Europe of Asia

India, the Europe of Asia.

Europe is a mixture of different countries, each with its own different culture, language and history. The Great Roman Empire was the last big unified state dominating all over Europe. But since then, all of the states are divided into nations, each fighting over trivial
matters, which led to the great two wars. So we have nations ranging from Spain, France, Belgium all the way to Russia.

Now, compare Europe with India. We had a very similar type of system, with hundreds of princely states all bickering over with petty wars. Every once in a while, a central authority used to get created, like the Gupta's or the Mauyran's, but never dominating over the whole country. Then there were the Moguls and finally the British. Perhaps, the British were the only ones who had some sort of control over entire old India ranging from Pakistan to Burma.

We still have states divided on basis of languages. Each state is like a nation within itself. It is amazing how we all get together. Of course, regionalism still exists. But imagine the scenario after independence if each of the state was declared a different country. So, Maharashtra, AP, TN, Kerala and all different countries. With no central authority whatsoever, chaos would have
reigned. Here, we must recognize the efforts of the great Sardar Vallabhai Patel who effectively tackled many outstanding issues and merged all the states into one big undivided India.

Democracy has survived for more than 50 years and perhaps no other system will unite such diverse people under a single country.

Perhaps after another century, India will gelled into one big homogeneous mass. The process has already started... The challenge is to gel into the nation while still preserving our individual cultural identities.

Fermi Mathematics

This is a really intersting branch of Mathematics.

Fermi Enrico was a great physicist. He won the Nobel prize for physics in 1938. He directed the first controlled chain nuclear reaction in US.

He liked to solve problems which apparently didn't have enough given information. Problems like : "How many strands of hair are there on the head"
He of course solved such problems related to physics.
He estimated the strength of an atomic bomb tested by dropping few pieces of paper on the ground and observing how much distance they travelled!!
See http://www2.vo.lu/homepages/geko/atom/report.htm


The trick is to estimate the unknowns and to make calculated guesses. I you over estimate in one calculation, you will make it up by underestimating some other value, provided of course that you have a large number of estimations to make.

Here is a good link for more resources:
http://www.int287.k12.mn.us/gifted/fermitips.html

We should have Fermi maths in engineering. It would help us at making better estimates than becoming Formuholics.

Please Do Not Touc Sham's Pet Appu

Before you say wtf, this is a crappy line from my Computer Networks Text book.

Why can't Indian professors write good books. Most of the so called textbooks are total crap. And they cost no less than the reference books. There are hundreds of errors. I have lost count of the typos and technical errors abound.

But even what is more pathetic about these books is that they take no pain whatsoever in imparting any knowledge of any kind. These books are meant to read, fit into memory and then reproduced in exams.

Fortunately Pune University doesn't has some standards set. From what I have observed, paper setters are really good professors, at least most of the time. They ask questions which really test the basics. When they ask specific things, which are not in the so called "textbooks" people cry foul saying its out of syllabus and what not.

On the other hand we have It's, where a professor once put a ongoing research problem into a paper. When the students later went and complained to him, he just said, "Oh I knew that. Since there are very bright fellows here, I thought someone would probably solve it"

We also have sometimes manic professors, who just seem to like to set a very difficult paper, just for the fun of it. Personally I doubt if they really know anything. They just pick up the odd nuances from these "textbooks" and put it in the paper. Which are also most of the times really wrong.

We have also the Jigar's, which is a solved question paper set, even worse than the text books. If the authors don't know the run-of-the-mill answer, they just say the question is out of syllabus or else "The author couldn't find the solution to this problem" or words to that effect. Pathetic.

Sadly, most of us use the textbooks and Jigar. Although I have given up Jigar, I do still refer to textbooks for some of the subjects.

From 2005, foreign universities will be allowed to setup colleges in India. I do hope that they do and force other people to raise the standards.

P.S. The topic is a mnemonic given to remeber the OSI layers. Physical, Data Link, Network, etc.

I am going to be an Engineer...

I am depressed. Deeply distressed.Totally helpless.

The more I study, I get a feeling that less I know. A distinct feeling goes through my heart that in my two years of engineering, I have learned absolutely nothing. I cannot apply the mathematics that I have learned. Physics, the mother of all sciences, seems like a distant bad dream. Integration and differentiation are alien to me. Electronics transistors, capacitors I know nothing. Although I must have studied them in 11th, 12th, FE and SE.

What am I turning into? Just learn everything for six months and then start afresh every six months? Give exams which check your memory and presentation skills?

Mathematics was my favorite subject. I used to love doing arithmetic. Enter 11th and 12th. All you had to do was to learn formulae and solve as many examples as possible on those. Learn 50 differentiation formulae, solve 1000 problems on those, few of them will come in exam and get marks. No practical problems were solved. Ditto for physics.

Engineering further aggravated this. M1, M2 and M3 we had to do the same thing, just mug up formulae and get marks.

The nightmare has come true. I know absolutely nothing of Fourier transforms. Sure, if I looked into a book I can remember back the formulae, even solve examples that are given in the book. But can I apply them? How the hell are things done in Video Encoding, JPEG encoding? What does "actually" happen?

We are all become Formuloholics. Know a formula, apply the formula, substitute values, take out the calculator and calculate the answer to the last decimal point.
Practically most of times we want to know just the estimates. A branch of mathematics called as Fermi Mathematics just deals with this. Problems like "How many strands of hair are there on the head."

