Potpourri

What next?.... When I was a kid, I always thought that there is a certain age till when this question will bother me and after that, like for my parents, things will be in order. Life will fall into a routine and I will never again be confronted with this demon called "what next?". But turns out, for our generation, there is no point of rest. The demon is a part of our life like stability was for the generation before us. This realisation is also stale by now. In fact, it has been more than a few years since I even resigned to this way of life. The time period between such a realisation and resignation was hard, I must confess. But not anymore! The confrontations with this demon are a reassurance of life itself! (feels embarrassed after having said such things....) My childish philosophies may be sounding hilarious to you (reader). (Thank me for the entertainment! You are welcome!) What I wish to announce is: for a while, I do have an answer to one such "what next...?...

The task is a difficult one. Like I told you already, I am about to finish my PhD and now I will go to another stage of my life. This is when I need to make serious decisions and take charge of my life, so to say. People seem to perform this task of decision making much in private. But I am going to use this forum effectively to make certain important decisions of my life. It goes without saying, suggestions are most welcome. And more importantly, your views and opinions do carry a lot of weight and I am willing to listen to any suggestions, from anonymous or known readers. Having said this, let me tell you my criteria. cost: about 35,000/- ram: 2 gb hard disk space: about 200gb dvd drive weight: about 2 kg (lesser the better, but budget is also important) support anywhere in India. drivers readily available My queries: Is there any parameter I have forgotten to add? Which company is better? Do you know whether any offers for students are on? Are there any useful links? (other than fir...

Recently, I have created a one hour talk about three puzzles and how they can be solved or understood using some concepts of computer science. The title of the talk reads: Hats off to theoretical computer science. Before starting the talk, I make a point to make the following disclaimer: This is not a theoretical computer science propaganda talk. It is simply aiming to solve/understand solutions of three puzzles. The title is a bit catchy. But the "hats off" part of the title comes simply because all the puzzles are hats puzzles. Here is the talk. (Special thanks to S. P. Suresh for introducing cool fonts.) You may want to download and view it. Try solving the puzzles. Let me know if you find another approach to solve them. The last puzzle alone can be material for a one hour talk. Here is a link available on Google for the last puzzle alone. What is amazing about these slides is, they have solved the last puzzle using Nim games. (google to find out what Nim games are)....

हत्ती गेला अणि शेपूट राहीली. (Translation: The elephant is gone only the tail is left.) Almost five and half years of my Ph.D. are over. Just another few months before I finish. This is now the wrapping up time. Now I am almost done. But for this one last thing. Thesis typing! And believe it or not, this seems to be the hardest part of my Ph.D. years. Mainly because it is boring. But also because it is always at the back of my mind. I wake up and and I am sipping a cup of coffee and there it is, the half finished chapter 3, standing in front of me and asking me why I slept off the previous night when it had been in a middle of a sentence. I am checking my email or writing the blog and it comes and taps on my shoulder and says, "time to get back buddy". It almost yells in my dreams "I need attention!" It's like a person in my life now. And no, I am not a schizophrenic. It is really there everywhere! You won't believe this, but I am literally sneaking out ...

I came across a theory blog started by Lipton. Here is the link to the blog. I found a pointer to one of the articles of this blog through Lance Fortnow's weblog . In the first part of the post, Lipton mentions that the result regarding the closure under complement for space bounded classes was open for a really long time and the fact that people believed that it won't be true was one of the main reasons why it remained open. Lance in his post commented on Lipton's remarks about conventional wisdom regarding NP=P question. But in any case, thanks to this discussion on the weblog, I got to see a nice informal description of Immerman and Szelepcsenyi's result (which is the second part of Lipton's post). The exposition is useful if you have already seen the result and the proof. It is explained assuming many things and hence it may not be a good read for someone reading the result for the first time. I would like to stress the fact that the question was first raised ...

Every city has its own specialty. Pune is of course famous for its colleges, for its food and many more things. But undoubtedly, wacky notice boards give Pune its identity. Here are a few gems (courtesy Amaresh) found in the by-lanes of Pune. A lot (the tone and the attitude filled in these lines) is lost in translation: The bungalow is empty. There is nothing worth stealing. Don't bother. Outsiders are not allowed to use the lift. Society won't be responsible if they get stuck. Do not stand or park under the coconut tree. If coconut falls, the owner (of the coconut tree) will not responsible for the damages. You will have to pay for asking the address. If the place is within ten km, you will have to pay 50 paise. If more than ten km, then you will have to pay Rs 1/- -- Thank you. (the second board-) If you ask "why have you written this?" then you will be charged Rs. 200/- To those who can't read, the address will be told for free. No one has been given the re...

