Cosmos – The ultimate philosophy?

We are very fortunate to be alive in the decade, in which the first two man made objects(Voyager 1 and Voyager 2) left our solar system. Starting from the order in which these spacecrafts were launched (Voyager 2 was launched before Voyager 1), the alignment of the planets that made it possible for the probes to travel enormous distances, the golden record; every aspect of these missions are one of a kind. The International Space Station, the Hubble telescope and the vast plethora of other achievements in this domain makes me wonder if we are the most intelligent species in the universe. Considering the fact that we started flying planes just about 100 years ago, we have come a long way.

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey by Neil deGrasse Tyson is probably one of the best documentaries out there that explains the very foundations of the universe. This is one of the my favorite photographs of earth taken by voyager.

If you haven’t seen this before, it is the photograph of earth in a beam of sunlight. Look closer. It’s a pale blue dot.

No doubt these are tremendous achievements of mankind, but how does it affect our daily lives? It might no be very obvious but these discoveries make us question the claims that all religions make. Religion has always placed God just beyond what science could explain, at that point in time. However, that is probably not possible anymore.  Religion can be a powerful tool to guide people to follow a path, that can be beneficial for the society. But, it’s principles are often misunderstood/ used by a few powerful people to control the masses.

This has definitely changed the way I look at my everyday life. The sheer enormity of ever-expanding universe and the incomprehensibility of the concept of time just makes all our troubles look so useless and stupid. I think that’s probably the easiest way to look at all problems. Always remembering that it won’t matter in some time should give us hope to keep going forward!!

Praveen

Life and Dynamic Programming

Warning: If you don’t understand dynamic programming, you better stop here.
A past few days of my life has been a struggle trying to understand the paradigm of dynamic programming. The more I try to understand it, the more complicated it gets. No matter how patient I am, can’t get a hang of things. It is during these situations where you don’t want to give up on something, but all your efforts are in vain, when you get philosophical. Though philosophy does very little to help the situation, it presents an interesting view of things. If you can see it, you will be definitely amazed.
I was lucky enough to see how understanding dynamic programming can help you lead your life better.

1. Find the sub problem/ s:
   When you encounter a big problem, it is very natural for anyone to try to get rid of it in one shot. Seldom would such an approach be fruitful. You might get lucky sometimes. But, betting on your luck always isn’t wise. Look for smaller problems. When you are in a stressful situation, think of minute things that can take you close to the solution. Tasty food and good humor can almost lighten up any tense setting. There is always something that you can change to make solving the huge problem a little easier.

2. Get the base case right:
   To be successful in any field, it is very important to get yours basic right. If your fundamentals are not strong enough, no matter how tall a building you construct, it’s bound to hit the ground. Even though if you end up spending more time in the initial step, get it damn right.

3. Verify that you have solved the problem:
   Well another important step that we mostly ignore many times. If you don’t bury the problems, the ghosts will always come back to haunt you. Make sure you have actually solved the original problem.
   Well, my break’s over now. Got to get back to solving problems now.

Bangalore-Madurai-SriRangam-Trichy (2day trip)

Travel Log:

Places: Bangalore – Madurai – Sri Rangam – Trichy – Bangalore

Duration: 2 days (12-December-2013 to 14- December 2013)

Day 1:

Started from Bangalore by train at 11:10 P.M (Nagercoil Express)

Reached Madurai at around 8:30 A.M on 13^th December

It was a good idea to travel by train as the temple is very near to the railway station. At the railway station, there were a lot of people offering to help us find a hotel. But, we ignored them all and went to find our own hotel. We got decent rooms at “Hotel Shree Kanna”. Even though it was only 9:00 in the morning, we had realized by then that A.C is not a luxury but a sheer necessity. So, we got a nice and cozy A.C room at around 1000 bucks for a day.

We started walking towards “Meenakshi Sundareshwara” temple. It was about 1 K.M. from the lodge, which was an added advantage. The temple is situated right in the center of the city and you don’t have to ask for any directions. (Asking people for directions, especially if you don’t know Tamil is a serious pain in the ass.)

