A Symphony of August: Resonance

This is third blog of the series, "A Symphony of August" . I feel that it is getting tougher to write a good piece. That's why I've shorten the length of this chapter considerably. 

A Symphony of August: Perseverance

This is the continuation to story from my last blog. I use this independent blog entries to complete an idea, that existed somewhere in my head. I hope, things will soon get interesting.

A Symphony of August: Inspiration

It was raining, and forest in front of my room was croaking. It had been like that for last few days, and I was feeling a little blue. As I was going to my office, people passing by, somehow could really see my gloom. Anyway, my boss had ordered me to think about interesting ideas for ribbons, which our company sells. I always had thought about, how ribbons can pay for my salary, but I guess fashion is not that straight forward business. Today is deadline and heck! my complete ignorance about girl's fashion sense, and the seasonal gloom,  it becomes a hoopla of mess. I must figure out something in next 8 hours, or they will find someone better to do the same.

Independence Day

I have this recurring dream, where there is no gravity, and I hop like there's no tomorrow. It is so fun, that I sometimes think about the possibility of  flying like that in the real world.  From bottle, water droplets just flow around, and then you try to catch up with some of them, and enforce them though your mouth. But now you find that same droplets are seeping through your nostrils, which you failed to cover.  Freedom is just like these droplets, but if you really want it, you better guard it.

Live free or Die hard: Operating Systems Taship

Although this is a sort of bragging, however the feeling is tingling and is of happiness. Last year, when I was TA to the course, I was a nervous whack, and every time, I uttered something, I thought, now they will stand up and leave. This could be the worst case scenario for a first timer, and last year, in first tutorial session, I had to face the situation, when I had no mike in a class of 170+. People were chatting up, doubts were coming from corners, so I had to go here and there, and then I had  a newly found  appreciation for the professors and Richard Feynman. And I agree, If you can't be cool, there is no way, people will get you, no matter, how hard you try.

Well, anyways this time same thing happened, but somehow I was not scared and I know what I wanted them to know. At that instant, I knew a strange kind of joy, that I've never felt before, and more time passed, more my energy increased. I still have to know whether they understood me or not, but nonetheless I'm enjoying the process very much. Prof. P.K Reddy, my Ta friends and I are excited about this particular session of course, and sincerely wish to design very interesting assignments, which students can truly love. Although I agree, it is still hard to create technical humor, and most of the analogies and jokes that I make up, are only caught up by my fellow Ta friends.

I guess, I may not hit Bull's eye, but I intend to shoot the arrows like Jon Mclane's words.

 `Yippie Ki-Yae MotherFucker!' 

Music iLove

Music is ingenious and capricious. It is transient and much alive, just like our emotions. Whether we want it or not, it will seep through the deep fabrics of our being.

My brain is open..

This is one of the favourite line of great mathematician, Paul Erdős, and he used to say this to anyone, when discussing any mathematical problem. And so other guy, opens his heart to Paul, and their thoughts about the problem.
Until today, I thought it was cool of Paul, that he used to say this statement, but today I've figured it out the freedom, that this simple sentence allows, to both Paul and his colleague.

I was reading about chaos today, and after some reading, I had some rambling thoughts about nature of path that leads to chaos. So, I went outside to fill water, and on water cooler, I noticed a strange thing. There were self similar cluster of water droplets, where each droplet had a peninsular form at their bottom. I can figure out, droplets were nothing but condensed water on cold water cooler, but thing I couldn't figure out is that why there is a self-similarity.  And another cool thing is that, I found out, at the bottom-right part of this image, that there was a cluster of droplets, whose collective size was equivalent to the size of bigger neighbouring droplets, and they exhibited the same peninsular structure. This particular behaviour typically involves three major systems, Condensation process, Winds and humid weather, and the surface of cooler. These three systems, together are interacting to make such self-similar structure. When viewed this system laterally, with 180° line of sight, the whole view resembles, when we witness the first stages of water ice. 

A cluster of condensed water droplets

There are still many hidden factors in this particular picture, and physics behind it remains mystery.

