A common man realizing his uncommonness.

When I advise something I don't follow, I am just a consolation... a mere onlooker , a bystander. I call myself a common man, always staying out of the uncertainties of life, living dead in a zombie state.

I compare my fortune with the world less fortunate and keep hugging my own, however dull it may be. Call it fate , and pretend to stay happy. I celebrate every festival like everyone does, mourn every mishap like everyone does. I have such a minute sense of being human that I am totally unaware of the uniqueness that nature has given me. I patch my mistakes , don't make up for them. I have temporary solution for permanent problems. I stay put easily. I either over-react or not react at all only to realize that both did not help.

One fine day, I read ideas that have been put into action, have been guiding the humans worldwide and have become part of history. A history, which ultimately is a deep rooted idea that's persistently put into each and every action with far-most struggle and sacrifice. A great sense of thanks and appreciation bulges in my heart. The people who did not know me have done so much for me to see this day.

Now , the choice is mine, I can either be a common man and matter no more, die a worm. Or take up an idea and let it flow with every action in my life persistently. Nature shall take its course naturally in both the cases.


- metta.

Why we SHOULD take up the Model Thinking Class

When you observe your thinking abstractly and objectively , you will see mathematical models working continuously in your mind , weighing the choices you have and don't have, choices you can and want to have. But if you feel its scope is only limited to YOUR rational thinking , and  YOUR actions , its time to come out of that blackbox. 

Heard of the recent exodus from Bangalore and other cities of migrants from the Northeast? They were reacting to threatening SMS messages warning of violent retaliation from Muslims.  Here is a link to an article on the topic. Read it carefully and understand how the author  reaches the conclusion using Model Thinking.

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/08/22/economics-journal-why-rumors-spread/

I know for some of you might be interested enough to continue reading further before clicking on the link above, so here is a short and sweet example : 

Let us consider a common real life situation :

You are standing at a Bus stop waiting for a bus . A private Jeep stops a few meters from the stop and the cleaner starts shouting the name of exact stop where you want to go. 

You are in a dilemma whether to take lift in the Jeep. In the meantime, one person gets into the vehicle. You rethink your decision. The cleaner shouts again.

Another person gets in. You change your mind and get into the bus. 

Are you the only person who took that split second decision? Well , probably not. What happened with you would have probably had happened 

with the other people who got in before / after you.

What your brain did there is mathematically described as the Standing Ovation Model. A more direct example of it would be a theater full of people where the probability of maximum people standing to appreciate the stage performance is directly proportional to the no of people standing in the first few rows. Otherwise , why do you think celebrities often go to the theater and sit on first row on First Day First Show ?

Continuing with our bus example ... So exactly what kept you initially from taking lift in the Jeep ? Probably you were thinking :

• Bloody private drivers , I 'd rather use the government bus service. Why pay him? <=> Is it in my set of principles to take the lift? (YES/NO)
• Everyone has their own way of earning , why blame the poor. 
• Is the driver / cleaner genuine ? (not drunk , not a kidnapper ... categorization )  (YES/NO)
• Is the vehicle in good condition ? (YES/NO)
• just get in .. who knows when the bus will come. ( Even if your mind made it sound cool at the end , you still change your mind weighing all factors TOGETHER, right? )

This is the Decision Tree Model in your mind. Where every branch had an associated weight.

So, are you interested in more of this stuff ? Do take up the online course on "Model Thinking" by prof. Scott E. Page  by visiting : 

https://www.coursera.org/course/modelthinking 

The course is split over weeks, so working professionals can take it up too. Complete the assignments and get a free certificate of completion from foreign university. The course is light-weight and interesting as it goes across all domains, from day to day life to technology , finance and bureaucracy. 