We were greeted by the Gopuram in the west direction of the temple. It was the first sign depicting the magnanimity of the sight we were about to savor.

If you closely observe the first tower, there is a board indicating the direction on it. Unless you remember the board, it is impossible to track back from which side you entered the temple. The temple has 11 towers. After clicking a few pics, we entered the temple. There was a big queue for Darshana. After looking at the huge gathering of people, we decided to opt for Rs.100 special Darshana. Still, it was 2 ‘O’ clock when we walked out. While waiting in the queue, I decided to take a few pics and do a little research on the carvings present on the pillars.

One particular repeating sculpture caught my eye. It’s supposedly called ‘Veli‘ in English. It’s a mythological hybrid animal, which has the body of a lion, an elephant’s trunk, head of a beast, tail of a serpent and a human penis.

After a good Darshana, we went out of the temple and decided it was time to have lunch. A simple Tamil Nadu style restaurant ‘Gowri Shankara’ is where we went for lunch. It had good foursquare reviews. And the reviews turned out to be true.

After a sumptuous lunch, we went back to our room. When I searched to find nearby places of interest, I found many options. But, I decided to start with “Gandhi Museum”. The garment that Mahatma Gandhi wore when he was shot dead is preserved in this museum. It’s about 4 km from temple and is open between 9 A.M and 1 P.M, 2 P.M to 5 P.M. Unfortunately, the museum remains closed on all Fridays. I could take a few interesting pics.

After this, we decided to go back to the temple and see the leftovers. We encountered an interesting halwa shop. Apparently, this is open since 1901. The halwa was really lip-smacking. Also, the hall of 1000 pillars, the musical pillars, the enchanting statues of Natarajan, sculptures of Kali, oil paintings on walls were beautiful.

The day ended with sumptuous south Indian dinner.

Day 2:

After a good night’s sleep, we started towards Trichy at around 8:00 A.M in the morning. From the railway station, we took a city bus to Mattuthavani bus stand. A non-stop bus from Madurai to Trichy took only about 2 hours to cover 140 odd kilometers. From Trichy, we took another bus to Sri Rangam, the island town. We reached the temple at around 11:00. We opted for the Special Darshana, paying 50 bucks.

A few pics:

There were some interesting sculptures here too.

Warrior on a horse, attacking a tiger.

At around 5, we decided to make a move. Most internet reviews suggested that Rock fort temple is a must visit place. So, we took a bus going towards Trichy. This was truly the most beautiful part of the trip. The view from the top of the temple is unimaginable. A few pics:

(View) 2 new friends (Murali Manohar and Dev Prasanna)

Church at trichy

After a sumptuous dinner, we took a train to Bangalore.

Dravidism at work

I have always been a fan of Cricket and Rahul Dravid. It’s not every day that you find a role model like him. And once you understand the things he has done for the team, it’s very difficult not be in the league of his admirers. He is that one man who put team’s interests ahead of himself. Right from starting an innings to coming 7 down, he has batted at various positions; He has kept wickets too, so as to maintain the team balance. These things are not easy. Making someone comfortable not caring about yourself requires a strong determination, great deal of flexibility and self-sacrifice, to some extent.

Software development is a kind of a job, which gets monotonous after some time. Unless you experiment new stuff, it gets really boring. Trying out different technologies is one part. The other part is to try out different team strategies. Somehow, I caught this bug of trying out how Dravidism works in a typical software team.
I would like to share my experience about what happened in my team, in the past 4 months.

Background:
The story begins in the month of February, when our team starts on a new project. There was a lot of work, and I do a decent job, which brings me some recognition. This phase goes on till May.

Start of Experiment:
By the month of June, I was looking for some change when this experiment came to my mind.I took a conscious decision to follow Rahul Dravid’s principles at work.

Easy principles:
1. Always put team ahead of your interests. (Take tasks that others are not willing to, but are essential for team’s success)
2. Be highly flexible, change tasks when required for the team, though it has a significantly bad personal impact

Results:
Horrific is the one word to describe the results. The entire feat achieved in the first two months became useless.

Conclusion:

Its as if I have misjudged/misinterpreted Dravid’s principles or its not a good idea to have it Software companies.

