Ashore

Sometimes you see a sailor and you know he will never be left to anchor but sometimes one is proved wrong. I wrote long back about this person and felt the chasm too much to be carried by his own wings. Land he did and safely ashore is the sailor. I can only say I want to cross to the other side just to catch a glimpse of his happiness. The rare smiles that his wife always says happens only with me is now hers.

Rest now, my dear fellow and sleep well. You have come a long way without panting and always looking ahead. Drink from the cup of life and relax in the shade of a tree. I dont k now if this is not nice what else could be nice to you. Many a battle we have fought and a few minor ones lie ahead but take note:your legacy shall be continued in every single battle I fight ahead. Peace out

Math of Marriage

I went with a solution for a particular problem using this technique and the people responded they solved the problem using this technique. I did look at the algorithm in all its glory. Its optimal but my question was does it guarantee happiness.

Oh! I forgot to tell, replace the world male with server and female with client in the problem which is what we were solving for and not the other real problems out of cyberspace.

Dear Toru

I was abruptly thinking of poetry today and how much I missed reading/savoring one. Inevitably I ran through a mental list of poets of whom I have grown with and enjoyed.
However there is one poet who in my mind ranks far greater than Emily Dickinson and this happens only when I rummage through the coarse remains of my mind. I am not sure how many of you are aware of Toru Dutt, who in my opinion the greatest poetess ever produced by India in the last few centuries. That meter & rhyme, that texture, those complex narratives laid bare almost in a kaleidoscopal fashion and all you needed was to turn the kaleidoscope enough times to gauge the beauty and finally those hauntiny lyrics. Havent left me in the last 14 years. Without much ado, please sample the following snippet and tell me what caliber of poet is needed to pull it off (Keats is the answer methinks)

Still barred thy doors! The far East glows,
The morning wind blows fresh and free.
Should not the hour that wakes the rose
Awaken also thee?

All look for thee, Love, Light, and Song,
Light in the sky deep red above,
Song, in the lark of pinions strong,
And in my heart, true Love.

Apart we miss our nature's goal,
Why strive to cheat our destinies?
Was not my love made for thy soul?
Thy beauty for mine eyes?
No longer sleep,
Oh, listen now!
I wait and weep,
But where art thou?

On the onset of her illness at age 21, she wrote the following to a friend:

"My constitution is not strong; I contracted an obstinate cough, there is more than two years, which does not leave me. However I hope to put the hand at work soon. I cannot say, Miss, how much your affection-because like them to you, your book and your letter testify some enough-for my compatriots and my country touches me; and I am proud of being able the statement which heroines of our large are worthy of any honor and any love. Is there more touching heroine, more pleasant than Sîta? I do not believe it. When I intend my mére to sing, the evening, the old songs of our country, I almost always cry. The complaint of Sîta, when, banished for the second time, she wanders in the vast forest, only, despair and fear in the heart, is so pathetic that there is nobody, I believe, who can hear it without pouring tears. I am sending under this fold two small translations of Sanskrit, this beautiful ancient language. Unfortunately I was obliged to put an end to my translations of Sanskrit, six months ago. My health does not enable me to continue them"

-Forgive the loss of meaning through the translation from the original french.

If I have any luck in any of my lives spent, one of it would be that of being a faint and a very mellow concordant echo in that mind of hers' when she does her wordsmithing on the poem "Sita" (my favoritest poem). If you would like to read more of her please peruse Ancient Ballads And Legends Of Hindustan...

The World According to Erastothenes

The data for this map happened to primarily from Alexanders' tours. I personally like beta (a.k.a Erastothenes) and as you can see all the countries that mattered in antiquity are presented here. Anyone not here is a kid country..

On Politics

Fundamentally politics is a framework (more like a scaffolding) in my sense of the definition rather than a process or accepted system. I kept hearing this word many times in the last 1-2 weeks and that everytime the utterance was implicating a negative context rather than a neutral or positive one. The more I thought of of it, the more I see the concept hijacked by the word these days (much like the word "hacker") to mean a maligned instinct.

