Orkut connections

Orkut has become a craze eversince it was introduced. It has amazing properties. You can find almost anyone who has access to internet connection and lot of time to spare logged on to it.

Ever wondered why Orkut says You are connected to 19,584,711 people through 66 friends ??
Say, you are connected to 50 friends. Those 50 friends may have 50 friends each. Some of them even have 300 friends!! so u are already connected on an average to 50+50*50+... Hence the huge number. Now this was stating the obvious. This is technically called a network. Being a friends' network, its a social network. I know Im still stating the obvious :-D But do you know studying networks is an intense field of research !! Every year people publish 1000's of technical papers in this field!! So in the network language, the individual is the node and the links or the edges are the connections between the individuals.

Now, have you ever noticed that most of the profiles you visit, even if its a stranger's, turns out to be connected to your profile through 3,4,6,7 or 8 links. For instance, A > aa > bb > cc > dd > X. Most of the times A turns out to be connected to X through a bb (say) who has 300 friends. Now this is technically called the Six Degrees of Separation. (You must have also seen a documentary on TV by this name.) The concept is that one can always find a connection to anybody in the world via six steps on an average!! In the given example , A is connected to X via 5 steps. In real world, I am connected to our learned president APJK in 5 steps !! So the degree of separation is 5. Now, try this with anyone in the world and Im sure you can find some connection or other !!! Technically, such networks with short pathlengths are called small world networks. Yupp, it is indeed a small world. Its just not a simple say-so but a fact..

Do you see the possibilities!! I am connected to ShahRukh or Zulfi through 6 degrees :-D All I have to do is to find the intermediate connections !! Hmm hard work ahead ...

Such short pathlengths are seen in many other networks. You see any system.. you find a network there. Examples galore - Capillary network inside your body, Airport network, Road network, power-grid network, rail network. Internet is also a network!! In the earlier A--> X example, suppose bb breaks up with aa, your network breaks. bb is called a hub. Exactly this way, if a power station, which supplies to N smaller station fails, you will face a breakdown. US blackouts were caused due to a similar reason. So, hubs are the most prone to attacks and are the backbones of the network. So you see, this field has immense potential in terms of applications. Many fields of study are employed in researching this topic like Statistical Mechanics, Graph Theory.. He he I know.. we physicists are experts in converting any interesting topic to mundane mathematics :-D

Greek colonies in Pakistan

Bumborate, Chitral, Pakistan

If you have read my GoWH-I post, you might remember that I had mentioned the existence of ethnic greek colonies in Pakistan and I had promised to get back with more info. These tribes are called the Kalash people. They live in the Chitral valley in Northwest Pakistan. These tribes claim to be the direct descendants of Alexander's army. They have their own religion and culture. More about them here.

You can find really colourful pictures of these people and their beautiful valley here. Pakistan has some really gorgeous valleys in the HinduKush range.

But my first ambition is to tour all the gorgeous locales in India and then venture abroad if ever :-( Lets see if this ever gets fulfilled :-D
Kehte hain na girgit ki daud baadh tak :-D

Dori

Have you seen Finding Nemo ? There is a fish in that called Dori. She had a very short-term memory of a few seconds. My friends had named me that. I admit it was unjustified then but of late Im living upto that name. Lost and found my keys early in the morning X-(. I hope the single mynah I saw in the morning was meant for this and not for anymore upsets today.
Have a nice day :)

Did u c this!!!

I was eagerly looking forward to SRK's next pic Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and then I see this !! No way Im going to watch that movie. He was bad enough in Chalte Chalte, the movie I hate with all my heart, where all SRK did in the second half was yell and gave me the jitters. I came out of the hall with a head ache.
Arre shaadi mein jhagda kise dekhna hai!!
There's Aahista Aahista coming up in the next few months starring Abhay Deol and Soha Ali Khan. That will be interesting :) AD's Socha Na Tha was cute :)

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These days only two faces are seen on the TV channels all the time - Himesh Reshamiya and Hrithik and Im sick of seeing both of them. Talk about over-exposure!!

