Macbeth - Roman Polanski (1971)

Roman Polanski is the guy behind 'The Pianist'. It is in many ways similar to 'The Pianist', or more correctly 'The Pianist' is in many ways similar to it. Both stories are essentially tragic. Dark, haunting, moving. The original script has been preserved, but it is suprisingly watchable.

All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!

Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
Not so happy, yet much happier.
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.

For those who don't know the story, Macbeth and Banquo come across three witches while riding back after battle, who tell them a prophesy. What I find interesting is that destruction is guised in the veneer of success. Macbeth becomes the Thane of Cawdor soon after. In celebration, the King comes to Macbeth's castle.

Stars hide your fires,
Yet not light see my black and deep desires.

With these eerie, haunting lines Macbeth goes in to kill King Duncan. After killing the King, Macbeth develops an elaborate plot to shift the blame. This is soon followed by the famous scene where the blood refuses to wash of Macbeth's hands. Regrets creeps in.

If we shall fail,
We fail.
But screw your courage to the sticking place
And we shall not fail

Lady Macbeth, plays the devils advocate and prods him on, much against his will. She seems to have a much keener sense of strategy than Macbeth. She realizes that he does not have the ruthlessness needed to become King.

Things without remedy should be without regard
What is done is done.

Rationalizing his act. Macbeth comes off as a tool in Lady Macbeths hand. He repeatedly says Duncan is a good man, a man that doesn't deserve to be murdered. So, Lady Macbeth tries to get him off the path of remorse.

We have scorched the snake but not killed it

The latter part of the prophesy hits Macbeth, he will become King, but his children will not. Sometime I feel his desire to fight against the prophesy, makes it come true even more. When he decides to murder Banquo, little does he realize that it makes Banquo's son want revenge. This gets me thinking, when someone says ' You always get it right' or ' You are going to end up as nothing', are they actually stating facts, or do they end up becoming self-fulfilling statements and hence facts.

Life is but a walking shadow
Poor player struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more
It is a tale told by idiots
Full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing

Disillusionment after a delusional Lady Macbeth kills herself. It is weird that though Lady Macbeth is the proponent of most of the plot and comes off as lilly faced and stone-hearted, she is actually the one most affected. The movie becomes increasingly dark and macabre towards the end.

I begin to be a weary of the sun
And wish the state of the world
Were now undone

Duncan is dead. Banquo is dead. Lady Macbeth is dead. His friends have deserted him. He is all alone in his castle. Regret. But 'tis too late.

PS: I know I have missed out a lot of the plot - the moving woods, Macduff....In my defense, I initially just wanted to put up some quotes from Macbeth, and then ended up writing a small explanation for each, and then ended up tracing out the story. Watch the movie, it's well worth it. There is also an adaptation of 'The Merchant of Venice' that is out, with Al Pacino playing the role of Shylock. Has anyone seen it?

Ramani and his theory of money

Over the last couple of years income in India has skyrocketed. I remeber, when entering college, the highest paying job for a 20 something on the market was one of these FMCG companies, which paid about 4-5 lakhs. Even that was considered quite high, most managers would have been happy to make 10-15k a month. Today, the job market is flooded. So much money and jobs floating around with the the BPOs, IT companies, and big MNCs. Most of the employees in these companies are young, have little responsibilities and well willing to spend their money. So there have been all kinds of retail chains and stores that have cropped up over the last few years ! Economic growth.
Is it really? The numbers look great, but there are some interesting points. If, you look at the US, they speak of economic growth, and how per capita income has gone up over the last few years. Do you know that the country that this country also has the lowest per capita savings in world. Most of the popultation is highly indebted and survives on credit cards. Isn't this paradoxical? No it's not! One does not speak of per capita savings, because one cannot!
Lets have a kutti model economy. There are 10 people and 1000 rupees. One person cooks, the other cleans clothes, the other repairs machinery and so on. Each charges for his services. Lets assume, no one is willing to spend, and each would rather do all the work himself. So, each person keeps 100 rupees and there is no exchange of money. But, lets assume the start paying each other's for services, so there is a rotation of money. The more each produces and consumes, the more the rotation and more the per-capita-income, but lesser the saving!! The more money you have, the less money you actually have! Isn't it weird, you earn the most, when you are least willing to keep what you earn!
Another point I have to make, this so called purchasing power of the consumer. Today you earn 5 lakhs a year, when you would have earned 50k 10 years back. You can afford a car, TV and all the other amenities of modern life. Yes, you have greater purchasing power, but it's only for commodites with an 'unlimited' supply, i.e. can be produced. And most things that can be produced are relatively peripheral needs! Unlike what all the adverts tell you, life isn't really that better.
Lets go back to our old example, 1o men and 1000 rupees. Lets assume that one of them gets hold of a bar of chocolate. He wants to sell it and make a profit. He will sell it to the maximum bidder! It is relative. Thus, if everyone has a lot of money, it really doesn't matter. The one with the maximum money always gets the chocolate (assuming he is not allergic to it or something). Thus, the price of commodites naturally shifts up so it remains to be affordable only to a specific percentage of the population.
This basically means that, just because you earn 10 times as much as your father did, you are probably are going to be no better off when it comes to buying a house, eating at a restaurant or doing a lot of other things! The housing market has exploded, they say it is impossible to buy a house today. No, it isn't impossible to buy a house today, it has always been impossible to buy a house. Just because you earn more, as long as you earn less than someone else, that someone can afford it and not you!
What about the other intangible quantity whose supply is limited - respect, admiration, fame! The top 0.1% percent of the population is probably held in awe (or envy!) by the remaining 99.9%. Thus, if you want to be famous, it doesn't matter how good you are in absolute terms, but how you are relative to the population!
As Ayn Rand says, life is not designed to be fair! Actually, it is eminently fair, you get what you deserve, not what you need! What you deserve is relative to what everyone else deserves, and hence intrinsically competitive. No matter how much humanity progresses, certain things have been and will be accessible only to a specific percentage of the population. Natural selection you see!

Aha

Love is a weird phenomenon. High as a kite without the consumption of any narcotic substances. I feel it accomplishes an interesting biological phenomenon - almost unconditional attachment. I don't understand why this is necessary - anyone with a rudimentary understanding of business will tell you that underperforming assets should be either made profitable or sold off. Why does a woman need to support her son even if he was responsible for slitting the throats of assorted strangers? Before, you are visited by strange imaginings of me, let me get to the juice, or the rasam as the case is.
So there is this city...
Where the airport looks like a scene from a WWII movie.
Where the auto drivers rip you off.
Where the roads resemble disasters waiting to happen. No wait disasters that have already happened.
Where the coffee places don't have wireless internet. (Bah! What has the world come to I say!!)
etc. etc.
But, you just have to keep coming back for more. Like it is with Madras for me.

There are few things that beat cloudy weather with light rain, a hot cuppa of coffee and the Hindu. Actually, one of those few things is reading the matrimonial section. Here is one I came across:
"IYER Tanjore US, MS, H1B, California, Clean Habits seeks (select adjectives from Slim, Beautiful, Homely,..) Girl with GRE/TOEFL Scores above ..."
So, looks like the application process is going real professional. My BPD (Bussiness Plan of the Day) - How about coming with a (e)M(p)T(y) (MarriageabiliTy) test? This test will take into account all possible factors and develop normed scores on features such as beauty, intelligence, personality, and honesty. With this will follow standardization of the marriage industry. The goal of every self-righteous man, woman and child should be too maximize their (e)M(p)T(y) ness. While we are at it, I guess I should make clear my specific requirements:
1. A good understanding of stochastic differential equations and ITO integrals. Understanding of some of the standard models in the fixed income domain is preferable.
2. Should also know the fundamental approach to stock analysis.
This would help us come up with original trading strategies and increase leveraging of our joint positions in the financial industry. In the long term, there exist good market opportunities for larger ventures.

I've been Tagged

My second tag.

7 things that i plan to do and will do:
1.) volunteer for a year with an aid organization
2.) travel to Chile, Brazil, Egypt, Ethopia and Iran
3.) succeed at what i set out to do
4.) learn more about art,literature and music.
5.) be more sensitive/understanding to people and situations
6.) not sweat the small stuff. not let people/minor situations ruin my day.
7.) Oh well..you know what this is..:D..

7 things that i can do and like doing:
1.) math!
2.) be adventurous and resourceful!
3.) have intelligent discussions
4.) learn quickly and be good at any sport
5.) be good to ppl i like (hint: Micheal Corleone)
6.) write! be silly, whimsical and irreverant.
7.) do my work and have my fun (without one affecting the other!)

