100th

Hmm a year and 11 months of blogging. And 100 n.o.

There were times when I was in solid touch, with boundaries flying in all direction,

there were also times when I was down and the scoring came to a halt,

but here I am.

This is not the end, although many would love it to be,

This is not the end, because I do not want it to be.

This is not the end, because it is not going to be.

But this may be the end of www.raghav-the-gandalf.blogspot.com ; because form is temporary,

but I will continue in www.raghav-the-gandalf.spaces.live.com ; because class is permanent.

Sydney Dust storm

Hi,

This has been long over-due. These are pics from my balcony on the day of Sydney dust storm.

Travel 3

I was in Germany for two cold and chilly weeks. I was highly excited when i landed there and when my local guide picked me up from the station, even though i was shivering, i could hardly realize that. We talked and slowly  made our way to my accommodation. It took one hour, but it took us that long because i was a weekend. We met my landlady, a charming lady, and they both talked and my guide later on translated the things to me. By the way, my guide is a student of the professor i was visiting. He was very helpful throughout my stay in Germany. My room was amazing, much more than i had expected and quite cheap. The landlords were such nice people, both spoke alright English and made me feel more than welcome. They ordered me to stay at their place the next time i go to Germany.

Coming back to the weather, it was chilly, wet and chilly and more wet. There were just couple of sunny days in Germany, but i loved the place. It was absolutely amazing. I was in the city of Dortmund. One might have heard about Borussia Dortmund! it is the local football club. This club has a mad mad following. I managed to attend a game there, what an atmosphere! The game was a nil-nil draw but the atmosphere in the stadium was nothing less than spectacular. The fans were simply right behind the team, jumping, shouting and waving and clapping. Truly Signal Iduna Park has one of the best atmosphere in Europe, I heard that a lot of times but realized it was nothing less than the truth. Just amazing.

During the two weekends I toured the cities of Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Koln. These cities, like most of the other European cities, have not moved for centuries. The city centre has remained and this means the historical places are around the city. This makes tourism easier. I did not have much time for tourism but managed to see the cities by just walking around. Koln especially was so beautiful.

Then i travelled to Vienna. What a city! Pity i had to spend three days in the conference? I would not have had any problem if i had to spend all my days in the conference. The university was nothing like a university. It is a palace. A palace where one hears the echoes of some heavy historical footsteps. Footsteps of Schrodinger, Doppler, Kant, Freud, Boltzmann to name a few. Another important reason being the free-lunch!!! The one problem was the weather, very chilly.
And I am very tired with all I had to do in this trip. If it was just tourism I might have endured, but the stress of the conference and the work in Germany and what i expect when I reach Sydney tires me out. Add to this some bad news from Chennai. I had bad headache last night. I decided to not travel anywhere in Vienna today. Instead I went to the Albertina exhibition. They have paintings of Renoir, Monet, Manet, Picasso, Von Gogh, etc. It was nice to see their work.

But i am resting tonight, because I have a very long travel to Sydney tomorrow.

International audience!!

I signed up for google analytics some months ago to see how much my blog is read. It gave some interesting stats.

1. Total number of visitors: 325

2. Unique visitors: 220

3. 325 visits came from 18 countries (AMAZING! international appeal).

4. Number of pages viewed: 525

5. Average time on site: 1:16 mins.

Some of these visits have been through google search. Some of the keywords that lead to my blog are

1. sensible one liners

2. raghav gandalf mahatma speaks

3.one liners on smartness

4. raghav anduril gandalf

5."sydney carton"

6.'through my eyes ...ideal india'

7.+changing face of tamil film industry raghav

8.answer machine greetings lotr

9.arshavin

10.canon hg 10 club

Also I forgot to mention the list of countries of visitors.

1.India

2.Australia

3.United States

4.Netherlands

5.Germany

6.United Kingdom

7.Singapore

8.Canada

9.Belgium

10.Malaysia

11.Greece

12.Malta

13.South Africa

14.Pakistan

15.Brazil

16.Palestinian Territories

17.Spain

18.Japan

With my growing international appeal I should be nominated for next year’s nobel peace prize. “Why not?” Many seem to be asking the same question.

Many

I did many things in the last two weeks in Germany,

I have many things to say about my two weeks in Germany,

I got many things to do in Germany after two weeks,

and many things have happened in these two weeks.

