The Moving Finger

Dirk Kuyt Worth his weight in gold! Ha ha!

2010-07-07T10:11:00.002+05:30

When Cruyff mentioned that Kuyt is worth his weight in gold, it was supposed to be a compliment!

Now, let me have a look at the numbers:
The price of Gold per gram in Sterling pounds = 25.32
The weight of Dirk Kuyt according to LiverpoolFc.tv = 83 kg = 83,000 g
Hence, the worth of Dirk Kuyt's weight in gold =

GBP 2, 101 ,560

Personally, I rate Kuyt much higher than THIS number, but this is good for the laughs!
Cruyff, did you really mean THIS number when you made that statement?

PS: Can someone give me other players with the same price range?

Apple pie

2010-04-03T20:54:00.001+05:30

Made at home

Packing again?

2009-11-29T12:16:00.001+05:30

No bloody time to rest, as soon as we complete the ride, we get to packing again!

On top of coorg!

2009-11-29T10:58:00.001+05:30

Last minute decision brought me to the expert ride, courtesy abu's bike.

Chain reaction!

2009-11-29T07:50:00.001+05:30

One guy's chain breaks, and all of us stop.

Till breakfast do us apart. . .

2009-11-29T06:32:00.001+05:30

After which most of the guys will go on an easy ride, and the select few brave men will attempt a 40km ride, including 20 km of quite steep rise. You can only guess which one i chose.

The road less travelled

2009-11-28T10:06:00.001+05:30

Somewhere at 22 plus kms

Curious kids

2009-11-28T08:06:00.001+05:30

Hope doesn't kill us cats. :-p

The hawk!

2009-11-28T08:05:00.001+05:30

Ready to go

2009-11-28T08:04:00.001+05:30

Had breakfast. Good to go now. . .

Reached sakleshpur. . .

2009-11-28T05:00:00.000+05:30

Sitting in the bus, raring to hit the road. Could have done with a bit more of sleep, but then there's only so much sleep you can get sitting in a bus.
I guess we are waiting for the bikes to arrive, without which we are not likely to start anyways. :)
Disassembled the bikes and packed them yesterday. So the minimum requirement would be to assemble each of the 30 odd bikes when they arrive here.
Till then, will try to catch some precious sleep. . .

2009-11-27T10:34:00.001+05:30

Zoomed view

2009-11-27T10:27:00.002+05:30

A house in tel aviv

2009-11-27T10:22:00.001+05:30

Notice the vine doubling up as the lady's hair.

Open letter to Vodafone, and future customers!

2009-10-15T18:20:00.000+05:30

Sir,

I had sent a mail to Vodafone Karnataka, asking for the protocol to disconnect my Vodafone mobile account, on August 27. I had even mentioned in the mail that I wanted to disconnect my account LATEST by 11th Sept. I never got a proper reply, but I was called by numerous representatives from Vodafone asking me what the problem was. They would not take just the fact that 'I wanted to switch to Airtel' for an answer.

Realising that in this way, my account will not be cancelled any time soon, I went to Whitefield Vodafone store to cancel my vodafone account. The representative first asked me to change to a zero rental plan or something instead of disconnecting, but I insisted on disconnecting it completely, stating the reason that I did not want to be responsible for an active sim card falling into the wrong hands. (I should not need to remind you of what people have been able to achieve using sim cards and mobile phones in recent history.)

Then I was asked to fill a form, and sign it, and I was asked to clear my dues, which the store representative kindly calculated for me and told me to pay at the cash counter. I came out of the store believing that for all purposes, my Vodafone account was history now.

Few days later, I got a call from one of the representatives who had called me before to ask me why I wanted to leave Vodafone. She obviously didn't know yet that I had already disconnected my account. I told her so, and told her that I am happy to be an Airtel customer now, since my company also has an Airtel CUG plan. Anyway, I made her understand my point that I was feeling better off not being a Vodafone customer any more.

Further, on 12th September (my usual bill date), I received a bill from Vodafone in my e-mail, to which I replied stating that I had already disconnected my account, and settled all my outstanding, and will make no further payments.

My mom started getting calls on the alternate contact number since this week, asking if I could be contacted, and that I had to pay a bill, for a service I was not using any more.

When I called Vodafone care, every time, I was handled by a different person. I have been handled by Mr. Praveen and Mr. Manoj (both from the cancellation dept I presume).

I was afforded different explanations at different points in the conversation:

1) Mr. Praveen told me while talking that since I had mentioned in the e-mail that I want to cancel my account by 11th of September, I have to pay the bill till that date. My argument: Does not the fact that I actually went and got my connection disconnected have any importance in this matter? Once I get a disconnection, why should I pay for the other half of the month, during which I did not use your services?