It is amazing that there are the things that are so close to us, which represents so much of knowledge, and yet most of the times, our brain does not open to such possibilities. I cannot figure out the reason for phenomenon yet, but I'm happy that I can see, even if it is little bit. So I hope, one day I could say to my colleagues, My brain is open..          

A Bird

A Bird

It's my eyes.. that kills
I have a vibe... in my frills

My beak so large ... catfish and water are its fill
My first born, only remains in my will

In Nile, I wait and watch like a Shoe-still
maybe.. that's why they call me shoe-Bill

A Surprise

A Surprise

Pic Taken From Deep Blue Home

I saw the light at the end of tunnel..
so I drifted and dived
Hmm.., only to see
indeed it was my end of tunnel

A Path

A Path

Eyes that dig deep,
fears and lies of your heart.

Only truth will endure, and
her flesh, or my punctured heart.

Yet, I will make this perilous journey, as
at the end, death will be either hunger or heart.

-- From Diaries of 

an Arctic Fox

Process of Research

As I sat in front of my computer, writing about problems and their solutions, so that I can put them in one piece. So, I started formulating them properly or at least technically sound, in order to directly copy and paste things into my thesis, when fortunate time comes. I realized that these were the same problems that I was hanging onto for months, but a simple process like formulation will help me in getting new ideas to the problem. It is not that, these ideas were not there, they were just floating around, but till now, I didn't realize that the bait will be writing.

The problem with formulation is that, it is not that simple. Say, I wrote this line

and hence, memory alignment if done carefully will increase the margin of speed-up

Now just after this, out of nowhere, I subconsciously wrote

Robb Stark  [from recent GOT episode]

The point is, it requires all space of your mind, and you ought to think while fight with yourself to stay on the problem. It is an interesting feeling.
Another thing is that you have to keep reviewing it again and again, because most of the time, some parts of it are ambiguous, or inconsistent. And may be that's why writing a good research paper is hard, as we don't practice the problem formulation that much.
I'm having hard time now, about thinking whether I've written clearly about the formulation, I'm so hyped about. And that's why I'm publishing this blog post to be reviewed by peers, because sometimes even your best is not enough.
I said a lot, but I think, when I put research in this way, along with new solutions, new problems are also popping up, and really what's boiling is research in my blood.  

Rains in IIIT

And, where are you, the proud lord said

and why you no, enjoy rain

Only a cat with water fear, will stay in his bed..

And so it rains, so it rains...

that day in IIIT,

now I'm off, to air of wet

and the mist of insanity..

#RRMartin

अभिव्यक्ति

अभिव्यक्ति इस मानस की । 
है कुछ संगीन ॥ 
रंगो से है, भरी हुई । 
पर रंगो पर ही, एक छवि हुई ॥

इसका आकर है निराकार । 
और भोग है तप ॥
जीवन के इस प्रष्ठ पर । 
ये रहती सदैव, तृप्त ॥

कौन है हम, कौन हो तुम  । 
के सिलसिले में, झूझती हुई । 
इठलाती हुई, और मटकाती हुई ॥
ऐसी कुछ अदा है, प्रति प्रति व्यक्ति  की ॥

कुछ ख्याल, कुछ उन्माद । 
उमड़े मेरे लघु मन में ॥
कुछ सपने, कुछ अरमान । 
जागे इस जीवन में ॥

चाहा कि, बनू एक आवाज़ । 
या कोई चलती किताब ॥ 
पर होता है मुश्किल । 
     कुछ इसका हिसाब  ॥    

य़ो तो मैं , कवि सही ।
पर शब्दो में, मैं रवि नहीं ।।
चाहता हूँ, सुनाना मेरे दिल का हाल । 
मेरी अभिव्यक्ति, मेरा इंसान ॥

रौनक, रिक्सोर वाला

महाशिवरात्री का मेला

Every year, it happened and every year, we waited. It was like, most auspicious, and most fun day of our childhood. I now, am very well lost in this world of 3G and technology, however the roots, which once brought a zeal to liveitall and pursuit to happyness, came from this mela.

