some updates

well..yesterday was my last day at subex..so i am kinda 'jobless' for next 2 weeks...
now that i am thinking abt this..i did not feel sad/bad abt leaving subex..actually it was
like any other day..no 'senti scenes'..does this imply that i was frustrated to such an extent
or is it that i refrained from getting emotionaly attached to subex..donno..

had been to zeeds place yesterday..and ran into papu and richie..had some good 'harate'..
it was good to see that gd hasnt changed much..except for the fact that his signs of
prosperity have become more prominent ;)

btw .. i was lisetning to 'yaaron sun lo zara..' from rangeela..and was amazed at the extent to
which its applicable to me..esp the lines

Gaadi bangla nahin na sahi na sahi
Bank balance nahin na sahi na sahi
TV video nahin na sahi na sahi
Suiting shirting nahin na sahi na sahi
Inki humko kyon ho fikar
Jee lo jaise mast kalandar

Bombay

Bombay is an experience; and esp. after living in a hamlet like Bangalore, Bombay hits me each time I venture out of the campus. And this weekend was especially severe. Two friends (Amit Rathore from ThoughtWorks and Akshay from IIM-Lucknow) were visiting, one for the exclusive purpose of "chilling out" and the other had some official work. But the three of us hit the yuppie circuit here, in full blast. And as Amit said before leaving, it was some severe shit. Restaurants, cafes, bars, beaches, local trains, never ending taxi drives, late late night chilly auto rides, malls, and all the other elements which every urban jungle has. But its sheer scale, and the way things are intertwined here; that is the difference. Amidst all our chaotic travelling and induldence, there was a lot of talk on economics, India, Kannada, Bombay, mis-adventures with women, books and so on. Coffeehouse philosophy at its very best; three geeks, what else can you get?!

Among other things, I got my wallet picked during a local train ride. The irony of it was, this was right after an eye-opening RSS meeting/lunch on Republic Day. Done with blocking all my bank-cards, still have to get new ones, get duplicate identity card, driver's licence, etc. But, more significantly, all my other personal belongings in the wallet are gone now, and all of them are beyond replacement. All of them, beyond replacement.

Bombay is a cauldron. Lot of heat, tons of volume. A single wallet?

Corporate lunch (munch ? munch??)

Everyday during lunch time, I dont feel like having lunch.Blame it on "corporate lunch".Every company has its "canteen committee" who take pains in ensuring that everyone is sufficiently pained by bringing a caterer whose food can simply be described as INedible.

We have a very good foodcourt at our groundfloor with a confused bunch of caterers who can make heavy breakfast (like dosas etc) not the lighter ones.And the lunch....well..I prefer not to talk abt lunch.The best part of the lunch is the "saunf" which is sweet and I look forward for the time I eat the saunf.

Then we take a brisk walk around the building campus like a pradakshina and get back to whatever we've been doing in the morning.

The question I pose to the caterers of today is :-
(we live in a free world, so i am posing this question)

why do caterers complicate lunch with all sorts of specialities and screw up the main essentials like chapathi/rice or the sabji that goes with it?

Eaters like me are overwhelmed by variety and I am not able to single out a defect.
Okay I'll stop the crib :))

So, zeeds is back in bangalore and I spoke to him over the fone a couple of hours ago.
It's been like a year.....

Weekend was okay and I am back here :)
Met suri (the footballer) for a treat and I bumped into Sihi Kahi Chandru yet again.

haha.
Sihi Kahi Chandru and the stupid french movies.

btw I watched "The Lady Killers". Tom Hanks is incredible as the professor.

Time changes everything.

It is healer.It is a killer.It is one of the greatest teachers.
It just shows what a big fool you have been or what a great decision you have taken....

Is time merely relational.....Is "time without change" conceptually impossible.....Are the ideas of past, present and future entirely subjective, descriptions only of our deception by the senses?

I asked Mr. J Krishna Murthy from the web and this is what he had to say

Thought is time. Thought is born of experience and knowledge, which are inseparable from time and the past. Time is the psychological enemy of man. Our action is based on knowledge and therefore time, so man is always a slave to the past. Thought is ever-limited and so we live in constant conflict and struggle. There is no psychological evolution.

hmpf jan 27 did no good.

Purloined letter

Nice short story by Poe: http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/poe/works/p_letter.html
Try to read this when you get time.
Also read a book by 'Amy Tan - Joyluck club'
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0804106304/104-7929629-0627922
A very good read, with a fascinating interplay of ideas, words ..

And looking -> to jan 30th :D

human equilibrium

Are there enough people in this world for all the tasks that are around? I mean, is the load distributed properly? are there enough complexity theorists? enough newsreaders? enough teachers? enough sportsmen? enough truck drivers? enough glassblowers?

