My First Vote

I have voted! I voted for the party that I felt would do more good to me than bad. After being unable to choose between two close candidates, I decided to vote for the one who had the greatest chance of forming a stable government at the centre. No prizes for guessing!

The Arts

I have never been a very great admirer of music. Why, I have never even been an admirer of fine art. The harmonies (and disharmonies) of nature, of society, of all the things around me seem art enough to satisfy my senses. I am and will remain a fellow fascinated with science. For me science is art.

But over the past year or so I have realised that there is more to art and music than what I have seen. This inclines me to think that taking up art as a hobby might prove fruitful in more than one way to distract me from the rigours of life.

First about art. When I was at the National Gallery in London I was astounded by the importance that people there gave to their art and artists. It is typical for art galleries to have paintings on both sides of a large hall and a couple of benches right in the middle of the hall. People sit on these benches and admire the art. So I sat there and looked at the paintings. All of them looked very nice, but I was unable appreciate their beauty (if there was any). But I am sure that great artists are not over-rated. They must have been extremely devoted to art and their art must truly reflect their passion. A reflection that I have totally missed thus far.

Next about music (with which I am little better off). The first time that I remember listening to music seriously was when I was about 9 or 10 years old when my father introduced me to the 70's music of BoneyM. The songs were nice and I still listen to some of them. From then on, I have been listening to music passed on by friends and relatives. Although they were all good to listen, I never really was content. It is only recently that I have "discovered" the kind of music that I like. Now I am finding new music that I can listen and appreciate without being prejudiced by reviews from others.

This music that I speak of is not pertinent to a single country, genre or culture. It is anything that pleases me. At the moment though, Irish traditional music seems to be my favourite and Solas seem to have more music that I like. But I am whimsical. These tastes will evolve as time passes.

I still remember that over 2 years ago I had this idea for a "start-up" company. A music search engine that finds music that a person might like. I was pursuing it for a while with a friend but nothing has materialized so far.

Now that I have a different view about the arts maybe I will develop keener senses for appreciating the subtleties that lay hidden in them.

P.S: Right now I am listening to The Hanover Reel by Solas from their album Waiting for an Echo.

Summer Time

As the Americans (the British too?) would say, "Long time no see..."

So, I am back with the following.

A new love

A new hobby

A summer job

A date with GRE

And a list of things to do which is longer than the river Nile

I am so excited that I cannot even wait for my exams to get over before I post this. :D

More on all the above in the days to come...

Prospects for the Immediate Future

I usually do not keep worrying about the future and always concentrate on the present. Given the choice, I would choose to spend my time on writing programs to solve linear equations than to familiarize myself with the pattern of the CAT. But no matter how detached one is from society in general, at some point one must think of his future. It is my turn now.

It dawned to me in a hard way today that the next 6 months are the most crucial for my professional success than anything before. Again I wouldn't care about my profession if I were the son of a lord in England and were born 200 years ago. But I am not. I cannot spend my time worrying about friction or about Braag diffraction unless I want to earn nothing. So I must choose to do something and so I have.

This "actvity" of mine can make it quite impossible to update this blog any time in the immediate future. In the meanwhile, I wish all the best to the readers of this blog for whatever they might be preparing for :)


P.S. : I am certainly NOT preparing for the CAT.

Computers and I

I have recently made a discovery. I have found that I am terribly inefficient in using computer tools. Surprise! I am not ashamed to tell anyone that I spend up to 3 hours in front of the computer screen (more probably after I was bought an LCD-TFT screen). This 3 hours is on days when I am very busy with college and work. On a typical holiday I might spend 5 to 6 hours at least. There is an old maxim that says, "Practice makes perfect.", which should mean that with each passing hour spent on the computer I would gain more experience. It is quite to the contrary, my observations show me. And, silly me, I took so long to observe this inefficiency.

This inefficiency came to light recently while doing a project for IBM. I found myself taking half a day to do what my team-mate did in less than half an hour. Here are the facts.

1. The very fact that computers make it easy for you to remember things works against me. I have taken for granted that the computer will complete it for me.

2. The internet has spoilt me. I no longer commit important facts to memory but say to myself, "Ah. It's there on the internet. Why remember?"

3. I had certain inhibitions about using the computer for a long time. This was sometime ago. Back then I decided (and took an oath) that I should stop learning more about computers since they were taking too much of my time. I was thinking of other things in which I could better spend my time. But it so happens that I, despite this oath, still spend 3 hours everyday nonetheless! Which is better : 3 hours learning something in computers or 3 hours learning nothing?

Remedial Measures

After carefully considering the facts I have decided to take corrective measures which are summarized below.

