The Silver Lining

A winter well spent: AFS 1, IISER Pune

2012-01-29T15:27:00.003+05:30

My endless procrastination about writing this post finally gave way when a best friend updated her own blog after centuries of dormancy (and also the fact that I woke up early on a Sunday morning!).

This blog-post is important because very few people in Kgp are aware of opportunities like AFS or institutes like IISERs (not that my blog is a popular news segment here but I'd like to do what I can).

I spent my December (2011) at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune attending the Annual Foundation School - Part 1 (5th to 31st December) in Mathematics, organised in three phases every year by the National Board of Higher Education in Mathematics (NBHM). This school is meant for Mathematics Phd students in India in their first and second years of research. I wasn't selected for good reason but I insisted I wanted to attend it anyway and would arrange my own accommodation and food. My tenacity and Prof Katre's (organiser) goodness led me to IISER, and in a stroke of good luck, some registered students didn't show up getting me and a batchmate (Anirban Das) their place on the list. And thus I spent one of my best winters there with the biggest knowledge-gain/time ratio. I will summarise it under the following heads:

1. The Institute (IISER, Pune):

IISER Pune reception

These institutes are a great initiative by the Government of India to increase focus on research and education in the pure sciences in a engineering-dominated India. I would like to see these institutes pwn IITs some day. No, really! It is high time parents stop pushing their kids to clear JEE and become "engineers". We (Indians) have done far too much low-level labor work in all industries. We need students to appreciate the pure sciences and do some state of the art research.

IISER Pune is under construction but the main building is up and functional. The overall campus plan is quite extravagant and impressive. The rooms allotted to us were very big and comfortable and the food was simply amazing. They served us soup and dessert for lunch and dinner every single day!

The canteen

Pune itself is a city teeming with students and young company recruits, nice cafes and pubs in every nook and cranny, and a beautiful hilly landscape enveloping it.
I loved the city.

2. AFS, the school and the teachers:

Lecture room

The school is a very good way to introduce a lot of advanced math in a very short span of time, with the intent of providing ample motivation to study the topics in detail later than on detailed exposition. We were provided a lot of supporting texts - books, lectures notes etc. There were three broad fields - Topology, Algebra and Analysis, with 6 hours of lectures and 4 hours of tutorial for each per week for four weeks. We were taught by 12 professors in total. All the professors were respected mathematicians from all over the country and more importantly good teachers.

The syllabus that was covered is as follows:

Sr no.

Topic

Faculty, home institute

Book recommended

1. Differential Topology

i	review of differential calculus, inverse and implicit function theorems, linearity of derivative, smooth maps	Prof. H. Bhate, Univ of Pune	Elements of Differential Topology by Anant R. Shastri
ii	Topological manifolds, Gluing Lemma, Classification of 1-d manifolds	Prof. Rama Mishra, IISER Pune	Differential Topology by Gillman and Pollack
iii	Sard and browns theorem, degree module 2 of a smooth homotopy, oriented manifolds and Brouwer degree	Prof. Krishna Kaipa, IIT Bombay	Topology from a Differential Viewpoint by John W. Milnor
iv	Morse functions, Morse Lemma,Connected sum, attaching handles, Handle decompostion theorem.	Prof. S Shastry	An introduction to Morse theory by Matsumoto

2. Algebra

i	Modules over Commutative rings/PIDs, Structure theorem	Prof. Rabeya Basu, IISER Pune	Algebra 1 by Jacobson
ii	Group Action, Sylow and Cauchy theorems, Solvable groups, Jorden Holder theorem, Nilpotent groups	Prof. Sudhir Ghorpade, IIT Bombay	Algebra by M. Artin, Alegbra by Lang
iii	Representation theory- group representations, semi simple and simple rings and modules	Prof. Gurmeet Bakshi, Punjab University	Lecture notes provided
iv	Free gorups, Matrix groups, Rigid motions	Prof. S. Katre	Lecture notes provided

3. Analysis

i	Introduction to the concept of outer measure, completion of a measure, construction of the Lebesgue measure, non-measurable sets	Prof. Sameer Chavan, IIT Kanpur	Real Analysis by Stein and Sakarchi
ii	Measurable functions, Cantor function, almost uniform convergence, Egoroﬀ and Lusin’s theorems, convergence in measure	Prof. V.M Sholapurkar, S.P College, Pune	Real Analysis by Stein and Sakarchi
iii	Integration, monotone and dominated convergence theorems, comparison with the Riemann integral, signed measures, Reimann-Lebesgue lemma	Prof. Diganta Borah	Lecture notes provided
iv	L^p spaces, l^2 space, Riesz Fisher Theorem, Fourier series, Fejer theorem, Fubini’s theorem, Fourier transform	Prof. Debraj Chakraborty, TiFR Bangalore	Real Analysis by Wheeden and Zygmund

As you can see, so much crammed in a month got just too much at times. I used to bunk lectures whenever I got overwhelmed (I was one of only two undergraduates with very little pre-requisite knowledge). But I tried to soak in as much as I could, knowing that this was an opportunity not to be wasted - to learn from pedagogically blessed teachers. I want to mention some professors in particular who had a huge impact on me:

Prof. Ghorpade: His charming style of teaching made everyone hang on to his every word. In a span of three days he managed to get to know the students personally - something which every student values dearly. He was friendly and very funny making very intense topics seem quite bearable.

Prof. Debraj Chakraborty: An ex-IIT Kharagpur alumnus and an incredibly ingenuous person, he and I bonded over our mutual resentment of the quality of education in Kgp and nostalgia of the campus life. A very enthused teacher whose energy is quite infectious, he made me relinquish my hatred for certain topics by treating them beautifully, opening my eyes to a whole new area - applied mathematics.

Prof. Krishna Kaipa: The most good looking Mathematics teacher I have ever come across (I am not kidding! We had a running joke that his research area should have been Mathematical Modelling :P), whose excellent clarity in communicating complex mathematical ideas immediately superseded his looks. I had been completely bewildered by the differential topology topics covered till then and had given up but was still able to understand, in essence, the portions he taught at the school.

Prof. Sholapurkar: A very experienced professor, he would encourage us to think and not be afraid of making mistakes. He left us with a very inspiring quote by Henry Lebesgue, "The only instruction which a professor can give, in my opinion, is to think in front of his students." and he truly lived up to it.

2. Friends, trips and fun:

My school friend Shreya studies in Pune so I had a very great time hanging out with her and her PG mates. The AFS group itself was very small, resulting in good bonding among the students.

Mahabaleshwar trip

Sundays were the only holiday and we all managed to go on two major outings - Mahabaleshwar and Sinhgad Fort. The former was quite a big disaster since we barely got to spend any time on the ground - we were stranded in the bus for the major part of the day. Still, it had its fun moments. Sinhgad fort trek was surprisingly awesome fun. We followed impossible trails and were burnt out every 10 minutes, only to pant and stop for a nimbu pani. We kept asking those returning how much farther we had to go and they would smile and say, "15 minutes only" and we would take a deep breath and continue (it took us exactly 2.5 hours from the first 15 min answer). The view from the top was breathtaking and totally worth the sweat. I bet I lost some 5 kgs that day! (I would atleast like to believe so.)

Sinhgad Trek

3. Concluding thoughts:

I learnt more than I ever can in such a short span of time - and not just academically, I learnt how little I know and how much there is to know - an exciting thought that one will never really know just enough. I was also appalled by the state of higher mathematical education and research in India. I had a very romantic take on the love of Maths leading one to dedicate ones life to its study and research. I was little short of heart broken to discover that for the majority of the students doing a math Phd in India, it is simply a career, a way to secure a job, an easy way out.

On being forced to think about the bigger picture, it made sense - we live in a very populated, underdeveloped country where focus is entirely on being able to secure food, clothing and shelter. The popular and more monetarily desirable options - engineering and medicine - are fiercely competed for with a very small fraction of percentage being lucky to land it, leaving the rest with an inferiority complex and plan B - academia.
It is sad at so many levels.

Even the Government is so misguided in its attempt to improve the situation that it started a wrongly motivated scholarships like INSPIRE (click on the link for the eligibility criterion). Bribing the so-called "bright" students to take up sciences, really? Is that what it has come to? Beguiling naive young minds with big money as bait to a life of simplicity and austerity - can anything be more ironical!

I met some very good people (teachers and students) this winter and it is them to whom I dedicate this post but as Paul Lockhart points out in "A Mathematician's Lament", not much has changed since this experience of Bertrand Russel -

“I was made to learn by heart: ‘The square of the sum of two
numbers is equal to the sum of their squares increased by twice
their product.’ I had not the vaguest idea what this meant and
when I could not remember the words, my tutor threw the book at
my head, which did not stimulate my intellect in any way.”

Of cakes and birthdays

2011-11-02T17:01:00.000+05:30

It is 2nd November today. One of the most agonisingly waited-for day when I was a kid. I used to cross-off dates for months. Planning party games and just making a big fuss about everything. I used to hand make the invitations - draw, color - the whole deal (mainly because I wasn't a spoiled kid with a lot to spend). And yes, the "return gifts" - oh-boy how important these things were back then.

The birthday gifts received used to a very small part of the fun. It was more about the planning, the anticipation. The day itself used to be pretty ordinary.

I still look forward to this day. I still feel its the most important day of the year. The celebrations have changed, so has the company, but the essence is still the same.

Feeling pointlessly happy about everything, in the spirit of this day :)

A big thank you to friends and family for their wishes.

What NOT to do in Barclay's Capital Interview (IT profile)

2011-10-12T14:48:00.017+05:30

Note: Applies to any non IT company offering an IT job for their in-house requirements.

Why I applied for this profile in this company is a topic which deserves a separate post itself. For now let us assume, without loss of generality, that:

a. I like/know coding

b. I need an internship/job

c. I need/want/like money

d. I am capable of sinking quite low for a, b and c

This post is for all those people who, WLOG, would like to apply to this company (or similar ones) in future for the assumed reasons (mainly c and d).

Anyway, so I applied for Barclay's Capital IIT Summer Internship Programme. I got shortlisted for the "Group Activities" which were held in Taj Bengal, Kolkata on 9th October, 2011. There were primarily two activities - Time management/Work prioritization and Case Study. Those who cleared this round have no clue what they did right. Universal advice would be not to dominate/fight/act-like-a-know-it-all. Do speak something, preferably something sensible (although what is 'sensible' to the assessors is again quite debatable).

None the less, the next day (10th) were the personal interviews. There were three panels - two of which (as we later found out) asked purely HR questions and the third mostly technical. Here are some general pointers -

1. There is no uniformity/set-agenda in the process, don't be fooled by their "we-want-people-passionate-about-technology" statements and the "IT-skills" section in the form. The lesser you know, the better. Brownie points if you have an irrelevant background like Geology/Civil/Mechanical.

2. Even if you know any programming languages, it would be better to pretend as if you don't. In any case, before the interview Google up stuff like "common interview HR questions" and mug up the best answers.

3. The perfect handshake - Do not under estimate the importance of the handshake. For all you know, it would be the deciding criterion. I am not an expert in handshakes but I am sure there are some tutorials on the web. Practice it with your friends. Take feedback about the warmth/firmness of your grip.

4. Practice sitting postures and facial expressions of awe/rumination/anticipation/excitement.

5. No matter how many times the hiring team stresses upon honesty, be prepared to lie/fake/hide-natural-reactions.

6. Be wide eyed most of the time and decently nervous. Don't give them even the slightest impression of confidence or ease.

7. Practice some guesstimation.

Now coming down to specifics of my own interview, the nuances of which, if studied and interpreted properly, can be really helpful to any one anxious to succeed in future. Not to mention that they are also quite entertaining.

Date - 10th October, 2011

Venue - Training and Placement Cell, IIT Kharagpur

Time - 10.45 am ( to 11.30 am)

Interviewers - Harsha Yale, Karen.

I am summoned to the room. I enter. I am taken aback by the hands forwarded in my direction, I realise it is for a handshake, I put my hands forward (rather clumsily, in hindsight), mentally trying to remember when was the last time I shook another persons hand [Don'ts #1: Do not let your mind wander off even for a moment. Stay focused!]

I sit down. The interview begins with some chit chat about the previous day's group activities. I reply normally, what I thought about it etc. [Don'ts #2: Chit Chat! :O! Nothing is chit chat in an interview. Don't tell them the same things you told your friends last night.]

Karen opens my CV, Harsha is already ready with my BarCap application form. Karen, without even looking at my CV, asks me a vague question (and I quote) "Have you been part of any team?". I am wondering why doesn't she just look down at the bold headings in the section titled "Extra-Curricular Activities". [Don'ts #3: Do not raise eyebrows/give confused looks]. I reply that I was the Governor of Debating Society and I start explaining what I did in it etc. She kept cutting me with questions like "your contribution", "your duties" etc. [Don'ts #4: They don't care about the truth. Answers like these should be at the tip of your tongue, full of action words like achieved/ implemented/ contributed blah blah.] Anyway, after my explanation, Harsha asked me if I could do an extempore right there. I said ofcourse and he asked me to speak for and against the topic "Steve Jobs made this world a better place". I said whatever came to my mind.

