Interchanged pronunciations...

It is definitely one thing to pronounce a word wrongly, and it is completely another thing to interchange the pronunciations of different words altogether! Let me elaborate on my musing a bit..

Usually, when someone mis-pronounces a word, its possibly coz he/she doesnt have the hang of pronouncing a particular syllable. So, the sound changes and you hear something different from the word's intended pronunciation. Well, understandable that pronouncing non-native languages correctly is difficult for anyone. Very well understandable. However, can any one explain the need to interchange the pronunciation of words?!! You need example of what I am referring to?

Well, wat about "test" becoming "t-a-s-t-e" and "taste" becoming "t-e-s-t"? And likewise for "west" and "waste". Wat about "let" and "late" or "met" and "mate". What is exactly the problem here? Its definitely not that they cant pronounce correctly. So then, what is it? Why do they mix it up, that too always, consistently! There is a simple rule here, really. I mean, agreed that English is a very tricky language (and thats still an understatement) but still, these words seem to follow a very simple rule, if I may :- "e" has a smaller pull than "ate"

Well, now it has come to such a pass that not only do they inter-mix pronunciations, they also use the other (wrong) word in their writing.. Sigh..

Nagumomu ganaleni

Heard someone play this on the flute in campus! Wow, it sounded divine. Unfortunately, it was some school function and I wasnt invited to listen :-(

Astronauts successful in making equipment that converts urine to water

Check this!

How to handle criticism?

What is the difference between constructive and destructive criticism? If the critic is being point-blank rude, would that be refered to as destructive criticism? And still if you choose to learn something good from that criticism, would that "destructive criticism" then become constructive?

I receive very less constructive criticism, I feel. So whenever I do receive it, I feel grateful to the person who took the efforts to show me the errors of my ways. Obviously, one would always appreciate a calm discussion over a complete show-down. However, often times I find that other's observations about me are not really true. So when they are actually criticising me for something, I realize that its not even true in the first place. it only seems to be true, but not actually so. Now, how do I fix something that is not even there..?

So I guess the problem is that what is true is not getting reflected correctly. The image that is being built up is quite different from what is actually true. How does one get out of such a mess?

The most precious gifts do not come wrapped in bright packages.. They are the people who enrich our lives..

Disclaimer: This post is written in a last ditched attempt to save my sanity. I am not usually so cynical.

This last week has been an absolute struggle. I have flapped my hands and feet in every possible way and yet got no results worth discussing. People say, dont re-invent the wheel, dont re-invent the wheel. Fine, I will not re-invent it. But if no one is willing to lend me a wheel, how can I build anything that needs a wheel? I have to invent my own wheel.

Forget about putting in the work to invent the wheel, people will deny you even the information regarding how to go about making a wheel, let alone lend you their own wheel. When asked for help, I usually help with open arms and I sincerely expect nothing great in return except maybe some timely help, some time in future. But often times, I am disappointed.

Maybe its not that they are not trying to help, but that they dont care enough to think enough and try to chalk out some way in which the other person would get something out of the effort.

I know, I know, none of us are here for charity. I dont wish to get all philosophical and say that helping out one another is something that we ought to do. Peace.

दीपावलीच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छा !!!

Wet diapers bring solace?!! Check this.

When you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up.
- Randy Pausch

Check this for more.

Kabhi khud pe, kabhi haalaat pe rona aaya

-Mohd. Rafi, Hum Dono

Wow, Rafi is magnificent, the voice so perfectly placed and so delicately.. Ofcourse I know thats the understatement of the millenium but I had to get it off my chest. Seems like he is walking on a thin line but with so much perfection! Not one toe out of line!

I really really listened to this song, only recently. Ofcourse I have heard it many times before, without realizing its poignance.

Kabhi khud pe, kabhi haalaat pe rona aaya
Baat nikli toh har ek baat pe rona aaya..

The song begins with personal sadness.. I havent seen the movie, so dont know the exact situation in which this song is placed therein. The following lines seem to say that its about lost love..

Hum toh samjhe the ki hum bhool gaye hain unko
Kya hua aaj, ye kis baat pe rona aaya

So thats still personal sorrow, love tragedy, personal sadness.. But then the following lines come at the end of the song..

