Potpourri

Inspired by general tone of phdcomics and the coffee break that has just started. 2:58 pm the clock shows the digitized clock blinks seconds brings us close to the time of break its coffee time go get a coffee dear proof broke down nothing to fear lemma you once proved was so long ago and you have forgotten the last you made a go break however you take don't miss it, no matter after all mathematicians are suppose to turn coffee into a theorem.... match your time and try n miss the embarrassing encounter with your guide and your foreign collaborator times of monitoring committee be the most productive do expect your guide to be oh so supportive its time its time go get a coffee dear you haven't worked at all oh, how does it matter.... its the time to chit chat its time to make merry from 3 pm to 4pm sit and a sip your hot coffee for after that you just have to come back and sit on your desk till it gets dark come come, its coffee time come have coffee dear keep working towards...

In my post about trek to Himalaya I had promised that I will make a separate blog entry on our trek guide Jango-ji. I have yet not done it. But one of the trekkers, An, has managed to come up with a nicely designed web page for Jango-ji. So here is an advertisement for Jango ji. (Yes I know! No ad agency will ever hire me.) And here is the webpage of this dude.

Unpredictable has tagged me on two subjects. She asks me to post my childhood snap . And she asks me to list 10 things I wish I could say to people right now. The later will come first. For I don't have any childhood snap with me. But again, to list 10 things seems rather difficult. Its not that I don't want to tell people things like they absolutely matter to me and their presence is making my life better and that its not always possible to go about saying such things and that these are the people I hurt the most and that sometimes I am adamant enough to delay the ' sorry's and the 'thank you's . I definitely want to say all this and more. But I wouldn't call myself exactly the kind of person who is well versed with all the words and expressions that one needs to say things that are appropriate for the given time and situation. In fact, I am almost always the one who has to gather them from all corners of my mind. To say exactly what I mean without exag...

This was a long planned trek, that some of us decided to do. Plan A: Start from Chennai and reach Kodai. Meet the District forest officer (DFO) and get permission for the trek to Top station Start the trek midday and trek for atleast 12 km the first day to reach a place between Berijam lake and Top station. Camp here in a guset house/ abandoned house or in a tent. Next day trek for another 20 odd km and reach top station. Some how reach ernakulam to take the train back. Step 1 was executed perfectly (well more or less). But step 2 itself came with a catch. DFO was not going to be in the office that very day. We tried to beg and plead to all the other officials to give us permission to go for this trek. We had heard that DFO was very keen on giving trek permissions, however other officials were really reluctant. We almost felt like taking their snaps and posting them on the blog. They were extremely rude and wouldn't even consider giving us permission. Then we tried to ask for a per...

I stumbled upon a nice survey. Its a very well prepared test. They call it a political compass . The site itself is really interesting. And seems like a lot of study has been put in to come up with this test. Here are my test results. Give the test and find out whether your political beliefs reflect in the test results.

This image was taken from here .

Oh no, this isn't about another complexity class. (However, this name sounds cool for a complexity class doesn't it?) So this is a movie review for Taare Zameen Par. The movie tells a story of a dyslexic kid, Ishan . Insensitivity, either intended or unintended, towards him turns him into an unyielding and introvert kid. Parents lose patience and put him in a boarding school away from them. Ishaan finds it extremely difficult to stay away from his mother to whom he is very attached and also has another set of problems adjusting and coping with the studies at the boarding school. This causes a huge set back for Ishaan . On the verge of complete collapse, a new art teacher enters in his life. He not only detects dyslexia in Ishan but also is able to relate to him. He gains the kid's confidence and in a while they start communicating. Ishaan's communications with the teacher turn out to be extremely enhancing and rich. They help Ishaan to cope and fight his problems ...

A small note on progress made to improve the Karp-Lipton Theorem The original Karp-Lipton theorem says that If NP is contained in P/poly or if NP has polynomial sized circuits then polynomial hierarchy collapses to its second level. This was further improved upon by Kobler and Watanabe. They showed that polynomial hierarchy collapses down to ZPP^NP. The class S2P was defined by Canetti and studied by Russell and Sundaram. Russell and Sundaram observed that S2P contains P^NP and MA. It is very easy to observe that S2P is contained in Sigma2P and Pi2P . Cai proved a fundamental containment result that S2P is contained in ZPP^NP . (i.e. there is a zero error poly time oracle machine asking queries to a SAT oracle that can accept S2P.) Samik Sengupta observed that if NP is contained in P/poly then polynomial hierarchy collapses to S2P. There by, a nice improvement over Karp-Lipton arose from the class S2P. Before this result came, Arvind and Kobler proved that if NP has polysized circuit...