Karen, again not even glancing at my CV kept on the table, asks me (again very vaguely) to tell her about anything challenging that I have done. "Projects you mean?" I ask [#3!]. I go ahead an explain my work at IIIT Hyderabad where I developed a search engine and recommendation system in Python. [#4!]

Harsha pitches in and starts questioning my decision to choose Python for the above project. He inquires about the pros and cons of the language, which I answer. I accept that the language is slow but my reasons were purely academic. He doesn't let it go. There is more discussion on it. Moving on, he asks me about the difference in C++ and Java. I choose to point out that C++ allows low-level system facilities while Java does not. After which I had to explain what these low level facilities were, going into pointers to manipulate memory etc. This was followed by some very simple questions about pointer arithmetic, which on answering lead to more complicated practical implications etc.

It is Karen's turn now and she finally looks down at my CV and of all the things, she chooses to ask me what versions of Windows and Linux I have used. [#3!] This prompts Harsha to ask me some Linux shell commands, two of which I didn't know and I say so.

Another vague one from Karen, "How do you find out what is happening in the world?". [#3!, however difficult it is]. "Umm, you mean like current events and news?", I try to understand the question. [Don'ts #5: Do not not jump at this opportunity into a whirlwind of how fanatically you follow the finance news etc]. I answer, "For specific updates, I use google alerts and for others I follow Yahoo News.", still not sure what this was leading to. [Don'ts #6: Do two level thinking and read the interviewers mind, answer accordingly!]. She asks me what I follow in the news. The Yahoo.com homepage flashes in my mind and I say, "umm, Sports, Hollywood and Bollywood gossip (with a silent '?' to convey does-it-matter?) [Don'ts #7: Do I really need to say it?]. Karen is not amused. Harsha smirks. In my mind, I thought it was a comic relief. [Don'ts #8: They don't like funny people]. Karen (finally) spells it out, "What do you know about the investment banking scene?". I give her a Aha!-So-ask-that! look and explain everything I had read up about the markets, the company's position in it. I explain some of the recent reforms introduced and how they would effect the investment banks etc. Harsha asks me to explain ring-fencing in particular, which I do (and in my head I do a pretty good job too!) [Don'ts #9: Don't evaluate yourself in your head, focus!]

Then comes a tricky one. "Why do you want to work in an IT department of an investment bank and not software companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple etc?". For the first time in the interview, I am forced to think. [Don'ts # I-lost-track-of-the-count: Think? :O Such questions are a golden opportunity to impress them and pledge your loyalty. Basically, lie with a straight face. Kiss their ass. Suck up to them. Whatever it takes.] I answer, rather honestly (and hence stupidly), "Those companies are for people who are crazy about their code." Mortified, Harsha asks, "So you mean to say you are not crazy about your code?". "I know it doesn't put me in the best light here, but yes, I am not. I mean I like coding but at the end of the day, I don't care who uses the code." (I am thinking, "Honesty - check, Forthrightness - check! Nailed it \m/". He is thinking, ":O Direct insult!".)

Karen clears her throat to speak. I turn to Karen, already with a tired oh-now-what look. [Don'ts #x: Don't let them see through you. Be as fake as possible.] As expected, she throws another bouncer at me, "Have you done anything new?". "Umm, I do a lot of new things. Most of which are written in my resume (gritted teeth, if only you would look!) like blah blah." She puts my CV aside implying I have to say something not written there. "Nothing which has any academic relevance", she clarifies. "Oh okay, Guitar? I learnt to play the guitar, actually I am still learning. It is fun." I smile. [Don'ts #x: Guitar? Seriously? They don't care. Should prepare some awe-inspiring speech about how you taught slum kids or how you saved a drowning man etc.]

Somewhere in the course of the interview I had said I like Math. Harsha brings it up. I confirm, "Yes I enjoy Math." Continuing in the same tone, he asks, "What do you know about Singapore?". "Related to Math?", I ask, thoroughly confused. [#3 and #6!]. He eggs me on, "Yes, anything you know about it." [#6. Math + Singapore? He expects you to give him some numbers! You don't understand? Join the club!] Finally he clarifies, "What do you think is the population of Singapore?". I say I don't know. [Don'ts #x: This is called Guesstimation. Don't say you don't know, just say some number confidently.] Anyway, he goes on asking about population of cities like Allahabad, Bangalore etc. When I do give him a number, he asks me, what would be the area of these cities. I give up. "Sorry, I am not able to visualise the cities in terms of square meters." [Don'ts #x: However much you would want to believe that statements like these convey good communication skills, according to them - they don't.]

Finally they ask my preference in terms of location and whether I would like to ask them anything. I ask something random about the project assigned to interns etc.

They get up.

I get up.

I shake their hands and leave.

Smiling, thinking it went quite well. [#9!]

Bong Bong

2011-09-16T20:46:00.012+05:30

This is one of funniest things I have read in a while.

A bit of background - I am taking this course Stochastic Processes, which is taught by a Professor, let's call him G. I come back from class one day and find this off-liner from Maldy.

Maldy: "say, is there a chubby bong chap in stoch proc? possibly a matka, sits in front bench, glasses, slightly dark complexion?
bit o' gossip...

this fellow came to G's office yesterday, had some doubts about TPMs
they were speaking in bong, so i was ignoring them until this little bit of the convo..

Bong dude: bong bong bong bong bong shikha singh?
G: shikha singh? bong bong bong
dude: bong bong class topper bong bong bong
G: bah, ki class topper bong bong bong
(lot more back and forth bonging, a few more "shikha singh"s thrown in)

G: bong bong eta... disturbed girl. hehehehehe
dude: (complimentary giggle)
dude: bong bong saketa?
G: oh saketa? (approving bong bong)
etc etc..."

P.S. The bong dude mentioned above is our TA.

Growing up with Harry Potter

2011-09-09T14:45:00.002+05:30

Uncountable number of people all over the world love Harry Potter. They have their reasons. I have my own. And before I forget what it feels like to connect with this book, I want to jot it all down.

In hindsight, I find it hard to imagine a life without Harry Potter. We grew up together. No one older or younger can ever claim that. It was special.

All this will sound childish. It should.

Harry Potter was close to me not because of the magic and mystery (that was an added bonus) but because at the bottom of it all, Harry was like anyone of us - simple and naive. I would spend nights wondering what it would be like to be in Hogwarts, to live that life. It was tantalising. It was surreal. It was an escape. I would often imagine Harry apparating into my own room, on some mission in the muggle world, seeking an ally and finding a trustworthy one in me.

(Laughs) When you are that young, you have time to sit down and cook up just almost anything.

I would get lost in my own fairy tale. It is one thing I miss terribly from my childhood.

I would particularly relate with Harry because of the burden he had to bear as a child, while his friends lead such perfectly normal lives. I would write letters to him, explaining how things were on my end. These one sided conversations were the probably the best ones I have ever had, even with myself.

As we grew up, the story matured along. Youth hit will all its freshness and vigor. Friendships developed, love tiptoed in, young and shy. As for me, I felt comforted that I was not alone in the weird but exciting changes happening inside me.

When Harry lost Sirius, I cried with him. I realised what it felt like to lose family. I echoed the rage he felt for Dumbeldore. It was not fiction for me. It was a parallel world, almost real, if not more. Later when I lost someone near, I knew how to deal with it. I had learnt it.

Dumbledore's death, as you can expect, brought unimaginable grief. I sobbed uncontrollably for hours. My mother's reaction went from amusement to shock to worry. I got over it, with the added knowledge that we get over just about anything, no matter how horrible.

The last book opened floodgates of bitter sweet emotions. It was our last journey together. Harry and me. That was it. Everything after that last page of that last book would just be a reminiscence, a reliving, a nostalgic memory of what had been. I was in Kota when I read it. I cried at almost everything, happy or sad.

My friend Niti said I was crazy. I was. (Smiles)

I wonder if some day when I read the chapter on Dobby's death, possibly the thousandth time, my eyes would remain dry. If some day I would accept the book for what it is - fiction.

There is something overwhelming about that story, something intangibly precious and warm.

I hope it always stays like that, untainted and silly.

P.S. After reading all this, one would be surprised to know I did not own a single copy of the book, until last year, when my friends gifted 3 of the books on my birthday.

Anger.

2011-08-19T01:42:00.002+05:30

Sometimes, I envy people who can yell at others.
Who can throw things.
Who can make you cringe by that one glare.
Who can reduce you to tears by their caustic words.
I am sure it feels good.
Letting it all out.
Venting.

I envy people who can express their anger, who can let others know the magnitude and heat of their rage. If only I could be like them, even for a day.

In school teachers told us, anger was bad, it was evil.
Acts performed in rage, were only to be regretted later.
They were wrong. So wrong.

One needs to do something when angry, anything other than crying yourself to sleep. I am tired. Tired of not showing any external signs of anger. I am sick of being angry inside. It has eaten me up, burnt me out. The next time someone/something makes me angry, I do not want to not do anything about it. I want to slap someone. I want to snap back. I want to do something, anything. Not nothing.

My friends, in jest, say I have developed stress issues. In all likelihood, they are right. I am stressed. I am sick and tired and angry. With the lack of logic and irrationality around me. With people, so many of them, enveloping me from all sides. Moronic people with their tactless manner and retarded humor. And they just seem to be everywhere!

I seem to be losing patience very easily these days. Kgp crowd, with its loud and raucous mannerisms, just drives me up the wall. There was a time I could dismiss the most irritating of things with a mere shrug. Now, it makes my skin crawl.
For example, just today I experienced uncontrollable rage pulsing through me. In the foundation day performance by ETMS, when some stupid morons, IIT'ians - touted as the best brains of the country, were whistling during the songs like a bunch of drunk hooligans. I wanted to drag out each and every one of them and throw them out. Put a DC on them! Slap them! Who, in their right minds, tries to drown out a melodious soothing song, with cacophonous shrill whistles? Who does such things? What are you whistling at? If asked individually, they won't be able to come up with even a semblance of a coherent English sentence. Ask them to make animal sounds, sitting inconspicuously in the crowd, and they will bring the house down.

Anger at strangers is still, thankfully, ephemeral. What if you are angry with someone you have to talk to every single day? What if you don't have a choice, what if you have to see their faces and hear them talk, while you have to sit around and feign enthusiasm? What if, all you want to do, while they are yapping away, is to tell them to shut the fuck up and get lost. Instead you smile a wary smile and stare into nothingness, knowing it is best to just ignore.
But for how long?

Anger at your family is of the worst kind. It is helpless. It is ravaging. It is mind fucking. What can anyone possibly do? If only one could make them understand. If only. But that ship sailed away ages ago. Now it is merely a pretense, a role play. I know what I should say and I simply say so.
If only there was something close to genuine.
It wouldn't matter if it was dysfunctional, if it was broken, but if only it were real.
I live in a parallel universe disjoint from theirs, knowing that I will never be understood, ever.
Knowing that, in reality, I have no one to go to.
Knowing it will all be a lie, a mere facade necessitated by society, by unwritten laws, by nature.
It makes me angry. It makes me sad.
It makes me numb.

I think I have been angry with life for far too long now. It never surfaced. I bottled it all up perhaps. Now things don't seem to be going so well. I can feel the pressure building, the walls crumbling.
Any day from now, I am going to snap. It would be ugly. It would be damaging. It would be stupid.

It would be ecstatic.

Lavishly spacious senior rooms

2011-08-08T10:19:00.000+05:30

As we entered the fourth year at IIT Kharagpur, final for some, we finally moved into the senior wing (IG) of our hall. The rooms we had been eyeing since our very first year were finally our own. At the rate the population of students at Kgp is growing, it wouldn't be surprising if these rooms are made double very soon. Thankfully we won't be around then.

It took me a couple of days, but I finally settled into my new room. I spent a lot of money on things I didn't need, just because it was so nice for once to have space to keep them. The best thing about these rooms are the closed cupboards. I was tired of living out of a box, as I could never keep my clothes in open shelves. This room also has a dressing table type area, with a big mirror and shelves of its own!

What I am trying to convey would be lost on people who have lived in private hostels.

The others will understand exactly what a big deal it is.

Summer '11

2011-08-07T00:34:00.009+05:30

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I spent my summers at home, along with being a Visiting Student at Harish Chandra Research Insitute, Allahabad. I enjoyed a lot, more so because I had very little expectation, after what I had gone through at ISI Kolkata last year (see post).

I have a lot to say about the place, the people I met, the work I did and how it effected me. I will now try to elaborate in a structured way.

The Campus

Entrance

For formal information about the institute see its wiki page, or the homepage.
The beauty of the campus amazed me the first time I entered the gates. I have lived in Allahabad all my life and I never knew that a place like this existed in it.

A pleasant morning, a peacock

Neatly trimmed gardens extend on both sides of the road, glowing with trees, bushes and flowers. There are benches under the shade of trees, and every now and then you can spot a peacock enjoying a nice stroll. The campus is small but peaceful and clean. The library has a very rich collection of books. There is also a place, known as Kalidasa point from which has a view of the Sangam, the famous intersection of three rivers.

Kalidasa Point

I guess the best part was the small population of students and teachers. The staff were very helpful, the bus service very convenient, with buses running to-fro every hour or so. The pantry, being ludicrously inexpensive, was very well maintained, clean and kept good stock of snacks and food. I used to love having bread toast and tea there. It cost only Rs 7!

