In the wake of the recent terror strikes in Mumbai, I have been asked by quite a few friends here about life in Mumbai. So here is a reference to one of my earlier posts about Mumbai written in response to a Readers Digest survey labeling us rudest city.
Perhaps after reading the post, you too will like to join in the crowd praising and applauding Mumbai for its spirit now. I am usually part of that brigade, but not this time. It seems to me now that Mumbai's famed spirit is not courage any longer, it is helplessness. It is not brought about by people standing up to terrorism but by people who cannot do anything but get on with life after terror strikes.
Everytime the headline screams "Mumbai survives again", it makes me wonder how much is too much? Is that day very near when "again" turns to "no more"??
Friday, December 05, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
An exam to remember!
I have been putting off writing this for a long time. First because I was busy vacationing in NY then because I was waiting for the exam results and now simply because there were better things to do. So I have finally got down to writing about this very unique exam and here are the details.
For as long as I can remember, ever since I first learnt the word 'EXAMS', the day before any of those was spent studying, studying and studying. It was either memorizing for exams of history/geography types or solving and revising formulae for maths types. Sometimes it was both!
But I had never faced an exam where I didn't have to study atall. Maybe study less because the exam was not important or I knew the stuff well but never zero studies. And same applied to the nervousness before exams. Maybe it was less sometimes and more at other times, but never zero.
Thanks to Dr. Dankel's AI course, I finally found an exam where I could show what I knew without being nervous and without studying atall the day before. The reason? It was a Take-Home exam!!
So then the day before the AI mid-term, I chat and complete some job work tasks in the afternoon. In the evening, I am off to Momoyaki (a chinese eatery) for dinner with Megs. A sumptuous dinner of noodles and sushi later we go to Kohl's for some after-dinner shopping. Browsing thru lots of clothes, accessories takes up most of the evening. Back home at night and still no studies to do. It makes me feel a little creepy but watching "What happens in Vegas" sets everything right :) Also thrown in is an episode of Star Trek Voyager and a midnight snack.
Next day D-day of an exam I haven't remotely studied for. A small voice at the back of my head asks me "what if you were mistaken and its not a take-home". Dr. Dankel enters class...voice dismissed...receive paper to take home :) The rest of the day spent giving the longest exam I ever gave. 8 hours of straight work consulting notes, books...writing code and other answers...thinking and more thinking. Finally the morning after I push the exam under Dr. Dankel's office door and heave a sigh of relief!!
Perhaps I should have tried this on my students back at Atharva. The challenge is not to the student giving the exam but to the professor designing it. No matter what notes or books or other resources you consult, you will still need to be very very good at the subject to do well in the exam!
The results of this extraordinary and unforgettable exam? A 96/100. Not bad for a grad student eh?
For as long as I can remember, ever since I first learnt the word 'EXAMS', the day before any of those was spent studying, studying and studying. It was either memorizing for exams of history/geography types or solving and revising formulae for maths types. Sometimes it was both!
But I had never faced an exam where I didn't have to study atall. Maybe study less because the exam was not important or I knew the stuff well but never zero studies. And same applied to the nervousness before exams. Maybe it was less sometimes and more at other times, but never zero.
Thanks to Dr. Dankel's AI course, I finally found an exam where I could show what I knew without being nervous and without studying atall the day before. The reason? It was a Take-Home exam!!
So then the day before the AI mid-term, I chat and complete some job work tasks in the afternoon. In the evening, I am off to Momoyaki (a chinese eatery) for dinner with Megs. A sumptuous dinner of noodles and sushi later we go to Kohl's for some after-dinner shopping. Browsing thru lots of clothes, accessories takes up most of the evening. Back home at night and still no studies to do. It makes me feel a little creepy but watching "What happens in Vegas" sets everything right :) Also thrown in is an episode of Star Trek Voyager and a midnight snack.
Next day D-day of an exam I haven't remotely studied for. A small voice at the back of my head asks me "what if you were mistaken and its not a take-home". Dr. Dankel enters class...voice dismissed...receive paper to take home :) The rest of the day spent giving the longest exam I ever gave. 8 hours of straight work consulting notes, books...writing code and other answers...thinking and more thinking. Finally the morning after I push the exam under Dr. Dankel's office door and heave a sigh of relief!!
Perhaps I should have tried this on my students back at Atharva. The challenge is not to the student giving the exam but to the professor designing it. No matter what notes or books or other resources you consult, you will still need to be very very good at the subject to do well in the exam!