Orkut fortunes

You will never need to worry about a steady income.

Oh I wish!! This is the orkut fortune for me today :-D They are the most comforting at times. One says You will have a very comfortable old age.

I went to the beach yesterday and had tons of fun and got totally wet. I do these things only when I accompany my parents :-D There is a bindaas feeling to that. I recall these few lines written by someone who will definitely kill me if he comes to know that I have posted it here :-D

O, beautiful, vast and admirable sea,
I want to dive and swim in thee.
Your countless amazing treasures will I explore,
till the unreachable horizon from the starting shore.

:-D

Ghalib

More than a decade back, a serial based on the life of the Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib used to be telecast on DoorDarshan. I developed a liking for his poetry thenceforth. As I recall, Ghalib lived in the age when Bahadur Shah Zafar ruled over Delhi, though his "ruling" is subject to doubt. He was an old man. Himself being a good poet, his court was adorned by many famous poets of the time including Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir who said

Laayi hayaath aaye khazaa le chali chale
Na apni khushi the aaye na apni khushi chale.

Ghalib's main passions were wine and women and he expressed this love eloquently through his poetry.

Kaafir na intezaar me neend aaye umr bhar
aane ka ahad kar gaye aaye jo khwaab mein

or

Ghalib chuti sharaab par ab bhi kabhi kabhi
peeta hoon roz ye abro-shab-e-mahtaab mein

His couplets are simple yet profound for instance,

Har ek baat pe kehte ho ke tu kya hai
tumhi kaho ke ye andaaz-e-guftagu kya hai

or

Ragon mein daudte phirne ke hum nahi kaayal
jo aankh hi se na tapkaa to phir lahu kya hai.
********

Hazaaron khwahishein aisi ki har khwaahish pe damm nikle
Bahut nikle mere armaan magar fir bhi kamm nikle

These two lines which (I claim) sum up my personality perfectly are also penned by him. Rest of this ghazal goes as..

Nikalna khuld se aadam ka sunte aaye hain lekin
bahut be-aabroo hokar tere kooche se hum nikle

Mohabbat mein nahi hai farq jeene aur marne ka
usi ko dekh kar jeete hain jis kaafir par dum nikle

Khudaa ke vaaste purdah nakaabi si utha zaalim
kahin aisa na ho yon bhi wahi kaatil sanam nikle
*********

(Mind you kaafir is not used in a derogatory way here. Infact I dont think it was supposed to be used that way anywhere. Again, an example of narrow-mindedness taking over logic.)

In the serial directed by Gulzar, these shers (couplets) were sung beautifully by Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh. Ghalib was played to perfection by Naseeruddin Shah. The album is available in the market but what I would like to own is the whole serial in CDs if available. DD used to telecast superb serials in those days. I can distinctly remember Farmaan, Zabaan sambhalke, Shanti, Circus. I remember my parents watching Hum log, Buniyaad, Tamas etc. I wish I was a bit more grown up to have appreciated and enjoyed them. I especially missed the whole series of Bharat Ek Khoj, Chanakya, Fauji ( I admit this is a criminal offence for an ardent SRK fan :-(. ). The K serials of today cannot even compete with those serials.

PS; This is yet another post written at midnight when sleep eluded my tired eyes. The shers here have been quoted from memory. So I dont claim them to be perfectly correct.

My friend Sunanda calls my blog "Hazaaron Khwahishein Ek Tamanna" :-D
Cool na!!

Stop and smell the roses :-D

The weather has been lovely past two days. It has been raining on and off and the sun has taken a break.. just the kind of weather for a visit to the beach. Even the birds are at their chirpy best and the weekend is also here. This past week has been useful for me - work started, got an offer (professional), read a lot, blogged a lot, slept a lot. I have been more calm and hopeful about the future, and I am going to now freak out in the weekend (I never seem to run out of plans for freaking out I think :-D )

I was listening to Abida Parveen. Its a pleasure to hear her because I get to hear a superb rendition of a good amount of literature. She is mainly a Sufi singer, but she also sings ghazals. In her Ghazalon Ka Safar (I and II), she has sung the works of Iqbal, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Daagh Dehlvi, Faiz Ahmed Faiz to name a few.
Jab ishq sikhaata hai aadaab-e-khudagaahi
Khulte hain ghulamon par asraar-e-shehanshaahi
(Iqbal)
More about her sometime soon.
Happy weekend :-D

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I saw the Fanaa trailer today and felt like breaking the TV. I do have a very violent nature :-D

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Rain soaked earth and jasmine flowers smell so good !!