The Pantry

I had been alloted a cubicle, where I used to spend most of my time, reading and googling. I had my laptop, wifi, a comfortable chair, good books, a table, AC and silence, I couldn't be happier.

What I did

I read up a lot of things. Brushed up elementary number theory topics like Linear and Quadratic congruences, Euclid's algorithms, infinitude of primes and Euclid's and euler's proofs for it, betrands postulate, arithmetic functions, Chinese Remainder Theorem. I also read about the ABC Conjecture and its implications, if proved to be true.

Library

After this, Prof Thangadurai gave me his paper on least prime congruent to 1 modulo n to read. And another paper which improves the bound even further. What was striking about the former paper was the use of analytic methods and cyclotomy in a counting problem, this was the first time I had encountered anything like this. It was interesting.
Along with all this, I also tried some problems from M. Ram Murty's Problems in Algebraic Number theory, which is a very terse but deep text.

I studied the necessary and sufficient conditions for proving the existence of euclidean proof of infinite primes in certain arithmetic progressions. Later in June, Sir asked me to see the proof of Dirichlet's theorem on infinite primes in Arithmetics progressions, from the book 'A course in Arithmetic' by J.P Serre. This proved to be very challenging, making it necessary to read up a lot of sub topics in Analytic Number theory from Apostol. My progress was slow but since Sir had already warned me about the difficulty of the text, it wasn't disallusioning. With time, the concepts sank it, a little rough around the edges, yet much clearer than before. For someone who wants to follow this proof, this lecture might come in handy.

My cubicle

Between all this, I also took a short trip to Bombay via Delhi. Met my sister, friends and did some long awaited shopping. Mumbai gave me a hard time with incessant rains but it was fun none-the-less. I watched four movies in five days :P

When Prof Thanga returned from Baroda (where he taught in MTTS), I gave him a short presentation on the proof. My project, or rather reading course, under him ended with him introducing me to the famous open problems and conjectures in the field and some further topics of interest.
From 20th June began the second phase of my stay at HRI - Summer Programme in Mathematics.

Summer Programme in Mathematics, HRI

SPIM 2011, as it is called, is sort of a summer school conducted by HRI, mainly for MSc first year students studying Mathematics. This year, the main subjects taught were Topology, Algebra (Finite Fields and Galois Theory), Number theory and Analysis, with a couple of introductory lectures in Differential Geometry.

From 09 to 17 hours, around 50 students from all over the country attended lectures one after the other. Initially we were taught by Phd students and later by professors of HRI. The information gain per day was huge. And one had to go the library and read some more to digest the new concepts introduced everyday. It was the most busy and the enjoyable experience during the summers.

SPIM 2011

Apart from having students around you, who actually appreciated Math, we kept running into Phd students and Prof Thanga during meal times. The place was buzzing with minds keen to learn and those keen to teach, just almost anything.

The Academic Building

I found travelling very time consuming and exhausting so I stayed in the campus for a few days. The programme ended on 9th July after the last few days, which were packed with student seminars. I did not give one. I guess I was scared of presenting something purely mathematical to a auditorium full of people. Or maybe I was lazy. But I did regret it after listening to even the shyest of students giving their seminar with admirable ease.

The Accident

Yes, the bus accident. My description of the summer would be incomplete without its mention. I mean I almost died. Okay, not that dramatic but still, here is my post about it.

Overall

When I look back, I know one thing for sure - this summer was definitely well spent, being peaceful and comfortable at the same time. Home food and AC trumps whatever minor distractions come along with it.

I learned a lot this summer.
And the most important thing is, I finally found my calling, Math :)

Academic pariah

2011-06-25T14:12:00.000+05:30

Venue: Dining Hall, Guest House, Harish Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad.

Time: 13.00

A lively conversation about different Institutes of India and their campus is going on. Sorrounded by 1st year Msc students of Mathematics, all strangers brought under one roof by their common love for the subject (attending Summer Programme in Mathematics, HRI) I am giving my views too.

Suddenly,

X (to me): So which Institute are you from?
Me: IIT Kharagpur
X: 2 year Msc?
Me: No, Integrated.

And with that, everyone recedes into an ominous silence.
:|

Anecdote?

2011-06-02T11:25:00.004+05:30

Post JEE results every year, almost every IIT student has to go through the ordeal of counselling enthusiastic new JEE qualified kids and their over enthusiastic parents. Your distant aunt or uncle brags to their distant relative who knows someone distant whose son/daughter cleared JEE. And thus your contact number travels around unwillingly.

They call you up, they introduce themselves and ask about your well being as if they have known you for ages. While you are bored and wondering how long it is going to take this time or is it the first of many calls to come.

It is interesting to talk to the kid who is supposed to be the one making decisions, but 9 out of 10, the chances are you are stuck trying to convince a worried Dad that people who study anything other than CS and IT also get jobs.

They ask you all sorts of questions. Some of them regular, some unexpected and some to which you won't have a reply. One parent asked me if his son should take tuitions for the aptitude test taken for students who fill Architecture or Design in their choice sheet at the counselling. What do you say to that?

Some parents are very bright. They do their homework. They find out. They google. They know what the status quo is. But they probably want an inside opinion. It is nice talking to them. It is a change.

Some kids just desperately want to convince their parents that they aren't making the wrong choice. These parents would rather listen to a stranger (whose only qualification is to have cleared JEE and managed to stick around to whatever course he took in an IIT) than believe in their son/daughter and let them pursue what they want. My case was similar. I had to track down someone (Pratyush Kumar, 'bhaiyya' as I referred to him henceforth), who thankfully managed to convince my sister to let me take an "MSc" course in IIT Kgp. Weeks of inconclusive debates with me and one phone call, barely 15 minutes, and she bought it, whatever he said.

Anyway, the reason behind writing this post was not this. All this stuff just came out.
While chatting with a friend, he mentioned that some friend of his was asking him about Mechanical Department of IIT Kgp. His friends brother just cleared JEE and wants to choose between IITD civil/chemical vs IIT Kgp mech. What I said in reply was interesting, almost like a revelation.

Kovid: IIT D/K civil/chem vs IIT-KGP mech

me: Mech in Kgp is goodvery good profs

IIT KGP mech I would say

if the guys wants to learn anything

10:15 AM Kgp isn't much "fun"

Kovid: hmm

first year me to tu bahut bolti thi

ki bahut vibrant campus life hai

me: It is too vibrant

10:16 AM Overcompensation for a lack of life

Am I right? Or was that just a remark to justify my change of opinion?
Kgp campus life does reek of a lack of any other normal life. And everything - Illumination to cut-throat competition in Inter Halls, poltu in elections - they all seem like an overcompensation to believe that Kgp life is oh-so-fun.

Cloud 9.15

2011-05-31T12:45:00.003+05:30

The merit list is finally out.

My SGPA (Semester grade point average) is 9.15 this time which is the highest in my branch \m/

And this feat pulls up my CGPA from 7.97 to 8.15 :)

Nothing more to be said. The happy stick figure pretty much explains the sentiment.

P.S. The label is right. This was kind of an accident. Hoping to make it routine.

Blue Valentine

2011-05-24T15:17:00.007+05:30

Sick of cliché romantic movies?

This one is a fresh, hard-hitting, yet beautiful movie. I have seen it twice already, all the while wondering why its rating is not above 8 on IMDb. It is a contemporary story of a married couple, switching back and forth, from the past where they fall in love to the present where their marriage is falling to pieces. What is different about this movie? It is not something which can be penned down (at least, it won't be an easy thing to do), the beauty lies in the excellent acting, soundtrack, cinematography and dialogs of the movie.

It is heartbreaking, but it is so ordinary. Love, so overrated by the infinite romantic movies there are, is made more human, less surreal. I cried almost throughout the movie the first time I saw it.

Do watch.

My favorite parts -

Dean: I feel like men are more romantic than women. When we get married we marry, like, one girl, 'cause we're resistant the whole way until we meet one girl and we think I'd be an idiot if I didn't marry this girl she's so great. But it seems like girls get to a place where they just kinda pick the best option... 'Oh he's got a good job.' I mean they spend their whole life looking for Prince Charming and then they marry the guy who's got a good job and is gonna stick around.

When Dean plays the song 'You and me' first time in Cindy's room, and later when they slow-dance to it.

The song -

If the stars don't shine if the moon wont rise,
If I've ever seen a city summon again.
You wont hear me cry, this I testify.
Please believe me boy you know I wont lie.
As long as there is,

You and Me
No body baby but you and me,
You and Me
Nobody baby but you and me.

If you love a soul more then fame and gold.
And that soul feels the same about you.
Its a natural fact, there is not turning back.
And here is some advise to you,
You got to say is,

You and me
No body baby but you and me,
You and Me
No body baby but you and me.

Sweet love is real, you don't have to show it.
Breathing is true, to everyone who knows cause there be no one but,
You and Me,
No body baby but you and me,
You and Me
Nobody baby but you and me.

A beautiful morning turned bloody

2011-05-05T13:55:00.007+05:30

Yesterday, 4th May 2011, my day began just too perfectly. I woke up early, went jogging, had a shower followed by an awesome breakfast and got ready to go to HRI (where I am interning this summer). The institute bus has a stop very close to my house and I boarded it around 8.30 am.

I plugged my iPod earphones in, sat back on my seat and closed my eyes. I had almost dozed off to sleep when it happened. There was a huge jerk, and caught off guard, I was thrown forward, my face hitting the back of the front seat. While this was happening, (imagine in slow motion without any sounds, as thanks to my iPod I couldn't hear a thing.) The driver had pressed the breaks suddenly but it was too late and the bus was hurtling forward about the hit a truck loaded with bricks. And then it happened. The windshield smashed with the glass pieces flying around. The driver was half covered in bricks (from the truck) and glass, probably knocked unconscious. I looked around. Some people had been thrown out of their seats into the aisle and they were trying to get up. There was blood. On my bag, some on my clothes. I didn't understand. I wasn't feeling a thing. The old man, who was sitting next to me, on the side of the window, was bleeding copiously. The window had smashed and he had been hurt by it. It was his blood on my bag. All this while, my iPod kept playing a Floyd number loud into my ears. I touched my face and that caused a pool of blood to fill in the cup of my hands.

I finally removed the ear plugs. Loud deafening screams suddenly put things to perspective. People were banging hard on the bus door, screaming, asking the driver to move the bus. Apparently someone had been run over, who was probably still under the tires. The driver himself was stuck in the rubble, badly injured.
One couldn't tell where the truck ended and the bus began.

The door was smashed open and someone rushed inside. I saw the open door and got down. It was a blood curling sight. Two laborers, who were probably sitting on top of the bricks had been thrown down when the truck driver stopped suddenly and they had come under the bus. Ones limp body left no doubt that that was all left of him. The others hand had been torn asunder by the wheel and he was writhing in pain. There was blood, glass and disgusting green and white stuff all over. It was gross.

It had taken place on the Shashtri Bridge in Allahabad, notorious for road accidents. I walked to the side of the bridge, washed my face, my bag. I wanted to get rid of the blood, thinking it might help in some way. It did.

I took out my phone and called home, asked someone to come and pick me up. The scene was creating a big traffic jam. By now, police and the ambulances had come. A huge crowd was blocking my view but I heard they were trying to get the driver out.

I went back, feeling disoriented. When I saw my face, it looked funny. My lower lip had swollen up to more than twice its size. My jaws, teeth and gum had been shaken badly. I went to the doctor, took the medicine and slept.

In hindsight, the whole thing seems scary. The last time I had an accident, I had woken up hours later in the hospital (See post). The whole thing was a blackout, which isn't as scary because there's nothing to remember later.

I am fine now.
In fact, I took the institute bus today as well.
I couldn't close my eyes this time.

Studying from "Slides"

2011-04-21T02:41:00.001+05:30

I don't know how common this is in other colleges/universities, but here in IIT, very 1 out of 3 people you see close to exam-time, would be staring steadily at slides (Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations), tailor-made for their courses.

No matter what the topic, these slides are almost alike - having bland custom animations shooting bulleted points on each mouse click, distasteful colors and fonts, and most importantly incomplete sentences.
How can anyone learn anything about any topic through a bunch of important words clubbed together?
Brevity might be the soul of wit, but it is definitely not of knowledge.

Have people lost all willingness to read?
If not, how can anyone substitute a book, with its structure, literature and flow to abominably-cut-down-summary in slides?

I can't. And I don't think very highly of people who do.

Finite Simple Group of Order two

2011-04-21T01:22:00.001+05:30

Someone had shared the you-tube video of this song, titled 'Finite Simple Group of order two', on Facebook. I guess you have to be a Math geek or acquainted with Group theory to enjoy it. I loved it and so I am sharing its lyrics here.

