Dissent and The Law of Numbers

One of the problems with a democratic form of governance is that the dissenting opinion requires to be backed up by law of numbers. That is, if you are comprising of the minority and have an opinion, then the majority's opinion is thrust upon you.

"Death of Socrates", Oil on canvas painting by Jacques-Louis David (1787)

So what do you do when you dissent against the majority. Revolution and coups, though a solution, are not to be espoused, as any violence(be physical or psychological) removes the sanctity of the system and causes further degradation.

Rather, holding onto the dissent and working on establishing the dissent with valid evidences, prototypes or a fully-fledged working solution would be a constructive form. We often see that dissents are often restricted to opinions alone, and are not followed up with the scientific rigour to productize the opinion. If you are a change-seeking-agent or an activist, rather than cribbing, complaining, shouting or holding the placards, getting to the crowd and sowing the seeds for the change would be a constructive form.

And if you are still not heard, then use the placards to showcase the solution.

And if you are still not heard, move on.

Contrary to the idea of dissent in democratic forms, in some organizations, there is a general principle of HIPPO - i.e, Highly Paid Person's Opinion :)

The Unsolicited Gajendra Moksham

Few things in life happen out of the blue which are beyond any reason or rationale. While the mind continues to wander, seeking the reason or the causality of the events, and the self ponders about it in an everlasting vicious circle and unending series of man-hours spent while the hairs continue to fall and lathe the floor, the Maker stands somewhere and is smirking at us mortals.

One of my relatives had given my parents a CD containing the discourses of Nochur Venkatraman on Bhagavatham. After having finished reading Mahabharata and Ramayana, the next obvious choice for me was Bhagavatham. But given how fickle our mind is and all the extraneous parameters that continue to affect our lives with their own intricacies, I was not fortunate enough to read either Bhagavatham, or listen to it. My parents continued to the play the CD every day evening and listen to the discourse, while I was ensconced in my man-cave and lost either reading the current state of the World or the ways by which World Domination could be achieved.

The story of Gajendra Moksha always fascinated me right from childhood. I remember having read it in Amar Chitra Katha(ACK), and also had the version of ACK with me for a long time. But little did I know that universe conspires in strange ways and sometimes our scientific mind and all the rationality that comes along with the baggage indeed goes for a toss. The idea of this blog post is not to expatiate on the story of Gajendra and his struggles leading to his ultimate salvation, but the emotional turbulences caused by just listening to it in the most unexpected of the circumstances. By the way, the story of Gajendra and his moksham(salvation) symbolizes so much more than what is contained in the frame - I would highly recommend almost everyone, irrespective or caste/creed/religion to read this amazing story and understand the nuances contained in it. Probably, a blog post in itself in the due course of time will be seen here!

Anywayz, so, my pal(Vijay) informed me that one of his pals was visiting him and we should do a 1-day drive sometime. We decided quickly and the drive did happen. His pal, Rangan, was a highly successful Technologist settled in the United States and was visiting India as his annual ritual. While returning back after the trek and drive, we were talking about some spiritual aspects of religion etc, and I told him about how I always have been wanting to hear the story of Gajendra Moksham but despite the CD and Youtube at a hand's length, it has been evading me. Rangan offered telling the story, and after we all agreed, he started reciting the story of Gajendra Moksham to all of us.

He went on for a good 1-1.5hours. Emotions swelled. Eyes became wet. His brilliant story-telling just numbed my senses at brief moments of time.

Yes I cried. I do not know, but tears rolled by cheeks and I saw Rangan crying in the back seat. Though he was whimpering, my tears were silent and they just rolled down without much fanfare. There was muteness for some time, and Rangan continued. The occasional silence in the car was deafening, and it became a perfect backdrop for an absolute brilliant day wherein we did a tough hike which relaxed the body and then followed it up with some amazing spiritual story telling(for the soul).

Some of us are Gajendras in real life as well, and many of us prefer to fight against ignorance thereby sapping our energies. Fear appears when there is lack of knowledge. We do not accept the fact that our relatives and friends will not lend a helping hand or will be equally useless at certain instances, for we do not understand the concept of 'sharanagati'. Instead, by concentrating on seeking knowledge through karma or bhakti, one can truly seek salvation. Gajendra was not just a pachyderm who was caught into the jaws of the crocodile, he was much more that; the only problem being he did not know what he was and what he was capable of. Ignorance caught him, and kept him occupied.

Why did Rangan come all the way from USA during the said time and why did my pal Vijay have to bring him on this drive and of all the things that we could have discussed, why did I end up listening to Ganjendra Moksham. I have no explanations. And this will continue to remain a mystery to me. Probably, I am romanticizing the entire episode, but I am beginning to believe that my scientific mind these days requires equal amounts of romanticism as well, and it is all the better that the brain does not wander into the course of rationality and try to analyze and understand everything in its details. Certain things are better left unsaid, un-analyzed.

