Stop violence!

Disclaimer :
Views expressed here are strictly personal and are only my interpretation of the subject under consideration. I do not intend to hurt anyone’s sentiment in any way. I merely express my views and understandings with regards to the topic.

The newspaper read “Hate campaign claims UP labourer”. Apparently, a group of 4 UP guys was beaten up by 10-12 MH guys and 1 UP guy died in hospital. They claim it to be a result of hate campaign of MNS against the north. There was another piece that caught my eyes, the one about Rahul Raj. It said that 5 bullets had killed him. its iroic that he was from MH and he wanted to kill Raj Thackhrey. Since its birth, I have aways been disgusted about MNS on so many levels. The way they work has been a cause of concern and more importantly, their leader has failed to limit his followers from using violent means to mae their presence felt. Now when i speak of non-violence, I see almost everyone has issues with Gandhi. What they fail to realise is that Gandhi didnt coin the term at all! He was just following the teachings of Hinduism!

I admire Bhagath Singh a lot. Its from him that I have learnt how non-violence is important in any struggle. A youth of 23 who accepted the death sentence and did not behave even a bit violently was a man who ought to be followed. Sure he killed, used fire arms and robbed the british government, yet he protested in a way that was pure and to the point. There was no personal glory expected; only the cause was in front of his eyes. The legendary fast that these revolutionaries undertook to protest against the poor condition of Indian prisoners is not as well publicised as that of Gandhi’s. Never-the-less, its non-violence that has the greatest impact than anything else. Yet, we see people beating up others just because they want them to either speak their language or else leave and never come back! I remember how, in Bangalore, the Kannada campaign had gone. They had painted all the signs and boards, which were ONLY in english, in black. Today, I see Kannada signs everywhere. But, there are also english sgns below them for those who come from outside Karnataka. This is essential because we live in a country called INDIA and not is a country called KARNATAKA.

The biggest concern of MNS is that they wanted to provide jobs to the local people. Thats understandable, but using violence to bulley people out of their state will not help them in the long run. If the same thing starts happening in all states, then the country will no longer have any purpose to exist. We might as well just disintegrate into chunks of lands with different dialects. Of course, these words sound typical and simillar words have been uttered through the past, yet repeating them wont hurt. Moreover, the recent attacks on the railway exam candidates was the worst thing that they could do. Sure they were “protesting” agaiinst the lack of opportunities to the locals. Beating up the people from other states is heinous in all sense. Those who suffer in such madness are the locals itself. In the riots, cars are burnt and PRIVATE property is also destroyed. If they burn cars belonging to MNS people also, then we they will understand. Not all people are rich, some earn, save and buy cars on EMI. If you go and thrash it, what are you actually doing? Sure you wouldnt care when you are on the street with stones in your hand and dung in your head!!

I am not an expert in politics and do not know what someone did or did not do. But, if you are doing this just because they too did the same thing, then you are no different from them. “You cant solve a problem with the same point of view that created it in the first place”, thats what Einstein said. And sure, he can solve problems better than anyone else. Even is its not an engineering problem, the basic rules for problem solving are the same. You need to consider a lot of variables before you try to implement any solution. A system is like a pond, even a small pebble causes ripples in it. You must be very careful as to what effect your solution has on the system as a whole and not just your area. Adding yellow paint to the pond to make a PART of it look yellow is not the best solution. Your actions speak a lot and hence you need to be careful! When you attack people who try to joke also (Jaya Bachchan), you are not taking anything sportively at all! There are many other burning issues at hand that needs attention! The lives that the cause claims may not be important to the MNS, but a life is a life, no matter what!

The Project Report

At last we are all on the 11th cloud. Euphoria! By we I mean me and my team-mates. There is always work that needs to be done at any given time in my life. But, there are these phases where the intensity of work increases. The time dedicated to work increases and the sleeping time practically vanishes. Those are the time set to score the 100s, if you know what I mean

Anyways, the team I am talking about is the one that is working on a project regarding aerial surveillance. Details is not required here. Will update my technical blog with that later when the time is right . But, the time I have spent for research on this has been a personal record! I mean, at one point my net got disconnected and google was not responding and I was thinking, ‘What the hell?! Did I crash the damn thing??!!’ . Ok, thats exaggerating a tiny bit, but still it was essential to reflect the mood!!