The lyrics for Finite Simple Group (of Order Two) by The Klein Four Group:

The path of love is never smooth
But mine’s continuous for you
You’re the upper bound in the chains of my heart
You’re my Axiom of Choice, you know it’s true

But lately our relation’s not so well-defined
And I just can’t function without you
I’ll prove my proposition and I’m sure you’ll find
We’re a finite simple group of order two

I’m losing my identity
I’m getting tensor every day
And without loss of generality
I will assume that you feel the same way

Since every time I see you, you just quotient out
The faithful image that I map into
But when we’re one-to-one you’ll see what I’m about
‘Cause we’re a finite simple group of order two

Our equivalence was stable,
A principal love bundle sitting deep inside
But then you drove a wedge between our two-forms
Now everything is so complexified

When we first met, we simply connected
My heart was open but too dense
Our system was already directed
To have a finite limit, in some sense

I’m living in the kernel of a rank-one map
From my domain, its image looks so blue,
‘Cause all I see are zeroes, it’s a cruel trap
But we’re a finite simple group of order two

I’m not the smoothest operator in my class,
But we’re a mirror pair, me and you,
So let’s apply forgetful functors to the past
And be a finite simple group, a finite simple group,
Let’s be a finite simple group of order two
(Oughter: "Why not three?")

I’ve proved my proposition now, as you can see,
So let’s both be associative and free
And by corollary, this shows you and I to be
Purely inseparable. Q. E. D.

Polynomials

2011-04-17T12:33:00.003+05:30

While reading about Rings from the classic textbook 'Topics in Algerba' by I.N. Herstein, I came across this paragraph with which he introduces Polynomial Rings.

He so blatantly but simply puts our flawed mathematical education into some perspective.

"Very early in our mathematical education — in fact in junior high school or early in high school itself — we are introduced to polynomials. For a seemingly endless amount of time we are drilled, to the point of utter boredom, in factoring them, multiplying them, dividing them, simplifying them. Facility in factoring a quadratic becomes confused with genuine mathematical talent."

We are the champions - ICC World Cup 2011

2011-04-03T05:19:00.001+05:30

2nd April 2011, we all witnessed legend being created.
We felt it. Deeply. Truly.
We all bled blue. Literally.

The World cup was finally ours. India became the world champion - a victory which had evaded us for 28 years, the only feather missing in Sachin Tendulkar's cap.

I don't want to forget any part of it. The nail biting overs. The leap of ephemeral ecstasy on each boundary or wicket. The uneventful overs passing, if nothing, building the tension even more.

And then Malinga's ball, for which Dhoni's bat was waiting in anticipation, the mesmerizing stroke, the final six. And even before the ball could land outside the field, the deafening cries of insanity.

"We played for Sachin".
Overwhelmed by the moment, the Indian team breaking down to tears.
Their tears of happiness - I don't want to forget them.

Some stills worth preserving -

Endulkar? Dare we imagine the unimaginable

2011-03-26T23:54:00.015+05:30

Note: This is an article, by Siddhartha Mishra, which appeared in Times of India (Lucknow) on 2nd February 2006.

It was not the context which made me love this article the first time I read it. I was in Class 9th and I loved the way it was written. I cut it out and stuck it in my diary.

Very recently I lost the cut out, which lead to frantic searching all over the web.

After a lot of painful search, with the help of a friend, I finally tracked it down.

For cricket fans, you probably remember the context. Quoting Wiki, "In the test series in Pakistan in 2006, Sachin failed to get going in all three innings despite the pitches being flat tracks. In the third of those three innings, he was bowled comprehensively after making 26, and ended up on all fours. This prompted The Times of India to publish an article entitled "Endulkar" in which TOI opined that Tendulkar's batting prowess had declined and his career had slid permanently."

Well Sachin proved everyone wrong all right.

I didn't want to lose the article again, so here it goes -

In numbers we trust.
Circa 2005: 412 runs in 16 ODI innings at an average of 27.46; 255 runs in five Test innings at an average of 51.

 With form having forsaken him — he, whose gospel is cricket and commandment run-scoring — the blasphemy of quoting numbers is, perhaps, not babel in the wilderness. That is the cross he has to bear. For being the player he is, and the player he is imagined to be.
The oracle of doubt speaks: He too shall pass; and the beginning of the end is seemingly here.
Forgive us, O Sachin Tendulkar, for we know not what we are saying. Or maybe we do.
For the elixir of immortal youth finds no mention in cricket’s scriptures. Sachin, at 32, with the thorns of your toe, back and elbow protesting, the age of miracles is past you. In the past too is the age of revelation, when your technique and timing defined the neo batting testament of the times. Uneasy lies the crown that your head adorns. Nay, your followers will never betray you; unfortunately, time has.
‘‘His left arm is not as strong as it once was; hence, we must learn to live without that trademark punched drive. With time, the aggressor has turned accumulator, the entertainer tends to go into a shell. We will never see the vintage Sachin of 5-7 years ago.’’ Thus spake Maninder Singh, eyewitness to Sachin’s baptism in international cricket on November 15, 1989 in Karachi.

Comprehend. This is not just about you, Sachin. This is about what is Tendulkaresque. And this is about the ultimate tryst with destiny. Ignorance was bliss for 16 years during which you converted millions into non-believers but, unfortunately, apocalypse has finally struck us: You are as prone to homo sapienisms as lesser mortals.
To quote Vinod Kambli, friend and follower of the Sachin path: ‘‘Just as the elbow injury needed time to heal, so too does Sachin need time to run into form. He is beyond expectations and pressure, and nobody dare find fault with his technique, but what Sachin needs to do is play freely.’’
Time was when you brought to the crease the tenets of Caribbean flair, Oriental wizardry, Anglo-Saxon correctness and Antipodean derring-do. Time was when salvation meant communion with your innings, with its intrinsic invitation to let go, be swept away. Time was when you were the reigning deity of public mindscape, drawing out one and all to celebrate the zeitgeist. The mood was euphoric; now it is that of uncertainty. The truth is out there. Sachin, for all your cricketing virtues, you can probably never be the batsman you once were.

In the words of Ajit Wadekar, venerable predecessor in Sachinland: ‘‘The pressure of staging a comeback after suffering injury was inevitable, but what was avoidable is his batting position at the top of the order being changed. Sachin appears to be confused about whether to attack the bowling or hang around; this, when there is no scope for error in international cricket. Today’s Sachin has curbed his natural stroke-making instincts; he would serve his own cause better by going back to his original ways.’’

Yes, the last temptation is to play on regardless of the constant that is change, but in doing so, you — who could do no wrong in days less ordinary — risk relinquishing your pedestal.

In this nation where cricket is religion most sacred, the least we owe you (as much as you do your halo) is the prayer of truth, even at the risk of sounding blasphemous — such is the labor of living and loving you, Sachin. And the truth is that, in this unforgiving world of nowness, even messiahs are crucified for the sin of repeated failure. Sachin, to hold pride of place in the trinity of international cricket, you might consider abandoning one of the two avatars of the game, much in the manner of Brian Lara and Shane Warne. Heed the truth, Sachin, and perchance you will be all the more greater for it.

Yet, Dilip Vengsarkar, who shepherded the Bombay flock to green pastures when Sachin was born in domestic cricket, does not foresee the imminent end of an era. ‘‘Sachin can — and should — play both forms of the game. He is motivated enough to come back strongly and continue playing for as long as he wants to.’’ Navjot Singh Sidhu, who partook of many a run feast within 22 yards of Sachin, prophesies the return of the prodigy: ‘‘Despite coming out of hibernation, Sachin — by playing the hook and square-drive with the mastery of old — has shown that all’s well with his batting. He has the technique, he has the confidence, he has the adrenaline... he will play a big knock soon.’’

Sachin, ’tis a fine line that separates a zero from the chosen one. Yet with the curse of everyday being Judgment Day for your genius comes the blessing of you being able to be your own saviour. The curtain will go up again shortly and, despite many an encore already, there can always be a new beginning today, Sachin.

We await the second coming. Anon. Dare we imagine the imaginable? 

Inter Hall Debate 2011

2011-03-05T00:10:00.004+05:30

This is my speech for the Inter Hall Debate 2011 -
Note: I would like to thank Saumya Kulshreshtha for her generous help :)

A very good evening to one and all.
The topic of today's debate is “Should telephone tapping be allowed?” and I am staunchly in support of the motion.
I would like to begin by establishing the premises of this debate. Although the topic does not explicitly spell it out, it is a reasonable assumption that we are not talking about allowing indiscriminate, unauthorised telephone tapping. The topic here clearly refers to tapping taking place in our country currently, and should we, as its educated citizens, condone it?

Let us look at why this topic became debatable in the first place. Recently, there has been a furore over certain controversial tapes, obtained by telephone tapping, which were leaked.
The important point to note is that it was the leakage and not the tapping itself that caused the furore.
Telephone tapping has been employed since time immemorial, from crude mechanical circuits to digital remote tapping devices.The means have only improved because of the innumerable benefits that have been reaped from it.

To state a few, but concrete examples - terrorists nabbed due to their tapped cellphone in case of the Batla House encounter, the gunning down of notorious gangster Shri Prakash Shukla in UP, 26/11 Mumbai attacks in which the police intercepted 16 hours of 284 conversations gathering real time evidence of the people responsible for the attack.

While these maybe some of the biggest fish, there have been innumerable cases of exposed scams, tax evasions, match fixings, corrupt bureaucrats, drug dealers, traffickers, arms dealers and what not.

Yes, there is little doubt that telephone tapping is crucial today. But along with it, we should and must ensure stringent laws to stop leakages of the tapped information.

It is interesting how, we go through airport security, full body searches, including the new, all-revealing ‘X-ray’ cameras, yet, we do not protest. But we create such a fuss about the rare possibility of one’s phone being tapped?

Telephone tapping, might, on the face of it, seem sinister, because none of us want our phones to be tapped. But then again we don't seem to have a problem if it is the phone of mass-murderer or a terrorist. We have to realise that by using a tactic like tapping, the government does not intend to control our lives, or snoop unnecessarily on us, but to prevent an imminent danger and protect us.

There is no need to be paranoid about it. The fact that a huge number of telephones are being tapped is not reason to freak out and think that someone is eavesdropping on your intimate talks.
Seriously, get real.

And if in fact the mere idea of allowing telephone tapping makes you cringe, let me ask you this - Does the fact that Google has all the records of all your mails, searches, pictures and chat act as a deterrent for you in any way? Does it stop you from pouring your heart out over emails?
The irony that we'd rather trust Google than our own elected government is not lost on anyone.

My worthy opponents seem extremely concerned about tapping causing violation of peoples privacy. Privacy, indeed is an intrinsic right of an individual. But, while we agree to that we also need to acknowledge the fact that our rights are not ABSOLUTE. In order to coexist in a society, ones rights should be justifiable in the sense that they do not encroach upon someone elses right. If an individual is siphoning off crores of government money - it no longer qualifies as their private matter, it is a serious violation of the rights of hundreds others who were entitled to that money.

If you think about it, all the concern of my opponents here boils down to

(a) their mistrust in their system and

(b) the potential for abuse.
While our government, is not flawless, it is still an effective democracy.

Let me ask you, are we electing despots to rule this nation?

If the answer to that is a NO then shouldn't we place a certain amount of trust in them and feel assured rather than exposed by the means employed by them for our own welfare.

Should the fear of misuse blind us to such an extent that we cannot compare the pro’s and cons?
It is indeed easy sit around, cry foul and criticise the way things are done, without any clue of an alternate recourse.

We need to open our minds and be practical.
We are not subjects of a kingdom, we are citizens of an empowered democracy.
Yes, we have rights and we need to safeguard them but let us not forget that we also have responsibilities.

Thank you.

Fallen into decadence

2011-02-16T23:27:00.005+05:30

The life at IIT Kharagpur, or Kgp, as people here endearingly call it, is/was (?) synonymous with words like OP, poltu, hall sento, GC, gymkhana elections, inter hall brawls etc.

Nobody knows when but things began to change around here, the process infinitesimally slow and intangible. What did not go hand in hand with it, unfortunately, was the comprehension and acceptance of this cultural shift. This I feel is resulting in lapses of understanding between the younger and the elder inhabitants here (juniors and seniors), the former, innocent and clueless, the latter, exasperated and hapless.

The two see and interpret things differently, neither understanding the outlook of the other. The seniors, ofcourse, wield the power, but for some reason that I fail to understand, choose to use it for the worst.

I could never quite get a grasp of Kgp's obsession with hierarchy. Does the difference of age, of as less as one year, give one to power to rule over the other? Does it obviate the obligations of social etiquettes and courtesies, which are an essential part of any civilised society?

Or is a barbarian, belligerent attitude such an indispensable part of any Halls success story? What happened to the essential leadership qualities of magnanimity (giving credit where it is due), fairness, humility and assertiveness (NOT aggressiveness). My unfortunate experiences with this place force me to believe that the rules of the game are completely different, possibly irrational over here.

Some very proudly call it tradition. But then is a tradition without intelligence really worth continuing?

Maybe it used to work at some time, but it does't anymore.

Maybe you were trained into servility and you loved it, but maybe people no longer do.

Maybe you don't see it the way I do, but then you are also the wiser one, to acknowledge the difference.

It is indeed distressing for me to harbor such hurt towards the manner in which things are done here. I do not get the logic behind such malevolent designs. Is it really the so called patriotism for one's Hall and its benefit, or is it something else, something not so obvious? Is it the inherent desire of some people to use (misuse?) power, the satisfaction it gives them to be the puppeteer of fellow human beings?

One can only speculate.

Whatever it is, I do not want to, and will not, work in an environment where I am not treated with respect.

