Answering Machine MEssages!!!

My friend Deepak criticized my answering machine message. So I decided to change it. And one of the days, when I had forgotten my mobile in a friend's car I got this wackiest idea...
And as soon as I got my mobile back I changed the message to...

"Hello!...........HELLO!!...........................Hello!!!.......... hahahaha This is the answering machine, please leave a message"

And by god! the reactions I got were the best compliments I could have received... hahaha...

I got whacked by many, many had a good laugh about it, many complimented my sense of humor...

I want to make a list of funny answering machine messages... Should be some fun...
Raghav.

PS: HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATING!!

Hi all,
My Orkut profile would show you that I have been changing things around myself, shaking my routine up and my outlook, etc... This has been taking up a lot of my thought and time... A lot has happened in the last 3 months (since my last blog!), let me list a few,

1. Filed my annual report at my work
2. Attended an International Conference in Knowledge Representation and met a lot of researchers
3. My room-mate left for India
4. I left for India in mid-October - met my friends, profs, relatives and many others. It was a nice feeling. For the first time, I was taken a bit seriously... hahaha!!
5. The all-famous economy crash struck just before I left for India.
6. Obama won the election easily.
7. My holiday plans for x-mas and New Year were canceled due to the economy crash (would you believe it!! Its a long story, and I do not know it fully yet!) and I had to make back-up plans.
8. The Indo-US Nuclear pact came through.
9. The Bail-outs took over - The US govt. started making big-time x-mas donations to big corporate companies.
10. The attack in Mumbai - boy! can one forget that!! Its sad to lose that many lives, but I guess the attack has worked in India's favor a bit. If only India plays its card well, it might one of the nails in the coffin of terrorism.
11. I went to Moree, Country NSW, for vacation. It had nothing. But nice to go as a big group.
12. Australian cricket team is going through its worst luck ever, with many out-of-form, heaps injured for long! It is a pity! I love Australian cricket and believe steadfastly that they would come through this disastrous period.

Many more things have happened, which I am not able to remember right now. It has been nearly an year now, since I started blogging. On that note, I wish you all a happy new year-2009!!

Raghav.

Happy Birthday!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY - FRODO BAGGINS!!!!

He is the most famousest of all Hobbits, the most courageous. He is also the Ring-bearer who saved the world against the evil SAURON. He proved that even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
We all owe him our free life. We are eternally indebted to him.

We salute you Frodo Baggins!! I offer my service to you - such as it is - in honor of this debt!!

Discovering an Old Hobby!!

I am planning to re-discover my old hobby of story-writing again. I have been getting lots of interesting ideas and havent read a single novel for more than a year now. So the influences of other writers will be to the least levels. My friends who have read my old works have been more than encouraging (hehehehehe! they know the truth!! ;) .). But to them i tell, this time the story line is really much developed. I hope this one comes out alright.

Who knows? i might post it on the blog someday!!!

Excellent movies 1. Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is an amazing movie to say the least. The movie by Coppola won 2 Oscars. The world's best actor EVER - Marlon Brando stars (and i mean it STARS) in this movie. He is supported by Duvall and Ford. A wonderful work from Sheen.

Sheen portrays the character of a soldier who feels more at peace in the jungles of Vietnam than outside. He also plays the narrator of the story. He is given a very important mission. He tracks the life of Brando - a colonel who has gone insane due to the war. The movie shows how an exemplary soldier and man of great regard could stoop to such lows in a war.

The movie is shot in great locations that give more eerie touch to the movie. Brando lives and breathes as the insane colonel, who knows he has gone beyond all help. Duvall plays a maverick Lt colonel who loves his men, hates the war, but still wants to enjoy even if it means taking highest risks. Even though i have told most abt the movie, it is an absolute treat to watch.

A MUST WATCH!!!

Taking control!!

Hi all,
It is an understatement to say it has been long time. A lot of things were happening, a lot of stuff to think over. Who am i kidding, it is just me, as always, procrastinating. 'Nothing new', as those who know me would put it. This is the inertia that i have picked up in IIT. IIT life is soo good that i enjoyed it soo much, or over enjoyed it. It made me very lazy, i put on lots of weight, did absolutely no work. Had i taken control of my life in those two years, who knows, eh? But i dont want to sit back and regret what i did. What happened was supposed to happen and so here i am.
I had been leading a lethargic life, and i have been reluctant to shrug it off my shoulders. And this lifestyle causes trouble in many ways, as they did for me. And now for the last fortnight i have been trying to do things differently. It looks like I might be able to get things together!! Yay!!
I hope to come back to active blogging soon. My research seems to come together. Keeping fingers crossed.

Will be back in full swing soon, fellas.
Fasten your seat belts!!!

Ciao

Imagine an Ideal World!

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

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

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

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

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

• Lyrics of Imagine, By The Beatles.

The power of apology!!

Hi,

How have you been?? Last week I was going through my usual phase of self-reflection. I was going flash-back on some of the episodes in my life and I was sad at the way I behaved in some of them. I was rude and stupid and have hurt some people. So I made it a point to clear all the 'bad-blood'. I sent emails to those I remembered (those I have hurt) apologizing for my behavior. I really did not expect any replies to them. This was just from my side. I surely understand if they don't want to reply. But right after sending those mails, wonderful things happened.

