Maya is one of the most complex theory dealt with in Vedantic scriptures. Many scholars have discussed this topic for days. It is one of the theories which relates to theory of Karma (which is beautifully dealt with in Bhagwad Gita). Not many sadhus even talk about it saying one is not qualified to easily understand(probably they too don't understand a lot like Quantum Mechanics for physicists). We can discuss Maya as an inferior energy of Lord Krisna (as talked by the Dvaitas) or as a veil between our knowledge self and us (as by Advaitist) but it will be cumbersome to talk about it in detail and explaining it in present context. Let me just present the basic concept here.
Theory of Maya is combination of three idea : desha-kala-nimitta: Space, Time and Causation- and the three are reduced to Nama-Rupa. Suppose there is a wave in an ocean. The wave is only distinct from the ocean in its form and name, and this form and wave cannot have any separate existence from the wave; they exist only in the wave. The wave may subside but the same amount of water remains, even if the name and form that were on the wave vanish forever. So this Maya is what makes the difference between me and you, god and men. Its Maya which makes the Atman being caught into different beings that are distinguishable only through name and form. If you leave it alone, let name and form go, all this variety vanishes forever and you are what you really are.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Book Review: God Does not Play Dice, David A. Shiang
After talking about general relativity, special relativity and other very important piece of intellectual work, Einstein actually returned to very important question. He questioned the existence of an intelligent being whom we call God. I don't want to get into Theology/Religion and other related schools of thought but talk about the Einsteins' statement. 'God does not play dice'.
The book discusses a lot of things in mathematics and debates that the fundamentals of Probability are not correct as they are just conjectures without sound experimental data/procedure to back it. Seems like the writer has read a lot ( has to, he is from MIT) and given plausible arguments against it, using CFD.
I agree with all his premises/claims and the arguments he has proposed that there is no randomness in the world and that things are actually predetermined though they aren't predictable. Things about Quantum Physics lacking a solid basis is also acceptable( thank God! I am with Einstein... its so easy). Lot of things he talks have been (at some point of my undergraduate years) realized by me and thats why I can relate with him (though my arguments have been incidental than factual the way he presents). I also agree with him that mathematics might not be the most comprehensive way to analyze certain things, including God. I am surprised that he cites Upanishads as one of the sources of his knowledge for understanding the issue and still comes to wrong conclusion. I guess his understanding for mathematics have been certainly good but may be he just flipped through pages of Upanishads (and other vedantic text) quite fast.
I reject the conclusion he has come to, saying God does not play dice. Actually, I am not with Einstein too, on this. He has thought/read a lot before writing but still he has not taken his reasoning further to explore even more on this. He says that everything in life is predetermined and will inevitably happen. Its all decided and the fact that you did something means you could not have done anything better. He applies this to gas particle and to humans too! True in some respect but not always !
First, this takes away the independence given to human beings by God (lets not debate on this and bring religion and other human concocted ideas about how they believe it)
which is again a very subtle point made in Vedas. This even applies to the atom( in Dvaita school of thought in Ancient India, though I have not been able to comprehend it till now but I can get it in case of humans/some living being). Choice is one of the important power (shall say weapon) given to us and to deny it saying its not their, but we just feel is there is not a plausible argument given by him ! its just his perception.
There is another way to understand the principle of choice given to us: You might do a set of things but the outcome is pre-decided ! Its like a statistical function which asymptotically approaches a determined function (you can get what i want to say hopefully).
My counter argument is the following to Shiang, which is the next level of realization:
How are the initial values for the predetermined "fate" of the person chosen ? Are they hard coded ? or something else ? There is bound to be some bootstrapping for this !!
I think this is not an easy thing to understand and is a loop in his thinking(which is plausible to an extent).
There are some nice concepts in Chaos related to this, which indicate the presence of Higher Intelligent being, though concept of 'Chaos' is completely denied by Shiang (and agree with him to some extent on this).
The book is worth a read as its gives good arguments about widely accepted facts in mathematics (can say in chemistry/physics).
I would certainly agree on the following comment than the title of the book (which is again not pointing to randomness in the universe), "God plays dice with the universe, but they're loaded dice." This is said by Joseph Ford, who is one of Chaos Theorist. On the other hand, Hawkins is yet to understand this as his comment seems vague.
The book discusses a lot of things in mathematics and debates that the fundamentals of Probability are not correct as they are just conjectures without sound experimental data/procedure to back it. Seems like the writer has read a lot ( has to, he is from MIT) and given plausible arguments against it, using CFD.
I agree with all his premises/claims and the arguments he has proposed that there is no randomness in the world and that things are actually predetermined though they aren't predictable. Things about Quantum Physics lacking a solid basis is also acceptable( thank God! I am with Einstein... its so easy). Lot of things he talks have been (at some point of my undergraduate years) realized by me and thats why I can relate with him (though my arguments have been incidental than factual the way he presents). I also agree with him that mathematics might not be the most comprehensive way to analyze certain things, including God. I am surprised that he cites Upanishads as one of the sources of his knowledge for understanding the issue and still comes to wrong conclusion. I guess his understanding for mathematics have been certainly good but may be he just flipped through pages of Upanishads (and other vedantic text) quite fast.
I reject the conclusion he has come to, saying God does not play dice. Actually, I am not with Einstein too, on this. He has thought/read a lot before writing but still he has not taken his reasoning further to explore even more on this. He says that everything in life is predetermined and will inevitably happen. Its all decided and the fact that you did something means you could not have done anything better. He applies this to gas particle and to humans too! True in some respect but not always !
First, this takes away the independence given to human beings by God
which is again a very subtle point made in Vedas. This even applies to the atom( in Dvaita school of thought in Ancient India, though I have not been able to comprehend it till now but I can get it in case of humans/some living being). Choice is one of the important power (shall say weapon) given to us and to deny it saying its not their, but we just feel is there is not a plausible argument given by him ! its just his perception.
There is another way to understand the principle of choice given to us: You might do a set of things but the outcome is pre-decided ! Its like a statistical function which asymptotically approaches a determined function (you can get what i want to say hopefully).
My counter argument is the following to Shiang, which is the next level of realization:
How are the initial values for the predetermined "fate" of the person chosen ? Are they hard coded ? or something else ? There is bound to be some bootstrapping for this !!
I think this is not an easy thing to understand and is a loop in his thinking(which is plausible to an extent).
There are some nice concepts in Chaos related to this, which indicate the presence of Higher Intelligent being, though concept of 'Chaos' is completely denied by Shiang (and agree with him to some extent on this).
The book is worth a read as its gives good arguments about widely accepted facts in mathematics (can say in chemistry/physics).
I would certainly agree on the following comment than the title of the book (which is again not pointing to randomness in the universe), "God plays dice with the universe, but they're loaded dice." This is said by Joseph Ford, who is one of Chaos Theorist. On the other hand, Hawkins is yet to understand this as his comment seems vague.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Education System in India
Education system has taken the turn for the worse, and you may refute me here and say that it has “always been like that, so what’s worse?” It has always been like that, but in the present scenario it has lost its context and the result for all to see. Indian education system needs refurbishing, but not before we understand where it lacks. And when I talk about the “Indian Education system” I am essentially referring to the national boards and higher education centers in India. ‘Madrasas’ and other indigenous forms of education have not been included here.
Let’s talk about the CBSE examination, one of the most important educational boards of India for class X, XII examinations. In this examination, Kapil Sibal has introduced an option for students to take it or opt for the grading system instead. This was introduced due to the rising suicide rate amongst students because of bad results. He wanted to ease the examination pressure on the students. However, I ask, “What will happen to these very students when they don't succeed in their corporate lives in future? When they won't be able to take the pressures of highly competitive entrance examinations like JEE, AIMS, CAT and the Civil services?” The point I am trying to make is, if they don’t receive enough training to deal with tough situations early, statistically significant number of them are going to falter for the first time they face them. Hence, instead of gearing them up for the hard future, you are giving them more time to relax!
Better way to go about solving this problem of depression and suicide of young students would be to not pressurize them with expectations. The parents should understand their kids’ strengths and weaknesses are and let them perform accordingly in exams. One should try to motivate them rather push them to do things. Parents should relieve the pressure of expectations from their child than expect the ministry to make the test simple. The HRD ministry, in trying to listen to parents, has simply solved the problem in the wrong way.
One of the arguments to support this grading policy is, "it works in the U.S". Now, that’s just naive. First, if the solution works in the west, it’s mostly not going to work here because it’s a social problem and not a technical one. Metals/Non metals have known behavior, humans don't. For the same stimulus ten people will react in ten different ways. So, please don't give that reply.
Also, you need to bring the society at the same level as that of the west in terms of standard of living before you start using the policies that are made for them. Simply, we are not at the same platform and HRD should take this into account.
Secondly, the average American is not all that smart. He gets good money, lives a good life because there are decent arrangements made by his government. Don't mistake it for the effort one has to put in to have the same living standard in India. Thirdly, their education system has flaws (like the level of hardness of tests and the kind of questions asked in the same grade in different states) which they have recently discovered and are finding difficult to resolve.