Is it balanced? or are we fooling ourselves that things are in equilibrium? Lemme tell you why this equilibrium is floating in my head now. I was pondering about the so called "micro" and "macro" level interests of any person. At least me. At a micro level, I am working on web-search, or in a more general sense, concerned about computer science. At a macro level, I feel for India, Indian politics, socialism, economics, historical injustice, hunger, etc. Though my macro level interests are viable career options, I just dont take them for various reasons. Now, I somewhere, deep down, subconsciously, desperately hope that human equilibrium exists and all those areas of work that I am not involved in, but are important to me, are being taken care of; by professionals, by passionate people, by zealots, by selfless volunteers etc. And my working on search engines will somehow help them do their job better. Some theory guy proving approximation lower bounds for some O.R scheduling problem will save some money in some facotry line up which will be given as bonus. Some IAS officer streamlining infrastructure efforts might get me from KanjurMarg to Mulund in time for a movie.

Anyways, as I am writing this, I feel quite stupid, but the equilibrium thought did come to my mind and was quite futile in convincing me that what I am doing currently is worthwhile...

Benny Hinn

Well , most of us Bangalore folks, went back home early , this saturday because of protests about Benny Hinn's sermon at Jakkur Grounds.Well the situation was pretty bad on Hosur road because of some stone throwing here and there and the traffic line longer than half a kilometer.Personally, I had no idea of what was going on in the morning, but the situation was grimmer in the afternoon and we left home early say about 5 in the evening.Buses from Infosys and Wipro were there at sharp 4 late afternoon.And we got mails from the building security to get our asses out of the place asap.

And then as I went home I could see the Khakhi policewallahs with their helmets and their cooling glasses on the cheetah painted fieros everywhere.I presumed, amidst these protests, the sermon would solely comprise of some organisers and other people.However Benny Hinn drew crowds like a rock star. I mean , better than a rockstar! 5 lakh people on day one was something like a shock.....wow! so many people ...The main complaint of the BJP is conversion from a religion X to a religion Y. I think (personally) conversion is an individual's prerogative and an individual's rationale should help him decide which faith he wants to adopt to.However, the Benny Hinn is also said to be a healer.And his touch caused a woman with a bent spine to jump with joy on the stage.Well I really dont know it's whether the touch of Benny Hinn or just the mood / ambience / belief make people act like that. I saw that on NDTV and I am just confused.

I also heard that all our esteemed secular leaders had visited Benny Hinn's show and prayed for India with Benny Hinn.Nice.
However the conclusion is that :- FAITH is a billion dollar industry.You get to philosophise, touch people's hearts , popularity and earn all at the same time and also say that you are not interested in materialistic pleasures.

Speaking of materialistic pleasures, another article from a Kannada Tabloid claimed that there is a new Live Music Band (like the one in Chandini Bar) has sprung up at Urban Edge. The owner of the place is ...hold your breath....a Stanford Graduate.
Well the guy knew where the money was I guess....haha.

Not an interesting weekend.Two movies and some work at office, some chat with Kummi.....and I am back at my cubicle.....

B2B on Jan 30 11:45 pm ..

hope to catch you all pretty soon .. Monday ratre obbradru sikkri makkla ..
illa andre khoon bhari haath .. aagi hogotte.. ;-)

Ability & Responsibility

I heard someone say that "If you have the ability to do something (good), its your responsibility to do so."

This put me in a quandry of sorts; I have always known that I have had the ability to do a lot of things, and some of these things could've made the world a better place, maybe in a very limited way. But, I have never taken the responsibility for most of these. Mostly, moments of this sort pass by without us realizing that it is indeed our responsibility to do certain things in life. The irony is that there are also times in life when the responsibility is very clear, but the ability is somewhat questionable. Both situations arise in life, and we give them both a raw deal.

Thats the moral question of the day (for me at least).

Among other things, this January has seen a deluge of holidays for us. A lot of 3-day weekends, some inbetween holidays. And so, on January 26th, I will be at Shivaji Park in Dadar meeting up with the RSS relative of mine during the RSS Republic Day function. I am really surprised (also happy) that he actually took time out of his busy schedule and asked me to join him for some talk that day. Maybe this time, it might be some implementation of some ideal/ideas. I might get to see some logistical aspects of what really goes on at that level. Watch this space for the Republic Day update.

me and my award

(speech of acceptance)

and this "haward" i would like to dedicate to everybody who have made my life so meaningful and people who been there with me when i down and all the people who took part in the competition.

Sudeep wins; (almost) flawless victory

2/3rd of the average of five numbers I got was 26. Sudeep's answer was 27. So, heres to the winner of a fabulous gift from my side. There is much more to this than just random number generation. I am reading a text on game theory currently, and will update more stuff related to it soon.

For the record, here were the numbers I got: 55, 54, 20, 39 & 27. A few people whom I expected to participate didn't and maybe that did affect the strategies of those who did participate.

I posted the same thread in our dept. newsgroup and got eight responses, and the 2/3 of the average was 30.38 and the closest number to that was 35.

More normal postings in the next post.

I <3 spam !

This spam deserves a standing applause.
Check out the subject line of the spam and the content !

------------------------------------------------------------
From "Neateye" <>
Subject Gouranga
Date Mon, 17 Jan 2005 04:32:57 -0000

Call out Gouranga be happy!!!
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ....
That which brings the highest happiness!!
------------------------------------------------------------

that was one helluva spam!

another verbal diarrhoea

rip-off by an LJ communtie'

These were the best parts of what i read....

