Shoulders

I am quite amazed to learn that in the US, shoulders are overrated. And I don't mean the cow's shoulders (which may as well be). I mean the shoulders of the road. There is a whole category of road signs relating to the shoulders. They are usually there; although I haven't quite experienced their utility, much to my relief. Yet, if there are any exceptions to this rule, the department of road-building sure makes a big deal out of it. They must literally be investigating the constitution of the shoulder (or lack thereof) and they do not leave any stone unturned to advertise about it at every few quarters of a mile until we pass them by (or don't).

I fail to understand this obsession. Narrow shoulder, rough shoulder, shoulder missing, extra wide shoulder, cold shoulder, shoulder may freeze, should may evaporate, and so on goes the signage. It is not as if one is going to stand on the shoulders of the road that the great workers of the past invented and progress much in the future. 

And when someone made a smart comment that he couldn't find neither arms nor head of the freeway, I had nothing but a shrug to offer.

Rhymes are (almost) always about falling

Considering the behaviour of children, it's no wonder that all their rhymes are about "bringing down" "falling" "washed out" and such.

Take the Humpty Dumpty. Take the London Bridge. Even in Ding Dong Bell, someone put the cat deep down a well.

Take Jack N Jill as another eample - they tumbled and fell all over, didn't they?

And now if you thought that Baba black sheep has nothing to do with another 'down', try singing it again. Where does the little boy live again?

It's such lovely destruction that keeps the kids excited!

:)

Out of this world

There was an accusation that the congress president spent INR1800 crores = ~$320 million over three years on foreign trips. Let's try to see what $320M can buy for you:

Foreign air-travel (assuming 200 round-trip first class tickets) over three years: $2M;
Assuming $10k/day stay at a hospital for 12 months: $3.65M;
Medicines: $0.5M per year (World's costliest drug)=$1.5M for three years;

Surgery: $1.2M (world's costliest procedure)
Misc expenses $5M (food etc etc)
So far, $13.35Million.

Even if one has to do this ten times (!!) over, it costs about $135M.

I recall an essay by Douglas Hofstadter about use of 'astronomical figures' to exaggerate. (Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern, Basic Books, 1985. Chapter 6, "On Number Numbness," pp. 115- 135).

This is a wonderful example that can be added to numerous [sic] examples quoted there :-)

[I realized I didn't account for the security expenses, but still, no matter what you do (or spend) figures don't add up!

Similarity?

Don't they look so very same? Craig Bellamy and Peter Siddle..?

Light Hearted Humor

What did a light bulb say to incoming electric current?
"Let me shed some light on the matter of Darkness"

---
Darkness said to the Sun "Well, what'd you know of darkness?"
The Sun replied "I know all your dark secrets. I keep watch when you are not around."

---
It's strange that fireflies shine only in darkness.

---

What did the match-stick receive when it took the box head-on?
"Enlightenment"

Writer's Block

Agreeably, the activity on this particular blog has been very quiet for more than a month now. And it has taken a good friend's nagging scrap for me to make some move. Intertia, was more of the reason than lack of ideas. Yet, it's no wonder that the first Law Newton came up with was to explain Intertia: An object tends to be in its present state unless a force opposing that state is applied! I guess in my particular case, my friend's pushing force was enough :)

But a deeper and philosophically engrossing question remains yet. And that is, what to write (far less philosophical than why to write). It's quite likely that this very question kept me away from this world of letters for a while.

I thought, well let me write down n number of excuses for not taking the time out to write! How's that for irony?!

(1) There are many distractions:- These distractions can include absence of electrical energy at our energy starved houses, especially when in the spur of that (dark) moment you have summed up a fantastic sentence, which can't see the light of the day in this Internet-age. Another example of distraction is that of nagging salesmen (and saleswomen, more importantly) or those cycle-peddling old-newspaper buyers, who, on many a quiet afternoon, wake me out of pleasant dreams, robbing the world of magnificent works of fiction. On the brigher side of matters, never-ending sequence of telemarketing calls on my cell-phone seems to have finally ended.

(2) Happenings in this material world are better left undocumented: Be it the matter of shoe-throwing competitions being held around the world or banks making telephone calls to customers asking to lend money at low interests, I guess many things are better done than said. So, why take trouble on commenting on these!

