anecdotes of time

Jagjit Singh

2011-10-10T21:38:00.003-04:00

More than two decades ago, even before i understood what a ghazal was, i was attracted to the voice of Jagjit Singh singing the title song of Neem Ka Ped, a serial on Doordharshan. I have always liked songs that have touched me emotionally and even though i didn't understand a word of it, i felt very close to the song. Later as my life took me to the north of Vindyas i learnt more about Jagjit and other ghazal singers and ghazals.

This morning when I saw the news that Jagjit singh passed away, it felt very sad. I have listened to songs from Saath Saath and Arth (they were in the same cassette) many times over during the time when i was at IIT Kanpur.

Candid Conversation

2011-06-09T21:53:00.003-04:00

The following is a conversation Amrapali heard today at the post office.

Woman: What Candy is that?

Man: The last one.

Woman: I would rather let you have it than me.

Man: Me too.

Sivaji on BIG screen

2011-04-30T00:01:00.002-04:00

I chanced upon this article on The Hindu where the author had the following description of Sivaji

"But, it's something else to behold this actor on the big screen. In the living room, his out-sized emoting shrunk to the size of the television monitor, he can often appear ridiculous to the modern eye. To see him up there is to see a lion freed from the confines of a cage and in its natural habitat. It's where he belongs. The big screen so easily accommodates his big acting."

I couldn't agree more.

Ilaiyaraja #3: Productivity chart

2011-01-03T21:30:00.004-05:00

Raja used to score music for lot of movies at the same and still could give lot of great songs. In these days when a single song gives a music director a few years of film music career, raja would multiple hits from many movies released about the same time. I am not saying all the songs would be good, but at least 50% of them in each movie would be really good.

As he started becoming more and more popular starting from 1976, the year Annakkili was released he started scoring more and more movies each year. I wanted to plot this in a chart and that is what you see below.

The last year he had one of his multi film hits around same time was in 1993. This is when all the so called big banner directors deserted him. By this time he had already scored music to ~ 600 films. The right hand side scale shows the cumulative # of movies, which hits a plateau around the same time. In my opinion there is a distinct sound that appears in his songs for a given period of time, which is approximately 2-3 years, after which you will see a paradigm change in the way he scores the music. More about this later with examples.

I recently discovered some great blogs that analyze Raja's music thread bare. You can see them on the side bar amongst the blogs I follow.

Rahul Dravid

2010-12-28T22:03:00.004-05:00

There is an excellent interview with Rahul Dravid at Cricinfo about slip catching. Rahul Dravid is one of the greatest cricketer ever to have played for India. I have always felt that he was always under appreciated and it made me sad that he has not been considered for the 2011 WC squad. He has done everything that has been asked of him in ODI. The last question of the interview aptly brings out the true personality of Rahul.

Do you remember all 200 catches?
I can't remember every one off hand, but if you show me the scorecard I will remember.

I have no doubt that he will sure be able to point out the exact context of the catch.

Even though there is lot of criticism about money having invaded cricket in the last two decades, but it has also given some of the most committed students of the game in Indian cricket. To name a few, Sachin, Rahul, Saurav, MS Dhoni.

Ilaiyaraja #2

2010-11-20T21:25:00.005-05:00

This past week I was watching Uthiri Pookkal, a movie directed by J Mahendiran based on a story by Pudumaipithan. The last time I watched this movie was in 1987 or 1988, i don't remember clearly. It was shown on Doordharshan as a Friday late night film. I vaguely remembered the climax. The movie begins with a title song by Ilaiyaraja " Hey indha poongathu". You can see this song here via You Tube.

I heard this song for the first time in my life and it affected me deeply. I generally like songs that Ilaiyaraja sings. He brings lot of emotion into the song and a sense of real worldness to them. You might have noticed it in the version of Thenpandi Seemayile from Nayagan that he has sung. Uthiri Pookal is an absorbing movie and as i continued to watch, later in the movie Ilaiyaraja has used the tune of the above mentioned song as an humming background by SP Sailaja. The humming starts at 2:27.

I am finding it very difficult to get this humming out of my mind since last week. I was able to find it on Youtube.

I personally like music of the kind that leaves me wanting/yearning for more. Like "Sili hawa choo gayi" from Libaas by RD burman or the innumerable Ilaiyaraja songs.

It really pains me to a great extent that Ilaiyaraja never received national award in his first 7 years of music direction.

I have been wanting to write my very subjective interpretations of Ilaiyaraja's music and what it did to me when I was growing up and what it does to this day.

I hope to meet him one day and ask him about some of his music that literally leaves me in tears like the one above.

Happiness is

2010-10-25T22:44:00.002-04:00

Roger Federer: (Un)arguably the GOAT

2010-02-06T16:48:00.006-05:00

Whenever I see an article that says RF is Greatest of All Time (GOAT), there is always a qualifier "arguably". I don't know what else the guy can do. Anyway I myself don't believe in GOAT, but he is the best I have seen since I started watching tennis 25 years ago. There is also this constant comparison of him and Sampras, but I think that is a wrong comparison. The person he should be compared with is the great Ivan Lendl. In the chart below I show how Federer compares with Lendl, Sampras and his greatest rival, Rafael Nadal. Though i personally don't like Nadal kind of play, I like the intensity he brings in to the match.

In the chart below, winning percentage(# of matches won/total matches played) in a season is plotted vs the year (Year is normalized to reflect the total year they played as professional tennis players). Notice the longevity of Lendl at the top of his game, only partly matched by Federer. Federer's greatest years were undoubtedly 2004-2006 when he was always above 90%. Only Lendl has 5 years above 90%. Federer may not be able to match that, but he is the only player apart from Lendl to have lost the Year end # 1 ranking and regain it, Federer doing it this past year.

It is interesting to note that Sampras never had even a single year with winning % above 90. Clearly Federer is towards the end of career as per the historical data shown in the chart. I only hope Nadal curve doesn't fall of precipitously.

As somebody noted, since 2004 Australian Open, Federer has lost in a Grand Slam event only to the eventual winner. I hope he breaks the 286 weeks record as #1 currently held by Sampras. Of his 62 titles, 16 are GS and 16 are Masters.

I hope I can get to the US open this year to watch him play.

Brothers in Arms

2009-08-16T21:50:00.002-04:00

Central Park, NY

2008-12-06T12:02:00.002-05:00

I have never driven in NY city, but this time during the thanksgiving weekend when my friends were here, we drove to the city and it was very good. I was able to take a picture of the upper east side buildings in the evening twilight from central park and i really liked the picture.