I chatting with my parents in Skype and this time the web-cam at home worked for the first time. I saw my parents after 10 months. I got reply from one of those people saying 'everything is fine, nothing to feel sorry about'. Someone who was long due to respond to one of my queries responded. These are no freak co-incidences!! I mean, come on, not the day after I apologize. I like to think these are rewards for my turning over a new leaf. These are motivations for me to change completely.

The best part is I am not even sure some of the email id's were correct (the emails carrying my apologies). If the email id's turn out to be wrong or if the person doesn't use this email id anymore, then? Well, the best part is it doesn't matter. What matters is I have apologized and I feel a lot better. I know that the only person I have to answer to is ME! And I can now face myself. Thank god for that!! And also thank me!! Haha!!

Ciao, Raghav.

Silence of the Rainmaker

Today I am blogging about two movies I saw this week. Silence of the Lambs and The Rainmaker.

Silence of the Lambs: A heavily recommended movie (by a friend whose recommendation I regard highly). I started the movie a bit sceptical. I do not like movies with blood and gross stuff. It is a very old movie. Starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. The movie won Oscar(s). The movie is about a psycho serial murderer, who skins the people he kills. And the only person capable of helping the Police is a very talented Psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. But here is the catch, the Psychiatrist is a CANNIBAL. Hannibal, the Cannibal. Anthony Hopkins has portrayed Dr. Lecter with great dignity. To play a decent, well-mannered Cannibal is quite a task. And Jodie Foster as a rookie cop has done well. If I am right, she got an Oscar. The movie has a very tight script.

The only problem I found in the movie was that the psycho happened to be related to Dr. Lecter in some way. This is too much of a coincidence for me. I could not digest this fact. Other than this, the movie has all ingredients for a classic.

And I nearly forgot, as expected the hero Dr. Lecter escapes from the Police. Some rope for a sequel!! I think there are about 4 movies based on this character.

The Rainmaker: I have one word for you, AWESOME. Coppola is a great director and he proves it yet again in this movie. Based on Grisham's novel of the same name, the movie does justice to the novel. Starring Danny DeVito, Matt Damon. Both of them give commendable performances. DeVito is splendid. He is a great actor and always amazes me with his ease of portrayal. He plays a paralawyer, one who has passed the law school, but has not managed to pass the bar exam. Matt is a young graduate from a law school. He joins this shady firm in which DeVito works. The firm head has many cases of money laundering and other things on him. Matt and Devito team up and chase ambulances. Matt has two cases with him, one is a Will and other is against Insurance company.

Danny Ray is a Cancer patient slowly dying. Great Benefit has denied his insurance claims and Danny takes them to court with Matt's help. Matt now has set up a separate firm along with DeVito. Matt and DeVito fight with big law firm defending the insurance company and win the case. They manage to close down the insurance company. This is a truly well-done master-piece.

A must watch in every sense. I could not find any flaw in the movie. I single out Matt's accent in the movie for appreciation.

Will see you all later then!! Rent these two movies for this weekend.

GOD

What is GOD? My question is important. I do not ask 'Who is GOD?,' instead I ask 'What is GOD?.' 'Who is GOD?' is a religious question, while 'What is GOD?' is a spiritual question. Religion is a way of life – not the way of life. Religion is 'getting answers', while Spirituality is 'experiencing answers'. I feel 'What is GOD?' is a more important question than 'Who is GOD?.' So how do we answer this question?

'Sahasra Seersha Purushah' – thus starts the Purusha Suktam. The Purusha Suktam extols the personality of the Supreme Being, the Almighty God. What does the first verse in this Suktam mean? By literal translation, it means 'One with thousand heads'. The Suktam goes on to praise the purusha as one with thousand hands and feet and eyes. Does this mean God has thousand heads, hands, feet and eyes? What is the significance of the number 1000? It is well known that in Hinduism the holy numbers are 18, 108, 1008, or numbers like 11, 51, 101, 1001, etc. Why then 1000? Large numbers are often used to represent uncountable. The meaning of the beginning verses of the Purusha Suktam is, to me, means God is everyone. So, according to me, the Vedas say how people must lead their life ideally. All the traits and powers that are extolled in them refer to the ability of the humans, what humans should strive to achieve.

So coming back to the question, What is GOD? God is the ideal human being, the human being with all the ideal values. So attaining these values is the goal of life. GOD is the want to be ideal, the want to inculcate the ideal values. God is not a power, nor a separate entity. We are GOD, our want to inculcate the ideal values is God.

 

There are two types of religions: Theistic and non-Theistic. Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, etc… are theistic; while Jainism and Buddhism are non-theistic.

Resource-Bounded Belief Change

Belief Change is the study of how an intelligent agent changes its beliefs according to the information it receives. There are three ways of changing one's beliefs, namely: adding a new belief to the body of beliefs, removing an existing belief from it, and adding a new belief while avoiding contradictions. The factors involved in belief change include beliefs of the agent, their relative strengths, their importance, relations between the beliefs. These four in particular jointly constitute the belief state of an agent. A realistic modeling of belief change should take into account two things: the real agents have limited resources and they perform belief changes more than once.

