A Wakeup Call or a Blast from the Past?

Today, I was feeling a little naughty. I felt like it was time to stop being serious and have some fun at someone else's expense. So I visited omegle.com, the website for the free people of the world (mostly single men) whiling away time and looking for love! I too logged into its chat mode and starting the process of nexting others and getting nexted myself. As I have told previously, I was feeling adventurous, so I decided to break the social protocol of a chat. I started my chat not with a "Hi" or "Hello" or "ASL?" but rather with this rather amazingly simple question, "Hi, do you know what is the tenth power of 2?" .
       Now, at this point you may be wondering one of two things. You could be passing a judgement on my moral character for admitting that I visited a chat site made for lovelorn single men, or giggling at my sacrilege of asking such a base math question on a hallowed forum of love. But whatever it is, you sure understand something explosive was about to happen! I did get the initial curse words which I totally understand. Math and sexual desires don't normally go well together. One of the guys even told me a flat, "I don't know". I was disappointed but I decided to dig deeper. After asking why, my chat friend told me because he was 16 and still in school. Now understand, the beauty of such a social network is that if you don't explicitly say that you are a guy, a male, M.. in someone's face they typically assume that they are talking to a female. And so, with a teacher at heart and no conceit intended, I coaxed him to recite the powers of 2 from 1 to 1024 using this subtle thread of uncertainty. I even coached him the next five powers of 2 and then bade him goodbye, which possibly broke his heart!
       But the very next chat that I had, reminded me that there is a lot more intellect in the world than is visible. It felt to me like a wake-up call to buckle up to compete with the coming generation. In some ways it also felt like facing an alter-ego from the past. Take what you can from this conversation, but I find it very refreshing and reassuring. I wrote this post to share with you that sometimes you can find inspiration in the most unlikeliest of places. Here is how the chat went.

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!

Stranger: hi

You: Hey do you know what is the tenth power of 2?

Stranger: hold on

Stranger: 1024?

You: Yeah . Thanks. Howd you get it?

Stranger: or 10to the power

Stranger: oops

Stranger: mental.math

You: ok what is (sin x)\x as x approaches 0. :D

Stranger: I have no clue I'm only 14

Stranger: a 4.0 student

You: Good job. The answer for the second question is 1. You have to use L'opital's rule.

Stranger: oh ok

Stranger: I haven't.learned that yet

Stranger: ill use that though thanks

You: Do you know any function can be accurately represented by an addition of infinite number of sinusoids?

Stranger: No not yet

Stranger: anyway

Stranger: I'm barely heading to high school so

Stranger: yeah

You: Ok. Do you know probability?

Stranger: ish

Stranger: I remember a little

You: ok let me put you a question.. I haven't solved this myself .. How many ways can I distribute 5 chocolates among 3 kids

Stranger: 1 2/3 each

Stranger: have you solved it?

You: Good choice. But I am asking how many number of ways are there to distribute it to these 3 kids assuming you can' t break the chocolate

Stranger: Ohhh ok

Stranger: aren't there 2 ways?

Stranger: or more?

Stranger: ahh I lost it

You: There are many. You can give 5-0-0.. 4-1-0.. 4-0-1.. and so on..

Stranger: oh

You: Its tricky..

Stranger: well it wouldn't.be fair.to the others considering that you only have five and there are three so wouldn't you have to evenly split it to have equality and not have a fight break out

Stranger: between them

You: Well I am a mathematician not their mother. They can fight if they want to :D

Stranger: that's not what I meant though if you put it as a worldly problem then you'd have to

Stranger: like if they were poor

Stranger: they had no parents

Stranger: living off themselves

You: ok get it.

Stranger: yeah

You: You got me! But sometimes there can be a value in counting.

Stranger: yeah

You: For eg. if the kids were containers and I was counting how many ways can I arrange five cards in three containers.

You: Or put five oranges into 3 containers..

You: makes more sense

Stranger: yeah

Stranger: im more of a worldly problem solver so i take example of the world rather than what it gives me

Stranger: so that's why I was confused

You: hmm thats a good approach

Stranger: that's how I was thought

You: ok Lets start counting the ways. I think we can crack this.

You: If first kid gets 5. The others get 0 and 0.

Stranger: okay

You: That's 1 way.

You: 5-0-0.

Stranger: 4-1-0

Stranger: 3-1-1

You: Now 4-0-1 and 4-1-0 are there.

Stranger: 2-2-1

Stranger: 2-1-2

You: I suggest we take a systematic approach like first kid gets 5, then first kid gets 4, then first kid gets three and so on..

You: and count the ways to distribute the rest among the other two kids

Stranger: yeah I've already started

Stranger: I'm at 0-4-1

Stranger: there are twenty one ways

Stranger: so far

You: 21 ways

Stranger: yes

You: yeah I think thats it

Stranger: there could be more if you were to take fractions in it

You: Yeah then it could be infinite assuming you could make infinitely small fractions.

