A few worlds apart

The pursuit for testing the limits of my 150 pounds of meat, bones, cartilages and neurons, often results in me reading pieces like these (and often no ensuing test of limits)

Somewhere, there’s a guy who did it in half the time it took you.  He suffered.  Plasma forced its way into his lungs, causing him to hack on repeat.  He choked down bile halfway through, and ended on his back, pupils dilated to the size of dimes. While you were walking around, telling your friends how hardcore your workout was, Guy Number Two was still collapsed, the prospect of driving home as daunting as climbing K2 during a snowstorm. When he finally stood up, he didn’t say a word. (.. againfaster.com )

or the famous Sydney Olympics ads which celebrated humanity

too many inspiring lines .. for instance the "To be a giant" , "you can't me courage" , "you'll smile, I'll smile" or to best it all the "you're my adversary..." one ..

or the lines of Boorstin

We are.. in search of our limits. We start with a single step, but, none of us stops there. With determination, a step becomes a stride, and a stride becomes a leap. With discipline and desire, we push ourselves to new heights. When we rise to the challenge we discover new strengths, our muscles grow stronger, our minds more agile. The body responds performing its marvelous inner dance of life.  We share a design so magnificient, we can delight in movement itself. To find joy in the struggle to be our best - this is the adventure that defines the human spirit that drives us to the limit. (...)

It always strikes me as to how different a world they portray compared to the world of Sahir and Ghalib and Frost and Sakhi or for that matter how all these worlds are so far apart from the ones of Landau and Euler. Who says we have only one life and one world to live it in.

Moreover, in some sense there is such a sense of physical apodicticity , for lack of a better term,when it comes to all our endeavours physical. Something which is in strange ways analogous to the purity in Ghalib's verses or the palpable realism in Micarelli's Music from a Farther Room or Remy Zero's Somebody Save Me, or the elegance of the Lagrangian or the profundity of the Hamilton's principle.

What better proof is needed to realize how much Human spirit is in effect just a ramification of our guts and blood and bones.

Being moved and titillated by something has the often (unexpressed but definitely not ineffable) side-effect of a subtly noticeable derisive view towards things which appear evidently facile and banal to a purist. I for one, while not even a remote Crossfit purist and  who could not claim to have pushed my limits more than any average guy, find such pursuits as hypertrophy, "gymming", jogging, dieting, other associated efforts to maintain an appearance or a healthy weight ( i am referring to average people like me ..say 15-40 years old?) etc.. somehow very.. well childish to say the least. Of course only as childish as breast implants, "hall tempo", devout priests and authors who write content-less thick volumes.

--
Narcissistic miscellany follows (er. i mean other than the obvious exposition above)

I started swimming again, not to mention an ecstatic 45 m dynamic apnea without fins ( read horizontal swim under water for us laymen) -- though a pittance compared to the world record (AIDA) of 213 metres ; see a 200m(with fins) video  or this one ( without fins 25m pool), though ofcourse with a static apnea ( holding your breath) of more than 10 minutes, AIDA records would freak anybody even a bit uncommon -- along with improving my breaststroke and freestyle technique and thereby times. I am obviously way too bad a swimmer. Tom Sietas, you are the Fred Rouhling and Yang Wei of water.

Even though I have run sporadically since April, I realized today to my great relief that my aerobic capacity and lactic acid tolerance seem to have not been affected much.

--
1. just now, caught a house fly ( Musca domestica) with my thumb and fingers.. Must have been a drunk one..
2. re-visited facebook after more than 2 years. seems like sticking around for more than 2 weeks is unlikely.