7 things i can't do:
1.) talk to/appear to like someone I don't like. be fake
2.) do something that doesn't interest me.
3.) speak geek. remember model numbers of gizmos and discuss their random features. if it works je suis happy.
4.) not lose something every 3 weeks
5.) dance/sing
6.) write neatly
7.) do nothing ( I don't understand why you will want to be on an island paradise, you will be bored in a week!)

7 words i use often:
1.) Well, the funda is....
2.) Otha....
3.) Basically....
4.) What?!..
5.) Seri seri..
6.) Nothing much..
7.) F*** ( and it's variants)

7 things i like to eat/drink
1.) Onion sambhar + Vendekka Curry
2.) Lasagna
3.) Shawerma/Falafel
4.) Onion rings
5.) Coffee
6.) Nice wine/beer
7.) Chinese food with chopsticks

7 people I am going to tag:
Due to the public outrage that has resulted from my blashphemy, I shall take this tag down with me. I think a lot of people are going to be very happy.

Big Colleges Big Problems

Proprietary Quote by Ramani (PQR):
"Life : kicks you in the ass, and kicks you in the *cough cough*, depending on how you decide to face it"
Note: The author does not assume responsibilty for the consequences of reproducing his work. Or simply put, dude if you think this is funny, either you cannot think, or you need to think again.

I was on the phone with an employee of the company I am thinking of working for. After the usual 'Do you like your work?' type questions the conversation meandered into discussing a very weird issue - big name schools like MIT and Caltech have among the highest suicide rates in the US. In MIT the windows in the dorms are made so small that it is barely possible to look out, let alone jump. There are no grades for the first year of college, and if they notice that you might have done badly on an exam, you are escorted back to the dorm and put on watch. Serious stuff.
Oh well, me being me, I had to wonder about the classical chicken and hen problem, does MIT drive you crazy or is it because most people who get in are so crazy that either they are suicidal in the first place or seeing them you want to kill yourself. Then that guy then asked 'Mr IIT' (me) how it was in IIT. I told him, that we guys are smarter, so smart infact that, we have realized that instead of killing ourselves, its healthier for you to kill everyone else. Think about it. Adolf Hitler did cause a lot of carnage, and it would have been better for everyone else if he had killed himself pre-carnage instead of post-carnage, but he sure had a fun ride with his secret police, concentration camps and razing of assorted cities!!
Jokes apart, I wonder why this is so. Isn't it strange that people at the highest level of achievement are the hardest hit by failure? Or is it natural ? The fear of failure is the reason why they tend to be so driven to succeed. Actually, if you think about it a bit, it doesn't help! Things only get worse! Your expectations of yourself, and hence your definition of failure (performing below expectations), are pushed up a few notches, so the next time when things dont work out it hits much harder.

Le Porc

The Pig
In England once there lived a big
And wonderfully clever pig.
To everybody it was plain
That Piggy had a massive brain.
He worked out sums inside his head,
There was no book he hadn't read.
He knew what made an airplane fly,
He knew how engines worked and why.
He knew all this, but in the end
One question drove him round the bend:
He simply couldn't puzzle out
What LIFE was really all about.
What was the reason for his birth?
Why was he placed upon this earth?
His giant brain went round and round.
Alas, no answer could be found.
Till suddenly one wondrous night.
All in a flash he saw the light.
He jumped up like a ballet dancer
And yelled, "By gum, I've got the answer!"
"They want my bacon slice by slice"
To sell at a tremendous price!"
They want my tender juicy chops"
To put in all the butcher's shops!"
They want my pork to make a roast"
And that's the part'll cost the most!"
They want my sausages in strings!"
They even want my chitterlings!"
The butcher's shop! The carving knife!"
That is the reason for my life!"
Such thoughts as these are not designed
To give a pig great piece of mind.
Next morning, in comes Farmer Bland,
A pail of pigswill in his hand,
And piggy with a mighty roar,
Bashes the farmer to the floor…
Now comes the rather grizzly bit
So let's not make too much of it,
Except that you must understand
That Piggy did eat Farmer Bland,
He ate him up from head to toe,
Chewing the pieces nice and slow.
It took an hour to reach the feet,
Because there was so much to eat,
And when he finished, Pig, of course,
Felt absolutely no remorse.
lowly he scratched his brainy head
And with a little smile he said,"
I had a fairly powerful hunch"
That he might have me for his lunch."
And so, because I feared the worst,"
I thought I'd better eat him first."
Roald Dahl

Childish, inane, silly, deep, chilling. Roald Dahl in addition to being a children's writer, wrote horror stories. I remember reading one of his collections. The first short story of that collection was about an old woman who feeds a travel weary man - with food laced with cyanide, and then stuffs him. It was in my hostel room late into the night, so no points for guessing what I was thinking the next couple of times I ate in the mess.

Pig
Go, stalk the red deer o'er the heather,
Ride, follow the fox if you can!
But, for pleasure and profit together,
Allow me the hunting of Man--
The chase of the Human, the search for the Soul
To its ruin--the hunting of Man.
Rudyard Kipling

What does this poem mean? Is he speaking from the perspective of the pig?

Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
George Orwell (Closing lines, Animal Farm)

Surprisingly, I have never read the book. My father used to tell me the story of this book when I was young and used to finish it off with these lines. I have never read Clockwork Orange or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest. But, thanks to my father I know them in excruciating detail. I did see the movies though. Clockwork Orange is quite shocking, I never could get past the gore and understand the point it was trying to make.
Well anyway, if you don't know the story, Animal Farm is about a bunch of animals in a farm run by a farmer. The animals protest about the farmer 'exploiting' them, and hence overthrow him and take over. The pigs take up the helm under the promise of equality. But, there is none. It's the old system in a new form. This is a parallel to the Bolshevik Revolution of the 1917 when the Romanovs were over thrown by the Communists headed by Lenin. Lenin and then Stalin turn out to be just as despotic as the Tsars. In the book the pigs grow increasingly decadent over time and behave exactly like the farmer did - actually worse. They even decide to form an alliance with the farmer in the end. While the pigs are negotiating with him in the farmhouse, the other animals look in through the window and wonder... Doesn't this remind one of this someone's effort to spread 'democracy' throughout the world? - by force, how hypocritic is that, freedom through violence. Sadly, it's the people that lose. 'Democracy' is just as bad as 'Socialism' if used as an excuse by a select few to further their agenda.

HTTHTTH - Random

Well, random.

• Do you know that I am going to spend the coming weekend with an extremely fine woman? Let's just say that she gets paid very very well to do whatever she does. She smiles, agrees to everything you say and makes you feel good about yourself ; like she should. But, I am looking for more. I need a specific position. I might have to push pretty hard, and it's not going to be pretty. To err is human it is said, and I am but human. It is usually said in hindsight, but I exhibit such extraordinary foresight that I predict hindsight. Well anyway, before your dirty minds go amuck, and start saying very mean things about me, I just feel that, to even think of leaving a world of research is a shame. All said, I need to clear up on a couple of things with the HR rep.
• This customercare wishing happy diwali business is getting on my nerves. Over the last few days, I have had eBay, shaadi.com, relianceindiacall.com, sulekha.com and a zillion other sites wish me a happy diwali. Whats up with them? Can't someone realize it's very difficult to have your face light up with a smile when you KNOW it's a server somewhere in Kansas wishing you a happy diwali. Atleast if it says Anjan or Anjana or something like that it can pass off as something.
• Oh well, another thing to complain about. I am a teaching assistant for arguably one of the toughest courses on campus. This has endeared me to most of my friends of campus. Or, shall I say most of my new friends on campus. Anyway, my plan with this was different. It hinged on the fact that since the course is so obviously tough, most of the students would get soo frustrated by the 3rd week or so that they would drop it, and I wouldn't have any work to do. But, little did I think that these students could take revenge, instead of dropping the course, continue on, and drive poor souls like me mad. Nagging your TA when your somewhat non-zero score depends on him is not a cool strategy. I could go on to write a thesis about the trauma I go through as a TA - I didn't realize that it was possible to be so creative with math, so much 'new' math. Have you ever tried reading through a 2 page inductive proof (maybe they could have thrown in Hilbert Spaces and Martingale Theory for safe measure) for a sub-section of a problem worth 2 points and needs exactly 2 sentences to be answered correctly? Lets just say that I have quite a bit to say on this topic, most of which cannot be said without getting me in trouble.
• A friend of mine recieved a big bunch of flowers the other day from a secret admirer. It was soo romantic. Such a surprise. So thoughtful. In such good taste. Such deep passion. We were moved. Who could it be? Well, the SQL Optimizer Division at Microsoft does try it's best to woo new hires! I don't know why they didn't send an XBox or something! Btw, this is an 'on request' blog post.
  