Stranger: yeah

Stranger: wait how old are you may I ask?

You: 26.

Stranger: are you a teacher?

You: No, I'm a PhD student .

Stranger: oh well that's great!:)

You: Do you know what a PhD is?

Stranger: yes sort of

Stranger: my principal had one

You: ok yeah its the highest "degree" one can get before you get kicked out of school

You: But it was nice lerning with you today.

You: What class are you in?

Stranger: heading to 9th

You: are you preparing for any olympiads?

Stranger: No but I have to go thank you for teaching me that

Stranger has disconnected.

So, who's the teacher?

The Awakening- Questions in Past and Present Tense

STATUTORY WARNING: This Post can be harmful to your mood. This post is like coming out of a closet. I do not feel I have enough interesting things in my life to write down on a blog and share it with the world. Most of the times, my life is just in the making and half cooked things are not so beautiful to see. But just now I realized that by living in the closet and not coming face to face with the bad decisions in my life, I am living with my eyes closed. I have tried long and hard to overcome the past with many activities that give a short term excitement and take my attention away from all that's not fixed. But take it from me, you cannot fool your mind. And I need to face the burning questions and find answers to them, something that I am not too sure of. But what are these questions or events that I am rambling about. Well let's see. Maybe you can find a silver lining here, if you do let me know in the comments.
I started out in college in a pretty happy state and things went well till the end, though I didn't do everything I would have loved to do, but I got somethings I cherish and I can live with that. Now towards the end I really wanted to open a startup company. You ask why? Because of the thrill of doing something new and impactful. Because I so dearly want to build something that people start using in their daily lives; it helps me find a purpose to myself and to my education. My dedication to Cognitive Radios was the lighthouse which led me to leave the job and start as a project scientist. (Cognitive Radios are a form of intelligent radios that can enable communications between anything from your fridge and router to stranded family members in a flood, they are a really flexible design.)
But as it turns out academia isnt really the best place to test out ideas for entrepreneurship. So I enroll for a PhD as a safe option but soon enough I find this is not what I desired for myself. I get more happiness during a two week summer course doing something I love than I get doing simulations 8 hours a day, a whole semester. So I decide to take a final try for going to the US hoping this would satisfy my educational thirst leaving me atleast as happy as I was just after college. God has his own plans and after twice foregoing the chance, I am finally aboard a plane to the US to pursue PhD. And then I realize that my decision was motivated mainly by the years old desire to study in the US and that does not really match my much increased intensity for doing something fruitful and valuable for the future. So I come back to where I say, I have to face the hard questions and find answers. How do I do something that really interests me and I genuinely believe will interest me 10 years down the line. At some level I do want to do a PhD but I want to work on challenging problems in neuroscience, machine learning, compressive sensing and statistical signal processing. I want to move away from wireless communication because so much work has been done in it and people don't really know why they are doing something. I want to move from finding challenging solutions to trivial problems to finding simple solutions to challenging problems. I hope and I will work hard to find a niche where I am happy and I can continue with my PhD. Till then life is a sculpture in the making, and it changes interpretations from day to day.
Also I miss India and the coziness of home in Ludhiana. Thank you for reading my ramblings. 

Go Faster Higher Stronger

Hi bloggers, friends and unintentional googlers landing on my blog, welcome to another post from yours truly! Its nice to return to blogger after a long hiatus. I visit my blog whenever I have some free time for introspection and I am careful enough not to spend it singing or watching youtube videos. But sadly for me, and you (:P) that happens only once every two years! 

So this time I have an article for you that I wrote for my hostel magazine titled "Citius Altius Fortius". As a rookieI got too carried away and ended up writing a descriptive article chronicling the journey of man through this particular lens. Hence it didn't quite suit the magazine but I think the article does weave a story good enough to be read and appreciated. So here you go.. And do tell me your thoughts on this post.

Citius Altius Fortius– The story of mankind

 “Citius Altius Fortius” the motto of the Olympic Games proposed by Pierre De Coubertin meaning “Faster Higher Stronger” for the 1924 Paris Olympic games rightly sums up the motivation and inspiration of sportspersons taking part in this worldwide sporting spectacle. But looking deeper, the relevance of these words extends much beyond the confines of the playground and into the primal nature of mankind. They signify the inherent urge of mankind for progress; to travel faster, to conquer unattained and unknown heights and grow stronger and lead a better existence. But as our society grows more advanced and result oriented can these principles alone guide us in the journey forward? Is there a need for a self balancing system to prevent us from disregarding our ethics and taking a short cut to success? We have achieved many a feat in sports, social strengthening and technology inspired by the three goals. Maybe it’s time to bring a new dimension to them.

