in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, an economy on the verge of bankruptcy, and, finally, a polity left sharply divided by the politics of Mandal and Mandir. India was on the brink of economic meltdown: its foreign reserves were all but gone; production was stagnant, and investment was virtually zero.
He was on overdrive for the first year and half. Mr. Rao also ensured that Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir were pulled back from the brink. He appointed as his finance minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who was an economist rather than a politician. He helped Dr. Singh and finance secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia in pushing forward the reforms by winning political consensus. Within weeks, Manmohan Singh produced a series of drastic remedies, among them an austerity budget with big tax hikes and much industrial deregulation. The Indian economy started blooming within days of discarding several of the old protectionist measures as the GDP and economy grew by an average of 5.5%, a growth rate that was sustained over the entire decade for the first time in Indian economy.
This truly impressed the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Billions of dollars poured into the depleted national coffers, as the country embarked on a sustained period of reform and growth.
Mr. Rao became the first non-member of the Gandhi dynasty to last a full five-year term as prime minister. Moreover, he led India into a new age of economic reform, laying the groundwork for a decade or more of growth and inward investment.
As the Prime Minister, Mr. Rao's silence spoke more than his words, and he famously qualified it once when heckled about not taking decisions.
"It is not that I don't think about it (a decision). I think about it and make a decision not to make a decision," he had quipped.One such decision not to take a decision will perhaps remain his worst decision ever.
In December 1992, a braying mob of Hindu fanatics brushed aside an entirely inadequate security cordon, and tore down the ancient Babri masjid (mosque) outside the northern town of Ayodhya.
The nation was plunged into weeks of communal frenzy, in which tens of thousands died horribly. Mr. Rao was at his most infuriatingly bland and urbane. Just days after the destruction of the mosque, when "only" a thousand or so people had died, he observed: "The worst part is behind us, as of today."
Defeated decisively by the rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party in 1996, Mr. Rao never again exercised much real influence in Indian politics. He remained; however, much respected for his experience, his scholarship and his astonishing linguistic prowess (he spoke 17 languages, including English, French, Spanish and German). The Indian media regularly referred to him as Chanakya, after a brilliant kingmaker of the first millennium BC. He translated the Jnanpith Awardee Viswanatha Satyanarayana's Telugu novel Veyi Padagalu into Hindi as Sahasr Phan. Mr. Rao got his Bachelors and Masters in Law from Osmania University and Mumbai/Nagpur Universities respectively.
After his retirement from Indian politics Mr. Rao published a book named "The Insider." The controversial book, which follows the career of a person as he rises through the ranks of Indian politics, resembled events from Mr. Rao's own life. Mr. Rao however denied any connection.
For a man of such wide ranging accomplishments, it must have been degrading to be found guilty, in 2000, of having paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to minor regional parties in parliament to prop up his minority government. The conviction was later overturned, but the episode was a bleak, sad postscript to a lifetime of public service.
If Mr. Rao was an unlikely politician, Prime Minister Rao was impossibility in any conventional reckoning. He was highly competent but not charismatic, that undefined magical something that is supposed to set the Leader apart. Mr. Rao's final years were overshadowed by tragedy and neglect by a party thatdevalued and came close to denying his contributions. However, for all his flaws history will judge him as one of India's most accomplished and important PrimeMinisters.
Mr. Rao had been admitted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences on December 10 after he suffered a heart attack. A few days later, Mr. Rao, in one of his rare statements to media, had said he was hale and hearty.
He died on December 23 2004. He was 83.

>>Compiled By Berhael

Of Gym and Tonic

2005-01-31T01:47:00.001-08:00

I must confess... I love to gym. As a matter of fact, the gym bug has bit me so badly, that a week's rest gives me severe withdrawal symptoms. Some of these include imagining that i have a cold, lost weight or have enough facial hair to grow a Spanish beard. But seriously, the gym fever, which has hit the city of Chennai seems to have burgeoned far beyond any one's expectations.

The word gym comes from the Greek word gymnos meaning naked. Gym is also an abbreviation for gymnasium which, in Greek, means place to be naked. It owes it's origins to the ancient gymnasia (is that right?) present in Ancient Greece. These were a locality for education of young men. The Greeks believed that physical exercise was as important as learning. Hence, specific locales were set up where physical exercise was performed, customarily naked. Gymnasia also had other features such as baths and even libraries with extensive collection of books.

Nowadays of course, physical exercise either comes at a premium(either due to time or financial constraints) or is simply a part of physical labor that comes with the job (this in most cases is more detrimental than beneficial). But, amusingly(i couldn't get a better word, ok?) the scenario seems to be shifting gradually. These days, there are all sorts of gyms catering to all strata. On one end are the swanky 3 storey, tiled “fitness centers” which give one the right mix of aerobics, aroma-therapy, weight-training and eucalyptus baths. These come with professional trainers and imported equipment thrown in as added appendages. On the other end of the spectrum, are those corporation gyms lying in the nooks and corners of every 5^th street. These have just enough equipment and even have their own share of “professional” trainers. As such, ergo, it isn't very difficult to find a place to work out and develop one's physical prowess(or simply try for those six-pack abs like me).

