Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Mahabharata and the -ism(s)

Read this interesting link forwarded to me where
Dhraupadhi is a Naxalite
Dharmaraj a Socialist
When Krishna went to Kauravas, He requested like socialism,
threatened like communism and showed His readiness to kill
them through the vision of Viswaroopam like Naxalism.

And Lot More....

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Some more links

A Study on Studying Methodoligies
International Cartoon Center
Sort of Free Journalism portal
Mumbai Local Trains' Map
Sepet - More than a love story


Image taken from WIRED.COM

Revenge of the Right Brain

Logical and precise, left-brain thinking gave us the Information Age. Now comes the Conceptual Age - ruled by artistry, empathy, and emotion.

By Daniel H. Pink

Intersting Definition of Academic Research

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Marriage

I was so happy that i couldn't resist writing a blog.
This is what happens when studies and fun marries.

I have been reading about Genetic Algorithms (GA) for the last 10 days or so but it didn't fuelled that much excitement until today when I was solving a Sudoku puzzle and got to know that my friend Venkat has made a program to solve it. Immediately, the idea of using GAs to solve SUDOKU striked my brain and hence i am here.
Excuse me! the program isn't written yet but searching for the GA and Sudoku i found a good link which cleared a lot of my misconceptions about GA.

At least, now thinking in GA has got a head-start in my grey cells. :)

Update:

Too much words

Eskimos have 43 words to describe SNOW
Brazilians have 8 words for COFFEE beans
Americans have a rich SEX related vocabulary
Indians have rich vocabulary for RELATIONSHIPS
  • (For eg. mamaa, chachaa, kaaka, taoo to describe UNCLE)
PAIN for Germans
  • Sehnsucht - Longing
  • Heimweh = "home ache" = homesickness
  • Fernweh = "far ache" = the yearning for somewhere far away
  • Nahweh = "near ache" = the feeling of sadness that comes when you return home to find it is not as you remember it
RICE for South Indians

RIVER in Chinese

This all and more support a theory saying that the importance of a concept in a culture is determined by the number of words used to describe it (in its various forms). I first came to know about it from my friend Venkat (an NCSTian).

For more:
1. Read the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which is composed of two basic principles: linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity.
2. "Centrality of Snow in Inuit(Eskimo) culture is an exaggeration"

Interesting Blogs and Facts

Marriage in GenX World

Bloggers BE[ a]WARE

The FOUNDATION and the BUILDING
Mohd. Ali Jinnah's Secularism

George ka Pakistan - A Story about an Englishman turned Pakistani

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Teacher's Day

The kids don't know how much you know, but they certainly know how much you care about them. And if you care about them, you would have breathe life and inspiration into the subjects you teach. And if you care, your words and actions will resonate in the lives of those lucky children for many many years to come.

The alchemists who have helped me follow my dreams:-
  1. Gosai Ma'am, K.G. and Prep., Holy Child School Ghaziabad.
    Nobody can handle kids better than she.
  2. Sister Roseline, Vth Std., Holy Child School Ghaziabad.
    My Moral Science teacher, the job she was extra-ordinary at.
  3. Mrs. P.K. Sharma, VI Std. , Holy Child School Ghaziabad.
    Patience at its peak.
  4. Mrs. Kala Nagarkoti, Mathematics, VIII - X std., D.P.S. Ghaziabad.
    Before I took tuitions from her, I used to mug up geometry related reasoning questions. She gave me the confidence to take on the science stream in my 10+2.
  5. Mrs. Renu Kaushik, History & Civics teacher, D.P.S. Ghaziabad.
    I remember one question asked by her in the Civics class "Do you know where and how you will get the divorce from your wife if required" and the whole class went lol.
  6. Mr. Virendra Chandela[Chandu Sir :) ], Mathematics Tutor, XI-XII std. Other than mathematics (which he can teach even to a below-average but sincere student), his ideas in philosophy, religion, politics and what not were thought provoking (including the free homeopathic treatment to his ailing students). I also learnt some homeopathy basics too.
  7. Dr. Bhushan, Physics Tutor, XI std., Though he wasn't able to get the physics into my brain that much but he induced the necessary interest in me without which learning the subject would have been an entirely a different ball game. Not to forget his idea about late-comers that I heard 1st time from him that "even if a person is coming 50 minutes late in an hour long class, he might learn something in the next 10 minutes"
  8. Sheoran Sir, Physics Tutor, XII std., My journey to the ancient town of Physics starts with him. The 90% score in PHY in 10+2 Boards was a shock to my sub-standard brain faculties dealing with PHY.
  9. Nandita Aunty, Chemistry Tutor, XII std., Under her, I got a daily dose of mysterious Organic Chemistry before my morning breakfast.
  10. Mr. Vinay Panday[Bunny Sir :) ], Computer Science and C++, XI-XII, D.P.S. Ghaziabad. An ideal Computer Science teacher. He is the best memory of my school days. I can definitely write a book blog on "He, Me and my 10+2 days".
  11. DA-IICT profs - Samaresh Sir, Sanjay Sir, Biswas Sir, Sinha Sir, Jotwani Sir, Maitra Sir, Abhinay Pandya Sir, Mathuria Sir (Details later)
  12. Ashok Singh, My Mentor, Research Internship (part of UG curriculum), ORF, Delhi. One of the true Alchemists of my life.
Some Lighter Moments and Memories

Humanities Tridev (Vishwajit Pandya, Tridip, Shiv Vishvanathan)
movie course ITD's Bini Ma'am :)
Prof. Amin's microscopic pen running on the exam copies making them look like a part of some RED revolution

Details Later

Friday, September 02, 2005

Nationalism or Evilism

"...If some day the folks in power ..... can REALLY see all people as equal human beings deserving of equal treatment in life, we can drop the pervision of patriotism and bring the world to a new era of true peace without the need for those at the top to live off the economic slavery of the rest of the world."
-Johann von Schnell
wrote in a review on atomic bomb test video

In my words, Nationalism is a patchwork done on our mother earth.
We have f***ed up our mother earth and produced 200+ motherlands.
Sorry for the use of the censored f word in the above line but this is the real truth.

Note: The readers may raise their voice pointing to the Indian section in my blog.
I do agree with them and want their suggestions as to how should I tag these things in some other way. Further, I also want to add that I also like rock music which is a Western thing. I have equal sympathy and interest in American army and all other armies in the world who are just chess pieces of our political leadership. Liking something which is region specific does not signify that you are a nationalist.
Yes I am also against many policies of America but that is true for my Indian government true. You need some nomenclature to point out things but the words should not create a general rhetoric. There are lot of other clarifications and explanations that this blog entry needs but I am not planning a book blog. So as and when the questions will come, I will answer to them.