Kaun rota hai kisi aur ki khatir ae dost
Sab ko apni hi kisi baat pe rona aaya
Kabhi khud pe, kabhi haalaat pe rona aaya..

Seems like a comment on the selfishness of the griever himself... that the griever always grieves only for himself, else he would never have grieved in the first place. The griever becomes a griever only if he shares the sorrow and by sharing that sorrow, he ends up grieving only for his own sorrow. So by definition, the griever is selfish :-|

Dont know if the meaning that I have deduced is the meaning that the lyricist intended, but an interesting thought anyway. So penned it down here.

हसलो म्हणजे फ़क्त स्वतःच्या फ़जितीवर
निर्लज्यागत दिधली होती स्वतःच टाळी!
हसलो कारण शक्यच नव्हते दुसरे काही!
डोळ्यामधे पाणी नव्हते ऐसे नाही!

-Sandeep Khare

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

Tunnel of knowledge huddled in darkness

Plunging headlong into the darkness,
seeking the bright light at the end
The tunnel holds a promise
of mystery, of surprises to fend

The promise of reward is tempting
but will it ever materialize
The journey seems unending
but would my efforts suffice

How I wish life were an open book
That I could read the last pages first
But before my naivety does me spook
I restrain my inquisitive burst

I promise myself that no matter what
I will not give up to the last
That which I aim to achieve, and that which I aim to be
It will come slow and tedious, not easy and fast

Hold on there, hang in there
I try to teach myself
You can do it, you are almost there
I keep telling myself

God Bless.

मत्लबी ये दुनिया, मतलबी दुनियावालों से
कशमकश में जून्झ रहे, दिल मतवालों के।

CSE girls fall just short of gold in PG sports chess :-|

Talk of being stubborn!

Taureans are berated many times for being stubborn. The staunch supporters of this zodiac sign say that taureans are not stubborn, merely cautious and well-planned. However, the opposition says that stones will melt before a taurean lets go of his stubbornness.

For years, I believed that taureans may well be stubborn, and yet I felt that there was something amiss in the way people viewed stubbornness. The word "stubborn" seems to have a negative connotation; the very word conjures up the image of a person unwilling to abide by someone else's wishes.

This seemed like the anti-thesis of many taureans that I personally know. So then, what was the mystery here? Since I didnt have an explanation, I was uncomfortable with the subject really. I just implied "stubborn" to mean - determined and decisive. And that was it. But it used to rankle once in a while.

In the past week, however, I had the chance of discussing certain issues with a few people who seemed to be decidedly rigid. Now this is not stubbornness. This seemed just like plain rigidity. They didnt want change. No willingness to change, rather. The realization just hit me that this was my answer! Its believed widely that stubbornness is the same as rigidity, and thats where it derives its negative connotation. However, from what I have read they are really not the same.

For the most part of my life, I have always had the good fortune of having come across very accommodative, flexible people and so this concept seemed to have eluded me for so long. But now that I know, it almost seems like a discovery to me! And a huge relief, if I may say so myself! :-D

Wow, its been a long time since I came here last. Didnt feel the time fly!

I seem to be getting a hold of enacting my multiple roles here. As long as everything is running along, its fine. But I am sure, the volcano is bubbling up for an eruption soon. Saddle up!

Need to get up and go on the R&D! Soon!

Vista IExplorer has a strange problem; it doesnt accept "exception" entries separated by ; (as it claims) in LAN settings and instead, chooses to forget all other LAN settings also that have been made alongside. Resulting in NO access to intranet sites.

Workaround: Google and download Mozilla Firefox. In any case, I love the tabbed browsing feature of firefox!

PS: Laptop arrived on 2nd August 2008

♫ If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.
~\cite{Rabindranath Tagore}

A pizza lunch treat/meeting to invite the new CSE sysads of the year 2008-09...

Finally, we graduate from being MTech1 to MTech2.. reflected in IITB mailing lists! :-D

A new day has come! The semester is right around the corner.. er.. I mean this wednesday..
All TAs are done with their first stage presentations today.. congratulations!

New batch registers at IITB

The whole of India once again has representation at IITB, the new M. Tech CSE batch has it all!