Ours is a small city, of many and many businessman, and a lots and lots of Johris. People know each other by names, in my case, by faces. If you stay, at गोल प्याऊ चौराहा(main market), you will find someone familiar to chat with. There are no traffic lights, and roads are in bad shape, still youngsters love bikes, and those who think, that they have little sense of business, love cars. I liked cycles. My friends and me were so enthralled by these cycles, that we used to play hide on seek on these, and domain was limited to two-three nearby colonies.

Girls used to play territorial games on the road, like 8 पाले, घड़ी etc. , 

   

Source 8 पाले

while boys indulge themselves in cricket at barren plots and gilli danda in streets. In midst of this normal life, there comes a place called Harni Mahadev, where annual mela happens on the day of Mahashivratri.

I know, what I wanted.See maut ka kua, tedha jhula and dollar swing. And eat lots of chat. There were churan shops, we used to go there and try to taste all of sauf and churans. Then shopkeeper realizes, what we were up to, so he shushed us away. And then, our parents came to that shop, or rather we brought them there. We, with innocent eyes and devil mind, act like perfect gentle kids, and taste all of them again. It was so much fun, it seemed like we were having a blast.

Before enjoying all of this, came a visit to the शिवलिंग, surrounded by rocks and pundits. They used to tie, लच्छा on our hand, and it was like, a new birth, a twilight in our little lives. Constantly messing up with, temple bells, trying to ring them again and again, with our parents help. It felt, like god may not play dice with numbers, but hell, he lets us play with him. It was so kind of him.

Now, time has passed, the fun and our concepts of prank have changed. I do not see, myself in those melas again, or even enjoying those little rides and the amazing chat.

But still, our देसिपना. Yes, it still endures.   

Memories

In the nights of deepest calm,
I often wander, to memories warm;
it's a never ending phase,
which stays constant with time and space.

A school bus, and hairs short;
the tidy form, an hanky for snot.
Felt like a fight, for reasons unknown;
still, a slap, when nails got shown.   

A race, some cards, and cricket;
a few fractures, and a leave ticket.
Are times, I remember those;
teary fights, and mother's console.

A first kiss,
and being totally amiss;
reminds me, of innocence,
that I long; forfeit.

In the nights of deepest calm,
I return, with face lukewarm;
it's a never ending phase,
which only grows, in time and space. 

Ronak

ठगा गये !!

कैसी है ये ठगी, कैसी है ये ठगी । 
बिना पूछे ही मुझे , तुम प्यारी क्यों लगी ॥ 

चाहता था, मैं भी तुम्हे ठगु । 
चाहता था, मैं भी तुम्हे ठगु । 
पर हो ना सकि , कुछ ऐसी है तुम्हारी हँसी ॥ 

रौनक

What is need of reincarnation ??

Half an hour ago, I had a heated discussion with my friend over reincarnation, and though he understands things a little bit different, we agree that there is a dilemma around the subject reincarnation.

So, it brings the topic, why in the name of any curious god, we need reincarnation ? God, who is considered so almighty, that he created the Universe, made species like blue whale, polar bear, mosquito and humans etc. He gave us something to wonder about,  diverse grasslands, steep mountains, long rivers and indomitable seas. And as a material witness, I would like to believe that he is something else. However, he cannot put just enough imagination in creating himself. So what does he do, he change essential parameters, like height, voice, caste etc. and bam!! there is your reincarnation.


I think there is an elaborate conspiracy going around, and the conspirators are no one  else but us. Hell, God himself is confused.  He, with so much hardship, thought of a nice character for ongoing story-lines. He thought this is it. He thought it to be an original masterpiece.  But people down there,  are calling it up a sequel. And he cannot protest, cause technically he has no voice of his own.