***

You fill up my senses
like a night in the forest
like the mountains in the springtime
like a walk in the rain......- My choice for a romantic song.

***

I felt time had almost stopped for me. Its up and about on its course again. My watch is back from repairs :-D All these days it did what I have wanted to do all this summer...soak in water all day long. The leaves got a soaking today. Not enough to wash them of the droopiness though.. just enough to cheer them up. I walked through the woods and rejoiced with them.. The bus had failed to turn up for a full 45 minutes.. following the principle of least action ended up in maximising the time wasted.. after the silence, I loved getting lost in the crowd.. Alas the bus was missing again .. the wise man learns from earlier mistakes.. So I walked in the rain :-D

Looking forward

There have been so many discussions on reservation that im sick of it. Both for and against argument make sense to me. The root cause of all this is the prevailing caste system in people's mind inspite of education and development. The biggest disappointment was when Lokparitran broke up recently over caste issues !! I was ashamed. My precious vote was wasted. Im sick of all this. And to see it topmost on my posts was also getting on my nerves and so I thought ill post something which is topmost on my mind right now :-D

I guess Ill have 6 chapters. The 5th chapter has to be completed. People say sometimes visualising one's dreams makes it easier to work for them. Im trying just that :-D -Day dreaming.
Have a nice day :-D

Reservations

Much has been said about reservation and my tuppence is that remove all reservations. Let there be no bias towards any particular section. Instead deal with the issues which are relevant. There are so many students who can get the seat on merit but they dont have the financial means to support the education. Introduce schemes which take care of their fees etc. I guess this would attract a larger vote bank. Reservations dont help anyway except in increasing corruption in all areas, as those who have had it easier dont value their work much. When one struggles to get to the top on his own means, he feels something for his job and would like to maintain the dignity of the job. No wonder even the medical profession is corrupted these days.

I came across this article by an IIT Delhi professor which makes a lot of sense. I dont know if its safe to mention names so its better kept nameless. Here it is..

OBC Reservations: An IIT Faculty Member's View


Nearly six decades after independence, this country is planning to announce that majority of its population is backward and does not have equal opportunity to pursue education and employment. Along with this, it is going to open up a Pandora's Box by various caste groups to be classified as "backward". What an interesting way to begin the 21st century when finally India was beginning to emerge as a serious player in the new knowledge economy! The major carrot that is being doled out is the seats in the elite medical, engineering and management Institutes. What bothers me is no one is interested in even consulting the people who have built these Institutions and brought them to this stature. I have strong views on efficacy of reservations in general but here I would confine myself to the issues concerning IITs. At least here with my three decade long association, I can claim to know something. Many of these arguments may be applicable to the other elite Institutions in medical and management disciplines as well. Today IITs are considered excellent educational institutions. There is a countrywide scramble to get into these with many students spending the best part of their teen years in preparing for its entrance examinations. This should not be confused with ranking of
universities where just a couple of IITs make it in the top 500. These rankings deal primarily with the research output and not with the quality of undergraduate education. I can confidently say that any ranking of quality of undergraduate engineers produced would put IITs in the top 20 worldwide if not in the top 10. And it is this achievement that is going to be hard to maintain with the proposed reservations policy. Before we go any further, it would be best to examine how this excellence has been achieved. The fundamental contribution that the Central Government has made to these institutions is in generous funding (by Indian, not global standards) combined with unmatched autonomy. The main point of engagement between the Government and these Institutions has been through the appointment of Directors. Except for a brief period during the last administration, the Governments had refrained from any major politicking in these appointments. They have by and large appointed the best available applicant Professor from the same or another IIT for the job. These venerable people had themselves a great pride in these Institutions and have ran the Institutes with the best of their abilities (maybe not always efficiently but always fairly) without major vested interest.
For someone outside IITs to understand the power of this position is not easy. The Director virtually appoints the complete senior administration including the deputy directors and deans, chairs all the faculty selections including that for the Professors, is the chairman of the senate and thus the academic head, is the financial head and also the administrative head. For most people living in the campus, which includes 90% of faculty and students, he is also the chairman of the local municipality (all major complaints on water, electricity, sewage etc. would reach him). This ensures that the buck almost always stops with him and thus decision making is unavoidable. This autonomy that has been the hallmark of these institutions is being eroded. There were attempts in the last Government (fortunately not vigorously pursued) to tell IITs what to teach. The present decision would strike at the fundamentals of IITs as the Government no longer feels whom to teach and how many to teach is best decided by these Institutions themselves. This in my opinion is the most dangerous fallout as it strikes at the very core of the success of these Institutions. Once the lines of control gets blurred, there would be no stopping, as today's political functioning is clearly not dictated by long term vision. Soon we could have reservations in faculty and create a caste based patronage system which has destroyed many of the once excellent state universities.