Most of the students would like to not take the examination to get away from stress. Isn't it? Grading is not a very good idea to be implemented when the number of students scales to millions! It’s ridiculous to give the student who is really well the same grade as the students who just makes into that bracket. There is no room for a student to show he is different, even if it’s for 2% he scores. This frustrates the people in the lower bracket of grades as they are unable to judge themselves; also the system has also given them something which is hard to quantify in terms their ability which has even bigger consequences for them, although not as drastic as suicides, which are immediate. If this grading works in the IITs or other reputed institutes in India, it works because the students have already gone through one competitive examination assumed to have certain guarantees on the level of understanding they have regarding that field.
Here, you cannot guarantee anything common in the levels of understanding of a student from college X and Y in Tamil Nadu and Bihar taking their boards examination; it’s contextual depending on the region. Also, one should understand we are not talking about bright students; we are talking about students who are average and even below average.
The schemes that have been implemented on the education system should be fool proof and should take into consideration Indian society and its many nuances. Else rickety schemes like the grading system will just produce confused students who will add to the current mediocrity of the country.
Education in villages has deteriorated too. One of the news bytes shows how teachers in villages don't even know the spelling of "Saturday"; Sibbal does not even bother to improve the standards of teachers in villages. There is not much wrong with the teacher in the news (link), but there is a lot of which is wrong with the teacher training institution. If there is one teacher like that, it indicates that there are hundreds other like that. Sibal should make sure the quality of teachers coming out of these training institutes meets at least Indian standards, if not international ones. But does he even have a clue that this matters in the building of a good education system? I doubt.
The HRD ministers seem to be the political pawn of the ruling party. Arjun Singh introduced OBC quota in IITs somehow before he died/was thrown out of power without thinking that the number of seats need to be increased as a whole and not for a section of society! Again a lame decision coming from a group of ministers; the people revolted and thankfully the number of seats was increased. Now, is it a good decision? Yes it is. To have 2500 IITians from a population of 1.3 billion today and around the same number 20 years back does not make sense. Surely, there is a lot of talent IITs might have missed because of the sheer shortage of the number of seats where they can admit students. But the way, this was brought about as a political agenda to get votes from the backward communities was wrong. Apart from the people who make good living, most of the backwards in villages would not even know how will it help them. We as IITians know how difficult it has been for IITs to be managing such a change instantly with lack of enough faculty members to actually give attention to all the students. The HRD does not give enough grants to make the laboratories, hostels etc. All they want is that the students should get an admission in IIT. The IITs are going to get dilute, and there is a lot we have to do to save it. IITs are asking the alumni base for funds to help them with this situation and they are helping. But it’s high time, Government should give a thought on giving money in figures in which their scams run into. If they do it once, they won't be required to do it again (I will talk about scams in India some other time).
Sadly, again they forgot the meaning of education. A stamp that certain X is an IITian is not going to make him a super human. There are certain resources they have to be given, certain training and motivation which HRD ministry cannot. When the IIT Directors question them, they turn deaf. They give orders instead of making things smooth. If the HRD is not going to build a bridge between the society and teachers who have given excellent education to the students in the past, then there purpose is not served. Fifteen IITs! Come on, you had a hard time sustaining the original 5 of them. IITs is not just a place you go for an education, it is a culture, where students are true to their teachers, have ethics, that’s why it’s a "brand". There is a certain trust involved when you take an IIT student in your firm or in any other institution which is similar to a product which you chose, like a computer from IBM or a Mercedes Benz. You need to look for teachers who can give that, which is different from getting teachers with degrees. I guess politicians never met those kinds of teachers, which is why they are what they are today!
Sometime back, one of my uncles asked me about what’s going to be the future of India with so many BTechs being produced from so many colleges? Surely, this is one thing to really think about! Everyone wants to become Engineer without having a clue what it is. Classic case of IIT
JEE 2011, AIR - 1 is to become an IAS after graduating from IIT Bombay!! What a waste.
The other students in engineering colleges, not all of them but considerable percentages don’t have a clue on what they are doing, just that they need to get grades in the mid terms and final term examinations. They think the curriculums they are following are going to make them an engineer? Even the curriculum at IITs is not up to date. Students make personal efforts to know things outside of their text books. Recently in 2007, a committee took feedback from IIT Madras on the changes the students want to make in the curriculum and our then faculty advisor asked the batch mates to give comments. A report was made but they have failed to give a response till now! I am sure the same happened in other IITs too. I wish if I can ask Kapil Sibbal on what he did on this front? I think everyone will agree, Nothing!
Besides this, coming back to the thing I was talking about, I think students should take education seriously once they are into any college. Why doesn't Sibal make committees of retired professors from all the IITs and let them take on the challenge of making policies for educating India clubbing them with the teachers from other leading institutes who deal with sociology? Is it so hard for him to think...Indeed, it is.
Definitely, the society we are going to have in coming decades will be more logical than the present as people will be able to understand and comprehend better because of the increased involvement of science in everyday lives. Given that, the society might just become one-dimensional, as all of them will think alike. People might not be "creative" in the real sense. That’s just my point of view but I hope people who get into Maths stream in class X might be better off by doing something in Arts if they like Arts and excel in it than get into so many of colleges and become programmers in one of the IT companies in India. We need people who can write good prose, who can appreciate nature on their canvas, people who can talk about history and science at the same time; people who can understand other people without a selfish motive. We don't need so many engineers and if we have, they better start making goods as cheap as Chinese to make themselves count. Even if they do Bachelors in Arts, they should make it count to contribute in someway to society and their family by simply the variety of their degree in a different field and give alternate points of view.
Recently, President Kalam visited IIT Madras and spoke about his vision of 2020 and the things he wishes for India. For those to come true, one needs to educate India... the millions of socially/economically deprived kids who usually don’t go to school because there parents aren't well to do or are not enough motivated to teach them need to be sent to school. There is not much to do giving people space at the top when there won't be students who have done their primary and junior schooling properly. For all this our HRD ministry has to do much more work at the ground level much like the way their political parties do, than talk to media all the time and not even implement that properly.
Let’s talk about the CBSE examination, one of the most important educational boards of India for class X, XII examinations. In this examination, Kapil Sibal has introduced an option for students to take it or opt for the grading system instead. This was introduced due to the rising suicide rate amongst students because of bad results. He wanted to ease the examination pressure on the students. However, I ask, “What will happen to these very students when they don't succeed in their corporate lives in future? When they won't be able to take the pressures of highly competitive entrance examinations like JEE, AIMS, CAT and the Civil services?” The point I am trying to make is, if they don’t receive enough training to deal with tough situations early, statistically significant number of them are going to falter for the first time they face them. Hence, instead of gearing them up for the hard future, you are giving them more time to relax!
Better way to go about solving this problem of depression and suicide of young students would be to not pressurize them with expectations. The parents should understand their kids’ strengths and weaknesses are and let them perform accordingly in exams. One should try to motivate them rather push them to do things. Parents should relieve the pressure of expectations from their child than expect the ministry to make the test simple. The HRD ministry, in trying to listen to parents, has simply solved the problem in the wrong way.
One of the arguments to support this grading policy is, "it works in the U.S". Now, that’s just naive. First, if the solution works in the west, it’s mostly not going to work here because it’s a social problem and not a technical one. Metals/Non metals have known behavior, humans don't. For the same stimulus ten people will react in ten different ways. So, please don't give that reply.
Also, you need to bring the society at the same level as that of the west in terms of standard of living before you start using the policies that are made for them. Simply, we are not at the same platform and HRD should take this into account.
Secondly, the average American is not all that smart. He gets good money, lives a good life because there are decent arrangements made by his government. Don't mistake it for the effort one has to put in to have the same living standard in India. Thirdly, their education system has flaws (like the level of hardness of tests and the kind of questions asked in the same grade in different states) which they have recently discovered and are finding difficult to resolve.
Most of the students would like to not take the examination to get away from stress. Isn't it? Grading is not a very good idea to be implemented when the number of students scales to millions! It’s ridiculous to give the student who is really well the same grade as the students who just makes into that bracket. There is no room for a student to show he is different, even if it’s for 2% he scores. This frustrates the people in the lower bracket of grades as they are unable to judge themselves; also the system has also given them something which is hard to quantify in terms their ability which has even bigger consequences for them, although not as drastic as suicides, which are immediate. If this grading works in the IITs or other reputed institutes in India, it works because the students have already gone through one competitive examination assumed to have certain guarantees on the level of understanding they have regarding that field.
Here, you cannot guarantee anything common in the levels of understanding of a student from college X and Y in Tamil Nadu and Bihar taking their boards examination; it’s contextual depending on the region. Also, one should understand we are not talking about bright students; we are talking about students who are average and even below average.
The schemes that have been implemented on the education system should be fool proof and should take into consideration Indian society and its many nuances. Else rickety schemes like the grading system will just produce confused students who will add to the current mediocrity of the country.