Belief change deals with the interaction of received information and the belief state over time. Most of the traditional approaches for belief change ignore the temporal aspects of belief change. They also ignore the real-world agents that are limited by memory, time to reach a decision or ability to reason. There is a need to develop a belief change theory that works for these resource-bounded agents.

Ideal rational change needs all possible inferences to be made from the given set of beliefs, using as much time as needed. Due to its limitations, an agent in the real world is incapable of performing ideal rational change. Instead, the agent approximates it. A real-world agent often performs successive changes to its belief state. It is necessary to study the effect of approximated belief change when the agent performs successive changes to its belief state. The purpose of my PhD thesis is exactly to do that.

Scientific Misconduct and Measures against the same.

Introduction

'No group of humans is completely honest: dishonest window-cleaners steal DVD-players; dishonest scientists invent data. Both—if not caught—profit from their dishonesty'. Science is the tool which gives answers to the 'how', 'why', and 'when' questions about the world we live in and researchers are those who interpret these answers for us. Researchers play an important role; every breakthrough that happens in a lab, affects the living world over. There is an extra pressure on the researchers to get their facts and results right.

Mistake or misconduct in science has become more frequent. In a survey conducted on scientists based in United States nearly 33% of the respondents said that they engaged in at least on instance of misconduct (Martinson, Anderson and de Vries 2005). Misconduct in Science includes intentionally making up or omitting data or results, manipulating research materials or processes, appropriating another person's ideas, processes, results or words, without giving credit.

Schön

Jan Hendrik Schön was a German scientist who galloped to the spotlight in 2000 and was banished to obscurity in 2002. Schön's field of research was condensed matter physics and nanotechnology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Konstanz in 1997. In late 1997 he was hired by Bell Labs. Within a period of two years, Schön published around 90 articles, mostly in leading journals (Wikipedia n.d.). In 2001, he was listed as an author on an average of one research paper every eight days.

The Allegations and Repercussions

Other research groups were unable to replicate Schön's ground-breaking results. On reading his work carefully, some inconsistencies and duplications were found in Schön's results. Allegations of research misconduct were made on 25 papers of Schön. There were a total of 20 co-authors in all these works (Wikipedia n.d.).

In May 2002, the management of Bell Labs formed a committee to investigate "the possibility of scientific misconduct, the validity of the data and whether or not proper scientific methodology was used in papers by Hendrik Schön, et al., that are being challenged in the scientific community". The allegations were grouped in three basic categories: 1. Data Substitution, 2. Unrealistic Precision and 3. Contradictory physics (Bell Labs September 2002). The committee found Schön guilty of the above allegations. The committee also found Schön guilty of inappropriate storage and documentation of primary data. The committee found Schön as the only perpetrator and exonerated all the co-authors. Bell Labs fired Schön immediately after receiving the committee report. 21 of Schön's papers were withdrawn by the respective journals.

Sanctions on Schön

DFG, German Research Foundation, suspended his active right to vote in DFG elections and his right to serve on DFG committees for an eight-year period (DFG 2004). During this time, Schön will not be able to serve as a peer reviewer. In addition, Schön was barred from applying for DFG funding for eight years. The University of Konstanz revoked Schön's PhD degree.

Preventive measures

After reviewing Schön's case, it appears that the following measures could prevent further fraud of similar nature.

1. Supervision: It is evident from Schön's case that there was a lack of supervision of his work (NPR Science Friday Report 2002). Most of his disputed work was conducted in Germany while his supervisor, Batlogg, was in US. The duty of the supervisor is to oversee the experimentation process, including checking the data and results.
   
2. Storing experimental data: One of the most glaring aspects of Schön's episode was his inability to present his lab records to the committee. To avoid such excuses, institutions should have central storage system. All the researchers should be made to store their lab records in this central storage. This would also enable the co-authors and supervisors to access the data if and when they require.
   
3. Publishing experimental data: Submitting experimental data to the journals should be made mandatory. This would help if the reviewer wants to check the data. This would deter duplicating or fabricating data. Once published the journals could also make these data available on the web for other researchers.
   

Conclusion

World over the law-enforcers try to come up with ways to prevent crime. But they haven't been successful because preventing crime is like building a huge dam while committing a crime is like finding a hole in the dam. This applies to the scientific community too. There could be many factors that force a scientist to commit fraud. These are excuses, not justifications. The researchers should be educated about their responsibility towards the institution and the society. Only this could prevent scientific misconduct.

 

PS:: This is an adaptation of my assignment, which also includes all the references. I haven't included the references in this blog.

The Rhythm of Silence

Hi,
Karthik, Adarsh and myself have started a joint blog "The Rhythm of Silence",
where we will be discussing a range of topics, from spirituality to practicality, religion to politics, and what not.

Make sure to book mark "The Rhythm of Silence" and visit everyday to have a look at what we have to say. It will be great.

The three of us have different positives. Karthik is good in writing, he has a good vocabulary,
Adarsh is good in philosophy and spirituality and I am good at joking around.
So, do come and have a look.

Expecting to see you there!!

Raghav.

I forgot.