The results of this extraordinary and unforgettable exam? A 96/100. Not bad for a grad student eh?
Friday, October 10, 2008
Childhood Dreams
I usually stay away from books I categorize as 'self-improvement'. Reason being its not reading the book that is the hard part, its implementing what you read. But last Wednesday was one of those days when I came back really hungry from the univ. Even with the microwave promising me that the rice will be done in 15 minutes, I couldn't stop loitering around it watching the countdown.
Well anything is better than watching the microwave clock countdown, so I picked this book off our bookshelf (yes even as desi grads we have one of those in our house!), it turned out to be Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture" (here is a video of the same). I cannot say when I crossed the line between idly flipping its pages and becoming engrossed in reading it but when I went back to check on the rice, the microwave had zeroed its countdown half an hour ago.
So taking Randy Pausch's advice I tried building myself a list of childhood dreams I want to achieve too. Some are really from childhood, some are current (but still very much akin to childhood dreams). I hope to add more to this list and tick some off along the way.
5. Buying loads of stuff at some mall in Mumbai
As a child I was always struck by the glitter and glamour of malls in Mumbai. Their colourful displays caught and held my attention easily and I wished I could buy all those pretty things on display. I realise now that I was more taken by the idea of carrying out loads of shopping bags than by the idea of the actual stuff contained in them. Why Mumbai malls only? Well for one they are full of people doing window shopping so if you have many many shopping bags on you, you manage to turn some heads! Talk about being the center of attention! I more or less achieved this on my shopping spree before coming to US and will hopefully continue such shopping sprees whenever I go to India.
4. Being a really good thinker
Now whats a "thinker" for me you may ask. Well I have many smart friends around me. They are smart in many incredible ways... one can code fast....one can solve puzzles fast...one can design well...one draws well...one writes well...one can calculate fast...so on and so on. I always wanted to be really very good at one such mental ability. From my own experiences and as Randy Pausch pointed out, its not the end but the means that count. My struggles to try and achieve this goal have given me their own benefits.
3. Watching several American TV shows
Back in India I loved watching Sabrina, Bewitched, Small Wonder, The Real Ghostbusters to name a few. My problem was they never showed all episodes in sequence and they never even showed all the episodes! I enjoyed watching Disney movies like Twitches, Halloweentown but sometimes couldn't because the cable providers didn't think the Disney Channel was important enough to be aired always. Coming to US, Netflix and Youtube helped me fulfill most of this wish of mine and let me watch some other good TV shows too.
2. Meeting (strike that out and replace with Building) Data
Randy Pausch wanted to "be" Captain Kirk. He struck that out and replaced it with "meeting" Captain Kirk. Me being from The Next Generation and having seen his Last Lecture started with keeping the goal as Meeting Data. But the day after I saw Randy Pausch's lecture, I also happened to see Brent Spiner's interview (he is the actor who plays Data in Star Trek TNG). Did I want to meet him? Certainly not! I wanted to meet an android who calculates fast, has super speed and strength but still tries to be human. But did I want to meet such a robot created by someone else? After an AI class this sem, I can define this goal more accurately. I want to build a robot like Data. Perhaps I will someday...
1. Being a Professor
There are two sub-goals to this dream. The first being my liking for teaching which I partially fulfilled at Atharva but would love to make it my fulltime occupation. The second sub-goal being getting the Ph D required for being a good professor. Dr. Chaitali has a nice ring to it don't you think? :P Again, perhaps someday....
So that concludes my dreams list for now. Unlike Randy Pausch's list, I am glad its not absolute. Hope to continue revising and changing it!
Well anything is better than watching the microwave clock countdown, so I picked this book off our bookshelf (yes even as desi grads we have one of those in our house!), it turned out to be Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture" (here is a video of the same). I cannot say when I crossed the line between idly flipping its pages and becoming engrossed in reading it but when I went back to check on the rice, the microwave had zeroed its countdown half an hour ago.
So taking Randy Pausch's advice I tried building myself a list of childhood dreams I want to achieve too. Some are really from childhood, some are current (but still very much akin to childhood dreams). I hope to add more to this list and tick some off along the way.
5. Buying loads of stuff at some mall in Mumbai
As a child I was always struck by the glitter and glamour of malls in Mumbai. Their colourful displays caught and held my attention easily and I wished I could buy all those pretty things on display. I realise now that I was more taken by the idea of carrying out loads of shopping bags than by the idea of the actual stuff contained in them. Why Mumbai malls only? Well for one they are full of people doing window shopping so if you have many many shopping bags on you, you manage to turn some heads! Talk about being the center of attention! I more or less achieved this on my shopping spree before coming to US and will hopefully continue such shopping sprees whenever I go to India.