2) After some time arguing about this, Mr. Praveen interrupted me and told me that he can see in the records that I had given a request for re-activation of my account on Sept 2. I was dumbfounded by this allegation. I asked him to provide me details of where I had gone to reactivate my account. He said that the vodafone store's name is some "Feet-on-street" or something like that.
I have asked Mr. Praveen for documentary proof of me having given such a request, to which he said that for reactivation, I don't even need to sign anywhere, or even visit a Vodafone store. All I have to do is just place a call and ask for reactivation. He was not even ready to believe me when I said that I had no knowledge of this reactivation request. All he kept saying was that there was a reactivation request ( about which there are no more details!!), and that proves I sent a request!!

My guess is that the representative who called me after cancellation would have changed the status, without consulting me. To strengthen my case, if you check my records since 29th August, you will see that I have not used the connection at all, active or not.

3) I tried reaching Praveen for two more days, and kept getting routed to other people in the Vodafone call centre. My mom still gets calls daily. I finally manage to reach a Mr. Manoj today, who again started discussing the matter with me, and told me that a Mr. Shankar had come to my house and visited me at my house on the 25th of September. don't know what Mr. Shankar achieved in the records after his alleged interaction with me, but I know only a small fact that on 25th of September, I was on a tour of Israel, not in India!

4) Yesterday evening I had even called Vodafone care and told them that if the sim card concerned with my account, which is still active apparently, and which is not with me anymore ( must be in some trash bin somewhere) is used in a terrorist plot anywhere, I should not be held responsible.

So, to help you summarize my complaints from the long mail:

1) Your representatives actively encourage people to keep the sim cards active ( even when they know we are not going to use them), which could be harmful not only to the concerned person, but also to the society in general. Is it to quote a higher number of users at the cost of national security?
2) What is the point of I having to go to a Vodafone store to cancel my account, If the cancellation request is not going to be entertained at all.
3) You have records, but you don't have accountability for those records. Case in point, my alleged call/visit to "Feet-on-street" to reactivate my account, Mr. Shankar's visit to my place, etc. Another example I would like to give: The representatives require me to visit a Vodafone store and sign documents to open an account, to close an account, hell even to change my alternate number. But you re-activate the account without even gathering any documentary proof? Why? Helps make more money?
4) What came up in the discussion, that apparently I am enabled to activate a new connection in the middle of the month, but I cannot disconnect my account in the middle of the month. Seems that I have to pay the bill on the next billing date IRRESPECTIVE of the fact that I had already settled all accounts at the Vodafone store? It is a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
5) Again, I had asked Mr. Praveen to contact me and tell me where was it that the re-activation request was filed from. He told me he would get back to me. I haven't got a reply yet. I had even told him that I will help him resolve the problem, and had given him my new number for his advantage, but the calls to my mom should temporarily stop. The calls keep coming, and Mr. Praveen doesn't seem interested in solving the problem.
6) Heights! When I was trying to obtain the request number above, the representative said that he can take my cancellation request on phone! If only they had told me before!

I would suggest Vodafone try to rise above the money making mentality. Quality service to customers is important, whether it is a new customer, or someone discontinuing you services. I will wait for an appropriate amount of time for your reply regarding the same, after which I will contact the appellate authority. Kindly take heed of this mail, not just as a personal complaint, but also to improve as a company. To be more transparent, and professional.

Regards,
Atul Deshpande

Jonathan Livingston Seaman

2009-08-13T11:09:00.000+05:30

Jon slowly opened his eyes. The last thing he remembered was crashing into the sails of a ship during the pull up from a 'death dive'. The sailors had placed some bread crumbs and water in his cage. Wait, 'CAGE'?...

The sailors weren't so bad, after all. They would let him out of the cage every evening, and watch him fly. If he did well, he would get a 'reward' from the day's catch. Try a 'death dive', and he wouldn't get much, to drive home the point that though exhilerating, the sailors did not appreciate the possibility of either losing their only source of entertainment, or having to stitch another patch in the sails. He needed some time to understand these dynamics, but understand he did...

He returned every day to eat, rest and sleep in the cage. The death dive was now a distant memory, he knew it won't fetch him good, easy fish. He did not fly out into the thunderstorms. They wouldn't allow him to, even if he wished. 'The little joys of life' now seemed more clearer, nearer. Getting wool in the cage, being named the official mascot of the ship were suddenly so important to the same bird who had foregone a thousand meals for the love of flying. Flying was just another activity in life now. Not life itself...

Jonathan opened his eyes. He felt a sudden pain. He realized he didn't care if he died in the thunderstorm, or while doing a death dive, or just sitting on the deck of the ship. What he cared for was to "live" in all these places, to "live" the moments that he wanted to. A sailor's life was good, yes, but he did not want to live anything else than his own life.

He did not return from his evening flight that day.

Yaara Maula - Gulaal

2009-08-11T10:09:00.000+05:30

...Haan haan yaadon mein hai ab bhi,
Kya surila wo jahan tha,
Hamare haathon mein rangeen gubaare the,
Aur dil mein mehekta sama tha...

...Wo zameen thi, aasmaan tha,
Hum ko lekin kya pata tha,
Hum khade the jahan par,
Ussi ke kinaare pe gehra sa andha kua tha...