1. To drop the idea of not learning about computers and start learning instead.

2. To begin where I left in learning the languages MATLAB, python and, maybe, Java.

So, that's it!

P.S. : Watch out for my website that might surface soon ;)

Update to P.S. : My website is all ready but I have no place to put it, especially after Google says it is shutting down Googlepages :( So this is not going to happen now.

What is the problem?

I am going to be extremely critical of India and Indians in this post. I know I am Indian myself but so be it.

When there are no good programs in the Discovery Channel or NGC, it is usual for me to browse the popular news channels. All of them have one thing in common. They are full of news of injustice, immorality, inhumane and the down-right disgusting. Mercy killing here and corruption there. It is full of these things that forms part of a news-watchers day. Some say that the news channels always focus on the negative aspects, but wait... It is true that our world, especially our part of the world, is full of this negativity, whatever it means.

One might argue on the definition of negative in this context. This will be a never-ending discussion. So forgetting that let me take an example. Recently some students at a college in Chennai had a fight which was instigated politically. There was a video aired on TV that showed a youth being struck until he became unconscious and then struck again and again by some other persons of his college. Terrible. How one could fight with someone who was not armed or in this case not even conscious? Pick someone of your own size is really valid here. Terrible.

I listened to a couple of people who had some passing comment about the issue. One said, "Law colleges are always like this!". Another said, "The current Government must be changed.". Wait a minute... Who is the real problem. INDIANS ARE THE PROBLEM. The mentality of the Indian mind is the problem. There are now so many people in this country that, to survive, it becomes essential to push ahead of the rest leaving behind those who cannot push. Let me give you a few examples, some very trivial, which show the utter disregard, the insensitivity that Indians have to the law or to another person.

* People don't know to stand in a queue.
* People don't know watch for the red signal.
* People (especially in Chennai and probably the metros) take pleasure in the other person's failure.
* People don't care if they are a source of wrong information.
* People do whatever their peers do. Will they jump into a raging river if everyone does? I don't know.

etc.,etc.

I am not saying these are happening only in India. They happen everywhere. But nowhere is the rate of these things, among literates, as high as it is in India. Sad :(

Is this a genetic defect, something inherent in the Indian gene that makes them so? I sincerely hope not, for this means a great blow to this Indian race (if such a thing exists at all).

Is this a temporary phenomenon, caused by the ever-growing population? If so, then soon we might find a world full of Indians but with no India. Sad but a fitting end I would say.

P.S.:

I do not recall posting my views on social or racial issues in the past but the feeling now is so over-whelming that I need an outlet.

It is highly unlikely that this post will have a sequel. I have better things to worry about ;)

Last Six Months

In this post I will try to show the reader some interesting data about my life in the last six months. No spoilers here, read on...

Travels

Extensive analysis of my travel records over the last six months show that I have travelled 43000 Km (rounded to the nearest 500 Km). This value 11.1688312% of the distance between the Earth and the Moon. So if I live for 5 years, I will have gone the distance of the Moon. Wow! Thats amazing! All this data points to one conclusion. I have been travelling a lot and need some rest :)

Psst : Readers who need to know how I arrived at these values can send me a message. Note that these calculations are immensely complex [:|]. It took the supercomputer "REDQUEEN" at Oxford, 3 days to compute the values.

Visits

A picture cum text story of my visits in the past 6 months. The Delhi visit is missing because my friends haven't given the photos.



At the Havelock Beach in the Andaman Islands


At the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Kodaikanal


Summer at Kodaikanal was lot of fun


At the Fundamental Aeronautics Meeting, Atlanta, USA


Receiving the award


With the awardees


We stayed at a Sheraton in Atlanta!


In Derbyshire, UK


With the Thrust 2 ! Nostalgic...


The Thrust SSC



With the Thrust SSC. Wow! No words to express my awe. Then this happened after I returened.


Eyeing the London Eye in the City of Westminster


The Big Ben and I


The London Bridge is NOT falling down


Tower Bridge across the Thames


At Buckingham Palace


A typical street in Oxford


Airplanes

I have made more progress in the "airplane front" than anything else in this period. Some statistics for you...

1.) I have been in 12 take-offs and landings so far.

2.) I have been in 9 different aircraft (not aircraft types).

3.) I have been on B737, A320, B747, A319, S80 and A330.

4.) I know that tail number of all except two aircraft that I have flown on.

5.) I have photographed 60% of all aircraft that I have been on.

6.) The airplane had a technical snag on two occasions when I was flying.

7.) I had the best time in my life sitting in these airplanes. :)