Education in villages has deteriorated too. One of the news bytes shows how teachers in villages don't even know the spelling of "Saturday"; Sibbal does not even bother to improve the standards of teachers in villages. There is not much wrong with the teacher in the news (link), but there is a lot of which is wrong with the teacher training institution. If there is one teacher like that, it indicates that there are hundreds other like that. Sibal should make sure the quality of teachers coming out of these training institutes meets at least Indian standards, if not international ones. But does he even have a clue that this matters in the building of a good education system? I doubt.
The HRD ministers seem to be the political pawn of the ruling party. Arjun Singh introduced OBC quota in IITs somehow before he died/was thrown out of power without thinking that the number of seats need to be increased as a whole and not for a section of society! Again a lame decision coming from a group of ministers; the people revolted and thankfully the number of seats was increased. Now, is it a good decision? Yes it is. To have 2500 IITians from a population of 1.3 billion today and around the same number 20 years back does not make sense. Surely, there is a lot of talent IITs might have missed because of the sheer shortage of the number of seats where they can admit students. But the way, this was brought about as a political agenda to get votes from the backward communities was wrong. Apart from the people who make good living, most of the backwards in villages would not even know how will it help them. We as IITians know how difficult it has been for IITs to be managing such a change instantly with lack of enough faculty members to actually give attention to all the students. The HRD does not give enough grants to make the laboratories, hostels etc. All they want is that the students should get an admission in IIT. The IITs are going to get dilute, and there is a lot we have to do to save it. IITs are asking the alumni base for funds to help them with this situation and they are helping. But it’s high time, Government should give a thought on giving money in figures in which their scams run into. If they do it once, they won't be required to do it again (I will talk about scams in India some other time).
Sadly, again they forgot the meaning of education. A stamp that certain X is an IITian is not going to make him a super human. There are certain resources they have to be given, certain training and motivation which HRD ministry cannot. When the IIT Directors question them, they turn deaf. They give orders instead of making things smooth. If the HRD is not going to build a bridge between the society and teachers who have given excellent education to the students in the past, then there purpose is not served. Fifteen IITs! Come on, you had a hard time sustaining the original 5 of them. IITs is not just a place you go for an education, it is a culture, where students are true to their teachers, have ethics, that’s why it’s a "brand". There is a certain trust involved when you take an IIT student in your firm or in any other institution which is similar to a product which you chose, like a computer from IBM or a Mercedes Benz. You need to look for teachers who can give that, which is different from getting teachers with degrees. I guess politicians never met those kinds of teachers, which is why they are what they are today!
Sometime back, one of my uncles asked me about what’s going to be the future of India with so many BTechs being produced from so many colleges? Surely, this is one thing to really think about! Everyone wants to become Engineer without having a clue what it is. Classic case of IIT
JEE 2011, AIR - 1 is to become an IAS after graduating from IIT Bombay!! What a waste.
The other students in engineering colleges, not all of them but considerable percentages don’t have a clue on what they are doing, just that they need to get grades in the mid terms and final term examinations. They think the curriculums they are following are going to make them an engineer? Even the curriculum at IITs is not up to date. Students make personal efforts to know things outside of their text books. Recently in 2007, a committee took feedback from IIT Madras on the changes the students want to make in the curriculum and our then faculty advisor asked the batch mates to give comments. A report was made but they have failed to give a response till now! I am sure the same happened in other IITs too. I wish if I can ask Kapil Sibbal on what he did on this front? I think everyone will agree, Nothing!
Besides this, coming back to the thing I was talking about, I think students should take education seriously once they are into any college. Why doesn't Sibal make committees of retired professors from all the IITs and let them take on the challenge of making policies for educating India clubbing them with the teachers from other leading institutes who deal with sociology? Is it so hard for him to think...Indeed, it is.
Definitely, the society we are going to have in coming decades will be more logical than the present as people will be able to understand and comprehend better because of the increased involvement of science in everyday lives. Given that, the society might just become one-dimensional, as all of them will think alike. People might not be "creative" in the real sense. That’s just my point of view but I hope people who get into Maths stream in class X might be better off by doing something in Arts if they like Arts and excel in it than get into so many of colleges and become programmers in one of the IT companies in India. We need people who can write good prose, who can appreciate nature on their canvas, people who can talk about history and science at the same time; people who can understand other people without a selfish motive. We don't need so many engineers and if we have, they better start making goods as cheap as Chinese to make themselves count. Even if they do Bachelors in Arts, they should make it count to contribute in someway to society and their family by simply the variety of their degree in a different field and give alternate points of view.
Recently, President Kalam visited IIT Madras and spoke about his vision of 2020 and the things he wishes for India. For those to come true, one needs to educate India... the millions of socially/economically deprived kids who usually don’t go to school because there parents aren't well to do or are not enough motivated to teach them need to be sent to school. There is not much to do giving people space at the top when there won't be students who have done their primary and junior schooling properly. For all this our HRD ministry has to do much more work at the ground level much like the way their political parties do, than talk to media all the time and not even implement that properly.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Rkk retires
Vasa and Rkk
About Rkk : Professor R Kalyana Krishnan has been the cornerstone of Computer Science Department at IIT Madras. He, with some other professors set up the CSE Department at IIT Madras in the early 1970s. He received his PhD from Yale. He did his undergraduate at IIT Madras.
I have been privileged to take two courses under him. Work on project in summers following freshmen year. Spending numerous hours discussing about the computer science, its history, physics, philosophy, human psychology and other interesting topics. And yes, the final ride to our department on his age old mobike.
I am glad he was here till the time I graduated, as he has been an ever inspiring figure to me. Visiting the department without his presence (BSB 335) would have been unpleasant.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Perl Vs Python
Perl is really a pearl of a language. I have used it since my first year summer for my summer project to develop a website for insti using it extensively for both backend and frontend.
I have been using python scripts too, for Openflow platform and some simple tasks. I have always been biased towards Perl as a better language, but today I must say, Python has an edge.
One thing that I have personally realized is the OOPs concept implemented in both the languages. In Perl, it was introduced late as the language was not designed for it. I had hard time for writing modules in Perl and creating classes using *bless* and never felt blessed.
I think Python is easier. Besides there are a number of libraries and active community for Python than Perl. Perl once notoriously famous for its jaws regex and weird syntax, and the usual bragging that comes about by saying " there is more than one way to do it !" is loosing its popularity(i doubt how much it was before, because of the reasons stated above).
I have found it hard to compare the two in the past for couple of years, but now ...
definitely, python is as good as perl in my opinion :) [I am still a little biased towards perl]
I have been using python scripts too, for Openflow platform and some simple tasks. I have always been biased towards Perl as a better language, but today I must say, Python has an edge.
One thing that I have personally realized is the OOPs concept implemented in both the languages. In Perl, it was introduced late as the language was not designed for it. I had hard time for writing modules in Perl and creating classes using *bless* and never felt blessed.
I think Python is easier. Besides there are a number of libraries and active community for Python than Perl. Perl once notoriously famous for its jaws regex and weird syntax, and the usual bragging that comes about by saying " there is more than one way to do it !" is loosing its popularity(i doubt how much it was before, because of the reasons stated above).
I have found it hard to compare the two in the past for couple of years, but now ...
definitely, python is as good as perl in my opinion :) [I am still a little biased towards perl]
Friday, July 30, 2010
Heavy Metal at IIT Madras
Before coming to IIT Madras, i saw 'Saarang' advertisement in VH1 and i said ...there is more to IIT Madras than just academics. I found from my cousins and others, there is a lot of metal culture here... and a lot of hip hop too ! Hip hop and RnB apart from some numbers suck, because they literally demean women in most of their videos( but that is not what I wanna talk about, they can do what they want).
When I was in first year, there was only one shredder who ruled,that was JDK ...and there has never been anyone like him since then. He ripped Satriani on his guitar ... had underground jamming sessions and i liked it. 7x was also good ( my wm coord in first year) but he liked liter side of music... he could play Slash.Since then there was no one ... all Hendrix, Deep Purple like musicians... NO metal what so ever. I couldn't find any gas in "smoke on the water" what many people just loved, to be frank. Metal was dead in our IIT.
I missed what I wanted. I wanted something so evil and satanic that only few can stand it. I wanted people to appreciate something which talks about everything from politics to death to love to everything else. No one played likes of Iron Maiden, Anthrax ,Slayer, Pantera ,Megadeth, Metallica,Testament and that was so pissing, though all head banged in Saarang.
Till last semester there wasn't much buzz on metal. Then I played "Slayer" this Saarang. The response at WM Group was amazing and I loved.
I loved it because it was totally metal. We played Sabbath,Metallica,Alice in Chains... Pony played SOAD,Metallica...Sapola played Opeth and rest added too.
It wasn't about winning WM for me ... (thankfully one metal performance was amongst the top 3) ...Its about moshing together, its about sending a message of 'brotherhood', its something sublime.
Last night playing Motorhead, GnR (etc) and seeing mates headbanging, was Nirvana for me. There are breed of second/third year metalheads, who are mad about Megadeth, Cannibal Corpse, Meshuggah and it pacifies me to the core to see this love for metal in these teenagers.