I totally forgot about my blog account. I have been busy with my uni work. Had so many submissions and meetings. I finally getting my research on its legs.
Feels good when i write 2 lines every day after giving much thought to different things, but always the chain of thoughts start with my research topic.
I guess that is normal.
Hopefully this will not become a disturbing trend and i will be back blogging regularly.

Ciao,
Raghav.

wretched phone call!

Sunday - the word means a day of long sleep and this is literally true with me. I keep my sunday mornings booked for a much wanted sleep. I wake early on every other day of the week. And eventhough saturday is supposed to be a free day, i get up way early. So Sunday is my day.
An ideal sunday would be when there is no work to do, and you got the whole day to spend it as you wish. And today was supposed to be one such day. Alas! the phone rang at 9 am.

This was a work I had decided not to do at all. I had offered to do it on the day before, but the offer was not taken. And I am woken by this phone call and request for a biggg favor was made. To do that particular work and urgently. And I did it cursing, but it was not that urgent it seems. After about a hour and a half the person turns up to collect the work. That urgent!! my foot. And there was no thanks from the person. What the hell?

That pissed me off! and the whole day has been a waste. It is imperative to not wake a person. If you do, atleast have the courtesy to be honest. Dont make up stuff. A supposed to be productive day, has been wasted. Where will i get repaid for the day?

Silence and Humor- A deadly Combo.

Andy: Is there any secret to be funny?
Saint: Silence!
This is a dialogue from the movie "Man on the Moon", a biopic on the life of Andy Kaufman. This is not just a dialogue. It is The Truth.
When I feel bored, I just sit silently and watch many things that happen around and try to take in all those things. This gives two advantages. One is that I observe a lot more and the other is that the top floor goes to work. With the top floor working lots of interesting thoughts come. Humor is not being foolish or idiotic as portrayed by many comedians. Humor is understanding of many things. Many of the philosophers were also known for their humor. The top comedians have been great thinkers like Chaplin. They were able to taste success by portraying truth in silly ways. This is the simplest and purest form of humor.
I have tried it and have understood that the more I keep silent, the more my words carry the bitterest truths in humorous ways.
Try it for yourself!

And by the way, the movie above mentioned is a real master-piece.

Wants, Needs and What not?

As always, when I was feeling a bit restless in the afternoon I took a walk. I love those walks where I talk to myself about many things in the world. I guess I am my best friend. I do not have the patience to sit down and explain the complex thoughts I process in my mind to others. It is too difficult. These thoughts are sometimes too difficult for myself to handle. Anyways, in todays walk this whole topic came to my mind and I am throwing some of my ideas here now.
Everyone 'want' certain things, 'need' certain things. As they say in mathematics, these things could have some intersections or they may be totally different. Wants are defined as the cravings or desires of a person, while the Needs are the essentials. Here is an example:
1. Man Needs food to survive.
2. Man Wants tasty food to eat. Simple!!
We pray to God to give us what we want, but if we understand the phenomenon of God then it will become clear that the needs will be satisfied without asking or praying. When elders tell us to pray for our food and other "NEEDS", they are actually training us to the idea of praying than teaching us to ask for our needs. (atleast I think so. Don't you agree?) I believe that one does not need to ask God what he needs. What I NEED will automatically happen. It is what I want that I need to ask for. Take for the example a simple house-hold. We ask our parents for a cycle, or some toys or a computer. But we do not ask them for food. The automatically provide us food, clothing, education, etc... (this is a good example. I am proud of myself for this.)
The summary of the above thought process is that one need not ask for the needs but one needs to ask for his wants. Suppose it is the case that one has to ask for his needs too, then imagine what would happen to those who do not have any idea about what they need?? Most of us have no clue to our needs!!
So letting this all rest, I am coming to the question of the day. If I figure out what I NEED and I WANT to have it, then is that thing now a "NEED" or a "WANT"? So do I or do I not ask for it. Suppose it becomes a WANT, then I need to ask for it, and if what i now Want is still a Need, then I need not ask for it. Pretty confusing is it not??
Seems I NEED to take another walk. But I dont WANT to!!

Ideal world!

What is an ideal world? Is it one in which there are no crimes; no politicians, only statesmen; no shortage of food; no hatred; no killing of animals; no deforestation; no water-scarcity; no poverty; no hunger; no child labor; no bonded labor; or is it this world?
Ever wondered how life will be in such an ideal world? Don't you think it would be boring without any color? Even rainbow has 7 colors. Then how could the world be made with just one color!
Could it be possible that this world is The Ideal World? Why not? After all, all the qualities good or bad are those created by Nature. And anyways, good and bad are relative terms. Things are how they are supposed to be. There is no change needed. IF there are changes needed they will happen naturally. This world has so many colors and things are wonderful as they are.
There is no need to crib about the world being un-fair. Enjoy it as it is.

rice? or no rice?