Post Poll Analysis

( Inspite of the slimy title and it's slimier political undertones, this is of course about something much worse -my own narcissistic poll about my irrelevant future which i had conducted. )



A surprising 117* (sic. / sick) people voted . Since own optimistic estimate was 35, let me say i am more than shocked at the surprise voter turnout. Now as is usually the case with most elections and polls, most of the options doesn't make sense and to make it even more convoluted there were combination options resulting in people voting for some clubbed together items which they wouldn't have voted for individually in the first place.

the conclusions are as follows

• 85% think that i should not continue my sabbatical


• 51% think that i should not go to IISc


• 43 % think that i should not go to IIMB

Even though I knew that the IIM brand was a bit over rated, I am suprised to find that only 26 % really found some value in it by itself. The only way of explaining this would of course be by criticizing the weirdness of the Poll conductor (moi) and the resulting demography selected. Another notable fact is that most people who felt that i should not join IIM Bangalore or for that matter a managerial career at all, were concerned enough to actually come forward and talk to me about it. So eventhough in the numbers game IIMB wins, i believe more people really "care" about me not ending up a corporate bloodsucker or at worst screw up two years of my life doing pointless and completely irrelevant stuff (er.. haven't i been doing that for quarter a century now? ).

• 36%** think that i should not do GSoC

I still remember how ecstatic/surprised/shocked I was when i first got funded by google for my idea in the field of architectural morphology, mentored by Portland State University. I think I had walked around 3 or 4 km before coming to my senses. The fact that the news had come to my attention after around 10 days of the official date shows my expectation level. Over the next years, I had the opportunity to work with amazing people. This year when I got funded again for working with brl-cad, as grateful as i am for this amazing opportunity, I'd be lying if i said it had the same sense of euphoria as the first time. It is true that i learned much more in the last year than any other time. More than anything else, there is the apprehension of whether I would be able to do justice to my own milestones and plan. Add to that two computers failing on you by frying up, things are not exactly very convivial.

Some other obvious facts
    The loser was of course IISc at 10 % . In spite of being the most elite research institute in India and not to mention an amalgalm of a lot of brains and talent.. seems like it is not so much of a crowd-puller . Either that or the voter populace really hates me. Even after being coupled with GSoC we have only 28% who seem to favour IISc. My dear friend gurra's elementary explanation for these votes are the people who are in the waiting list at B, further showing the apprehensions about the value? of a research position in Indian academia.
     The single largest winner was the option of being at IIM Bangalore along with IISc and GSoC ( never mind almost an impossible thing to handle ) with 31 %.
     Coupled with other things - either gsoc alone or gsoc+iimb - IISc has achieved a 49 % support.

Next Step
The logical move would be to wait out for a month ( *** June 22nd is the registration at IIM Bangalore) and work on the gsoc implementation as much as I can ( hopefully the laptop returns  in a couple of days) If nothing happens I would be just another guy who ended up beneath the pergolas at IIM Bangalore purely out of indecision / not having anything else to do ( which if I am not mistaken is a pretty sizeable portion of every batch there. ) I sincerely hope that I don't screw up anybody's life in there ( that would be the egotistic narcissism cropping up .) and equally importantly not get kicked out considering my Kharagpur attendance records.

Further facts regarding what would happen at Bangalore, for instance would i still have control over my breath , only time will tell. Regarding IISc, I still have time to decide and probably too little time to give. Things I am most excited about Bangalore in "roughly no particular" order.

1. Friends
2. Sports climbing
3. Nice ground/weather to run.
4. Possibly better swimming pools ( which won't burn my pockets ? )
5. Better access to gymnastics facilities?
6. Drama (Theatre .. not to mention the Human drama )
7. Riding (Bangalore Amateur Riding Institute)

Notes:
* 8 people who informed me that they did not vote but stated that they would like me to do something not among the options, have not been taken into consideration in the percentages.
** plus those of the 15% Sabbatical votes who though the sabbatical did not imply gsoc
*** The fact that I got a fees waiver for the first year does influence things to a large extent.