In IITs, the faculty selected and promoted solely based on merit has maintained a high standard of ethical behavior, have taken their teaching and research seriously, refrained from politicking themselves and supported the Institute in many ways to fulfill its commitments. Who are these faculty members? A large number are our own alumni (undergraduates as well as postgraduates), majority of them have studied or conducted research in the west and almost all of them have had opportunities of pursuing financially much more lucrative careers in India and abroad. Thus each faculty member is here by choice and he/she has exercised that choice with one major attraction - opportunity to teach, interact and work with extremely bright students perhaps unmatched anywhere. It is this attraction that is being tampered with. In a situation where all IITs are short of faculty and desperately trying to innovate to attract faculty under the constraints of the pay commission dictated salaries (while competing with Sensex based salaries), this is not a pleasant development.
IITs have had reservations for SC/STs for decades. Why would this be different? Aren't these students likely to be better prepared than the students admitted under the existing reserved category? Here I would like to share some of the facts with the readers. IITs have been admitting SC/ST students for years under two modes. From the general category, a significantly lower JEE cutoff is decided and reserved category students scoring above this cutoff are admitted directly to the UG programmes. Another still lower cutoff is decided and reserved category students from this set are admitted to a one year preparatory course conducted by IITs themselves. After passing this course, they can join the programmes without having to appear in JEE again. Even this exercise collectively yields less than 15% in IIT Delhi though the quota amounts to nearly 22.5%. Half of the reserved category students manage to clear courses comfortably while the other half struggle on the margins. What would be called a good performance (cumulative grade point average or CGPA of 8 and above) and is achieved by nearly forty percent of general category
students, is rare and occurs once in many years among the reserved category students. It is not that all general category students do well. There is nearly a 5% "dropout" rate even among them which is a cause of concern but mainly attributed to the burnout due to JEE preparation phase. The "dropout" students have no effect on teaching as they neither are regular nor make their presence felt in classes. The remaining part of weak students is too small and at present hardly any instructor would pitch his / her course at that level. On the other hand, the present policy may introduce a large band of weak students which no instructor can ignore. This would definitely result in drop in the quality of education. It is the hypocrisy of the highest order that on one hand the reservation for SC/STs is considered a success and quoted for extension to OBCs, and on the other hand, no hard data on the performance of these students is available in the public domain. Some administrators I talked to consider this data as sensitive! Analysis of where the reserved category students go after graduation would be enlightening. I do not have the sensitive data but my experience shows that most of them either go to services like IAS/IES or to the public sector companies. Normally this choice of careers by IIT graduates should be a matter of satisfaction except that both these entries are again using the reservation quota. Is it empowerment or crutches for life?