Buddha hi Buddha hai

Lyrics of the song Buddha hi Buddha hai :

 
बुद्ध हि  बुद्ध है, बुद्ध हि  बुद्ध है
हर जगह , हर समय वो सिद्ध है वो सिद्ध है || (२)

मन मे तुम्हारे बसता वो गुणवान है
सम्यक शिक्षा से करता जो शीलवान है

अहिंसा की ताकत से जो बलवान है वो बुद्ध है ||

स्वयं पर स्वयं तू ध्यान कर ,
हलचल ह्रीदय की स्पन्दानो को जान कर
नित्य नियंत्रण से खुदकी  पेहेचान कर
पायेगा जाब तू विजय स्वार्थ पर
विकृती पर तू निरंतर मात कर
ध्रीढ  निश्चय से  जब चित्त तेरा शुद्ध है तू बुद्ध है ||


परिवर्तन हि है ये जीवन का नियम
क्यो न हो ये धर्म का भी अधिनियम,
मैत्री प्रग्या शील हो जिसमे
सदैव तन मन पर सय्यम
कर पूजा सदगुनो  की ए नादान
ईश्वर क्या बने , तू पहले बन इन्सान
कार्म्कांडो से नाही मिलता भगवान
चमत्कार नाही दुनिया मे तू मान
मानव सेवा हि तुझसे नितीबद्ध है तू बुद्ध है ||



जब चाले हिंसा हि आंधी
निर्लज्ज उठाये पापो का तुफान
ले चला जगात को विनाश के पथ पर
बेधुंद अहंकारी बना इन्सान
देखो उसे धून्डो उसे पाओ उसे , अंतर मन मे , जन मन तन मे
दीपक शांती का , करूणा का वो सागर  , प्रग्या कि जो मूर्ती, दिव्या भाग्याशील नगर
देखो उसे धून्डो उसे पाओ उसे  , यस जगात का ,
इस धारा का वो मार्गादाता  श्रेष्ठ है , वो बुद्ध है ||

[LOTD] Passion vs Compassion

After taking up the job in pune , doing Mumbai-Pune-Mumbai on weekends provides me an opportunity to meet different people.

To summarize the experience, I have realized that in order not to hurt their ego , you have to be compassionate. A response purely based on passion either reflects your own ego or hurts that of the other person.

MVC Public Service Announcement #6 : Modularity

Are headphones injurious to health ?

I dont know the answer to that question but I know for sure that all of you have heard some elderly person talking about the headphones in your ear when you are travelling in a public transport. But you dont care what they think or say, you simply enjoy the beats reverb inside your ear, head and mind.

To others , it may seem like a fashion these days. But if you take a deep breath and take a DIY (Do - It - Yourself ) approach , what do you observe ?

- All your attention is on the words / favourite number thats playing on the phone.
- The hot chic you could have easily stared at for a considerable long time seems so cold in no time.
- The thought "Huh traffic! "  changes into "yey ! today I can listen to the track I missed yesterday ! "
- You realise in between that Headbanging / foot tapping is an ultimate freedom of expression
- positive thoughts like "Hmm .. may be , Having to Listen to a song that I hate (just because my cellphone is in a pocket which is sadwitched in the crowd) kinda increases my stamina to listen to any crap."

... and the list could go on and on.

You see , the truth is , in this information age there is too much info floating around, makes you spend most of the time worrying about the things that can happen / have happened . Then what's wrong with a little information in mp3 / wav / whatever format which can get me an instant "high" without drinking / eating something ?

P.S. I have limited the scope of this post to the use of headphones during travelling  in public transport. Otherwise the DIY approach can be tried at your own risk.

Lost in Translation

Recently, I  attended a convention on Free Open Source Software conducted by Free Software Movement of India . The venue for the event was Tech Mahindra campus , located at about 45 minutes distance (seriously cant help .. m used to measure distance in time) . So the first thing that I thought was

Hmm.. may be Mahindra Satyam wants to regain its Satyam status again.

Major part of attendance comprised of lecturers from all over (mostly south) India. Though I am a working software engineer, I attended the event as a student. cause hell... we all are students till death.

The conference was inaugurated by our beloved Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Here is the full speech for those interested. And for those who love one-liners , see the video below. ( I dont know why that quote is not in the full text! )

As they say

That adage about genius being 5 percent inspiration and 95 perspiration - it's true

And so, as was expected , doses and doses of inspiration for using FOSS was being fed to the hungry. While the people on the "Dias" were injecting the 5%, those in the lecture halls were taking care of the 95% .... great split.

There was a project demonstrated which is trying to implement a village based intranet for the rural people...sms gateway .... info portal .... bla bla ....chat in indic lang.....voice input ... blaa blaa.....speech processing..... And I was wondering ^*$k .... why torture the suiciding farmers more ! first pay them decent enough. The prof demonstrating it was surprised to see that no-one was asking him any questions for his brilliant ideas and said audince lacked the passion required.