India has stopped exporting rice, and this has led to prices shooting up outside here for whatever rice that is there on the shelves. How did it come to this? Rice shortage in India!! Food shortage has become a global phenomenon now. U.S. govt. has thrown lots of cash to help the situation, but are they not the primary culprits here??
There are many individual causes adding up to this situation in India. I could just stop by saying it is the government. But then that will be the only reason enough for every problem. There have been so many instances of farmer suicides and so many cases of farm land being procured by the real estate industry.
All because of the farmers not able to pay back the agricultural loans and not making enough profits from their produce. We need a Jawaharlal Nehru and another of his five year plans. The situation has to change.
Add to the equation the U.S. govt. plans on Bio-fuel, the Indian problem gets blown-up and fitted in to the global picture and prices rise. I am not politically oriented, but I understand the Bush govt. has accelerated the degeneration of the critically balanced world. He came, He saw the world on the razor's edge and He tried to conquer it and tilted the balance down. I want a change in the U.S. leadership.

Enough politics. IPL has been great. Rajasthan Royals have been rocking. Shane warne has proved again that he is the greatest captain that Australia never had. I did not say this, Ian Chappel did.
The brisbane tour was excellent, although the comments I received were not great. I cannot believe that 10 people got it wrong. They all thought i have become fat. It was the camera. A very average camera. Therefore, i am not putting any fotos on the blog, Sorry!

Long Weekend celebration

The long weekend has come and a few of my friends and me are celebrating in Brisbane.
This should be a weekend to remember. It has been a rainy and cold week here in sydney, following a rainy and cold previous week. Hopefully, it is not so in Brisbane.
Will post some of the pictures once I am back.

Raghav.

Reservations about reservations. Is this boon or bane?

I got to get a bit serious. I read the news article regarding the Supreme court of India's judgement. People have been speaking their mind about this and it is time I did the same too.
27% reserved in IIT's, IIM's and other main universities. I will list out in points the arguments about this.

1. What does this mean?
Well, it means there are more seats for the so-called backward caste people. (I am sorry to use that term. I believe that castes should not be a part of the community. For want of term, i shall use 'reserved group' from now on.) This is good for them, for there will be more engineers and MBA's from their group. We know about the campus interview oppurtunities offered in these institutions. It will be great pay for them. There is a catch22 situation here, which i will come to later.

2. More literacy.
By literacy, i mean, graduation and post-graduation. There are many school drop-outs and college drop-outs, who cannot speak, read or write one clear statement in English. English is the global language. We need English to talk with other state Indians too. By studying in these institutions their English will improve a lot, if not anything else.

3. Drawbacks:
If you remember the catch22 situation i mentioned in the first point. The campus interviewers look for candidates who can communicate well. And communication is a very important thing. I personally know couple of brilliant students in IITM who could not get good 'packages' just because of their communication. And the reserved group people who have good communication skills are mostly from very good financial background, and it doesn't make any sense to reserve for them. And if you do not have good communication skills, it is going to be difficult. The person has to improve his skills and also his academics.

I personally believe that the reservations have to be in terms of economic background, in stead of caste. Caste is the one of the root cause of problems in India. And I want to see how long the politicians will play this caste game for the sake of elections. There are many deserving minds who join much low standard colleges for the sake of money. What does the government do for them? Giving easy student loans is not a great achievement for the government. India is not poor by any means. They can give scholarships and fee waivers for outstanding students every where. If reservations are made w.r.t. economic background, then these students will get what they deserve. This will also help the country in return.

I am not sure if this is known. When HRD minister Arjun Singh came to IITM a year and half back, there was this big black board with posters giving the following details.
1. The number of seats in all the IIT's in each branch,
2. The number of seats reserved for different quotas,
3. The number of the reserved quota seats filled,
4. The number of seats that were empty in the reserved quota and other quota.

The conclusion was that all the general quota seats were filled, and there were about 400 seats empty in all the IIT's together. I am not very sure about the number, it is some way near to that figure. What does this mean?

This means that either there are not that many reserved group people who are interested in doing those courses, or they do not have the economic facilities to do those courses. It makes me wonder how many general category students have missed out.
Does this latest measure of reservation do any good for the reserved group? Is this measure going to increase the number of students from the reserved category who are interested in these categories?or is this going to bring down the fees for these courses? I am not sure about either.
SO why DO this?
These institutions cannot increase the number of seats in all the courses so suddenly. This means that the reservation eats into the general category seats. And this means that more students from this category are going to miss out. Well this is real forward thinking by the government.

I see a very straight forward way to break out of this caste menace. And it is not in reservations.
Reservations are not a way out, instead it is digging a deeper grave.
1. Remove the mention of caste from every form.
2. Remove all the reservations.
3. No mention of caste anywhere in the country, make it a criminal offense.

These are drastic measures. But it is time for drastic measures. The people of the country are not patient any more, as is evident from the recent mass violence in various parts of the country. I am sure in a generation or two, the word 'caste' will be forgotten. This may seem a naive and simple solution. But often these simple solutions have been the one's that are successful. Keep it simple, is the mantra oft repeated in many spiritual and business texts.

Recently I heard a major political figure responding to the question of general category settling in foreign. He said, 'Let them go, the country doesn't need them'. It is funny in two ways.
1. It was a major political figure, and i am sure half of his secretaries are general category people, without whose help the fellow would not even be prepared to field the questions in the press meat.
2. I always felt that the people need the country, not the other way. Let us try to imagine a country without people or the country choosing its people. It must be noted that we became India less than a hundred years ago. Before that there were smaller nations and no concept of India.