Before, I argue about my convictions, I want to make clear understanding, of what I mean by reincarnation. It is revival of a soul, or revival of conscious, that was known to exist, before the arrival of a new being. It is to be noted, that revival doesn't mean exact replica, however there is a sub-part, that must match in order to call it reincarnation.
Now basically, there are two approaches, either our soul/conscious is infinite, or otherwise. Due, to lack of substantial proof, and our understanding of issues, my premise of argument is that soul can be represented in finite terms. 

Consider a program, that prints itself. Lets call it a reincarnation program(Or Quine in programmer's jargon).

#include <stdio.h>
char *program = "#include <stdio.h>%cchar *program = %c%s%c;

%cint main()%c{%cprintf(program, 10, 34, program, 34, 10, 10,

 10, 10, 10, 10);%c    return 0;%c}%c";
int main()
{
        printf(program, 10, 34, program, 34, 10, 10, 10, 10, 

               10, 10);
        return 0;
}

So, to write such a program, we need to know everything before, so that we can alter our corresponding program string. Since concious, is way complex then this simple program, and the way it interacts with non-replicated parts make its nature chaotic. But still, this chaotic program has to be written. 

Now in mythological terms, either Lord Brahma, is too efficient to write  such a program or people are taking reincarnation for granted.  And as Einstein said, genius might have limit, but stupidity is limitless.

Our refutations and our premises are all assumptions, but the understanding of process and computational intractability is not. We still may discover some way to write such a program, which considers every possible combination of events, and able to execute it on some machine. However proven mechanisms of understanding, restricts us to believe in what reincarnation stands for.


Reincarnation, it is a lore, it gives us hope and it acts like amendment in sacred religious scripts, but claim is too out there.
  

ज़िंदगी और मौत

ज़िंदगी और मौत
-------------------------------------------

ज़िंदगी  और मौत का ,
चंद पालो  का है सफ़र ।
सालों  साल है हम सोचते,
पर लगता  है केवल एक पलक।।


मैंने  भी बहुत सोचा, 
जिंदगी  के कभी इधर, कभी उधर,
पर ना  मिला, कोई सही प्रश्न ।


शायर और लेखक, 
वैज्ञानिक और भिक्षुक,
सभी सोचते है, और कुछ पाते है ।


पर मैंने  क्या पाया, मैंने क्या पाया।
शब्दों के विचार, निति  का व्यवहार,
बेलव्ज प्यार, या अनचाही कतार।।


मैं  अंजान नहीं, मैं भगवान् नहीं,
देखा है एक सपना, जिसे  पाना  आसान नहीं ।
अब मैं खुश नहीं, अब मैं नाराज़ नहीं ।।


अब मैं हो चला, और हो चली मेरी आयु
 और हो चले, मेरे जवान ।
और मेरे छोटे जवान ।।


वे भी मुझसे पूछते,
क्या है या ज़िंदगी, क्या है ये बवाल ।
मैं हँसा, और बोला, यह है एक तलाश,
जिसकी फिदरत है गोलमाल, और आकर्षण है विचार ।।

रौनक, रिक्सोर वाला

A golden bullet in my head..

A golden bullet in my head

A chill of November, and a dew of night,
a few lone sparrows, with sun in the sight.

Nature's aura, and this nature brigade,
brought to a moody man, more moody upgrades.

Then it happened, nature was outclassed,
I was asunder, and even...
   
a gold of yellow, and a yellow of gold,
a heart was never so nervous, yet so bold.

A sun in chill of November, with dew of night
Always bring you love and life.
And then, there was she,
always bright, with a pretty smile.

Credits to shine,

that fell in eyes of mine.

And that's what, I conclude..

Three golems that makes a person indispensable:

1. Vision/Dream
2. Strong Character and Strong Body
3. Choosing either axiomatic life or believing that life is flux or not......  

Sometimes, we need to measure our vessel, so that we can analyse, whether it is half empty or half full. I wrote these lines a long back, and happened upon them, while searching for something entirely else. Now, I understand first two points quite clearly, but third one seems a little bit paradoxical.