In this whole episode, the most stunning news for me was when the Hon'ble minister announced increase in intake to compensate for the reservations. This would amount to nearly 56% overall increase in undergraduate intake in the IITs. This showed complete ignorance of what makes IIT undergraduate education tick. There are few
Institutions in the world where undergraduate students get to interact one to one and so freely with such high-caliber faculty. Students are advised on courses in small groups, interact over hostel dinners, go on industrial trips and finally carry out a well
supervised project. Every undergraduate student does an intensive "novel" project either individually or in groups of two and he/she is effectively "supervised" by a faculty member. Many of them result in publications. This system evolved when the student-faculty ratio was 6:1 and is getting strained at the seams when it has reached 12:1. In some disciplines like Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering where market competition is heavy, it has already gone to 20:1 and above. Though currently producing excellent results, it is a highly non-scalable mechanism. Intake increase on this scale, when effectively faculty strengths in key areas are decreasing could sound a death-knell to one of our few international brand names.

I have a poser for Prof. Jayati Ghosh, my well renowned colleague from JNU and a member of the knowledge commission. She has justified reservations in IITs based on the poor ranking of IITs internationally. Her argument is anyway these Institutions are not great, why they should crib about the quality of intake. She nowhere states that any of the 400+ odd Institutions worldwide which are ranked above IITs have achieved their status through reservations. In that case all Tamil Nadu Engineering Colleges with 69% reservation for decades (openly defying the Supreme Court suggested norm of 50%) now should be at the top.
Postscript: Finally, I would like to seek opinion on the composition of our next Olympics team. We have admittedly done much poorer in sports than education. Should our next Olympics team be chosen on caste basis or perhaps with adequate representation to athletes aged 40+ who are at present completely unrepresented? After all we do not have much to lose as we only win one bronze medal in alternate Olympics. I would no longer be surprised if some future Sports Minister considers caste based quotas for our national cricket team. After all that would be worth a few votes and the nation would have been well prepared by then to cheer only for its own caste brethren!

Glimpses of world history II

The arab civilization -

Arabs were nomadic people living the desert life. Nobody was interested in them. They were not interested in anyone else. The arba clans would live a tough life and fight among themselves. They were however, great travellers. Before Islam was introduced (technically Islam was introduced by Pr. Abraham, it was revived by Pr. Muhammad. As u know Islam is the youngest religion, and our scripure acknowledges Pr. Adam, Noah,Abraham, Moses, Isah (jesus) as our prophets too.), the arabs were also a superstitious lot, steeped in darkness, with many malpractices like female infanticide, etc. (Being a muslim myself, you should excuse some bias on my side :-D)
Then Pr. Muhammad preached his religion. The arabs fired with this new message and zeal, went on to spread their religion. Islam's message of equality and brotherhood had great appeal to the oppressed citizens of the neighbourng countries and hence, the arabs won wars in many places effortlessly. That was the greatness of a single person who enlightened the whole nation. The arabs are credited to be first ones to have scientific thinking. Infact, contrary to current status of the religion where questioning is considered kufr, in those days, questioning was encouraged. The first word to be revealed in Koran was Iqra which means read in Arabic. Emphasis was on gaining knowledge or Ilm rather than accepting the dogma. Therefore, renaisance came to Arab 1000 yrs before the european renaisance.
Anyway, returning to the history, this era was an age of development of science, art and culture. Arabs on their mission of conquest stopped at Sindh near India. In Europe, they were stopped at Tours in France. The arabs however, later adapted themselves to the luxurious life of the rulers. They were no longer the nomads of Arabia. But they still fought petty battles within themselves. However, their empires were still much more civilized and advanced than the other european empires of the time, which were still oppressed.
Then the warriors of Central Asia, the Seljik turks, converted to Islam. These tribes were an uncivilized lot compared to the arabs of the time. They became the new face of Islam. It seems that the custom of purdah was adapted by these turks. They were more or less barbaric and destroyed cities and did not encourage art and culture to flourish. I think it was around this period that Islam started being rigid. The free-thinking that was encouraged in the religion started by the Prophet was prohibited in the reign of the Turks and the current status of Islam to a large extent can be credited to these tribes who were illiterate in the first place and spread the distorted version of the religion to the nations they conquered. Same with Mahmud of Ghazni, who in the name of Islam, plundered and massacred in India for mercenary reasons. I wouldnt call him a muslim!