4. Being a really good thinker
Now whats a "thinker" for me you may ask. Well I have many smart friends around me. They are smart in many incredible ways... one can code fast....one can solve puzzles fast...one can design well...one draws well...one writes well...one can calculate fast...so on and so on. I always wanted to be really very good at one such mental ability. From my own experiences and as Randy Pausch pointed out, its not the end but the means that count. My struggles to try and achieve this goal have given me their own benefits.
3. Watching several American TV shows
Back in India I loved watching Sabrina, Bewitched, Small Wonder, The Real Ghostbusters to name a few. My problem was they never showed all episodes in sequence and they never even showed all the episodes! I enjoyed watching Disney movies like Twitches, Halloweentown but sometimes couldn't because the cable providers didn't think the Disney Channel was important enough to be aired always. Coming to US, Netflix and Youtube helped me fulfill most of this wish of mine and let me watch some other good TV shows too.
2. Meeting (strike that out and replace with Building) Data
Randy Pausch wanted to "be" Captain Kirk. He struck that out and replaced it with "meeting" Captain Kirk. Me being from The Next Generation and having seen his Last Lecture started with keeping the goal as Meeting Data. But the day after I saw Randy Pausch's lecture, I also happened to see Brent Spiner's interview (he is the actor who plays Data in Star Trek TNG). Did I want to meet him? Certainly not! I wanted to meet an android who calculates fast, has super speed and strength but still tries to be human. But did I want to meet such a robot created by someone else? After an AI class this sem, I can define this goal more accurately. I want to build a robot like Data. Perhaps I will someday...
1. Being a Professor
There are two sub-goals to this dream. The first being my liking for teaching which I partially fulfilled at Atharva but would love to make it my fulltime occupation. The second sub-goal being getting the Ph D required for being a good professor. Dr. Chaitali has a nice ring to it don't you think? :P Again, perhaps someday....
So that concludes my dreams list for now. Unlike Randy Pausch's list, I am glad its not absolute. Hope to continue revising and changing it!
Friday, July 04, 2008
Mi Marathi
After an hour of unsuccessful search for some way to write the title of this post in Devnagri script, I had to revert back to plain old English alphabet. Perhaps that script would have captured instantly and exactly, the essence of what it means to me...the words more familiar and the feel more homely. But I will try my best with this post to do the same.
Browsing on YouTube at lunch and dinner times has become a hobby of sorts with me these days (owing to lack of TV here). So tonight on my routine browsing, I came across this video. Watching it made me realize the extent to which I had taken my Marathi existence for granted. I never really thought, till I came to US and even till I watched this video today, that one day I would miss those Marathi songs that Dad played on CDs at home or watched on TV.
My Marathi connection is not restricted to calling it my 'mother tongue'...the language Mom taught me to express myself in. It expands to many other small incidents and happenings such as the plays of Shivaji that Ms. Hyacinth had us acting in every week, to those times when I opened my tiffin to find "poli-sakhar", to Ranjit Desai's book Shreeman Yogi - the first Marathi book I read on my own not because I had to but because I wanted to.
This same connection stretches on to the times in school when a request to "organize a marathi dance" instinctively manifested itself into a koli dance or a lavani, to a class in 10th where a copper wire was "tambyachi taar" and gravity was "gurutvakarshan" and even to panicky times before exams when quick revisions for "how to convert decimal to binary?" resulted in "tyala don ne divide kar remainder ek yeyi paryant".
This may not be the language I think in, but it is the language I react in...when burnt, when hurt, when happy, when angry, when panicky...and so on. Even more than connecting to the language, I connect to the essence of what it is to be Marathi and the connection is evident in my nostalgia in remembering visits to watch "jaadugar aani chetkin" at Maratha Mandir and in my laughter while watching "rashi chakra" at Prabhodankar. Perhaps staying in Mumbai all my life has strengthened this connection or perhaps the fact that my most toured region of India is Maharashtra has done the same...whatever it is, I enjoyed watching the video and smiling to myself.
I will end my post with yet another video. Something for all my friends who at some time or the other have stayed in Maharashtra. Take a look at
this video and then come back to the video I posted at the beginning. If you have ever stayed in Maharashtra for long enough, I'm sure u'll want to say the same thing that I said throughout my post..."Mi Marathi"!