Once visited by a '74 alumnus while jamming one of Pantera song for WM, he said,"We loved Zepelin , Sabbath,Floyd in those days... and people used to play it !". Then we had couple of toast to music and ourselves.I feel METAL is back and hopefully will rule Insti for years to come.
Metal Rules
I wish bands like Judas Priest,Slayer, Sabbath, Megadeth be played in IIT \m/.
-metalhead
When I was in first year, there was only one shredder who ruled,that was JDK ...and there has never been anyone like him since then. He ripped Satriani on his guitar ... had underground jamming sessions and i liked it. 7x was also good ( my wm coord in first year) but he liked liter side of music... he could play Slash.Since then there was no one ... all Hendrix, Deep Purple like musicians... NO metal what so ever. I couldn't find any gas in "smoke on the water" what many people just loved, to be frank. Metal was dead in our IIT.
I missed what I wanted. I wanted something so evil and satanic that only few can stand it. I wanted people to appreciate something which talks about everything from politics to death to love to everything else. No one played likes of Iron Maiden, Anthrax ,Slayer, Pantera ,Megadeth, Metallica,Testament and that was so pissing, though all head banged in Saarang.
Till last semester there wasn't much buzz on metal. Then I played "Slayer" this Saarang. The response at WM Group was amazing and I loved.
I loved it because it was totally metal. We played Sabbath,Metallica,Alice in Chains... Pony played SOAD,Metallica...Sapola played Opeth and rest added too.
It wasn't about winning WM for me ... (thankfully one metal performance was amongst the top 3) ...Its about moshing together, its about sending a message of 'brotherhood', its something sublime.
Last night playing Motorhead, GnR (etc) and seeing mates headbanging, was Nirvana for me. There are breed of second/third year metalheads, who are mad about Megadeth, Cannibal Corpse, Meshuggah and it pacifies me to the core to see this love for metal in these teenagers.
Once visited by a '74 alumnus while jamming one of Pantera song for WM, he said,"We loved Zepelin , Sabbath,Floyd in those days... and people used to play it !". Then we had couple of toast to music and ourselves.I feel METAL is back and hopefully will rule Insti for years to come.
Metal Rules
I wish bands like Judas Priest,Slayer, Sabbath, Megadeth be played in IIT \m/.
-metalhead
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Mobiles , the new generation
We are pretty much done with Desktops , laptops are stable pieces of computation . PDAs are too costly affair for what they provide.
Certainly , i think that mobiles are the gadgets of the present times. I mean all the stuff just clubbed into one thing . It can be really one thing to look after.
Giants like Nokia , LG , Moto , Sony ...Apple , Google etc list is endless are just pushing limits on this small device which is changing like anything. I cant really talk about the technology details as i am bound by legalities , but i am sure ... Mobiles are going to change the future of people ... i guess they really are . Apple as such with ipod has made a revolution as there are developers all over the globe to give user some great experience on this device . I mean we as humans want different experiences .
Previously , these devices dint look as cool , but as the User Interface has evolved to colored screens and the devices capabilities has evolved like anything having efficient micro kernels to control them , they are awesome.
I always though they can't be as good , with small buttons and small screen sizes ..(pathetic) but the kind of access they provide and the usability at any place .. and low energy consumption , with the internet at there disposal ... this technology is going to make billions and trillions in the business market , and a company to take control over this will be making gold .
There were issues at the technology levels , and the way these companies have handled them , i am just amazed . The complexity is still there , but its engineered to the optimum .
Certainly , i think that mobiles are the gadgets of the present times. I mean all the stuff just clubbed into one thing . It can be really one thing to look after.
Giants like Nokia , LG , Moto , Sony ...Apple , Google etc list is endless are just pushing limits on this small device which is changing like anything. I cant really talk about the technology details as i am bound by legalities , but i am sure ... Mobiles are going to change the future of people ... i guess they really are . Apple as such with ipod has made a revolution as there are developers all over the globe to give user some great experience on this device . I mean we as humans want different experiences .
Previously , these devices dint look as cool , but as the User Interface has evolved to colored screens and the devices capabilities has evolved like anything having efficient micro kernels to control them , they are awesome.
I always though they can't be as good , with small buttons and small screen sizes ..(pathetic) but the kind of access they provide and the usability at any place .. and low energy consumption , with the internet at there disposal ... this technology is going to make billions and trillions in the business market , and a company to take control over this will be making gold .
There were issues at the technology levels , and the way these companies have handled them , i am just amazed . The complexity is still there , but its engineered to the optimum .
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Elections ... me , the people
This is the election season , in which there are every party is talking about their usual agendas . I havent been following it much hectic academic routine , and saw few news papers and news channel . I don't have much to say , but few distinct points which i feel should be thought about . What is the intellectual capability of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to be a Prime Minister candidate , or even about the Congress Party say they are "apt" for the post.
I haven't found Rahul Gandhi any way near appealing than his decent looks. I haven't seen them empathizing with the pain of general masses . Most of the Congressmen hog on the reputation of greats like Mahatma Gandhi,Jawaharlal Nehru , Indira Gandhi , who had reach to the rural India. They knew what India was at grass-roots and worked for it , rather just talk about it .
The there comes issue of Obama ? do we need one ? who is the closest in resemblance . Hey Indians! why do we always need an entity from the West on which we want to put an Indian stamp. Let us be us , not US . I they dint have any woman president as we had Mrs. Gandhi (PM) . The hot issue i wanna press about is Mayawati . Every one is so offended by her name , makes a mockery of her , that i find a serious lack of intellectual people who can talk about her unbiased that she is from an oppressed section of the society . Every detail of her money transaction is followed , but none buddy cares where the other politicians take money from . The names are never brought into the limelight , but if its Mayawati , she sure should be there .
I guess , i personally like her dominance as a woman she is. She treats IAS as civil servants , not as they generally are , very elite class. She tells them to toe the line . She single handedly put Raja Bhaiya behind bars under POTA when every politician feared him . For once , just think , how much a woman , from under privileged section is fighting . Every one says , she keeps building Dr. Ambedkar's and her statues every where . So let me ask , what is development. Its very subjective to the society we live in .
The Americans have their agenda , Iraqis have theirs , and we in India , have ours . So , talk about the Indians , we have middle class men which have TV sets at home , decenet salary to get children in school and we mobilize our opinion in media the most ( let it be cinema reviews etc.) . But what about the rural India ? people living in villages, the downtroddens who are not even allowed to goto schools cuz they are not supposed to by birth. Discriminated against everywhere. I read an article in 11th May newspaper , which showed how poor SP administration were castes girls were deprived of education for the fear of sexual harassment , which stopped after Mayawati came to power. I guess she gives a ray of hope to many .
The agenda of those poor people ( who are poor not only financially , but culturally , ...) is not a beautiful four lane road.The agenda is " SELF RESPECT" , "DIGNITY" . In our IITs , first year we are given general courses to get to a common platform , forgetting our background we came from in JEE.
This is similar , you need to give these people some room to develop , to think more than just about their daily wage . I guess may be Maya wati does it. And her statue on a road gives that hope to the worker working in pits . I dont get when people talk , about Obama they talk about his past , about how he was made , but no one talks about how Mayawati came ?. I dont claim Mayawati as Indian Obama by any means , but this post of mine is just an independent view on that side of coin where many people don't even feel like looking . I guess that section of society is not looking for any other section of society to represent them , like the Congress did . So , some other community person makes laws for the outcasts and deprived and the deprived cant make laws for upper section . I am finding logic now in one society having equal rights , and if every person on television can say , i have my aspirations corrected this time to vote and prove his point , then i guess its time for the lowest section of the society too , to get there aspirations/needs everything right . No more false votes , booth capturing and later farmers of India die when the IT sector booms for a fortnight and crashes one arbitrary night leaving the nation all perplexed .
I am not on any political party side , but all i want from my fellow Indian brothers is to be unbiased when they vote. Though they vote to any party , but should learn to appreciate people for things that they have done , the hard times they go through . This is not a flame post , its just portrays something which even the Indian media fails to portray clearly .
I am studying technology , but I know the roots of India lie in villages , not in metros with pseudo Indians . We need to get the whole structure right . One day ,we will .
I haven't found Rahul Gandhi any way near appealing than his decent looks. I haven't seen them empathizing with the pain of general masses . Most of the Congressmen hog on the reputation of greats like Mahatma Gandhi,Jawaharlal Nehru , Indira Gandhi , who had reach to the rural India. They knew what India was at grass-roots and worked for it , rather just talk about it .
The there comes issue of Obama ? do we need one ? who is the closest in resemblance . Hey Indians! why do we always need an entity from the West on which we want to put an Indian stamp. Let us be us , not US . I they dint have any woman president as we had Mrs. Gandhi (PM) . The hot issue i wanna press about is Mayawati . Every one is so offended by her name , makes a mockery of her , that i find a serious lack of intellectual people who can talk about her unbiased that she is from an oppressed section of the society . Every detail of her money transaction is followed , but none buddy cares where the other politicians take money from . The names are never brought into the limelight , but if its Mayawati , she sure should be there .