(3) Lack of quality topics to blabber on: The very fact that I am seeing the light of a day on which I have to write about why I don't write is indicative of how fast the world of thought is shrinking. Take a cue from the global slowdown, I guess it's hitting the slow world of thought very hard, as well. Only the other 'quality' topic other than this I had was: "Oh, how I hate to shave!". Thin-n-light, evergreen topic of "Bangalore Traffic Situation" reached me last, as expected!

(4) Enough is Enough: When it rains, it pours, they observe. I had accumulated a feeling of, "I have written enough." I guess, I needed some time to drain out that feeling, before I started on accumulating again. (on a side note, the truth is: Enough Is Never Enough, ref-- "There is enough in this world for everybody's need, but not enough for everybody's greed," ---MKG). 

(5) Many unknown reasons: (on account of being unknown, I won't be able to elaborate those, pardon me!)

Sound-Horn-OK?

Roads, in many ways, are reflection of the society they serve. And I don't mean only the conditions of underlying (sic) roads, but the manner in which the society uses them. Let me take this line of thought forward and provide a few interesting points to support it.

- In India, roads are, more as a rule than exception, dotted with potholes: of various sizes starting from small cracks to big ones that can house a camel (yes, that happend in Pune once). Doesn't this remind you of the constant struggle of our society? Every pothole, to me, is an obstruction, a challenge to existence. The vehicles seem to overcome each of those as they come.

- In India, there are a very few people who follow lane discipline (if there exists something like that). People do not respect the traffic policeman or policewoman who's giving everything to the cause of creating some pattern out of the chaos. To me, it's a symbol of the government, which at multiple times is seen to be helpless, sometimes not following the law that itself made for its citizens. From people's perspective, it shows the apathy towards governance, apathy towards discipline, and uncontrollable anxiety to reach destinations at any cost. Collectively, how good is this attitude for the society? Who cares!

- The habit of honking shows lack of patience. It sounds like crime when one takes a fraction of a second extra to realize that the signal has turned green for him to pass. Others, it seems, are always in punishing mood. Unlike in the U.S., where "Sound-Horn-OK" is really "Sound-Horn-Not-at-all-OK," on the busy India streets, honking makes people jump the light or suchlike. Isn't India as a nation always in punishing mood, for instance, politically?

I can continue and draw further parallels between missing traffic sign-boards, non-existent speed limits, confusing sequence of traffic lights, innumberable number of unscientific, back-breaking speed breakers, etc. But all said and done, until these shortcomings are acted upon, nothing is going to improve, just like the traffic situation in Bangalore (again, an indication of 'ease' of life in India). 

Total length of roads in India is a whopping 3 million kms+. Yet, as one might find all the time, there is no dearth of rules and regulations in India, dearth is only of followers!

Rewind to 2001

Google, on its 10th birthday (upcoming) has opened up its oldest available index. It can be tried here. I came across this site, and decided to give it a try. Of course I tried my own name, and the search (as expected returned nothing interesting). Then, I searched for A.R. Rahman and came across a few sites there.

Then I decided to search names of certain four people. Here are the search results:

Person (1): About 771
Person (2): About 232,000
Person (3): About 6040
Person(4): About 2,610.

Now, if I do the same search in today's google index, here are the numbers:

Person (1): About 77,300,000
Person (2): About 68,300,000
Person (3): About 15,500,000
Person (4): Hold your breath, about 154,000,000!!!

Do I need to provide more clues on who are these above? Can you guess?

Hint 1. I did not use a '+' in the search.
Hint 2. Most probably the present number for person (4) is expected to grow even as you read this.

They know it!

I am reading this amazing book by Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman, "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out". A couple of pages later, he's talking about The Beauty of a Flower---

[...]

but I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time I see much more about the flower than he sees. I can imaging the cells in there, the complicated actions inside which also have a beauty. I mean it's not just beauty at a dimension of one centimeter, there is also beauty at a smaller dimension, the inner structure. Also the processes, the fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting-- it means that insects can see the color.

[...]

I was thrilled when I could read further between those lines. The last lines not only infer that the insects can see the color, but the fact that the plant knows that the insects can!

Yeah. Pleasure of finding things out indeed!

A shocker!