Browsing on YouTube at lunch and dinner times has become a hobby of sorts with me these days (owing to lack of TV here). So tonight on my routine browsing, I came across this video. Watching it made me realize the extent to which I had taken my Marathi existence for granted. I never really thought, till I came to US and even till I watched this video today, that one day I would miss those Marathi songs that Dad played on CDs at home or watched on TV.
My Marathi connection is not restricted to calling it my 'mother tongue'...the language Mom taught me to express myself in. It expands to many other small incidents and happenings such as the plays of Shivaji that Ms. Hyacinth had us acting in every week, to those times when I opened my tiffin to find "poli-sakhar", to Ranjit Desai's book Shreeman Yogi - the first Marathi book I read on my own not because I had to but because I wanted to.
This same connection stretches on to the times in school when a request to "organize a marathi dance" instinctively manifested itself into a koli dance or a lavani, to a class in 10th where a copper wire was "tambyachi taar" and gravity was "gurutvakarshan" and even to panicky times before exams when quick revisions for "how to convert decimal to binary?" resulted in "tyala don ne divide kar remainder ek yeyi paryant".
This may not be the language I think in, but it is the language I react in...when burnt, when hurt, when happy, when angry, when panicky...and so on. Even more than connecting to the language, I connect to the essence of what it is to be Marathi and the connection is evident in my nostalgia in remembering visits to watch "jaadugar aani chetkin" at Maratha Mandir and in my laughter while watching "rashi chakra" at Prabhodankar. Perhaps staying in Mumbai all my life has strengthened this connection or perhaps the fact that my most toured region of India is Maharashtra has done the same...whatever it is, I enjoyed watching the video and smiling to myself.
I will end my post with yet another video. Something for all my friends who at some time or the other have stayed in Maharashtra. Take a look at
this video and then come back to the video I posted at the beginning. If you have ever stayed in Maharashtra for long enough, I'm sure u'll want to say the same thing that I said throughout my post..."Mi Marathi"!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Bedazzled by Blogs
The summer term can get pretty boring if all you do is keep to yourself and your routine. So after a boring day with lecture videos, books and nothing-to-do times, I decided its time to take a look at news back home. Logging on to Times of India website, the very first thing that caught my eye was a headline "Panchvi Fail".
Extremely curious since I do like Bollywood masala once in a while, I followed the link to Amitji's Blog. Its nice to know that our Bollywood biggies are turning tech-savvy. As a small-time representative of the blogging community, I was all set to read up his blogs and give a comment or two on some. But perhaps it was just my perception of blogging or perhaps I had much too different expectations from one of Bollywood's legendary icon's blog, I just didn't like it!
Blogging as I know it is NOT a place on the web to get your 15-minutes of fame. Its not even a place to add 15 more minutes to an already filled-to-brim fame. Its a place to talk about things that you otherwise don't get a chance to talk because there is no time or place relevant enough to talk about them. I had a post sometime back about board games vs. e-games. There just wasn't any time or place appropriate enough to talk about this hence the blog. Blogging is about letting others know your opinions on issues you feel deeply about such as Reservations.
What blogging is not, according to me, is pulling others down or using blogs as a publicity tool. Perhaps the second is justified for someone of Amitji's stature. If he writes a blog its bound to attract its share of fans dying to write a comment and hoping for a personal e-mail as an answer. But browsing thru the posts on his blog, I am yet to come across one that is different from the numerous interviews he gives and the scores of speeches we have seen him deliver.
Commenting on others work and not-so-subtly implying your own greatness everywhere is however a big no-no for blogs I think. Blogging if after all a type of journalism and it must adhere to the tenets of good journalism. Generating controversy after controversy on your blog is not a very good way to keep yourself in public eye! To summarize, this was one blog visit when the only comment I'd have liked to leave was a link to my "Blogs I like" section.
On a smaller note, this encounter got me Googling for more celebrity blogs which in turn led me to Aamir Khan's blog. Now its perfectly alright to vent out your "truest" feelings on a blog like I'm doing on this post and have done on many before. But uneasy lies the head that wears the crown and it doesn't befit a person of Aamirji's fame to get into petty blog battles. I will stop at that and add no more to my thoughts on this latest hot news of Bollywood.
As a concluding remark, blogging is a "personal" thing! Its a way to express yourself with the keyboard instead of pen-and-paper. and if you think its gonna hurt someone make it private! Mandar's latest post expresses this view very succinctly! Perhaps the above was a pretty explicit and long post but I just couldn't resist striking out in defence of that one activity that gives me creative satisfaction and led me to nice things in life!!!