Top Down Approach: Never Works

2008-11-23T18:58:00.002-05:00

I read this very nice quote from the book of Stanford Professor Linda Darling-Hammond in her website "Bureaucratic solutions to problems of practice will always fail because effective teaching is not routine, students are not passive, and questions of practice are not simple, predictable, or standardized. Consequently, instructional decisions cannot be formulated on high then packaged and handed down to teachers" which is from her book The Right to Learn

2008-09-23T06:20:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2008-07-09T22:18:00.002-04:00

I did the signing part :-))

Meeting KJ Yesudas

2008-04-21T22:41:00.001-04:00

As i was waiting at Gate D10 at LaGuardia Airport, i thought I will go and get a cup of coffee. While waiting in the line to pay for my coffee I saw KJ Yesudas walking with his traditional white dress and i smiled at him and he smiled back at me. I couldn't resist and went and talked to him. Since i had to pay for my coffee, he told me that he is at gate D6. After paying for my coffee, i went and talked to him.

It was a very pleasant conference. I told him that his is a "theiveega kural", meaning divine voice. He was curiously asking me about my research related to the hard disk drive. When i told him currently we are working on a problem he commented that in science a problem is not the problem in the manner in which we refer to it in everyday life, but rather a problem whose solution is not yet there.

He said that it was mostly God's gift that he is able to sing. He was telling me about the meaning of word "kadavul".

Of the many songs i have in my collection, i could only mention the following three to him

Theivam thantha veedu
Mandhiram idhu mandhiram
Neeyum bommai, naanum bommai

Actually I told him about a "sirappu thenkinam" i heard when I was a 8 years old on vividh bharathi, in 1982 and referred to him about a comment he made about the song that his son vinod likes. He told me it was "En iniya pon nilave".
Usually i don't fly out of LaGuardia, as the flights invariably get delayed there. I am thankful that I did chose LGA this time around.

First Email

2008-04-09T14:27:00.001-04:00

This is our one year olds' first email, sort of :-)
eeeeeeefvf nfffffffmhy khhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,
dcbnffffffffffffffffffvvvvvvvnv
PS: Actually he was helping his mom when she was writing one.

Existence

2008-02-03T15:20:00.000-05:00

Sri Govinda Bhagavad Pada: What brings you here?

Sankara: I come to you seeking refuge, to resolve the enigma of existence.

Sri Govinda Bhagavad Pada: With this mortal body how can you cross the ocean of existence?

Sankara: 'Body' is subject to birth and death, not Atman. The unreal has no existence, the real never ceases to exist.

(From the movie Adi Sankaracharya by GV Iyer)

fir chhidee raat baat fulon kee

2007-12-17T23:23:00.000-05:00

I have always felt that Khayyam's music sort of pinches my heart like no other music. Only some ilayaraja songs do that to me, but most of Khayyam's songs do it. Recently I have been continuosly listening to the song Phir Chiri Raat baat poolonki. I really like the flowers on the hair of women. To me it is not something that is symbol of some status. To me it is very etheral. I like smells of things and people and flowers.

I stay in a place where i can't get jasmine to be handed over to my wife. What a pity? Till then

फिर छिड़ी रात बात फूलों की
रात हैं या बरात फूलों की

फूल के हार, फूल के गजरे
शाम फूलों की, रात फूलों की

आप का साथ साथ फूलों का
आप की बात बात फूलों की

फूल खिलते रहेंगे दुनिया मी
रोज निकलेगी, बात फूलों की

नज़ारे मिलाती है, जाम मिलते है
मिल रही है, हयात फूलों की

ये महकती हुयी गजल मखदुम
जैसे सेहरा मी, रात फूलों की

Anant Srinivasan

2007-10-07T20:11:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-09-30T20:11:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-09-27T12:08:00.001-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-09-23T13:11:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-09-16T22:22:00.000-04:00

Roger Federer and discipline

2007-09-02T23:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I saw one of the most over-hyped tennis match between John Isner and the player I admire the most, on par with Ivan Lendl, Roger Federer. This guy Isner comes with his 6'9" size and the only thing he does is serve. What irritated me the most is in his post match press conference he says, after the first set Federer lifted his game. Excuse me. I felt very insulted. Isner didn't even attempt a few shots yesterday, with a sense of arrogance, at least in my opinion, and after he got the first set in tie break he had the audacity to comment that Federer lifted his game.

The thing i admire the most about Roger is the kind of goals he seem to set during the course of the match. Imagine in the kind of situation that he was yesterday, he decided not to make any errors (unforced errors) and he precisely did that for the 2nd and 3rd set. I can write many posts on just his discipline. I was really pained to watch him play Rafa at French Open this year because he was making all kinds errors on his fore hand. Anyway, another of his amazing quality is his ability to move on.

I really want to meet him and sit down and talk to him.

I just love this guy and of course his tennis.

Anant Srinivasan

2007-09-02T23:14:00.000-04:00

August 28th

2007-08-28T07:16:00.001-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-08-26T11:28:00.001-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-08-19T12:48:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-08-12T19:07:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-08-05T13:51:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-07-29T16:42:00.000-04:00

The Pleasure of finding things out

2007-07-26T23:07:00.000-04:00

I happened to chance upon this classic Feynman documentary made by BBC in 1981. It is a five part program. I am providing link to each of them below.

Anant Srinivasan

2007-07-22T20:45:00.001-04:00

Sachin Tendulkar

2007-07-22T17:58:00.001-04:00

I think Sachin just played his last test innings at Lord's cricket ground. It is a sad thing that he might retire without having scored a century on this ground. Not that people who have scored a century here have all been greats. It is something that adds to your resume, so to speak.

I think he might also retire without ever having won a cricket world cup. I really feel sad for him.

At the same time, I feel that he should retire sooner. Today he should have stayed. Both the innings he was lbw. I didn't see the match, I wonder whether he tried playing across the line.

Anant Srinivasan

2007-07-15T12:24:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-07-08T18:04:00.000-04:00

ghuffa huffe

2007-07-04T11:04:00.000-04:00

It was sometime in '83 or '84 during which period i was in 5th or 6th standard. The movie had been released in Apsara theater in Vellore. Ravi and Ram had seen the movie. Reji Paul had seen it twice (his father is a trained Karate expert). Santhu of course had seen the movie, as did so many others. In school I couldn't participate in any discussions of how great the training was and how we all could become defenders.

Finally appa let me and my brothers to go and watch the movie. There was a huge rush for the movie. And finally I too had seen it. I remember practicing the water carrying training, with out the knife, of course. It was really painful to keep the fingers bent at their tip like they do in these kung-fu movies. The sounds of 'ghuffa huffe' used to fill the house. It was supposedly practice.

This past weekend, I purchased my first DVD in life, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Gordon Liu who plays San Ta in this movie was Pai Mei in Kill Bill. I learnt that QT is a big fan of Gordon Liu and he wanted him badly in the Kill Bill movies. I am a big fan of Quentin Tarantino.