Anyways, the main aim of this post was to take you through the exact procedure that we followed while documenting and later parts! Documentation of the project is THE painful job ever. We spent as much time on documenting as much we spent on researching. “we” are a team of 7 members. 6 took part in the research part and the last one is the programmer. Since we did not have to include any software description in the report, he did not have much work as of now. Anyways, 6 people got 6 different jobs. Now you know what that means right? We go nosing into other’s documents and try to correct them, advise that they must actually consider an alternate way while we are struggling with our own part! But that communication helps. It helps us what to put on OUR part of the report and what to expect while the final merger of all the documents. Anyways, the true meaning of global village came out when we started to integrate the different parts of the report. We always would be online and keep sending mails back and fro, feverishly scavenging for errors in the reports and resending the debugged documents. I have at least 50 mails in my inbox that i have received with the subject “project report”.

So, the first thing I learned is the we all need to be in a single place when we edit these documents. Hence, we all met up in Abhiram’s home and worked there. That was a day well spent. We sorted everything out on that day, well, almost everything. But, that was a moment when I finally felt, ‘Yes, this IS going to work. This is going to make a decent report’ nijvaglu maga

Next big thing was yesterday night. Abhi had just come from his trip to Hassan. He came online at night around 10.30 I think. Before this, I and Vikas had went through the document and corrected as many errors as possible. When Abhi started again, I was astonished at how many things we had missed out. So began the painful journey of debugging again. When the entire 16 pages were over, it was 1:30 am and I was totally saturated. I asked him to mail me any more changes that had to be made and I hit the sack. But he and Madhusudan (Our programmer) started the process again and in the first page itself, Madhusudan’s name had been misspelled! There was a mail that had six more corrections in my mail bax when I woke up today! So, never think its over. Its just begun!

Gadhadar had done a good job with his report. There were not many errors in his work. Of course i didnt expect to find any in his report anyways . Finally we put up a cost table in the report after our principal asked us to do it. Then, as we were getting those documents printed, Abhi had the tables edited to set the alignment of table. Phew. Finally, it was over. The countless hours of editing, re-editing, adding, cutting, copying, changing font size, choosing correct font, setting up tables, caclulating costs! Sigh! It was over at last.

That was one face of it. The other part is the appoval part. You see, this is one more “pain in the ass” work actually. It started from friday. We had to get the Principal’s signature on the proforma. Basically,he had to approve it by signing on the form. So, we took the form directly to his office. To, our luck, he was walking out of his office. So, we raced behind him and I asked started telling him about the project as we were walking. I know, not a good thing! But we were a bit desperate as time was running out. He asked us to come on tuesday when he would be free. Now, I had been frequenting his office to get permission for other activities. So, I was a bit frustrated when he called ased us to come later. So, today was the big day. I went early to college and there I met my junior or the IEEE poster boy, Bharath. . We put up some poster for the next up coming IEEE event in our college. After that we went to take the print outs of the project report. We were in front of Principal’s office at 11:30. Then we waited there for an hour then we were told that we had to first get a letter from HOD. Then we ran to our HOD, after writing the 3rd letter, HOD signed it after suggesting some changes. Then we ran back to Principal’s office and waited till 1:30. But the admin block was closed for lunch. So, we had to wait till 2:30 to get the principal’s seal. Finally we got it signed. But, when principal said that he would consider funding our project, it made our day!

So, heres the procedure!

• First, edit your report and print it out
• Get your project report endorsed by your guide with signature and seal
• Go to your HOD and get a permission letter with signature and seal
• Then go with all these things and a copy of the same to Principals office
• Explain your purpose, give him the copy and get the originals signed

And that the correct prodcedure and thats how the administration works.

The mystrerious luck

“Luck is when opportunity knocks and you answer”

Often I keep saying I had no luck and hence this happened or this didnt happen. What is luck actually? Chance? fortune? fate? Everything around me, I try to see it in a logical way. I have this craze to find meaning in everything which, sometimes, has been calamitous. Yet, I like it that way. Makes me feel secure in some way and does not allow some kind of pandemonium to take over my mind. I have never really given this “luck” a thought. Lets consider that in this post and let me tell you what I see in it.

Always in life I have heard wonderful words of wisdom…

“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Diligence is the mother of good luck” – Benjamin Franklin

I am sure you might have heard many more. Or else just google it! Point is, these are very influential people talking here. Thomas Jefferson was US president and Franklin is a world renowned scientist who first tried to explain the phenomenon of electricity. Both of these were on the committee that drafted “Declaration of Independence” for USA. So, we are looking at world leaders here. They have, not to mention, extra-ordinary mindset that were very disciplined and organized. My point is, they are more ready to accept defeat and move on than an average man for they are leaders to millions.