Extremely curious since I do like Bollywood masala once in a while, I followed the link to Amitji's Blog. Its nice to know that our Bollywood biggies are turning tech-savvy. As a small-time representative of the blogging community, I was all set to read up his blogs and give a comment or two on some. But perhaps it was just my perception of blogging or perhaps I had much too different expectations from one of Bollywood's legendary icon's blog, I just didn't like it!
Blogging as I know it is NOT a place on the web to get your 15-minutes of fame. Its not even a place to add 15 more minutes to an already filled-to-brim fame. Its a place to talk about things that you otherwise don't get a chance to talk because there is no time or place relevant enough to talk about them. I had a post sometime back about board games vs. e-games. There just wasn't any time or place appropriate enough to talk about this hence the blog. Blogging is about letting others know your opinions on issues you feel deeply about such as Reservations.
What blogging is not, according to me, is pulling others down or using blogs as a publicity tool. Perhaps the second is justified for someone of Amitji's stature. If he writes a blog its bound to attract its share of fans dying to write a comment and hoping for a personal e-mail as an answer. But browsing thru the posts on his blog, I am yet to come across one that is different from the numerous interviews he gives and the scores of speeches we have seen him deliver.
Commenting on others work and not-so-subtly implying your own greatness everywhere is however a big no-no for blogs I think. Blogging if after all a type of journalism and it must adhere to the tenets of good journalism. Generating controversy after controversy on your blog is not a very good way to keep yourself in public eye! To summarize, this was one blog visit when the only comment I'd have liked to leave was a link to my "Blogs I like" section.
On a smaller note, this encounter got me Googling for more celebrity blogs which in turn led me to Aamir Khan's blog. Now its perfectly alright to vent out your "truest" feelings on a blog like I'm doing on this post and have done on many before. But uneasy lies the head that wears the crown and it doesn't befit a person of Aamirji's fame to get into petty blog battles. I will stop at that and add no more to my thoughts on this latest hot news of Bollywood.
As a concluding remark, blogging is a "personal" thing! Its a way to express yourself with the keyboard instead of pen-and-paper. and if you think its gonna hurt someone make it private! Mandar's latest post expresses this view very succinctly! Perhaps the above was a pretty explicit and long post but I just couldn't resist striking out in defence of that one activity that gives me creative satisfaction and led me to nice things in life!!!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
I'm Home!
The first day or rather first evening in Gainesville. Me standing with Deepika and Vineesha outside Gainesville Regional Airport. Hardly had the chance to speak to anyone in Hindi except among the 3 of us. As I stared at the unfamiliar coins in my hand, on the brink of making a phone call, I suppressed a chilling, depressing thought "I'm too far from home!"
Then Varun and the ISA ppl show up to pick us up. Its my first conversation in Hindi in Gainesville. On reaching A103 Regency Oaks, Ananya's friendliness and helpfulness disarms me. Those were the days of "first" everything. First visit to Butler Plaza, first courier arrives home, first phone call from new phone, first day at university, first visit to CISE... and the list is just too long to put down here though I will certainly describe a few memorable firsts!
There was that first DBI project when we stared at the computer screen for an hour not knowing what to do. Thanks to Nikhil's generous donation in terms of time and brain-power, we got thru it and how! The first Algos assignment where "regrade" was a frightening concept given that for Mumbai Univ regrade means waiting till your next sem exam gets over! But here ofcourse "regrade" means a chance to justify urself and on some occasions redo your work for more marks!
Another notable first would be my visit to food-joints here. Cici's was the privileged first but now endless visits to Starbucks, Subway, Noodle Bar, etc. have made me lost track of the chronological order in which I discovered the delights of American Fast Food.
There are surely those major firsts like the first Gator Night and first day at the University but those are probably well documented and reported on blogs elsewhere. I won't strain my fingers typing them out here or risk boring u with them!
From those first moments I slowly set into a routine. The visits to Publix and gigglingly cursing the cart as we dragged it back full of groceries. Finding out just why Betty and Veronica drool over yet try not to give in to having a Banana Split. Studies and more studies at Library West. Long trips in search of a campus job. Exams and assignments.
Taking an account of the things I believe counts me in as part of the desi grad students population here...I have a job, an SSN, an address that I put in at countless places, a cell-phone, a UFID and a Gator1 card, a BOA account and its debit card. I stay up late-night doing assignments or doing timepass. I get spam mails in my name in the mailbox. I have a UFL mail and a CISE mail account as well. I don't think Krishna Lunch's food is bland anymore, infact I enjoy it as "tasty food". I don't need a map to walk around the campus now.