Future Imperfect

As most of you ( read subset of the few followers who have enough time on the planet to read a pointless blog) you know i have been lethargically enjoying a sabbatical which owes equally to my adorable parents as well as my assholic self.
Approximately 360 days, 4 hours and 37 minutes have passed since I defended my thesis. Eventhough I was moderately busy with the implementation for BRL-CAD till September, you could safely assume that I have had quite a blast during the whole time. It is not that I am bored with it, not even remotely. But with my dad retiring in January 2010, I figure this is not the worst of times to be a bit responsible. I have a small poll below ( extremely egotistic and narcissistic as usual to say the least ) The options are not at all comprehensive. Suggestions other than these are more than welcome.

Legend for the poll:
IIMB : PGP 2009-2011 : June 22nd Onwards
IISc : Energy Efficieny Lab with Prof. Monto Mani @ CST : July to December
GSoc : Continuing parametric system implementation with Ballistic Research Laboratory Computer aided design system : June, July 2009
Multiple entries connected by + implies doing them together.

I think most will assume that IIMB is a priority. I'd ofcourse be lying if I say it is an improbable option. I hope you know me better ..er .. or worse..

Anybody wanting to fund me -Investment with returns of course - is always welcome. Not Kidding.

1295: Foutaises

( Obviously inspired by Jeunet's)

I love
sleeping on the floor..
long walks..
getting drenched every time it rains..
solitary dawns..
sleepless nights..
pears (the fruit)..
onion in vinegar..
strong coffee at 3 am..
the burning sensation after a nice long sprint..
Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi..
traveling in trains unreserved..
The Idiot..
passionate people
the few friends i have..
imagining that all the moments one has been through are still there somewhere..

I dislike
the phsyical act of throwing things away...
losing weight..
using the fan..
sound of people peeing..
mosquitoes (which bite you :| )
being waited for..
knowing that i keep forgetting most things in my life..


I am completely perplexed by
giggles
long nails
Landau's genius 
"sorry"s , "thanks" and "never mind"s
Marquez's brilliance..
Orwell's foresight..
the lurking presence of pi and e..
Claude Shannon..
my fascination with things clearly futile..

I am moderately comfortable with
my
intellectual inadequacy
lack of physical fitness
artistic ineptitude
grotesque appearance
lack of social skills
sleeping for 18 hours
days spent without a single word.

--

what about you?

1289: Bodyweight Exercises

For some time now I have been nagging every single soul who has had the misfortune of initiating an informal conversation with me regarding the extreme utility and functionality of Bodyweight exercises. To the uninitiated ( a.k.a un-nagged) let me start by saying "No, they are not exercises for reducing your body weight"( which I have come to realise is a huge fascination among a notable portion of web users)
As wikipedia puts it,

Bodyweight exercises are strength training exercises that do not require free weights; the practitioner's own weight provides the resistance for the movement. Movements such as the push-up, the pull-up, and the sit-up are some of the most common bodyweight exercises.

One of the side effects of stopping my gym visits--after realizing that my dad no longer needed the moral support and that the unique level of entertainment which is possible only in gyms (watching people watching themselves in the mirrors) was no longer that entertaining -- was the realization that I was not able to sleep properly (sic, considering my Kharagpur days)  without doing my quota of daily physical exertion. Enter Bodyweight exercises.

A few days of surfing on the web and practising the basics and I was hooked and sleep was even better than before (yes even better than kgp). What I find the most exciting about it is the fact that all you need is yourself (really you don't even need clothes :P). The first picture which blew my mind away was the Planche (One of the first things in life which I really really REALLY felt like I should do) Afterwards of course further research (sic) showed that Planche was just the beginning. Maybe Manna is something I wouldn't even be able to do even after a year of sincerity. The collection of Sommer's articles is pretty neat.




Planche on fingertips ( hmm. these freaky bboys. no form but still impressive strength.)