First of January 2008. I started this blog about three years back. Deadly that its still running. Number of posts increasing every year. But I wouldn't call myself an avid blogger. (only 80 posts in last 3 years) This post is for a round up of 2007. I haven't ever done such a post before. Lets see if I can recall the bests and worsts of the year 2007. 1. Treks! I trekked to 4 difference places. First happened in June. Two in July and one in October. The last one to Himalaya!!! These days go right into hall of fame of the year. 2. Joined a gym (Dec). And did a short course in Yoga (Nov.). Check out, I am all into fitness. 3. Travelled to Russia. I know I haven't blogged about this. I have as yet avoided writing about my academic visits. That started for a reason. But I think, I am by now more or less comfortable talking about it. So here. I went there to present a paper. Met many interesting people. Managed to interact professionally with many people. Walked around a complet...

Sitting in the room, with table all scattered with books and papers that I use to refuse to organise. Trying to study something in there. (I used to be a big time padakhu ). Aai would walk in once in a while. Talk to me. She loves talking and I absolutely love listening to her. Its been 4 years since this or something like this has happened. Its strange to miss it suddenly one fine day! But I am. I want to be back home again and want to sit near my scattered desk. Want aai to drop in once in a while to give me nice breaks and breathers. If its a holiday then want baba to come and chit chat. Baba used to sit with me with his news paper. If I was at home today he would be talking about Gujarat elections. Aai would be complaining about how every news channel is hopelessly covering same thing 24x7. Shyaa !!! Its been really too long since I left home. Nostalgia!

My own cynicism gets to me sometimes. But for what its worth, it helps me see the other side of the moon. I know, what i am writing is not coherent. But thats how its flowing out of the nerves, into the hands and right into the key board. It has stopped being a thought I visualise on the paper. I see myself writing anything at all like a long text, a long essay on a typed set, with Times new roman font. If I ever see anything written in my dreams, which is anyway very rare, its typed. Except math symbols, which again is funny. If I ever dream of my house I dream of the old one. If I ever see my desk in the dreams, I see the one I used when I was 13. But then when I am awake, I hardly even seem to remember anything. I so hope I remember the faces as distinctly as I saw once upon a time. But that part of memory is giving its way. I seem to have a extremely good memory of voices though. I remember people's voices. Very very distinctly. And please don't think I am talking about d...

My blog identity has never been more different from my real self than right now. I am exceptionally silent on the blog but have been talking and talking with lots and lots of my friends, people I love. So do not think of this silence as some low phase in my real life. However, the urge to update the blog comes irrespective of the way I am communicating otherwise. There used to be days when I couldn't communicate very well with most and so the blog gave me a way. But not right now. Today I wish to write something very specific. This is about the service care staff of my institute. When I joined this institute I was given a hostel room the day I arrived. I was lucky, to say the least. I had bought a lock and key, was going out to buy a broom and a mop. But I was immediately informed by seniors that one doesn't need to do that. There is cleaning staff here. They come and clean rooms everyday. And they are so trustworthy that one doesn't even need to lock the rooms. I had never...

I came across this people-who-don't-know-what-to-do-better-with-their-time-go-waste-time-here kind of website called blogthings.com. I have wasted time taking some tests here. Currently, I feel like boasting. So let me put up what a small personality test said about me. This site is very likely bogus, but I love their analysis. Its almost always good..:) ***You Have A Type B+ Personality*** You're a pro at going with the flow You love to kick back and take in everything life has to offer A total joy to be around, people crave your stability. While you're totally laid back, you can have bouts of hyperactivity. Get into a project you love, and you won't stop until it's done You're passionate - just selective about your passions Take this test, if you have nothing better to do / are suffering from low self-esteem/ want to feel better just like that/ want to see how badly the whole web world is filled with junk. Do You Have a Type A Personality? http://www.blogthing...

After a long time, I am actively back on the web. Following are the web pages I have visited in last few days and have liked. 1. A must read article about PhD experience . I reached this link via my guide's homepage. 3. Luca Trevisan's short course on Additive Combinatorics . I have done first lecture (Intro) and half of the next lecture. I hope to finish the series in about a month's time. Anybody interested in reading along? He has provided videos of his lectures. You can see Luca Trevisan talking to you as if in a lecture. Really lucid as of now. (It was actually offered as 4-5 days course. But I will be spacing it out over a month). 4. Metoo's blog called "My Slice of Pizza" I stumbled upon via comments section on Fortnow's (now Bill's) weblog. He commented on representation of minorities in the FOCS. And the comment was witty enough for me to actually go and check the link. His blog is pretty interesting. He writes brief and crisp entries every n...