But I am not going to tell them all because it would take many days to complete.

There are many things in my head, but sadly (and rightly so) not many people would be ready to listen to them all.

Many of these things I have seen in these two weeks would have been experienced by many people in many different situations, but did any one of them experience all these things in the same circumstance as mine?

I do not think they would have, and I am sure many people would agree with me on that.

I think that is the case with all the people. Each person experiences many things that many others too do but the circumstances and ordering of the many events differ in many ways. This makes what each person experiences unique.

This is one of the many beautiful things about life.

(PS after all this I have finally remembered what I wanted to write about. Watch out for the next blog!)

Travel part 2

I landed in Dusseldorf, Germany last evening. I was greeted by a small mess-free airport. It was a pleasant experience till I walked out of the aero-bridge.

The passport check was right in front of the aero-bridge. I, ofcourse, had a valid visa – which I showed to the officer behind the glass. He asked me the purpose of visit – and I told him sincerely. He then asked for any documents I had. Ah, I knew he would ask me that and I had specially printed out the documentation and had it with me in my folder. I pulled out the folder from my bag and looked for it.

“Where is it? I clearly remembered keeping it in the folder along with the documents for insurance and ticket quote and itinerary". The officer was more interested now. I gave him a smile and said, “It is right here, just a second.” In a heavily accented English, he said “OK”. I was ruffling through the papers and then I suddenly realized I was right. I did keep the document along with the insurance papers and travel quote and itinerary. But that was more than a month ago when I had applied for the visa. I had collected these documents and given it to the embassy. Ah, yes. I looked up at the officer and gave a stupid smile, “I don’t seem to have it here” , but I have it in my laptop and I could show it in 5 minutes.” I am not sure what the officer thought, may be that I am so stupid and could be of no harm to Germany or that I have a genuine and legitimate reason to be there and just forgot my document. He wanted to know if I was loaded with enough money – which I was and I showed him. And he let me go – a fine fellow.

I then walked out and picked up my luggage and took the train to Dortmund. There I was met by a friend who took me to my accommodation. The room was beautiful, much much more than what I had expected. This morning I met the professor and she was friendly and we had a brief discussion. Then I met Shyamal, a friend from my Bachelors degree, and it was good to see him after 4 years. Thats all upto now. I am planning to visit Berlin this or next weekend. It should be fun.

Later for Later for later.

Travelling

It has come to pass finally. I have been denying it for awhile.

I am travelling to a conference in Vienna in the end of November. And I have included a trip to Germany before the conference. So I will be there for two weeks before the conference. I thought if I am travelling this far, why not visit my Sister and Brother-in-Law. I had two options: 1. To visit London before Germany, 2. To visit London after conference in Vienna. With my parents already in London and planning to leave early November, I convinced my professor and decided to visit London first.

Thus here I am in London. I will be here for 10 days and then leave for Germany. The flight was LONG but enjoyable.

I am too tired to write more, so Later!

Importance of a “hello”

Year 1875, Thomas Christopherson’s home.

Thomas was a scientist in France. He had just finished making a machine that could possibly enable him to talk to a person at a far off place with a similar machine.

He picked up the instrument, dialled some number.

He heard “Trrrrrinnnng, Trrrrrinnng, Trrrrrinnnng….”

Cut to Alexander Bell’s home. Mr. Bell is working furiously on a machine, similar to Thomas’s, in his lab. It suddenly starts making this funny ringing sound, “Trrrrrinnnng, Trrrrrinnng, Trrrrrinnnng….”.

Bell’s assistant, Watson, urges Bell to do something to stop the horrible noise. Bell lifts a piece of the instrument which was connected to a bulky music player-kinda base through a wire. The ringing noise stops.

Cut to Thomas’s house. The ringing noise that Thomas was hearing had stopped and there was complete silence. Thomas could hear some noise from the other side.

On the other side, Bell and Watson were talking to each other in English trying to figure out how the sound had stopped.

Alas, Thomas did not know English, he thought it was some static signal he was getting.

A year later, on March 10, 1876, in Bell’s lab.

