The first fortnight at IISc

Originally posted here on my ancient blog site.

This is one is coming pretty late but given the schedule here I think the delay is self-explained.I definitely dont consider myself knowlegable enough to write confidently about IISc in general;but I think I can atleast tell as to why this place is this best place that I could have been in.

IISc Campus:

Its the most beatiful one I have seen.Its a 550 acres campus and I think if we patch together all the land that recieves direct sunlight even at noon it will come to 2-3 acres.That doesnt mean that its a jungle out here.Everything is so well maintained.And the fact that I have not had too many blood sucking mosquitoes bothering me testifies it.I now know why most ppl here get addicted to IISc.Already I am worried that I will have leave this place in just 2 yrs.Most of us freshers are still confused about some places here.The space has been utilised so well that it adds to the confusions.Its really easy for a visitor to get lost.The one building that I liked the most is the main buidling.Standing in front of that majestic building we go through a whirpool of thoughts.Really inspiring place to be at.No matter how many times I pass that building I still have a good look at it.The Amenities here are cool too.Never have to leave the campus for anything.I have been out for something like 5 times tillnow.The mess is wonderful in every way(ya I mean it,I m not being sarcastic)and is highly subsidised.So I dont need to visit the canteens too.Anyway the canteens are far enough to give a second thought about visiting them.

IISc life:

As anyone can guess,life here is too dedicated to Science and Tech. that very little of anything else goes on here.But again it being a campus having more than 2000 students does have people having diverse hobbies and interests.So although the ratio of ppl of a particular interest would be small,in effect the numbers would still considerable.Forexample on August 15th we had the Freedom Run(a Cross Country of 5KMs)>I surprised to see that more than 200 ppl in all ran and the quality of atleast the top few timings was indeed very good.Again we have a music club that boasts of lots of good singers and instrumentalists ranging from Piano to Saraangi to Flute to Violin to Ghatak to Guitar.Wehave decent hockey team,volleyball team etc.The Gymkhana facilities are excellent but as far as my observation goes it remains largely unutilised.

Personal Experience:

Let me introduce my course first.I am doing an MTech in EDT(Electronics design and technology).My Dept. is CEDT.(Center for EDT).Its mother branch is ECE.But it has been seperated from it since 1997.Its main aim is to prepare Electronics Engineers who will Entrepreneur in future.And to some extent to do pure research too.So it is one of the most practically oriented courses in IISc with around 2/3rds being practical.Thats the main reason I liked the course.

My days here started with glitches as usual as it has been throughout my life when I get into a new place.I was supposed to pick a chit for the hostels and I managed to get one of the worst hostels(not that it isbad.But I get jealous when I look at the newer ones,But considering the fact that we are at our rooms only to sleep it hardly matters).Then the same day the officials here told me that they cant admit me coz I had no proof of course completion or even the final sem marks card.So i had to get them faxed the same day and finally I became the last person to be admitted this year.

The next day began quietly as we had lots of introductory sessions,a briefing about our course and its aims,A tour of the labs in our Dept.Mostof were finding all the explanations flying off the top of our heads and I began to realise that 2 yrs in MTech is not even enough to explore our own dept. properly,let alone the whole IISc.Our department like most here has lots of collaborations with companies and so gives the real feel of the latest technological challenges that the indusrty faces.

On a lighter side I have been playing chess and listening to music like a mad here.Most of my life is in the labs so have transferred my music to a comp in the dept itself.So its FM+ hard disk Music + the Music we face from the assignments.My day starts at 7:30 and ends at 1:30 in the night almost daily including the sundays.(Did I say on a lighter side???).Made quiet a few friends here.Some becos of chess and some becos of music club here.But mainly there are only two ways to be friends here.Either u share the Dept. or the Mess.In my case there are only few that match both criteria.One of my good friends here is a girl(surprised??even I was. There are only 2 in our MTech batch.) She claims to be a cold blooded(even I dint believe but it seems like its true)and is also a stock market freak. Also she is basically a Gujju who doesnt know Gujju(just complimentary to me)Then there is this Pradeep who is fast turning out be the night out partner here in labs. He is generally the last one to get out of the lab.The third one who matches the above mentioned criteria is a localite and has a Honda Dio. So cant really say much about her coz she always speeds away from us cyclists.
So thats it friends. Dont really hope to blog regularly from now on.Infact even to write this small post I took 5 days.So its been a fortnight + 5 daysalready.Here I go on an endless hunt for knowledge.