...Phir wo aaye bheed ban kar,
Haath mein the unke khanjhar,
Bole phenko yeh kitaabe,
Aur sambhalo yeh salakhein,
Yeh jo gehra sa kua hai, haan haan andha to nahi hai,
Iss kue mein hai khazana, kal ki duniya to yahi hai,
Kud jao leke khanjhar , kaat daalo jo ho andar,
Tum hi kal ke ho shivaji, tum hi kal ke ho sikander...
................
.......
...Ab hamare laga zaayka khoon ka,
Ab batao kare to kare kya?
Nahi hai koi jo hume kuch bataye,
Batao kare to kare kya?

My first open letter to a celebrity!

2008-05-28T15:57:00.000+05:30

For those who want a clue as to what this is about: http://blogs.bigadda.com/ab/2008/05/22/day-34iii/

For those who don't care:

Mr. Pant,
Your article started off quite well. I thought it was progressing in the right direction, when you suddenly decided to commit suicide to take it into unwarranted detail. From what I understand, you were trying to establish the fact that India of today is lacking role models of substance. I guess the REAL problem though is: India of today lacks media of substance. take TOI(India, not Idea), for example. A few years ago, I could see lesser pictures and more text, meaningful text, in the publication. But recently, TOI standards have fallen to Tabloid levels. It takes an effort to find news in the newspapers. The Hindu has sort of maintained their standards, but picking up today’s paper, I feel as though I am reading something which had happened way back in the 50’s. So bland is their presentation that you can try putting a baby to sleep with a copy of the Hindu.
Now, coming back o the “substance-lacking” media, they are the ones who make heroes out of people. Who would have known about Budhia (the marathon runner kid) had it not been for the media? Getting me? So as long as the media keeps on reporting about how Aishwarya Bachchan got a pimple, or what shade of white Mr. Bachchan’s beard is, this country is going to, not perish, but at least waste a lot of its time reading stuff the people won’t remember the next day.
So, my point is, as you had pointed out, but got lost in the harakiri you committed, that we not focus on the poor ‘humans’ improving, but rather the all powerful media trying to do a better job.
Hope you agree with me.
Pondy aka Atul.

Dear Mr. Bachchan,
I gather that if I blog an entry named “Amitabh Bachchan sucks”, you will help me get more publicity in a couple of days than I have received in my whole lifetime of 24 years, by replying to my post in your own blog!
Mr. Pant was trying to say that you, or rather any celebrity, (I don’t believe either you or him can be considered as heroes) is after all human. Is it not a possibility that you MIGHT be having some fallibilites of your own? In trying to reply to each and every one of his points, are you trying to prove that you have led an ideal life so far? Why not simply accept that you are human, with your own share of fears and superstitions (yes, all religions come under superstitions)? I do not believe whatever Mr. Pant says, or even whatever you try to justify. But one thing is for sure, had it not been the Indian media, you wouldn’t have been half the celebrity that you are today. That, for the record, is not something the media should be proud of, anyway. I understand you have a right to your fair share of fallibiliies, one of which, I guess is a VERY fragile EGO. Why do you need to confront every Tom, Dick and Harry who you do not agree with? Life is short, Mr. Bachchan, and for you, even shorter, I guess. How old are you, 65? Why not sit back and enjoy your life? Why be angry all the time? Let the younger brigade show their anger, for a change. By the way, you can learn a few points from Aamir Khan on how to keep the media in its place. And try some original blogs, rather than always trying to write off someone else’s original input by simply hitting the ‘reply’ button!
And yes, before your fans here pounce on me, even I am a human, with my share of vices.
Pondy aka Atul.

PS: If you guys ask why I was on AB's blog, I was redirected when I was searching for content related to an aquaintance. :(

Panchvi Pass??

2008-05-16T12:02:00.000+05:30

Amitabh Bachchan is wondering what's wrong with Panchvi pass( or fail, does he say?). TV analysts say IPL eats into the viewerships of Panchvi Pass(PP), otherwise it would have been far bigger. Some people have mentioned that the participants are too articulate. Maybe the choice of the host was wrong?

If we have a look at "Fifth grade" half way across the globe, we see a game show that is very similar, and yet, very popular. Reasons??

One, could be that Jeff Foxworthy is way better than SRK, or any other Indian host there could possibly be. Two, American people seem to be a lot dumber than normal people are, though it seems Indians aren't that far behind. Three, the most important point so far, is the questions they ask. There's an ocean of difference between them! The questions on the American show are much simpler, most of the times needing common sense, and hence entertaining(or you could read it as interesting), which makes the show watchable.

For a moment now, I'd like to sit back and think. This is no longer about the success or failure of a game show. This is about much more. Think about it. A game show, based on 1st - 5th grade questions, designed to catch maximum eyeballs, can turn out to be too boring, even for adults. How interesting would the same curriculum be for a ten year old? And without the moolah! Shouldn't we do something about it?