I also came to know another link between myself and the 36th. One of producers Run Run Shaw, of the Shaw Brothers, sponsors a lecture series at Stony Brook University where I did my Ph.D.

This DVD is going to be one of my prized possessions.

Anant Srinivasan

2007-07-01T18:52:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-06-24T22:54:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-06-17T12:00:00.001-04:00

Listless Federer

2007-06-10T14:13:00.000-04:00

It was really sad watching Federer play against Nadal today at the French Open. Today's match resembled the matches between Venus Williams and Serena Williams. I felt that the fans deserved a match at the least.

Imagine more than two-thirds of Federer's unforced error were fore-hand errors. That sort of sums up his game today. He rarely lobbed the ball. You can't keep Nadal on the baseline. Atleast not in his living room, Phillippe Chatrier, that is.

To be fair to Federer, Nadal really didn't win the match today. It was given to him on a platter by Roger. As a fan of Roger it was really sad to watch him play this way.

Anant Srinivasan

2007-06-10T12:04:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-06-03T13:52:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-05-28T22:10:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-05-27T14:07:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-05-20T14:06:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-05-13T17:49:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-05-06T22:01:00.000-04:00

One-day Cricket: Part 1

2007-05-02T21:46:00.000-04:00

Recently I made a comment on a post on Australian success at the World Cup by Amit Varma in his India Uncut blog about how much I dislike the way they have changed the way the game is played. It is definetly not sour grapes. One thing I really like about Aussies is their grit. They play as a team, as any team game should be played. Last I heard that cricket is a team game. But I still can't watch the bluedgeoning work carried out by their batsmen or for that matter by Greame Smith or Jaques Kallis. Setting this aspect aside, which is very much subjective, I decided to look deeper into the statistics.

The recent debacle of Indian cricket team at the ICC Cricket Worldcup(WC) prompted me to dig deep into the performance of the team over the years and I have been trying to put together my analysis, if you can call it one. This is Part 1 of this exercise.

First, I would like to acknowledge the enormous amount of data available at Cricinfo websites' statsguru feature, from where I got all the data for this analysis presented below. While trying to analyze the record for India, I thought it would be good to have comparative data of two other teams, one of which has shown consistency and the other that has shown amazing improvement, for which I chose Australia and Sri Lanka, respectively. All of this is also confined to only one-day cricket.

Even though Cricket WC is the ultimate prize, finally it is one tournament. In the following analysis, I have only concentrated on non-WC matches in the period between world cups. For example, in the charts below 1983 means the matches played between the day after the finals of the 1979 WC and the day before 1983 WC, both days included.

First a general chart, for the teams (here I have included only 8 teams) between 2003 WC and 2007 WC. From this chart, it is not a surprise that the four teams that went to semi-final stage, were well on course over these 4 years.

Chart 1: Winning % for all matches played between March 24, 2003 and March 12, 2007

Let us begin with the 3 teams mentioned above. Let see the change in winning % for these 3 teams from pre-1975 WC. Actually there is no data for SL prior to 1979 as they played only in WC in those days. Post 83 is the period during which India has shown improvement, which is largely stagnant ever since, except 96 when it went to 60%. I still believe that was the best shot India had in all these post 83 years to win the cup again. Over the years, India has always hovered around the 50% winning % whereas Australia and SL have shown continuous improvement. There are dips in Australian performance too, especially during the period of pre-1979-1987, when lot of issue were affecting australian cricket. Packer series, the retirement of Chappell, Lillee, Marsh and the rebuilding of the team under Alan Border were the important ones. SL has really grown a lot since the pre-1996 WC season. Look at the chart below.

Chart 2: Win % during the intervening periods between world cups.

Now let me jump ahead for co-relations. One of the constant theme coming out of Indian cricket team selectors is that we want to play 7 batsmen and 4 bowlers. The reason being that the famed(?) can get any score. Over the years India has completeley ignored the bowling department. I don't even want to get into fielding. I wanted to see whether there is any co-relation between the win% and the R/6b parameter of cricinfo. R/6b is basically runs scored every 6 balls, run rate. The bowling counter part is C/6b, which is runs conceded per over. I plotted win % as a function of both these parameters and i don't see any co-relation. See for yourself in charts 3 and 4.

Chart 3: Win % over all years versus R/6b

Chart 4: Win % over all years versus C/6b.

On the contrary, when I plotted the difference between R/6b and C/6b, there is a very strong co-relation with win%. If this difference is close to 0, no matter which team, the win % is close to 50%. You lose every other match. Notice that for Australia and SL, the increase in this difference has lead to increased win %. It would be illustrative to do this for other teams as well. What this means is, you score as well as you can and you should also bundle out the opposition also. Actually this is more exemplified in the chart between win% and the difference between batting average and bowling average, which also takes into account the wicket lost/taken.

Chart 5. Win % versus the deficit R/6b - C/6b

Chart 6. Win % versus the deficit Bat. Ave- Bow. Ave

What do these charts tell about the composition of the team? Let us look at that at a later post.

Anant Srinivasan

2007-04-29T10:59:00.000-04:00

Lost Opportunity

2007-04-24T21:52:00.000-04:00

I admit that I am nobody to ask Sachin Tendulkar to quit, but he lost an opportunity to quit today, April 24th, on his birthday. I seriously thought he would, but he didn't. In my opinion even Anil Kumble's retirement was long overdue. More than all these things, what really bothers me is the missed player(s) who has been giving out his place for Ajit Agarkar in all three past world cups and countless other matches.

I am doing an extensive analysis of the Indian cricket team's record. I am doing it as a fan. Cricket is the only sport of which I was a rabid fan of, even though I never played cricket. All I wanted to be was a cricket commentator, hoping that it would give a pass to watch the match and get paid too. Now with the absence of any Indian umpire in the elite panel, i am seriously considering umpiring. As Venkatraghavan put it, what better place to watch cricket than from bowler's end or square leg.

Anant Srinivasan

2007-04-22T14:35:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-04-15T16:55:00.000-04:00

Anant Srinivasan

2007-04-08T22:47:00.000-04:00

A wonderful Blog

2007-02-28T11:34:00.000-05:00

Reading blogs is like having a conversation with your friends. Anyone who has stayed in hostels knows very well how to waste time. Just drop into somebody's room around 11.30 PM. During these conversations, literally everything under the sky and sometimes beyond, are discussed. I have had conversations with my friends that have gone well into the morning. Once myself and Magesh were talking through the night when we were at Kanpur. Suddenly we realised that the tube light in my room wasn't making any impact. How could it, for the light outside was brighter. We decided to have breakfast and go to bed. As you have these conversations, lots of things are brought back into your memories and they stay. As John Keating would say, in Dead Poets Society " God's were created, women swooned", the conversation covered all ages.