Moving on, let me consider the quote I started with. Luck and opportunity are two very different things. You must be very clear of them. Like, if there is job opening, its an opportunity that knocks on everyone’s door. You applying for it, preparing, performing well determines your chances to get that particular job. Many who dont get that job say that they were just ot lucky enough! Yet, you may still have a doubt there. Was I not competent enough for the job? Hmph. Lets consider the odds here, like everyone you too apply with your resume and certificates. Prepare well and give a test. So, now is there anything called as luck in a test? simple answer would be NO! Let us have a more closer look into it again.

What would a test consist of? Usually a multiple choice question set right? You see it now? Probability dictates that if you mark all the a’s of everyquestion, you get 25% marks without even knowing the subject. So, if you do not know the answer to a question, you can just blindly mark an option and you have 25% chance for it to be right!! Here is the best part, even though everyone guesses, not everyone gets it right!   So, what is luck then? But then, Franklin would say, why rely on probability? You make sure you know EVERYTHING before you go to that test. But frankly speaking, thats impossible and many of my engineering buddies would agree to it too. So, the “impervious” test has a huge gateway!

Next lets consider a Group Discussion. Now at least we have our abilities to blame if we did not make through right? Or is it? You may notice that a group may be chosen at random. So, you may infact end up in a group with very good speakers and get slaughtered under their verbose arguments that essentially does not contain any point!! Or, you may end up in a group in which you get to make a point and hence get qualified! 

What about interview then? Oh come on! This HAS to be cleared only by our hard work and preparations! Funny as it may seem, by the time you reach that guy sitting behind the table, they may not require you at all! What are the odds for that? Your name being the LAST in the list. Do you have any control over it? I believe its absolutey none! So, what was your shortcoming? Did you not prepare well for the test? Were you not knowledgable? Did you not OPEN the door? I will tell you whats the ideal answer! You did not perform the miracle! You were not the shining star, you were one among the group and they randomly picked a few guys. So, in the end, were those guys JUST lucky? I say no. They had done everything that needed to be done, they had put in their efforts yet, there must be certian amount of luck involved right? Ruling it outright is not an option.

So, what is luck then? Its something that decides how your work gets paid. So, am I justified when I blame my luck? Yes! Even Harvey Dent’s (Dark Knight) coin would finally agree with me! What say?

Yarige beku ee loka

Disclaimer : This post is in NO way connected to any of my previous posts in this blog. Any connections otherwise made are purely imagiary and totally illogical!

Lyrics of Yarige beku ee loka from Sipayi

Yarige be ee loka
Yarige be ee loka
Mosakke kai mugibeka
Chinteyu iddaru nagabeka
Preetuye hodaru irabekaa

Yarige be ee loka
Yarige be ee loka
Mosakke kai mugibeka
Chinteyu iddaru nagabeka
Preetuye hodaru irabekaa

Yarige be ee loka
Yarige be ee loka

Makkalke joojalli iduvaga
nodikondu irabekaa
Yudhavanu gelloke ballavanu
Kai katti koorabekaa
Nariye kanchana Kauravara mojige
Dharmave lanchana Pandavara joojige

Yarige be ee loka
Yarige be ee loka
Mosakke kai mugibeka
Chinteyu iddaru nagabeka
Preetuye hodaru irabekaa

Yarige be ee loka
Yarige be ee loka

Narigalu nyayana heluvaga
Kivi kottu kelabekaa
Mosaleyu kanneru iduvaga
Koodikondu alabekaa
Padedanu ee dina manisina nayakaa
Bittare yellaraa seenuva sainikaa

Yarige be ee loka
Yarige be ee loka
Mosakke kai mugibeka
Chinteyu iddaru nagabeka
Preetuye hodaru irabekaa

Yarige be ee loka
Yarige be ee loka

Lyrics : Hamsalekha

Singer : Dr.K.J Yesudas

Movie : Sipayi (Kannada)

This is one of my all time favourites. Was just listening to it, so thoguht I would share it. Again, this is a kannada song, a bit old

who am I

This post is a result of this post and a conversation I had the next day with my aunt and cousins. If you have time, read that post and my reply to it. This is also connected to my previous post. Now, lets go through the events of that day. Me and my friend went to meet our principal after our classes. We wanted to screen a documentary in our college and we needed his permission. We returned unsuccessful as expected!! Then I went and met other friends who were getting ready to organize our annual departmental fest. Again, we needed the head’s permission for it. So, I suggested them to take a faculty along with their proposal. So, they decided to talk to a few lecturers and again, as expected, did not succeed in their efforts. So, finally we went to our HOD who, as expected, was convinced and agreed to accompany us. Then it was a procession of 20 people led by our HOD, from our department to Principals office. We then waited for our turn and only HOD went inside. She was inside for about 10 minutes and when she came out, I knew what her answer would be. yet again, the proposal had been declined, oh! yes as expected. This is my college life. Sooo….. PREDICTABLE!!!!!!