White Rabbit in my mind

2008-04-16T11:32:00.000+05:30

...tsung tsung tu rungdung,
tsun tsung tsung tu rungdung,
tsun tsung tsung tu rungdung,
tsun tsung tsung tu rungdung,

tsun tsung tsung tu rungdung,
tsun tsung tsung tu rungdung,
tsun tsung tsung tu rungdung,
tsun tsung tsung tu rungdung...

Jam, fame and Desipondy

2008-02-18T22:19:00.000+05:30

Cauvery was up against Jam in the Schroeter footer tie, though having a fine bunch of talented players, Cauvery was stuck with the bitter fact they were all literally uncles when compared to the BTech boys, whose average age might be 20 at the max. Anyway, the differences apart, Cauverians did fight, and eventually lose to the younger team, though the goals were more because of our players' mistakes than Jam's physical supremacy. This story is, in either way, no way related to how the match was played or how it ended. It has more to do with a ritual followed by the supporters of the teams on the field.

It is commonplace in IIT to find another name for almost every other person, basically their nick names given to them by their friends. Though it is a practice mostly followed by the BTech Junta, and very few of the PG's have nicks. Now, it is also a common practice in IIT for the supporters of one hostel to pick up players from the other team for sledging, and the nicks do come in handy here.
Coming back to the match, I was 'manager' of the Cauvery team, what with my hand broken, and nothing more important possible. So, watching the game from the sidelines, I realized the supporters on the other side calling out to a Pondy. I guessed their team had a pondy( my nick is Desipondy) too. Anyway, soon the encouragement turned into a nice round of sledging, with them making statements having all permutations of Desi and Pondy, if you know what I mean. I realized what had happened, though the Jam junta, in their innocent endeavor to shout the hell out of their throats to upset 'Desipondy', didn't know they were being cheated out of the satisfaction of unsettling Pondy.
After the match got over, I asked Adarsh( left wing) if he knew who Desipondy was, who teh crowd was sledging at. He said he didn't know, to which I asked him to remove his shirt and look at its back, where it was written in big bold letters

DESIPONDY

69

Flashback: Adarsh being a new student, didn't have a hostel jersey, and since Desipondy wasn't playing, he lent his own to Adarsh, who made every drop of sweat absorbed by the jersey count on the field with a fine performance.
Flash-to-present: Match analysis
Apart from the fact that Cauvery lost, a little victory of sorts was achieved when we consider the following facts.
The Jam supporters cried their throats sore calling 'Desipondy' more names.
Adarsh, the man in Desipondy's garb, had no idea what burden he was carrying on his back, and hence wasn't the least perturbed.
No other player was too much troubled, since the catchy Desipondy caught everyone's attention.
The real Desipondy was delighted that he eventually got more famous!
The Jam supporters would have been aghast at the amount of Desipondy's attention they could garner after all this shouting!

Games people play

2007-08-31T22:30:00.000+05:30

Ravi Bopara and Stuart Broad were whipping Agarkar, Zaheer and co. to hand the Indian cricket team a humiliating defeat, yet again. In spite of all this, the tricolour was flying high at Old Trafford, not that it had to do anything with the "game" going on at that ground. It was all about two events in time zones roughly five and half hours on either side of the Old Trafford.

The first was in the very heart of the country where India beat Syria to lift the Nehru Cup in a hell of a match to give a fairy tale ending to an equally unbelievable performance throughout the tournament. Unfortunately, Prasar Bharti thinks that the exploits, or rather the exploitation, of the Cricket team is of National Importance, whereas the broadcast of this match wasn't!

The second event was at Flushing Meadows, when Sania Mirza continued the best form of her life so far to enter the third round, roughly at the same time that half of the cricket team was back in the pavillion, and those on the pitch did not exactly have a clue as to what to do. Unfortunately, here too, I encountered some serious opposition from some of my fellow hostel mates, who had warned me that "not a single ball" should be missed in the cricket telecast.

Sachin and his friends should consider themselves lucky that even when they perform so badly, there are people who actually endure another of their lacklustre performance for eight hours, in the end supporting a losing cause, rather than watch a two hour endeavor in which people are actually performing well.

P.S. I have realized that cricket might not be qualified to be called a sport, if people like MS Dhoni, who has to fumble for every alternate ball which comes to him, are made captains of forthcoming teams. All the cricketing nations are more like a group of girls, who either have occasional sleepovers at each others' places(read bilateral series) or have a kitty party every month(World cup every four years).

The first toon!

2007-06-01T21:20:00.000+05:30

To Red, with love

2007-05-09T19:25:00.000+05:30

Dear Red Forman,
Thank you for eight seasons of That 70's show, with all the beers, dumbasses and your foot in other people's asses, especially Eric's, which helped me know how an adolescent son and his father's relation usually is. Even though it would have been hard on Eric, I did find it beautiful, and enjoyable. There were situations when i was laughing, with just a hint of a tear in my eye. Know not what to make of it. But the association with you and that dumbass son of yours was one to be cherished.