Some blogs do provide that kind of sense of feeling. More often than not, I have observed that I tend to like blogs that talk about things or events that happened when I was growing up. To dismiss it as feeding to your nostalgia feeling is very unfair, atleast in my opinion. Ever since Tilotamma stopped blogging, this is something I sorely miss. She could make me travel to a different time or different place, that is my own. When she writes about Omar Mukhthar, all I remember is Alankar Theater and line "50 crore movie magnum" or for that matter, when I enter Trader's Joe "Namma trader's joela kettu paaru".

This past sunday, I was searching for Rajan Bala, erstwhile cricket correspondent for Indian Express. I ended up in this wonderful blog, The Talkative Man Speaks. I would really like to meet this person and have long conversations with him.

There are some things that he writes are straight of any body's life. For example, in the Carl Lewis story he writes

It was a summer evening in '84 that I was seated outside the house with Appa. Rajaram reading the AIR news announced that Carl Lewis had won the 100m in 9.99 seconds. Appa snapped his fingers ten times and remarked that Lewis would have finished the race within that time frame.

In the same carl lewis, while responding to one of the comments about Atlanta, he uses the song "Vizhiyile malarndadhu, uyirile kalandadhu" so aptly, it goes so well with that response and context.

When I knew about Tilotamma's blog, I completed the archives the same day. I did the same thing when i first came to know of Ramesh Mahadevan. Now I am going through the archives of TTM.

Names, First and Last

2007-02-25T16:22:00.000-05:00

This past week I was part of a conference call with one of the vendors who supply us with instruments that go onto our equipments. At the end of the call, he wanted to take the participants first name and last name, so that he can send out an email of an information that we requested.

This affable gentleman, knowing only half of my firstname, Narasi, said to another participant with whom he was talking at that time, "Narasi has a very difficult last name" at which point at started spelling out my name.

S-R-I-N-I-V-A-S-A-N

to which he quipped

"And do you pronounce that as SMITH, as in JOHN SMITH" to which we all had wonderful laugh, after which he said "I am sorry Narasi".

February 14, 2003 and Beyond

2007-02-18T21:26:00.000-05:00

Natural Light. ISO: 1600, Shutter Speed: 1/1000 , Aperture: f/3.5

Canon Rebel-XT

12 Days of Christmas for the Brown Folk

2006-12-18T20:35:00.000-05:00

My friend Arvind sent me this video from You Tube. I find it amazing and very hilarious.

12 Days of Christmas for the Brown Folk

Apparently it is band and they have CD's and all. Here is their home page.

Damien Martyn: A Salute

2006-12-08T17:03:00.000-05:00

Damien Martyn belongs to a vanishing breed of batsmen who grace the cricket field. His retirement leaves the mantle of that breed entirely to VVS Laxman, the last of those artistry batsmen who are a sheer delight to watch. However much I admire Sachin Tendulkar, I can't put him in the same category of these two batsmen. Other players that belong to this category during the period i have watched cricket (post 1980) are Mohd. Azharuddin, Mark Waugh. Earlier era gave us among others, GR Viswanath.

To be so talented, as Damien was, and sit out for 6 years during the prime of your physical fitness due to a so called rash shot (that is claimed to have to have led to the defeat) and make an amazing comeback, is really a legend in the making. To top it all, just when you have an opportunity to make amends to the bad form in front of the home crowd, with the Aussie team well placed in the series, Damien decided that he should call it a day.

I am more than impressed with his actions. More than anything else, in these days of media hyped recalls of retired greats, the manner with which CA and others responded to it is simply amazing.

Goodbye and Goodluck, Damien. Have a great life.

What happens in between?

2006-11-05T12:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, when Amrapali and myself were walking out of St. Charles Hospital here in Port Jefferson, Long Island, we saw a very old lady walking towards the hospital. She saw us and said

" You two look so happy
And I am glad to see that"

Though we weren't sure how to respond to that, we mumbled a thank you.

After a few steps, we met another lady, who probably is the old lady's daughter, told us

"When you are above 90, you can talk to just about anybody. Isn't it?"

The event really made me think. We keep talking when we are kids and if it is easy to talk to just about anybody when you are very old, what happens in between?

Quintessential Rajnikanth

2006-10-15T11:33:00.001-04:00

I found this speech by Rajni in You Tube. You can see how restless he looks. Whenever he speaks he always tries to capture the microphone, there is lot of restlessness. Make sure you notice his face when he repeats Amitabh Bachchan's name. Later when he says "Indha Rajnikanth endha moolainga?". There is a sense of conviction that I feel whenever I hear him speak.

Ph.D Thesis Report

2006-09-08T17:09:00.000-04:00

There is this brief report in today's The Hindu buried under TamilNadu/Coimbatore section that caught my eye. This report says that Bharathiar University is going to make the status of the evaluation of the Ph.D thesis available online.

As somebody who has seen from close quarters how people keep waiting for report, I am glad that somebody felt the need to atleast find a way to monitor and know the status. I also abhor the practice of sending the thesis to a 'Foreign' referee and getting an approval from him/her. I don't see why we need to do that, unless ofcourse, that person has been a collaborator.

In India you will have to submit the thesis(the final bound version), wait for the thesis report and then have your defence. When I defended my thesis recently, here in US, I gave a final (there is never a final one, is there?) draft in a manila folder to each of my committee two weeks before the defence and a submitted a copy to the graduate school a week after the defence. End of story. All my committee members weren't my collaborators, but they were on the committee to evaluate my thesis proposal.

I think the time frame between submission and defence, in Indian institutes, should be reduced to as minimum as possible and a person should be able to leave the Institute/University for good.

Except for a few concerned ones, most advisors don't even care how long it takes.

Anyway, that is my opinion.

Harry Potter

2006-09-02T11:13:00.000-04:00

I have been watching the harry potter movies again. There is this conversation between Prof. Dumbledore and Harry that is worth mentioning

DUMBLEDORE: "... Yet the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor.

HARRY: Only because I asked it to.

DUMBLEDORE: "Exactly. Which makes you very different from Voldemort. It's not our abilities that show what we truly are, Harry. It's our choices."

Actually the character Harry is made in such a manner, it is very difficult to not to like him. He is sensitive. He never cribs and has no regrets in life, in spite of things having been so bad in his life, at least upto the time he enters Hogwarts. Even life in the school has not been easy for him, save for the two friends, Ron and Hermionne, with constant attention.

Before he and Ron enter the Chamber of Secrets, Moaning Myrtle says " Oh, Harry... if you die down there, you're welcome to share my toilet." Harry responds "Thanks, Myrtle".