Under a hypothetical situation where Sri Ram Sena becomes the central ruling party of India, following will be the rules (closely resembling/ inspired(!) from the rules of Taliban ) for women: 1- Complete ban on women's work outside the home, which also applies to female teachers, engineers and most professionals. Only a few female doctors and nurses are allowed to work in some hospitals in Chinchpokali. 2- Complete ban on women's activity outside the home unless accompanied by a close male relative such as a father, brother or husband, lets call him Mr. M. 3- Ban on women dealing with male shopkeepers. 4- Ban on women being treated by male doctors. (Note that, women are not supposed to be doctors except at Chinchpokali. So if they fall ill, they should just die.) 5- Ban on women studying at schools, universities or any other educational institution. (Girls' schools should be converted into religious seminaries.) 6- Requirement that women always wear saaris, cover the...

Did I already post these? Here is one gem by The Mountain Goats. It's called No Children. There is another one sung by the same group, which has similar spirit as this one. It is a cover of Ace of base, called Sign. I haven't found a nice version of this. The only one I have is a live version. If you happen to find it, let me know. Here is another song, not particularly in the same tone as the previous one. But really nice by Howie Day. I don't know much about this artist. But this song, called Collide , is really good. I got this from a blog called The world In A Paper Cup . Here is yet another sad song called, not so surprisingly, a Sadie ! It is nothing like the other songs I have heard by M ward (the creators of an amazing song called Chinese Translation). Hope you like the collection.

I saw the movie a few days ago. I really don't understand: why so much fuss? If an Indian director makes a fully filmy hindi movie, no one gives a damn about it. But some non-indian comes and makes this movie and people are going all ga ga about it. A.R. Rehman has given music better than "jai ho". Anil Kapur has done roles better than this. This movie has set new records in making a big deal out of a not-so-amazing movie. I say this because, even a huge fuss has been made about why there is so much fuss about this movie. That is like the second order fuss about the movie! And here, I am making the third order fuss with a huge lot accompanying me in doing so. To start the tirade-- The main guy is such a put off! He has a unique expression on his face, indicating he really has no clue what people are talking about. You are supposed to be poor, not dumb for god's sake! Even some of the witty lines are lost due to his dialog delivery. For example, when one police man say...

A quick post about a few random things Firstly songs will be on my mp3 (which is on low charge currently) this week: My Brightest Diamonds: Inside a boy Lyrics: (Actually I hadn't heard the lyrics very carefully till I posted them here right now. I now realise its like a love song. Even if you are not a fan of mush, let me assure the song sounds good anyway). Inside a boy I found the only one And in his arms are a thousand stars On a dark sky We are clouds, we are whispers Like fawns and shapeshifters Our ages can never be found out Our edges keep moving farther on We are stars colliding, though we crash like lightning into love. Love. In his arms, I'm alive. From his kiss, I'm falling into love. We are stars colliding, though we crash like lightnin into love. Love Ola Podrida : Cindy Lyrics: Cindy decided to leave her childhood diary under the bed She burned almost everything except for her wedding ring Because she threw that in the sea She hid in her neighbor's yar...

I have experienced many disillusionments about my cooking skills. My mother is an amazing cook. And I used to think that I have started on the positive side, as cooking skills must be something that one inherits. I used to be a bold cook initially who experimented and tried new recipes. Those few times when I started cooking maggie and turned it into burnt coal didn't quiet give me a hint about things to come. I continued my endeavours and got it wrong most of the times. But even then I was very optimistic that the next time I'll do better. It was this one dhokla -cooking incident, which finally managed to shatter my beliefs. It kind of penned down my cooking abilities. After this I could no longer fool myself or the world that I was gifted with innate cooking skills. On the contrary, I kind of resolved to the fact that I was a failure as far as cooking was concerned. It was one quiet Sunday evening and four or five of us decided that we wanted to eat something nice. I had hea...