Even more than these small things, I have lots of friends here who will always help me, be it a difficult assignment, falling ill, getting upset or just generally feeling moody. Thanks to Swati and Megha, there are memories of good cooking (yumm) made with them, outings to Lake Wauburg, Oaks Mall and various small-time places with them, gossip sessions late night and movies watched with them. Interesting coffee sessions and depressing assignment sessions...we have seen them all. Its time to start a memory book here too!
And that one thing that qualified me to type out this post is Janki's visit to UF today. Showing her the bus routes, helping her get her Gator1 card, seeing that she needs a map to find her way about, telling her about various facts and figures she'll need...all those very same things happened to us when it was the 'first' phase of life in Gainesville.
Today after 40 lectures * 3, 10 + 5 + 3 = 18 assignments/projects, countless moments as described above and the realisation that its a few short months before we are "seniors", I can confidently and happily say "I'm in Gainesville...but I'm home!!"
Then Varun and the ISA ppl show up to pick us up. Its my first conversation in Hindi in Gainesville. On reaching A103 Regency Oaks, Ananya's friendliness and helpfulness disarms me. Those were the days of "first" everything. First visit to Butler Plaza, first courier arrives home, first phone call from new phone, first day at university, first visit to CISE... and the list is just too long to put down here though I will certainly describe a few memorable firsts!
There was that first DBI project when we stared at the computer screen for an hour not knowing what to do. Thanks to Nikhil's generous donation in terms of time and brain-power, we got thru it and how! The first Algos assignment where "regrade" was a frightening concept given that for Mumbai Univ regrade means waiting till your next sem exam gets over! But here ofcourse "regrade" means a chance to justify urself and on some occasions redo your work for more marks!
Another notable first would be my visit to food-joints here. Cici's was the privileged first but now endless visits to Starbucks, Subway, Noodle Bar, etc. have made me lost track of the chronological order in which I discovered the delights of American Fast Food.
There are surely those major firsts like the first Gator Night and first day at the University but those are probably well documented and reported on blogs elsewhere. I won't strain my fingers typing them out here or risk boring u with them!
From those first moments I slowly set into a routine. The visits to Publix and gigglingly cursing the cart as we dragged it back full of groceries. Finding out just why Betty and Veronica drool over yet try not to give in to having a Banana Split. Studies and more studies at Library West. Long trips in search of a campus job. Exams and assignments.
Taking an account of the things I believe counts me in as part of the desi grad students population here...I have a job, an SSN, an address that I put in at countless places, a cell-phone, a UFID and a Gator1 card, a BOA account and its debit card. I stay up late-night doing assignments or doing timepass. I get spam mails in my name in the mailbox. I have a UFL mail and a CISE mail account as well. I don't think Krishna Lunch's food is bland anymore, infact I enjoy it as "tasty food". I don't need a map to walk around the campus now.
Even more than these small things, I have lots of friends here who will always help me, be it a difficult assignment, falling ill, getting upset or just generally feeling moody. Thanks to Swati and Megha, there are memories of good cooking (yumm) made with them, outings to Lake Wauburg, Oaks Mall and various small-time places with them, gossip sessions late night and movies watched with them. Interesting coffee sessions and depressing assignment sessions...we have seen them all. Its time to start a memory book here too!
And that one thing that qualified me to type out this post is Janki's visit to UF today. Showing her the bus routes, helping her get her Gator1 card, seeing that she needs a map to find her way about, telling her about various facts and figures she'll need...all those very same things happened to us when it was the 'first' phase of life in Gainesville.
Today after 40 lectures * 3, 10 + 5 + 3 = 18 assignments/projects, countless moments as described above and the realisation that its a few short months before we are "seniors", I can confidently and happily say "I'm in Gainesville...but I'm home!!"
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The Making of a Grad Course Project
Projects are an inseparable, typical, all-encompassing, essential, fundamental, constitutional... (alrite alrite I agree I Googled those synonyms!) of a graduate CS student's life! So here is how they are begun, made and ended!You get up one fine sunny day and try to deceive urself into thinking that you have many more hrs of peaceful sleep left when actually u hav just a few mins. The cell-phone alarm you set yesterday night at 4.30 a.m. rings and u realise its 9.30 a.m. U curse urself and the alarm and put it on snooze and try to get back to that dream u wer having (abt a maal ladki/ladka??)