I guess , i personally like her dominance as a woman she is. She treats IAS as civil servants , not as they generally are , very elite class. She tells them to toe the line . She single handedly put Raja Bhaiya behind bars under POTA when every politician feared him . For once , just think , how much a woman , from under privileged section is fighting . Every one says , she keeps building Dr. Ambedkar's and her statues every where . So let me ask , what is development. Its very subjective to the society we live in .
The Americans have their agenda , Iraqis have theirs , and we in India , have ours . So , talk about the Indians , we have middle class men which have TV sets at home , decenet salary to get children in school and we mobilize our opinion in media the most ( let it be cinema reviews etc.) . But what about the rural India ? people living in villages, the downtroddens who are not even allowed to goto schools cuz they are not supposed to by birth. Discriminated against everywhere. I read an article in 11th May newspaper , which showed how poor SP administration were castes girls were deprived of education for the fear of sexual harassment , which stopped after Mayawati came to power. I guess she gives a ray of hope to many .
The agenda of those poor people ( who are poor not only financially , but culturally , ...) is not a beautiful four lane road.The agenda is " SELF RESPECT" , "DIGNITY" . In our IITs , first year we are given general courses to get to a common platform , forgetting our background we came from in JEE.
This is similar , you need to give these people some room to develop , to think more than just about their daily wage . I guess may be Maya wati does it. And her statue on a road gives that hope to the worker working in pits . I dont get when people talk , about Obama they talk about his past , about how he was made , but no one talks about how Mayawati came ?. I dont claim Mayawati as Indian Obama by any means , but this post of mine is just an independent view on that side of coin where many people don't even feel like looking . I guess that section of society is not looking for any other section of society to represent them , like the Congress did . So , some other community person makes laws for the outcasts and deprived and the deprived cant make laws for upper section . I am finding logic now in one society having equal rights , and if every person on television can say , i have my aspirations corrected this time to vote and prove his point , then i guess its time for the lowest section of the society too , to get there aspirations/needs everything right . No more false votes , booth capturing and later farmers of India die when the IT sector booms for a fortnight and crashes one arbitrary night leaving the nation all perplexed .
I am not on any political party side , but all i want from my fellow Indian brothers is to be unbiased when they vote. Though they vote to any party , but should learn to appreciate people for things that they have done , the hard times they go through . This is not a flame post , its just portrays something which even the Indian media fails to portray clearly .
I am studying technology , but I know the roots of India lie in villages , not in metros with pseudo Indians . We need to get the whole structure right . One day ,we will .
Thursday, February 5, 2009
In loving memory of,Professor Raghavan
There are very few people in this world who touch heart of every person they meet. He was one of them. Prof. Veera was very knowlegeable , passionate person .He had a lot of insight about the society , its socio-cultural background . Very punctual , humble person .He was one of those whom you can speak your true heart out and he will relate to you.
He will make you feel good about things, bring out points which u wont notice usually (even though i m a good observer).
He is one of the few professor who cared for students , not just for their academic life but also about other concerns and advise them to do the right thing , if not the best thing. He is the kind of person who can motivate you , inspire you and really make you a better person on any day .
He helped me in understanding society in a better way and gave me , and was very understanding , and used to reply cheerfully even when i was virtually ready to fight it out . I don't find people whom i can talk so frankly about , but he was really one of the best person i met.
There was nothing like a disability in him , like he was blind , but i guess he had more powers than ordinary being . He can make out how you are feeling .
He had real sensitive ears... I know cuz i tried to sneak in once , and he got me ! .Prof. RKK told me today , that he was very helpful and one of RKKs story goes like ,.. He and Veera taught english to one of IIT M's b.tech batch and Veera used to be instrumental in making students learn the subject and everyone appreciated there efforts together. One of the courses RKK loved to have taught.
I guess it was Cancer to be the cause of his mournful demise . I don't want to count how meritorious he was( which is so useless) , but the person he was , because at this time , its all that matters .
I had a feeling at the start of the semester to meet him , but just got carried away with the usual work, and now i wish ... had i met him :( .
For IIT M, it has lost one of its best professors .
Today , i am sad .
May his soul rest in peace .
He will make you feel good about things, bring out points which u wont notice usually (even though i m a good observer).
He is one of the few professor who cared for students , not just for their academic life but also about other concerns and advise them to do the right thing , if not the best thing. He is the kind of person who can motivate you , inspire you and really make you a better person on any day .
He helped me in understanding society in a better way and gave me , and was very understanding , and used to reply cheerfully even when i was virtually ready to fight it out . I don't find people whom i can talk so frankly about , but he was really one of the best person i met.
There was nothing like a disability in him , like he was blind , but i guess he had more powers than ordinary being . He can make out how you are feeling .
He had real sensitive ears... I know cuz i tried to sneak in once , and he got me ! .Prof. RKK told me today , that he was very helpful and one of RKKs story goes like ,.. He and Veera taught english to one of IIT M's b.tech batch and Veera used to be instrumental in making students learn the subject and everyone appreciated there efforts together. One of the courses RKK loved to have taught.
I guess it was Cancer to be the cause of his mournful demise . I don't want to count how meritorious he was( which is so useless) , but the person he was , because at this time , its all that matters .
I had a feeling at the start of the semester to meet him , but just got carried away with the usual work, and now i wish ... had i met him :( .
For IIT M, it has lost one of its best professors .
Today , i am sad .
May his soul rest in peace .
Monday, February 2, 2009
Women ,women and Nandita das
There was en EML today by Nandita Das about "How Cinema effects Society" blah , on which she dint speak much but rather her experiences and the social activist she is.I felt about many things the way she does , or rather more strongly than her at places( but i am not an activist) .
She aptly said , that we fall back to be proud of things as " i m a Brahmin" , " i am a Marathi" , " I am a Bengali" etc , which we have not even control of ! . Its just lack of self esteem that people do it and divide society on wrong note .
One of the part which i can appreciate about is her stand as a women of substance rather as an "object of Affection/Lust" . She said she has an issue with " fair & lovely " kind of stuffs and she doesnt use them at all ( wonder she does for films atleast !).
I also think that women are not just for looking good and skinny , glowy etc , physical interpretation of XX genes with all their attributes but something more.Truly , girls who look around in mirror all time isn't a bravo.Actually, should be more dimensions to women than just appearance , after which world is going crazy about.These are society driven thoughts and concepts . Having shooted for "fair & lovely " kind of stuffs and she doesnt use them at all ( wonder she does for films atleast !).
I also think that women are not just for looking good and skinny , glowy etc , physical interpretation of XX genes with all their attributes but something more.Truly , girls who look around in mirror all time isn't a bravo.Actually, should be more dimensions to women than just appearance , after which world is going crazy about.These are society driven thoughts and concepts . Having substance is more important than just looks.
It reminds of the shift in status of women in history of India over the ages ,which is strongly depicted in the epics of the times like Mahabharat and Ramayan .
In one the women in society as lowly and rather helpless , while in the other she is more dynamic , speaks her voice
I wonder what todays women prototype them as ?
I think Nandita was as Rocking in Rockford(!) as she was today ... and thats more like it .
That said , to be part of social change , i should be doing more than writing a blog post ! Society has mutated a lot in the last decade than in last 50 years together , so i should ketchuptance is more important than just looks.
It reminds of the shift in status of women in history of India over the ages ,which is strongly depicted in the epics of the times like Mahabharata and Ramayana .
In one the women in society as lowly and rather helpless , while in the other she is more dynamic , speaks her voice
I wonder what todays women prototype them as ?
I think Nandita was as Rocking in Rockford(!) as she was today ... and thats more like it .
That said , to be part of social change , i should be doing more than writing a blog post ! Society has mutated a lot in the last decade than in last 50 years together , so i should ketchup
She aptly said , that we fall back to be proud of things as " i m a Brahmin" , " i am a Marathi" , " I am a Bengali" etc , which we have not even control of ! . Its just lack of self esteem that people do it and divide society on wrong note .
One of the part which i can appreciate about is her stand as a women of substance rather as an "object of Affection/Lust" . She said she has an issue with " fair & lovely " kind of stuffs and she doesnt use them at all ( wonder she does for films atleast !).
I also think that women are not just for looking good and skinny , glowy etc , physical interpretation of XX genes with all their attributes but something more.Truly , girls who look around in mirror all time isn't a bravo.Actually, should be more dimensions to women than just appearance , after which world is going crazy about.These are society driven thoughts and concepts . Having shooted for "fair & lovely " kind of stuffs and she doesnt use them at all ( wonder she does for films atleast !).
I also think that women are not just for looking good and skinny , glowy etc , physical interpretation of XX genes with all their attributes but something more.Truly , girls who look around in mirror all time isn't a bravo.Actually, should be more dimensions to women than just appearance , after which world is going crazy about.These are society driven thoughts and concepts . Having substance is more important than just looks.
It reminds of the shift in status of women in history of India over the ages ,which is strongly depicted in the epics of the times like Mahabharat and Ramayan .
In one the women in society as lowly and rather helpless , while in the other she is more dynamic , speaks her voice
I wonder what todays women prototype them as ?