Thanks Rangan. We all are Gajendras.

Quick Analysis of 2014 Indian Election Manifestos

BJP Manifesto

- 

- 'Development'(77), Government(65) and Technology(54) are the Top-3 words 

- 'Muslim', 'Hindu' appear exactly once; and there is no direct reference to 'Hindutva'

- Loads of emphasis on technology(for eg. broadband, internet, computer etc) to implement suitable measures.

- 42 Pages,16892 Words

- my Note : Thanks to the publishers as it was easy to get the txt from the PDF.

AAP Manifesto

- Government(39), Education(37) and Security(34) are the Top-3 words 

- ''Muslim' appears 14 times; Hindu' appears exactly once.

- No clear emphasis on any theme.

- 24 Pages, 9806 Words

- my Note : Please publish your content in such a way that it can be consumed. Cannot extract txt from the pdf.

Word Cloud of BJP 2014 Manifesto

Word Cloud of AAP 2014 Manifesto

Word Count of some of the top issues in the respective party manifestos

On TV Series

As a kid(and later as a teen) i used to watch a few TV series, most of them were the Hindi ones; and those were the days when we used to get only Doordarshan. Cable TV was a luxury, though there was an abundance of VCRs.

Bharat Ek Khoj, a series by Shyam Benegal, probably is/was one of the BEST series in the Indian Television, which used to run on Sunday mornings at 9am . It ran the viewer through the different periods in our rich Indian history and the Indus Valley civilization. This is probably one of the series that is etched in my mind. The hymns 'Shrishti se pehle sat nahin tha, Asat bhi nahin, Antariksh bhi nahin, Aakash bhi nahin thaa' still reverberates in my ears and the voice of Om Puri with the Roshan Seth acting as Nehru and doing the narration is unparalleled. It is a MUST watch for every Indian who wants to understand and appreciate our ethos without poring over our voluminous books. You can watch the series online in here.

The late 1980s and the 1990s saw emergence of the soap operas. Hum Log was supposedly one of the longest running TV series/soap operas in our Indian Televsion with a HUGE viewership. Almost everyone who watched it was spellbound by Ashok Kumar(Dada muni's ) voice and connected with the characters. The character names became house-hold names. The limericks of Ashok Kumar at the end of each episode was a treat in itself. And then as i was growing into a teen ,in the age of liberalization, i was introduced to Byomkesh Bakshi and Tehakikat. Byomkesh Bakshi had that charm and suspense factor which no other Indian TV series has so far; the director made every effort to keep the viewer tuned-in into the show and made the latter guess the climax. Also, the clean and uncorrupted Hindi was a treat to the ears. Tehakikat was a lesser watched show(though equally popular); it was produced and directed by Dev Anand's brother Vijay Anand and had a touch of humour in the detective series. (Correct me if i am wrong, but i think Saurabh Shukla was introduced in this series.) I was always hooked to this show, and had to fight with my parents to watch it even during my exams. Probably it was Byomkesh Bakshi and Tehakikat that led me to read the Three Investigators series. I remember, DD-3 introduced some TV series, but i do not remember the names(i think i saw Yes Priminister here for the first time, but my memory is not helping me).

And then life became hectic with the board exams and college. I also started distancing myself from TV and with the computer becoming Numero Uno in my life. I was sitting in front of my desktop most of the time. Movies(again, on computer) and Computer Games became the favourite past time, and also i suspect if the early 2000s saw any interesting TV series. Nevertheless, after almost a long time i started watching TV series a couple of years back, guess it was Mr.Bean and the Youtube which made me watch BlackAdder; the latter is one my MOST favorite TV series. The Mighty Boosh brought the geekiness in me alive and i was hooked to the British TV series for now. 'Yes Prime Minister' gave the much needed push in the adrenaline rush in the political satire arena(hardly there was, and is, anything on politics!) - also the humor in this TV series was very much related to the gray matters.

Mid last year, i started with the new BBC series called Sherlock - and i must say that the direction is simply awesome and so is the camera work. The dialogues are perfect and there is hardly any superficiality to it(though some might find the 'new' Sherlock objectionable). The Season-3 of this series is out only next year and this led me to watch the older version of this character - namely ' Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' played by Jeremy Brett. The protagonist almost dissolved into this role and i must say that it was a very gripping series - am yet to complete all the seasons. The role of Watson in this series is though sympathetic. He lurches around like a poor dumb soul with hardly any punch.