I have always found it difficult, sometimes impossible, to refuse an earnest request, a sweet word.

Also, I have always found a demeaning order impossible to accept.

Morning scowl

2011-02-15T12:52:00.004+05:30

/*Moved to the private blog for safety reasons. It never does one good to malign a person who has the power to fail you :P
Requests to read it will be entertained, if secrecy is pledged.
The post will be restored here once this semester gets over.
The inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.*/

Restored, as promised :

When more than 50 students, wake up, in spite of their most desperate desire to sleep, at 07.30 in the morning to attend a rather dull lecture - the least a professor could do, I feel, is to take that nasty scowl off his face, if smiling really is that unimaginable an ordeal.

Lets call this perennially cranky professor X. So Prof. X enters the class, so early in the day, face swollen with the most sour expression I have ever seen. The first thing he does is throw a student out for no plausible reason, considering that the class hadn't even started, and chiding another for some random presumptuous one. Such behavior forces one to speculate what possibly could have gone so wrong with his life to have turned him bitter to such degree.

He is upset a great deal about a number of things, he admits. The undergraduate education system is flawed. Nobody is disagreeing Sir. Infact, your lectures prove it all the more. Indeed it is flawed.

None the less, does the burden of overhauling the whole system fall on your shoulders then? If so, I must say, you are doing a great job with all the sadism, the egotism and grumpiness. That is definitely the solution.

Someone once said, 'What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches'. But then, he hadn't met you.

Understanding Art

2011-02-08T19:42:00.005+05:30

I was going through this tabloid kept in my friend's room when I came across a full page black and white cover of Mona Lisa in it. That led to the discussion about why the painting is the world's most famous painting, ever.

I don't get art. I don't have the eye for it. Still, Indra and I, started exploring the web for the most famous paintings and discussing what could be the possible reasons behind their immortal fame.

Pablo Picasso's paintings are uncanny and weird. For example following is a very strange but very famous work of art by Picasso called Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. It portrays a group of nude prostitutes none of them portrayed as conventionally feminine.

The Young Ladies of Avignon - Picasso

Picasso is said to be the pioneer of modern art. If I ever meet an art aficionado, I would love to have a discussion about Picasso's paintings.

Vincent Van Gogh's paintings on the contrary are more perspicuous and his brush strokes appealing even to the untrained eye.

Starry Night Over the Rhone - Vincent Van Gogh

For me the above painting captures the serenity of the river, the reflection of the light on the water. I can understand why this painting is famous, it sort of speaks for itself. Apparently Van Gogh was intrigued by the challenge of painting at night. The choice of colors was the most important thing to him. Van Gogh described this painting to his brother as "The sky is aquamarine, the water is royal blue, the ground is mauve. The town is blue and purple. The gas is yellow and the reflections are russet gold descending down to green-bronze. On the aquamarine field of the sky the Great Bear is a sparkling green and pink, whose discreet paleness contrasts with the brutal gold of the gas. Two colourful figurines of lovers in the foreground."

Cafe Terrace at Night - Vincent Van Gogh

This is another very famous piece of work by Van Gogh. The depth of the painting is what I find the most striking. A bigger version of this would actually make you feel you are present in the cafe. This cafe has been renamed after the famous painter who captured it on canvas for eternity.

Some other famous paintings (in case you, like me, were not familiar with them)

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

The Dream by Pablo Picasso

Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Garden at Montgeron by Monet

Girl with the pearl earing by Jan Vermeer

Coming to the painting which triggered this short foray into understanding art, Mona Lisa, the image so widely recognized, caricatured, and sought out by visitors to the Louvre that it is considered the most famous painting in the world .

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

This painting has intrigued me ever since I have heard of its fame. So much has been said and written about it. And all I would see is an ordinary woman staring at me. What is it that continues to enchant people all over the world. I stared at it for quite some time - noticed her eyes, the shades given to her face - the 3D contours mapped so well on 2D by the strokes. According to Wikipedia, and I guess I have to agree, 'The ambiguity of the subject's expression, the monumentality of the composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work.'

It is said that this painting creates an optical illusion of sorts, such that, whichever angle you look at it from, she appears to stare back at you. To check this for myself, I made Indra hold the tabloid page and fidgeted around it, with the deep ruminating look on my face. I don't know whether it was due to the idea in my head or not, but she did seem to look back at me with that furtive smile and mischievous look. It was eerie. I gave up.

But I couldn't get her out of my head. She was haunting me. I thought about it some more. It was like she was hiding something. Something you want to know, but you can't.

All of a sudden, it made sense.The painting has been haunting people ever since Vinci painted it the 16th century. It is all about the secret, I think.

On the deplorable state of my department

2011-01-17T00:27:00.003+05:30

Indian Institutes of Technology are supposed to be one of the best institutes for higher studies in India. And yet, I see questions like "Define an object. Describe the bicycle object." in my Object Oriented Programming question paper.

Mathematics department of IIT Kharagpur seems perfect on paper with all possible courses being offered and a perfect selection of them for the Maths and Computing students. Perfect, but only on paper. Having finished 14 department courses and currently taking 5 more, I think I am in a good position to comment. Apart from a few (very few), good professors, it is a very sad plight when it comes to faculty.

I don't understand how a teacher (read Phd.) of a particular course, not know that course thoroughly enough to atleast not make mistakes in class. One doesn't have to be a genius to do that. Even if a professor hasn't been pedagogically blessed, it still would suffice if he teaches stuff that isn't wrong. Yes, it is not a surprising thing for us. Professors go wrong in class all the time. And when the students happen to point out the blunders, some of them actually stick to the erroneous facts with the ego of the size of a colossal mannequin.

It is sad. I ruminate on it more these days, because I happen to like my courses.

If only we would attend classes, for more than the 'P' mark on the attendance sheet.

P.S. My best course till now has been 'Real Analysis' by Professor V.K. Jain. He is an excellent teacher. But unfortunately he is retiring, taking with him whatever little hope that was left for the department.

2011 it is

2011-01-05T23:31:00.003+05:30

Trivia: 2011, being a prime number itself, is a sum of 11 consecutive prime numbers.
2011 = 157 + 163 + 167 + 173 + 179 + 181 + 191 + 193 + 197 + 199 + 211. (Courtesy Sanjoy)

The new year came bringing the temperatures yet lower. My legs are feeling numb as I attempt to write this post.
31st night was a memorable one. Indra, Potu, Anurag, Sanjoy - who were with me would agree. Other than that, hope this year turns out to be much more productive and, ofcourse, fun.

Hoping to write more often this year.
Happy New Year to my (fictitious?) readers :)

Winter School and all that

2011-01-05T23:02:00.000+05:30

I shouldn't have succumbed to laziness and should have written about this earlier. But late as this post might be, without it the previous two posts would loose their meaning.

So basically there was this Winter School at IIIT H, organised by Carnegie Melon University, that I attended. It was overall a good experience in terms of interaction with faculty from both IIITH and CMU. Although when it came to projects and mentoring, our track (Data Mining), turned out to be a bit of a let down.

The other two tracks (Speech and Information Retrieval) had two mentors, one from CMU and one from IIITH. We didn't have a CMU professor to guide us and our IIITH mentor didn't really show up so much. We had to do pretty much everything on our own.

Nonetheless, I (or make it a 'we' if you must) was (okay, were) able to successfully finish the project. Not to go in details but loosely it was a search portal (coded in python) on the lines of Google Scholar. We made it for the 15,000 research papers given to us, using Frequent Itembased Hierarchical Clustering and topic matching techniques of data mining.

So if you entered say a topic or a set of keywords, it would return the cluster labels and also recommend related papers. The final GUI looked like this -

Which would give the result as the following, which on further selection would lead you to the recommended research papers.

Anybody interested in the final presentation can find it here.

Other than the technical stuff, Hyderabad was a pretty neat city. I saw the offices of Google and Microsoft. The whole area near IIITH has evolved into an IT zone. The last day the IIT Kanpur group dragged me to Char Minar (their argument being, you haven't seen anything in Hyderabad if you haven't seen Char Minar :| ).

My advice to anyone visiting the city - Do not visit Char Minar or the surrounding area (unless ofcourse you have 'must buy pearls' in your to-do list). It is such an old dirty building anyway.

You can find the pics on Facebook here.

If you want to know anything else regarding this Winter School, drop me a mail.

Data Mining track (9th December, 2010) @ Winter School, IIITH

2010-12-09T20:47:00.000+05:30

Today we had lectures from 10 to 12.30 and 14.00 to 16.00 on Data Mining. Professor Vikram Pudi focussed on the following important topics -

* Association Rules
* Classifiers and no free lunch theorem
* Clustering

The theme of our work would be research paper mining. Given an input of research paper collection performing tasks like - extract hierarchy/ontology of topics, search portal for research papers, preprocess: extract metadata from pdfs, indexing, pagerank (based on citations + rank of conference + rank of author), given keywords, find matching topics, best conferences, best authors, best papers, landmark papers etc. We were introduced to the Weka toolkit, the demo of which we will see tomorrow. The rest of the day went in googling and reading mostly. I found another canteen here which offers decent food, so I guess I'll be well fed from now on. No LAN in room forced me to stick to the library here and is sort of inconvenient.

Will keep posting.

Day 1 and 2 - Winter School @ IIIT Hyderabad (7th and 8th December, 2010)

2010-12-09T13:22:00.002+05:30

The first day at the winter school went quite decently I would say. The mess breakfast was good. We met Dr. Carolyn Rose, from Carnegie Melon University and she welcomed us to the winter school. We got to know how this idea of a winter school came up, as an attempt to bridge the gap between research in India and CMU. A lot of things she mentioned were quite thought provoking and insightful. Her focus was how this is time that we should decide what we ultimately want to do with our life. If we want to go into research, how to go about it.

Reading, as she said, was the key. She suggested that we should read papers in the field that interests us. To get a hang of how research papers are written and published, she suggested we should go ahead and compare a research paper on a particular topic with maximum citations with the one with very low citations to know what makes a research paper good.

Apart from the general introduction, we had lectures introducing the three tracks for the winter school – 1. Information Retrieval, 2. Data Mining, 3. Speech processing. There was also a lecture on VLSI Design and Embedded Systems by IIITH faculty (I didn't hear a syllable :) )

The most interesting part was the panel discussion about – Graduate school or not? India or US? A lot of pro's and cons of pursuing graduate studies both in India and abroad came up. One being that in India, productivity in general is quite low owing to the social repercussions one faces here. On a question about the perception of Indian students by the faculty in CMU, Carolyn tried to answer as diplomatically as possible that Indian students tend NOT to stick to their promises and usually drop out of the research, just after an MS when they had signed in for a Phd as well. She said it was looked down upon by the Profs and was enough reason one shouldn't get into research unless one's serious to finish it.

Lastly, we were assigned tracks in a rather unconventional way. We all were given one ribbon each – red, blue or yellow. Each color represented a track. In order to get what one likes, one had to negotiate and exchange for the desired color ribbon with a fellow colleague during the tea break.

So that was a smooth way to get equal number of people a track without the tedious job of assigning it to them. I took/ got Data Mining by the way.

Later I went out to see a lil of Hyderabad. Since IIITH is located quite away from the main city we had to go quite far. Didn't do much. Surfed through a mall, walked around. Found a very tempting and delicious looking 'Karachi Bakery'. The cakes on display – I have never seen anything like them. The pastry I had was unbelievably good. We took a bus back to campus.

That was the first day. From tomorrow onwards, there is going to be lot of track specific activities. Lets see how things turn out. Hoping for the best :)

Just for Fun

2010-10-22T10:42:00.006+05:30

"My name is Linus Torvalds and I am your god."

Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary is a book by Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux. I found it lying around inconspicuously, stuffed away behind other non fiction books in a book store in Bombay, and the penguin immediately caught my attention. A year before when I started using Ubuntu, I hadn't guessed how much I'd come to love it. As any Linux lover, I wanted to know how it all happened.

So there I sat in Odyssey, in a comfortable couch, and began reading this seemingly benign book. I did not budge from my place for the next four hours (which would obviously be weird since I was in a bookstore in a freaking mall!). I didn't even realize the time pass. Simply put, this book is awesome. It is humorous and touching at the same time. A quite gripping story alternating between the narration by Linus himself and the journalist David Diamond, it has it all - Linux, Open Source, Linus, and yes, meaning of life too.

Linus is quirky, he is straightforward to the extent of sounding offensive, and mostly he is incredibly funny. He tells you how all he was trying to do, while locked up in his room day and night, was to see if he could improve upon the existing operating systems, like UNIX. He posted the earlier versions of Linux, in hope of feedback. He had never guessed how very soon Linux would take the world by storm.

You do not have to be a geek to enjoy this book. Some parts of it, I agree, need a little bit of background in Operating systems (I don't have any, but I still got the idea of what he was trying to say. I learnt a lot too.) But mostly, it is about a guy, who is his own words, became "the luckiest bastard alive". Some parts are actually touching. No, seriously. As embarrassed as I am to accept it, I actually started crying! In the bookstore. Face-palm. I think it was when he was talking about his dysfunctional family in an indifferent tone. How it never occurred to him that he should have thought of making money out of Linux, if only to support his single working mother who struggled for them. It did not occur to him. He offers to be sued for that.