I think Nandita was as Rocking in Rockford(!) as she was today ... and thats more like it .
That said , to be part of social change , i should be doing more than writing a blog post ! Society has mutated a lot in the last decade than in last 50 years together , so i should ketchuptance is more important than just looks.
It reminds of the shift in status of women in history of India over the ages ,which is strongly depicted in the epics of the times like Mahabharata and Ramayana .
In one the women in society as lowly and rather helpless , while in the other she is more dynamic , speaks her voice
I wonder what todays women prototype them as ?
I think Nandita was as Rocking in Rockford(!) as she was today ... and thats more like it .
That said , to be part of social change , i should be doing more than writing a blog post ! Society has mutated a lot in the last decade than in last 50 years together , so i should ketchup
Sunday, February 1, 2009
You got Language Problem !
Many a times , we talk about what is a better approach to teach concurrent programming and a group of people say , lets just start teaching concurrent programming from the start and forget about sequential programming and it will help make students better programmers as they will think differently . Similarly , about the question that should C really be thought first or we start with python as its easy and later when students are comfortable with understanding constructs , teach them C and let them do memory management carefully by themselves .
For the first part of the question ... i was just reading about linear vector spaces for Quantum Mechanics and it struck me that , how about we start teaching kinderGarden kids , complex numbers as they are the super-set of Real numbers and then teach them real numbers. It will be a whole new approach for them to understand this world (much like teaching concurrent programming from the initial start !). So is it an absurd answers from me ? you can argue better .
Though there are universities in the world going ahead with teaching students concurrent programming before they even know how to write the Gawd program of "Hello World " in C . Lets see the results ! I mean when u dont know how one thread works exactly , how are you going to deal with a pool of them ? may be you can ? may be not !
And about the beginners language , i personally feel C is the one to be taught in the initial sems , though there is a lot of buzz of Java , but then one can't understand the subtle issues in programmng when you hava garbage collector to do work for you and you might be stuck in a prototype O-O Prgramming paradigm . I guess the conventional approach is best . To add , once Prof. RKK also agrred that C is a must, than Java . Well as far as i know , IIT-K , IIT-B professors have gone ahead with Java and IIT-M is still stuck with C. To be very precise , we are not in IIT , to learn the most exciting language , but understand the underlying science behind it , for which C is best suited .
I wanted to write about it as Prof. has brought it up in lectures quite a number of time and students had a varied opinion from it , i thought i should be also clear in black and white about this debatable topic
For the first part of the question ... i was just reading about linear vector spaces for Quantum Mechanics and it struck me that , how about we start teaching kinderGarden kids , complex numbers as they are the super-set of Real numbers and then teach them real numbers. It will be a whole new approach for them to understand this world (much like teaching concurrent programming from the initial start !). So is it an absurd answers from me ? you can argue better .
Though there are universities in the world going ahead with teaching students concurrent programming before they even know how to write the Gawd program of "Hello World " in C . Lets see the results ! I mean when u dont know how one thread works exactly , how are you going to deal with a pool of them ? may be you can ? may be not !
And about the beginners language , i personally feel C is the one to be taught in the initial sems , though there is a lot of buzz of Java , but then one can't understand the subtle issues in programmng when you hava garbage collector to do work for you and you might be stuck in a prototype O-O Prgramming paradigm . I guess the conventional approach is best . To add , once Prof. RKK also agrred that C is a must, than Java . Well as far as i know , IIT-K , IIT-B professors have gone ahead with Java and IIT-M is still stuck with C. To be very precise , we are not in IIT , to learn the most exciting language , but understand the underlying science behind it , for which C is best suited .
I wanted to write about it as Prof. has brought it up in lectures quite a number of time and students had a varied opinion from it , i thought i should be also clear in black and white about this debatable topic
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Heavy Metal
What is \M/etal ?
another form of expression ?? huh !
the best part of it is , you can't define it ! you can just hear it , feel it... and it hits you straight at your heart. It is about peace and love (though rarely ) . It has a dark story to tell .Its very rough ,hard and very metal.
It is one form of music which is to stay forever .(and blessed it doesn't talk about girlfriend , boyfriend crap and all that surrounds ). It has different subject matters to talk about , and it deals with them ruthlessly .
It all started with Black Sabbath , and the evil record 'Black Sabbath' , released on Friday 13 , 1970 . It
started in Burmingham , with the slaughterer Ozzy on vocals and Tony's evil guitar who can call on Satan any day(though it was because of his injured finger !) . Its been the music of the working class .It has those heavy
sounds of metal factories , the baseness and bluntness , anger and everything.
Heavy metal is always related with horror , very dark , very real , very straight . It is about rebellion without cause.
It is about freedom , not being tied by anything . It talks about the darkest moments of anyone's life. This music can read the `Gospel of Filth' without any hesitations and you will respect the description.
Road map to \m/etal music bands was basically laid by Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin in the early seventies.
\M/etal has its roots very much in Black Sabbath , Judas Priest , Iron Maiden and later \M/etallica .
Judas Priest was the first all in all \m/etal band who embraced the hard-metal look with leather jackets , and metallic belts.. unlike KISS (suckers) , who turned pop , disgrace to \m/etal .
Iron Maiden , took British heavy \m/etal to new heights.
Those who think punk movement started \m/etal are wrong in more than one way because punk with disco almost tried to kill '\M/etal' at one time .
If Black Sabbath started \M/etal , Metallica was one band , who reinvented \m/etal . With there long and ever different riffs , Metallica produced records way ahead of any band at that time .It was Lars and Hetfield , two
close friends who made music , what it really is thrashing away all those posers and fake bands like 'Poison' , 'Bon Jovi'( sorry but true). They loved the music they made. No flamboyance , no pretense . Bare plain truths spitted with ever faster riffs .
Thrash \m/etal is one major form of \m/etal ( as later some n kind of \m/etal bands spurted out from nowhere ... melodic metal , grunge metal , glam (Gay LA Metal - by Mustaine :P ) metal , melodic death metal , spooky metal and what all metal ).
The deadliest and evil music ever recorded was by Slayer - ` reign in blood ' , 39 minutes of pure hell .
Megadeth (my all time favorite ... I picked up guitars just to make the most bitchin' sound like Dave ) and the weakest of the " The Big Four "- Anthrax .They made metal faster and heavier . This was americanized Metal .
How about the metal symbol "\m/" - Corna , also called the evil eye , devil's horn etc .
Dio used to show it during concerts like Ozzy used to show "V" when he was in Sabbath , and now it completely defines metal .It resembles the triple six (666) ,in the book of revelation , the demons symbol !
From Sabbath , Zeppelin ,KISS ,Alice Cooper, AC/DC, Motorhead, Priest , Van Halen , Def Leppard ,Metallica and ...
everyone has contributed to Metal in their own way ... and above all the most loyal fan base of all . We called the \M/etal heads , headbangers embrace it as one kind of religion and identify with this form of music .
Metal is here to stay forever though at times its future has been seriously in grave but it always rises as phoenix .
\M/etal is very blunt , straight , confronting form of music .
\M/etal is about respect and credibility .
\M/etal is the real deal .
\M/etal relieves you from Frustration.
\M/etal tells you to fight against Society .
\M/etal pisses people too !! .
\M/etal wards off your fear of pain
It tells you to kick back and fight .
It is kick ass like no other \M/usic .
\M/etal is mystic , occult , strange but still familiar
It doesn't make the culture obscene, disgrace women as s**ts as hip hop does .( i can't help saying it )
Though i am influenced by \m/etal and identify \m/yself with it , but i can appreciate and it Ravi Shankar as one of the the greatest musician , and some of the Doors song pain my ears , like anyone else would be after Slayer's
bloodline ( and bloodline is one of my all time favorite :) )
another form of expression ?? huh !
the best part of it is , you can't define it ! you can just hear it , feel it... and it hits you straight at your heart. It is about peace and love (though rarely ) . It has a dark story to tell .Its very rough ,hard and very metal.
It is one form of music which is to stay forever .(and blessed it doesn't talk about girlfriend , boyfriend crap and all that surrounds ). It has different subject matters to talk about , and it deals with them ruthlessly .
It all started with Black Sabbath , and the evil record 'Black Sabbath' , released on Friday 13 , 1970 . It
started in Burmingham , with the slaughterer Ozzy on vocals and Tony's evil guitar who can call on Satan any day(though it was because of his injured finger !) . Its been the music of the working class .It has those heavy
sounds of metal factories , the baseness and bluntness , anger and everything.
Heavy metal is always related with horror , very dark , very real , very straight . It is about rebellion without cause.
It is about freedom , not being tied by anything . It talks about the darkest moments of anyone's life. This music can read the `Gospel of Filth' without any hesitations and you will respect the description.
Road map to \m/etal music bands was basically laid by Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin in the early seventies.
\M/etal has its roots very much in Black Sabbath , Judas Priest , Iron Maiden and later \M/etallica .
Judas Priest was the first all in all \m/etal band who embraced the hard-metal look with leather jackets , and metallic belts.. unlike KISS (suckers) , who turned pop , disgrace to \m/etal .