August 28th

2006-08-28T10:14:00.000-04:00

13 years and it doesn't change a thing.

Ustad Bismillah Khan

2006-08-21T21:49:00.000-04:00

Photo: From The Hindu

"How could I have slept in the cool comfort of the a/c when my neighbour Ramzan Ali poured buckets of water on his `tattar' [made of tin] for keeping the heat away in the summer," he asked.

The he referred above is Ustad Bismillah Khan, who moved on to an entirely different stage to play for the very same ganga-maiyya and baba vishwanath, that were so dear to him. The above quote sort of personifies both the person and his way of life. Many times we hear of great people who led a simple life, but rarely we get to see that in the way they look also. Ustad was one such person.

Long before I even knew what a shenai is and who is its ustad, I had a long love affair with the shenai music that preceded the beginning of any Doordarshan transmission. In early eighties, when I was in elementary school, there were no 24 hour TV channels and I was so crazy about TV. I would start watching a well 15-30 mintues even before the symbol accompanied by Ustads' shenai announced the beginning of the program.

Music has this enormous capability to drown you, but at the same time raise your spirits so much, you feel very much overwhelmed. That over whelming feeling is inexplicable. Ustads like Bismillah Khan gave them in plenty to whomever were fortunate enough to hear their music. After the death of MS, we have lost another of those pre-independence era grown stalwart.

Owning a Pet Dog

2006-07-25T17:31:00.000-04:00

Recently my good friend Terrywhatlee had a post on Great Danes and it was only then I even came to know that Scooby-Doo is a Great Dane. Though I have been a great dog lover, never ever did I cared to know about the various breeds and things like that.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to see for the first time in my life a Great Dane in person, while I was visiting Montauk Point, the eastern tip of Long Island. I wasn't sure whether it was Great Dane. I needed to know. My curiosity got the better of me and I walked towards the owner and asked him. He was polite and he said that it is indeed Great Dane. He also told me how friendly she is, especially how much she likes to spend time with children at home.

Since then I have been finding it very difficult to stop reading about Great Danes. Myself and Amrapali are very fond of dogs and plan to own one. Amrapali did have a dog as a kid, whereas I never had that opportunity.

It is quite expensive to own a dog. More than the money, it is more about responsibility of having a dog as a member of your home. Though the emotional reasons and the responsibilities of owning a dog is important, a good idea about the costs is also essential. There is no point in overlooking this fact. I found an article which gives an estimate of costs involved in having a dog. I am sure there are plenty of sources which have estimates. But this one is a good start.

Saif Ali Khan: A Revelation

2006-07-14T21:29:00.000-04:00

I recently watched Dil Chata Hai. It is a very ordinary movie and was all hype. In fact my reason for wanting to see the movie was Saif Ali Khan.

If I have seen somebody grow up on screen as an actor it has to be Saif. I first got a glimpse of this change in him when I saw Parineeta (thanks to Priya and Arvind). It was one of those passionate love story, well made. Had good music too. Saif played a very well crafted role. Later I also saw Hum Tum, a role for which he got National Award.

Later I also watched him in Salaam Namaste and finally DCH.

Probably he is telling to himself in Rajni style (Baadsha) "Evalo paathirupom" (Have seen it all) and to come to think of it, he probably has. Son of Tiger Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore and early entry in to Hindi film industry. Falls in love with a much elder woman, marries her against all opposition, both from family and public, does really bad movies with even badly made roles, is a father of a daughter, gets divorce from his wife ...

He reminds me a lot of a room-mate of mine in his "har katein". May be I see this person in him. But then I do think Saif is one of the best in Hindi cinema. He makes Amir and Akshaye look mere actors in this movie.

But I should admit there was one particular scene in DCH that was really amazing. This is the scene where the train leaves with Preeti Zinta still on the platform. The look of her through the glass door of the train, says it all in that movie about the relationship that she is yearning for from Amir. It is impossible to love somebody and not show it off in some form or the other.

How things come to this point?

2006-06-23T12:05:00.000-04:00

This morning as I was checking for the something at the website of Research Laboratories for Electronics I saw the news item that Rahul Sarpeshkar has been awarded a tenure. Though I was initially thinking about why the term 'awarded' is being used (after all he has earned it, didn't he?), I moved on to check his group page. I have known that he works on biology-electronics, but what I didn't know was that he was Carver Meads' student.

As somebody who has gone through graduate school to complete a Ph.D these things about being somebody's student and all, interests me a lot. Moreover, Carver Mead is somebody whom Iadmire a lot as a scientist. He is in that list that I have of people, who have greatly impacted me through their scientific contributions and innovators, which includes among others Robert Noyce, Richard Feynman, Don Knuth, CT Sah.

When I was doing my research to buy a digital SLR camera, I wanted to buy Sigma just because they had Foveon CMOS image sensors. Foveon is one of the many companies that Carver Mead had helped start or run through his scientific innovations. I didn't go for a Sigma for other reasons.

Now what does Carver Mead has to do with this post?

Actually it goes back to Rahul and I found in his Ph.D thesis, digging deep into which I found a person Sanjoy Mahajan, whose webpage has a lot of interesting stuff. Check the one image explanation of the war in Iraq there.

Most importantly check the physics teaching aid and related articles. Especially this one which talks about something that most Teaching Assistants in graduate schools might find very helpful.

My reason for the title of this post, is that how we start looking for something and finally due to this search and all those things, end up finally somewhere which we had no clue about in the first place.

Perhaps, it is someone else

2006-06-19T22:49:00.000-04:00

Just finished watching the episode The Watchman of Malgudi Days. The title of this post is the last dialogue in this episode about a watchman who guards an old temple tank. The old watchman is reprimanded by the local judge after a spate of suicides. Later that night a girl wants to commit suicide after not getting a college scholarship which was her ticket to freedom from marriage and children. A prospective groom is coming to see her the next day. She says that she doesn't want to be a burden to her step mother, wants to become a doctor.

The watchman asks her to go home and live a happy life and bear kids for her husband. She rebuffs him as to what he knows about her misery or misery per se. He tells her of his losing almost his entire family, his wife and 7 daughters, save for the youngest daughter, to plague and says that she is too young to even understand misery.

He leaves her near the temple tank and goes to sleep. The next day morning, he notices only the letter near the steps. His friend tells him probably that girl left for home. He says that sometimes the body takes months to come up and feels that he couldn't save that particular girl from committing suicide.

Many years later a husband and wife and their three kids come to the temple and the old watchman, much older now, looks through his broken glass and identifies the woman as the same girl whom he had persuaded to go home that night. Even after knowing that it was the same watchman who had saved her, she fails to recognize him, prompting him to say "Perhaps, it is someone else".