The book contains an account from his mother as well. She explains how she never had to worry about Linus. He was the most low maintenance kid ever. Locked up in his room with his computer, he would be happy with occasional supplies of stale spaghetti. Once Linus tells his mother, about his sister, " You see. I don't think any new thoughts. I think thoughts that other people have thought, and I rearrange them. But Sara, she thinks thoughts that never were before."

No wonder this book made some heads turn. You can choose to hate his guts. But you have to agree, its funny when he screws people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, to some extent even Richard Stallman.

"My personal opinion of Mach is not very high. Frankly, it's a piece of crap. It contains all the design mistakes you can make, and even managed to make up a few of its own."

I love the part where he tells you how the penguin became the official symbol of Linux. How he did not want just any penguin, how his penguin "should look as if it had been polished off a barrel of beer and had the best sex of his life." The beak and feet are orange, so basically it is like, Daffy Duck became horny on a trip to Antarctica and had a one night stand with a native fowl. :)

The book starts and ends with Linus's own version of 'Meaning of life'. He cribs how just because he happened to code the kernel of Linux, people expect him to have expert views on other spheres of life which he doesn't know shit about. Still he tries and manages to convince you that life is about three things, in order - Survival, being social, and entertainment.

Read this book, as the name suggests, just for fun.

I, personally, enjoyed it a lot.

P.S. I forgot to mention his wife Tove. His mother used to worry if he'd ever find a girl. But against all odds, he did. She was a student. And when other students mailed their assignments, in her email, she asked him out.
"I married the first woman to approach me electronically."

Into the Wild

2010-10-13T13:34:00.008+05:30

Into the wild is a 2007 American film, based on the true life story of Christopher McCandless.

The very first title card of the movie goes -

"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;

There is a rapture on the lonely shore;

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar;

I love not man the less, but Nature more..."
- Lord Byron

This is not light entertainment. This movie needs a stomach to be digested. And if you are a maudlin person like me, then you need some tissue too (for me, my T shirt sleeves work just fine).

This is a story of a young guy, who had all material comforts, good education, a future to look forward to. But to him, it didn't matter at all. His broken childhood, with parents fighting constantly, triggered him to start a quest of his own. To rediscover and live his life in a new way. In a free way.

The naiveté of youth, the determination of a troubled soul, the wisdom from seemingly the most trivial of moments, the sweet pain of solitude and a bunch of other inexplicable emotions are all so beautifully presented in the movie. The protagonist's insane determination makes you reflect when one ever felt even remotely confident of something, anything, in life.

In his journey, into the wild (literally), the young Christopher, who has given himself a new name and a new vagabond life, determines to reincarnate himself. He meets interesting characters, whose life he touches and who in turn shape his. He documents his journey, he reads his favorite books, and when he withers and dies, he is content. His sallow eyes staring into the sunny rays peeking from the clouds of Alaska, he finally understands the truth - "Happiness only real when shared."

Some very pensive quotes from the movie -

"The freedom and simple beauty is too good to pass up.."

"What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now?"

"If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed."

"The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences."

"I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth."

"Mr. Franz I think careers are a 20th century invention and I don't want one"

[To an apple] "You are really good. I mean, you're like, a hundred thousand times better than like any apple I've ever had. I'm not Superman, I'm Supertramp and you're super apple. You're so tasty, you're so organic, so natural. You are the apple of my eye, ha!"

Amélie

2010-10-04T02:18:00.003+05:30

A movie that I had been meaning to watch for quite some time now, which I finally did when I happened to enter Indra's room the moment she started it and I chose to stay. A decision well made as this movie was different from anything I have seen (just an expression to express amazement, I am no connoisseur of motion pictures). Incredibly well made, funny, whimsical and innocently brilliant.

Don't let the fact that it is a French movie deter you. It may seem a bit weird in the beginning, but you will soon get lost in Amélie Poulain's bizarre world to even notice the difference.

If you have this movie duly downloaded in your computers, in your must watch list like so many others, I would suggest stop procrastinating like me and just hit Play. You will enjoy every second of it. And if you weren't aware of this movie ( :O seriously? ), I'd say you ought to keep better company.

P.S. The soundtrack is very soothing.

'Surreal vs Real'

2010-09-15T21:57:00.012+05:30

Note - Prudence comes from experience. Prejudice without. Following is a combination of both.

Versus

This is about my perspective on relationships, especially when it comes to long distance relationships. This is not an attempt to generalise ideologies, it is an attempt towards rationalising. Most people, single or otherwise, delude themselves with false hopes about relationships at al. I am pragmatic. So should you be.

Love is in the moment. You cannot expect it to be a continuous function. If you have the Bollywood inspired take on this, then eventually you will know better. Of course I am talking about that 'undefinable' feeling here. It is not a myth. The feeling exists. But it does not follow, surprisingly, the most socially accepted/popular beliefs.
There is nothing like 'there is only one person out there for me'. I believe that for every individual there exists a set of compatible partners.
If you think your relationship is perfect and will last forever - You have a lot to learn.

Some people adhere to the notions of "love" (that they pick up from our society) so blindly, that in the process they screw up their lives. I have known some friends, who just aren't happy with their boyfriend/girlfriend. It is apparent that it sucks. But they have sequins in their eyes. Their only argument is that they are in "love". I feel sorry for such people. If you look at your own life, sans any emotional baggage, and it still seems worth the crap, then maybe okay, but if it doesn't, stop kidding yourself and get out of it.

Now suppose everything is great. Apart from occasional quarrels, you two make a good match, a happy match. Savor it. Smile but don't expect it to last forever. Nothing lasts forever. All relationships have an expiry date. Yes unless you get married or something. That's a different case altogether. That leaves you with little choice.

Most people in 'love' think they will end up marrying and raising kids. Thinking about it occasionally is one thing, but believing that it will happen just makes me sad. Then almost every relationship eventually faces the test of long distance, getting beguiled into its complicated contraptions, and more often than not, failing.

I think long distance can work only in two cases -
1. Both sides have deluded themselves into the concept of 'eternal love' so badly that they are sure that they will marry and have kids. That life just couldn't take a different course. Then, I guess it would work. Well, I hope so, for them.
2. Umm. I can't think of anything else. Suggestions are welcome.

It is difficult because of our own selfish genes. Whatever you say, ultimately it boils down to the fact that we are all inherently selfish. And what is wrong with that anyway? We always do what makes us happy, and we should. Everybody feels the need for personal attention, which just cannot be quenched by chat over cell phone or skype.
And most importantly, when you are together with someone, you change along with them. When you are not, you still change.
We are, in a way, a product of our environment and hence dynamically changing/evolving.
Whoever you loved, has changed. So have you. Do you still expect it to work?

30 Rock

2010-09-12T20:00:00.002+05:30

30 Rock is the first TV series that I am watching the second time and trust me, it's more hilarious now. 30 Rock is simply kick ass. It is extremely clever comedy mixed with well crafted dialogs. The series has layers of humor to it.

Some comedy series are outright funny, independent of the intellect of the viewers. 30 Rock does not fall into that category. It does not use 'fake laughter' at very other joke. Jokes are not really jokes. The script is top notch, written in such a way as to make a mockery out of existing social, cultural and political views (of American society). None of the dialogs are trivial, it's just a matter of whether we are aware of the references or not.

Excellent actors just add icing to the cake. Debonair actor Alec Baldwin, pulls off his role of a shrewd, suave businessman so perfectly. Tina Fey is just awesome in portraying herself as a socially retarded, unattractive, weirdly talented woman. The characters interaction with each other in the day to day life on the sets of a Live television network office is comical, without looking forced at any point.

You have to watch it to believe it. And then watch it again to give it the credit it deserves.

A change over

2010-09-11T16:32:00.003+05:30

I can't really explain why I felt the need to do this. But I decided this blog needed revamping. I have removed all personal posts from here and move it to Izles of Life which I subjected to limited readership. Now this blog will have shorter, neater and more spontaneous posts. Starting from today.

Why I love this campus so much

2010-09-01T01:31:00.000+05:30

I have often introspected about this question and although this post might not even be close to the array of random and whimsical thoughts that come to mind each time, yet, in essence it will help me reminisce later when I am far away from this place.

The best thing about Kgp is the freedom it offers you. I hadn't given it much thought in first year. But when I met up with old friends and female counterparts from other colleges across India and saw their jaw drop open when I casually narrated some story about how we did a 2.2 at 2 in the night or spent the night chit-chatting at Eggies, it was then that I realised how awfully lucky we are. Compared to this, their life seems so bleak. With the tyrannical Hostel rules, the so called 'IN' times, the taboo about being seen with guys! ( I am not kidding. In VIT apparently the Warden actually calls up the parents of the girl saying she is being seen a lot with some XYZ guy! They feel its their moral obligation to do so. What I do not get is, what else do they expect from people in their 20's?)
In ISM Dhanbad they don't allow guys to enter even the lane of the girls hostel. They have 7pm 'IN' time, which was actually relaxed from the original 5pm version after protests from the girls. Of course the stories are always a source of sadistic pleasure :)

Thus the very best thing about this place is its freedom. It lets you be. No compulsions, no weird social taboos. You can relax and live the way you want to.

I like how vast our campus is. With roads stretching on both sides, sheltered by huge trees. It is so green and pretty. Especially when it rains. The awesome places where you can just sit and be at peace with yourself - Gnan Ghosh at night, Vikramshila garden, TSC, the circle near Tikka's, the Insti road beside Archi Dept etc etc.

I just love our library. Not so much when it is crowded like crazy near exam time, but sometimes when I walk in during the morning hours when it is quiet and freshly cleaned, it feels so good. Sometimes when I look out from the passage leading to the Journal section, down to the Insti road with the cycles parked and the road wet from a recent shower, for that one short moment I feel weirdly at home. Besides the awesome collection of books we have, now that they have renovated the place with air conditioning everywhere, it makes me wonder how much more wonderful can it possibly become.

CCD. I just cannot bear to leave it out of the discussion. Not even a year has passed since it started, and it has already become an integral part of every ones life. I like it best when I go there after bunking a class and sip coffee over random discussions. Although the staff there has developed a really obnoxious taste in music, it doesn't deter people from splurging their cash over the well deserved Brownies and Chocolate fantasies. The fact that it so close to SN just increases the charm of the place for me.

2.2 ! From the mad rush of cycles with people fighting against time to reach their class in the morning, to the people trying to beat the merciless heat in the afternoon, to the joggers in the evening, to finally the couples walking hand in hand, starry eyed at night, 2.2 is part of everything and everyone here.

I am sure there are many more things, seemingly trivial, that make this place so lovable. These were some that came to mind right now. I have 3 more years to go, and hopefully much more to discover..

Maybe its me, maybe its the fact that I never really liked home, maybe its the sleep clogging my brain, whatever it is, I know I love this place and I love it a lot.

Wisdom born out of Boredom

2010-07-17T03:44:00.000+05:30

I'm bored.
So I can't think of anything better than to just sit and type and later see what good can come out of a utterly bored human mind.

You know the first thing I did when I typed out the heading? I googled define:Boredom. I have been define: 'ing almost everything lately. It's like a disease. Today I was chatting with a friend and somewhere between the chat he replied 'Bleh' and before realizing I define: 'ed it. Try it. You think you know a word. But you'll be surprised that 9 out of 10 the chances are that what you knew was a rough approximation of the accurate meaning, it might be totally wrong too. And once you start it, you get tempted to use it on almost everything. Or is it just me? Or is it just coz of the boredom part? Hmm.. Back to square one.

Let me try a bout of philosophy here. This time when I went home and met my friends like after an year, it was as if I was a school girl again. When you meet friends who have known you since you were a kid, its a different joy altogether. Your college friends see you as what you are now. But in your school friend's eye you are still the clumsy kid with the running nose. They don't care you are in IIT now. They don't judge you. You can make a fool of yourself infront of them, be 14 again, laugh like crazy.. as if somebody just took you back in time. Trust me. It's amazing.

Sigh. There wasn't much wisdom, was there?

I'm in half mind to delete this post. But I'll publish it anyway, for the benefit of those as bored as me ;)

Summer '10 at ISI Kolkata

2010-06-25T22:35:00.005+05:30

Warning: Not a pleasant read for Bengali’s or West Bengal Lovers

When I got the internship in ISI Kolkata for the summers, I was genuinely excited about it. We, Anurag and me, had mailed several professors of ISI. One fine day we both got a reply from Prof. Susmita Sur-Kolay that she was visiting IIT Kgp the next day and would like to meet us. She was, incidently, the Adjunct faculty of CS Department here for this semester. So we met her the next day and liked her a lot. Although she said the project would be more of a reading course on Graph theory than some real work, we still found the prospect to be a good learning experience.Infact, we started preparing for the project even when we had more pressing things to do, like for instance, prepare for endsems.

Just after the endsems we joined at ISI. I was lucky to get a room in the Guest House. It was due to Prof Bimal Roy, who helped me with the accommodation even though I wasn't working under him. Bless him, for it proved to be a huge help. As it turned out, only the Guest house had Wi-Fi facility and after one month, to my delight, I was moved into an air conditioned room. Not to mention that it was free of charge for me while others, like Anurag and Swati, lived in Hostels and had to pay for the rooms too.