Iron Maiden , took British heavy \m/etal to new heights.
Those who think punk movement started \m/etal are wrong in more than one way because punk with disco almost tried to kill '\M/etal' at one time .
If Black Sabbath started \M/etal , Metallica was one band , who reinvented \m/etal . With there long and ever different riffs , Metallica produced records way ahead of any band at that time .It was Lars and Hetfield , two
close friends who made music , what it really is thrashing away all those posers and fake bands like 'Poison' , 'Bon Jovi'( sorry but true). They loved the music they made. No flamboyance , no pretense . Bare plain truths spitted with ever faster riffs .
Thrash \m/etal is one major form of \m/etal ( as later some n kind of \m/etal bands spurted out from nowhere ... melodic metal , grunge metal , glam (Gay LA Metal - by Mustaine :P ) metal , melodic death metal , spooky metal and what all metal ).
The deadliest and evil music ever recorded was by Slayer - ` reign in blood ' , 39 minutes of pure hell .
Megadeth (my all time favorite ... I picked up guitars just to make the most bitchin' sound like Dave ) and the weakest of the " The Big Four "- Anthrax .They made metal faster and heavier . This was americanized Metal .
How about the metal symbol "\m/" - Corna , also called the evil eye , devil's horn etc .
Dio used to show it during concerts like Ozzy used to show "V" when he was in Sabbath , and now it completely defines metal .It resembles the triple six (666) ,in the book of revelation , the demons symbol !
From Sabbath , Zeppelin ,KISS ,Alice Cooper, AC/DC, Motorhead, Priest , Van Halen , Def Leppard ,Metallica and ...
everyone has contributed to Metal in their own way ... and above all the most loyal fan base of all . We called the \M/etal heads , headbangers embrace it as one kind of religion and identify with this form of music .
Metal is here to stay forever though at times its future has been seriously in grave but it always rises as phoenix .
\M/etal is very blunt , straight , confronting form of music .
\M/etal is about respect and credibility .
\M/etal is the real deal .
\M/etal relieves you from Frustration.
\M/etal tells you to fight against Society .
\M/etal pisses people too !! .
\M/etal wards off your fear of pain
It tells you to kick back and fight .
It is kick ass like no other \M/usic .
\M/etal is mystic , occult , strange but still familiar
It doesn't make the culture obscene, disgrace women as s**ts as hip hop does .( i can't help saying it )
Though i am influenced by \m/etal and identify \m/yself with it , but i can appreciate and it Ravi Shankar as one of the the greatest musician , and some of the Doors song pain my ears , like anyone else would be after Slayer's
bloodline ( and bloodline is one of my all time favorite :) )
Sunday, November 2, 2008
V for vetty before PoP Quiz
who googles Alexandra Kosteniuk ?
I do ..
and about my death ??
its august 11 ,monday ,2059 ...
which is obba wrong , cuz i will be flying away in 2085 !!
this one is a beautiful poem , thanx to Ng for telling me :
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: --Rudyard Kipling
I do ..
and about my death ??
its august 11 ,monday ,2059 ...
which is obba wrong , cuz i will be flying away in 2085 !!
this one is a beautiful poem , thanx to Ng for telling me :
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
from the only BATMAN comics i have read ( not watched )
- Its not what you are inside , its what you do that defines you
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Scilence
It just feels sometimes , what can silence mean , though some say there is a science to it .
Sometimes , one feels silence also has feelings attached to them ....so does it say something ? oO , is it context sensitive ?
Well at times it speaks volumes , and you appreciate the person is saying so much , sometimes you feels bad about the whole silence issue ...
but i got another feeling about silence ...
this one , it just says nothing at all , its feelingless , cold , ' don't give a damn about it ..' feeling , and i sometime feel good about it and sometimes bad
Sometimes , one feels silence also has feelings attached to them ....so does it say something ? oO , is it context sensitive ?
Well at times it speaks volumes , and you appreciate the person is saying so much , sometimes you feels bad about the whole silence issue ...
but i got another feeling about silence ...
this one , it just says nothing at all , its feelingless , cold , ' don't give a damn about it ..' feeling , and i sometime feel good about it and sometimes bad
Friday, June 27, 2008
project ,Rkk , summer , toil .....
This is an undated peice of text written sometime ... but i wanted to acknowledge one of the influencial,inspiring,respectable people in my life .Professor R.Kalyan Krishnan,CSE,IIT Madras .I saw it after having possibly a last proper chat with him today.
There was a strong will in three of us to do something apart from the
regular academics.To learn something and apply it. Fortunately, Prof. RKK
saw our enthusiasm and directed us to focus our atttention on some small
tasks. Initially, he gave us the overview of the project. We use to meet him everyday in morning hours of the day and he use to tell
us about different problems and told us to think about it .We then had to
think about the issues involved in the problem and how we can handle it.
The Professor use to give us tasks relating to things which we will be
dealing later in the project.By regularly listening to him and his varied
ideas we developed to think similarly. He taught us ,by his unique way, how to approach a problem and think about
all possible situations .How can a small issue later on can make things
difficult.The things which ,he told us daily to do ,made sense later in the summer
when we were working rigrously on the project as they were not some chunks
of information but a continuous stream of information.During , the daily meetings,many useful ideas were discussed . We learned
there is a difference between a brilliant idea which may get flopped
sometimes ,but a simple idea which may work almost always.There may be
something good ,but how feasible it is to implement also matters.To work efficiently, we had to understand the project requirements.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
PiComposition
Just another night while i sit in hostel room after long hours in the lab .Just came across this picture , which was sent across by my friend .It was taken by an amateur photographer .
Its quiet interesting in all the sense i know something about photography (or may be little apart from the shutter speed and exposure time and applying them).
It is fantastic as it covers all the three ... land (synonymously boat) , water and sky.
Its beautiful in the sense that it depicts the right time of the day . The land is darker and then there is light and then there is darkness again in the upper dungeons . The presence of a man gives an even greater insight connecting the mean to the superlative(the land to the sky).
The changing color of water as darkness eats the other part of sea gives it another dimension.
Just looking at the top portion of the man you can notice that there is a blurred light at one part and sharp light just on the other . It just looks as if mind has filtered out wisdom from knowledge .
Another interpretation , it represents a lone person boldly rowing with hope when he see' s a dim shimmer at some endless end .
Thats just my imagination as i thought of writing a picture composition after i gave my board examination long back !
Just make me think , that if it is so beautiful after on a digital camera ,
it would be fantabulous if taken from an analog one , as one can't catch the
beauty of analog world from a digital world with perfection
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Memorable Loner Journeys
While doing a summer project , i got my tickets booked from "delhi to chennai" a month before i left chennai for home.I realised its an evening flight from delhi so , i will goto delhi ,that morning by lucknow mail , and then leave for chennai in the evening after meeting my friends etc.
So , the day ,night of which i was supposed to leave from lucknow(where i live) to leave for New Delhi, i watched helluva Vh1 and channel [V] listening to songs, and din't sleep .
Next morning i woke up at 1o in morning , i just had a look at the air ticket and it said 0400 hrs.It just struck that flight must be in the morning as time is in hundred hours , rather in the evening .I would be reaching Delhi at 0700 , and fight would be reaching chennai 0630 hrs .I dint even brush and rushed to take Rajdhani Express ticket at the railway station .That day i realised Lucknow Railway station is so huge and has four ticket counters and i visited all four of them in a sprint .Finally he says come at 1400 hrs , you might get one .I waited there in hunger and anxiety for the ticket .Meanwhile my father came to station to take care of things and i rushed home to pack my stuff and fresh and all . Finally , got in the train and i coudn't properly sleep in the chair car .Got down at NDRL Station,in the night at 23:15. Went to Mayuur Vihar to friend's place .Started for Local AirPort at 0200 hrs,which is at the other extreme of Delhi , and still got stuck in a traffic jam of trucks at night ,but finally made it to the station .
Reached chennai at 0630 , reached IIT at 0730 ,and attended A slot @ 0800 !! .The trip was awesome ,though i couldn't meet any of my freinds or relative in delhi, had adrenaline pumpng for all the night .
Once i just decide to go home from New Delhi at the weekend . Ihad not much money with me and i went to NDRL station and got tickets after staniding in a long difficult queue . I got a general ticket as i knew , the TT will later arrange for a seat in the train, coz thats how things go in Gomti Express . It was a huge rush that day and i was travelling in general for the first time so i din't have a clue as to what was supposed to be done .I just got in .I kept rs 250 in my wallet and the rest 400 in my front pocket of jeans with the ticket as i thought if the pick -pocketer steals my wallet , i will be safe .
But in that madness of crowd to get a seat and all , i lost track of myself and someone stole my money and tickets from my front pocket and i had only my wallet left with me .I stood aghast as i never expected this thing to happen.The train had started and i could not even get off. It felt i made a fool of myself by making a choice of going home.
There was a huge penalty for ticketless passengers as obvious , and i was scared to death .
