A Day I Wish to Recreate Everyday

Attaboy…what a day! I am going to boast in total self conceit like a narcissist in this post… I did it and I will praise myself for it. Although going public is uncalled for but that is narcissism, ain’t it? Moreover it’s a feeling that I observed and as a blogger, if not anything else, it’s a duty to report that observation J

Have you ever been through a phase when things just don’t seem to work? When the entire world seems to conspire against you, with potent tools like gtalk, facebook, TOI and the likes of it, life just comes at a standstill and leaves you gasping for breath. Research goes for a toss, days pass by within minutes, sleepy-eyed-face becomes a stable state. A good sunny weather also seems gloomy with no hope in sight. Every task, save the primitive bodily function, is procrastinated. It’s a limbo!

I was in this state and nothing, absolutely nothing had tinge of hope tagged to it. But some training or teachings of the past told me that this is not done. If I cannot take charge of my life, even god cannot help me. To seek the Ultimate assistance, I had to take a “leap of faith”. Monday night after lunch I made the call. I said to myself, “Boss! You’ve spent five freaking years working towards an objective which is not very far from where you stand right now. If you give up today, you will be a loser for life. If you make it, glory is all yours to take. It’s only then, that you get a passport for a new adventure in life. You have seen worst and this is just a phase and unless YOU make a deliberate effort, it will simply prolong. You have all what it needs to turn the tables around. Almighty is with you! Your near and dear ones are with you! YOU got to be with yourself now… Take charge and forge ahead.”

Early in the morning I decided to do what I, absolutely, HAD to do! Went to the bank, withdrew money for delayed payments, went for a coffee and did not spend time in hours, but in minutes and finally started to work on the project. I perused through a paper, did some lit-survey for the introduction part of a new project (paper). Then edited the block diagrams and edited the draft. Listened to some good music and wrote a short blog-entry on Ladies in the life of a man. It’s a power packed 6 liner. Do read it !! Finally came home, had a strong tea-cuppa and worked on C++. Now this was the killer stroke of the day! This is something that I had been waiting for, not months but, years! I wrote two very basic programs and then finally settled to write this post about one of the few awesome days I have experienced. I so wish to jot down each one of those. Once this is done I still am planning to work on honing my programming skills. I am so much in love with myself… 

God.. will you help me now???

To the Lady, I bow!

To the lady who died every day, who gave up her youth so that, I could see life,

To the lady who believed, I was more than her son or even more than her life,

To the lady who stood by me when the bullies were around and yet sought protection from me on Rakhee,

To the lady who was my alter-ego, who knew what I felt even before I felt it,

I am indebted to you and will always be and someday I hope to reciprocate. If not now then in the next birth!

The 4 X 400 m relay @ CWG 2010

Someone on facebook uploaded a video of the CWG finals of the 4 X 400 m relay race. I just saw it cos it was one of the rarest instances when our “athletes” make it to the finals of an international event. More than that, it was the women team who had made it on the grand stage! While watching the sprint something struck me and had decided to write about it right then. But it was not until before, I was in this beautiful Yankee restaurant with a bowl of minestrone soup and some crisp bread, that thoughts hit hard on the keyboard.
It was a typical race like thousand others that have been run earlier. But no…. I saw the same video atleast half a dozen times to make sure that what I was seeing was for real… This is a humble effort to recreate the race albeit with a different perspective on it.
The basic concept of relay is to handover the baton to the next runner awaiting at regular intervals of 100m. There is an allotted transition distance during which the runners must complete the transition in order to avoid disqualification. The team that makes it to the finish line first, is heralded as the winner. For this one, the Indian team was no more than an underdog or may be the space-filler in the harshest of terms. The favorites were the Nigerians and the English.
Manjeet Kaur, the first runner in the Indian team had a good start and she did manage a lead over her English counterpart in the 40th second but was tiring by the 45th and had to settle behind the Nigerian. After the transition Sini Jose was in hot pursuit of the Nigerian who by then, at the 1minute 3 second mark, had taken a huge lead. The commentator (commie) was screaming at the top of his voice. With the Nigerians way ahead of the pack, the English runners had caught up with Ashwini Akkunji, India’s 3rd runner. The English woman was breathing down Ashwini’s neck but she was in no mood of bowing down to the descendent of the imperial powers. Precisely at the 2:27.2 mark Ashwini, with huge strides, took the lead and the stadium erupted! The commie went berserk too. At 2:36.65 he yelled, “India is going for gold!!!!” Mandeep Kaur, took the baton from Ashwini and shot off her transition zone. Nigerians were there to win too and wouldn’t have given it easy. Mandeep Kaur and the Nigerian were running neck to neck struggling to get that faint lead. Rest of the pack was miles behind ‘em. Finally at 2.51.4 Mandeep took the decisive lead and kicked hard. From there on there was no looking back and the gap just widened. The crowd was ecstatic. The women of India, brought home The Gold ! An excerpt from the e-tabloid, The Hindu, read “A.C. Ashwini, a hurdler, ran the race of her life to overtake Nigerian Dammy Abogunloko and give India the lead midway through the third leg. Mandeep Kaur, the anchor, continued the good work as the host pocketed its second gold of these Games and its first-ever relay victory in the Games history. Manjeet Kaur and Sini Jose ran the first two legs.” They had overcome all hurdles and grabbed the gold. Mind you, a lot of the gold medalists come from backgrounds, socio-politco-economical, that we wouldn’t prefer given a choice. These young guns took that as a challenge surmounted and then thought about winning and so they did!
Well the blog wasn’t intended to be a narrative of the event but without that the crux wouldn’t be reached. So while the fantastic-4 were sprinting towards victory, something struck me. That jolt actually inspired this blog. Let’s look back at the race again. So, India had 4 runners. Each one was supposed to hand over the baton to the next one in the fastest and most efficient way possible. The commie yelled… “Here comes India..!!” and sometime later, “India is going for gold!” I drew a few analogies instantly.