News channels today repeat the news enough number of times. They make sure no one misses the buzz. I have always been critical about the news channels showing same breaking news every day 24/7 and being proud about it. Let alone other flaws in the media reporting, this repetition of news can single-handedly put people off these channels. What is the purpose of talking about the problems over and over again? How much sense does it make? Do people really care and do they care more if they hear the same thing again and again? In media situation very likely repetition serves no goal at all. Getting to hear about a small boy called Prince who fell into a pit and that too every one hour or flashing Aishwarya and Abhishek's wedding moments every 30 minutes doesn't really move people. Also those who care to do something about the social issues do it anyway and those who don't can't be changed by seeing the same news again and again. What about in other situations? Say in yo...

I have decided to not wait till the new year to make some resolutions.... Here are my resolutions: I will update my blog more regularly. Its not that I haven't had anything to say, its just that I have ignored every urge to write in the recent past. I won't wait till I get 'piled higher and deeper' with all the work load and won't let it bring me down like it is right now. Aaargh , couldn't I have done some of the things before few days? Why didn't you?... you stupid woman!! I will work out at least thrice a week and hang out at the beach or go for long walks at least twice a week. I love sitting at the Besant nagar beach and I have realised I have stopped doing this completely. High time I got back to my hang out routine. I will listen to more music and download a whole lot. Pirated music rules. As hard it is to find, sweeter it sounds. :) Here is a nice comic about pirated stuff: (From xkcd .com) (By the way, piracy is a punishable crime. Don't get ...

I would like to introduce Basanti, whom we (Prof. Ronojoy Adhikari spotted her injured near the main road and called some of us to get some help) met about four months back. We think she was a pet who was abandoned on a road close to where we live. She completely lacked outdoor survival skills, as a result of which she had a severe accident, and one of her hind legs was badly damaged. When we found her she was in a really bad shape and was in extreme pain. The initial diagnosis of a doctor was that she had a paralysis and wouldn't ever be able to walk or even support herself on her legs. We later managed to transfer her to a vet hospital and her treatment started. After three months of treatment and continuous care, Basanti is now fully recovered. She is very friendly and comfortable with people around her. Unfortunately, we live in a hostel and are not allowed to keep dogs inside the campus. We can't keep her in the hospital indefinitely and all the shelters we have looked a...

Wiki says the following about the language Esperanto. "Esperanto is by far the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language in the world. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L.L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro , in 1887. The word esperanto means 'one who hopes' in the language itself. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy and flexible language that would serve as a universal second language to foster peace and international understanding." Its a very logical and structured language. Unlike English, every letter in the language is pronounced in exactly one way and does not depend on the word in which it appears. This is true for even Marathi and Hindi (two Indian languages). But what is more amazing about this language is, its grammar rules are fully deterministic. There are roots for nouns, verbs, adjectives. They all have distinguished suffixes that indicate whether th...

I haven't updated my blog for a long long time. But I have been alive in the real world. I have even been out of touch with most of my friends and sorry about that. But here is one way to update you. (And also boast about my amazing life :)...I am clearly high!) Bought a camera: I have a kick butt camera of my own now. Its a Canon A470. Nothing very exceptional, but still its awesome, just because now I own it. Women In Theory: I attended a workshop in Princeton University from 13 June to 19 June. It was great fun. You can read about it from following blog. Something that is not written on that blog is the Mentor program about which I'll tell you in a moment. NYC and Phili and fun: During my stay at Princeton I visited a friend in Phili and went bar hopping with him at midnight. Later met another friend who came from Florida and we hung out a hell lot in NY and places around. I saw few places, Times square, Brooklyn bridge and statue of Liberty in NY. And enjoyed traveling ...

Finally I have managed to organise the snaps. Check out! Jalsu Pass

Here is a blog entry after a long time. I want to write about lots of things. But first things first. I am just back from a trek to Himalaya. I present to you my experience in slightly strange, but hopefully readable format. Q: What was the trek route? A: We did a pass called Jalsu pass. Our brief travel itinerary is: Day 1: Reach Baijanath by bus from Shimla . Take a jeep to Utrala . Camp the first night at Utrala near the dam on Binawa river. Day 2: Walk for 7 hours from Utrala to Parai . Camp at Parai . Day 3: Walk about 4 hours from Parai to upper Parai . Camp at upper Parai . Day 4: Walk for about 4 hours to reach the top of Jalsu pass. Cross the pass and reach Yhara after a walk of about 3 hours. Camp at Yhara . Day 5: Walk for about 7 hours to reach Naygram . End of trek. Take a bus to Lammu (15 km from Naygram ). Q: How many people went? A: 7 of us, A, B, G, K, guide and guide's 15 year old son and yours truly . Q: How much planning went into it? A: Well, a lot...

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.