The phone starts ringing again! U are nt one bit surprised tht ur internal clock is so jumbled up it can't count the minutes right and snooze time is over! But surprises, its a phone frm ur project partner (the one who got up early and attended the lecture u intend to watch on video!). "The next assignment is out! And due in a week!"
Gayi waapis raaton ki neend and gaya waapis din ka chain! So then it begins this way :-
- First 2 days, do nothing abt the project bcos u already hav other imp tasks and a week is like an eon to some1 used to working at the speed of light b4 submissions.
- Next 3 days, try getting something done but mostly gossip around in the lab. Atleast the framework is ready.
- 4th day, panic bcos u cudnt understand nething in the lecture abt the project. Finish ur coding as fast as u can without a damn to whether it will run or not.
- 5th day, its a Friday and the prof. tells u in class tht the deadline is postponed to Wed bcos the test driver is nt yet up :)
- 6, 7th day, wait around for the test driver. Heck, its ur weekend neway. U can spend it watching Race or lecture videos. Something at the back of ur mind tells u "Coding khatam hui is statement mein koi information nahi hai"
- 8th day, the test driver is out. Start testing ur project.
Then u rush thru the debugging with GDB and lots of couts and more frustration and more Gatorade and more curses at PuTTY, WinSCP, ur proj partner (he/she curses u too :) ). Then is the "Bachao!" time when you start calling and buzzing other teams on GTalk abt doubts and more doubts. So in the hope of getting ur project up and running u rush on Sunday aftnoon to college but don't understand any of the explanation tht others giv neways.
Then u find out there r no buses to come bak (those with a car or a cycle ignore this!) so u curse RTS (ur delighted to find a live target for ur frustration...not a little black & white window for a change!)So after a lot of exhaustive (for u) testing, the project is up and running just fine! Then u discover another bug 1 hr b4 submitting! After some high BP, frantic calls and frantic buzzes on GTalk, u discover its a bug with the test driver. "Bewakoof" TA...cursing him/her for almost giving u a heart-attack u fix it. Nw the proj is surely up and running and u submit it!
U forget abt this after a while till u receive a 0 in the proj and are called by the TA for a demo! A prog tht works just fine and is running in top shape receiving 0??!! U confront the TA incredulously! On running the TA's test cases u find a bug in ur previous assignment's code.
Oops! Hehe!! "I'll jus fix it and show u a demo again." Thank God for nice TAs, ur marks r increased to 100 and there ends the story of ur project. By the time u fixed the bug and re-submitted the project and sent a mail to the TA, its 4.30 a.m. U set the alarm for 9.30 a.m. and try to get back to that dream u wer having (abt a maal ladki/ladka??).....
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Satyameva Jayate!
Some days back, while explaining our National Emblem to students of Hawthorne Middle School, I stressed on these words as being an integral part of our emblem. Literally translated, they mean "Truth alone triumphs." Morally they mean a lot more.
We are awarded a wealth of knowledge through this simple quote. It stands not only for the end that is always achieved by the righteous but it also stands for the battle that we must fight for achieving that end.
India's history teems with sacrifices, wars and broken hopes to achieve this message. The Ramayana, the Mahabharata all describe the fight for truth. Our stories from the Panchatantra and plays like Bhasa's Swapna-Vasavadutta all describe this very ambition at their core. The beauty of this phrase is reflected in world-wide literature with Romeo-Juliet, Illiad and Odyssey and even If Tomorrow Comes.
Why am I quoting a mixture of love stories, thrillers, mythology and history to illustrate this straight-forward term? Because I believe that "truth" has a different meaning to each person, each situation. For Ram it may be defeating Ravan, for Udayana it was a refusal to teach Pradyota, for Tracy Whitney it was getting back at an unjust system. Depending on the way you look at it, "Saytameva Jayate" translates to a picture of bloodshed and misery or to a rosy picture of flowers and love.
There have been numerous occasions in my life when I was faced with a battle, however insignificant, to uphold this ideal I firmly believe in. 'If you are right, make sure everyone knows it, no matter how long it takes and how high its price.' Perhaps I should change that to everyone who matters. Sometimes it just close friends and people and at other times its everyone I know.
This very principle has of course been applied numerous times in my academics since that's where you can be reasonable and logical yet the grader isn't always so. Maybe 4 years with Mumbai University and a spate of its depressing results led me away from believing in this adage and trying to achieve it my way but it was my continuous effort to try and enforce this.
