The Phoenix

This blog has been dead. For a while.

A lot has happened. A lot hasn't. In the meanwhile, I've learnt many new things, forgotten old ones, wasted a lot of time, had many baths and have generally come out with the feeling I'm a better person after all. The baths helped of course.

Hopefully I'll be able to revive this one from its ashes.

Hopefully.

Observation

A completely random and probably useless obeservation :

I was jumping the steps, two at a time, in this huge hurry to reach my class on time (having, as usual, gotten up late). All of a sudden I notice I'm the only one who's going the "wrong way". I'd instinctively started running up the LEFT side and soon realised that the entire public going DOWN was coming that way.

Never faced this situation in UK, but I keep facing similar situations here all the time.

An equally useless (but not so random anymore)conclusion:

Guess what, I believe people walk down/up a flight of stairs or a footpath on the same side as they drive the car. So you'll probably end up on the "wrong side" just as I did if you normally drive on left side of the road in your home country and people happen to use the right side here.

Rum ain't it?

Nip, tuck, and on a roll

NOTICE:For ardent cricket lovers only!!!

Read this article on Cricinfo.com, written by Jamie Alter, editorial assistant of Cricinfo.

Very well written I must say! What do you think?

1+1=24

Yeah well I had a dream last night which was just as illogical as the title of this post... if dreams are ever logical..'cos I don't remember a single one which made sense.

Anyhow this one probably went a bit too far, and I couldn't help but laugh at the stupidity of my dreams (yes... now even my dreams are stupid! sigh! ).

I dreamt I was invited to dinner at a certain Mr. X's house. Well apart from the fact that I went to this Mr. X's house bang in the middle of the day (for a dinner, and yes he was expecting me..), this was not really the guy who'd invited me. Of course I didn't care (yes a ounce of logic here... as long as the food's there, who cares where you've landed up?).

Apparently Mr. X had also invited Mr. Y to dinner (and yes he too was amazingly dumb and came in the afternoon... looks like this was an epidemic), and yes (surprise, surprise!) Mr. Y's face and name didn't corroborate.
The food was great (yes...even in my dreams...food is something I can't compromise on :-) ).


Next, Mr. Y is seen talking to Mr. X, saying "You know the kind of work you do is of the type of systems which are characterised by the equation sum(Az^n) = 0; which is why I think Kunal is ideal for your kind of work"

huh??? what was that? I was upset, distressed..no.. appalled at that kind of a dream. I mean people my age normally dream of half naked girls on a beach, but even allowing for me having spent a large part of my life in India (and a fractional part in VIT), this was appalling to say the least!

Obviously something is wrong. I guess I should take these Pune roads (well...... that's what they call them anyway.) less seriously. What say?

Any Freuds in there??

Blogging from Baghdad

This is a blog I came across recently. It's kept by an Iraqi girl, about 24 yrs of age. She's been writing about the U.S. occupation since 2003 (or possibly earlier).

Definitely worth visiting (and even subscribing to the RSS or atom feeds).

The link: http://www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Tagged....whatever!

Ok, so this "tagging" thing is new to me (me being the poor neophyte blogger!). Here I am - tagged - thanks to Upasana. Nifty idea though....this tagging business. I like it. Positively rummy. So let's get on with this business. I say, what I'll do is, keep Ups's blog in another tab (bless this Firefox), so I know what the 'points' (or tags is it ?...err umm hum dee dum.. nope I guess not) in this new bit are. A sort of reference. Here goes:

1. Number of books I own: Oh goodness...well quite a few. Perhaps (considering the state of affairs...hey Adeesh/Ashok/Bakul/Shailesh/Shaunak/too_many_more_to_list_down .... you blackguard(s) return my books!) (I think I've begun to remember people alphabetically...!) I should count the number of books I own AND are present with myself. No but they still would be quite a lot!

2. Last book I bought: Whew.. now let me remember... ummmmm.....yes! The Alchemist.
Good book. Lately have begun to believe in the "If you follow your dreams with all your heart, the entire universe conspires for you to succeed" sort of stuff. Rummy.