Parva,The Mahabharata that I never knew

Originally posted here on my ancient blog site.

Recently I read a novel in kannada by one of the well known writers,S.L.Bhairappa,Parva. At times, I used to feel that I am forgetting my mother tongue. Even more so, when I mostly found myself thinking in English. So actually started reading the novel coz i thought it would get me back in touch with Kannada. It was tough time in the initial few pages as I even had trouble pronouncing a few words properly. Slowly picked up and by the 50th page I was back to my original speed. Anyway, lets leave the trivial details at that.

The novel has a completely different perspective of looking at the great war that defines Indian culture, the rights and wrongs, literature and almost all walks of life. All the people in the epic have been brought down from mythical status and are just ordinary human beings. There are no extraordinary arrows of Arjuna that split into a thousand arrows and shower upon the ordinary mortals. Everything has been just analysed the way it should be. There is great stress on values of those times and how the war was an inflection point from where the Indian ethos changed. The ending leaves you with a kind of mixed feelings. All though its again defined as a victory of good over bad, this book manages to convince that it meant victory to none. Superb way to end the tale. Won’t try to compare this with the Vyasa-Mahabharata or any of the numerous versions but would definitely say that it gives a very fresh look at things.

According to the book,Here are some wonderful things that I never knew………

Ones relating to the main story:

If you remember the Tele-Serial, Dharamaraja and co. the Pandavas were young handsome hunks.Analysis says they were between the ages of 50-60 at the time of the war. Bhishma was an astounding 124 years old. He was hardly able to command his Battalion let alone the whole war. And his soft corner for the sons of Kunti was a big reason why half the Battalions of Kauravas get wiped under him.

Bhima killing Jarasandha was quite pre-decided as Bhima was 24 and Jarasandha was 72 when they wrestle. Drona is also a 100+ old aged man. Drushtadyumna again obviously had not trouble killing him. Again Krishna finishing off Kuansa is also not surprising as everybody around had considered him to be born for the very purpose and that was a such a big confidence boost against the already wary and scared Kaunsa. The author writes that Kaunsa died even before Krishna touches him(poor feeble heart I believe).Krishna has been bereaved of his powerful Chakra but the novel substantially justifies his triumph everywhere given his razor-sharp wit. Krishna’s strategies throughout will convince you that he was a genius. One would realise from a practical and realistic view as to why the Kauravas had to lose.

In Vyasa-Mahabharata Jayadratha is killed by Arjuna when Krishna darkens the skies by blocking the sun. In Parva the situation is something like this- Arjuna is desperate to kill him before sunset,they break the formation planned by Drona and almost reach Jayadratha, But by then sun has almost started to set,at that moment Krishna asks Arjuna to order his troops to withdraw.Hearing Arjuna shout, Duryodhana Shouts back,”See here is Jayadratha live and kicking,Should we ready the pyre for u?”and that small moment becomes good enough for Arjuna’s arrow to get the undefended and unexpecting Jayadratha’s throat.And then Krishna shouts back,”See the sun has not set yet”.Duryodhana gets confused in the first place because of some elephants in the formation that block his view.

Most of us believe that the Pancha Pandavas were such good brothers and hardly had any differences.But this book refers in detail to the lots of quarrels they had. Sometimes so serious that they were about to kill each other.Specially Bhima’s fury against Dharmaraja. At one point he scolds Dharmaraja,”Dont mask ur cowardice by Dharma, I wish I cut those hands that gambled and brought us to this pathetic condition”.