Disclaimer: If you are some legal type person reading this, this sentence is a legal disclaimer to whatever you think I should be disclaiming. So, there.

Annie Hall

Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) is Avi's (Woody Allen's) love interest and the movie essentially traces their relationship. They were actually together in real life, and broke up in 1970. Keaton's birthname was Diane Hall and her nickname was Annie. Not so surprisingly the movie is semi-autobiographical. It was made in 1977. The humor is classy and cutting. The movie has the greatest number of quotable one-liners that I have ever come across. It is to American comedy what the Yes Minister series has been to British comedy.

The movie starts off with Woody Allen commenting about his life to no one in particular.

Two elderly women are at a Catskill Mountain resort. And one of 'em says: 'Boy, the food in this place is really terrible.' The other one says: 'Yeah, I know. And such small portions.' Well, that's essentially how I feel about life. Full of loneliness and misery and suffering and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.

The other important joke for me is one that's usually attributed to Groucho Marx but I think it appears originally in Freud's Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious - and it goes like this. I'm paraphrasing. I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member. That's the key joke of my adult life, in terms of my relationships with women.

There is one scene from Woody's childhood, where he is in kindergarten class. He irritates one of the girls, and she complains to the teacher, who starts castigating him. Suddenly, this 10 year old kid is replaced by the adult Woody Allen (still sitting in the tiny desk), who responds :

Alvy (young): What did I do?
Teacher: You should be ashamed of yourself.
Alvy (adult): Why, I was just expressing a healthy sexual curiosity.
Teacher: Six year old boys don't have girls on their minds.
Alvy (adult): I did.
Girl: For god's sakes, Alvy, even Freud speaks of a latency period.
Alvy (adult): Well I never had a latency period. I can't help it.
Teacher: Why couldn't you have been more like Donald? Now there was a model boy.

The camera then moves on to the other children into the class, who go on to comment on their adult persona.

Boy 1- "I run a profitable dress company."
Boy 2- "I'm president of the Pinkus Plumbing Company."
Boy 3- "I sell tallises."
A normal-looking kid: "I used to be a heroin addict. Now I'm a methadone addict."
A mousey-looking girl: "I'm into leather."

Another brilliant scene, Woody grew up in a house under a roller-coaster in Brooklyn. He was very depressed, so his mother took him to see a psychiatrist.

Alvy's mother: He's been depressed. All of a sudden, he can't do anything.
Doctor: Why are you depressed, Alvy?
Alvy's mother: Tell Dr. Flicker. (To the doctor) It's something he read.
Doctor: Something he read, huh?
Alvy: The universe is expanding...Well, the universe is everything, and if it's expanding, some day it will break apart and that will be the end of everything.
Alvy's mother: What is that your business? (To the doctor) He stopped doing his homework.
Alvy: What's the point?
Alvy's mother: What has the universe got to do with it? You're here in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not expanding.
Doctor: It won't be expanding for billions of years, yet Alvy. And we've got to try to enjoy ourselves while we're here, huh, huh? Ha, ha, ha. (He gives an artificial laugh before taking another drag on his cigarette)

The movie has a lot of semi-autobiographical elements. You cannot make out which is fact and which is fiction.

Alvy: Jesus, what did ya do? Come by way of the Panama Canal?
Annie: I'm in a bad mood, OK?
Alvy: Bad mood? I'm standing with the cast of The Godfather.
Annie: You're gonna have to learn to deal with it.
Alvy: I'm dealin' with two guys named Cheech.

Diane Keaton did play the role of Michael Corleone's (Al Pacino) wife in the Godfather!

One of the most striking features of the movie is this digression where one of the characters starts recollecting a scene from the past, and the movie rolls into re-enacting the scene, then there is a pause and the character from the present walks into the past and casually comments on it. It captures what each and every one of us do - look back on the past from the perspective of the present. Such scenes make it very easy to relate to the movie. Avi's cynicism is endearing and it is not too hard to see a little bit of yourself in many of the things that he says. It is the kind of comedy a professor of theatre might make - intelligent, articulate and very tastefully done. One of the best movies I have seen in recent times. I suggest you see it! To end, another great bunch of lines.

Avi's (later ex)wife(at a party ) : X is a Chair of History at Famous College 1, Y is a Chair of Art at Famous College 2, you should talk to them.
Avi: 2 more chairs and we can have a dining set.

IIT on Dilbert

IIT is featured on Sunday's Dilbert issue. Click here. One of the newer characters, Asok, is from IIT. He is portrayed as super-intelligent, but extremely naive and gullible. He demonstrated his powers in earlier issues by first heating a cup of coffee using only his mental powers, and then single handedly finishing an entire project because none of his project mates would return his calls. This issue is no different. He demonstrates his 'mind blowing' intelligence, quite literally.
Suprisingly, or not so surprisingly, Rajat Gupta (ex-ceo of McKinsey) reacted quite negatively. He said that the geeky image created by these strips was not accurate.
The latest Doonesbury strip also features Indian Engineers. Click here. It is mostly a reference to the outsourcing phenomena. The smartness of Indian engineers thrown in as an afterthough.
In a weird co-incidence, both came out on the same day.
On that topic, there was another strip which I encountered a while back that ran something like this:
(Picture from 1970s)
Dad to Kid: Eat your breakfast! Children in India are starving!
(Picture from 2000s)
Dad to Kid: Do your homework! If you don't, the kids from India will make you starve!

PS: The template has become a mess. Need to clean it up!!

Times Square

I like photos like this. You really don't need to do any work. Just point, shoot and the picture comes out looking amazing. A picture tells a thousand words. This one is not so much into prolixity, but it does have a couple of sentences that it just wants to throw at you. Any guesses?

Judge me not

Don't you just love your friendly neighbourhood rapper. Wonderful souls, with kind hearts and the most benevolent intentions. Why are they are called misanthropic, violent, homophobic and psychotic? Why are they misunderstood? Can't we realize that, like everybody else, they just want to love and be loved.

Those apocryphal names - Eminem, 50 cent and Puff Daddy. Did you know that the name Eminem is derived from the popular candy M&M (em and em, eminem). Can an individual named after a candy be evil, vile and full of bile.

Their lifestyles. I am sure you have heard stories in the news about rappers consuming illegal substances, having wild parties and being a threat to each other's lives. But, are you gullible enough to believe that rubbish? Could anyone possibly live a life so decadent? So superficial. So shallow. It cannot be. It's a campaign by their record labels to sully their names, and boost record sales - all in the name of profit. Remember, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, how they loved each other, and how their love grossed a couple of hundred millions at the box office. Isn't it beautiful to see the most sacred of emotions, love, used to make tonnes and tonnes of money. That beauty must have hurt so bad, a feeling of deep betrayal, of treason, a feeling that doesn't go away with extra pints of Hefeweizen. What sacrifices success doth demand! What courage! What inner strength!

Their words. How maligned. How misunderstood.

"In the gym I see your a** on a stairmaster
B**** you are on level two go a little faster
Look girl I ain't gonna lie, I am going to tell you how I feel,
I am going to handcuff your big a** to the treadmill"

The pour soul has a gf who isn't looking after her physique. See, too much adipose tissue leads to coronories. He must have told her like a million times, "Cmon go to the gym no please no", but she just wouldn't listen. Just wouldn't. Understandably, he gets all worked up. He couldn't control his strong feelings towards her. A little tact, a little diplomacy goes a long way. But, what to do.

"I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind."
- William Shakespeare (Hamlet)

He just felt he had to give her some tough love. We should be loath to blame him.

"So much chrome on my benz
That you see your face on my rimz"

This needs to be understood in the right socio-economic perspective. There are many in this country who live a life of despair and penury. They have nowhere to go and are forced to live on the street. But, doesn't every man have a right to his dignity? And a little bit of vanity? He deserves a shave, at the very least. What could be a better a way to do it?

"I am the boss on this boat, you can call me skipper,
The way I turn the money over, you can call me flipper"

See, a nature lover. Not many people can summon the courage to compose songs on the flipper the dolphin . Yes, one must agree that he does tend to be a little possesive about his things, but aren't we all. He just wants to get on a boat and watch dolphins. But, we misunderstand him. We call it greed. We call it avarice. We call it vanity. Aren't we jealous? Woe to us.