Anyway, this is not what I wanted to talk about. I am writing this post to voice my opinion or rather vent my feelings about the culture and people in Calcutta.

The Taxi Drivers -

I always knew that people here were laid back. That is okay, but now after these two months I feel they are downright lazy. They would rather sit and discuss politics, life and universe than do work. Take for example, the taxi drivers here. They refuse to go to half the places you ask them to go. And if you ask them at a time when they are huddled in a group drinking tea and playing cards( which is actually most of the time), there is nothing you can offer to pay that would make them move their lazy asses. And they choose where they will go, not you. Considering you do get lucky and they agree to go wherever you want, they immediately sense that you are a newcomer here and they would literally take you on a ride, so fast that when you look at the meter reading, you wouldn’t know what hit you. According to a report by ‘The Times of India’, most taxi most drivers in Kolkata, get meter makers to tamper with the pinion so that it shows a rupee or two extra on every reading. So after spending obscene amounts on a few rides, you would swear never to get into those yellow beasts, whatever happens.

The Traffic -

But that doesn't make life simple for you, trust me. The traffic on the roads is mind numbing. You loose track of time after being stuck in the traffic for more than two hours. After a few days here, whenever we thought about going out to eat or watch a movie, we would think about the traffic and shudder. No place was near or far, they were all separated by a sea of taxis, cars, buses and trams, all issuing great deal of smoke and honking their horns. And when we weighed our trip against all this, it never seemed worth the effort.

And every time I cross a road in Kolkata, I always have a vision of getting hit by a bus. No, seriously! Observing the buses on the roads gives me the impression that the drivers are possessed ! And the road just outside ISI always has a mad rush of buses and trucks. So I have a lot of nightmares about dying on that road.

Contemptuous attitude -

And another thing that is very putting off is that people will talk to you in Bengali no matter how many times you have told them that you DON’T know bengali. It just never occurs to them that there are people in this world who speak a different language.

Apart from the laziness, the people here make you feel that you owe them something. It is something about the way they talk to you. Whether it is a sweeper, a shop keeper, taxi driver, guard or anyone. You ask a shopkeeper for something, he will act like you just caused him immense trouble. The attitude that they are the bosses reeks most from the people lowest in the hierarchy. That is why Bengali people make the worst businessmen. I feel they don’t want to really earn more than what they usually get. Two years in Kgp was the reason I was not surprised when I walked out in the afternoon to buy some snacks and found all shutters down. All shops here open late, shut down at lunch and don’t open till late evening. The owners give utmost importance to their comforts. Eating and taking a nap in the afternoon is what matters the most, who wants to make money?

Inside Campus -

Coming to life inside ISI, it is not as bad as what lies outside the campus. The worst part is that their is no eating place inside the campus. There is this staff canteen which opens only for lunch and whenever I went there, the food had already been finished. After getting disappointed a number of times I began to doubt whether they make any food there in the first place !

But once you make your peace with the fact that there is no Veggies, Sahara or Billoo’s as your escape from the muck they serve in the mess, and the fact that you cannot really go out without the risk of getting stuck in the traffic for an eternity or worse getting hit and dying. When you finally make peace with all this, you can live through it. Meals become a mechanical affair, eating only to assuage the burning feeling at the pit of your stomach.
And life goes on.

Nothing mentionable ever happens inside campus. People with thick eye glasses and clothes that seem to belong to someone else, trudge to the Institute everyday carrying bags and talking animatedly in Bengali. They eat their food on time and disappear by night, after which there is no one on the streets but dogs. The campus is pretty small but green. In the time in which I used to walk from my room to SN gate, in that I can cover the whole ISI campus, twice!

Murphy couldn't have been more right -

Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. My laptop crashed. All my back up data on the external disk got lost because, well, that crashed too! On my way to get the hard disk repaired, someone stole my wallet! So after losing two ATM Cards, ID Card, Insurance card etc etc, I thought life couldn't get any worse. So life decided to surprise me. Anurag got admitted twice in Apollo Hospital which wasn't made any easier by the fact that I had to deal with the Bong staff there and take endless rides to the Hospital. Then Swati and Anurag, both thought it would be fun to leave me alone here and left (that might not have been the only reason though ).

The Silver lining (yes, there is always one) -

As soon as they left, I was in the danger of being engulfed in torturing loneliness but thankfully, I was moved into an air-conditioned double room. It was good to have a fellow warrior in this mortal combat, to know that someone else is eating the same stupid excuse for food, having the same road accident nightmare, finding living in Cal as difficult as you. Always good to have someone with whom you could sit and criticise almost everything :)
Now that my stay here is almost over, I am quite relieved. There is no love lost between me and Kolkata now and that makes one thing certain- I wouldn’t come running over to Cal every other weekend, like I used to do earlier.

The so called 'project' -

Almost all the work we did here was just reading up topics, implementing algorithms – self study basically. It was good in a way, as I got to learn a lot of things, which was the reason we wanted to come in the first place, but it was also a bit disappointing. The presentations given by the other students, most of them from ISI, were actually a great test of my patience.

Anyway, after cribbing so much about everything, I must admit that I am glad I took up this subject. I learnt a lot about Algorithms, coding was fun and it gave me confidence that I never knew I could have. But whatever happens, I am never ever going to work anywhere in West Bengal after this, not in this lifetime.

The Great Gatsby

2010-05-22T16:23:00.001+05:30

The Book Cover -

It's been a while since I have been able to read, when I say read, I'm not implying academic texts. Anyway, so an aimless stroll into Starmark led me to buy a few classics I had always wanted to read but never found the time. And one of them, which I just finished is the, "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I admit that the beginning was kind of monotonous, mostly because it set the stage and mood of the plot by describing in excruciating details the life of East and West Egg around New York. But once you drag yourself through it, you get absorbed more and more in the innocuous characters and wonder why they do what they do, making you delve deeper into human psyche, especially those of the rich and affluently careless. And as the harmless plot beguiles you into a more sinister ending, you finally get the flow, the beauty of the simple narration.

It is a good book, a decent read. Not promising anything extravagant, nor letting you down.

Some of the phrases that I liked a lot were -

The very famous comment by Gatsby himself, " Her voice is full of money."

"It isn't just an epigram - life is much more successfully looked at from a single window."

"She was only extemporising but a stirring warmth flowed from her as if her heart was trying to come out to you, concealed in those breathless, thrilling words."

"..and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent.."

"I'm thirty. I'm five years too old to lie to myself and call it honour."

"..its vanished trees had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate with his capacity of wonder."

Stuck at a Math Proof?

2010-03-07T18:45:00.000+05:30

Then this definitely won't help :)

* Proof by Obviousness: "The proof is so clear that it need not be mentioned."

* Proof by General Agreement: "All in Favor?..."

* Proof by Imagination: "Well, We'll pretend its true."

* Proof by Convenience: "It would be very nice if it were true, so ..."

* Proof by Necessity: "It had better be true...."

* Proof by Plausibility: "It sounds good so it must be true."

* Proof by Intimidation: "Don't be stupid, of course it's true."

* Proof by Lack of Sufficient Time: "Because of the time constraint, I'll leave the proof to you."

* Proof by Insignificance: "Who really cares anyway?"

* Proof by Profanity: (example omitted) ;)

* Proof by Definition: "We'll define it to be true."

* Proof by Tautology: "It's true because it's true."

* Proof by Plagiarism: "As we see on page 238 ..."

* Proof by Lost Reference: "I know I saw this somewhere ..."

* Proof by Terror: When intimidation fails ...

* Proof by Lack of Interest: "Does anyone really want to see this?"

* Proof by Illegibility: " ¥ ª Ð Þ þæ"

* Proof by Logic: "If it is on the problem sheet, then it must be true." :P

* Proof by Majority Rule: Only to be used if General Agreement is impossible.

* Proof by Clever Variable Choice: "Let A be the number such that this proof works."

* Proof by Divine Word: "And the Lord said, 'Let it be true,' and it came to pass."

* Proof by Stubbornness: "I don't care what you say! It is TRUE!"

* Proof by Deception: "Now everyone turn their backs ..."

* Proof by Supplication: "Oh please, let it be true."

* Proof by Design: "If it's not true in today's math, invent a new system in which it is."

* Proof by Intuition: "I just have this gut feeling ..."

* Proof by Vigorous Assertion: "And I REALLY MEAN THAT!"

* Proof by cumbersome notation: Best done with access to at least four alphabets and special symbols.

* Proof by exhaustion: An issue or two of a journal devoted to your proof is useful.

P.S. This is not written by me. I found it somewhere and wanted to share it on my blog.

Gold, Really? Naiice..

2010-02-06T16:04:00.000+05:30

My take on Debating -

When I got a call from my debate captain one day before the Inter Hall debate asking me whether I wanted to speak in it or not, I said 'yes' instantly, like a reflex.

The topic was 'In the context of society, Science and Technology poses a threat to humanity.'

But throughout the day after that I was freaking out, feeling like quitting at every point because how much ever I wanted, I couldn't get a good, different or out of the box idea. The topic was high school level, the debate wouldnt be.

I spent mindless hours googling, surfing through websites, reading utter trash. When I stopped for a minute to blink and breathe, it struck me then. What was I doing? I closed the blank MS Word document, shut my laptop and left my room for a walk.

Whatever technology might be doing to humanity, it had seriously killed creativity when it came to me. In first year when I won Open IIT, that time I didn't have a laptop and so I had written the piece with just common sense and logical thinking. And today I had found typing and entering easier than even putting any thought into it what so ever. And using similar logic I knew what I was going to write.

One thing about debates is that I hate using facts or statistics. Somehow I don't like it. It seems to me like if you need to state something like in year 1978, so many people died due to this bomb or this disease, you probably feel you cant convince them otherwise. I feel your logic should be absolutely clear, not totally dependant on figures, although they are considered to be essential by many debators Maybe they are. I just dont feel like using them, for they disturb the flow of speech, taxes the brain to remember stuff it doesnt want to. If I really want to make my audience think along my track, I'd give them very simple, known example still sans data. Something they can relate to very easily.

Debating I feel is like talking your audience into believing you. Not performing some cooked up play infront of them. It's more like proving a point to a friend over coffee- without pomp and show, just simple reasoning with him. Although a bit of edge is required here and there, just to make sure people dont stop listening to you. Asking questions is the easiest way to make someone think, to make them reason. And I like to keep it relevant, so I throw in stuff like our present life in IIT and how it concerns us. A different continent, a different time zone, a different culture may be doing whatever, I don't care. Keep at normal thought and sight range. No one needs to strech their imagination.

And when what I have written is a product of a my own mind's chaos, I find it easier to say it aloud, changing the language here and there everytime I say it, but the underlying concept clear to me in my head which just supplies required words.

Thats my view on preparing for a good debate. It works for me atleast. There is something about debates, they make you spontaneous, more so in the new format- Parliamentary Debate. I have no funda on it as such as I am still learning. But what fascinates me is how a group of three people, in 15 minutes come up with a 7 minute long speech each, entirely on intuition and a lil team work. It is intimidating intially and as soon as you get the hang of the game, it becomes addictive. PD culture is not here in Kgp but I guess with a few passionate people trying to master it, I hope it will soon be.

My Speech ( without the oration, it's actually very dry. And I changed most of it while blabbering ) -

In the context of society, science and technology, the house believes that Science and Technology poses a threat to humanity-

Time and again, we have debated the effect of science and technology on our society and on the whole of humanity. At the very onset, let me clarify that I am not here to contradict the miracles and the wonders of science and its inventions and how it has shaped our society to what it is today. I am not here to preach either or suggest an alternative to it. I stand here to support the house that believes that Science and Technology poses a threat to humanity. And that’s PRECISELY what I’m going to show you.
Science and technology, growing uncontrollably, exponentially at a frenzied pace has put the whole of humanity in grave danger. It’s not just mass destruction weapons that we have at our disposal today, weapons that wipe off the whole civilization. I’m not here to tell you that a nuclear bomb will drop on you any minute, although that isn’t such a preposterous idea after all. I am here to talk about how science and technology in a more subtle and deceptive way has exposed us to plethora of terrifying and morbid future scenarios.

Nuclear warfare, it is the most obvious the most apparent threat. Then cloning, genetic modification of food, custom design of babies or playing with our own DNA. It might seem progressive, it might seem as a path to a new era but as myopic as we are, we do not see the hazards that come with every new invention. I know I am being a skeptic when I view scienctic progress with narrowed eye. But isn’t skepticism exactly what we need? It prevents you from going wrong. And we have to identify the glitch first, to be able to deal with it.

History stands testimony to how science has created most of the problems that today it is trying to solve.When DDT’s was discovered in 1940’s it was hailed as ‘the wonder pesticide’ winning it a Nobel Prize, only to realize its repercussions later, at our own cost. The same happned with plastics. These are one of the million examples that show how we are obssessed with instant solutions. I want this done NOW, who cares what happens later?

As we indulge in the various luxurious inventions provided by Science and Technology that make life SO simple, we just choose to turn a BLIND EYE to the fact that THESE VERY SAME INVENTIONS pose the maximum threat to us. All heavy metal used in electronic gadgets, computers and lithium batteries constitutes the electronic waste the disposal of which is extremely questionable. With land filling and air burning of these releasing TOXICS in our environment, I want to ask my opponents, Do WE REALLY DON’T SEE THE THREAT?