When I read this, I so much wished that I should have been born in the era of the Prophet. The religion then was at its height of brilliance. Women were encouraged to study. In fact, women held administrative positions in Prophet's days! Islam gave equal rights to the women. Their property and marital rights are still much advanced in this age. Its another issue that the rights in this age are manipulated by men. Triple talaq is not allowed in the religion. It has its stipulations though they are ignored by the men AND the "learned" men. Same with polgamy etc etc.

Somebody else who was very impressive to me was Chenghiz Khan ( he was not a muslim). Unlike other great conquerors who started young, he started his career when he was 50+. He won wars through strategy and organisation.

Isnt it interesting to read history this way? Whole centuries are described in a chapter. So one doesnt go into the minor details of the trials and tribulations of the people. Their day-to-day living, on this large a scale, becomes a story for the future generation. What story will I leave behind for my future generation? Will they say naani did this... did that... ? :-D I hope they are interested :-D

Glimpses of world history I

Long long ago, I dont remember how long ago, I had enthused about writing about Glimpses of World History by Nehru (JN) and then that was that. This is my first attempt. I have so many impressions gained from this book that its all cluttered in my mind. Ill try to be clear.

I have currently reached 1200 AD (or AC-after christ as Pt. Nehru puts it). Reading that book is really like a time travel through the ages coloured with JN's impressions. JN comes across as a very learned person, unprejudiced in his thoughts. He must have read so much to have this clear idea about every nation! He he, he does berate the English in the mildest, gentlest possible way now and then.
So here I start
Indian civilization has been around for more than 5000 years! Long before the western civilisations developed, Indians and Chinese were way ahead in art, culture, civil infrastructure. There were great centers of thinking in Asia and Africa while Europe was still barbaric. We dravidians are the oldest inhabitants of this nation :-D In fact, I think our genetic strains are also unique. I remember seeing something about this here. In fact, the tour through that site is also a time travel through the ages.
Buddhism started as early as 600BC. Hinduism has existed even before that. These two religions, inspite of being much older than Christianity or Islam, have managed to be less violent in history. There have been so many bloody wars carried out in the name of religion which in real have been for mercenary reasons. Empires barbaric and beastly in nature have ruled for centuries at a stretch and then these empires have perished into anonymity.
Alexander, the world-conqueror as he is called, achieved all that before he died at the age of 33! But he was not all that great and he destroyed great number of cities and people on his way. He reached the borders of India but the mountains and an Indian king called Porus kept him away. In fact, I had once heard about greek colonies still in some areas of Pakistan. Ill get more info about this and post here.

Patliputra, Nalanda, Magadh were centers of learning. Arthashastra talks about the local rules and regulations implemented in those days. It seems in those days, fines were imposed for chucking garbage, letting water or mud collect in the streets etc!! We don't have that kind of civilization now!! And compare all this with the current state of Patna. But the biharis I have met so far have been industrious, intelligent and enterprising. Like one of my friend said - just like Kerala -> god's own country and devil's own people, Bihar -> devil's own country and god's own people :-D No offence meant.

Water ... mughal-e-azam

I saw the movie Water yesterday. A well made movie. I was warned beforehand that it gets depressing, but it ended on a hopeful note. I liked that about this movie. Lisa Ray was gorgeous. I have been her pankha since Afreen. Seema Biswas and Raghuvir Yadav are veterans in this field. John Abraham also has acted well. The kid's character was very touching. Movie is worth watching.

Yesterday was a movie night :-D After dinner, my wingmates were watching French Kiss in the common room. I have seen that movie n # of times but its charming everytime! That was followed by Shall we Dance and then a bit of Mughal-e-Azam. I stayed till the song Jab Pyar kiya to Darna Kya. That movie is a masterpiece, though its a bit slow. I would like to have a copy of this movie. The grandeur of those days, the luxury, Madhubala's beauty, Akbar's demeanor, Dilip Kumar - everything was impressive about this movie.