A very poignant story that I have read/seen in recent times.

Dolby Digital - India Link

2006-06-18T10:53:00.000-04:00

These days I am reading a lot about AV Receivers, Speakers and various sound formats. The forum at Audioholics gives lot of valuable information. Apart from that I also checked the famed Dolby website and there I found an interesting link to India. Ray Dolby worked for two years as an UN advisor for the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO).

The demo file in Dolby website is amazing. After listening to that piece Amrapali said

Pyaas Kuchh Aur Bhii Bha.Dakaa Dii Jhalak Dikhalaake
Tujhako Paradaa Rukh\-E\-Roshan Se Hataanaa Hogaa

This is a Asha-Talat duet from Lala Rukh set to Kaifi Azmi's lyrics by Khaiyyam.

Spelling BEE

2006-06-02T23:08:00.000-04:00

I am reminded of Ramesh Mahadevan's article where he lists the list of boring things that Desis do in US. I liked his comment on Spelling Bee.

Using spell check reminds me of another thing. While I was writing my Ph.D thesis, for which I used Latex, the day before I was to take the printouts to give my examination committee the copies, i wanted to do check the spelling and I, should positively admit stupidly and foolishly, said to my wife that I will read through the text in no time. Thanks to her counsel, i used the spell check of the emacs (one of the nice text editors on linux) and it took 1 hour to completely go through the entire document.

I wonder why somebody is not having a hand writing contest? I had tough time grading all the exam books of undergraduates, most of whose handwriting is pathetic to say the least.

The Hindu and its irritating journalism

2006-04-16T20:05:00.000-04:00

I recently came across a well articulated post about The Hindu at Prasanna Viswanathan's blog Benched @ Banglore. The statement about C Rajamohan couldn't be more right. I think one of the greatest contributions by N.Ram finally would be the to cause the shutting down of The Hindu. Its high brow journalism is sickening to say the least.

In today's Letters to the Editor, there is a letter by N. Damodaran, who has taken pains to read the opinion polls conducted by The Hindu and has come up a with simple statement that catches the very essence of absence of logic that The Hindu so gloatingly "finds" in its opinion polls.

The opinion polls are just Part 1 of the election results. Just wait for the elections to get over. There will be another 'analysis' of the results, how divisive forces have 'twisted' their mandate and the time is short for 'secular' minded parties to get together.

Recently they came up with an editorial about the impending electoral victory of the Left Front in West Bengal. I think the real revolution that is needed is to dislodge this government that has been in West Bengal for 30 years. I am sure every school teacher, governement official is a member of one of the left front parties and it is these people who are going to be poll personnel. Why should the left get irritated when the Election Commission decides a Five phase polling for WB? In fact it is the first time the EC has openly taken a stand to prevent the mal practices that have been part of the WB elections be it local, Assembly and Parliamentary. Maybe it is much worse than what is usually hyped, the Bihar elections.

That is enough left bashing for a post.

Moving Story

2006-03-29T09:50:00.000-05:00

National Public Radio (NPR) has become such an integral part of my life, not a day goes by without me and Amrapali discussing about something that either of us have heard on NPR. Many times I just stay in the parking lot for the story to finish before I can get to home or office.

NPR brings to my attention stories that I would never find anywhere.

Try to listen to this moving story A year to life, a year to die and it is overwhelming to say the least. Grief is something that is very difficult to share. Grief stays forever no matter how old we get or how far away we are from the time of grief.

There is one line in this story that is really very touching

Eleven years and two children later, their life was all she had imagined. But it all changed in that last year. Stewart made this entry in his audio diary in February, 2003, shortly after receiving the diagnosis: "I don't feel any bitterness about why me getting a tumor," he said. "As I've gotten older you know and more people that bad things happen to. Gosh, it can't always be the other guy."

Thank you Rebecca and Stewart.

Andha Kaala Tiffin

2006-03-27T22:40:00.000-05:00

I really love thattai, a savoury that also goes by the name 'Elladai". I in general love all these varieties that my paati used to call 'andha kaala tiffin'. For her 'idli' and 'dosai' didn't belong to that category. The ones that made to that list were among others, 'thavalai' dosai, 'thavalai' adai, 'kaara' adai, sevai. Since I left home for higher studies, i have been yearning for all these 'andha kaala tiffin'.

I am a reasonably good cook and I enjoy cooking, but I never had the motivation to learn it and make them.

When my wife Amrapali went to India last time, she learnt all these from my mother and now she makes all of them much to my delight and I can't have enough of them. In fact she learnt only those items that I like. A typical conversation between her and my mother would go like this.

Amma: Let us learn x today

Amrapali: Does Narasimhan like this?

Amma: Not much

Amrapali: Let us move on to the next one.

After six years in Pune and Kanpur and two more years in Stony Brook, finally I am having my thattais, adais etc..

Bumper Sticker

2006-03-15T22:24:00.000-05:00

Saw a bumper sticker on a car that read

Politicians and Diapers have to be changed regularly for the same reason

Siruvayadhu Sindhanaigal: Childhood Thoughts

2006-02-02T14:08:00.000-05:00

Today I read the story "Muyal" by Badri Seshadri. It is not necessary that stories written in first person are always autobiographical, meaning they are true stories experieced by the author. But somehow, this story seems like an event happened in Badri's life. This story brought back memories of an event that took place in my life, when I was in class 4.

The dog was simply called as "vellai" meaning white. Having a pet dog was out of question in my home, so I had to be content with the fact that I can pet the dogs that grew in other people's home in the neighbourhood. Vellai grew up in the house of "Kayirkaara amma", who lived opposite to our home, separated by the main road on which the No.1 and 2 buses of vellore ply, apart from the moffusil buses. The entire family of kayirkara amma was involved in making ropes using coir. Many times i have been part of the kayir making exercise, by rotating the machine. Slowly I became very close to vellai and so did vellai to me. Then one day suddenly, the town panchayat officials decided to catch the stray dogs. If you had seen them catch dogs you would really feel very bad. I didn't know what to do and I still remember going to one of the person who seemed to be in charge almost in tears to let vellai off. I was very selfish to just ask for pardoning of vellai. Then he said that vellai doesn't have a license and he can't do anything. I asked how am i to get a license for vellai, he said that if I pay him some amount, he can give me the license that he has in his pocket. Kayirakara family wasn't the kind of family that had a pet dog with lots of care for the dog. The dog happened to grow in their home.

I went back to my home and asked amma to give me some money and let vellai get his license. Amma did give the money to me, knowing that I really liked the dog. I ran to that person and got that small tin sheet, with a number written in yellow background. Vellai, obviously not aware of all these things, was just loitering in front of their house inspite of me putting him inside so that he can evade the dog catchers. I tied it on his neck and sort of hid him in the house even though he had the license. He was saved that day, but the other dogs that were caught on that day came in my dreams for some days to come.