We humans, have become REPLACEABLE. There is a machine that can do every task we do, ten or possibly 1000 times betters. Very soon the concept of humanity is going to be OBSOLETE.

In context of SOCIETY, human to human interaction has gone down drastically. These days we spend more time with our laptops than with actual people. We have more virtual friends than real. Maybe It doesn’t seem like a major threat to you today. That’s again a point of view so amazingly reoriented by science that so many things, though they are detrimental to us in ways more than one, never seem so bad anymore. The line between what is good for us and what is not is fast getting blurred.
We have become so addicted to technology that imaging life without it in itself the most horrifying idea. Isn’t that a threat in itself? It has handicapped us to such a great extent that we feel we cannot function without it. We have become victims to its wondrous creations, falling deeper and deeper into its trap.

My opponents argue that science gives us the choice, it’s up to us to use or miss use it. But it cannot be denied that it DOES PRESENT the opportunity, and the OPPORTUNITY poses a THREAT.
And that is what the house believes in. We don’t want to stop science and technology from advancing.
No, I never suggested that.

We, ourselves, at the INDIAN INSTITUE OF TECHNOLOGY are the people who, understand and appreciate science. AND WE ARE THE PEOPLE who are going to apply technology at every stage, inventing some possibly. It is VITAL and we of all people, acknowledge and FACE THE FACT that science and technology DOES pose a THREAT to humanity. Because only when we accept it and be skeptical about it, ONLY THEN can we channel our actions, ONLY THEN can we attain TRUE balance between Humanity and Science, and ONLY Then can we hope for a safe future.

The metaphoric Gold and the subsequent hole in the pocket-

Individual Gold. Yo. Yo. \m/
SN Gold. Yo !!! \m/ - That's not me, that were people, sorrounding me from all sides.
Yo Yo Treat !! GOLD??? You know what that is?? Thank God for Kgp and places like JCB and Veggies. Because with so many friends emotinally blackmailing me, there would be no pocket, forget the hole.

Now that it's over and soon to be forgotten, it feels nice. All these years of debating in school and now here haven't been a waste after all.

The years haven't worn off the the weird feeling at the pit of my stomach as I make my way towards the stage, the thrill I feel everytime a hold a microphone and face a huge audience. It is good I still feel it. I love it.

Insignificant details

2010-01-17T10:33:00.000+05:30

Past midnight, I was standing outside Veggies gate, making up my mind which way to turn, I tell Sanjoy to proceed to TRS and I turn left and start walking alone.

My first voluntary 2.2 in Kgp.

I hate being alone, worse, walking alone. I decided I’d try and figure out why. Many people like being alone. There must be something I was missing on. So I walked ahead at a leisurely pace, my senses alert, trying to take in all I can. Few steps ahead I thought I might be concentrating too hard, I should relax.

I walked a bit more. Few people passed, a murmur of voices mixed with those of the night cricket didn’t let silence set in, for an otherwise fairly dark night.

I had walked quite a lot, without any significant thought or any difference what so ever. I took out my phone and frantically started surfing through all the contacts. Enough introspection. I needed company. I realized not many people would leave their cozy warm room to take a walk in such a breezy cold night. I did call a few of them, but to no avail.

So it was just me again, I had covered a lot of ground. The wind was blowing faster now. Cutting through my thin clothing, making me shiver. But cold air does something to me. It fills me with a thrill. I like the way it cuts like a knife on my skin. But it grew faster and louder and there was an eerie sound near me, coming from the tin roof of the roadside kiosk as the wind played tricks on it. I jumped at the sound. I was scared. I turned back.

‘Forget it, I’m going back. It was a stupid plan in the first place.’ With this thought I kicked a stone, lying on the side of the road, with all my force. It flew, coming to a stop some distance ahead.

And I knew I would be doing that throughout the way. I used to play this game when I was a kid and had to walk to home alone from school. I did it now. And while I concentrated on kicking the stone in a linear manner, a lot of random thoughts crossed my mind. I asked myself a few questions, like what scared me then that I turned? It was stupid. We are scared only when we want to be scared. Maybe I just wanted an excuse to turn back.

I noticed the the road lights, one after another. I noticed the dry leaves on the road. I noticed my shadow. I tried to remember the last time I had paid attention to my shadow. I couldn’t think of it. I used to play with my shadow when I was a kid. I did that now. I liked my shadow. It made me feel I was taller :)

So with the stone and the shadow giving me ample company, I walked back. A group of inebriated people crossed me( I would have used ‘drunk’, but these days the word sounds like your judging them in some bad social way). They were jeering and laughing raucously. Another group of people crossed. I heard my name, the silhouette of someone who knew me , stopped and turned. He asked me if I was drunk.

I realized how weird it be looking, a girl walking alone, kicking a stone(hey that rhymed!). Whatever. Who cares. I reached my hall. I couldn’t leave the piece of stone behind. I picked it up and brought it to my room. I washed it. Kept it on my table.

It was maybe the most insignificant thing on the road, with the most insignificant life. When I was kicking it, I was probably doing the most insignificant thing I could have done. And now I let that stone be on my table. Still insignificant, reminding me of perhaps the most insignificant 2.2 in Kgp.

Yes, thats her

2010-01-16T22:15:00.001+05:30

Note: This was my selection article for The Scholars Avenue.

Of all the infiltrations we had on the planet Earth and the encounters with the breed of humans inhabiting it, we never came across something so confounding. It was on one of our many missions to find and discard the sentient non-corporeal life-forms, who inhabit earth, for mostly evil but otherwise dubious intentions.

This time our suspect lived in some remote village on the planet, so secluded that its existence was doubtful even for the inhabitants of the planet itself. The suspect was clever; its appearance feminine and nature, docile; its activities camouflaged by the nondescript surroundings.

Disguised as a student of some esteemed educational institute, our suspect, let’s call her Alpha, leads a perfectly simple and low profile life. Or does she? On close observation of her activities, we found a lot of disconcerting details. The following information is extremely confidential, obtained after rigorous surveillance, disclosure of which can lead to ominous consequences for the whole of mankind.

The suspect, Alpha, derives her energy from questionable sources. The regular humans around her survive on some gruesome muck served in a shady place they call a ‘Mess’. Alpha is never seen around this ‘Mess’. She evades questions put by the other human inhabitants with responses like ‘I had something from the store or the Nescafe’. Although we have a theory that she derives energy from concocted liquid diets, we still have to unravel the mystery of her sustenance.

Alpha’s general demeanor coalesces perfectly with the human crowd but there are several discrepancies, inferred after careful monitoring. Alpha has an amiable disposition, exhibiting most of the conventional emotions appropriately, except a few. Never till now have we ever observed any tear fall from her eye. While others may call that emotional stability, our speculation is that Alpha is not even capable of performing this complex phenomenon. Another human lapse comes when Alpha crosses other terrestrial beings; the one’s labeled under friends and acquaintances. There occurs, then, a substantial time lag after which she realizes that decorous behavior requires her to wave or atleast show a hint of recognition.

Besides these, an anomaly occurs at times when Alpha makes use of high-pitched squeals, whose frequency transcends the human’s audible range. In the middle of a mundane conversation she replies with ‘Whaaaat’, with the syllable ‘a’ stressed with supernatural power only she possesses. Or sometimes when she’s talking in a different, incomprehensible dialect called Bong; it is ‘Kiiiiii’ with the ‘i’ to the power infinity. This deviation from clichéd conduct by Alpha, is often imitated by her unsuspecting friends, who find it ever so innocently, endearing.

Even the best incognito experts have their doubts sometimes. So does Alpha. Every times she enters a room she steals a look into the mirror, her hand shoots towards her hair, placing the stray strands into place, eyes stealthily making sure there is no give-away. If, God forbid, she finds any blemish what-so-ever, her cries of anguish echo into eternity.

Alpha’s conversations, closely monitored, revealed high frequency mention of the name of a group, ‘The Scholars Avenue’ and its menagerie of members. The activities of the group intrigued us to no end. We tried to classify it many times but its randomness and its deviation from hackneyed behavior left us at a loss. Even their mode of communication, deprived of pre-established articles of English language, was beyond our grasp.

After futile attempts to interpret their weird actions, we shifted our focus back to suspect Alpha. Alpha possesses an uncanny ability to communicate to small insects. Although they scare her to the point of her losing sanity, she could coax them to leave by screaming, ‘Go out naaaa’, with such amazing will power that they never dared to disobey.

Alpha’s reaction to the opposite sex has been Somewhat Baffling. Nothing more can, or should be said in this regard.

As a part of the disguise, Alpha has to feign sincerity about academics, showing befitting interest, just enough to blend with the ilk. Her ambitious plans with which she fools lesser mortals are legendary in themselves. Her extravagant claims of studying throughout the night and flaunting Post It’s saying ‘I will attend all the classes this week’ are more than enough to lull others into believing her seemingly sincere assertions, while only the trained eye finds the glitch- the plans are never executed.

Alpha’s memory which is astoundingly sharp in general, fails when it comes to handling small metal objects. Our records show that she has misplaced all the keys that she has ever owned.

Her smooth temperament has sometimes been observed to break down into annoyance or slight anger but never has Alpha shown any noticeable signs of violence. Nor has she shown extreme happiness.

She is often found dispensing tremendous wisdom about varied troubles and tribulations faced by her companions, to which she herself seems immune.

After all this investigation, we reach a dead end. We cannot figure out the motive, the ultimate reason for Alpha’s existence. Why would such an angelic extra-terrestrial entity want to live in such humble surroundings doing menial work with the humans? Such intelligent energies live all their life in the spiritual realm as a being of pure spirit. Their descent into human form never comes without a purpose, a mission.

As Alpha trudges along her destined path, towards the pinnacle which is her end, we can’t help but pursue her, enchanted by her enigma, in a desperate attempt to solve the mystery of her being.

Best Birthday ever

2010-01-01T18:49:00.000+05:30

Note: This post is a wee bit late.

A few close friends, one weathered acoustic guitar, a basketball, a chocolate cake (best of what can be procured in Kgp), and all of this on the Basketball Court at midnight- and I had my best birthday celebration ever.

I cut my cake to the Happy Birthday played by Anurag, amidst the smiling faces of my wingies and friends. It was followed by the guitar being passed around and a lot of songs sung, by all of them- Mikesh, Rishav, Shuba, Peeyush, NV, Anurag, with even Hridya trying her hand at the guitar. And then came the once in a lifetime opportunity to watch Ram try to dance on a Bollywood number. Actually he tried a lot of songs, but none suited his requirement parameters :P

As everyone made a fool of themselves, just for me, with Abhilash showing us his famous dance moves and Mikesh doing a single to-fro ball dance step with me, over and over with no change what so ever, I smiled along, savoring each moment as it came.

But the best was yet to come. I tiptoed into Jagarao’s shed and flicked a Basketball with which we played a, let’s say, a match sans rules- a truly hilarious spectacle of anarchy and chaos.

If this wasn’t enough, when I came back to my room later, I found my bed strewn with gifts and chocolates courtesy my awesome wing mates. I got so many chocolates, it took me more than a week to do justice to all of them (not that I have any regret.)

The day was well spent meeting all my friends until the clock struck 12 again, leaving me older, wiser (I hope) and happier.

P.S. To all those who made my day, I’d like to tell you, for whatever its worth- Thanks. It meant the world to me.

Anonymous entry for 'The Entrepreneur'

2009-10-10T15:35:00.000+05:30

I love Enterpeuners. Period. I mean they're so handsome! And smart! I had a crush on an enterpeuner one time. It was laid back. I was too lazy, I did not understand the meaning of the word. So I do not give that much importance at that unfaithful time. I regret everyday. Because he become multimillion. I have come to college to capture world. I am burning with desire. Of enterpeuners hip. So all I'm saying meaning that I love enterpeuner. And I am working hard to get enterpeunerly myself. I am work in gym every of my day. I am capture the weight and fly it above in air and put it where it is resting. I am having confidence of becoming suckcessfull one some day by marriage. I know it is sounding like a cheap and heavy discount trick. But what to be do in this kalyug filled world. My grandmother is always crying about it. She is also I think having an affair long back, and losing enterpeuner. All that is fine. But finally you should able to do enterpeuner. I am shining with brim of confidence in my lovely heart of 20 years that I am going to enterpeuner. With confidence and determination. And braveheart.

Hence I am poking you to publish my article. This is the only way I can keep getting touch with more enterpeuners. I like touching many peoples. Enterpeuners are sex appeal like. I am Oh My God he is so enterpeunerly!!!!! hmmmm........ You're maybe thinking how disparate I am being by telling all this. But remember also, that I am also being confidence showing. And attitude has determines altitude. So I thank you for bringing me this opportunity of connecting with my sole mate. And love. And love. And love. And firm husband. Sincerely thanks are your present from me. Open with smile. Tata..... tk cr sd.....

PS - I am having dreams now. Enter-peuner. I am telling only if you are publish this letter. I am silent other ways. Thanks.... Tata..... tk cr sd................ !!! .........