3. Last book I read: The Bourne Legacy. Fourth of 'The Bourne Series'. But this one is not written by Robert Ludlum (he conked off remember?). Written by a Van something something (I always forget this part. Damn!) Pretty good. Comes close to Ludlum, but not quite completely there. Actually, the idea in this book is outrageous (very Hindi phillum ishtyle idea). But good action stuff (which is why I said pretty good)

4. Five books which mean a lot to me:

• Understanding DSP (Richard Lyons): A book is a book. So what if it's a techie book? Plus this one's not the usual dull drab heavy DSP book. In fact this one's got some real cool jokes too..and probably expletives (ooh I don't remember clearly...I'm a good boy I am!). Real help for those who are mathematically stunted, but want to know what the hell this DSP thing is all about. Real help for those who aren't mathematically stunted, and want to know what the hell this DSP thing is all about. (get the point laddie?) This particuar book's taught me a lot (and not just DSP...look around if you get to read it)
  
• Everything P.G.Wodehouse writes: is sooo funny! His sheer command of the English language makes prose sound like poetry. The clean rib tickling humour can have you rolling on the ground even on the worst of days. God bless Jeeves and the efficient Baxter! :-)
• The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy -H2G2 (Douglas Adams): What does one say about a book which makes you laugh not only with the language used, but also with the sheer logic (illogic..... is that a word??) of the plot. The idea of the inside out house, still makes me laugh my heart out. Can't say more... go here and read a review.
• The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand): Roark! Man just the though of that character makes me cringe in my seat. Simply because I find the whole concept of this book so true. Call me a cynic if you want to, but I can safely say that there are many Roarks in this world. And the world or the 'intelligentsia' if you will, is just as vain/bad as the book depicts. That reminds me. I've been wanting to read Atlas Shrugged for quite some time. Better look around if someone's got it.
• The Bourne Series (Robert Ludlum): Ok so this does not include the fourth book (the Bourne Legacy). The other three are fantastic! Haven't read more action packed stuff ever. Real cool stuff. The plot too is really logical, yet will catch you surprised (Unlike Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code). These are the fastest three books to read. Not recommended if you are preparing for an exam :-)

5. Five people I am tagging: Let's see.... now I first need to know 5 people who have blogs and are not yet tagged. A tall order, that! Ok so what the heck, I might as well be a little bloody original, and ask some of these people to first get a blog, and then tag themselves (is this the right sentence??.. Hey man this tagging business is really weird. Oh, well it's perfectly rummy and all that sort of a thing, but I'm always confused when trying to construct a sentence out of it!)

• Vivek Krishnamoorthy
• Ravi Sastry
• Nilufer
• Sharwari
• Ashok
  

Science, Engineering, Medicine, TV and India (whew!)

Ever since I was a child, I've had this instinctive liking for Science and machinery of all kinds.

I think a large part of this liking had to do with those amazing books of Childcraft, Young Scientist, The World Book........ you get the drift right? All of them were American books.It was because of these books that I was aware of - and amazed with the many things we have been able to achieve by understanding (and applying :-) many "engineers" don't seem to get that part right) science.

Anyway, point is that I was always more aware of the achievements which the Americans, Europeans, Japanese and the whole world had made, except for India (and :-) U.S.S.R. - so it's not too difficult to guess why is it? - for those who don't - it's the cold war bonehead! )Naturally, I became attracted with the West (the pro US world) and disillusioned with India. "So haven't we achieved anything?" I questioned myself. I came to believe that all US products were naturally superior with respect to their quality of engineering (well most, but not all of it was true).

Some people told me I was getting carried away with those 'angrezi' books, and that I should quit them, and opt for well written (as claimed by those who detested the angrezi books... but may be true ), but badly illustrated, horribly presented books. They were very unsavoury (yeah even more unsavoury than that title for this blog ;-) ) to look at, leave alone read and understand.
Indeed there were those books written by the greats like the ones (I forget their names) written Dr. Jayant Narlikar. But on the whole, there were very few books which came even close to what Childcraft or Young Scientist et al offered.

It's easy to blame it on parents by saying that they only buy them angrezi books. But the fact is that given a choice, any child would choose to use Childcraft et al simply because they are easy to understand, highly and well illustrated and on the whole, far more attractive.

Cut to present.

The average TV show sucks....period. And that's being really kind. I mean what the #$!@, why are people obessed with that saas-bahu(SB) thing, with their recursively convoluted plots and evil minded characters whose only objective in life is collusion?! In all of that garbage,The Discovery Channel is the only channel I find interesting (and sensible - well at least most of the time, unless its a show on the mating of honey bees or something -but then at least it's better than SB :-) ).

Somehow though, I feel a sense of deja vu whenever I watch those shows. It's the same thing all over again. The U.S., or europe (occasionally), and about their achievements. This time round though, I've grown up enough to realise, that many good things exist in India too, but they are simply not shown (and I mean in terms of science and engineering or medicine, not the snake charmers stuff).
What worries me though is that children today are watching it, and possibly feeling the same stuff I felt when I read those angrezi books. That apart, these shows are even broadcasted in Hindi, meaning more coverage (even more that angrezi 'cos more audience). Why don't we see some of the cool stuff (like GMRT, the simputer, or the BrahMos for example) which is Made In India?

The solution isn't easy.

To be continued.....(but comments would be appreciated :-) )