Corny but nice

http://www.thedontquitpoem.com/

Probabilities and possibilites

Couple of days back, we had a super time discussing the Monty Hall problem. This problem is born from the yesteryear game show "Lets make a deal". You can even play a simulation of this game here.

This is a game of probabilities, a possibility with a higher probability is the one that is expected to happen, and assumed to happen. We are taught that the higher probable thing will happen in all likelihood, but the lower probable thing is also a possibility that can occur.

Now if the low probability occurrence is the one we desire, then we tend to hope against hope that somehow it would happen. My relationship with "hope" is intriguing. Even if I know that the probability of an event is 0.01, I will still keep hoping for it till its last deadline, till it finally becomes clear that there is nothing remaining. Each time I realize that this is my bane, and yet the next time, I again bet on the event with the low probability with the same zeal and vulnerability. Another self-wrecking streak in me, would you say?

define: sacrifice

As per Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged (written in my words here):
A mother who forgoes buying a hat in order to afford some milk for her baby is not making a sacrifice; simply because she is buying the milk for the baby that she values more than a hat. However, if there were a mother who thought that buying a hat is more valuable, and yet bought milk for her baby as if its her duty to do it, THAT would be a sacrifice.

In the above context, it is argued that sacrifice is not good. Her philosophy argues that we should do something only if we really want to do it; do it only because we hold its value higher than something else. And if we do something because we think its important, then we shouldnt consider it as a sacrifice of that something else.

Interesting philosophy for sure.. but it needs some more thought before mapping to our world. Firstly, we need to define what sacrifice means to us, not philosophically I mean, but realistically. What does the dictionary say sacrifice is? I googled and was amazed at the vast semantics the word "sacrifice" held! The one definition that we might all think of is, "the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim."

There were few others definitions also like "surrendered or lost in order to gain an objective" and "a loss entailed by giving up or selling something at less than its value". Observe that the former talks of gaining an objective while the latter talks of ending on a loss! I just realized that I had no idea what the word sacrifice meant, or rather that never before had I actually given this word any serious consideration...

Carrying the brand of idealism is like carrying an open knife wound in your heart.
1. Its there for everyone to see
2. There is something coming out of it all the time
3. Others think its ok to poke at it whenever they feel like it, while we squirm around in pain.

The Can-Would story

The title may not have made it very clear, but this post is about the following two English words, "can" and "would" with respect to their usage while framing requests.

I dont know whether its the case only with Indians or whether it happens everywhere, we often use the word "can" where we actually mean to ask for a favour like "Can you close the door?" or "Can you lend me this book?" Are we really asking him if he "can"??? Isnt the question really a request, and therefore, shouldnt we rather say, "Would you close the door?" or "Would you lend me this book?"

Literally, "can" implies ability to do something and "would" is about choice. Would that person want to do such and such a thing? Ofcourse he can close the door; did u think that he would lack the strength to heave the door shut???

One could argue here that if he is capable of closing the door, he will obviously do it; whats there to think about it? Well, does that mean u r incapable of closing the door and thats why u r asking someone else to do it for u? Obviously not, right? You are merely requesting it as a favour, so dont lord it over them as if they have no choice but to relent to your wishes. Phrase a request like a request, and not as a command; so that when they do it, they will actually feel like they have done something to help you, and not feel as if they have been ordered around by you.

A basic point to understand here is that when you make a request, the opposite person has every right to deny. Why do u assume that he will do it if he can? The denial doesnt necessarily have to be, "Sorry, I cant". It can well be, "Sorry, I dont want to." We are raised in a society where we are always taught to help others. Therefore we often mistakenly assume that we can refuse to do something only on the pretext that we are incapable of doing it! Well, what about choice? Dont we have the choice to say no?

Well, when anyone asks you, "Can you forward this mail to so and so..?" would you buckle up and say, "Sure I can, but the real question is do I really want to..."

Weird Happening

A very, very weird dream compels me to write it down, for memory sakes I guess. I might have called it The Happening, similar to the Night Shyamalan movie, except that it was not the only happening. Besides, I wouldnt wanna get involved in any copyright issues. So I choose to stick with describing it as the Weird Happening.