Though I am convinced the Open Source Software / Content is the way to go, I am not sure localization of content is really the way to progress of India as we have so many local languages. About Software Localization , I think translation into AN indian lanuage merely a way to let the illiterate remain one throughout. Yes, translation is effective for you up to an extent ... but how long ... a vast pool of knowledge is scripted in English ... so one day it has to be learnt to expand your knowledge....then why not on day 1 itself? Transliteration however is a much better option . As it does not constrain the knowledge gained into a local language. Well anyways , these are my views.

After all , " All is well , that ends well " .... Seeing the Mayavi Python in action was the most exciting part of the event as Prof. Prabhu Ramachandran from IITB demonstrated 3D visualization with Mayavi and Dr. John Hunter  plotted some awesome 2D graphics with his OS alternative to matlab - Matplotlib. In short, it was an exciting voyage into FOSS.... Thanks to Prof. N.L. Sarda . Prof K.S. Rajan :)

[LOTD]: Return to Innocence

What would a mother do for her children when they fight over a piece of bread ?

To the wits of an innocent child it is more appealing that their mother will treat all children equal and each of them will get equal share in the bread. So with mutual understanding , the mother takes the bread and breaks it into equal-size pieces and all are happy.

Few days back, I  saw a group of siblings fighting over the division of their father's farm. I found that the method used earlier by the mother never really solved the issue for any of the children as none of them was happy.  When the Father tried to divide his farm equally to all of them, they used some other means to verify and reprove of more and more land to add to their share. Hard to believe one of them used "google-earth " to view the farm and claimed that the share he had was much less than what others had received.

The female siblings did not show any interest in this activity as they respected their fathers attachment with the land. They recalled the days when their father did not eat for four days and was lying in a half-dizzy state under the neem tree, (and that's where now stands their mother's grave).  They recalled their father's efforts to spent in educating them philosophically and practically to be strong enough to face both life and death.

The sequence of above events happened when the father was lying on a bed in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with multiple organ failures and brain damage, that gave him nightmares with dreams of land-split and brothers killing brothers over it.


Anyways, the teardrops in that ICU had just this tale to tell, I don't want to judge anyone ..... may be I will just pursue my return to innocence.


*LOTD = Lesson of the day

LOTDs[How to humiliate a new teacher]

1. If he is a newly joined prof, and even if its been months he's been  in the institute, act as if you never knew him in the first place when he approaches you.

2. Bombard him with all your negative experiences and make him believe that he has just landed in hell.

3. Keep the Sign-in register on HOD's table even after noticing that he is in the insti today but havent signed it yet.

4. Deliberately become coordinator of many administrative activities and then cry the hell out in front of him saying I have to do everything to get such a lousy pay.... boy ! you are safe.

5. Assign one activity to him saying "You have to take part in such activities" , and after he completes it , assign the same to him next time saying "Now you have become the expert in doing this"

Some more ways..... coming soon....

EndSem

Hahhh.. End of a semester , not as a student but as a teacher. 

It is fun teaching. Its only the other roles that you have to play that make you wonder why the hell do they recruit non-teaching staff for. 

Six months in the campus introduced me to all sorts of people from  Helping colleagues, talented students, Hard working Director  to Nagging colleagues, oversmart students, and memo-sending Director :P

A Contractual worker is used  like a doormat in most of the places but here least of the times thats the case. The tact is to master skills at managing egocentric people. And that will come only when you have/pretend to have ego. I am guessing which one I could do better.

"Under-observation"

"You are 26 only , how come you are a teacher  ..... ! " exclaimed my gym trainer to me one day. He thought I was lying. When I gave it a thought ... it had really been a month at the insti as a fresh lecturer and I started pondering upon the experience as yet. It was then I figured, I needed a new term to describe it.


 
Yes ..... like under-utilization , I want to introduce this new term
"under-observation" in the context of Teaching profession. To give an example , if I say

"Teaching faculty are under observation of the Institute" and
"It is an under-observation of Teaching faculty by the Institute" .