I know you don't like it when people say it, and that according to you, it has to be said only thrice, but still, I Love You!! :)

Yours sincerely...

Imagine - John Lennon

2007-03-28T23:56:00.000+05:30

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 that 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 that 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

The Moving Finger

2007-03-21T16:50:00.000+05:30

(sourced from Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyam)
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop'd we live and die,
Lift not your hands to It for help — for It
As impotently moves as you or I.

With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man knead,
And there of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:
And the first Morning of Creation wrote
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.

Yesterday This Day's Madness did prepare;
To-morrow's Silence, Triumph, or Despair:
Drink! for you know not whence you came, nor why:
Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.

She stoops to conquer...

2006-11-07T21:54:00.000+05:30

He touched the scar on his left cheek, cursing the cat under his breath. He swore never to let it come near him, never allow it to cuddle up beside him. Cats, he reflected, are an ungrateful species inherently, and he never should have let it take him for granted.

The cat meanwhile, oblivious to the pain it had caused, roamed around the neighbourhood without a care. Some time later, it realized it could do with some refreshing milk. Not that it was hungry, it was just that it wanted to taste some. It headed back home...

He observed it coming, from the corner of his eye, the same eye which had only recently escaped the destiny of being blinded by a feline claw. The cat, too, sensed a not-so-friendly atmosphere. Changing its gait from haughty to meek, slowing down, it let out a soft purr. He looked on, still seething. It stalled for time, circling the furniture, waiting for him to calm down. Calm down he did, it was his own pet after all. How long could he stay angry at his own cat?

After nuzzling his leg for a couple of minutes, it moved towards the refrigerator, mewing a little louder to grab his attention. He did come, and poured some milk for it, which it happily started lapping up. With the milk finished, he picked it up lovingly, caressing it, a warm cuddle ready for it...

A few minutes later, he was touching the scar on his right cheek, cursing the cat under his breath...

The Parasite

2006-10-26T00:04:00.000+05:30

It stood tall in the midst of all those shrubs. Alone, but still, tall and rigid. Might as well have been happy, considering all it had to do was to fulfil its own needs. Made its own food, drew only as much water as it needed. Life was simple.

Then came the new creature. The little one clung to the tree, making it the centre of its world. The tree, having seen a parasite for the first time, couldn't decide what to do...

It tried shrugging it off, but the little one held fast. It drew its food and water from the tree, causing a lot of annoyment in the beginning. But then, slowly, it managed to convince the tree that this is how a beautiful life is led, sharing what you have with others around you, sacrificing for people close to you.

Having been fairly convinced, and not noticing that the parasite never gave anything in return, the tree set out to carve a new pattern to life. Now it had to draw more water, share part of the food it prepared with the little one. In return, all the parasite did was cling fast, which the tree mistook for gratitude. Slowly, as the parasite grew, more and more of the of the tree's food was shared with it. It had now become strong enough to pull its "rightful" share from the tree.

The tree began weakening, all its old glory sapped by the parasite. All that remained in its life now was to nourish the parasite, many a times at its own cost.

One fine day, the tree could no longer support the parasite, and the latter walked away without as much as another word, to another tree.

One Art - Elizabeth Bishop

2006-08-27T22:27:00.000+05:30

It was raining hard.

Still, people at IIT don't easily let just rain ruin a free movie at the open air theatre. The movie, In Her Shoes, wasn't paricularly exceptional, but it just let us have a hold of the plot ever so weakly.

And then, all of a sudden, Cameron Diaz was asked by an ailing professor to read out a poem, which managed to catch my attention. As I was listening to her read, I couldn't help but imagine that it was written for me...

It is the sound of someone trying to convince themselves of what they are saying; someone who cannot escape the "emotional fact" that one cannot master the art of losing.

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is not disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved homes went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

My life, my book

2006-08-20T20:08:00.000+05:30

My life is but an open book,
And all you need is just to look.

Not that I have anything hidden,
Knowing me, is not forbidden.

It's as plain as any text could be,
It could be clear to you, as it is to me.

It's easy to fathom, but tough to see,
For you, a bit troublesome it would be.

There's just one thing for you to realise,
From where you stand, upside down it lies...

The RADAR operator!!

2006-08-16T15:55:00.000+05:30

This post might not be appreciated by those who aren't well versed with probability, but I HAD to write it. It's my blog, anyway. :)

12 noon: Probabilty class under way. The professor poses a problem before the pupils:

The probability of an aircraft appearing in the range of a radar is 0.05. Given the aircraft is present, the probability of correct detection is 0.99. On the other hand, the probabilty of a "Detection" when there is no aircraft, is 0.1. Find the probability of:
Missed Detection
False Alarm

The problem begins with a problem of words. The teacher says that Missed Detection means that the aircraft was present and at the same time, was not detected. Hence, by probability law, it comes to .05 x .01 = .0005

A rebel pupil decides that this being a problem dealing with the safety of a nation, could not be such a cakewalk. He dives deep into his own ideas, and comes to the conclusion that given the radar shows no detection, had there been an aircraft, it would have been a Missed Detection.
This throws him into the realms of conditional probability, with vices of its own, what with mathematicians not consulting linguists while formulating the laws of probability!