Bell had realized that the ringing noise he got an year back was actually the first phone call ever and that there was no conversation purely because there was no agreed upon protocol of speaking. For the last one year, Watson and Bell had many serious brain-storming sessions on what should be the protocol. Mrs. Bell had to stop them many times from entering into a fist fight. She would barge in saying "HELLO! there is a lady in this house, Don’t you have no manners?”. Only yesterday they both had reached the decision that the one word they had heard most in the last year should be the starting word in this protocol. And this came “Hello”.

Yes, of course it also helped that both Watson and Bell knew English and what Hello meant. Poor Thomas, if only he had learnt English.

PS: Of course, it is another matter that Watson and Bell had heard each other in that iconic telephone conversation purely because they both were loud guys and the wall separating them was made of thin layer of single bricks with lots of holes drilled into it.

PS:PS: You may doubt the validity of this story, you are welcome to Google for it or go to this web-link.

An interesting video about the Rich South Indian Culture

Yesterday, as a part of my research ;), i stumbled upon this very interesting video. This video runs for an hour and talks about the rich and prosperous culture of South India which has been forgotten by almost many of us. It is worth watching and will learn a lot. For those who were excited to know how the pyramids were built, there were much bigger and tougher buildings built in more mysterious ways. Many of the temples in South India are so rich and big and beautiful – not many of us are surprised at how they were built. Not many of us are inquisitive of how cities were managed.

Many such things are talked about in this video. Watch it.

Being a Si©k man

It was Friday evening – one week ago. I was on the bus home. I had just completed the game had to rush home to leave to a friends place. I was hoping for dinner there. I am a regular post-graduate research student who likes free food. On the bus I began wondering about my physical ability. I had been in Sydney for 2 years and had never been to a doctor. In fact I did not even know the procedure of how to make an medical insurance claim if i had to see one. I was proud of myself, 2 years and no doctor.

Disaster struck the very next day. I was in another house and talking with a paati in tamil. Suddenly I felt a chill run down my body. Something was wrong. I quickly pulled on my jacket. But the chill did not go down. My body was burning. I struggled in their house for 2 more hours and we were given big bars of chocolate(this is apart from food). On the drive home, the chocolate in my hand, melted. Yes inside the cover was molten chocolate. I did not realise i was burning so much. Sunday was more of the same, was having fever. I took paracetamol. I did not want to go to the doctor and break my track record for a silly fever. It was supposed to be alright by Sunday Evening. On Sunday after noon, I was repeating to myself this, I am not sick, I am not sick. Then I suddenly started laughing. My friend was surprised, he thought i had gone nuts. I replied, It is true, I am not Sikh.  That was a sick joke.

Come Monday morning I was supposed to go to the city to collect my passport from the German consulate. I managed that. I say I managed that because I did. It was so difficult. I was taught the definition of ‘Giddy’. I cannot even remember talking to the person in the consulate, it was all over-my-head. However I did have enough left in me to check the passport and the visa. I came back to Eastwood. On the way up to the city, I had decided that there is no postponing things, I had to go and see the Doctor. My 2 year record, I was so proud of it. I always felt like an iron-man, even though i knew it was a lie. How many of us lie to ourselves to make us feel better about ourselves? This was one of those lies. And it worked very well. But now I was going to let go of it. That is exactly when I realized, I think far too much even when feeling feverish and Giddy!

Then I made a flash decision – going to the doctor, no debating it. And I went to the doctor right from the railway station. Registered myself in, met the doctor. The doctor stuck something inside my ear and it beeped very loud, and she told the eternal truth. YOU HAVE FEVER. Wow! was I surprised, she only had to ask me. She said carry on with the paracetamol, you might have caught a virus. How did she deduce that? Some doctor trick, I guessed. But as long as it works. She said carry on with paracetamol for 2 days, it should die down by then. I religiously paid 35$ for this invaluable piece of wisdom and i still have to claim it. I walked out and came home. I have been dutifully taking paracetamols for breakfast and dinner every day since. Things have become better than before but no where close to end. So I went to the doctor again.

Yes, I went to the doctor for the second time in a week. It was Thursday. Gone was the no-doctor record, let us make yes-doctor record. That was not the idea really. The Doctor looked at me as if saying, Oh! you again. What is wrong now, you could not cut your toe-nails? I told about the current situation. And she said, it is a virus, you should give it time. Dont worry. If it does not go down by weekend, take this anti-biotic. I was ecstatic, over the moon, i managed to get a prescription from this doctor. But the weekend is just 5 hours away and I still am not looking hale and healthy. May be I should use it?