I was trying to follow crossfit WoD (Workout of the Day) for a couple of weeks now and was disappointed with having to substitute the WoD of some days with bodyweight exercises myself. Thankfully gymnasticbodies provides a nice (and tougher) alternative. I intend to continue both the WoDs. Recent discoveries would mean some additions to my Bucketlist's physical section.

On a connected fitness note, I made myself a pull-up bar ( not that i don't enjoy the callus on my hands due to pull-ups using the horizontal concrete slab)

In effect a perfect way to proceed for a beginner ( errrr..) is to follow crossfit WoD, Sommer's WOD, and tackling the BWC 20 level challenge one at a time.

You can check out my bodyweight bookmarks at delicious.
For some jolts to your perception about what is physically feasible do check out gymasticbodies' youtube library.
--
Planche progress: When I started I was able to do roughly 30 normal push-ups with effort. Now I am able to do 50 and in terms of balance can hold the frog stand for over 1 minute. But I guess the next step of proceeding to the tuck planche is going to be tough.
Running Progress: ran 7.5 km for the first time (36:30) half marathon does not seem unlikely in 2010.
Pull-up progress: 20 proper form (approximately) Hoping for One Arm pullups and chin-ups in March.

1283: my Socratic mom

Prelude

Euthyphro by Plato is a short dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro which takes place near? the court where  Socrates has been summoned to face charges . The dialogue constantly reminds me of Borat at various occasions. You could read it at Perseus. It is a good idea to read the tetralogy ( Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo) as one . Though considerably more though provoking than apology, I find many of the arguments really flimsy, and especially hate the habit of leaving certain questions unanswered after raising them (some how reminds me of the fairer sex)

Reflection

I dislike going shopping with women which can be considered to be a true phenotypical expression of the inheritance of the Y chromosome. In any case considering it is easier to comply and accompany and thereby expend lesser time than arguing and accompanying. This time things were better.

Following is an excerpt of conversation which takes place in a tiny restaurant in our tiny town.

Mom: I think the milk shake at home is much better than this one.
Moi: Honestly, I believe this is better and besides it is very difficult to evaluate the relative "good"ness of things which are ones own creation. Don't you think people who make things inherently would feel that it is good , considering of course that they put in a sincere effort according to their own standards.
Mom: It would feel good only if it is good.
Moi (stunned since I just read Euthyphro around 9 hours earlier) : hmmm.. Or is it that "good IS because it feels good" ?
Mom: hmm.. that is an interesting thought.

Then I go on about Euthyphro and Socrates and how it is fascinating that certain ideas that people keep thinking about remain constant over so many thousands of years. (blah blah)

( later.. )Mom: I still think the milk shake at home is better.

Epilogue

To be honest, the actual discussion in Euthyphro which is more concerned about beloved being beloved because it is loved or more pertinently holy being holy because it is beloved by gods or gods loving it because it is holy. As usual i find ethical discussions exceeding boring, eventhough, to some extent I guess that even if Euthyphro is filled with discussion about piety, injustice, and holiness, i find the questions raised concerning the state of being or becoming much much more pertinent and relevant (albeit pointless). To quote Socrates-bhai himself (in Plato-bhaisahab's words)

..Then one does not see it because its a seen thing, but, on the contrary, it is a seen thing because one sees it; and one does not lead it because it is a led thing, but it is a led thing because one leads it; and one does not carry it because it is a carried thing, but it is a carried thing because one carries it. Is it clear, Euthyphro, what I am trying to say? I am trying to say this, that if anything becomes or undergoes, it does not become because it is in a state of becoming, but it is in a state of becoming because it becomes, and it does not undergo because it is a thing which undergoes, but because it undergoes it is a thing which undergoes; or do you not agree to this?

1283: Climbing

Introduction
This has been my first 'free' end-of-the-year in a long long time. Eventhough it is just another completely arbitrary point of time in the 'larger' scale of things I am enjoying it quite a bit. The most interesting aspect of the past few (unblogged) weeks and months is a bit of retrospection .. well, maybe not that much.