Reservations should not be rigid. Let us make reservations, but the institutes must be given the right to fill the empty seats with interested students. These seats should not be left vacant.
We certainly do not want to miss a chance Einstein or a Newton in India.

Such is India's boon. If one party is in government, they look to wrecking havoc in the name of 'Hindutva' and when the other party comes to power, they make more divisions in the community. When will these people mature and move out of petty divide and rule policies?

been there and done that!

I have done it finally. i understood what was expected of me and understood what i should do and did that. It feels great now.
It feels like a great weight has been removed from my shoulder. I have been under lot of pressure for the last two months. Needless to say, it was of my own doing. I should have done my work in time but i kept postponing things just like that. And then when it was time, I was in no man's land.

I have decided to be more sincere to my work. Lets see how long this lasts.

I have realized this interest in LAW. I have been interested in it for long. And this week it has become more. And i have even trying to find out details about the LAW degree in India. Lets see how it goes.

I am sure I have the ability to become a good lawyer. Hope i become one, it would be great.

'Welcom'ing back.

Hello everyone,
I know you all missed me. So did I. Well not exactly, I mean, I had a lot to mince in my small head, that i had little time for things else. (This is quite a bit advance, but to all those who believed this, 'Happy Birthday'- hope you understand... Can't be more explicit)

Anyways, my fans have been writing distress mails to me, saying they are not able to sleep without reading my wisdom, so here I am back. But only for today. Don't! Don't even think of asking about my research. It is not proper etiquette to ask ladies their age, men their salary and research students their progress.

I am doing good, if that makes you all happy. There you see, good to see you all smile. It is my duty to make you smile and laugh and i am very good in doing that.
So how have you all been? (I am sure good, you did not have to put up with me for more than month - and that is one of the reasons for me to be back).

I haven't been good, like I have already broken my new year resolution. In fact, i broke it long back. But i am trying to stop myself.
Lets see how it goes.

And i will be on another hiatus, just want to take stock of my 'research'. Yeah, exactly.
So see you all later.
Bye!!

no time.

Hey I have not blogged for a long time now. And i know that. Do you know that is?
It is because i have been busy trying to write my research proposal. And it is not as easy as i thought it would be. But anyways, i expect it to be over in the coming week.
So please have patience and wait for me.

thanks for being so understanding.

See you all.
tata,
byebye,
sweetdreams.

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet st.

Today I went for the movie Sweeney Todd. I knew part of the story before i reached the cinema. I saw the review was 8.1/10.00. LOTR had about 8.2/10.00. So I knew it would be good.
I was not disappointed. It was lovely.

Johny Depp was so very impressive. He has given a stellar performance. The cinematography is excellent. The animation was spectacular. Great direction. I liked the music. It was a great movie overall .

I recommend everyone to watch the movie. But i would like to caution you that it is a bit gory. Lot of blood and a bit of cannibalism. So if you are up for it, there is no reason to miss it. Even otherwise, it is a must watch. Johny Depp deserves that much.

A special video

non-sense day!!

Today i want to write some non-sense in this blog. Lets see how it comes about.
Well i dont have much idea what to write. So i, basically, am going to type whatever my mind dictates. So dont bother if it doesnt make sense. Because, most probably, it wont. How can it make sense, when i have no idea what i am typing? If it really makes sense, then it is a miracle.
So does it seem like a day of miracle??? It has to be seen.
See i am not able to write anything, now that is surprising. Why is it surprising?? because all who know me expect me to write non-sense very easily. So do I. But it is not coming easily for me. So what do we infer from this?? Writing non-sense is not natural to me. Which in turn means that i write sense more than non-sense. Which in turn means that I am better than atleast 1500 Indians. Now what is the significance of that number 1500?? Well it is easy, they are the MP's of this term, and the last term and some more. They are the best in talking and writing non-sense.
May be i should take some tuitions from them!!!

Well this is the most non-sense i can dish out.

My friend Dilip Raghavan is very gifted in this. He spoke non-stop non-sense in front of the class, for about 5 minutes. You think that is easy?? Then give it a go. I promise, it is not easy to cross 90 seconds.

K see you later.

The Conformist Rebel!!

I have heard the Conformist views, I have heard the rebellious views. I see that i agree with both the views in different contexts. So am I a rebel or a conformist?
I had been confounded by this question for 4-5 years now. But now for some time I have discovered this truth. I am a Conformist Rebel!!!

I was a conformist like all small kids, then I became a rebel like all the teenagers. Then I got bored by looking at people who take pride in being rebels and breaking all the rules and norms of the society. Being a rebel has become, with time, a norm of the society, the peer-society. If you are not a rebel, then you are no more a part of the peer-society. If you are a conformist, you are right out of the group. You are a person of the old generation. The response a conformist gets is 'You have come into the world a bit late, dude'.
So if you are a conformist, then you are rebel, according to the 'peer-society'.
If you are a rebel, then you are a conformist, according to the 'peer-society'.

So one gets an honest doubt. Is a rebel, really a rebel? Is a conformist, really a conformist?
I am a rebel, rebel in the peer-society, i.e., I am conformist.
So this means, I am a Conformist Rebel. And I am proud to say so.

blogging from Anduril!!