Anyways, we then started chatting in the parking lot, deciding on our next big quest, the class trip to Kerala! Oh come on! You didnt think that we, the EC guys, would give up on hope so soon! We get an output, no matter if its just random noise, we not only get it, we get it approved by our incharge as the correct output!!

Then, I and my other friend BM had to drop our GATE applications in IISc. So, we said bye and took off from there. Then it was straight to IISc, but alas! we reached there at lunch time. Never-the-less, we thought of exploring their food facilities and visited their nearby canteen. We had a sandwich and a bun-omelet each. Then returned to the “GATE office” and dropped our application and then he went to his home, and I went to my aunt’s place which was very nearby. So, finally after all the wandering, we come to the main part. After they had finished their lunch and other work, my aunt and cousins and me sat together in the living room. The conversation began with the sms jokes in the newspaper(the little column that comes these days). Then my aunt went on to another curious article that showed a man who could hold a live electric wire and yet not get affect by its power. Then she turned to me and asked… well, let me put it out as a conversation

‘What to say about these things? I know its possible, but how do you explain it?’

mind you, this happens in Kannada and i am just translating. My aunt is very philosophical and intelligent and questions before accepting anything and being a Arts major, she argues awesomely!

‘Yes, its just that there will be resistance in his skin that is more than others’, I said distractedly

‘More? You mean there is some in us too?’ she pressed on

‘Yes, thats why you wont get the shock when you hold a battery between your fingers’ I said, smiling

‘Hmm. But how can he only have more resistance?’

‘Well, maybe his skin is drier than ours without any of the oils and moisture content’ I said. Thats the best I could come up with. Then again, there may be many other physiological reasons behind that!

‘Hmm… maybe. But what do you say about this person near Shimoga?(A city in Karnataka that happens to be very close to her birth place) Stones fall out of her eyes daily. She sits with he head like this (And she tilted her head sideways and bent a bit down) and the stones falls out of her eyes. Daily!”

‘I have no idea how that could happen!’ I said showing no interest in it what so ever

‘She also says that it hurts when the stone comes out and it does everyday!’ she said. ‘Also, there is this women in a village in Andhra who looks like a rag picker and lives on the street. She has no home, no bed, nothing. But she is known to have precognitive powers. People visit her with their problems and she has her own strange way to solve it. When ever people go to visit her, they just sit there, they dont approach her. She will only call them. Her appraoch is arrogant though; she say “Oye! you! come here” and when the person comes, she hands them a pot and tells “Go and fetch some water”. When they do that, she pours that water for them to drink. Then without them telling her anything, she predicts what they are here for and gives them relevant answers

‘Like this once, two brothers who were fighting over a property for many years in the court, they came to her. After the water was brought, she addressed one of the brother who had carried the pot. “You! You will win the case. Now go home!” Thats all! They went back and the brother won the case. He was so happy that he came back to thank this women. But when he did say thanks, she said “What thanks? Go home!! You will be dead in a few days!” And he indeed died a few days later’ she finished. ‘Even the politicians go to her these days!’ she added

‘Well, everyone goes to the oracle these days’ I chuckled. Unabased, she continued

‘No no, there is one more near Chikbalapura. He is a barber by profession, but only on few days he enters the temple and the gets the ability to foresee everything. Two people had been to meet him from Bangalore. When they arrived there, they were surprised to know that they were being expected. Apparantly, the seer had told the others that, “two people would come from Banglore, lead them straight to me. Prepare some snacks as they will be tired due to travelling”. And of course, he already knew what they were here for and they got their probelm solved. While they were returing, he warned them about a snake that would cross their path at a particular point, and indeed the snake was there to greet them!’ she said satisfyingly as she had finally seen that I was interested in this conversation.

As a rule, i go by scientific explanation and my aunt too tries to see it that way, yet she is a believer and hence doesnt try too hard to find explanation to all these “anomalies” if you like. She also talking about a ring encrusted with precious stones that had a scratch on it. Hence, it brought about eradication of wealth and happiness where ever it went. Finally it was rested in a Temple near Mysore. She recollected a lot of stories that day. So, when I got back home, I had a lot to think about. Again, this is connected to my previous post if you had read about how humans are robots. You see, these things, or powers are just a variations in hardware or software of the humans and nothing else. What if science doesnt have an explanation yet. It will have someting later! So, what I want to say is that, Clairvoyance maynot be supernatural in every sence. Maybe, its possible to develop it. And indeed, many parapsychologists have suggested the same. The yogis and sadhus of ancient India were known to predict the future. And it is possible to develop you ESP(Extra Sensory Perception) by the means of Yoga and meditation. There by, being able to predict the future or atleast the near future. Having effects like ‘Deja Vu’ that are voluntary.