Along with Sherlock, i was introduced to The White Collar. This is a nice and sophisticated series appealing to the masses and am sure all the ladies watching this would be drooling when they watch Neal Caffrey. The character of 'Neal Caffrey' played by 'Matt Bomer' is nice with hardly any over-acting. The episodes are nicely spaced and have a nice running tempo. Though, 'Peter Burke' seems to overact at certain places, his wife 'Liz(Elizabth Burke, played by 'Tiffani Thiessen') seems to worsen it by her head-shakes. "Suits" - a legalese based thriller, which i like more than White Collar is again a nice series to watch - though slightly lengthy, but it runs fast. The protagonists, Mike Ross(Patrick J. Adams) and Harvey Specter(Gabriel Macht), have done a great job with the roles and the direction is again very nice. The dialogues and the quick retorts by , is awesome.

How i Met your Mother(HIMYM) and The Big Bang Theory(TBBT) were quick watches due to their shorter running times(only 20mins). We started with TBBT and then i started with HIMYM in parallel, but i quickly lost interest in HIMYM, as the plots were  not getting interesting, whereas Sheldon and Penny , interspersed with Howard, Rajesh and Leonard, in TBBT , were the best with their one liners and innuendos.

"Games of Thrones" was probably the best series that i watched till now. Each of the episodes was like watching a movie, and i simply could not resist from watching the episodes back-to-back. The scale at which this series is produced and the locales are drool-worthy. And I am yearning for 2013 wherein the next season would be telecast. Though there is ample amount of gore, blood, sex, nudity, and lust , this series is still a must watch for all the adventure and fantasy enthusiasts. Simply, do not miss this.

Driven by my experience(s) with British comedy, we started watching IT Crowd, the story of two young guys in an IT team, who happen to get a lady manager who knows shite about IT. Some great geek humor and quick watch.

Earlier this year, we started watching Two and Half Men, and i must say that its a very entertaining series; some episodes are a total drab, but there are some great rib tickling humor. Watching Jake say 'okay' is a treat in itself, not to mention Rose(the sweet homely girl next door) who is an excellent stalker. Alan seems to overact sometimes, but Charlie subdues him suitably. We stopped after Season-7 - one of the reasons being it was getting boring and the other being we simply did not have the new seasons..

And recently i saw "Band of Brothers" miniseries. Being an ardent war aficionado myself, i simply loved this series. Each of the episodes is done at the scale of 'Saving Private Ryan' and the "Director's touch" is unmistakable. The way the last few episodes totally changed the tempo of the the series is beautiful. I started watching this series on a Saturday(with a pretty bad jetlag) and the 10 part series(each spanning close to an hour) was done by Sunday evening :). The 9th episode, in which they show the Allied forces stumbling on an concentration camp and going clueless as to what it was, was simply mind-numbing. I had seen the movie 'The Boy in Striped Pyjamas' earlier , but the scene in BoB was simply a thousand times better - the way the people in the camp are shown would make anyone emotional. WATCH THIS!

And those were some of the series that i have watched in the recent past. Series like Terra Nova (and a few others) got my attention span only for a few minutes. Having said that, am looking forward to Shyam Benegal's much anticipated new TV series.

Repaint > Reuse

During my recent visit to the Bay Area, i could spot many advertisements in Craigslist wherein people were throwing (or giving away) lots of items which would still be a luxury in any Indian home. Or even if you just were to collect all these items, refurbish them and sell them again, i am sure you would be creating a huge industry in itself.
Charity begins at home, and after much procrastination i decided on one fine day that i would refurbish the Ironing Table and the Washing Machine stand - to make it reusable for another 3-4 years.

I got this Ironing Table from Freecycle - though we went to pickup a telephone stand, the owner also wanted to dispose off this table which was quiet old. We were in twin minds whether to take it or not, as it was heavily rusted. But then it occurred to me that few hour's job would make this table as good as new, and even if the effort fails, i can always give it away to someone; and hence i took the table.

Expenses:
A small Black Paint Can : 19 INR
A medium Sized Brush :   10 INR
Fine Sandpaper :  4 INR
4 Bush(for ironing table) : 4*4 = 16 INR
Total Expenses = 50 INR

And hence it starts....to summarize, the process is pretty simple :
1. remove dust or anything sticking to the surface
2. sandpaper the whole surface - remove all rust
3. remove durst again - so that any rust powder or dust is not present while painting
4. (take rest and then) Paint
5. IF needed, paint one more layer on the surface.