"I don't care if you are white or black,
Tall or short or thin or fat,
(Errm...cough cough..), and I like that"

Doesn't he believe in equality, in non-descrimination, and in deeper principles that rule the heart of every righteous man. In a world ruled by crass commercialism, where many a woman's self image is under constant pressure to live up to unattainable stereotypes, isn't this a welcome break? A perfect proponent of Martin Luther's idealistic reality. How can you judge him by the facade that is his language? In today's decadent world, don't we need more people like this? As an indignant Shylock tells Salarino in the old bard's 'Merchant of Venice',

Hath not a Jew eyes?
Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?
If we run up on you with a knife,
Should you hate us?
If we corrupt your daughter,
Should you detest us?
If we are a danger to society,
Should you put us in jail?
If we are brainless nincompoops,
Should you think we are stupid?
Should you? Should you?

Mojito Man

I introduce to you Mojito Man. He is funny. Noo noo..he has nothing wrong with him. Just meant he is funny. Like me. He is also modest, like me. But, he doesn't rant and whine like me. Ok, he does rant and whine, but not like me. Ok, I am sure that by now you don't really like me. So, read him.Regular programming will commence shortly.
Also, Scott Adams of Dilbert fame has his own blog. Read it!

Photography

The Towers Petronas, Kaula Lampur, Malaysia

I took up photography as a hobby when I my dad 'gave' me his camera in my first year of college, after some gentle persuasion. Well anyway, it's an old Pentax SLR (ME Super), which was later updated with a zoom lens after more tactful persuasion. I like to take my camera with me whenever I travel, and I have traveled a fair bit. It will be nice for me to share my photos and experiences. One of the advantages of having suthufied a lot is that that you can make 'interesting' conversation with people, if someone says, oh I went there for a holiday there, you can come up with a reply like 'Cool..did you see this', implying I have been there myself, expressed most discreetly. Or, not so discreetly.
Well, anyway, most of the satisfaction in photography comes from loading the lens, adjusting the aperture, shutter speed, setting the fim etc.. The details. I dislike digital cameras. It's good if you want a lot of photos quick and cheap, but just kills all the fun. The photo you get from a digicam just depends upon how much money you have poured into it in the first place and the button you choose to press. It's like substituting a grand piano with a synth. You don't choose the synth even if it does come up with better music, because, well, that really isn't the point.
My mom keeps telling me to write a short description behind each photo, to look back fondly on them when I am old (atleast older). It is also a useful way to showoff to visitors, especially if I am not around, they can quickly see whats in the back and tell story behind picture. But it's a tiresom thing to do. Also, since they are paper prints, the chances are that no one really is going to look at it. It's going to sit in some corner somewhere. So, I got all my prints digitized. That makes things soo much easier. Trust me. From now on - photos, photo trivia, photo tales and teletubbies. Obviously, I was kidding about the teletubbies :D.

PS: I thought of creating a separate photo-blog but didn't do it for 2 reasons. I prefer having all my stuff in a single place. Updating 2 blogs can get really boring. Better to update 1 frequently, then 2 not at all.

173290186 - Random

Words :
The word 'mojo', much maligned by Austin Powers and the like, didn't actually mean ahem ahem...whatever it has come to mean. It actually had it's origin in the 70's, from the all famous Doors. It's lead singer was Jim Morrison, Mo Jo. Mojo.
Words 1 :
Along the same lines, the Doors is actually a reference to an article (or book?) called 'The Doors to Perception' by Aldous Huxley. It studies the 'improvement' in perception when one is under the influence of illegal substances. I 'percieve' a fairly direct connection.
Travel :
Getting interview calls is a good way for you to see the US. Everyone make sure that you get a lot of calls in November/December. I would recommend interviewing in Calif. . During the spring semester, you can probably go to the North East or North West. Upstate NY rocks at that time. Also be careful to note that finance companies put you up a lot better than software ones. Coming to think of it, you need to look at a number of factors before choosing an interview - the number of days you are going to be out, are you getting put up in a good hotel, can you send them your 'incidental' expense bills etc. etc. . So many decisions, so little time.
Movies :
'The Graduate' is about this guy who graduates from a high end school, magna-cum-laude etc etc - a muchily over-decorated CV, but has no idea what he wants to do with his life. His parents keep nagging him, getting on his nerves, and generally being a pain in the ass - go to grad school, go date this girl, work in this, work in that. Sounds familiar right. This confused, lost and drifting soul is very nicely played by Dustin Hoffman. The music in the movie is by Simon and Garfunkel. Wonderful. Enchanting numbers like 'Mrs Robinson' and 'Sounds of Silence'. 'Mrs Robinson' is actually a character in the movie, played by Anne Bancroft.
You should remember that this movie came out in the swinging sixties - free love, drugs and all weird stuff of that kind, so the plot is understandably crazy. Dustin Hoffman gets into all kinds of trouble but finally comes out all happy and smiling in the end with the girl of his dreams. However, his dreams are not widely shared or accepted - he has pissed off his parents and half the human race. But, this is a movie - he is blissful happy and blah.
Some observations: Movies such as this perpetrate some very unrealistic notions. Pissing off your parents and half the human race is never a good idea - that too when you don't have a viable plan to make ends meet. I also very strongly object to the solution quoted in the movie to the main proponent's problems - girl. How can a girl can be the solution to all of his problems? Guy meets girl (or vice versa), and boom all your problems in life are solved. The deep love that they share has figured out a way to pay the electricity bill. Life is that simple what. I mean, she doesn't affect the the basic nature of his problems - he still needs to find a way to be a productive member of the human race. Unless, of course, she is particularily loaded and dumb.
Actually, I feel he might have increased his problems - the girl is probably very dumb or is a psycho-slasher-killer in hiding. A case of mutual deception or ignorance. Since it's a movie, it doesn't go onto the part, where the girl turns out to have the general demenour of one of those big scary volcanic mountains that spew out lava, dust, ash, big bouldors, mangled animals - you get the picture. He had made a big mistake with all that snow and ice and lazy deer that he spied from a distance - the hapless thing was dormant. So, we think its happily ever after. The movie doesn't show the part when his parents cut him out his inheritance, and the girl dumps him, because dude, he hath no inheritance and is broke. Or, she hacks him to death. Or, she is so dumb that he hacks himself to death. I am looking to make a movie out of this romantic comedy + slasher bloodbath deathfest. It's a new genre. Called 'Real Life'. Any takers?

Interesting Article

An article that traces the admissions policies at some of the most prominent US universities.
http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/articles/051010crat_atlarge
Interesting Observations:
1) Some of the policies that they have had in the past are almost as ridiculous as the system we have in India today. They have got themselves into all kinds of muck. Tough to guess.
2) Pure academic merit isn't the best way to screen candidates who are going to be successful in real life.
3) It makes a distinction between the selection effect and the treatment effect. Does going to a particular institution make you successful because of what you learnt there or because of the very fact that you could get in.

The Last Para

In the last para of my previous post I had commented on feeling good about life. I am not sure how many people agree with me but I feel that there is a basic dichotomy to life. It's a catch 22 situation. You lose either way I feel. I am very curious what everyone thinks. I would love to be proved wrong.
There are 2 basic views that one can take to life:
1) 'Winning is everything': Your view is primarily towards achievement. Life is basically a long series of goals to be achieved. Your approach to life is completely result oriented. This does get you results but it comes with a lot of baggage. If things are not working out well you are frustrated. If things fail you are depressed. If things succeed you are elated. Since, any endeavor is worth doing only if the final result is going to be favorable, you are constantly evaluating your position. You try to predict future events that might cause failure and try to reduce the effect of those. You are constantly worried and tense. You succeed, you are the apple in the eyes of the world. Success is tied to happiness the world says. You have succeeded, but, you are miserable.
2) 'Living is everything': You do what you enjoy doing. You do something purely because it is a source of satisfaction to you. Nothing matters. How well you are at it. What finally comes out of it. Does it reap you any benefit? You live your life a particular way, well, because, you feel good living life that particular way. You take a much broader view to life. It's a series of experiences, of moments, of little details. No grandiose plans. No elaborate agenda. You are happy. But, in the eyes of the world you are a nobody.
Why is the world obsessed with success when much of the ingredients that go into it are not so good for your own well being? Also who is this world? Who sets these 'standards'? Let us say you make 2 million a year, live in an aparment on Park Avenue and marry a man/woman (the other sex basically :D, maybe not ;) ) most cannot even dream of - are you going to be happy with your life? The world is looking at you with envy. But, do you deserve to be envied? You have mortgaged your youth. On the other hand, your younger days might have been in idle enjoyment and now you have an ok job, an ok life - nothing special , just chugging along. Nobody gives you a second glance. You haven't done anything 'meaningful' with your life. A waste. Really?
PS: I have substituted clarity for correctness.
PPS: If you think it's crap, maybe it is.