I dont know what, why and how I wrote this thing, it has been a bit spinny up in my head today. Hopefully I can break my 2 years record in the coming years. That is all i am thinking of. Being sick is really sick.

Anyways, dont read this.

raghav

important one liner

People who do not keep in touch with mathematics regularly, grow dumb.

(True story, my own story!)

glorious bastards

Today Deepak and myself went for Inglorious Basterds. It was a typical Tarantino movie. A well made movie. It had lots of comedy, fresh story line, interesting twists. All the actors have come up with amazing effort. The camera had fresh angles. It was an amazing movie. Worth watching another two times at least.

I am not going to say anything more. Do yourself a favour and watch it. I would tell you this, the actor playing Hans Landa of SS has done an amazing job. Watch it, Watch it, and Watch it!

Sketch once more!

Another sketch by Siddharth. I am sure he would like to know your views. So please feel free to drop in what you think about his sketches. It would help him to improve.

Tomorrow?

During the school days, we used to hoist the Indian flag and sing the national anthem every Friday. I always felt goose-bumps when I sang the national anthem. I am not sure about the people who heard me! I was learning about Indian Freedom struggle. The fight against the British oppression made my spine tingle. I used to feel a bit sad at having missed out the freedom struggle. I remember distinctly feeling unlucky for having not fought for freedom, for not having done my bit. It was then that I realised I wanted to join the army. I wanted to fight for my country, spill my blood for India.That was my first ambition.

Then in my tenth grade, I got this fascination for Astrophysics. I am still not sure what triggered it. I wanted to look at stars, I wanted to do the math behind them. I am sure I did not comprehend what the field was about. But I wanted to be an Astrophysicist. And this dream was there with me for 2 years or more. This was my second ambition.

I finished my 12th grade. All my friends were writing the exam for Engineering selection. But I did not want to do that. I was different from them. I wanted to prove it. I did not take those exams. I wanted to pursue pure science. I felt pure science was somehow purer than engineering. It was during that time I wanted to get a PhD. Did I know what it meant? No way. Why did I want to do it? No idea. I did not ask anyone either. I was partly afraid of knowing the answers for some reason. By now I was no longer sure about astrophysics, but I came down to at least physics.

I joined my Bachelors in science degree and I wanted to graduate with a BSc Physics. In my second year, I realized that Physics was tough job and I did not like it that much. Also many of my classmates were better than me in Physics. I always liked Chemistry but I never felt at home in a chemistry lab. For some reason I was alright in mathematics. When it came to the end of second year it was time to choose between the three. I remembered many of my friends saying I was good in mathematics, and I chose it. I did alright. I enjoyed it too. It was right down my alley. I was at home, did not have to sweat at all. Right now my ambition was only getting a PhD. Did I know what it meant – NO.

 

I loved analysis and algebra. After sometime I started not liking the application part of mathematics. It was like adding water to milk, adding applications to mathematics. I felt applied mathematics was like adding impurity. I realised all my classmates wanted to do applied mathematics. I felt left out, I was odd man out there. If I stayed there for my masters, I would be doing programming and applied maths. I would not be doing any analysis or algebra. This thought made me decide to come out.

I came back to chennai for my Masters in mathematics. How fast time runs. I still had not much clue about PhD. But did not want to accept that. The first year of my Masters was very easy, I did not have to work hard. I became lazy and this did not help in my second year. I always loved Logic, so I took a course in Logic. The professor was the best. He was also my project guide, a very brilliant man. A lot of the students in my masters were applying for PhD in many foreign countries. I did not want to be left out.I don’t think I really wanted to do it anymore. But I did not have any other idea. I did not even attend the campus interview. Why? My professor knew another professor in Australia and told me to apply here. And I did, and I came over here. I still had no idea what PhD involved.

 

After two years of working, I now know about the research life. It is nice. But do I want to continue doing research for the rest of my life? Right now I do not know what to do? What is my goal right now? At present I just want to finish my PhD and graduate. What next? No idea.