Reclaiming the Ironing Board/Table
A nice Friday morning it was (which happened to be Ugadi - Holiday), this all started. Armed with 2 pieces of fine sandpaper this lone ranger entered the arena.Took the Ironing Board to the balcony (prefer to have it outside living spaces, as there will be lots of minute suspended particles which is not good for the health; better to cover your mouth+nose too ) and started scraping the rust and the old blue paint using the sandpaper. The screws and the corners were heavily rusted, and hence had to rub the sandpaper more than a couple of times.

Took a small tea break, and then applied a layer of black paint. The paint dryed very fast - almost in an hour and it looked nice. Just to make the surface a little more smoother --- applying paint on curved surfaces is tough , the pain does not spread uniformly --- i  did a quick layer and a few minor touchups. And Voila! this board was ready :)


Reclaiming the Washing Machine Stand
The washing machine stand was only 2 years old, but the emulsion paint had some signs of wearing off. Plan was to remove the emulsion layer from the few places and coat them alone. But as soon as i started tearing off the paint(yes, the paint had become like a plastic layer and was 'tearable'), it just came off. After removing the emulsion paint layer, which had hardened like a plastic sheet, i was introduced the gory world of rust. I could not even believe my eyes - the stand was totally rusted - though the structure was solid, but the rust had affected every nook and corner of the stand.

I guess, the main factor for rusting here was the exposed stand which had to bear brunt of rains etc. But i did not expect so much rust! The below picture is that of the peeled off emulsion paint from the stand. Note that the paint is actually white in color, but the rust has stuck to the layer like a paint in itself.

The whole of next hour was spent in sandpapering the stand to remove the dust; and this was a tough exercise! I had to sandpaper the stand a couple of times to remove most of the traces of rust (but the bugger still managed to hide in some corners).

And after a quick tea break, the paint work commenced. I knew that this stand required atleast two layers of paint; and after the first coat, i was happy with the end result.I planned to do coat one more layer the next day, after letting the present layer dry.

Just see the transformation in the below sequence:

After 2 layers of painting, the stand was perfect to be used for another couple of years without much pain. And after all this, i still have some paint left!

Epilogue
A 65 year old American couple was asked my a reporter:  How did you manage to stay together for 65 years?
The woman replied, "We were born in a time when if something was broken, we would fix it"

How to draw a Headless Man using Splines

Tools Used : HighCharts, some creativity, and loads of patience :)

Around the World in 14 Hops

"Boredom leads to inspiration". One uneventless bored noon is enough to do anything - and i went world hopping; and it takes only 14 hops - with one of them being tracing the same route(9,10).

Just if you missed noticing, the above map appears on Facebook login page.

Few good reads

I havent read many books after moving down to Chennai ; the last one was The Black Swan - an excellent page turner with loads of gyaan. Taleb is a genius who understands the subject that he is trudging on and explains it with finesse.

Well, i was spending too much time on the Net and on my laptop and was getting into the geekdom(second part) again. My phone bill(broadband) shot up - guess the 2.5 Gb limit wasnt enough. But the 2Mbps line simply rocks. Nwayz, spent some time in the Spencer's(got a good Woodland Shoe) and then went on to Moore Market yesterday. Moore market is the bazaar near the Madras(Chennai) Railway Station wherein one can find everything on Earth (at very cheap rates) - provided on knows the art of negotiation/bargaining. My intentions were simply to go there and get some good reads to fill my shelf(and make my mom yell at me - she argues that i am occupying half the house with my junk).

Got the following :
# Survival of the Sickest - By Dr.Sharon Moalem
Having recently been affected by throat infection, i was searching for something on human anatomy and was happy to find this book. The Doc is a medical maverick who discovers why we need a disease. He talks about our genetic design and asks and answers some provocative questions. I have started reading this book and its going amazing.

# View from the Summit - By Sir Edmund Hillary
Waiting to read this book. An autobiography by the master himself and I being an ardent traveller/trekker this was an excellent find.

# The Dancing Wu Li Masters - By Gary Sukav
An old book - NY Times says that this is the most exciting intellectual adventure after the 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'. Its an absorbing guide to the mind stretching mysteries of the new Physics and points out striking parallels with modern Psychology and Eastern Mysticism.

# The Goal - By Eliyahu M.Goldratt
Have read some good reviews. The story of a person who has to save his plant(business) given lots of extraneous conditions that hamper from its development.

# The Great Game (On a Secret Service in High Asia) - By Peter Hopkirk
Related to adventure and war - yet to get a flavour of it.

# Code Complete - By Steve McConnell
This is a book on software construction - a must for many self-taught programmers :)

Am sure these kill keep me occupied for a month or two :)

To do when bored!

Save an alien.

Get some investment advice.

Make some neat paper skulls.

Make a robotic-snap-o-lantern.

Job searches.

more and more... but first finish these :)