Here I am blogging for the first time from the Anduril. It feels great. So how have you all been. I had been busy with shifting my place. I am very tired now. Cannot think of much to say. But will have loads for you people soon. see you all later.

problem with the generation!

Another suicide in the college hostels. This time again a masters student. And a junior of my juniors. A senior of mine attempted, but was not successful.
This is very prevalent in the college hostels. When i was in college, one of my hostel mates was successful in his attempt.
They say that one should not talk ill of the passed. But i cannot help myself. What is their problem? Have they become so self-centered that they cannot see plight of their parents? Can they not understand how the parents will feel once they are gone? Have they not heard "To commit suicide is the worst sin."
The parents work for years and send the children to college paying huge fees and expect the wards to get good marks and good job, not to find them hanging from the fan or eating what is meant for rats.
Spare a thought for the parents.

This also a big problem for the administration, because they have to keep these things under the carpet. And it is not easy. this news will create a big ruckus and bad publicity for the premier institute of the country.
The students must know their responsibility. They have entered the portals of this institute being selected from an All- India test. This means they have some kind of sense. It is time they start using them.

Another dimension to this problem is that, the college hostels cannot reassign the room to any student for some years. I know of atleast 5 rooms locked indefinitely like that. There is no use in building hostels, when the rooms are going to be termed un-usable.

What is Odd about ODD numbers?

Why are odd numbers called odd numbers, and even numbers called even numbers? Why not the other way around? Because there is something odd about the odd numbers and even about the even numbers.

What is odd about the odd numbers?

Lets say odd numbers denote 'good' and even numbers denote 'bad'.

Then we have
even + even = even, which means bad + bad = bad.
Nothing surprising there!!

even + odd = odd, which means bad + good = good.
Bad people can turn good when in good company!! Believable.

odd + odd = even, which means good + good = bad. Let us call this result as r1.
This is not what we expect. There is something wrong in this.

So why not change the initial values. Say odd = 'bad' and even = 'good'.

Then we have
even + even = even, which means good + good = good.
This is what we expect, is it not?

even + odd = odd, which means good+ bad = bad.
Even this is believable. Sometimes the good turn bad due to bad company.

odd + odd = even, which means, bad + bad = good. Let us call this r2.
There is no moral story, that i can remember of, which brings out this philosophy.

Certainly r1 and r2 show that there is something odd happening when odd numbers are involved. May be that is why there are called 'ODD' numbers.

Whenever even numbers are involved, they don't go beyond the realm of believability. May be that is why the are called 'EVEN' numbers.

I bought Anduril!!!

Yes!! On Monday, three of us went out and bought a couple of laptops. (the third person already has one.) We got the same model but from 2 different outlets. We roamed about half the Sydney and had a great time.
It is a Toshiba A200/J01 model. It has T7300 2.0 Ghz processor (core 2 duo), with 2gb ram, 250 GB hDd, 256 MB ati video card.

And i have named it "Anduril - The flame of the west, forged from the shards of the Narsil". Like in the movie where Sauron the dark lord is afraid of that sword, the viruses will be afraid to attack this laptop of mine. The name was suggested by Elrond- Manoj Varma, whose laptop is Shadowfax.

I have been tinkering around with it since Monday. In about two weeks my blogging will become more regular and I will be posting from the new Laptop.

hope to see you and share my wisdom with you using Anduril!!

Bye, Ciao.

Man on the Moon - Discontinued!!!

I could not believe my ears when the chap in the DVD store told me that sales of the dvd "man on the moon" has been discontinued in Australia. I was told that i would be lucky to find it anywhere in Australia. I went round to 4 more dvd stores and same answer from all of them.

I am not going to stop with this. I am going to ask my friends in Melbourne to check for the dvd there. It must be there somewhere, isnt it? Lets hope so.

I am now more than 80% done with that research problem. Will be finishing by next friday.

Will let u know soon, how the dvd hunting went.

messy head!@#@@#!@!@!

I know i haven't been regular with my postings. It is just that my head is cluttered with SO MANY things. Like what? you might wonder. See that is the beauty of it, I don't know. These ideas come to me and before I can think of doing something about them, puff! they are gone!! For the last week to 8 days it has been the same. So many, many thoughts. For instance, i decide something in the night, and in the morning I do the exact opposite of it. Not only just that, both the times I convince myself with proper arguments for that. Sure it sounds crazy, it sounds so to me too. But that is the way it is.

Well we come to the recap of the last week. India won nicely in Perth, and went on to gloat and fool themselves to think they are better than Australia. Someone remind them that they have won 1 test match, whereas Australia has won 16 in a trot - twice. I have been working on a research problem. I like to believe I have it 70% solved. I have seen Lost seasons 2 and 3. To say they are awesome is a mighty, himalayan understatement. Really looking forward to the 4th season.

I have been looking for the dvd of Man on the moon. Sure it is available online, but i don't like to shop online. Ezydvd, JB hifi, Borders - all these are top chains in Australia, and none of them have it. Have you seen that movie? It is a lovely movie - a Jim Carrey starrer. No, no it has none of the goofy comedy that he so normally does. He has done an excellent job. It is a biopic, based on the life of the entertainer Andy Kaufman. Look up his name in the web. He was mind-boggling, "is" for his fans.