Let me take you on a whirlwind of how the Olympic motto has translated to tremendous improvements in the society and technology in the past and present. “Citius”, the quality of going faster is a competitive person’s passion. Not only has Usain Bolt, the fastest man alive, set a new Olympic record for 100 meters at 9.63 seconds at London this year  we have had Chinese bullet trains set a new world record for the speed of passenger trains at 311 mph . In the age of instant information any important information can be relayed worldwide within few seconds in a 140 character message. As globalization happens, people and companies are moving faster across countries leading to better productivity and more customer satisfaction. The world is no longer isolated and changes in one part have an instant effect worldwide; the 2008 economic downturn in US and resultant turbulence worldwide is a glowing example of how connected we are. Internet speeds are taking a huge jump with 3G (third generation) and 4G (fourth generation) data networks arriving. And to top it all, even the universe which was agreed to be slowing down its expansion till about a decade and half ago, has now found to be actually speeding up! So the universe is finally up to speed with us!

“Altius”, is the desire to go higher and conquer un-scaled heights. Nearly 4000 people have scaled Mount Everest since 1953 when Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first scaled it . Our curiosity has led our scientists to send rovers to Mars and Moon and find distant galaxies even upto 13.3 bn light years away from us  (the current presumed edge of the observable universe is around 46-47 bn light years away from the earth ). Now that’s aiming really high! The world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa at Duabi, inaugurated early 2010, is as tall as eight standard football fields stacked on top of each other, and even houses the world’s highest restaurant At.mosphere! . Talk about scaling un-scaled heights in records and the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Michael Phelps will only leave you gasping.

“Fortius” meaning stronger exhorts us to become stronger physically, socially, economically and mentally. The erstwhile notion of strength in terms of oppressive power has been more or less quashed and countries including USA, India, Pakistan etc. have realized that real strength comes from a strong social and economic foundation. Today the most burning challenges in front of us are to provide healthcare and education to large masses and secure their future. Massive efforts from Indian government and UNICEF have led to polio eradication from India. Average life expectancy for the world has been increasing linearly but the statistics of developing countries such as India still lag behind those of developed economies like US by about 13 years . We are still looking out for effective cures for malaria, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer but we do have preventive measures and medical techniques that offer early stage diagnosis and cure. Prosthetic limbs, bionic eyes, hearing aids and skin grafts are a gift of modern technology to humanity.

But in spite of the achievements we may have made in science and sports, in spite of the political empires and economic conglomerates we may have built over the years, we have seen the malaise of corruption slowly creep into our system and become systemic. Even the best of us have fallen prey to the idea of quick money, fame or selfish motive. Take for example, the seven time Tour de France champion, Lance Armstrong, who battled cancer but allegedly fell victim to the act of doping or Lehman brothers Inc. that field bankruptcy after years of riding the sub-prime mortgage bubble. In India we see a corruption scandal being uncovered every other day may it be Coal blocks or Common Wealth Games. It behooves every individual or enterprise to set a high aim but not give up on principles or ethics to get there. “Honesty is the best policy” is a long forgotten quote that is direly needed today. Honesty is not just being sincere to one’s own work and play but also being open eyed to not let or help others be dishonest. The recent conviction of Mr. Rajat Gupta, ex-Mckninsey CEO for insider trading underlines this fact.

Our civilization has a bright future and the three goals of “Citius Altius Fortius” will continue to inspire sportsmen and society at large alike. I am sure in the coming years we will invent much faster trains and airplanes, travel farther into space and build a stronger human capital through health and education. But along with this, I would like to add another goal in the motto of each individual, “Honestius”. I wish everyone who makes an effort to go faster or higher or become stronger does so with complete honesty and sincerity to the profession and his/her peers. Only then can we truly translate an individual’s desire of becoming better into collective and holistic progress. I end this essay with a noteworthy quote of The Bhagwad Gita :

Karmanye adhikarastu maa faleshu kadaachan.

Maa karma fala hethurbhur maa sangostva karmani.

(You have the right to work, but never to the fruits thereof. Not only should you do your very best, you have to do it with your best intention.)

A Drop Down my Cheek - II

Date: 22^nd June 2010. Time: Around 5 pm

It’s been precisely 309 calendar days since I wrote the earlier post and I’ve been wanting to post it ever since. You may ask then why today! Déjà vu… Once again after months of blowing fire nature has recreated the eagerly awaited magic with a sleight of its hand. Belting winds, a thunderous storm followed by a soul drenching rain, its back to square one and I am too happy to pen down my second extravagant experience and compile both of them into a memorable blog post. Though frankly, much has changed now. I have completed my Bachelor courses of four years and am starting with my Masters research in a field of my interest. Responsibilities have increased and my capabilities have increased too, I hope.