 Social Practrices:

Unlike the present day society most ppl did not consider pre-marital sex as a taboo.But we can definitely see that it is during this period that morals like the one above began to change.Specially in the name of Arya Dharma which began to take various definitions in the hands of inexperienced court pundits.For example in Madra Desha(somewhere near present day Afghanistan ) it was considered good to marry a woman with children as it would be a confirmation of her fertility. And the one who marries her has to accept her children as his too.But at the same time Kunti giving birth to Karna before marriage was considered unacceptable. There were so many matriarch tribes too.The Devaloka(Present day Tibet) had completely surprising customes. There were 32 Tribes among them, and all men and women of one tribe were spouses to each other in any case other than being close relatives such as brother-sister mother-son and so on.But the children would always belong to the mother. Most customs were such because of the war like situation that they always had. It was almost considered a sin to waste the Ovum produced by a woman. So most women were pregnant all through there potent life.

There were practices like Niyog which allowed having children through a potent man in case of Husband’s Impotency,to continue the lineage of a family. Kunti had her children thus. Even Pandu and Dritarashtra were born the same way. Even Nakula and Sahdeva through Madri. I think we have a lot to learn from the broadminded culture then.

Ok, guess I have written enough, if I continue I think I will be betraying the many surprises in the book.To anyone who can get hands on the book,I say,its a must read.

I m mortal,going to be immortal? (cntd….)

Originally posted here on my ancient blog site.

After seeing the technological aspects of immortality whether or not one wants it, I feel it is surely is coming. Luckily or otherwise we may be the last generation to die!!! But now lets take a look at the catastrophic repercussions of the same.(Most problems dealt here do not hold true to all kinds of technologies listed in the previous article, reader’s discretion necessary)

Social Factors Just a few days before one of the greatest events that repeats every four years.. FIFA World Cup came to an end and with it came the end of greats like Zidane, Carlos, Ronaldo, Totti, Kahn and the list goes on.. If we had immortality at hand,that would never be the case. Football would soon be a boring stuff that the same Ronaldinhos and Messis keep juggling with for centuries. You would never see a new face. Ofcourse so many years of experience would make the players far more perfect, but one needs change of faces too.

One would have to definitely choose between immortality or having children. Otherwise population explosion would literally be explosion. So, what would one do? Initially one may choose immortality, but as years pass by and there are no children left, it will be one big hell deprived of innocent beautiful faces. A time will come when atleast a fraction of people when people will begin to choose death.

Death will be death like never before. People will start to be extremely cautious about accidents, wars, diseases etc. Imagine what a crime homicide would be. Lots of philosophies of different religions will take a beating too. Almost all religions glorify deaths in battlefield or some great sacrifice and talk of heaven or some promise of wonderful afterlife. Will people risk it then? People in India have the habit of blessing with a Sou saal jiyo(may u live for hundred years) after somebody sneezes, would it be a curse then?

What about life partners? Would the bonds stay that long? Would multiple partners become acceptable? What about capital punishment?The list doesn’t seem to end.Would there be new laws for all these matters?

Economic factors The first thing that comes to mind is insurance. Would anyone give a life insurance? What about lifetime warranty?Economy in general will have a huge revolution the moment immortality becomes available. Lets say the technology is too costly to begin with.Rich people start living forever while the poor working class will keep shifting. And because the rich get immortal,they will continue to get richer and the poor will remain poor. Disparity will increase and then some day poor people may start to revolt. What will happen then? Right to immortality bill will be introduced?This is one way to look at things.In the other case,Immortals may after all loose interest in wealth because they have had too much of it for too long a time and they will become philanthropists??!!

At this point i took a long break and decided that I should quit thinking about the Socio-Economic factors. I think it is something that needs a research for years to completely understand the consequences. So I will try to cover the whole topic in another post. I seriously wonder why this topic hasn’t been brought to thought seriously till now.The technology is not far. But are we ready for it?