By axiomatic, I mean proposing a theory based on set of axioms. This kind of thinking, will give you satisfactory results, as these axioms were implicit and seemed truth when you started to realize stuff. However, when you apply the theory in unconventional way, some of axioms start failing.

Around 1930s, Russell who believed that all mathematics can be binded on set of axioms, and anything that has a mathematical form, can be proved using those axioms. He and A.N Whitehead wrote Principia Mathematica, and showed their technique by proving a lots and lots of theorems from it. 
In their time, there was a group called, Vienna Circle, which had most eminent philosophers and thinkers. To name a few, Rudolf Carnap, Richard Von Misses, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Kurt Godel etc. Now Russell, was a hotshot with his work on foundations of mathematics, and he began giving seminars and trying to convince Vienna Circle of his technique. However, Godel had different notion, and he pushed the axiom usage in unconventional way, and found that there were serious inconsistencies in this system. So he proposed his findings in one of seminar, where Russell was also present. And when he proved his proposition, Russell only said "This is the end"    
Now Now, this was not  all bad, since Russell tried so vibrantly to prove his claim, he brought the attention of sceptics and mathematicians. And now, we know a paradox "Russell Paradox". 

Now my second argument, that life is a flux. A flux is never constant, it keeps changing with time. It is how we understand essential workings of electricity and magnetism, however attaching life to flux means that there is nothing steady, nothing settling about life. You cannot come upon any verified truth, because universe is large and you are only considering interactions of a few in your force equation. So is this truth, is this the way life should be.
Our scientific approach to problems of real world involves a lot of reasonable approximations. So if we think, we are getting close to truth, think  about reasonable again. This word, according to Godel has no credibility. And as a human being, I tried to follow  path of flux, but I always reached to little conclusions of the life, and that makes me axiomatic.

Isn't it a bit paradoxical on my part ??   But on other hand, it has given me something to think about. 

IiiT-h Compliments!!

Last December, we had an opportunity to attend MSR winter school at IIIT-H. It was an awesome experience, got a chance to meet Prof. Sanjeev Arora, HOD of Princeton's TCS department, Prof. C. Pandurangan, PHD mentor of Kannan sir, and a leading authority in digital signatures. So far, the title and introduction has no correlation, and that is where Cynthia Dwork comes. She is a leading researcher at M.S.R and is working on differential privacy.

The theory of Differential Privacy works on measures to  protect sensitive information from public records. Well, in order to understand the working, we have pretty interesting cases, but I will focus my efforts on this new trend of our college called IiiT-h compliments. Since the community can't be accessed presently, I will summarize a few facts. It uses anonymous expression of opinions or thoughts directed to some particular individual. This anonymity is supported by a google forms.

Now the claim is that, this anonymity is just a variable under-processed. When you bring in more public databases, in this particular case, facebook likes, acute observation at public places like cafeteria, canteen etc, or rumours, or information that only your friends know; my argument is that, using these information, you can unveil this cloak of anonymity.

I tried out this system, and put an info that only I and my wing-mates knew, and I thought, it will be pretty obvious to the guy whom I was directing to. Now, knowing my eccentric moods, and the fact that I was the one who uncovered that information, the first door knocked will be mine. That got me thinking, is it really anonymous.

Here the anonymity fails because, there are too many loose ends, and bit by bit, it will eventually become a byte. So, all we need a Sherlock and zeal to connect the dots.

         Image taken from google

  

Formal Student Interactive Symposium '13

[FSIS'13] sounds like a good reference, so I thought I should check it out. As I entered that hall, and there was nice panel of faculty sitting in front. I knew almost all faculty personally, so I was a little bit nervous about not uttering any word from my sacred mouth. Sanidhya and me were sitting near gate, 'for just in case'  case.
I simply wanted to know how things stand out in our college, and the number of hands that were raised, was quite much. I understood, that there is serious shortcoming in all of us, including me. It is true that these things happen, and there is little bit that we do on our part to stop these issues. It is no excuse, and person responsible for it should be given the taste of his own medicine.