Shani is beautiful

Yaiyaiyaaaaaa I saw Saturn's rings and Jupiter's moon's today :-D

Our institute has procured this sophisticated 8" telescope called Celestron for the astronomy club. So, we had an informal session tonight.

I saw Saturn's rings. To the left, is one of the pics the club members took of Saturn's rings at an earlier session. What I saw tonight was not colourful. I think this particular image has been processed. Additionally, we could see a smattering of stars in the background too. It was beautiful and very unrealistic. After the many documentaries I had seen on TV as a kid, seeing the planet this close was an experience.


We also saw Jupiter. I could spot four parallel bands on this planet. I also could see a dark spot on one of the bands which is The Red Spot on the planet. The Red spot is actually a storm on the planet's surface and its diameter is supposed to be larger than the earth's diameter. The picture I have put up here is from a NASA site and you can find more details from there. I could also see four moons of the planet- three on one side and one on the other side.

Unfortunately, clouds covered up the sky and we had to discontinue the session. These clouds cover up Chennai's sky every day and then disappear without raining like Lagaan's kaale meghaas.

If I am so thrilled after one meeting, I can imagine the astronomer's thrill in his profession. But, I think the truth is that every profession at a smaller scale is monotonous. Occasional thrills make the job lively.

I am a regular stargazer albeit my stargazing is limited to identifying the constellations and planets with my naked eye and saying hi to the hunter, who I imagine is a handsome hunk waiting for me :-P . I am glad I attended this session.

Where is the outcry at the Palestinians' treatment?

"My family was among those displaced and, though a child, I vividly remember the panic and misery of that flight from our home in Jerusalem on an April morning in 1948, with the scent of spring in the air. Palestine by then had become a raging battleground as Jews fought to seize our land in the wake of the 1947 United Nations partition resolution. My parents decided to evacuate us temporarily. "We will return," they insisted, "the world will not let such injustice happen!" They were wrong: the world let it happen and we never returned."

The full article is here

Im sulking

I watched the movie Being Cyrus today. Its a good movie - slickly edited, good performances, and a good soundtrack. Have u heard the soundtrack of the movie Oliver Twist!! Thats good too. When is it releasing in India or has it already released?

I have been lost for the past few days again - distracted and wandering. But its a phase and Ill get over it like I have done too often in the past :-D

You know what bugs me about this place and this field? People lose interest even in the simplest of things here. Leave alone going trekking or sight-seeing occasionally- even when something good has been planned in their backyard (like an astro-club meet!!), they are not interested. I mean my source of misery is exactly this. I dont want to stop doing other things just because Im into research. And Im sure this is not the normal state of affairs in other research institutes either. I think its something about this place. I know Im cribbing and not being faithful, but I'm bugged. Come on!! Its not as if one doesnt waste time elsewhere. Pray show some life!!
hmphhhh

Scapegoat - Daphne du Maurier

I read this novel and Ill give an outline of the story here. ( This is a spoiler for those who want to read the book. For them, Ill say go grab the book. Too good. )

John is an Englishman, a professor of french history, teaching in France. He has no family and is detached from the world. Just when he loses hope in his life and decides to join an abbey, he meets his mirror image, Jean who physically resembles him but is the exact opposite in nature. Through Jean's trickery, John is forced to live Jean's life when he dopes John and runs away with his documents, clothes- everything that defines John's identity. John is therefore forced to go to Jean's chateau. Knowing nothing about the people he meets, he gradually discovers their relation to Jean, their problems and Jean's role in creating those problems. Hence, he, who is now playing the role of Jean, is made to feel responsible for Jean's follies. John hesitantly gets involved and to a large extent, in a fumbling manner, sorts out the tangles Jean left behind. Just when he has settled into the family he saved from destruction, Jean returns to take his rightful place. Meanwhile, Jean (as John) has destroyed John's systematic life - he has resigned from the university, sold the apartment, encashed his savings, even his cherished Ford car is now muddied and battered. And the story ends with Jean going back to live in the chateau and John continues on his way to abbey.
DdM is a writer par excellence. Her narrative style engages the reader completely. John's path of discovery in the new place with new people, his personal mortification in having to deceive the people of the chateau, his bumbling attempts to solve their problems - almost everything has been very magically described.
Her stories generally reach the depths of despair but always, as a rule, end on a hopeful note. But I have issues with this story. Its not fair at all. Jean has always dealt with his relations in a heartless and reckless manner, destroying their happiness and not even repenting about it. He choses to leave John to deal with them and escapes to nowhere. And just when everything has been set right, he returns to take his place. He always get the best deal and John gets the bad one. Not fair :-(( I hate the ending with all my heart. I wish Jean had died.