Praveen s

THE DEPARTED

A sense of emptiness surrounds, when our loved ones depart. Though, we know, it’s the law of nature, it is not easy to accept, that the person is no more. This definitely leaves a scar in our lives. Time,” the ultimate healer”, gradually fades the person from our memories. But, it’s never the same as before.

I never knew how it feels to lose a person close to my heart. But, there’s a first time for everything in life. It was the first Thursday of December, when I got a call from my dad. He was choking, and I thought, it was a connection problem. Then, the deafening words fell on my ears. It was my dad’s feeble voice telling me that my mother was gone. It was a strange feeling. As a kid, I always thought my parents were immortals. I guess every kid feels the same way. But, the truth began to dawn on me as I grew up.

I couldn’t seem to accept the shock. So, I fled and went in search of I don’t know what. I went to Himalayas, Kashi, Haridwar, etc… I still couldn’t come to terms with life. I was resting in a village in Uttar Pradesh, when I met this farmer. I stayed as a guest in his house. It was he who convinced me to go back to my place. “Believe me. You will definitely find your mother on your way back.” he said. The next day, I took a bus to my place.

The wind blew softly, caressing my face gently, pushing the black curls back to their place. I closed my eyes. My heart tried to comprehend the immense feeling of happiness, but failed terribly. Suddenly, as they say, “At the end of tunnel there is light”, a sudden bright beam of realization started to dawn on my mind. It was her. It was definitely her. Those were my mother’s love filled hands, consoling me, telling me, that she is with me, as always. The sweet voice of birds was actually my mother singing to me. The rustle of the leaves, was her telling me to get over and move on. This was what I was searching for from many days.  My mind was finally at peace.

Praveen S

Self-Respect

Bus travel has become an inevitable part of our daily lives. It is certainly irritating, but the introduction of Volvo s, has significantly reduced the pain. It is expensive (for many). But, we don’t seem to care much about it.

An incident occurred on a Sunday night, 2 weeks back (2 weeks before, when I wrote it of course.), made me re-think about a lot of people I knew. On that day, I went to meet my brother. I took him to Vidhyarthi Bhavan, which is one of my favorite places to spend a Sunday evening. The sweet fragrance of beautiful flowers on the streets of Gandhi bazaar, the smell of ghee on hot dosas, Oh!! screw heavens. After the sumptuous meal, I took a bus to Banashankari bus stand. It was almost 9:00 in the night, when I reached BSK bus stand.

I was waiting for a 500C. I saw a poor, dark, round faced guy, wearing cement smeared gloves. I could make out easily that he didn’t know Kannada and was very new to the city.

He hesitantly asked me if I knew the bus to get to Bellandur. I told him that even I was waiting for a bus that goes via Bellandur. Just to pass time, I started a conversation. He told me that his name is Ram Prasad. He had come to Bangalore just a week ago, quitting his studies, to support his family. Then, I asked him why was he alone. He then explained that he had come with 10 of his friends, but they left him while he was arguing with the supervisor to get his wages for the day. While he was trying to ask something about me, a bus finally came. Without thinking much, I told him that the bus would go to his place. I never thought if he had enough to pay for a Volvo ticket.

When the conductor came to my place, I showed him my daily pass. Ram Prasad took out 2 folded, dirty notes, which amounted to 15 rupees. He was 25 bucks short. He started telling the conductor that he had no more money. The conductor started scolding him in Kannada. I thought I should help the guy because I was the one who didn’t explain that the bus tickets were expensive.

To my surprise, the guy refused to take the money I gave. He asked the conductor to allow him to get down at the next stop. The inhuman conductor wanted to even take 15 rupees he had. That wasn’t even fair. Now, I gave the conductor the rest of the money and got him a ticket. “Nahi sir. Mein aapse paisa nahi le saktha…”, the guy kept on telling.

This reminded me of a few people whom I knew, who earned in lakhs, didn’t pay back the money they had taken. A person who earned not more than a few hundreds a day had more self-respect than well educated, rich people.

But, he kept on insisting that he wanted to pay me back. Finally I told him “Bhagwaan ke mandir mein baaki rupaiye chaDa do”.  He thanked me and got down at his stop.