However, solutions proposed were nothing but based upon naive idealism, like offering more humanities courses, or consider the feelings of other every time you talk. They might be excellent solutions in a world where everyone understand each other, and everyone aspires for the goal of better human world.

Claim:  I can disprove both solutions in current setting of things.

Given:
 We are here, because we aspire for jobs that we like, but most importantly that pays. For that we think, that we should go for better grades in courses and complete our credits as soon as possible. It gives a very little time to think about society. If we can just hangout with our friends and have a tea, that is the day well-spent.

Now obviously prejudice of seniors rubs in the juniors and the real confrontation with humanities courses make people have negative feelings about it. Its not my word, it is simple statistics. I think content is more relevant to scholars who want to be enlightened in classical sense. Here there is section of people who want to do MBAs or prepare of IAS. So they might loose interest in these subjects.
On another front,  reading about Gandhi does not make us follow him. Gandhi was a man, which India needed 70 years ago. But today, we face globalization, untrusted politics, many of us have loans to repay.  Problems are of more internal nature, we draw several lines so that we do not cross something, and do something bad.

Proof :

Problems are different in this era, we already drew lines at so many finer levels, and we are just human, we will cross one unintentionally.  Still no harm done, but lines become more complex and problem becomes non-linear[Try Taking Pattern Recognition or Neural Networks or Optimization Methods]. And mathematics is witness, drawing an exact solution for non-linear problem, is NP-hard problem. You should go for good approximations, that is what I do in my research[SOR method for solving linear equations]

I know, I have no right to judge, because I do not know how guys who raised hands feel. Here, premise on which we should base our solutions, is that everybody is human. And what is better than cognitve science and  behavioural Psychology, so that you know how will a fella's mind works. It is nice and important for all of us, because in every job, we'll have human colleagues.  

 With this I've proved that we need to accept hard facts and do something based on that.  Q.E.D

Test Cases: (just simple ones, easy to handle even it backfires :P)

Simply confront people who give you hard time. Even doing so, someone is bothering you, give a middle finger, not because it is sexist, because it is  a gesture to show you are pissed.

I have a few more, if anybody needs it, ping me.... :D

How I met smugglers in IIIT Hyderabad!!

In 2030,
Kids, It was 2013, Your uncle Anna, Sureka, Vizzam, Chia and me went for an epic trip to Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. It was filled with lot of random decisions, pleasure of eating almost anything and bone chilling excitement.
Oh! wait, this is not what I had in mind, lets leave that story for another time. We go one month ahead, in mid of January. We all were at IIIT-H. You know IIIT, where I made myself a geek that I am today. At that time, our college was in process of hooking up with NKN(National Knowledge Network), however it came up with some set of laws.
And like any other law, it based itself on issues of piracy, privacy and connecting people for good. And with high held principles, began a campaign to ban stuff :/  

Oh! yeah, in those days, it went by this terminology and unlike you, we didn't have classes. Well anyway, after a long series of discussions, it was banned. With all this commotion, a strange thing happened, people changed, people actually changed. Their life was full of dreams, they were laughing and now we were edging towards a perfect harmony.......

Oh! who am i kidding, it was disaster, if life was so simple, there had been no wars, love will be literally in air. Pollution would have been under control, and  Namibia would have imposed a penalty on seal killing. People still do things, and though consequences are still there, but you don't go and say, you forget this part about your humanity, because some of us don't like that human part of you.
You have to live with it.

Kids, these are words, that I heard somewhere. I'm more like a summary guy. Now, I was only one man, there are plenty others who might see from different angle.

Now a few months had passed, and  I was curious, but somehow I remained unaware of happenings. However, At some concert, I saw two of our college guys talking with another guy and I thought I should catch up. Suddenly that dude said "IIIT Mein Ho! :/", followed by a sarcastic smirk, to which those guys gave a weak nod. And then he grabbed one guys hand, and said "Yeh lo pendrive, kaam aayegi".
 And I thought it could be nothing but Pen-drive trafficking.

So kids.. Moral is every man's folly, and everybody is entitled to live with their own.