I, as a rule, avoid depressing movies as I generally get involved in the plot. Therefore, I avoid books with sad endings with a greater passion, as with books, one uses one's imagination to picturise the setting and so its a greater risk to read such books. And after the ending in this book, I now need a hug very badly..mummmmmmmmmmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie :-((

He he :-D
Happy weekend :-D

Books....

Books I have been reading recently-

• Valkyries by Paulo Coelho. This book is about getting in touch with your guardian angel. Ill confess most of it went above my head :-D But one good point I gathered from this book is to banish the second mind. I have this bad habit of parallel processing. At times, even when somebody is talking to me, I'll be thinking of something else at the same time. I do this while reading, working, etc. Getting rid if that habit will help me a lot in focussing :-D
  Something else was about not looking down and instead looking around while walking. I do that too :-D He puts it in more decent words viz. expanding one's soul :-D Many a times I have not seen my friends approaching me from the opposite direction, as I would have my head down and would be thinking about something . Those who know me just joke about it but those those who dont, think that I have deliberately ignored them. This book was more about philosophy and more spiritual and hence a bit (rather a lot) beyond me as Im mostly a I-me-myself kind of a person. No shame and no regrets about that :-D. I would like to read Devil and Miss Prym. I have heard a lot about that.
  

• A lovely well written romance novel. I don't remember the name :-D
  

• Currently reading Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier. I have loved all her books that I have read so far. She is one of the authors who stand out for their story telling and engaging plots. Every book of hers is a delight.

What would I ever do without books!!

Im looking forward to seeing Fanaa (more for Kajol than Aamir in the movie). Ill never ever see Krisshhhhh. The songs look funny. Hrithik looks gay. Priyanka looks artificial as ever.

Chutti over :-(

My much talked about vacation got over and Im back here :-) As for whether I was bored or not, there were a few times when I did get bored :-D But overall, I had tons of fun. Ahh the bliss of doing nothing!!! I hope this semester is fruitful and the final one.
Things I did - attended a wedding, read two books Angels and demons by Dan Brown and One night at the call center by Chetan Bhagat, watched Ice Age 2, and ate and slept endlessly :-D

In between all this, I heard the shocking news abt the Gujarat riots. Pray tell me how can a 300 years old monument be an encroachment ?? It generally so happens that the cities develop around these. There wouldn't have been an issue if the demolished building was a mosque. As mosques can be built anywhere.. (err Babri masjid pops up in my mind but thats a whole different story) My point is that some people do have feelings attached with durgahs, they being places of hopes for a few plus its a heritage site even if its not officially declared a heritage site. This was an unnecessary teaser and it managed to fuel up people's anger plus one saw the huge bhaade ke mobs worsening the situation. Any little thing fires up people's anger. We have become this intolerant!!
This time when I went to my hometown, we couldn't get reserved seats owing to the heavy holiday rush and so we had to travel in the General. Its a learning experience :-D You know I just got this feeling there that deep down there is some resentment, anger, separation or call it what you want. One could feel a subtle hostility between the communities. It was related to very simple things like sharing seats. And what was disturbing was that this kind of feeling was among the younger people. The older ones were very friendly. Things were not this way few years back. We are becoming more polar. Tamil Nadu never had this as much as I know. I have heard of minor riots 3 decades back . But nothing serious and god forbid if something snowballs in future.

And hey I voted for the first time in my life :-D Im a proud citizen atleast for today :-D