Why the bad connotation? I dont get it. I thought it was meant to be in place when a society acquires scale and there has to be a way to for people to get along well whilst serving something that they might not always be aware of. In general its more like a statistical goodness for overall population rather than profiting a single individual but some decisions like promoting an individual due to his merit (so that he can serve greater good of the entity) are inerpreted as being politics at play by those who couldnt vest the same power.

"Power" has many definitions like imposing your will in the face of all other but to me it might be an effect.I think Power is a function of information and the fellow who knows the most about something/someone rather than anyone else about something/someone is the most powerful. So I know more about you and the organization/product than you knowing about me+organization+product means that there is a power imbalance between us. (its a different issue if I act on the information or not, so you might wanna rephrase my argument as a requiem for power than raw power itself)If we share the same page then thats excellent as we become peers. ( Thats why move to p2p systems as we know more about systems than the client-server..cheeky one, I know)

Anyhow its fun to listen to people when they have grapevine. Says so much about themselves and I quite amuse myself listening to all versions of each (you have to be neutral to get such an opinion or else you'll be told what you wanted to hear) . I am really glad to be wherever I am..

A Cute Code

An equation for me has no meaning, unless it represents a thought of God". ----Ramanujan

So yesterday night, I wondered what would have he come up as a plausible explanation if I gave him the above identity. I came up with the oft quoted
popularly known as "ekam sat bipra bahuda vadanti" (rik: chapter 1/hymn 164/verse 46) which basically says "there is but one truth known to many in different ways" .Now, there's something I hope our friend Srinivasa would agree upon :)

Vodka Lounging...

Friends from cali. were her for the whole week that after every days' work we catch grub and do the pub crawling thats so....us..But the best night out was lounging in this place which had a very eclectic selection of vodkas all around the world. They serve you chilled with pickle. We drank tons of russian vodkas but the special one of mention is the "russian standard" with "Zyr" coming a close second. The last one worthy of mention is Youri Dolgoruki

The best part of such experiences is that they carefully place you in a twilight zone much like a professional golfer delivering the ball to a cozy spot. Now, I have realized thats what you drink for..not for getting drunk..We shall see, I am about to entertain another friend next wednesday.

Happy Independence Day!

Finally trying to settle down after the "moving" experience of relocation. Its painful as you grow old as you gotta do all the stuff yourself. I have never lived by myself all these years and this is the first time I am coming to terms with the meaning of "alone" (mind you, not to be confused lonely) and suddenly realized that I was a spoilt li'l brat whom the world has indulged with more than his fair share of people. Now, all those movies when looked at a certain vantage point make sense. Cleaning up the apartment and headed out in the city, I suddenly feel like robinson crusoe marking his points on the island. A rental car shop there, barber close by, three good bars in the vicinity, desi grocery shopping is proximate, taxicabs everywhere and subway station nearby. Bus stop at the door. A bunch of churches around right from mary of the anunciation to that of greek orthodox (albeit the episcopal one rings every hour)

I am writing this post after buying Internet access at a local cafe. Have to live without the net for the next one week (gasp!) as the cable fellow takes his own sweet time to install for me. No free WiFi like in Mountain View. Only medium then happens to be print as net/cable is out of the door. Caught up on reading like hell. Oh! before I forget, I made a nice list of biographies for major scientific luminaries

Galileo : "The Stargazer" (translation from Hungarian by some Tanyi/Paul Tabori)
Oppenheimer: "Oppenheimer" by Abraham Pais
Kepler: "The Watershed" by Arthur Koestler
Gauss: Carl Frederich (translated from swedish original of albert froderberg)

I am yet to read one of Newton's and then a certain chain would be complete. Good for me. Back to the chores, like washing dishes (no more dishwasher for me). Its almost like cleaning my soul and preparing it for a new sense of freedom. Happy 4th of July to all you folks..

Mile Sur ..

In honor of the diversity found at this place..enzoi :)