One of the facts which did come up without even much effort was my limits. By limits I mean both physical and cognitive. I made some reference to it in here and here. Due to spending quite sometime in a very sedentary lifestyle, I guess,  I have been particularly lacking in the physical department, and was/am sure it needed immediate attention. 10 more years and no point trying to start doing a planche. As far as cognitive skills go, considering the fact that I am often lame, occassionally idiotic, and always hopelessly irrelevant, I can't see any future except for continuing my wandering a little bit more structurally.

I have already forgotten what it was that I wanted to explain, but nevertheless, my health has radically improved over the past few weeks/months. I am hopeful of making consistent progress over the next decade.

Content?

In particular I have always been impressed with climbing. Of late, quite possibly due to the retrospection, I started admiring it even more, in particular the feats of Bachar, John Gill , Dan Osman, Chris Sharma and so on. (Bachar is my favourite of course) After watching considerable amount of Dosage dvds and religiously studying Royal Robbins Rockcraft I am currently self-brainwashed enough to go to a rock climbing camp organized by Girivihar at Navi mumbai.
I am particularly impressed by John Gill. His personal website is definitely an awesome resource for braindead guys like myself. For a math professor by profession and gymnast by chance? being the greatest boulderer by choice sounds like not so bad an achievement. Maybe I would only understand the stuff he keeps rambling about ( "the inner poetry of climbing" etc.) after a long long time / never. But nevertheless. I am quite convinced about free soloing a 5.12a (god save my soul)
The picture to the right is of Dan Osman ( and yes the photo is in the right orientation)

Afterthought

Considering the fact that i am pursuing one goal, I figured why not make a bucketlist. I have never been good with TODOs . But this is the one list which I definitely want to do. around 4000 days left for many of the ones mentioned(Physical). And the best part is I have already started. The Bucketlist at a very rudimentary stage can be found here. That is one page I inted to keep updated just as meticulously(sic) as my ReadingList.

--
I should also mention that I had quite an amazing time at Kakinada with my dear good friend gurra a.k.a Gurpreet Singh Sawhney and his wonderful colleagues of Schlums Kakinada base and I would like to certify gurra's statement that "Kakinada IS a CITY" to be true.
If anybody is interested in Climbing please do come to the camp at Mumbai. It would be so much fun.

1272: V

(:D I am younger than I thought .. only 1272nd week going on instead of 1281 :P)

VO₂ Max

I am not exactly well built :D ( as is evident from my highly disproportionate body) and neither am i very physically fit (conisder uncommon sleeping cycle and eating habits). It takes me 25 minutes to run 5 km and thought it is ONLY twice the world record, I am pretty sure it is something to be a little bit unproud about :P

VO₂ max (also maximal oxygen consumption, maximal oxygen uptake or aerobic capacity) is the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and utilize oxygen during incremental exercise, which reflects the physical fitness of the individual. The name is derived from V̇ - volume per time, O₂ - oxygen, max - maximum.

My VO2 max is a measly 32-38 presently. Hopefully it improves after some training..IIT KGP 5000 m record is around 18:30 i think which is equivalent to around 54 or 60 or something. Ofcourse running has more to do than V02 max i guess.. I hope to reach 20:00 sometime. You can calculate miscellaneous info about ur running here.

Violin

finally started playing?? violin again. One of my favourite Violinists if I haven't mentioned it before somewhere is Samvel Yervinyan, whom many of you may remember from the Yanni concert. There is so much passion in the music when he plays it. I am unsure whether this is an Armenian influence. I tried out a few Armenian songs and if not passionate, they are definitely energetic enough. I do try listening to L. Subramaniam, but Indian classical music interestingly makes my brain warm up .. I mean it gets hotter.. not a head ache .. and ofcourse it cools down ...I even love the feeling.. but maybe my secondary auditory cortex is too much of a mess to properly process the sutleties of Indian classical music. I am completely in love with Subramaniam's Jai Hanuman btw.