The atmosphere is dank. The water has permeated the air making it cold and chilling. A continuous thunder roars in the background seeming like country music playing in a lounge, while you relax and enjoy. Amazingly enough, being over 30 years or more old, the hostel suddenly looks so new and tempting! The tattered yellow plaster of the rugged hostel walls has acquired a dim sheen which proudly reflects its decades of intimate attachment with students like me, who live their four years (five in my case) of lives in this home.

The giant eucalyptus trees surrounding the hostel are gently swaying to and fro until a sudden gust of wind comes that makes the tree bend and its rain-dripping leaves break into a fervid dance. After all, after months of agonizing wait the tree has met its beloved wind and the mortal is reconciled with the immortal. In fact the whole microcosm is in a party time! The chirruping birds are so playful; it looks as though they’re doing flying acrobatics. The sky is partly overcast and a sweet cool breeze is drifting across me. I can even tell the faint aroma of wet mud in it.

It’s very correct that scientists today are trying to find traces of water everywhere in the universe. Because water does not just give us sustainability, it helps create, sustain and provide meaning to our lives... And somewhere very inconspicuously a small, bright and chubby kid, just out of his bath, peeked from behind the black sheet of clouds and with a slow but resolute step, began his long journey through the night.

A Drop Down my Cheek - I

Date: 17^th August 2009. Time: Around 6 pm

It’s a cool Friday evening and I am sitting in the balcony of my second floor room S-36 in Jawahar Bhawan. This room is perhaps quite envied by my friends for its perfect location for abundant sunlight in the balcony, excellent wireless connectivity and close to both the staircase and the loo, all ingredients of a good room. But today, the small typically hot room, seems as a cosy hillside lodging in Mussorie. Because as a sudden but pleasant change, the atmosphere has become cool and the sky is expansively dark and behold the eternal blessing... rain.

As the sky pours down profusely, I witness Mother Nature burgeoning herself into a completely new cosmos seething with life and vigor. The grass looks greener and so do the slender leaves of single row of trees surrounding our wing on the left. Numerous tiny puddles form on the surface of the earth, filling up with water and then suddenly overflowing to form a small avalanche of muddy water. All around me, It’s all so quiet, peaceful and lazy and yet so intricately filled with activity and spirit. It feels so queer that the noise of water gushing through open hose pipe ends fixed at the terrace of our hostel is a perfect lullaby to the ears and the soul. And though a raging wind is absent, but occasionally a whiff of cold air maneuvers past my silhouette caressing my face, leaving me with a divine satisfaction.

When I step forward towards the anvil of my balcony, an uncertain droplet abruptly lands on my left cheek. I try instinctively to feel the tiny bulge, but the shy droplet smoothly glides down and melts away into ignominy. Doing so it completes its circle of existence and embarks on a new journey in an unknown land; the show goes on. The sky is enormous and looks like a canvas painted in grey and white all dynamic and lovely. And sitting amongst and enjoying all the mesmerizing acts of the Creator, am I, the solitary thinker, marveling at this mysterious and exquisite phenomenon.

I'm officially smart!

I got the Best Dressed student award for the year 209-2010. I won't say that I don;t deserve, that would be undermining my image.. Only the dean knows what he found in my arguments against dress codes that he chose me.
Well, it was really amazing to receive the prize because it brought smiles to everyone's face. In the midst of students being felicitated for mighty academic achievments comes a man who just got away with a prize because he had sense.. u can call it dress sense.. or call it common sense.
Amused .., the pleasure is all mine.

News at 8

Hi everyone.. I'm back after a year's break.. Its summer again but this time in room on the sizzling hot second floor, AS-14. I'm counting precious moments, as its time to bid bon-voyage to dear B.tech friends and cherish the timeless moments lived with them.. My heart skips a beat when I contemplate my year ahead and it feels like they are taking away the essence of college life along . But yes times move on.. and Ive really been fortunate enough to have such great buddies in college.

A myriad of experiences have taught me to be strong and strengthened my self-confidence. I have met inspirational characters, dominating people and then amicable people even asociable people. Many a times, I've broken down to circumstances just to find light at the end of the tunnel. I've commited mistakes and been lazy in tasks. On the other hand through small efforts I've achieved unforgettable milestones and found inspiration whithin me.

Recently I am realising that change is a slow process for the better or worse.. And one should not lose motivation and remain connected to the real world if one wants to reach the top. Well u need to know the heights to scale them. Perseverance, good intentions and time management are the three qualities that can take you to the top. I'm definitely trying to learn them myself, sincerely!

Yes, some arbit news : I liked the novel Roots and shadows by Shashi Deshpande.. though i still don;t understand it fully.. its one mighty work about mental struggles.
I felt good giving my first chapo to friends at Pole, though the food sucked and moreover the Polians sucked a hefty sum fom my purse.
I'm going to bangalore this June. Let's see how do innovators look like? something like me..?