People suggested me to get off at Aligarh station and take the next train and boys told me they can help with my luggage and i shoud get off the other side of track so the TT at station does not tnotice me .They looked skeptic and i just thought ow to tackle . I then decide to stay on board rather trusting the strangers .
I took Lord's name and just sat near the toilet as it was all stuffed .Luckily nobody came to ceck the train bogie as it was weekend ad crowd was huge .The train was late and i stood thire for bloody eight hours without even drinking water as i had not enough money to buy waterbottle as i might have to pay TT something .I was just thinking i can't even make the genuine excuse of loosing mooney and ticket as every person caught would make it .
Then finally Kanpur came and i got off thier as there is a securit check between kanpur and lucknow .
I walked off the backdoor from the station.Took a bus for lucknow from there and reached home at around 0100 hrs in morning .
I had no mobile to inform my parents in what shit i got into , no money to pay the penalty ,or even to drink water .
There are few more , may be i post it sometimes later ...though i know no one cares reading them :/
Now i do long journeys from chenaai to hometown , that things remain pretty predictable and spice is not there
So , the day ,night of which i was supposed to leave from lucknow(where i live) to leave for New Delhi, i watched helluva Vh1 and channel [V] listening to songs, and din't sleep .
Next morning i woke up at 1o in morning , i just had a look at the air ticket and it said 0400 hrs.It just struck that flight must be in the morning as time is in hundred hours , rather in the evening .I would be reaching Delhi at 0700 , and fight would be reaching chennai 0630 hrs .I dint even brush and rushed to take Rajdhani Express ticket at the railway station .That day i realised Lucknow Railway station is so huge and has four ticket counters and i visited all four of them in a sprint .Finally he says come at 1400 hrs , you might get one .I waited there in hunger and anxiety for the ticket .Meanwhile my father came to station to take care of things and i rushed home to pack my stuff and fresh and all . Finally , got in the train and i coudn't properly sleep in the chair car .Got down at NDRL Station,in the night at 23:15. Went to Mayuur Vihar to friend's place .Started for Local AirPort at 0200 hrs,which is at the other extreme of Delhi , and still got stuck in a traffic jam of trucks at night ,but finally made it to the station .
Reached chennai at 0630 , reached IIT at 0730 ,and attended A slot @ 0800 !! .The trip was awesome ,though i couldn't meet any of my freinds or relative in delhi, had adrenaline pumpng for all the night .
Once i just decide to go home from New Delhi at the weekend . Ihad not much money with me and i went to NDRL station and got tickets after staniding in a long difficult queue . I got a general ticket as i knew , the TT will later arrange for a seat in the train, coz thats how things go in Gomti Express . It was a huge rush that day and i was travelling in general for the first time so i din't have a clue as to what was supposed to be done .I just got in .I kept rs 250 in my wallet and the rest 400 in my front pocket of jeans with the ticket as i thought if the pick -pocketer steals my wallet , i will be safe .
But in that madness of crowd to get a seat and all , i lost track of myself and someone stole my money and tickets from my front pocket and i had only my wallet left with me .I stood aghast as i never expected this thing to happen.The train had started and i could not even get off. It felt i made a fool of myself by making a choice of going home.
There was a huge penalty for ticketless passengers as obvious , and i was scared to death .
People suggested me to get off at Aligarh station and take the next train and boys told me they can help with my luggage and i shoud get off the other side of track so the TT at station does not tnotice me .They looked skeptic and i just thought ow to tackle . I then decide to stay on board rather trusting the strangers .
I took Lord's name and just sat near the toilet as it was all stuffed .Luckily nobody came to ceck the train bogie as it was weekend ad crowd was huge .The train was late and i stood thire for bloody eight hours without even drinking water as i had not enough money to buy waterbottle as i might have to pay TT something .I was just thinking i can't even make the genuine excuse of loosing mooney and ticket as every person caught would make it .
Then finally Kanpur came and i got off thier as there is a securit check between kanpur and lucknow .
I walked off the backdoor from the station.Took a bus for lucknow from there and reached home at around 0100 hrs in morning .
I had no mobile to inform my parents in what shit i got into , no money to pay the penalty ,or even to drink water .
There are few more , may be i post it sometimes later ...though i know no one cares reading them :/
Now i do long journeys from chenaai to hometown , that things remain pretty predictable and spice is not there
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Life ...
This is one of those things i feel like sharing about.
Is Life all about degrees you have , and from which prestigious university or company you are at?
Is it more about things you care of rather than about people in general. A doctor who helps say 10 persons to live life again as is known in a small region of say 10km. radius or a mathetech who the world knows is better for his some theory.
Life seems shit now that its all about "money" and "time" and no more about individuals ,persons , lives .development everywhere but for WHAT? ever rising crime ,global warming , women assaults ,nationwide strifes !
Freedom for all , my foot ... everyone grounded by their bosses.Freedom for women, they've been chased down worst by this world ever in history.
Everyone tries to be someone he is not .May be Hendrix , Shakira ,Einstein . I say , let the chips fall , let us all evolve to be better humans.
Were we better in the pre industrial era ? ok , we had problems ,but they were far less in magnitude and gravity than what we have created now . Point is we had lesser desire , rightly said by Mahatma Gandhi (though i don't consider him a mahatma ) , there is enough for every man's need but not for every man's greed
Is it competition that we wanted ?? "cut throat " , "professionalism" etc.
Winning by hook or by crook ? Is this what our society preaches now , as we have burried our own value system ,and adopted the "Just Do It" philosophy of the west .
All these shows like "The Apprentice" etc are excellent.. about how best one can be ? but for what ? to make his life worst !!
Work for 24x7 for 11 months an year and take a month break(if given ) to enjoy life. Are we machines ? huh !
may be we are turning to be better machines and worst humans.( i wonder what we are) .
Come to techie world , What are we indians producing :: IT professionals gimme a break , or just n thousand working computer heads . Can we be better ?? or were we to produce intellectuals , thinkers ,creative minds , poets ,and literature pandits
Whats the education system giving at schools? --cramming ability to students than creative thinking . a study of top schools of Indian metros was done and report stated the best grade four student scored as much as an average performer of grade three of China .
What are we runnng after , doing more than we an handle .Students all over doping and smoking away life under stress or may be coz it looks cool to do some sh** like that.
Everyone is more self obsessed than ever .Everyone interested in other's life more than his for a better reason than i can give .
For once i think , battle of Troy was over a stupid issue , but i think fighting for love is a better reason than for a piece of land or worldly treasure. As caring individual for intrinsic value is much better than for money/other motive .
Ask yourself , is this the world we want ? or we are creating our own pits .
though i sound lika sh**y luser above to many but this is what i feel in a chilly night of dec 31st ,2007 when i m travelling to chennai alone in the middle of nowhere .
Is Life all about degrees you have , and from which prestigious university or company you are at?
Is it more about things you care of rather than about people in general. A doctor who helps say 10 persons to live life again as is known in a small region of say 10km. radius or a mathetech who the world knows is better for his some theory.
Life seems shit now that its all about "money" and "time" and no more about individuals ,persons , lives .development everywhere but for WHAT? ever rising crime ,global warming , women assaults ,nationwide strifes !
Freedom for all , my foot ... everyone grounded by their bosses.Freedom for women, they've been chased down worst by this world ever in history.
Everyone tries to be someone he is not .May be Hendrix , Shakira ,Einstein . I say , let the chips fall , let us all evolve to be better humans.
Were we better in the pre industrial era ? ok , we had problems ,but they were far less in magnitude and gravity than what we have created now . Point is we had lesser desire , rightly said by Mahatma Gandhi (though i don't consider him a mahatma ) , there is enough for every man's need but not for every man's greed
Is it competition that we wanted ?? "cut throat " , "professionalism" etc.
Winning by hook or by crook ? Is this what our society preaches now , as we have burried our own value system ,and adopted the "Just Do It" philosophy of the west .
All these shows like "The Apprentice" etc are excellent.. about how best one can be ? but for what ? to make his life worst !!
Work for 24x7 for 11 months an year and take a month break(if given ) to enjoy life. Are we machines ? huh !
may be we are turning to be better machines and worst humans.( i wonder what we are) .
Come to techie world , What are we indians producing :: IT professionals gimme a break , or just n thousand working computer heads . Can we be better ?? or were we to produce intellectuals , thinkers ,creative minds , poets ,and literature pandits
Whats the education system giving at schools? --cramming ability to students than creative thinking . a study of top schools of Indian metros was done and report stated the best grade four student scored as much as an average performer of grade three of China .
What are we runnng after , doing more than we an handle .Students all over doping and smoking away life under stress or may be coz it looks cool to do some sh** like that.
Everyone is more self obsessed than ever .Everyone interested in other's life more than his for a better reason than i can give .
For once i think , battle of Troy was over a stupid issue , but i think fighting for love is a better reason than for a piece of land or worldly treasure. As caring individual for intrinsic value is much better than for money/other motive .
Ask yourself , is this the world we want ? or we are creating our own pits .
though i sound lika sh**y luser above to many but this is what i feel in a chilly night of dec 31st ,2007 when i m travelling to chennai alone in the middle of nowhere .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