I am very sure he would have donated the money to some temple.

Praveen

A WALK TO REMEMBER

Hi all. This one’s a real quickie. Hope you all like it.

It was another of those beautiful villagy mornings. The sun had already started his day by gobbling up the darkness. As usual, the high school teacher, Shamappa, was out for an early walk. People driving cattle to their fields, was a common sight. The melodious chirp of birds, the pleasant chill in the weather drove even his lazy son, Ravi, out of bed, who accompanied his father.

Shamappa was an honest man. Though he didn’t earn much, he was satisfied by whatever life had gifted him. Everybody in the village, including the headmen, respected him. With child-like innocent smile on his eyes, pride on his face, books in one hand and the other turning the ends of his moustache, he went to school every day. He had even rejected an offer from a school in nearby town, which offered him to pay the double of what he was earning.

But, today, was not the same. Shadows of concern were on his face. Ravi, walking beside him, in a costly jogging suit, with music-phones tucked into his ears, had no idea of his father’s feelings. He worked as a software engineer at Bangalore. He had come home the day before with lots of costly gifts for his dad and mom. Shamappa and his wife were surprised to see the stranger, the arrogant city- man in their son.

A sense of achievement possessed him. There was no respect in his eyes for his parents. Everything they did seemed very timid. He had brought a costly phone for his father and had laughed at him when he failed to operate it. “Even kids know to use it dad”, he had remarked. He had condemned the lack of facilities of the village. He also asked him to come live with him in the town, which upset Shamappa the most.

The memories of the previous day’s incidents played like a never-ending movie in his mind. His thoughts were distracted by Ravi’s swearing. “Fuck, the battery is gone. There no power till afternoon to charge this as well”- he was cribbing as his music player had ran out of power. While this was happening, a man of Ravi’s age, walking in the opposite direction, caught Shamappa’s attention. He couldn’t identify him first.

The boy bowed down and touched his feet. He then reminded him that he was Sagar, one of his students. Since Ravi had nothing else to do, he tried to pay attention to the conversation between them. Ravi said ‘hi’, and added proudly, that he was a Software Engineer. Looking at his attire Ravi guessed that he never went out of the village. Then, Shamappa invited him to have a cup of coffee, over which he asked what Sagar did. With a polite smile on his face, he said that he worked for NASA. He added that he had quit his job to come back to his village and wanted Shamappa’s help to improve the facilities. Suddenly, shadows of embarrassment spread across Ravi’s face.  He realized how little he had done in life and learnt a very valuable lesson in life. Now, within minutes, he was a changed man. He offered to join them in their work for the village.

Shamappa understood that his son had undergone a transition within minutes. He nodded with smile remembering what he had read somewhere -“Arrogance can be won over only by humbleness”.

INSIDE ME

It has been a while since I have penned down something. Deep thoughts ponder my mind and fight to be expressed, while I choose to suppress them.

It’s not every day that you get strange thoughts, when you look around and notice how things change with time. Change is the essence of life. But, if you look within, you will understand that your personality has undergone significant changes during the course of your life. Every action that occurs in the environment around us, every experience you accumulate living life contributes significantly to one’s behavior.

Let me start from the day when a life begins. A baby by birth has no built-in personality. As one grows up, he observes things and people around and learns to imitate and experiment. So, observation and experimentation are the two basic ways by which, one gains knowledge and gradually builds up his own style. Majority of one’s characters are either copied directly or adopted with slight modification. It’s not a mere co-incidence that most of your characters in the initial years of your life will resemble your parents. Then, at a later stage, your friends, then your spouse and the list of influencers goes on.

A small experiment will help you understand the fact. Just take a sheet of paper and try to list down your own characters. For example, if I consider myself, I can easily relate my honesty, straight-talk and laziness to my dad, my fear, shyness and indecisiveness to my mother. These are the traits that were induced at a very young age and still persist. While, there are some acquired traits like sarcasm, which was not there with me a few years ago. This leads me to conclude that “A person is always what he wants to be and not what he was when born”.  Every day, one has to make choices. A choice to either be good or bad is your own. Hence, the choices one has made till date is solely responsible for what he is today and no one else is responsible for it.