The year after, after I came back from a visit to Madras to my Uncle's place, I couldn't see vellai and the face of kayirkara amma was sunken. She told me that vellai was hit by the No. 1 bus that used to ply between Katpadi and Bagayam. All of a sudden a deep sense of sadness hit me. The bus that hit vellai while I was away in chennai was "Sri Krishna Bus Service".

I have had attachments to many other dogs subsequently, but never with the same amount of intensity as was with Vellai.

May be that explains why I cried uncontrollably while watching My Dog Skip.

Vadai and Doughnut

2006-01-06T17:38:00.000-05:00

In today's episode of Engines of our ingenuity Prof. John Lienhard traces the history of Doughnut. While capturing its history, he mentions our Vadai as one of the fore runners of the modern day doughnut. It had never occured to me why there is a hole in the middle of vadai or for that matter in doughnut, but today I got a reasonable answer when he explained the origin of doughnut.

A problem with those otherwise delicious cakes was that their centers were seldom fully cooked. In 1847, Gregory punched out the center of a cake. Now all the dough lay near the cooked surface, and he got a far more uniformly cooked doughnut.
That makes lot of sense. There is also mention of poori in the episode. You can hear it here .

Thevan Kathaigal

2005-12-30T14:38:00.000-05:00

Today I was reminded of the novels by Devan. I have read four of his

1. CID Chandru (part 1 and 2)
2. Kalyani
3. Komathiyin Kathalan
4. Thuppariyum Sambhu

I found a website that has a listing of all major works of 20th Century Tamil Authors and Their Works . Back home in Vellore we have copies of Mister Vedantham, CID Chandru and Komathiyin Kathalan. Next time when I go home I should bring back Mister Vendatham.

Thevan died very young.

I wish somebody could digitize all the literary works in Tamil. May be Badri Seshadri might be able to find somebody.

Sachin Tendulkar's humble admission

2005-12-10T18:13:00.000-05:00

One thing that I have always admired about Sachin Tendulakar, apart from his cricket, his mature handling of his career and stardom. I grew up watching him grow. The first time I heard his name was when he hit a century on his debut in Ranji Trophy. Those were the days I followed, along with my brother, every cricket match irrespective of who played, national or international.

Yesterday after scoring the 35th century, he had this to say

"Heroes will always be heroes. Mr. Gavaskar was my hero, and he will always be my hero. Message to him is thanks for all the support he has given me. He himself has set such a benchmark that only a disciplined lifestyle can help cross it."

Check the article here.

There is an old interview of Rahul Dravid in cricinfo that is moving tribute to Sachin.

There is no stopping you Sachin. Go for 50/50.

Entrance into big city by a boy living in small town

2005-12-02T11:58:00.000-05:00

I grew up in Vellore which is a small town. The only experience of a big city used to happen whenever we visited Madras. I had this habit of checking the milestones along the way and never slept during the entire course of approximately two and half hours of journey. After putting all of us in the bus Appa used to go out to get some fruits and the driver will be making sounds "drrr drrr drrr" with his engine and I remember how restless I used to be for the bus might leave without appa. The very same thing is experienced by my nephew Ajju. The stop along Sunguvarchathiram during these journeys were the only time we ever got drink 'cool drinks' as the regular soft drink was called by us. Amma used to call it crush.

Over the past 25 years I have seen so many things changing on this road between Vellore and Madras. One thing that has not changed, atleast to me, is the sudden entry of the bus/car into the Kathipara junction from the narrow lanes of St. Thomas Mount. In spite of Madras starting before in Porur/Poonthamalee, for me the bigness of the city and its feel always happened when the vehicle entered the Kathipara junction with that famous statue of Nehru (the opening of which was MGR's last public function). With all those huge bill boards it typified the city feel for me. The SPIC building that looked so big when I was a kid, doesn't look that big anymore to me. Then probably it was one of the few tall building in Madras.

Recently when I entered San Francisco from the south side (from San Jose) I was reminded of all these things and the milestones that I used to watch so religiously. I thought I should have a picture of this signboard and hence here it is.

Legally Blonde

2005-11-20T00:26:00.000-05:00

I just watched the movie Legally Blonde starring Reese Whitherspoon. I liked this movie very much inspite of its cliches and some stereo typical portrayals. After all it was a very genuine movie about a genuine character.

Elle is a sorority girl and she remains that way throughout the movie. More importantly she is proud of whatever that she is. It is very subtly brought out in many of the dialogues, like the one she has with Paulette Bonafonté the person who does her nails.

This movie was released long back and never watched it thinking it must be one of those date movies, telling myself that I don't like these kinds of movies. I am glad I finally saw it.

I had similar thoughts about Miss Congeniality until I saw. I like that one too.

Have read about the sequels of both of them being bad. Anyway haven't seen them, until then.

Thaneer Thaneer

2005-10-26T21:56:00.000-04:00

A recent news item in The Hindu reminded me of that great movie Thaneer Thaneer by K. Balachander adapted from the play of the same name by Komal Swaminathan. I was very young at the time the movie was released, but I was also part of the drought and the severe water scarcity TN faced during that time. I remember filling almost all the things that can hold water right down to the tumbler. Little wonder the movie was a big success and went on to win several national and international awards.

KB made some of the amazing movies in Tamil cinema and I have always loved to watch his movies, be it Nizhal Nijamagirathu or even Azhagan. The adaptation of Komal Swaminathan's play was very. I have since read the play. I don't recall the actors who played the various roles, except saritha, who was by default in all KB movies at that time.

25 years hence, the problems have not yet gone away nor there seem to be a will on the part of the government to solve it. If we read the Independence day addresses since 1947 of the Prime Ministers of India, I am sure every time they might have projected the solution to drinking water and power supply to all in 10 years from then. 10 years seem to stagnant and it is always the same.

Ramesh Mahadevan

2005-10-23T11:00:00.000-04:00

This post is about Ramesh Mahadevan. Yes it is the same Ramesh Mahadevan that you are thinking about. I just read for the zillionth time his essay A Grandmother Remebered and cried once again.

I recently spoke to him when he was in Boulder, CO around labor day. I should say it was a very pleasant experience. That is an understatement. I have been in regular touch with him through e-mail and finally had the opportunity to talk to him.

Among his various writings I find this on grandmother to be the best. He is able to connect to his readers so intimately, something that I find in Tilotamma's writings too. Apart from Ramesh the writer, he is an amazing person.

He has promised to visit me the next time he will be here.

Waiting to meet you Ramesh. I can't thank you enough for all the pleasures that you have given me through your writings.