A great deal of pain precedes the answer, which turns out to be .000558, tantalisingly close, yet certainly different from the other answer. Of course, the teacher must be knowing his stuff. He's got the book, too, remember. And logically, both events, even though they sound nearly the same, do differ in a slight manner, which cannot be projected in the limited dimensions of language.

The teacher's stand, thus, was justified, with a PhD degree holding him in good stead, and the pupil agreed that Missed Detection is how the teacher defines it to be. But then, what exactly is the number he is looking at, and, for that matter, why is it different from the teacher's.

The latter question hasn't been answered to date, i.e., why are the two probabilities different. [Mathematically, it can always be shown, but then, RADARs are just not about plain numbers!]. An attempt to visualize the other event led to the following scenario, which doesn't make the job of a RADAR operator look promising enough.

Scenario 1 (Mid-air): Missed detection, the actual thing
The aircraft IS definitely flying in the range of the RADAR, and goes undetected, with a probability of .0005.
Scenario 2 (Control room): The operator's dilemma
The operator can see nothing on the screen. No aircraft whatsoever. Still, he knows there's a chance of the system being wrong, and there COULD always be an aircraft there, with a probability of .000558.

So, from the point of view of the operator, the risk of an aircraft being present in a blank RADAR screen, somehow turns out to be more than the actual risk of the system failing!! And he'll always end up being on a yet higher side of a healthy Sphygmomanometer reading, for no fault of his, nor of the RADAR system's....

Read the bold line again, if you haven't yet comprehended the poor guy's situation, and do comment if you do come across any more information, or solutions, from your side.

GTC!!

2006-08-04T11:22:00.000+05:30

Have been busy for the first time in IIT, hence there has been a drought of posts on this blog.

The reason being a farcical game played here called the GTC( stands for the General Test Committee) meeting, which reviews your progress every year. Now, to be precise, in the last one year, i managed to do everything else but progress.

So have to work extra hard, to finish a year's worth of work in a fortnight.
Logging off till then. Hope the blog sees greener times after the 10th of this month.

...Back to IIT

2006-07-25T18:14:00.000+05:30

Rush hour on ECR and all the way to IIT from there is best if it can be avoided. And I got a real taste of it, too.

It requires quite a skill to maneuver a bicycle through Chennai traffic, let alone anything bigger. I will have to give a serious thought to my dreams of owning a Thunderbird after this encounter. Anyway, despite the people of Chennai, and there vehicles, we did manage to reach our own IIT in another three quarters of an hour.

A soft drink and a Sweet lime juice later, we dispersed to our daily lives, though not before the keeda of a trip to Pondicherry on cycles!

VGP and Golden Beach...

2006-07-25T11:17:00.000+05:30

Around eight kms of cycling got us to VGP( I couldn't decipher theTam name that abbreviates to VGP..) , a sort of amusement park, which included the Golden Beach.

First thing we did after entering was to run to the beach and have our share of dips. The cleanest and safest beach I've seen in Chennai so far, it was..... Another hunger pang found us sitting at the restaurant, rummaging through our stocks, and obliging the restaurateur with a humble order, at the same time.

The following couple of hours were spent roaming around the park, snapping photos and riding all the free rides. :)

Having come out of the park, we had a long debate with the security at the parking. That guy reasoned that since the cyckes had two wheels, it would count as a two wheeler, and we'd have to pay 10 rupees for each. We countered that even though the poor cycles had two wheels, we had parked them in the space equivalent to one auto-rickshaw, so that makes the fee 10 rupees for all included. Somehow, all of us managed to agree on 30 rupees, and set off, through the rush hour traffic of Chennai...

Dhaba Surprise!

2006-07-25T11:15:00.000+05:30

On our way back from the Croc Bank, being nearly starved, we decided to have a rather late breakfast at a place on the ECR( in case I didn't mention before, it's the East Coast Road. Throughout our journey, we never lost view of the sea!!!), called the ECR Dhaba. Though we did stop in between to have a look at one of the untouched( and dangerous) beacheson the way, before that.

When we entered the premises of the Dhaba, we were pleasantly surprised to see a mini-zoo of his own, which had, among geese, rabbits, love birds and pigeons, an Emu farm, some real cute Persian cats and a marmoset(it's supposed to be the smallest species of monkeys, fits on a palm!).

The sight of these animals made a couple of us hungry( the non-veggies, u might have guessed), and we had our breakfast( at last!), which worked out to a whopping 100 bucks per head... On a breakfast!

Crocodile Bank!!