Yours truly first joined a gym right after my last competitive exam (read JEE). It was a whim with my father. I merely suggested that i join some gym to develop my body. Unfortunately for me (it was unfortunate then), he took my words seriously and immediately proceeded to enlist me in the finest gym that side of Mylapore. I was provided with a trainer (somehow all these trainers are called George). Basically, this guy had biceps the size of my torso (complete with curves). He looked at me the way people see road kill after it has been served along with pink frog legs. But I was a legal customer and so he had to smile at me. He asked me to try out 5 push ups. I couldn't. He then proceeded to 20 squats. I couldn't. 50 Lunges. I couldn't. One pull-up? What's a pull-up? At the end of it all, I was down with enough aches and pains to last me my entire life as an eligible bachelor. I cursed my self for opening my mouth and muttering that 3 letter word! But then, I went again and again and again. Each gym class I went, tortured myself went home wondering all the way whether I would make it back in time. And each time i would rise like a phoenix from the ashes waiting to conquer all that the trainer could throw at me. Gradually, i improved, moved on to weights, barbells, plates and what not. I dropped the trainer (I WAS THE ONE SMILING THEN!!!). I even developed a small paunch from eating too much(my dad would scoff at that)! Gymming made me feel good about myself and when i would look into the mirror searching for that little muscle, it made it all seem worthwhile. Now, it seems to be the opposite as far my reaction to gyms are concerned. When i finally got into the college i wanted, i simply used the gym facility available to provide a means of respite from my typical day which consists of sleeping 14 hours.

I would strongly encourage everyone (regardless of what social strata they belong to) to exercise in some way or another. Based my limited personal experience, i can safely say that exercise (to be differentiated from the stereotypical weight-training images conjured up when the word gym is mentioned) is healthy. it helped me to relax my mind at a time when i was using it the most (that is a subject of another blog). it provided me with a means to feel good and gave me the confidence to switch over from loose, long shorts to better fitting ones (you know... the ones which read - “Shut Up and Squat!”). Even a 15 minute walk is enough. Though a large portion of the population of India is not even in a position to earn 1 square meal a day, it would be necessary for us as responsible citizens to develop exercise or recreation facilities that could be accessible to all. As is said,

'Money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed. Health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied.'
cheers
>>harsh
mad.physicist@gmail.com

Of Scrabble and God

2005-01-28T03:11:00.000-08:00

Where do i start? This is first “official” blog in more than 21,900 days and its been so long. Too much nostalgia for the good old days when i didn't know what an oxymoron was (for the record, i still don't).

Many of us know of the popular word game – SCRABBLE © . Why would I bring this up? Well, first of all, this is MY blog and I can bring up anything i want. The second reason has something to do with the fact that a sudden craze for the game has blossomed in my locality(That sort of translates as instead of the usual 10 people playing the game here, there are now 11).

It all started one sunny morning during our college festival when a group of people (myself included) were to participate in a seemingly innocuous contest with a seemingly innocuous title - “Scrabble Contest”. Since we didn't have anything better to do we decided to give it a go. The preliminaries consisted of words that were not words but had to be made into words that made sense to all and sundry. I believe they are called anagrams. The one with the most anagrams would win. Needless to say... we didn't. But we did get to see the minds (and answer papers) of some of the greatest scrabble players to have emerged in recent weeks and that was when it struck me – THIS IS A COOL GAME.

I think a flashback would be appropriate here. The game of SCRABBLE owes its origins to a certain Alfred Mosher Butts, an out-of work architect from Poughkeepsie, New York. Butts wanted a game that would be better than those “lucky dice games” and yet provide the intellectual stimulation and skill of “chess games”. All this would be in keeping with the spirit of keeping the participants active and tense during competition. Quite a tough ask, but our old man was quite up to it. Butts came up with LEXICO (or LEXIKO), a game where players were given tiles to be assembled into words on a table. Later, he added points to the letters (based on painstaking cryptographic research from the front page of the New York times). Despite his enthusiasm, the game found no buyer and its patent was refused.

It was then, inspired by the growing popularity of crosswords that he decided to combine his game with a playing boards where words could be joined in the manner of a crossword. Its features included the 15 by 15 board and the 7 tile letters still used today. He called it CRISS CROSSWORDS. This met with the same fate as its predecessor.

That was when he would meet with a certain James Brunot, a meeting that would change his (and his game's) life. Brunot was responsible for fine-tuning the game and showing it's marketability. Most importantly, the all important name change to SCRABBLE was made. Together, they re-arranged the premium squares and simplified rules. Their copyright for the game was awarded on December 1, 1948. The rest is history.

Back to the present, on playing the game, I think that its main draw is its personality. The words (and non-words) one can somehow cog from out of their memory and gain points add to its versatility and individuality. That was what i discovered while i was arguing with my opponent as to whether “phoo” was allowed or not. The enthusiasm (in my locality) may die down after a while, but the spirit of the game will be. I hardly think that any other game (with the exception of my all-time favorite, Monopoly) can combine skill and luck so effectively. Well, i guess that pretty much concludes my first entry. Sorry it took so long. It would be really nice for me to continue but i have a Scrabble match to complete.

Cheers
>>harsh

mad.physicist@gmail.com

Of Blogs and A Geek

2005-01-23T22:30:00.000-08:00

Hi, Harsh here...

Well, i finally have succumbed to self-pressure and decided to post a blog of my own. This blog will feature some of the thoughts that hassle me the most. it should also feature stuff and events as i tend to view them often without sufficient reasoning and
in all probability without too much logic as well. i prefer to write a bit more seriously than i think and that always has serious consequences. i also hope to continue my thought processes on various topics that i had an interest in before 11th, ranging from psychology to digital watches. as a matter of interest ("WHO'S?" you might ask), this isn't the first blog i had. the original blog started by me was in the fertile spring of 2000 and continued well into my 11th. unfortunately, due to a particularly devastating computer virus attack and jee preparation, that one dissolved faster than my sense of humour. anyways...thanx for reading so far and keep visiting. you can be sure that i will keep writing. oh yeah...please don't forget to write in your comments either on the site or via email

cheers

>>harsh

mad.physicist@gmail.com