Sometimes I toy with this idea of becoming a writer. I do not know what else to do. My head tells me to be optimistic and look at the present. My heart sometimes has real trouble in listening to my head. It wants to feel secure about the future. My heart is justified in feeling that way, but my head says “You are just 24, plenty of time to make mistakes.”

Another sketch

Another sketch by Siddharth. It is a self-portrait of how Siddharth will look in another 40 years.

He has been very generous to himself with the hair ;)

A sketch by a friend

This is a sketch by my friend Siddharth. I was amazed when i first saw it. Beautiful one. 

Keep it up Siddharth. Keep sending more of your sketches.

Happy birthday, Chennai @ The Hindu

Happy birthday, Chennai @ The Hindu

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Belief

I recently watched a very old movie “Chariots of fire”. Made in 1981, it is the story of Olympic Athletes representing GBR. It is a very well made story of how two athletes, a Jew and a devout Christian, find success in Paris. Yes, this is the story line. But the director tells a lot more.

 

It is a story of two athletes with different characters. One wants to win, the other just wants to run fast. One wants to run to prove a point to the world, another wants to run because that is his purpose. One who is ready to sacrifice everything for a medal, another ready to sacrifice running for God. One who doubts himself before the final battle, other believes that God is with him. Both find success by the end of the story. The story has been told in a very simple and touching manner.

The most important piece of the story, to me, was about the Christian from Scotland. There is a lot to learn from this character. He was fast, and he believed God made him fast to run. He says that when he runs, he feels His pleasure. Eric Liddell believed that God was on his side, he believed. He believed with all his heart. He would die but will not forsake his believe, such was the strength of his belief. When one believes in anything with such a fierce strength, it makes life a lot simpler. Think about it, when you believe – it is one less thing to reason about, one less thing to be logical about, one less thing to take stock and be sure about, one less thing to worry about. When you got one less thing to worry about, it gives you more time to enjoy whatever little pleasure one can take from life. Belief is a gift. Not everyone can have such unwavering belief.

 

Eric Liddell got me thinking. Am I lucky enough to believe in something? Do I believe in anything with such fervour. I was feeling miserable for an hour, trying to figure out if there is anything at all that I believe in. Right when I was about to give up and start cursing about everything that is wrong with my life, I realised (this was in the shower!) that I do believe in something. To me life is already complicated, why complicate it more. I believe in living simple. Not wanting too much, not asking for too much. Trying to enjoy and having fun in the littlest of things. Not being bogged down by the bleak future. I find, to my own surprise, that I have changed into this mindless optimist. Mindless? because there are times I just plain refuse to look into future. What does future hold? It is meant to be a surprise, let it be! All I need to know is everything is meant to be. This is what I believe in. And it makes my today easy to bear.

Believe – it is the most difficult thing to do, but it makes everything very easy.

Review of Before Sunset

 

This review written by Sachin.

 

I love creative & weird script and a 77 min movie !

"What if you had a second chance with the one that got away?"

It was a enthralling experience to watch a movie 'Before Sunset' - directed and produced by Richard Linklater.
When the movie ends, you end up thinking..... Is that the end of the movie? (May be waiting for one more sequel)

Can you imagine a movie ending on a dialogue as below:
Celine (slowly to Jesse): "Baby ... you are gonna miss that plane."
Jesse (slow pan in): "I know."

How simple can a movie be. It tells you that, you do not require money to make a movie :)
Just kidding ... it is one of the low cost and best movies I have ever seen.

The movie is shot in Paris, and only has two characters. The pace at which the movie unfolds is amazing.
No jazzy costumes, no heavy music, no sets, no locations ... only a dialogue between two persons.
Cafe, garden, a car and a small house ... that is it .. that is where is movie has been shot.

Refer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_Sunset for the plot. Read this, pretty interesting.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381681/

Memories are wonderful thing when you do not have to deal with the past!
I liked this statement very much ... The heroine of the movie says so ... Watch it to know the background of this :)

Mind well, this movie is not for the people who do not like (or probably understand) off-bit movies.
That's why I am sending this email and recommending to selected friends of mine. :-)

After watching the movie, I came to know that it was a sequel of 'Before sunrise'.

Do watch both, if you a get a chance.

Cheers

Sachin.

Victorian Road Trip - 2

For some selected pics from the road trip visit

http://raghav-the-gandalf.spaces.live.com/

Cheers