Happiness, in my opinion, is the most essential requirement for one’s existence. I would like to place a question in front of you all, which I have failed to find a satisfactory answer. Just ask yourself a question “Am I happy?” A lot depends on the answer to the above question. Majority of them just say ‘yes’ and a very less percentage of people actually are. When you are thinking about the answer to the above question, another question will certainly arise in your mind “What is happiness? “ It’s a very difficult question to answer. However, I would like to give it a try.

Most of you might feel that happiness is a state obtained by achieving what one wants. Well, though partially true, a lot depends on the nature of one’s wants. Any desire which is self centered will only bring you temporary state of happiness. A simple example would make things clear.

Let me consider the campus activity that happened in our college. Suppose a person gets a T1 placement, his friend, no matter however close he is, will get jealous. Jealousy is a very normal trait that everyone has acquired. Now if the same guy’s friend gets a better job, the older one will get jealous. So, overcoming jealousy seems to be the only way to achieve happiness.

Well, I think it’s too much for tonight. I wonder if I wrote this. “Profound thoughts and thoughtless actions” – probably I have learnt to define myself.

Signing off,

Praveen S.

THE UNDEAD

Death is a strange phenomenon. Though, the person vanishes, the impact of his life remains in the hearts of his loved ones.

Scene 1:

A dully lit bedroom with walls painted baby pink. Posters of Spider man and other super heroes covered one of the sides. The absolute solitude of the room was broken by the creaking sound of an old clock, which hung on the opposite side. The row of windows on the third had a stack of discontinuous tinted glass.A boy of around 10 lay on a fluffy bed at the center of the room.

From the end of the hallway, the boy heard the furious screams of their parents. The routine of their fight had masked the pain but, deep inside, tears as salty as fresh pacific water, continued to flow. He tried to hide himself under the pillow and sheets. The darkness pacified his suffering for moments. Sleep seemed to bring peace. Suddenly, he sensed the presence of another person inside his room.

Yes, his worst fears had come true. The villain of the movie, he saw last week, was standing just beside the open door. The cut across his face was fresh-red with blood almost dripping from the sides. His metallic front teeth projected scary reflections of the violet bed light. His broken lips had not healed since, the last week when he had seen him. He moved slowly, carrying a red stained rusty scalpel, dragging a heavy iron chain tied to his left leg. The boy tried to run but, it was too late. The man pounced on him, and held him on the bed. He had no mercy. Neither did the scalpel. With a scary smile on his face, he stabbed the boy many times until the sheets got red-wet. The pain was excruciating. He screamed and screamed for help, until he felt nothing.

The very next moment, the boy was up on his feet. Sure, the bed was wet, but colorless. He slowly looked around, to see no one. He was now sure that he had a bad dream. He tried to consolidate himself, but the sounds of the old clock and dripping water in his bathroom, made him conscious. Every second was like an hour. He could sleep no more.

The morning sunlight, cut by the tinted glass of his windows, which created a beautiful aura of colors, also brought him hopes. After a terrible night, the boy got himself ready and left to the school. He took a quick look at the mirror. The boy had beautiful blue eyes. The hair cut made his hairs lie on his forehead, almost reaching his eyes. In his white red uniform, he looked as smart as any movie kid. But, the sleepless night had taken away the charm from his face.

Scene 2:

A very bright room, with seats placed in a matrix and a dais, on which lie a table and a chair.A clean black board fixed to the wall.

The boy sat in the last bench. He topped the class till last year. But, this year, he could not concentrate. Since the last month, his parents quarreled every single day. They worked at the same software firm. Recently, his mom was promoted as the project manager and his dad had to work under her. This was the root cause for all his sufferings. Though, the boy could not understand about the manly ego and such stuff, he remembered the day when they had started. His thoughts were rippled by Ms. Claire’s voice. She was pointing at him to read the text from where she had stopped. He looked helplessly towards his neighbors. Nobody tried to help. The usual “You were not like this last year” followed.

Now, he started realizing about the grave mistakes he had done in his life. He had built walls and not bridges. He felt the need of a friend. The boy remembered his childhood days, when he had his grandpa by his side.