1. The 4 runners represent 4 generations, loosely speaking, since independence.
2. The baton represents various responsibilities and the track represents the world stage.
3. Competitors are other nations in the race to glory and success.
4. The sport of running represents a specific activity and could be anything ranging from forest conservation to innovation.
5. Shoes and wear, would represent infrastructure
6. The process of carrying the baton would be conducting day to day activities required as per point 4.

Now having laid down these ground rules, I can merely say that – With the right kind of people who are focused and have a common goal, with proper training and right infrastructure we can provide transitions from one generation to other efficiently and create a better future. While other countries ponder over their drawbacks India keeps forging ahead and gathering Gold by the heap. So fellas I will just quote Swami Vivekanda to bolster the blogs message and bid adieu for the night.
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”

Circular Time Axis

Time eh! They say time is the fundamental unit or concept. Everything in this world is linked with this thing called time. In this short article I will try to ask a simple question to everyone who wants to think out of the box.
We all understand that things are with respect to something and are never absolute. The term absolute will soon be obsolete. Humans think that things can be weighed, measured or quantified in absolute terms. But sadly that ain’t true. As our understanding of the world around us has increased we have come to terms with the fact that there is nothing absolute in this world and everything is compared to something else which is claimed to be a standard.
So over time we have developed technologies that amaze us and we keep building more and more. But when I hear stories from Mahabharata and Ramayana or other vedic references there is a striking similarity from what we see today and what it is depicted there. For eg:

1. Arjun destroying one Akshauhini in a single day.
a. 1 Akshauhini = 21,870 chariots (Sanskrit ratha); 21,870 elephants; 65,610 horse-mounted warriors and 109,350 infantry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akshauhini)

2. Description of Rukma Vimana. Vimana (flying machines) have been attributed, in the Vedas to be created by Yavanas (greeks) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vim%C4%81na)

As I am not well read on this issue, there are only these few examples that I can cite for now. However it would be worthwhile to look at these and analyze a bit. So Arjun decimated a whole Akshauhini?? Let us assume it to be inaccurate as far as the numbers go, but definitely it hints at some kind of a huge army running in thousands. Now the question is, can bows and arrows, as we know of, be used to destroy a huge army single handedly in a day (or 2 say!)? I doubt that. In that case there has got to be something that enabled Arjun to mass destruct. Arjun was a good disciple but was not God himself! So he must have had some skill or “high-tech” weaponry to execute that destruction.

Looking at the second citation, people back in those ages did have some imagination I guess. But then the question is how can imagination be so precise with measurements and results? That suggests that there is a possibility that flying machines did exist then. My point is simple. Are we recreating stuff that existed back in the ages? Probably what we call dark ages was not the beginning of our era but as a matter of fact was the end of some high tech species. Well we know the age of earth and lot more things but again isn’t all that a perception based on our standards?

Moving ahead with the question, I am forced to ask whether our time scale be linear or is it circular? If we continue to move at this pace of technological advancements, we will come to a point where huge armies are commonplace and technologies exist to destroy those in a day or so! Again a downfall begins and again the rebuilding and reverence of history and amusement with the “current” scientific advancements! Am not atheist but do respect the perspective of Erich von Däniken, author of Chariots of Gods?

I am open to discuss this topic. But most of it would be speculations and hypothetical as am no archeologist!