2006-07-23T19:22:00.000+05:30

Crocodile Bank, as it is called, wasn't too far from the Kovalam beach. The five travellers(did I mention there were five?) set off towards the bank, and made it in good time, too.

Well, we were quite casual when we entered the place, buying our passes and all, but come to the first pit, and behold!!, i never had seen so many of these creatures at once! There were around 40 crocs in the first pit itself, and the fun(??) was just about to begin. All seemed asleep, some with there jaws open, made for some good food for the cammie!

The place could as well have been called reptile bank! We got to see some magnificient snakes n pythons(worth mentioning was one albino cobra, near white!), some real cute turtles, and a few real long alligators, too.. Also, managed to hold a cute little 2 year old mugger.

Anyway, we finished off some more of our snack pile, and got off on our journey back, but our tummies sure were rumbling, what with us deprived of our breakfast, too!

IIT to Kovalam

2006-07-17T13:35:00.000+05:30

We'd started off late, at 0530h, to be precise, and stopped after about three quarters of an hour to have our morning cuppa tea. Just as we were stopping, we heard the screech of brakes and saw a sedan running over a cyclist! We got the message all right, I must say...

Gaurav had a cup too many, i guess, for when we started again, he obliged the road by puking out some tea on it. Other than these, nothing noteworthy happened, until we reached Kovalam. As soon as we reached there, we were welcomed by the site of one temple, one mosque and one church with literally nothing else, and the beach was literred by fishermen all over.

Debating whether or not to move ahead to Mahabalipuram, we finally decided not to, and settled for crocodile bank, instead....

Cycling to Kovalam!

2006-07-16T21:36:00.000+05:30

I woke up to the sound of "Sweet child of mine" playing as my ringtone, a whole of fifteen minutes before my scheduled alarm. It was Ayyar, waking me up at 0415h, and surprisingly( if ya know me well enough), I promptly got up, finished freshening up, and got ready...

OK, not that I'd turned a new leaf and was waking up to study n all, but then, we were going to Kovalam beach, on cycles, that too. Everything had been meticulously arranged for, the cycles had been serviced, snacks stocked up, and so on. A few glitches and one drop out later, we finally started off...

Would we be going straight ahead to Kovalam without any further hiccups, or do we confront greater woes? Keep watching.. Since I'm, ahem, too busy with my research n stuff, I'll post the story in short episodes.

What's in a name?

2006-07-12T18:37:00.000+05:30

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Shakespeare must sure be turning in his grave, seeing the way the world has turned out to be. I, for one, don't agree any more with the famous words mentioned above. Nor, do i think, a certain Mr. Zinedine Zidane, would like to endorse the same thoughts.

It had never occured to me that Zidane is anything more than a French footballing God. But then, there Was much more. The name, which never meant anything to me, except that it had been made famous by exceptional talent, said it all. But people managed to oversee the fact that he could rise to his present greatness despite being born to poor Algerian immigrants, and having been brought up in the roughest parts of France. Somehow, they just stop at Algerian!

Likewise, a friend of mine, who had sported a beard, and was wearing a Kurta, was caught at Bandra station in Bombay and was scanned thoroughly, till he showed his ID, which bore his last name, a 'respected' Brahmin one at that. The cop apologised to him, and started chatting with him as if he'd been his next door neighbour!

Meanwhile, an interesting way of protesting came up in IIT Kanpur, where more than 200 students, from all sections of the society, dropped their surnames, and chose to adopt a new name, namely "Bharat".

The Final Whistle!!

2006-07-10T11:46:00.000+05:30

The whistle blows. Everyone starts moving, slowly, but surely, but within a minute, Prince Henry falls like he's hit by a Mack Truck. This was only the beginning of what was to be one of the most entertaining world cup finals, for reasons more than just what the players did with the ball.

Two wonderful goals and a 110 minutes later, everything was looking set for a copybook end with all 22 players moving towards the penalty shootouts, when Zizou, who seems to defy logic all the time with the ball, decided to do it once more, this time without it, though.

If Henry was hit by a Mack truck on his head, Materazzi was run over by a loaded Macktruck of a head. His ribs sure would remember this one. What exactly transpired on the pitch might never come to light, what with Zizou not on terms with the French press, and Materazzi not wanting to talk.

Though this took away from him the glorious exit he was looking for, it also showed us that despite his brilliant moves in the French midfield, and the humility with which he handled his footballing greatness, Zizou still is Human, prone to error like any of the rest of us.

So can we forgive him for his lack of control over his anger, or do we still expect our heroes to be flawless?