Five of us (Ak,An,G,K,N) went for a trek to Himalayas. I present here a day by day account of our experiences. I also hope to make it useful for the those who plan to trek along this route. Trek route: Dharmkot - Triundh - Lahesh eelaka - Indraharpass - Lahesh eelaka - Mana - Dharmshala. Day 1. (October 12, 2007) G started out from Chennai in a train for Delhi. K and N went to T. Nagar to arrange for Theplas -food stock- for the trek. (Thepla is a sort of roti. It remains fresh for 30 days. Tastes awesome. Perfect food to carry for trekkers. Place order in advance at Mansukh at T. Nagar tel no:044-24341867, 044-243451258 ) Day 2. Ak,K and N took off by a flight from Chennai to Delhi. Met An at her residence at Faridabad. Ak, An met up G at train station and they went to rent sleeping bags, mattresses, ropes from a dealer called Bhagwansingh-ji in Delhi. (Contact no: 09350225713). Sleeping bags-deposit Rs 1000/- each. rent Rs. 25 per day. Mattresses - rent Rs. 10 per day. Left from Fari...

Morpheus asked Neo: Do you think that's air you're breathing now? This question changed the way Neo thought about everything. The question triggered a process. A shock, a surge of anger seeing his long standing beliefs coming to a breaking point before his own eyes, followed by a strong denial (that it can't be actually happening!!), followed by coming to terms with the fact that many of the strong beliefs were in fact statements easily falsifiable in another world, followed by greater understanding of self and the world around. The moments of dismay caused due to such questions can be as few as one wants them to be. All it takes is assuming some large set of axioms as truths of our lives and building upon them. The larger your set of assumptions (foundations!!) stronger the strength of your beliefs and more is smoothness in your life. In the pursuit of simple, easy and often smooth life one admits this route. Beaware, thats a route always waiting for you around every corne...

I have always had this endless TO DO list. Sometime it seems to me that I am more fond of making such a list than of actually doing the things listed in my TO DO list. Few days ago, the Madras Players (a drama group) performed in our auditorium a really good drama (The Proof). After seeing that I was like, I want to join a drama school. So joining a drama school happens to be in my TO DO current list quiet on top. But to replace that, now I have "Learn Bharat Natyam" on the top!! I used to learn bharatnatyam as a kid. I learnt it for 4 years. But then left it due to various reasons, the main being I had to study for my school. Today I saw an amazingly refreshing bharatnatyam performance by Ms.Priyadarshini Govind. I felt so rejuvenated and happy. It was like seeing someone create magic. I must ask all of you Chennaiites to definitely make a point and see her perform. Thanks to this performance, Bharatnatyam has taken the topmost place in my list. I agree I haven't done m...

Did I mention that I am a lawyer? I passed with pretty good grades and was hired by a small private law firm. My boss happens to be a very professional person. Also very famous for the criminal cases. What he sublets his assistants are simply cases of divorce. I have handled as many divorce cases as I have attended marriages. I come to believe that, it all adds up to zero. If I was slightly less optimistic I would never have gotten married. I was late for my work. My friend once told me that he works in a firm where he doesn't have to reach on a certain time. The work environment is so good that it hardly matters as long as you are giving enough work output. He was amazed to know that I take same train every morning to reach office at the same time. I am not a very disciplined guy or anything. But I hate missing my work timings. In any case, the days on which I am late, the only thing I feel bad about is I don't get to see her. I have never spoken to her in my life. But her app...

Nirvana is one thing that can single handedly bring you back to music.... everytime the life gets totally out of tune and lacking of music...... All Apologies Lyrics What else should I be All apologies What else could I say Everyone is gay What else could I write I don't have the right What else should I be All apologies In the sun In the sun I feel as one In the sun In the sun I'm married Buried I wish I was like you Easily amused Find my nest of salt Everything is my fault I'll take all the blame Aqua seafoam shame Sunburn with freezeburn Choking on the ashes of her enemy In the sun In the sun I feel as one In the sun In the sun Married, Maried, Maried! Buried! Yeah yeah yeah yeah All in all is all we are [x20]

This time I went for treks near Palghat . This is a town in Kerala , very close to the Tamilnadu - Kerala border. Unlike my last trek, I am going to describe this one in detail, because our camera abandoned us just when we entered the forest. The pictures can't do the talking, so I have to. Those of you who wish to trek or even those who wish to know how much we freaked out read on. We reached Palghat junction around 4:30am. You get a bus very close to the junction that leaves for Pollachi at 5:00am. (There are buses every 20-30 minutes). We managed to get in. This bus should take not more than 1 hour to reach Pollachi (ticket Rs. 25/-). But it stops quiet often in between (crosses the Tamilnadu - Kerala border) to reach Pollachi , Tamilnadu at 7:00am. Our trek route was to start from Parambikulam wild life sanctuary, situated in Kerala . We planned to do the two days tram way trek (offered by Parambikulam santuary Rs 1225/- per person)(which later got changed to another ...