update: broke one of the pegs .. need to get it repaired :(


--

arduino still not here.. hope indian postal service is as good as it used to be ( assuming us postal service to be reliable)

1281 : No Promises

( Note: the following content includes some sexual references which might be inappropriate for children, persons below the age of 18, sissies of all ages, virgins upto the age of 30 (average indian man?) etc. Read at your own discretion)

According to this law, if you promise to marry someone, have sex with them, and later not marry them, then you can be charged with rape even if the sex was consensual (only in India ofcourse). Since I am a law-abiding citizen, this implies that if I am indeed considering having sex with someone before marriage, to be legally clear, I should atleast get a written consent that I did not promise marriage on a future date in return for intercourse ( As much as i would love the romaticism of not being legally safe, considering India is one of the gayest places in the world, I really don't want to get raped in prison). How can we as a nation be so stupid.

Inherently the law implies
1. Sex is bad, consensual or otherwise.
2. A woman will have sex with someone before marriage only if the guy promises to marry her, or additionally women are stupid enough to have sex with someone just because the guy gives her a verbal security of marriage.
3. Women are weak and thereby need protection under such law even if they have had consensual sex.

And ofcourse, the punishment under such circumstances is 7 years i think. I really think the feminists should address this issue which so clearly marginalizes them as a weaker and stupid sex. On a connected note, I think working towards the elimination of separate sports events for women should be another step in their fight for equality. I guess men will learn a lesson when women are able to beat guys/ equal them in each and every field ( ok maybe not tomorrow, but one day .. even if current athletic records show a wide gap, I am quite hopeful that at least in a few games maybe women will be the record holders rather than men.. I hope i get a few feminist friends thanks to this :P) I wonder whether we should have a similar law for the protection of men : I mean shouldnt there be some sort of legal fine if your girlfriend elopes and marries someone else. Just to clarify to my future feminist friends, who might read this, I am obviously not implying that women are not capable of luring men into having sex with them using the aforementioned method of promise of marriage, and in pure equality , there should also be a law protecting men from such powerful women.

I think India gives a completely new meaning to pre-nuptial agreement or should it be pre-coital agreement.

On another note, Kerala a.k.a Malluland is a weird place indeed. Lesbianism and problems faced by homosexuals come up at 9.00 o clock on major mallu channels. There are programs about husbands being abused and tortured by there wives and to top it all, there was an article about Cybelianism in the Matrimonial section of Sunday Special this week ( :P just to be clear, I wasn't reading the matrimonial section) For the uninitiated, Cybelianism is a religious "faith" which proclaims the power of women (to the extent that the wife is expected to piss on the husband ( in his mouth in particular) everyday among other examples of various BDSM related practises). I felt odd even writing this here. But I feel my ethical publishing responsibility should only be reflective of the esteemed newspapers of the country . Talk about sexual liberation.

--

The Fall by Tarsem Singh

I was truly blown away by this awesome movie. In addition to having an amazing (children?) story, Baraka-esque scenography, and lots of Indian locations, Catinca Untaru has made me speechless for quite sometime when it comes to acting. I had never heard of Tarsem Singh before, eventhough I had seen The Cell in 2002, which was probably impressive cinematographically, but not really a kick-ass so to speak.

It was so good , I started watching it again even before it finished the first time (ok. I know that sounds weird) and then once more with my family. I wonder how a 10 year old kid can pull this off . Eventhough there are people who graduate in physics by that time these days, this must surely be much harder. How do you make a ten year old kid act "acting as innocent"? I haven't seen the Piano, so not sure about Anna Paquin.

Life is going as per "plan": working on further development of my thesis, going to gym with my dad in the morning (purely out of good intentions concerning his diabetes rather than my tummy :P), reading mostly irrelevant stuff which has had the success of getting published and ofcourse awesome sleep and food.