It is a feeling that our emotions, while wonderful, are transpiring in a vacuum, and I think it boils down to the fact that we’re middle class.You see, when you’re middle class, you have to live with the fact that history will ignore you. You have to live with the fact that history can never champion your causes and that history will never feel sorry for you. It is the price that is paid for day-to-day comfort and silence. And because of this price, all happinesses are sterile; all sadnesses go unpitied.And any small moments of intense, flaring beauty such as this morning’s will be utterly forgotten, dissolved by time like a super-8 film left out in the rain, without sound, and quickly replaced by thousands of silently growing trees.


My friends are all either married, boring, and depressed; single, bored, and depressed; or moved out of town to avoid boredom and depression.

{chuckle}

People always like to give 'fundas'....Funda is the new f-word.

Another PJ b4 i go amigos, :-))

What did y say to x in the calculus class ?
"f" off x.

Introduction to Game Theory

Mail a number between 0 and 100 (inclusive) to me at tejaswi(at)it.iitb.ac.in before 2359 hours, Wednesday, 19th January. The person who comes up with the number which is closest to 2/3-rd the average of all the responses will get a personal gift from me.

We will continue with actual game theory in my subsequent posts, but this will give you an insight into how complex a simple problem will get if there are competing rational agents in a system who can anticipate and double guess others, and normally do. We will also see how this can be formally and thoroughly studied. Please do participate. And don't mail anonymously :)

It will help if the subject of the mail is "game theory". Also, I will consider the last email I get from each of you as your response. So, feel free to change your response; but not too many times :)

What it's like - by everlast

We've all seen the man at the liquor store beggin' for your change
The hair on his face is dirty, dreadlocked and full of mange
He ask the man for what he could spare with shame in his eyes
Get a job you f**kin' slob's all he replied
God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in his shoes
'Cause then you really might know what it's like to sing the blues

Mary got pregnant from a kid named Tom who said he was in love
He said "don't worry about a thing baby doll I'm the man you've
been dreamin' of"
But three months later he said he won't date her or return her call
And she sweared god damn if I find that man I'm cuttin' off his balls
And then she heads for the clinic and she gets some static walkin' through the doors
They call her a killer, and they call her a sinner, and they call her a whore
God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in her shoes
'Cause then you really might know what it's like to have to choose

I've seen a rich man beg
I've seen a good man sin
I've seen a tough man cry
I've seen a loser win
And a sad man grin
I heard an honest man lie
I've seen the good side of bad
And the down side of up
And everything between
I licked the silver spoon
Drank from the golden cup
Smoked the finest green
I stroked daddies dimes at least a couple of times
Before I broke their heart
You know where it ends
Yo, it usually depends on where you start

I knew this kid named Max
He used to get fat stacks out on the corner with drugs
He liked to hang out late at night
Liked to get shit faced
And keep pace with thugs
Until late one night there was a big gun fight
Max lost his head
He pulled out his chrome. 45
Talked some shit
And wound up dead
Now his wife and his kids are caught in the midst of all of his pain
You know it crumbles that way
At least that's what they say when you play the game
God forbid you ever had to wake up to hear the news
'Cause then you really might know what it's like to have to lose

Joel on S/W

Guess what ???? I had this prescription, but never really bothered to open the mail. Probably, by now, this is being christined as Spam and flushed to 'Bluk' folder.

Obvious doubts - Microeconomics is for Programmers, for lesser mortals like me who wants to be in the industry, and has to know the supply demand for survival. I think Teju u r flirting with this course. Isnt somthing inline with your research ambitions more appropriate here. Or are you BORRED with blah blah blah ..
Anyways have fun.

And guys inspire me to fight with my PM for Jan 28th.
The best news in months. Samba's admission to YALE. Hope he gets some sort of a financial aid.

where r the nerds ?? nerds != bookish .. movie nerds, swimming nerds and oops sorry one boookish bugger.

Finance and Friends

Samba makes it into Yale for a (tentative) $100K+ MBA. Gotta see whether he takes it or not, and if he does, how he is going to do it, and whether he makes it or not; in the long run I mean.

Speaking of finance, Amit Rathore has started his finance blog, after his general blog, theory of everything blog and the somewhat ambitious entrepreneurial blog. But still, his "spirit for a concept" is commendable. He is probably the most prolific of all the bloggers I know in person.

I am crediting the Applied Economics course this semseter, and lets see if economics is indeed as interesting as I think it is. Somewhere, I see the analytical and the social aspects of human thought merging in Economics. Even if it ain't that interesting by itself, Joel Spolsky advices that one ought to learn microeconomics before graduating out of college just to ensure a balance at work.

star and buc

these two idiots are rjs from a radio channel and they have abused a call centre worker from india.

Sounds plain ?

Then download the mp3 from here and just listen to it.

It really angered me.

chigurida kanasu

As per my resources ( movie geeks) Swadesh is a remake of the award winning movie chigurida kanasu from Karnad ( ante ... I havent verifed it )
yargadru enthu iddre nodi

A brief history of internet time

google has recently released the usenet archives have a look at that!

amazing.

the internet has come a long way.