Well, I guess, just going by the title of this post the reader must have prepared herself for one :-)

I would not be exaggerating if I say, entering the United States of America for the first time has to be a shocking experience for the individual under travel. At the same time, I must however add that it could be equally (or worse) shocking if the person happens to be traveling to the Europe as well.

Now, I know, the italics above need some explanation.

The world calls the 'States' a dynamic nation: in terms of the economy (!), social and political thought, and what not. But as far as my first impression counts, I found it pretty static. I mean, wherever I went, I would accumulate this static charge on my body, boots and clothes. This so-called charged up body of mine would then dispose itself of this wealth accumulated over the period; giving me sense of a shock. For almost a week I must say, I felt touched by this new environment, yet I was scared to touching everything (including a file in UNIX environment!). Sooner than I thought, I got used to the conditions; and the impact has been on decline of late.

And that's why, gentlewomen, (and gentlemen, too) I must say that the experience around here is quite shocking.

Or maybe I should have been more careful in my approach, and should have mentally prepared for it: Yes. I must have held my head high, and yet kept my humble feet rooted to the ground realities!

In any case, until I got used to it, it indeed was a shocking experience!

Elementary, Watson!

Q: In case you did not get Reliance Power shares allotted, what should you do?
A: Buy a lot of Reliance Energy shares and wait for some time :p

LBW

It's that time of this year again. Although "abuzz" would be an exaggerated word in this year's context, at the workplace talks about appraisals have begun. It doesn't come as a surprise to me that appraisal more about talks! It's a long and wide procedure at our organization (and the results, well, are brief).

This involves getting a third umpire's opinion, although the benefit of any doubt goes with the umpire in most cases. How the world feels about your existence at the workplace is important to the management in appreciating/punishing individuals. What's more, you have to invite the opinions about yourself.

And as the other side of this tossed coin, multiple others invite opinions from you. Then, more often than not, you have to be politically (and grammatically, of course) correct. They ask for examples showing certain trait, which you have to provide. All in all, it's quite an involved process (and maybe even more for those who care much about the outcome).

To me, giving feedback is like giving an LBW decision. The best LBW judge I have seen is David Shepherd. He used to raise his finger in a jiffy or he would vehemently decline the appeal. You don't have to analyze each and everything to judge if the batsman had his leg before the wicket when the ball hit his pad. You just know how to judge. Same with the peer feedback. You just know what you are going to write about him/her.

But of course, it's more involved than raising a finger or shaking your head in negation. And with the deadlines approaching, that's taking a lot of effort and time. Not to mention, time, as it stands today, is a prime property. Particularly the way the current project is being handled.

Therefore, without wasting much of it, let me sign off for now.

Austrailia's spirited performance

Today's cricinfo headline reads:

"Kumble questions Australia's Spirit"

I ask, what would they answer? Highlight: Foster's -- Australian for Spirit

Leave it

I wonder why "I am sick of work" can not count as a valid reason to take a sick leave.

And while I am at it, I noticed that during my tenure as an employee, I have never taken any sick leave. Sounds Unbreakable? Maybe, maybe not!

[Oops, I forgot to add the usual disclaimer to the previous line! Touch Wood.]

Leave it, then. But I have decided that my next sick leave will have the aforementioned reason!

Catch #22

Inimitable wicket-keeper batsman Adam Gilchrist overtook another legendary 'keeper Ian Healy as the highest wicket-taker behind the wicket.

But it was not his catches that made the biggest impact in that match.

There were three instances when batsmen were dismissed off a no-ball. Two times Aussies paid some prices, and once the Indians. One of the commentators explained the real catch of the situation. The intriguing catch was this: it so seemed, that

to take a wicket, the bowler needed to bowl a no-ball. But then since it's a no-ball, he will not be getting any wicket!

Now, some catch it was. That catch-22!

Victim

The traffic has been pretty bad over the last few days. Well, that doesn't mean that the traffic has been pretty good before that; yet, it has been particularly bad over the last few days.

The trick that our organization played to avoid rush hours has been copied widely by other organizations in the neighborhood and we have lost our differentiating advantage. We are feeling frustrated like a magician would, if his best kept secret trick (which was slightly tricky!) has been cracked and relayed to the public via unsolicited phone calls.