The basic premise of the dream was that I saw myself as a different person from myself. It wasnt funny at the time it was happening, but it sounded very hilarious when I was narrating it to my friends. In my dream, I rationalized that this female - who looked extraordinarily like me - was my twin! But then I wondered why no one else around me knew that I had a twin. Then I really started to question myself.. growing up, did I actually have a twin? My brain started giving me scenarios wherein me and my twin had indulged in games together.. where were these memories coming from? And then what about my brother? Oh yes, he was there too! But in places where he is present, my twin is never there. And when the twin is there, my bro isnt.

Hey does this mean anything? Is it to suggest that my brother is my twin in spirit though younger in age. I am no Sigmund Freud and my attempt to unravel a dream like this may even seem pathetic to some.
Actually, there is no one interpretation to this dream of mine. Every time I think of it, I get a different meaning. The one I have written above came to me right now while I was penning my thoughts here!

Do not get me wrong, I am pro-reservation at all levels for the villagers.. I am pro-reservation of the Nehru kind, and if proper statistics are used. Its unfair to decide reservation percentages based on census data from 1952. Please please update your registers with the correct numbers that this century desperately needs..

Sunday morning @ IITB

Today being one of very few sunday mornings that I have spent in campus, I thought of elaborating on the experience. I have spent other weekends also here, but those were more out of compulsion than choice. Today's situation is more the latter than the former.

Today people are conspicuous by their absence in and around labs, except for security personnel. Maybe this is the norm on all sundays, I wouldnt know.

Being a rainy day, I did not attempt to climb onto my two-wheeler (its just a bicycle, no scooty, kinetic or anything, so dont worry I am not breaking any rules around here) and hence had the pleasure of a leisure stroll on my way to the lab. There was a temporary stop-gap in the rains which afforded me the opportunity to get here without getting drenched.

Currently, I am reading the "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. I know most book enthusiasts would have read this one long ago, but as they say, "Better late than never". However, one aspect that I see a progress in is my ability to read a few sections or chapters of a book and keep it down, irrespective of the intensity of the mystery/suspense in the story. I guess now you can easily guess how long its gonna take me to complete Atlas Shrugged. I guess I am just gonna shrug that thought off. ;)

The reality of our dreams

We are responsible for the creation of our own reality. Now dont get me wrong here. It is not meant to imply, by any stretch of imagination, that we are in complete control of our reality. No. It merely implies that we are in a position to affect it, for better or for worse.

On a long term, it may be difficult to identify how we ended up creating our own reality unless we are really objective about it. Most of us believe in a fate and a destiny of our own. That we do what we are destined to do. Agreed, but still, until we put in efforts on our own, is it possible that we achieve something that we were destined to achieve, perhaps?

Just an example - if we worked hard to top an exam but only came second, maybe that can be attributed to destiny. But if we didnt work at all, can we ever expect to top? And if such a person did, by some incomprehensible miracle, top the exam, would it still be attributed to destiny? In such places, the talk of destiny seems to falter and confuse. In fact, the question itself seems unfair to ask.

The reality that we can create or design is best exemplified by an interview scenario. A job interview demands that the interviewee be speechless with ignorance at some question or the other. But the interviewee still has the leeway of politely excusing himself out of the chakravyuh or steering the interview in such a manner that his other more desirable knowledge assets may be out on display.

The interviewee has under his disposal the full ability to create the reality of that interview.. should life be far behind?

My thoughts on the purpose of life a year back...

We are born under this sun, for a reason, a purpose that needs to be fulfilled.
And until the time that our eyes dont truly open, our purpose will seem to elude us.
Fear not, take heart. For He will show you a way soon.
And until such time, live your life to the fullest!

And then the discussion we had at lunch today.. purpose of life is..

To Live and Let Live
To Attain Moksha
To Perform Your Best
To Achieve Peach of Mind

Just thought of making a milestone of it.

Today blogger.com released the Blog List.. let me see if I can get it to work for me..

Moving here from my previous blog.. "why" u care to ask? For no particular reason really. Or maybe because my tum-tum musings have ended long ago since I no longer make use of them. Well, IITB does have its own version of tum-tum but havent used it ever!