Random Observations on Life : Updated

• It looks like 90% of the people on the web speak on relationships. Past, Future. Not present. They have better things to do I guess. This high fraction is a demographic glich as most people who blog are in the 20-30 age. It would be interesting to model this - given a population, demographic segment and age (most important) and some more parameters can you get an estimation of current status and count of past and future relationships. Heh. If, I could do this (which is not IMPOSSIBLE actually), I could make ton loads of money. Sell the software to Shaadi.com. When someone uploads a profile estimate whether there exist bones, skeletons or entire burial grounds in the closet.
• The PhD Comics guy has something wrong with him. He is painting a seriously wrong picture of grad school with all those chaps napping in front of the computer. What he probably didn't mention was that the guy had been at it for the last 3 days. And hence. Grad school is one big game of catch up. You are constantly catching up with all the work you need to do. If you dont catch up, you get run over. Btw, the author Jorge Cham is a post-doc at Caltech after finishing his PhD at Stan. That makes me all the more convinced of the alternate explanation to all the nap shots.
• Career fair time gives you a great opportunity to ahem ahem..stock up on pens, t-shirts and other assorted clothing and stationery. Rumors of 128MB flash drives and USB port freebies have risen. However, the author is yet to confirm these rumors through actual experience. He would like to.
  
• Speaking on career fairs. One should get into finance simply for the taste in food those companies have - kebabs, chocolate cake and iced tea compared to Domino pizzas favored by most C/C++/Java companies
• I find this quite interesting. One gets so ingrained to the pattern of the people in the department that one immediately notices if something is different. I saw some extremely sorority/frat looking people a few days back. A break from the lost-in-thought-google-t-shirt-wearing-laptop-totting crowd one is used to. A art history or some such course is going on. I saw some extremely well developed african american gentlemen and ladies. Well, there is an african studies class on.
  
• There was a funny incident a couple of days back. Microsoft is currently having this line on windows without the blue screen of death. Basically, stable. We have this large screen (7m width, 3 m high) across on of the walls in the main hall area of our department. This usually shows some commercial like thingy about the department. Well what happened is that the system crashed and there was this huge 1mx2m button that said something like 'Windows has crashed. Press Yes if you want to report bug to Microsoft'. Really funny. That too during career fair time. He he. They apparantly recruit max from here.
• I have come to the conclusion that how you feel about life is little correlated to most things that are associated with feeling good about life in the cliched form. Don't want to say more. I would actually like to know what others think about this. I can probably put my thoughts in the comments section after some others have shared theirs.:D.
  

Game Theory

I have been reading a bit on game theory and I find the subject fascinating. Thought I could share some interesting ideas.
A game is essentially the following - there are a set of agents and each of them follows a particular strategy. A game could be zero sum - i.e. only one of them win or it could be co-operative where the agents need to co-operate to get something done. I think game theory quantifies one of the biggest dilemnas of mankind - for self or common good? Meaning, if you are to do something, do you do it to maximize personal benefit or maximize joint benefit. Consider the famous Prisoner's Dilemna - there are 2 prisonors in different rooms. They have the choice of ratting or keeping quiet. If, both don't rat, both go free. If one rats, the other goes to jail for 10 years. However, if both rat on each other, then each goes to jail for 5 years. So, what is best for each prisoner to do?
If he assumes that the other prisinor is purely concerned only about himself, and is going to rat to maximize his personal benefit, it is in his best interest to rat as well. If he didn't he would go to jail for 10 years as opposed to 5. But, not ratting works if he has a strong reason to believe that the other person is not going to rat. If both people share this belief, both go free.
This brings up the famous Nash Equillibria. A system is supposed to be in Nash Equillibria if each party is following the best strategy for itself given the strategy that others are following. Everyone is doing the best for himself under the set of conditions. So, no one has reason to change strategy. Hence, it's in equillibrium. If, a set of people are nice to each other, then it's best to be nice, assuming that others are going to be nice. This can go on forever. It's stable.
But, what if suddenly someone is not nice. Even though it's not to his best interest, assume he is like that. What happens? A evolutionary stable strategy is one in which members are not affected by a new entrant with a different strategy. Meaning, a player who suddenly changes his strategy cannot harm others. A strategy which assumes no trust. It is robust. This is not necessarily the best for everyone. But, it's safe for everyone. It avoids losses, but it also minimizes gains. All strategies that animals follow are evolutionarily stable.
So, being good as a strategy works if everyone else is being good. Everyone does well. It's a Nash Equillibria. But, it's not evolutionarily stable. Even, if one of the players decide to cheat, all players need to take a more defensive strategy to prevent losses. What this means is that interest in the common good works as long as its shared across players. Even if one takes up a selfish strategy it forces others to take up a similar strategy.
A great example of this phenomena is the building up of global arsenals. It's a huge waste to do so, but it's the safest strategy. You don't gain anything, but you make sure that you lose nothing. It's evolutionarily stable, as it doesn't matter if another country likes you or not. But, if you assume that all countries like you, and all countries do that then it makes more sense to not have any arsenal. The basis for all this waste is a simple lack of trust.
The India-Pakistan conflict (or any conflict for that matter!) is another excellent example. Each side takes up more and more paranoid strategies, which make sure it doesn't lose, but it makes it more and more difficult to resolve as none can let down on it's strategy - it leads to immediate loss!
This kind of logic also extends to personal relationships, signing a pre-nuptial agreement is against the spirit of blindly trusting your partner. This probably reduces the happiness that you get out of your married life, but it makes it a lot safer for you if things go awry. Trust. Short on letters and long on benefits :D! That was quite a philosophical end to a very practical subject.
PS: More here. It's in any kind of system which has competition. Politics. Auctions. Markets. Biological systems.

Why god did not get tenure

1. He had only one major publication.
2. It was in Hebrew.
3. It had no references.
4. It wasn't published in a referenced journal.
5. Some even doubt he wrote it by himself.
6. It may be true that he created the world, but what has he done since than?
7. His cooperative efforts have been quite limited.
8. The scientific community has had a hard time replicating his results.
9. He never applied to the ethics board for permission to use human subjects.
10. When one experiment went awry he tried to cover it by drowning his subjects.
11. When subjects did not behave as predicted, he deleted them from the sample.
12. He rarely came to class, just told the students to read the book.
13. Some say he had his son teach the class.
14. He expelled his first two students for learning.
15. Although there were only 10 requirements, most of his students failed his tests.
16. His office hours were infrequent and usually held on a mountaintop.
More here.

Pulitzer 1993

This photo of a girl crawling to a food shelter during the Sudan famine was taken by Kevin Carter, a South African photographer. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for this photo. He was deeply depressed by the experience and committed suicide in 1994. Here is the story.

Parfum

Old readers of my blog will know about my escapades in France. It was a time I had not much money (not that I have much now, but then I had not much of my dad's money, now I have not much of my own, it makes a difference) and France being France and with me in it I had to try:
1) Le Vin - The wine. So, I used to go to this grocery store opposite my dorm and buy a different variety every couple of days. Ok, every weekend. I am not a alchoholic. 6 euros for some very decent wine. So, not a very expensive pursuit to have. Yeah, there is stuff for 200 euros, but I wouldn't be allowed to enter those stores. I would atleast invite some very condescending looks. So peace. Maybe, I should review this sometime. Sometime. Beer and Wine review. I am guessing it would be very popular.
2) La Parfum - This is an expensive habit. One bottle of those chemicals sears a 50$ hole in your wallet. So, I thought, 'Hmm..Me in France..France=Parfum..So..why not some Parfum'. So, whenever I went to the mall, I used to drop by this store called Sephora (excellent store, amazing range, about 60m of wall space, just perfume, the US sucks) and try out the colognes. The aim was, try out all the colognes and eventually purchase. The best. Le meilleur. Which one did I buy:
Givency pour Homme by Givenchy -> Pour moi. But forcibly 'donated' to bro.
This kind of started it. Since then I have found a number of excuses to gift my friends and myself perfume. So, I bought -
Polo by Ralph Lauren -> My bro
Acqua di Gio by Giorgio Armani -> My other bro. And to a friend. Actually, my brother kindly decided that I should give it to him when I accidently broke the Givenchy bottle (which I had given him btw).
L'Eau Bleu by Issey Miyake -> Pour moi
Eternity by Calvin Klein -> Pour moi
A result of all these purchases and extensive trials (and tribulations) of other sundry brands has given me this extremely vague ability - I know an embarassingly large amount of information on perfumes. Woody, sharp, fruity, fresh. Day, casual, formal, night. I can tell any cologne. I can give expert advice. "Ahh..Hmm..You should go for a blah". I am fully aware that this a totally useless skill. Now, if I could name female perfumes - ahhh!