Both have entirely different meanings , if you are getting what I am trying to say here. ;)

BBC Earth Explorer

The Scorched Walls of Nalanda

The Scorched Walls of Nalanda
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

World's first residential international University

Sayonara Orkut Profile [2004-2009]

After a long enough life on orkut I have deleted my account after realising that I was pressing a lot of [F5]'s on the home page to receive updates.

unknown friend

unknown friend
Originally uploaded by vivek sakpal

A common experience of having a SLR with you when travelling. :)

LOTD: Respect your elders

Appearing for a job interview has been a job in itself for me these days , off course its not a job you get paid for but the one for which you pay and expect nothing. Its a great social service . :)

Anyways coming back to latest addition to my "Lesson Of The Day [LOTD]" series....


Happened to appear for a nice interview session with a panel of 6 people, all of whom must be 50+ of age.
The chairperson being the oldest, frequently referred to his victims as "बेटा " and threw some basic questions on basics of basics ....of basics of core subjects.
For example "Define internet". :-)
Now a definition had to be in a well formed sentence which was close to the one interviewer had in his mind... how do you (as a victim ) beat that?



The unconvinced stance of the interviewer recursed to every next question he asked. The fury was carried over by others too and they turned down my chances of survival to an extent that , the last person to ask question argued about me not writing my name on certificate page of my mtech thesis. ( of course it was "printed" and not written 4COL)


In the end it was the wrath of fury I took from question no.1 till the end for not quenching the chairperson's thirst for exact definitions. Yet I respect the interviewer अंकल  , much enough not to write the name of his firm :)

BING Is Not Google

Microsoft vs. google is really going to be a battle for a long run. With Mr. Gates entering into the search engine business, microsoft has shown its desperation ...again. Even its windows 7 does not seem to enjoy any credibility. Like they say , "You never test the depth of a river with both feet". And with BING , Microsoft has just done that. People in the open source world have renamed it to my-crow-shaft :D .

I am sure if they were to expand BING , FOSS geeks would call it "BING Is Not Google".

Be it the flashy Ajax working over a randomly selected background, or its low priority to google related search results, BING has begun its journey towards setting another bad example first it was with an operating system , and now a search engine.

A friend of mine mimics the famous dialog from the movie Matrix .... for Mr. Gates instead of Mr. Anderson....

" Why, mr. Gates, why? why, why do you do it? why, why get up? why keep fighting? do you believe you're fighting for something, for more than your survival(of IE)? can you tell me what it is, do you even know? is it freedom(open source) or truth(that MS sucks) , perhaps peace - could it be for love? illusions, mr. Gates.......vagaries of perception. temporary constructs of pathetic coders trying desperately to justify an existence (of a software) that is without meaning or purpose. and all of them as artificial as the perception that u will survive. "

Bid Adieu KGP

Some days ago I read a twitt saying "Funny how something we lived without for the longest time is suddenly something we can't live without" - Simonnet.

The twitt was regarding a sudden crash of google and panic it caused. Suddenly this twitt seemed to touch me in other context, "Life in KGP". Really two years of campus life have been lively and enjoyable. Who doesn't miss his college life ? (except a book worm or a I dont care ;) )

Interesting gtalk status messages :)

People have this tendency to put quotes as their status message on Internet messaging clients. They change and provide insights into their minds from time to time.

Here is an effort to value those few keystrokes:
[please help me add more to it with a reply to this post]

"I want to change the world but God won't give me the Source Code ... :("

Wind(ows) of Linux

I have Ubuntu and Vista installed on my laptop, But I never thought if I hate windows.

This pretty screen of 15 inch in front of me is my window to the world. How would I hate it if the OS that lures me is also called Windows ?

Windows showed me what I could do, what others can help me do. I cant simply curse the windows for its changing look as a sign of its desperation in keeping up with beryl. I should thank it for making me think a lot before I do something, for example I double click on Firefox only to realize that I have to install PRE-loader for reducing the delay that click will cause.

I should thank the windows for differentiating between Good, bad and the ugly. Even before installing an app I would have to watch out for a "incompatible with vista" warning. Can you believe , even Nero had to release its own product for vista.

When you love someone , its unconditional ... even if the world sees at windows as a moron, I respect it because even in worst case it has set an example for the world of how a window should never be.