--

Still using pymol, thanks to Branden and Tooze (almost near ending beta structures) . Started Kandel's Principles of Neural Science ( Part 1 over) As a result dabbled with fsl a bit. Maybe bioimage suite and slicer would be more interesting. Only thing progressing at a good speed seems to be Let's Learn Japanese series. Kicad still stuck at the last exercise. Sparkfun has shipped my arduino. Hopefully it reaches in a week. Started a few Cambridge Companions ( Wittgenstein, Foucalt etc.) but don't think they would go much further. Doing Irodov again feels so easy - easy enough to make me wonder how it could have been so challenging a few years back. I guess kgp was not really as brain-dampening as people claim it to be or maybe growing up has its side-effects.

1280

Workspace


Tibetan: Homework Day 1

Patronize

--

Branden & Tooze going at a decent pace .. onto beta structures now. Proofs from the Book introduced me to Buffon's needle. Proving the trivial result is indeed a pleasure if you don't use calculus. Considering the fact that even something like throwing needles on a ruled page is intricately connected with pi (not to mention showing up at virtually any math whcih has got anything to do with anything) , I can say without the least bit of doubt

I believe in pi.

Nolli's ichnographic map was an eye-opener. Though a little bit shaken after Nolli, I still like the terrain view in Google maps. I have been trying out librarything and it has been an absolute pleasure. Completely non-intrusive and truly awesome web service. I wish it had some sort of reading progress for each book. Also if anybody is interested in Tibetan , I really found learntibetan.net a helpful tool if you already are following a book/schedule.

--

The exhibition of unnecessary pictures is ofcourse a commonly observed symptom of newcameraowneria.

1278: Pondi and Tranquebar

Finally, back home.

What an amzing week this was. I am quite sure 1278 would be etched in my memory for quite some time. After finishing off gsoc, I figured i should take a short break ( sic. from what? ) and ease of a bit. My basic plan was to visit a few Pondi and Tranquebar and visit a few of the projects as well as the general work of INTACH or Indian National Trust for Architecture and Cultural Heritage. The plan started when a mail was forwarded regarding an opportunity to work with INTACH on the projects in Pondi and Tranquebar. Though not very financially rewarding considering their NGO-esque stature, the work description and information from the website seemed extremely satisfying and interesting. And after 5 days of being there, I am all the more impressed. I would be speaking about Intach Pondi in particular considering my lack of access to first hand information regarding other cells, but I am hopeful that if anything they must be as rigorous and refined in their approach.

Intach shatters conventional assumptions about "Conservation", "Restoration", "Heritage Architecture" and a host of similar words and ideas. They operate in a niche they have created for themselves, exemplifying the role that an architect or more so the practice of architecture could have in socio-economic dynamics. The basic idea of Intach ofcourse is to protect and conserve heritage structures. But at Pondicherry, I saw a passion towards focusing the same energy in a microcosm ( consider residential structures rather than forts and castles or a medium sized bungalow being converted into a hotel in a small panchayat) This increases public participation to a great extent and provides interesting models for captial generation as well as public private partnership. I was impressed by how Intach was able to break many barriers and reach the people with a medium like heritage conservation.

Pondicherry is definitely much more heard about that Tranquebar, a small panchayat around kms south of Pondi. It was a danish colony during the 17th, 18th and 19th century. More information is ofcourse available on the web. What was really impressive was that, there was so much employment generation simply due to the work being done by INTACH and in the next few years, the whole topography is going to change in this small village ( town? ) thanks to the Master's thesis of Asai, enthusiasm of INTACH and funding of Governement as well as Bestseller Foundation. I guess it is true that the world is indeed changed in small ways , somewhere every single moment.

Pictures from Pondi and Tranquebar at Picasa (Disclaimer: My first digicam and even otherwise suck at photography.. most of these taken due to severe power-battles with mom and sis after returning from Paris without pics)

--

More details about INTACH Pondicherry is available at their website . For more general information regarding INTACH see this.