Hmm.

I put up an arbit post. In hindsight, it was arbit. Hence removed. But, thinking again I have put it up :D. Good or bad. Something. It has the words - Indian, Tamil, Brahmin, and Girls in it. I got a lot of it hits from people who searched for Indian Girls. More interesting posts coming up. Hopefully.

ACIDity and Qian Wang

I actually wanted to put up a philosophical post, but I have way too much going on right now to feel philosophical. I need to relax. R. E. L. A. X. I am sorely tempted to elicit some sympathy by listing out all the things I need to be getting done. I shall not. Why bug you poor souls also??

1. I have been spending the weekend poring over assorted books. For a database to be of any practical use it needs to have the ACID property over transactions performed on it.

Atomicity : A transaction is an atomic unit of processing. It is either performed entirely or not.
Consistency : A transaction is should be consistency preserving. It's complete execution should go from one consistent state to another.
Isolation : That is, the execution of a transaction should not be interfered with by any other transactions executing concurrently.
Durability : A commited transaction should not be lost. Durability is ensured through the use of transaction logs that facilitate the restoration of committed transactions in spite of any subsequent failures.

Boring no. Now do this - replace transaction with relationship. Big word. I feel very uncomfortable using it. Anyway, he he he. Now read it again. The perfect manual. Short. Succint. Simple. Can be (and should be) taught to every 6th standard kid. The final result - 80% reduction in teenage, middle age and old age angst, 70% reduction in quarter-life and mid-life crises - worldwide. The world IS a happier more beautiful place. It can be called Ramani's ACID Rule. You can put things to the ACID test. Since it's my rule, the RA(N)CID test. Hope it doesn't leave a bad taste in the mouth.

2. Have you noticed Chinese names. They are short. Chen. Liu. Wang. I think it's a very bad design idea. Try mistyping Subramaniam Anantharamakrishnan. What are the chances that you are going to create another valid name? akjaklsdj lkjasdklfjklasdjf. Now mistype Wang - Yang, Lang, Qang - all very plausible names. See, this creates huge problems.

Assuming you want to name your kid, and you tell the guy in the registrar office, your kids name, he mistypes, and instead of Qian Wang you have Qian Yang. It's a valid name. So, later you notice - oops mistake - and you cannot even tell the guy to change it. He will be like - "What, this name valid is. What you say. You me cheat". That was a lame imitation. Apologies.

I was thinking, there would be about 10,000 possible names with 5 letters. In a population of 1.5 billion, about 150000 people will share the same name. Assuming some names are more popular (which mean money, or wisdom or useful things like that), there is potential for almost a million people to share the same name. Do you know what that means?? It's horrendous searching for a guy on the net. It's time for them to increase the address space. They should be a convention where they decide to give everyone longer names. Consciously.

Note : No Chinese were offended in the creation of this joke. I quite like them actually. IF I could pronounce those names. You could learn to here.

Explanatory notes :D :D :

2) Try mistyping Subramaniam Anantharamakrishnan. What are the chances that you are going to create another valid name?

What I am saying is that if the name is long there is not a much of a chance for a mistype to lead you to another real person. But with short names, not so much. I can make a more 'profound' explanation, but it would scare everyone away. God knows why I am writing such geeky stuff. Maybe the semester has started and there is more geeky stuff occupying mindspace.

It's time for them to increase the address space. They should be a convention where they decide to give everyone longer names.

This is a terrible one. It's a take on the IPv6 convention when the internet was running out of doman addresses. So, they lengthened the length of each address so that there was enough for everyone. :D

Hmm..

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.

These opening lines I have remembered for the last 7 odd years. They had a nice rhyme, rhythm and they stuck in my head. And, I had studied that book so many times. So many. Never really thinking too much.
No wonder he has found appeal across the centuries. He appeals at a basic human level. It's not about the story, it's not about the location, it's not about the history. It's about the people. People don't change.

Coming soon...

I have been thinking what to write. Many categories sprung up (boing) -
1) Funny - Silly anecdotes from my non-existent life. More sillyness can follow but it could look silly.
2) Intellectual - The economics of gangs. I should follow it up with commentary on Greenspan's policy on interest rates. Very interesting.
3) Rant - There has been a sudden change in weather. It's been raining for the last few days - it's cold, wet, damp and generally highly irritating. My tennis is spoilt. Bah.
4) Philosophical - See this is interesting. In the policy of renunciation. Suffering stops with attachment. Lack of attachment. So, I shall disconnect myself from the worldly problems that so weigh us down and philosophize. Philosophy bakes no bread, but without philosophy you remain half baked. That was an orignal Ramani quote.
So coming up....a good old funda session. Preaching. Instructing. Educating. And boring. No not boring. Exciting. Very exciting.

The Economics of Gangs

You must read this article. It's fascinating. Fascinating. No other word. There is no hardcore math. There is no impossible to understand jargon. Well, it has some slightly difficult to understand jargon. But, nothing you can't figure out. I know jackshit in Economics and it made sense to me. So, read it and enjoy!

An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang's Finances

It has tree diagrams in it where the don is at the top of the tree and called 'Central Gang Leadership' and gives into leaves called 'Enforcer','Treasurer' and 'Runner'. Below the 'Enforcer' there are 'Foot-soldiers'. It's kind of written in a dispassionate way. I find it amusing.

"..Given the relatively low economic returns to drug selling, the implied willingness to accept risk on the part of the participants is orders of magnitude higher than is typically observed in value of life calculations. That suggests that gang members have very unusual preferences, that the ex post realization of death rates was very different then the ex ante expectation, systematic miscalculation of risk, or the prescence of important noneconomic considerations."

"Morever, the violence keeps customers away. This negative shock to demand is associated with a fall of 20-30 percent in the price and quantity of drugs sold during fighting. In spite, of thus the gang discussed in this paper fights with rivals roughly one fourth of the time."

In the first, he is just trying to say that some stupid niggars are getting their ass shot up. In the second, he actually gives economic considerations why gang wars are not good for 'business'. It also looks at the dynamics of these wars - average duration, territory conquered and so on. According to him, crime doesn't pay - in a fundamental economic way. The average gangster earns about 15,000$ a year, about half the national average. Its the anticipation of future earnings which motivates. A very well written piece.

Anyway, I happened to come upon it during some random browsing. It's by Steven Levitt. He is a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. He won the the John Bates Clark Medal in 2002 given to promising economists under 40. A number of those went on to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. This article has a co-author Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh. Indian. There is an Indian Physicist called Alladi Ramakrishnan (he started Institute for Mathematical Sciences, in Taramani, behind IIT), I was wondering if it's his son or relative. I won't be too surprised. If you feel like it, read this one is worth reading as well. Same guy. It gives the background to the first link I put up.

"Are we a family or a business : American Urban Street Gangs"

PS: How is this erudite type stuff? If it's painful I won't put up such stuff :D.

55 words

He kept thinking what to write. His mind was blank. He hadn't really done anything today. Morbid stuff was off his list. So was silly humor. And recollections of random conversations. And deep philosophy. That wouldn't fit into 55 words. And who wanted to read philosophy anyway? So, he wrote this. In 55 words. Just.
Kirthi tagged me. I haven't been checked out yet. Ok. Forgiveness.
Madhura, KP could follow. Negi ? Rat?