The rain is not helping much. It is helping people to synchronize their travel schedule by arriving at regular intervals and catching the two-wheel stranded in a kilometer of bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The weather department is not helping either-- they are constantly predicting rainy weather with highest confidence. The weather-predicting super computers have grown up agonizingly fast and their old-age is nowhere in sight.

The road conditions are deteriorating at highest rates of depreciation in the history. Worse, there is no government to blame. We cannot blame our president who's currently ruling this state, because she has other more important matters on her hand than minding the stray good patches on long, busy Bangalore streets.

Despite the traffic, today I was treated to a delicious sight. Office seemed ~5kms away in space and ~30minutes in time, and I was trying to construct complex UNIX commands to solve a simple differential equation in my mind, when I saw a policeman. What the hell is this guy doing here doing nothing? I was about to ask him this straightforward question, when I realized that it would be needless.

It was no use asking this to him, for like me, he too was riding on this two-wheeler of his, wondering, when the hell he will reach place of his work!

I didn't fail to see a positive side of the whole gloomy, rainy situation: this police-gentle-man was wearing his helmet with pride.

Somersault

I am not surprised.

I don't think I didn't have any opinion about the ongoing N-debate. If I go by whatever (little) I read on this matter, I had every reason to believe that the deal was a good deal. At the same time, I was surprised that both the right-and-left wingers were opposed to it. The leftist for the obvious reason that (they believed) India would be on the slavery-path if she signs the pact with the capitalists. The opposition from the right-wingers was something I was surprised with. Of course, there are n number of things I don't understand both from a technical and political perspective, so I didn't mull over it for long. One thing is for sure: the right-wingers saw a (faint) chance of political uncertainty arising out of the drift between the Govt and the Leftists --- an opportunity too precious to let go!

I find it unfortunate that the prime minister had to bow against these tactics to retain the power (at cost of electrical power?). Yet, at the same time, I must re-iterate, I am not surprised.

What I am surprised at is, I don't see either left-wingers or the right-wingers publicly celebrating their success. So far, (please make me aware if you know) I haven't read or heard any big leader coming out and expressing satisfaction after the Prime Minister's decision. On the other hand, I have only heard of criticism of the Prime Minister for bowing to the communists for personal ambitions. I wonder, where these folks were hiding when the Prime Minister was asking for wide-spread support on the N-deal. At the end of this political somersault, the general feeling of dissatisfaction seems to continue. And I think it'll continue till another exciting issue is thrown in. I am sure that the right-wingers are not satisfied because now there seems to be no mid-term elections. I am not sure why the left-wingers are not happy. I must say, it's a somersault from all the angles: earlier, I could not explain right-winger's behaviour, now I cannot explain that of the leftists.

As goes in football, without the wingers' support, a goal is never achieved. I should think it's not so very different in politics too!

Spotted in Penang

Religion?

Religion...has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call sacred or holy or whatever. What it means is, 'Here is an idea or a notion that you're not allowed to say anything bad about; you're just not. Why not?- because you are not!' If somebody votes for a party that you don't agree with, you're free to argue about it as much as you like; everybody will have an argument but nobody feels aggrieved by it. If somebody thinks taxes should go up or down you are free to have an argument about it. But on the other hand if somebody says 'I mustn't move a light switch on a Saturday', you say, 'I respect that'.

Why would it be that it's perfectly legitimate to support the Labour party or the Conservative party, Republicans or Democrats, this model of economics versus that, Macintosh instead of Windows -- but to have an opinion about how the Universe began, about who created the Universe...no, that's holy?

We are used to not challenging religious ideas but it's very interesting how much of a furore Richard [Dawkins] creates when he does it! Everybody gets absolutely frantic about it because you're not allowed to say these things. Yet when you look at it rationally, there is no reason why those ideas shouldn't be as open to debate as any other, except that we have agreed somehow between us that they shouldn't be.

Douglas Adams

On a lighter note, I find it to be ironical that we call Cricket a religion in the subcontinent, and yet spend hours together debating over it!

At the nucleus of the issue

If the present political scenarios are to reflect themselves into popular arts, then I am sure, the following two creations will attract most media coverage:

1. A popular song from the 1988 hit Hindi Film Tezab: 1-2-3
2. A famous work of fiction by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
   

But on the other hand, the politicians of the country are talking left and right of bringing down the government in office.