Verses I: My first attempt at poetry

2006-06-07T13:56:00.000+05:30


		Space Alien Weds Twin Headed Elvis Clone Early in the morning, walking all alone, Was a space alien, his destiny not known. Disillusioned was he, though he was his own boss, He wanted a partner for life, who should be grosser than gross, Thus he was strolling, in his mind a steady drone, When lo right ahead, he beheld the Elvis Clone, Well, this specimen was not as they say, just another clone, He had two heads on his shoulders, but had just one back bone, Struck by the beauty, Space alien fell head over heels, Love at first sight, right before Elvis did he kneel, 'Accept my love, along with this worm', said the alien in a haze, The elvis clone, struck by surprise, fell in a daze... Never before had he known love, was abhorred by earthlings always, Deranged by the sudden gush of feelings, he heaped the alien with loads of praise. Thus, two lovers met by fate, they decided to marry ere its too late, They had to call a blind priest, lest he not die of shock and meet his fate, The priest asked the question, everyone heard quick I Do's But when the alien turned to smooch, he didn't know which head to choose....

Busy???

2006-06-01T23:59:00.000+05:30

Well, the last post was way back in february!! Does it mean life in IIT is too damn hectic, in the academic sense? Or does it rather indicate the existence of much more "fun" things to do, rather than sit down and fill in ur own blog....
Which makes me wonder...
What's it which really makes people maintain their blogs regularly?
Let's first find out what made me realize i had a blog of my own, after a long time.
The answer seems to lie in the fact that I have been stuck to my computer, sitting with a matlab assignment, literally all the time i'm not asleep.

And now i realize that majority of the junta that blogs r IT employees. Not that i'm not gonna be one when i graduate from here. So all they've got is this screwed up PC in front of them, with an unlimited internet connection, and they're paid to stay right in front of the PC.

So what do they do? Blog Away!! Don't worry... It's made some ppl more famous than they'd have been the conventional way. :)

Conversations I

2006-02-20T09:59:00.000+05:30

A: U r back to being the irritating P, it seems... Siemens not giving enough work, is it?
What do u mean by "Tell me why do u do watever u do...."??

P: ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

A: To hell with it.... I do what i m doing now because i feel like doing it.... Everyone else does the same..

P: yes... But most of them lack the honesty and courage to admit the same... some look for a higher reason...
even i used to .. a long time ago...

A: Stop asking questions... Try answering them for a change...
Answer the same question frm ur point of view... And be frank....I can get into u...
Till then i'll fire some more to u....

P: thats why i dont ask u such questions..
any way i am not afraid of u getting into me..
Now i do things cause i want to do them..
and the reason i want to do them..
is most of the time i am curious ..
lookin for something...

eg: Why do i read a book..
I wanna know wat the author had to say..

why do i eat..
to know how it tastes..( and when it tastes good.. to know how much of it will continue to taste good..)

A: To hell with ur reasoning... U read a book to pass time... U do it because u like reading a book. U do it because in spare time u feel most like reading a book... There are a million authors around in the world. Do u really want to know what each of them has to say?
And u eat because u r a glutton, like me.. U feel the urge to eat. Not to know how it tastes... U continue to eat puri bhaji in NG even when u know the exact taste, and his puri bhaji doesn't change too often....

P: wat do u intend to prove with this...
that our conciousness is purely instinctive and we have no higher purpose..

A: Why should i prove? I have no purpose of proving things to u... Does that answer ur question? : )

P: hmmm... u still havent lost the touch...
u can corner me any day....
But still.. why do we do watever we do...
is it jus cause we want to..
and if so..
how does our want originate.

A: Our perspective of a higher purpose is a figment of our imagination.... After all, why would u want to be curious... Just because U FEEL LIKE BEING CURIOUS... U have a higher purposes because U WANT TO HAVE ONE.... So it all boils down to wanting to do things... A very selfish thing, u know.. Having a higher purpose. We all are coming up with PARIVARTAN [Our group back in bangalore intends to do something for children in orphanages] not because those ppl need it, its because WE WANT TO HELP THEM... How selfish can we get, right?
Yes, we do what we want to... Even if u say u do things because u want to keep ppl happy.... IT is U WHO WANT TO KEEP PPL HAPPY... My want originates from myself... I am the supreme commander of my wants, and they need not be related to my needs... My conscius being might not even know what i NEED, but it very well knows what i WANT...But i need WANTS to survive....

P: Agreed.. U went one step further from where i thought was the root... But
WHY DO WE WANT??

A: The moment i do not have wants, i do not need to survive... We do not exist to fulfil our needs... What is the use of living just to help urself survive? Our existence is driven by our want to fulfil our WANTS...

P: jus an empty loop is it...

A: To me it looks more like a spiral...

P: u there..

A: I am... But i'll not stay.... Speak as u may, if not to make me listen, just because u WANT to..

Happy New Year!

2006-01-14T10:17:00.000+05:30

New year's begun a long ago..... Resolutions made have already been forgotten, almost so...
For the record, i had resolved to do the following things:
...get up at six daily(?)
...play table tennis for three quarters of an hour(??)
...bathe daily(???)
... And finally start my research seriously[ I know u r no longer on ur seat, and lying there on the floor, holding ur stomach]
So as with any other resolution, this one lasted a few days, everything going smoothly, till new year just got old enough. the rest , as they say, is history....
signing out for now...
desipondy