More Observations of a Specific Kind

Friend 1
(Pre- Hot Consulting Job)
Me: Bye bugger
He: Bye
(Post- Hot Consulting Job)
Me: Bye bugger
He: As much as I would like to talk to you, I need to go for lunch with a friend. I hope I can catch you later.
Me: Huh? ($%@##$#)
Friend 2
(Geek. I have always known him as such. Quoted from the last post.)
Me: 2 Ph. D.s ??
He: Yeah. He didn't time multiplex.
Me: ?? (....)
Friend 3
(Marketing a.k.a. paid to bullshit)
Me and a guy or two: So, how do we get people to join Utsav.
He: Friends, we re-christened IGSA as UTSAV primarily to infuse in it a sense of joy and fun. Please try and understand the name carries everything. Right from our events to Asha briefings make sure "Utsav" comes first. If we can put Utsav first we can levarage its identity and can broaden our scope.
Me: Okk. (So a pumpkin called a rose becomes a rose. If, you can leverage it's identity. And broaden it's scope.)
'Friend' 4
(...)<- preserving my efforts at decency in this public form.
Me: So, we have been friends for so long.
'Friend': Yes, I let you be my friend. It's not like I am going to say 'No no don't be my friend'.
Me:@#$@#@#@$
#@#@#$=Fill in the blanks. Any guesses? Special points for good ones.

Curious Observations of a Random Kind

1. My CS batch in IIT had 30 students. There were about 120 undergraduates in my department across all the years. There were about 180 in my hostel. There were about 400 across all disciplines in my year, about 2000 across all the 4 years. I knew most guys in my branch, my hostel, and some random people through this and that. Lots of people - atleast by face. Here in UIUC, the CS department takes in about 300 undergraduate and 100 graduate students each year. The department has atleast 1500 students as a whole. The university has atleast 25,000 students on it's rolls. I know about 20 people here. I meet about 5 on a daily basis. Sucks no. I fully agree.

2. I had a couple of situations over the last week that has called on my mostly lacking diplomatic skills. When someone asks you for your opinion on something should you be tactful or truthful? Tact saves the awkwardness but borders on being dishonest. Thus is life, but you might not be actually appreciated for being truthful. So, it's a vague situation to be in. What I actually, ended up doing is telling the truth and 'buffering' it, you know, that's how it is for everybody so it's ok.

3. 95% of my meetings with acquaintaces go like this :
Me: Hi
Acq: Hi
(some hi how are you talk)
Me: So, whom do you work with? What do you do for your research?
This previous question can be replaced with:
What courses are you taking this semester?
Where did you intern this summer?
What are your plans? MS or PhD? Tech or Non-Tech?
Acq: Blah
Acq: (Same question rephrased to me)
Me: Blah.
You have no idea how ingrained you are to this. I am wondering if it is always like this. Do certain sets of people keep talking about the same set of things. Maybe some people discuss Vivek Oberoi and Aishwarya Rai. Maybe some discuss cricket. Maybe some discuss good movies. Being in the last bunch would be fun.

4. The Indian Graduate Student's association had an introductory session. I was part of the organizing committe (Yay. Don't worry, you don't need any qualifications. Actually, the basic criterion is you shouldn't have any qualifications. If you did, you wouldn't be there. Ok. Forgive me.).We had a Mr and Mrs Utsav (that's what our org. is called - Utsav).
We had an attitude questionaire and one of the questions were:
'Whats a good line for an alien you meet in a bar?'
Some 3 guys wrote.'Aaja meri gaadi mein bait ja'. 50 cent has a song whose title means the same thing. But, it's not so politely phrased. It's not too tough to guess though.
Another question was:
'Say something bad about yourself'
This question was in jest. Just to see if you can say something bad about yourself. One girl actually wrote 'Nothing'. Heh. I just found something.
Another was a fill in the blank:
'Johnny johnny yes papa...'. You had to fill it in with some nonsense.
One of the replies was hilarious. '..hack into my email account no papa'.

5. There is a Professor in CMU, Eric Xing, who has done 2 Ph. Ds. One in Biochemistry and one in Computer Science. No, he didn't as a friend of mine says 'time multiplex'. For those non-geek souls, that means he didn't do both at the same time. Like pick a cunning thesis topic. He did one after the other. After. I was wondering how one could possibly motivate onself to do that? After, one Ph. D. itself I will be like 'Whew!'. One more a? No no.

Funny Very Funny

Another graduate student haiku. I don't know what the silly thing means but it sounds really deep and meaningful. So, haiku it is.
Apartment,
Department,
Advisor,
Budweisor.
Actually, Google informs me that Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry. Here it is.

How to write Haiku
In japanese, the rules for how to write Haiku are clear, and will not be discussed here. In foreign languages, there exist NO consensus in how to write Haiku-poems. Anyway, let's take a look at the basic knowledge:

What to write about?
Haiku-poems can describe almost anything, but you seldom find themes which are too complicated for normal PEOPLE's recognition and understanding. Some of the most thrilling Haiku-poems describe daily situations in a way that gives the reader a brand new experience of a well-known situation.

The metrical pattern of Haiku
Haiku-poems consist of respectively 5, 7 and 5 syllables in three units. In japanese, this convention is a must, but in english, which has variation in the length of syllables, this can sometimes be difficult.

The technique of cutting
The cutting divides the Haiku into two parts, with a certain imaginative distance between the two sections, but the two sections must remain, to a degree, independent of each other. Both sections must enrich the understanding of the other.
To make this cutting in english, either the first or the second line ends normally with a colon, long dash or ellipsis.

The seasonal theme.
Each Haiku must contain a kigo, a season word, which indicate in which season the Haiku is set. For example, cherry blossoms indicate spring, snow indicate winter, and mosquitoes indicate summer, but the season word isn't always that obvious.
Please notice that Haiku-poems are written under different rules and in many languages. For translated Haiku-poems, the translator must decide whether he should obey the rules strictly, or if he should present the exact essence of the Haiku. For Haiku-poems originally written in english, the poet should be more careful. These are the difficulties, and the pleasure of Haiku.

More.

Funny

Ha!

Rationality

Man is a rational creature. He loves to reason. He loves to analyze. Pick apart. Dissect. Elaborate. Remember how you spent 4 hours picking apart something that happened over 30 seconds. Wasnt it outrageous? Most of the complexity that you introduce into the event did not exist at the time the event actually occured. It did not have a reason. Maybe it did, but you werent aware of it at that point of time. So, thats not the reason. 'Yeah, he should have seen the off swinger' thing makes perfect logical sense he should have but he couldn't. Capiche. C'est bon.
One of the typical situations to which this self-torture cum masochism applies is decisions. Whats a decision? You have some information, some course of action to be taken and you have options. The first 2 are ok, the problem comes with options. With options - confusion, delusion and collusion. Ok. Ok. No collusion. So, there are some pros and cons that stick out with each course of action and you choose one after some careful though.
Now, what about after a decision after it is made. Does it make any sense to look at it? No! Why? You are making a judgement of the situation based on your evaluation of the situation at that point of time. It is based on the information available to you at that point of time. Actually, I doubt if there are any investment bankers reading this. They have perfectly understood the concept of information. A trading decision might be based on all kinds of statistical modeling and high end math but it is impossible to be perfectly certain. There is some inherent error. The idea is to get into the picture as much information as possible, if possible (preferably) information not available to everyone. Buy Microsoft stock in 1982. Buy Amazon stock in 1992. Stay miles away from Enron. How would it be if you knew it right then and no one did. Both aspects are important, if you didn't know you wouldn't buy it. If everyone did, everyone will, or actually Microsoft won't sell it (as Microsoft knows it as well). Slightly complicated point.
So what is the conclusion of all this? It is meaningless for you to say 'Oh yeah man, I should have done that'.You can only take comfort in these 3 things:

• I tried to gather as much information as I could
• I looked at all the information I had gathered
• The choice I took did justice to the information and my needs at that point in time. I was convinced.

You need to (better) face the consequences of your decision but you aren't actually responsible for the consequences being the consequnces.
The guy who had loads of fun in college says he should have worked. The guy who worked hard in college says he should have had some more fun. The guy who was nerdy says he probably shouldn't have been so nerdy. The guy who partied every night says maybe he should have hit those books. The guy who decided to go for an MBA thinks he should have gone for Ph. D. . The guy who gets into IIT feels he should have chilled out in life and had one hell of social life like the B. Lit. guy in Loyola. The guy in Loyola feels jealous of the guy with the IIT stamp and 'major' career prospects. Without realizing that.. . In final judgement, I feel such talk is meaningless. You made a decision then, based on your evaluation of the situation and your needs then. Just embrace it and if you need to act differently now, do so, but do not regret a decision made.
PS: I know people love sports. But please don't read between lines. Pretty please. :D

Hmm..

You would think people change. You would think people become kind. How much sense does it make to talk trash about people whom you last met 7 years back and you probably aren't going to meet again in your life. None. Is it just me or are these people crazy?