More over, if you know about the Chinese Martial Art, Kung Fu, you may have seen the spectacular performances they give. Break a pile of bricks, take a blow from a steel rod on their head or stomach and instead of their skull getting shattered, the steel rod gets broken! A discovery video featured this art and they showed how these masters concentrated their energies to those body parts that were about to be get hit, thus reinforcing them with trememdous resistance. The thermal imaging showed the concentration of power in those specific areas as well. Now, the man with ability to with stant electric shock may also have been, subconsciously, using the same technique!

There are a lot of things that we need to consider supernatural. The people who can create paintings that can amaze the whole world. People who can compose music that will impress millions, people who can use the language such a way that it would leave people sepll bound. There are supernaturals everywhere around the world be it administration, academics, half the scientists, entertainment, sports, arts, cooking, etc. Point is, its not exactly supernatural. They have this “add-on” that will allow them to use one of the brain’s many amazing capabilities. But, not everyone comes with these add-ons. These add-ons may be a software add-on or some modification in the hardware. So, this would make normal people like me and some of you being termed ‘natural’, others as ’supernatural’. Even in the differently abled, there are these distinctions!

Yet another way to look at this is the “bad guy’s” way. The people with these abilities are the normal people. Those with superior genes. And the rest of us are just manufacturing defects!

But, we can also say that we are the normal people and these supernatural people are the new, improved genetic vaiants. They will keep us from becoming extinct. Ironically, I care more about humans becoming extinct as a species and not about the present situation!!! Even though both seems equally pointless! Yet another irony

In the end, whether I am natural, supernatural, better mutation or anything else. What does it matter to ME? Depressingly nothing!!

*Shakes his head*

Theory of life

Life is strange thing. Sometimes it is totally rocking and yet sometimes its somber and seems pointless. I think its more to do with our ability to cope with the pressure or what I call one’s threshold level..

Everyday I try to understand the meaning of all that is around me. Its peculiar that when a human is placed in a new environment, he asks the most questions than any other animal. And ofcourse, the biggest question obviously is the purpose of everything he does. We have been taught since our childhood how we must work for a cause, a purpose. Everything must have a purpose; but what is the purpose of everything? These are not just some vagrant thoughts that pop up in my mind when I am in gloomy mood. Even at the best times I wonder why I am doing this!!! The more I wonder, or rather, deeper I dig into this thought process, the more bizzare are my answers to these questions. For example, I was thinking how humans are created and the process called life and death, this is my premise

Matter and energy are convertible as proved by Einstein. So, whenever a human is born, certain amount of energy is converted into matter. This is supported by the fact that the zygote formed is due to energy(from food) converted into matter(cells). These cells consume more energy and grow into a full sized baby that is born. Then the baby consumes more food and grows into an adult. The human body is like a hardware with a controller in the brain. It is programmed with the most sophisticated AI algorithm and left to lead a life experiencing all sort of emotions and using various sensory organs in the process. Finally when the hardware gets rusty and data starts to become corrupt in the controller, the life ends and the plug is pulled. The body decomposes and converts to energy and if burnt, releases energy in to the atmosphere. So, Just like robots, the life of humans is pointless??

Yaa, some nutty hypothesis!! Anyways, in a way, the answer to that above question is yes. There really seems NO point in human life. Even though one might argue that we really dont have enough data on our hands to come to that conclusion, I would still say that it IS indeed pointless. Of all the various “purpose of life” theories I have heard, the one I would like to share is this. God(or the creator) has left us here to test us and our actions so that we will be sent to heaven or hell. Now, if we accept that theory that this is a test field, what exactly do we do in heaven? The same theory says that we unite with the supreme power. Meaning, our souls will unite or become a part of the supreme power. Hmm, not bad. But, in my theory of robotic beings, isnt the end simillar to what is said in this theory? When you die, you will join the universe(your matter is converted to energy and it joins the universe). Afterall, thats the ultimate energy right?

So, my theory is as good as any and also logical. But it does hit the same road block as the ohers. What or who created the ultimate energy or god? I mean it is where everything falls apart, every theory fails. The point of singularity. So many minds try to work out this puzzle every second all over the world. But the answer is yet to come!!!

Of all why this post?

That is one more question without an answer

Dr. Kalam’s speech

Why cant all leaders be lie him??

The more you listen to him, the more you realise about your own potential!

True leader in all sense