Multidimensional Unidirectional (Part-1)

Mumbai, a town where only hustlers live and are alive, is on the verge of taking on a new Avatar. I was in Mumbai for about a month and this was after a gap of around 2 years. It seemed almost like 2 decade’s worth of change in a town know for its “chalta hai” attitude and wada-paav! Everything is on the rise….. including inflation. High rise, pay-rise, population rise and the likes!
Good riddance with the introduction paragraph and now I can get into the crux of tonight’s write-up. So I was in Mumbai for about a month and out of which this one day was a vivid display of the multi-dimensions of Mumbai. This city has been a thriving port since the times of Portuguese, Dutch and the British. It still has architectures that testify the imperial taste of European powers. Churchgate holds many such designs even today and those infact happen to be the economy centers of Mumbai and the country to some extent. Some of the spaces in those age old buildings have been taken up by giants like HSBC, Lawrence & Mayo etc.
This is the second day of my trip and to tackle jetlag, dad has pulled me out for Mumbai darshan and we happen to be on the sidewalks of one such building. Now those who have been to Churchgate will know that, hawkers with CD’s, belts, apparel, glares, zippos etc are all over the place. I am walking down once such “footpath” and this is what I see:
At the footstep of a multinational bank 3 hawkers with “Gandhi topi” are about to take lunch. They had spread a sheet of paper on the ground with their steel dabbas (with “3 containers “) ready by the side (oh… microwave…?? naah not required.. Mumbai was a boiler then!). A road-side entrepreneur forcibly draws my attention to his stall. Just then an “associate” all decked up in suit-boot-tie walks past me and while being engrossed in a discussion with his colleague, he drops his cell phone and phlaaatttt… its screen is gone! There go atleast 5K. He smiles picks up the debris and walks away again engrossed in the discussion.
Ok I don’t know if I saw what I actually saw…. There were people who still take food from home and find shade under a building although it seems to be crowded and unhygienic etc. Then there was a group of entrepreneurs hustling to sell any and everything that they had at any cost and finally the guy who represents the rising GDP! All of this under a building which is reminiscent of imperial powers! I love Mumbai…
That’s not it. The number of high rises, skywalks, wi-fi spots, mega-huge malls, cell phone users etc. is sky-rocketing. Friends with whom I shared “cutting” don’t mind sipping mocha in Barista or spend “some good time” in CCD. I go out for dinner assume 1k would be sufficient… it is not! People have money and the will to spend it. As such vendors are more than happy to siphon off it from them. But hang on… isn’t that the picture in metros all over Bharat??

Joy of Work

Work.. a very interesting word.. ain’t it?? Most of us are “busy” almost our entire lifetimes and especially while talking to people in person. I will not delve into the nuances of talking to people but definitely into one of the most exciting days of my life.
This was recently, about a week ago, I entered through the office doors not knowing how the day would unfold. My assignment was to find a means to optimize a certain network. With a café-cuppa I googled a few options with “network, optimization, planning” as the keywords. Google never disappoints and did not even this time around. Thanks to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, I landed onto a couple of softwares. I had to figure out the options and use one of those to get around my assignment. One of those wasn’t catered to our requirement and so I went on to the second one. My woes started right from the installation and ‘am still drowning in neck high waters. I was stuck with the myriad of options in that software and could not figure out its usage. With a heavy head I drove back home.
The previous para, too dry albeit, was the groundwork necessary for to present the discussion I had with myself on the way back home. Oh common… I am a safe driver, although a few thoughts did cross my grey matter.
I could feel the draining effect ‘cos of continuous staring at the screen and the zillion neurons sending signals all over my brain. At the same time I wanted to get back to the tool and crack it. Somehow I felt this to be paradoxical. I wanted to deal with the very same software which had drained me. Why? A few thoughts, and lo! I was close to defining that paradox. I think it is a quality inherent to the human kind. Am sure a lot of you out there would have had a similar feeling quite a few times in your lives. There are days when we just want to quit but still get back to that darned thing which wanted to force us into quitting. We just don’t give up! Not until we see the end, positive or negative.
It is this urge to crack open a nut that has driven frontiers of science beyond what was once perceivable. We have gone on the moon, dug deep holes on land and sea, build structures that challenge the very sky. No longer is sky the limit! Why because we want to explore beyond it and see what lies out there.
This spark is present in every person be it a student, a farmer, a politician or any random person. It’s just a matter of harnessing it and channelizing it in the right direction to get a desired result. On that night I couldn’t sleep so at 1 am decided to get back to the software and figure out a way to simulate what I had to. Lo behold I was there and within a an hour my simulation was good and running. It was then I realized what Edison meant when he said “I haven’t failed 700 times. I have proven 700 ways to be the wrong ways of doing it!” Truly in the wee hours of that night I definitely knew almost everything that wouldn’t work and finally the method that implemented was the only one left and I had done my job!