Today, I make a resolve. And I do this in writing. I am not going to be an "dumb engineer" anymore. I don't want to face it again. It is time to wake up and take things in one's hand. Stop blaming anyone. Don't even think of blaming the education system or the syllabus. These are just excuses.

The foundation has grown rickety. Time to fix it now. Back to the basics. Bake to square one and build back things step by step. There is no other alternative.

So, the Duke kicks of the "Back to the Basics" campaign.

Sweat

I am generally a lazy person. Programmers are supposed to be lazy, and apparently hackers are the laziest of the lot.

But once in a while I get a real urge to do some exercise and stuff,
and hence I decided to take up running as a way to exercise.

So, everyday I got to sweat out in the evening and believe me, its an
exhilarating exercise. You hear the heart racing thud thud and as you
pick up pace, you are gasping for air. Crazy thoughts flash through the
mind... Why am I doing this? Thats it, I can't move a step further,
Come'on keep going, only a few more steps...
Thoughts flash back, ranging from stupid ideas, something someone said
long ago.

Sweat runs through the forehead, through your hair and wets the
T-shirt. The coolness when you stop. The body relaxing, your heart
slowly coming back to normal. The cool breeze as you ride back home
lightly lifting the body to an peaceful state.

The bed looks softer than before, the hot tea is amrut, the shower
massaging body like an expert masseur. Peace. Heaven.

Falling in Love... literarily

I have fallen in love with you. You come with me where ever I go. You sleep beside me every day. I think of you day and night. Your crisp language has capturered my imagination beyond understanding. Your laughter, sadness, joy, sorrow, humour touch me deep inside. I feel as if I have become a part of you.

Before you entered my life, I had a fling with many. I couldn't understand their ways at all. The more I went out with them, the more I got confused. My life was full of darkness and confusion. You came, and my understanding became crystal clear. My senses regained, blood fills through my heart and mind as I spend more and more time with you.

You have been my best friend and much more. Your unconditional love has besieged me. I could ask for no more, I hope we stay together till death unto us apart...

Linux

Its been a month and half since I have completely switched over to Linux.

It all started when I installed Fedora Core 2. There is bug in FC2 which destroys the Windows boot loader. The timing of this was critical, our submissions were going on and we had to show our project. And most of the project development was done at my computer, so everything was set up.
I tried to re-install, but to no avail. I couldn't even boot into old Windows 98.

We managed somehow in the end, not without some headache. Since then I installed Mandrake 10, and did not look back since then. I can do all my activities, connect to Internet, chat, IM, e-mail, write Cd's, use usb drives. Play MP3's, watch VCD's and all. And, the system has not crashed even once, no questions about worms or viruses. Plus, it has detected my HT processor and boots into the 2.6.7 smp kernel. Cool.

I didn't realize how much I had got used to Mandrake until I sat on a Windows desktop a few days back, and it felt really strange clicking the start button. And I really missed the terminal.

With Mandrake, now I can say with confidence that not a single pirated program runs on my system. How many of you can say that?

The art of Kissing

Love

What does "love" mean to you?

The first thing that comes to my mind is "passion". And why not?

But then on contemplation, love is something much more than passion. It can manifest itself in many ways... You love your parents, your brothers, sisters and your family and yes your friends too. At a higher level, you love your country and (increasing) humanity in general(global citizens).

Kissing is considered an very intimate in India. You can't just kiss a friend for being happy, and no, you cannot kiss in public. Even if both of you are married. And how many of you last kissed your mother or father?

Calcutta(now Kolkota) is a strange city. I have never visited the city, and whatever that I have heard about it, the pollution, the traffic, the people, all created a very ugly picture of the city.
But it also surprises me that many movements and bright people come from the same city. I remembered a newflash few years ago, and google came to my rescue.

Apparently the Bengali's held a kiss and hug protest in the city, with over 100 people coming together and kissing in front of the mayor's office, under the organization of Lover's Organization of Voluntary Exhibition; aptly acronym-ed LOVE.

You can visit their website : http://www.loversrupak.com/
and the news item here : http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/03/06/india.love/

I think a kiss club would be famous, if someone started one.......

Why Sales tax?

Why do we need sales taxes?

The Middle East countries have almost no taxation. Was watching the BBC Middle East Business report. btw, I love BBC, its programs are fantastic, although their favourite news item is "Middle East peace/war" which gets repeatative and boring. Also, cool music.

Anyways, getting back to the topic, the Middle east countries don't have income tax, sales tax, octroi et al and some even don't have corporate tax. No wonder things from Dubai are cheap. The government sells all the oil and gets the money.

And here we are. Poor fellow has to work damn hard to earn salary, which after paying income tax, decides to buy a car. Don't forget the sales tax + road tax. Oh yeah, also petrol comes with sales tax from the state government, octroi from the city council, and other taxes ranging from education cess to Kargil fund. Don't forget property tax, water tax and a host of taxes(you would know if you have ever gone to pay the tax)

And all this money is used to do what? Our roads remain poor. I still get water every alternate day. The education system remains rotten.

And why sales tax? If a make a sale to a customer, damn it, why should I pa to the government? What has the government done to help me in making my sale?