I have a very good taste for movies. Check out the list of movies I have recommended. It is not an exhaustive list, but something to get you all started. I know many of you may have finished the list. I will update the list, also keep changing it every now and then.

Another friend of mine has started blogging. Wish him better luck than mine. I consider myself very lucky. Most of the important things that have happened and the way they have happened prove the fact.

I will leave you people with something to cheer about in the coming days. I will be irregular like this for 2-3 weeks, but after that I am gonna rule this place!!! Yes Precious, rule i am going to !!!

Got hold of fav songs and Death trap!!

You know how it feels when you see an old friend after a long time?? Well it is quite the same with songs too. After about 5 months i got to hear my favorite songs again, last week. I had totally forgotten about them, when i accidently reached their pages in Wikipedia, and then went to 'youtube' and downloaded from there. One is Michael Jackson's "Heal the world" and the other is Enigma's "The Return to Innocence". If you have not heard either of them, please do at once. You will regret it otherwise. I assure you that you will love them. Such is my taste. They have exceptionally good music and lovely lyrics. I appreciated the songs more when i learnt their full lyrics. I also got hold of "Across the universe" of the Beatles. That is quite good too.

If i say that is what i have been doing whole week, i would be lying. A friend of mine made me watch the series "Lost". And i must say, i am really impressed. I saw the whole first season in about 4 days. And i am raring to have a go at the second season. It has a normal plane-crash-on-a-island story line. But the way it has been shot, is quite marvellous. But one sad part is, the series is still not fully shot. I hear the seasons 5 and 6 are still to be shot. That means it will be another 2 years for it to be complete. I am not sure if my interest will hold up that long.
Lets see. I still got 2 seasons go anyway. If you haven't seen it, why don't you give it a try, eh?

And by god, i accidently hit upon this brilliantly made comedy thriller movie this sunday. It is an old one, "Death Trap". You have heard of who-dunnit thrillers, well this is a who-will-do-it thriller. It has a very tight story-line, which even i as a director, cannot spoil and a great cast.
It has Caine and Reeve. Please pick this one too. This is a lovely comic thriller. I assure you, even before you finish laughing, there will be a surprise waiting for you in the next scene.

I seen to have talked a lot about entertainment today. Don't think thats what i am doing. I also do study, whenever i am free.

Ciao.

Dhoni impresses!

Dhoni and Kumble were impressive today. I liked the way they went about saving the day. But the aussies were good. They can finally target and break the record. They deserve it. Umpiring errors do happen. We must not forget the test match in pakistan, where Yuvraj scored a century. He was out on atleast 5 times. But was not given out. There is no use cribbing. What goes around comes back.

I was actually cursing Ponting and was convinced that he was an idiot for not declaring earlier. But he proved himself to be a genius. What a win!! They could have managed to win sooner had they declared earlier. Saurav was classic. He played like he was in the nets. What a fluency with the bat. He was by far the best batsman in the second innings, including the aussies. Even the centurians Hussey and Hayden did not stroke the ball like he did. I pray, he keeps playing like this, forever and ever.

I havent thought of much else today. That is sad, is it not? Anyways.

Razor's edge.

Well this is not a picture downloaded from the web, this is a pic that i clicked from my own mobile. This is the pic of a whale (as you would have guessed!), that i clicked in the Sydney Aquarium. They have so many whales there. I am not much into the fishes and all, but i guess this pic is good.

At the end of the fourth day of the sydney test, the match is now standing on the Razor's edge. And as Galadriel says, "Stray but a little, and it will bring ruin and destruction to all". Not the exact same words. ( i seem to have forgotten it, but this is the essence)

Ricky's men are standing at the verge of doing something historic. The result of the test match at WACA, Perth is a foregone conclusion. Australia will win there. So, if they manage a win here in sydney, then it will be 17 test wins in a row. But, the third and fourth day, were not to their liking. Bhajji ruined their party on the third day. He also had some hand in ruining their fourth day party as well. Australia would have liked to score 50 more runs. But full credit to the Indians, they bowled pretty well. They attacked when needed. Lets see what happens tomorrow.

Forget that for the time being. I have the whole tomorrow to worry about that. I have many more pics to show. Will do them tomorrow. Bye.

Today

This is my first blog in 2008!!!! I couldn't get time from wishing people "Happy new year". But mine, i doubt has started in the right direction. Lets see what the year has to offer.

Happy new year to all the readers!!

Today was mixed for me. Saurav was looking dashing best today, till he got out. And from then i started getting restless. Nothing new, people who know me would say. The aussie bowlers started leaking runs to Bhajji?!@#!@#. I was shocked. Anyways, then my bus driver gave me some more reason to turn crimson red. He was driving like Alonso in Mclaren, not Alonso in Renault. The distance is an hour, and the person took rest after every 5 mins of drive, making sure that i spend just 90 minutes with him in the bus. I was tempted to sing his praise, but controlled myself.

When i reached home, things became fine. I learnt about an online game, ESP game. This is a game that is used to label all the photos on the web. Yes it is a game with a purpose. I am planning to try it out soon. Even you try it out.

I saw little bits of the new movie "taare zameen par". It seems to be a good movie.

will come back tomorrow.

good night!