Double guessing

You know there is no joy to this world like nice juicy speculation concerning another person. Especially, if this speculation JUST holds true under the known facts but has very 'interesting' implications.So, when I decided to come to India for a few weeks at the end of my internship:
People in the US assumed:

• I am coming to see gf lady (yeah, right)
• I am coming to get engaged (no, thank you)
• I am terribly homesick. (not really, but I dont mind going home)

People in India assumed:

• The stuff assumed by the US people. Since, they don't know my status in the US there were some additional assumptions.
  
• I have been kicked out of university. (possible)
• I am unemployed and scrounging in India for a job.(possible)

But, till now I have been looked upon kindly by the University and immigration authorities. I thank allah and assorted gods for that.

I, Je, Ich

I have been having some time. Some time to think. When one has time and not much on mind, one wanders to the self. Most good analysis stems from trying to find the answer to the right questions.But, since you never know what is right you just ask, and ask, and then decide. Or ruminate.
Basic format:
Questioning word followed by I Me Myself followed by event, feeling etc
Questions as such are rarely positive. So some basic categorization for the sake of clarity.

• self-piteous - if you are the soft kind- why am I such a failure
• self-hating - for the tougher types- i am such a loser- more direct and hurtful
• self-indignant-How can this happen to Me? Me Me!

Stuff like self love is also there. But that tends to be more direct and less rhetorical.
You should have got the picture I am trying to paint. Ok. Good. Now.
A couple of questions come up to me reasonably often is:
Why is that I hardly see myself as others see me? To most people (unless I am in a particularly foul state) I come off as smart,successful and reasonably cool. But, to me, no way. I guess I set expectatations up so much that I am destined to failure and frustration. So, in the end I feel disappointed that I didn't get too near my goal, yeah but the damn thing was somewhere in the upper atmosphere so what do you expect.
Why is it that I end up doing things that are intrinsically tough? Not tough. But painful. Like masoshism. Fun no. Do I do it because it's tough, because it's a challenge or because there is something worth it in the end that is better than taking the not so tough and easy to understand clear path. I thing tough taking up interesting challenges adds spice to life. What about challenging people? No ! Bah. Keep them away from me.

Well..

• Intern over. Didn't go too bad.
• A couple of weeks of fun await me.
• Back next semester. Some junta from IIT coming. Good crowd. Good fun. That is the hope.
• Do some work. Get the derrier moving.
• Make life more interesting. If next semester repeats I could be classified as 'vegetable'.
  

Physics, Maths etc.

Yesterday, I visited my friend in Princeton and probably met more smart people over 24 hours than I have in the last 22 years. He is doing very-hard-math-and-physics and has a lot of friends that do very-hard-math-and-physics. I got a nice guided tour of Princeton and the Institute for Advanced Study. If you didn't know, the IAS was expressly created to attract Albert Einstein and other prominent European scientists after the war. I also saw the house where Einstein lived, the place where he worked etc. Interestingly, I had visited his home town of Ulm in Germany last May during mon tour de europe.
So this guy was showing me around the Institute for Advanced Study, when we came across this middle aged man in Khaki shirt and half-pants sitting on one of the sofas. My friend knew the man, so I was introduced to him and we shook hands. Then, the two of them start discussing their work. The discussion was a little animated and the middle aged man excitedly went across the room, tore out a piece of paper and began to play with it to explain a concept to my friend . What really struck me was his childlike enthusiasm for what he did. No ego, no conceit, no contrived aura of grandeur. Nothing out of the ordinary except that the guy was Pierre René Deligne, a fields medal winner. The fields medal is the highest prize in Math, awarded once in 4 years (as opposed to the relatively easier Nobel Prize that is doled out every year). I kind of expected him to be all ego and conceit, that makes one want to go, 'Okay okay, you got a Nobel prize, so what?'. I was so wrong. It brought to mind some of those unfortunate souls that one sometimes runs into in life, you know, with this hugely misplaced sense of superiority. They should probably get in touch with the Fields Medal winner closest to them.
I also met bunch of my friend's friends, totally in awe of their talent and all, but sometimes it's not worth being so smart and talented. I sometimes felt like I would rather be with people who laugh at silly things and speak on mundane topics. I had at one time entertained thoughts of (actually regret about not) being a Physicist but it's bloody scary. I am glad I didn't go down that road. Computational biology is works for me.
To end it: A physicist's understanding of relationships.
This should give you an idea :D.

Cons,scams,frauds and fun things like that

A couple of days back, I was walking back to the 40th street subway station after catching a movie at U Penn (Wedding Crashers if you must know). I happened to walk past a south indian girl X, and for some reason she initiated conversation with me. Obviously, I was a little surprised (and flattered) but hmm... then we are 2 tams in the US of A. Then, she asked me if I could help her find a job. Ohh, so thats why she wants to talk to me. I told her ok, give me a call tomorrow and I will give you a couple of contacts where I intern and you can take it from there. Then she calls me the next day, and asks me if I could come with her for a 'business meeting' in the evening. NOW, I knew something was fishy. Why would some random person on the road want to meet me? Ok, maybe as a convenient contact but meet me? But, then it would be fun to just play along and see what the con was all about. I always was curious as to how these confidence schemes operated. I also wanted to test if I could play it 'cool', you know- play along and don't give the game away. Thats a good skill to have right- how many times have you been around people you need to get along with but don't really like that much. Also, you get this whole 007 feeling. So, I went.
This turned out to be one of those pyramid schemes. I could explain to you what a pyramid scheme is, why it looks good, why it doesn't work and why people think it works when it actually doesn't work. But, I won't. This so called company called BWW was behind the pyramid scheme in my case. Read this link. And this.
You know why it sucks and now to the more interesting part of how they.One of the basic things that is necessary to sell one of those schemes is that people should believe what you are telling them, so basically you need to make them trust you. So, there is this whole elaborate scheme is set up to win over your trust.
1) The 'conference' was at the Radisson. Impressive.
2) The speaker first goes out to make you feel miserable about how you are currently doing in life. 'See you work so much and make so little money!' 'What will you do when you retire' He goes about doing this whole math about you work 10 hours, sleep 8, do other stuff for 2 and watch tv for 4. Instead of watching TV you can easily make tonnes of money. You should be so happy that this opportunity has landed on your lap.
3) 'Raj' and 'Rama' tell of the time when they made platinum and how their life has changed. The whole room resonates to the sound of their jokes and anecdotes. But then of the 160 people in the room, of which apart from the 40 'guests' everyone else is in on the con.
4) There is a break, where X takes me to meet one of the 'senior' members, who tell me about all the money that he made in the scheme. I also meet Y, who stays 2 streets away from me in Besant Nagar. How much luckier can I get in life
5) They do realize that there are likely to be a number of people who are likely to be skeptical about this scheme.(Very rightly so!) So, in order to make those who are not skeptical stay that way, all skeptics are labeled as 'later' people (who don't realize the opportunity they are missing) and non-skeptics (the suckers) are labeled as 'NOW' people (smart people who know how to take their chances in life). It was pretty convincing, if I hadn't known the game from the word go.
So, there is a good chance you would fall for this. Apart from the basic question, dude if this scheme was so good, why isn't everyone in the world super rich, there were a lot of holes in what they said. A reasonably clever person could have figured the whole thing out:
1) They have a 'brochure' that they are very wary to give out to anyone. They won't let you take it home. Or even see it without one of them being in person. Why would that be?
2) The pyramid scheme uses geometric progression, so a guy at level 10 of the pyramid with breadth 4 atleast has 4^10=2^20=1 million people in on it. I ask this guy Y, the successful magnate, which level he is on. He says 10. I ask him how many people he has under him He says 100. Yeah right!
3) I asked him how much he earned. It was a secret apparantly! I 'understood' and we had a nice laugh on it. Little did he know what I was laughing about.
4) This girl goes out and out to win my sympathy and make me feel good about myself. How dumb does she think I am!
But anyway, it was an interesting experience. It gave me an idea of how these con schemes operate. The basic idea is that for other people to believe you 2 things are necessary:
1) They should trust you.
2) You should firmly believe in it.
It is fascinating to see how something which is blatantly non-sensical at a fundamental level can be made to come across as being all rosy and super duper by top notch PR work. This is really interesting right, trust defies logic! When you trust what a person says you don't attempt to analyze what he just said! The very thought of analysis implies distrust! So, why not exploit that to the fullest! That's what this is all about.