Scene 3:

He left the school as soon as the bell rang. As a routine, he checked the letter box attached to the gate. Strangely, he had a letter from his Grandpa. He happily went in and was just changing, when the door bell rang. The boy opened the door to find his Gran. Gran looked exactly the same as he did 4 years before. The boy jumped with joy. He led granpa to his room.

The door bell rang again when they were in his bed-room. The boy opened the door to find his mom and a brand new white Ford in the background. Their old Maruthi-800 came to a screeching halt just behind the new car. His father furiously opened the door and jumped right out. She expected a big fight and asked the boy to go the terrace and play. The boy tried to tell her that grandpa had come. She stopped him mid-sentence and reminded him that his grandpa had gone to see God.

The boy stopped arguing and went to the terrace. He was amazed to see his grandpa flying in the air. He asked:”Can I fly like you?”. Grandpa said:”Why don’t you try?” . The boy jumped from the top of the building. The flight was  short. The Newton’s force had done its job. He could see his parents fighting through the window, while his body hit the road with a thud.

Praveen

LOVE…

<%java.util.Calendar tdate=new java.util.GregorianCalendar();

int hr=tdate.get(java.util.Calendar.HOUR);

int ampm=tdate.get(java.util.Calendar.AM_PM);

if(hr>=7 && hr<=11 && ampm==0)

out.println(“Good morning”);

if(hr==12)

out.println(“Good noon”);

if(hr>=1 && hr<=4 && ampm==1)

out.println(“Good afternoon”);

if(hr>=4 && hr<=9 && ampm==1)

out.println(“Good evening”);

%>

For non-CS people, it’s a java scriplet to wish a user based on current time. Starting with whatever my program says………..
Not anyone who knows me would believe that I would write something on love, that too in my first blog. Well, that’s been my style for a while-“Not doing things as everyone else thinks I will”. (Is that a little too much………?)
Now, getting straight to the point…..!
I am pretty sure that there is no human being in this world, who hasn’t been in love. Not many are famous as the legendary “Romeo and Juliet”, or even successful. Many did last for moments (Can that be true love?). You might be just travelling, hanging out with your friends, and enjoying yourself, without even a hint that at the very next corner, you will see someone incredible, who changes the course of your life forever. To fall in love, one just needs to look at things
By now, my closest friends might have started thinking that I might have gone nuts.

Continuing anyways…

A very few dare to express what they felt. Rest others will either enjoy the moments, replaying the scenes in their minds or just get on with life. But, no matter how many girls/boys/both come into your life, or whomsoever you may marry, the moment this thing happened to anyone is beyond words.

Do you people know what the beauty of literature is? I think it’s to say that a particular thing is beyond human possibility to describe and try to do the same. Or else, there wouldn’t have been so many books on love. I am trying to follow the footsteps of those great people (idiots, I would have called them on a normal day).

Back to ‘The Magical Moment’:-

I am trying to describe what might happen in those few seconds:
A common reaction is people get stunned forgetting everything around, trying to stare at the influencer as long as possible. A few ram their bikes/vehicles (Sure, this reminds me of something :-)). Lucky are the ones who succeed in drawing attention. They would wish the time would stop and everything becomes still (The exact opposite of what you feel in class…). Their heart beats fast and a slight reaction from your mmmmmm… you know who (I like Harry Potter…) would immobilize you. By chance, if they had watched a romantic movie the previous night, a song might start playing in the background. (Thanks to SRK…).

I am an optimist but not impractical to ignore the negatives. It’s worse if someone you know says “gotcha….” Or worst if that someone is your dad/mum. You may act stupid and ruin the chance.

Whatever it is, I bet you are the most unfortunate person if you have never let yourself experience such a thing, considering the consequences. Just being loved by someone makes the world look different. Love does bring a new charm into one’s life. These are one of the very few things you will remember when you grow old. And every time you just think about it, no matter whatever situation you are in, it will bring a smile on your face.
So, fall in love…. Looks like Bangalore (the weather I mean) has done its trick.
Please do comment even if it sucks…
Signing out,
Praveen