Mastercrap

Not taking up a job for a few months post graduation : 230 to 7800 USD per month

Having google pay you for a decent time in summer touching up your thesis with BRL-CAD : -4500 USD

Enjoying an amazing time at home with parents a.k.a : 000 USD
[
5am - 6am Run in the school ground where my dad studied
6am - 7am Loiter, Bath, Food
7am - 1 pm Read / Work
1 pm - 2 pm Long lunch
2pm - 8pm Sleep
8 pm - 9 pm Work out :P
9 pm - 10 pm Dinner
10 pm - 5 am Read / Work
]

Having parents who love you so much : Priceless

Being an irresponsible asshole who would rather have fun at home than do some work : Just another day of my life

There are somethings money can't buy. You have to be an asshole to extract them out of life :)

--

Slowly Progressing towards running for an hour non-stop so as to feel confident enough for a basic mountaineering course. And on a more serious note ( :P ) got a marriage proposal from a doctor today. and yes she was female .

Girls I *like*

On Misogyny

There are three mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive sets of girls the author knows / is acquainted with.

A. Girls who think they *like/liked* the author ( as un-probabilistic as it sounds , there are all kinds of people in the world apparently. The duration of liking, from the data the author has access to, varies from picoseconds(1) to months )

B. Girls who think the author *like/liked* them ( yikes.. well apparently being antisocial and a bit acerbic is not much help. . female vanity no bounds . It probably helps female psyche to feel appreciated and admired - the author concurs that this is a shallow chauvinistic remark )

C. Girls who don't give a damn about the author ( Of course this includes the vast majority who are oblivious about my existence amongst many others)

Assumption:
The author assumes the fact that he mostly *likes* people belonging to 3rd subset need not be considered an anomalous character trait.

Lemma: Please not the pairwise disjoint nature of the above sets. For example there have never been girls who liked the author and thought he liked them or girls who think the author likes them and whom the author like ( namely C). Proof is trivial.

Lemma: Also note that for all logical purposes ,
Cardinality of C >> Cardinality of B >> Cardinality of A
Proof is trivial.

Thesis: Subject is not a misogynist. Q.E.D

Proof: Due tothe lemmas , C forms a sizeable proportion of female author *likes* thus negating the claim that author is a misogynist.

The author concurs that one should do a more detailed sigma-algebra or topology based analysis(2). In the absence of a fallacious logic such study would be inexpedient.

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1. On second thoughts picoseconds is stretching it a bit.. Depending on various neuronal proceses a better assumption would be milliseconds to seconds ( Arbib, M. A, Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks, MIT Press, 2003, p47-67 )
2. Rudin, W. , Real and complex analysis, McGraw Hill, 1987, p8-20

Addendum

Top 5 crushes of all time ( in no particular order)

1. Dr. Harleen Quinzel
2. Amélie Poulain
3. Ms. Audrey Woods
4. Catherine Zeta Jones for doing Gwen Harrisson
5. Dancing girl ?

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Author is currently pursuing some work on Parametrics and Constraints under Ballistic Research Laboratory-Computer Aided Design system under gsoc program

Waking Up

Academic research is but a long sleep
Jobs seem like getting sucked into some huge machine
Entrepreneurship feels like marriage
MBA sounds like being turned into a corporate bloodsucking vampire
Professional Practice sounds too professional for my taste

I wonder why life feels so great without a future ..

Fading

Once upon a time a boy found the idea of blogging quite interesting - the fact that people would devote so much time or not so much time just to write something which would then forever be forgotten sooner or later by everyone who sees it and even by the one who writes it.

thousands of memories , thought, lives ...only to be forgotten .. somewhow it had quite a charm to it.. or so the boy felt...


somehow it feels lacklustre now - the sadomasochistic pleasure of watching memories fade..

maybe fading away is better ..