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Showing posts from 2008

Circle of friends

They say life comes a full 'circle'. I say its fair for 'them' to say that. 'cos 'they' would have seen the full circle of life when 'they' said that. To me, life comes in moments of all sizes, large and small, tiny and big, nano and giga, yocto and yotta, so on and so forth. so theoretically speaking, the circles would/should also scale from one 'y' to another. Obviously I am alluding to eddies in turbulence, but thats another story. There is/was this one 'circle' of 1-yr timescale that i am especially thinking about as i write. .. It started Nov last year with me arriving in southampton. sometime before that the decison had been made to shift - albeit with a heavy heart. Feeling quite lonely, soon to realise that it was more a case of riches to rags, everything to nothing. Rewind 1 yr prior to that Nov. and I had just arrived in London. But having spent an year in london, a band of friends soon developed. To be more precise, there w

Circle of honesty

Taking the World philosophy day, as an excuse, I am translating some thoughts into words. Philosophy, is probably an under-rated science today and science, an over-rated philosophy. But a balance of both is perhaps what we ought to look for. On these lines, i share my philosophy of dealing with people. I tend to trust people. Putting trust is my way of putting responsibility on people. But to complete the cycle, I need to act retrospectively. (turning to third person singular now, since too much of first person sounds snobbish). One must align his/her actions by assuming that all people around himself/herself are honest. Waht this would lead to is actions supposedly for the better-ment of others. At any rate, actions which wont be objected by others. At any rate, no objection can be shoved at you in first-person, 'cause he/she can repudiate using an honest argument. What this does is to cultivate a circle of honesty. As with any argument, let us perturb the system. Supposing that s

Unarmed truth and Unconditional love

a nice movie to watch - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912 amazing movie and all … truly inspiring in some sections in some sense … set me reflecting on it contents .. checking the zeitgeistmovement website leads to the following link .. http://thevenusproject.com/donate.html now if the project accepts “cash” using VISA/American Express/Mastercard/Discover/Paypal , what does this mean ? If the project says, all payments lead to exemption under so and so “law”, what does this mean ? and was there mention of not using any of the above monetary brands towards the end of the movie ? And this from a movement who made such an elaborate movie .. Am i being too cynical ? .. I hope not .. But truly unarmed truth and unconditional love are the key .. and I am ready to understand that someone out there co-ordinating this movement has yet to fully comprehend the full nature of what we all are in a sense trying to achieve ..

research - importance of team work

I am just trying to put together a few thots I got about my work in general and role of a team in particular. I am just trying to put in words as I think. I think its important to have had a research group (under a supervisor, in this context) working on similar things. I mean a team is so important in research I realise. I started with my seniors code and tried to understand it for some time. During this time, I started believeing that whatever he must have done would have been validated. But as it turned out, some of his things (for eg. A particular value in one of the tables was labelled incorrectly) were not entirely right. By not right I mean not correctly presented. And in retrospect, I feel, I lost considerable time in reaching this conclusion. Time apart, it also means that I have naturally become suspicious about other things he has presented. As it turns out, the senior who wrote the code left before i joined. So we couldnt meet when i started and moreover i was the only pers

A journey of imagination ..

As we count down the minutes to a remarkable event, I can hardly resist the emotions. Today, India will awake to a new reality. This event marks the entry of india among the deep-space faring nations. But this is just the beginning. We need to chart higher goals and higher missions. The red planet, the outer solar system with its fascinating moons, the solar-interstellar interface and beyond beckon us with their limitless queries and charming riddles. But this is no time to get carried away, it is rather time to reflect on more exigent beauties. The moon, our closest companion, is also a source of energy, and is perhaps going to rescue us from the looming energy crisis. With its helium reserves, it could be more important than we can imagine. So as the early morning sun makes a soft arrival on the east coast of India, preparations are on in full swing. The majestic PSLV C-11 is allset to soar high, with no only indian instruments and dreams on board, but an international suite of exper

Final county game of the season ...

The county season 2008 was poised for a dramatic send off. Both the top and bottom places were at stake even as the final day of the season began. I decided to catch the action at Hove where the hosts Sussex (sharks) were facing Yorkshire ( snaps here ). As always the action starts early morning at Southampton under misty conditions. I miss the first service to Hove but before long I am on the Southern train bound for brighton. This journey is a new first for the direction taken from southampton. A few pages of sherlock holmes and a few kids on the seat ahead of me are enough to keep me entertained for the 1.5 hour sojourn. As we head south-east, the attraction swings from distant hills to the left to the ever closer coastline on the right. Hove is the last but one stop to brighton. And the first thing (line) that strikes you on reading the heritage board outside hove station - "Hove is separate from brighton !". That much for satiating the hovian pride. The Sussex county gro

Olympics sign off

As i watch the olympic closing ceremony, a stream of thoughts starts to trickle through my mind. All the thrills and spills, the highs and lows of the last few days. But before I get on with that thread, heres a phd comic, an original one .. --------------------------------------------------- scene: discussion in lab about olympic success .. French guy (complaining as usual): 34 medals but only 5 golds, we are lot better than what the standings show .. Spanish guy : whatever the tally suggests is one thing, but Nadal is truly something .. German (ambitious as ever) : umm .. 14 gold is just about ok, but we can and should do lot better .. British guy (doesnt know a thing abt sport otherwise): our success is quantified - 1.5 All: ??? British: you see, Australia have 12 gold and we have 18, so 18/12 = 1.5. Indian (beaming and seemingly happiest of the lot): We did infinitely well this time. All: ?????????? Indian: you see, Pakistan has 0 medals and we have 3, so 3/0 = infinity. ----------

Wimbledon

The protagonist of our story, Mr. Wimby is a fan of Wimbledon. Its been ages (atleast his age) that he has followed Wimbledon. Be it watching Boris becker making delightful volleys, Be it Goran climbing up to his father upon making it finally to where he belonged, Be it staying up late hoping that the stupid television channel realises that paes is playing on court 10 - please switch to it, Be it hoping Nirupama vaidyanathan becomes first indian woman to make it to round 2. Wimby is no novice at the art of crashing in early at wimbledon to get ground entry on the day. But this time, there is more in store. Sunday, June 29 (6.30 pm): Wimby is languishing in his room at southampton. The distance to Wimbledon has gone up from last year (when he was based in london) but perhaps the urge is commensurate. An idea is seeded. A quick check with BBC weather and the idea takes root. A sunny Monday and Roger Federer on centre court. Sounds like an invitation to Wimby's ears. Just as a fail-sa