Permission Vs Forgiveness

2005-10-21T22:25:00.000-04:00

Today while hearing All Things Considered on NPR, one person said something which made me to ponder. He said "Forgiveness is easier than getting permission". The news report was about wetlands in New Orleans area. He was referring to a lake in which there are crocodiles and alligators. He said there is a notice that says "Don't feed the crocodiles".

I was wondering why it may be easier to forgive.

Is it that when a permission is being asked, humans feel that they have power and mostly want to deny and when somebody has committed the act and asks to be forgiven, we may be feeling "now that he has already committed it, let me atleast pardon him and take the moral high ground".

I really don't know.

Calibrating Life!

2005-10-18T18:36:00.000-04:00

While driving back home yesterday, I was listening to the story of Chicago White Sox headed to the Base Ball World(?) Series. A fan talked about the time scales of a white sox fan. Since the last time they were in world series was 46 years ago and the last time they won was some 90 years ago, he said that white sox fans talk in terms of generation.

It reminded me of my calibration of money during the graduate school days. I used to calibrate all expenses in terms of number of coffee i can have in school cafeteria. The cost of a 12 Oz coffee was $0.86. Every monday morning I used to go to the library to check the books (the ones that library is planning to sell off) that I can buy. They were really very cheap, typically 50 cents to $2. So I used to 'sacrifice' a few cups of coffee for the books. Over time I bought close to 60 books, all gems.

Shaking Hands with Prof. Noam Chomsky

2005-10-17T17:10:00.000-04:00

After missing his previous talk at Stony Brook, this time I didn't want to miss Prof. Noam Chomsky's talk on campus. It didn't matter that it was in linguistics. He qualified each and every word, lest they are not misunderstood. Whenever a question was asked he answered at length. Earlier I have read his interviews during his visit to India in Frontline (where else) and used to wonder about his long answers to questions. Now I saw it in person.

After the talk, I went to him and thanked for his great and amazing intellectual contribution. I may not agree with him on many things, nonetheless he has been pivotal in my understanding of a issues in a perspective that I would have otherwise not had.

Nobel Week: 3 Down

2005-10-05T15:12:00.000-04:00

Today the Swedish Academy announced the chemistry Nobel Prizes.

Nobel Week: 2 Down

2005-10-04T07:01:00.000-04:00

In 2001, when I was doing Quantum Mechanics course here at Stony Brook we studied about Glauber states, a fundamental contribution by Roy Glauber, that describe the behavior of photons, also popularly known as light. I picked up the original Phys Rev Lett. and the Phys. Rev. paper and went through it to basically understand the implications. I couldn't understand lot of it (still couldn't). Later lots of progress was dependent on this fundamental contribution and finally today Glauber received the fabled early early morning call from Sweden. He has been awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics for the year 2005.

The other half is jointly awarded to John L. Hall & Theodor W. Hänsch for their contribution to precision measurement and a technique called optical-comb frequency.

More about this later when have a few more details of this.

Congratulations.

Nobel Week: 1 Down

2005-10-03T09:06:00.000-04:00

It is that time of the year when the pinnacle of academic achievement (there are differing opinions to this) gets recognised in Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Prizes. Today the Karolinska Institute this morning announced the awarding of the Medicine prize to two Australians. May be this is the first time the prize has been awarded to somebody from Australia.

On a lighter note, it required the sporting aussies to think of a non-stress reason for Ulcer. No wonder. Great job blokes.

The Mahatma's Birthday

2005-10-02T17:14:00.000-04:00

Today, 136 years ago, Mohandas Gandhi was born. My relationship with the Father of Nation has always been emotional. I remember writing in my high school history books near his image v.v.v.v.v.v. good, and of course, v.v.v.v.v.v.bad for Dalhousie and the likes.

Inspite of reading the history of Indian Independence from various sources and perspectives, Gandhiji never ceases to amaze me.

I remember very vividly all of us kids from the nursery school walking in a disciplined manner, atleast 4 kms to go to Lakshmi Theater in Vellore to watch him come alive on silver screen.

Vaazhga nee emman

What is the good word?

2005-09-26T20:52:00.000-04:00

This morning I heard David Bouchier talk about blog, his blog on WSHU Public Radio and how he finds the word blog ugly. He asks whether there is a better word for it? I can't think of any, but I don't even know whether one needs another word.

I remember how different the word Google sounded when I first came to know about it 5 years ago. Now we even have the verb, google. Some day, web historians will answer the question that David Bouchier asked today.

Kannathil Muthamittal

2005-09-25T20:48:00.000-04:00

Hearing this story on NPR reminded me of that poingnant movie by Manirathnam, `Kannathil Muthamittal'. I consider KM one of his best movies along with Anjali and of course Mouna Ragam (thanks Magesh).

Recalling the Leap Into Motherhood

2005-09-16T12:30:00.000-04:00

Just this morning while driving to work heard this poignant story on NPR and it reassured my belief in human hope. It is not just an hyperbolic statement. Many times in our lives we take decisions based on just our beliefs and what we see as 'right' at that moment. Later many years down the line when we look back, we realise how thankful we are to ourselves to have made that decision. It brings big lump in to your throat. It is due to the overwhelming joy.

Nay Sayer

2005-09-15T00:11:00.000-04:00

I have always been a Nay Sayer for most of the things. When I was young, I always used to say "Mudiyathu", " Maataen", all meaning 'NO' whenever I was asked to go on an errand, be it any thing. It was another matter I eventually did do the job, but always had this tendency of saying No. After I got married, a Sher told to me by my wife(not considered a great sher) that she learnt when she was young, seemed to aptly state my tendency and how it must have been for people who had to hear it from me. Here it is:

Nahin nahin mat karo sitamgar
Nahin nahin ka nahin hai mauka

Tere bas is nahin nahin ne
Mujhko chhoda kahin nahin ka

Needless to say, this tendency has reduced considerably.

Snakes of India

2005-09-09T14:09:00.000-04:00

I must have been 6 years old when I first visited the Snake Park in Guindy, Madras. During those days, Park meant only the ones where people can go and relax. Used to wonder what is a Snake Park. I should admit that at the time when I visited the Snake Park, I wasn't much pleased about it. Years later, when I first went to the Aniketh, a canteen in Pune University campus, did i think of snakes in a different perspective. In that canteen, there is a sticker which says "Don't Kill Snakes". I was really taken aback. It is another matter that I never worried about it later.

There is a review of a book on Snakes, Snakes of India: The Field Guide by S. THEODORE BASKARAN in Frontline. I didn't know that it was Whitaker who founded the Snake Park.

First Word

2005-09-05T20:21:00.000-04:00

Finally decided to start a blog on September 5, 2005, celebrated as Teacher's Day in India.