No amount of deterrent has ever stopped me from pursuing what I believe is right, whether it is to more marks, a better project or no material gains atall! So comeon folks, get up and follow me, to make "Satyameva Jayate"!
We are awarded a wealth of knowledge through this simple quote. It stands not only for the end that is always achieved by the righteous but it also stands for the battle that we must fight for achieving that end.
India's history teems with sacrifices, wars and broken hopes to achieve this message. The Ramayana, the Mahabharata all describe the fight for truth. Our stories from the Panchatantra and plays like Bhasa's Swapna-Vasavadutta all describe this very ambition at their core. The beauty of this phrase is reflected in world-wide literature with Romeo-Juliet, Illiad and Odyssey and even If Tomorrow Comes.
Why am I quoting a mixture of love stories, thrillers, mythology and history to illustrate this straight-forward term? Because I believe that "truth" has a different meaning to each person, each situation. For Ram it may be defeating Ravan, for Udayana it was a refusal to teach Pradyota, for Tracy Whitney it was getting back at an unjust system. Depending on the way you look at it, "Saytameva Jayate" translates to a picture of bloodshed and misery or to a rosy picture of flowers and love.
There have been numerous occasions in my life when I was faced with a battle, however insignificant, to uphold this ideal I firmly believe in. 'If you are right, make sure everyone knows it, no matter how long it takes and how high its price.' Perhaps I should change that to everyone who matters. Sometimes it just close friends and people and at other times its everyone I know.
This very principle has of course been applied numerous times in my academics since that's where you can be reasonable and logical yet the grader isn't always so. Maybe 4 years with Mumbai University and a spate of its depressing results led me away from believing in this adage and trying to achieve it my way but it was my continuous effort to try and enforce this.
No amount of deterrent has ever stopped me from pursuing what I believe is right, whether it is to more marks, a better project or no material gains atall! So comeon folks, get up and follow me, to make "Satyameva Jayate"!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Daylight Robbery!
Daylight Saving Time started last Sunday here, pushing me to being 9.30 hours behind India than 10.30. This time shift was much more worst than the Big Shift that I had coming here from India. Did DST cause disruptions to my schedule? Yes and No!
Sunday Morning Troubles
I had to go to volunteer for Asha's event (will post more about Asha soon!) and had accordingly set the alarm for 9.00 a.m. I wake up in fright at 8.00 a.m. according to my cell watch and think bcos of DST it is actually 9.00 a.m. and my alarm didn't ring! I check on the net and realize that my cell had adjusted itself and it was actually 8.00 a.m. according to DSt and 7.00 a.m. otherwise!! Did you understand wht I said?? Well bottomline is I missed on 2 hours of sleep! For a grad student its a lot to miss on!
The Spooky House
I sure stay in a hi-tech house. When I woke up on DST Sunday, my cell, laptop had all adjusted themselves. My internal clock was the only one out of sync with the time change! Infact WinSCP adjusted itself to 2 hours ahead. I spend many frustrating hours on my Makefile before being enlightened that WinSCP set itself wrong after DST!!! For my friends not yet corrupted by the language of coding, WinSCP is an application and it played havoc with my program that depends on time!
So then what do you do when a phenomenon puzzles, amuses, frustrates, intrigues, etc. etc. you?? Geeks got it right! GOOGLE ye!!
Turns out there is actually a book on DST. I wont waste more energy typing out all that I read about DST. Here it is...
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/k.html
And as David Prerau puts it, changing clocks causes a lot of anecdotes as we Spring Ahead and Fall Back!
Sunday Morning Troubles
I had to go to volunteer for Asha's event (will post more about Asha soon!) and had accordingly set the alarm for 9.00 a.m. I wake up in fright at 8.00 a.m. according to my cell watch and think bcos of DST it is actually 9.00 a.m. and my alarm didn't ring! I check on the net and realize that my cell had adjusted itself and it was actually 8.00 a.m. according to DSt and 7.00 a.m. otherwise!! Did you understand wht I said?? Well bottomline is I missed on 2 hours of sleep! For a grad student its a lot to miss on!
The Spooky House
I sure stay in a hi-tech house. When I woke up on DST Sunday, my cell, laptop had all adjusted themselves. My internal clock was the only one out of sync with the time change! Infact WinSCP adjusted itself to 2 hours ahead. I spend many frustrating hours on my Makefile before being enlightened that WinSCP set itself wrong after DST!!! For my friends not yet corrupted by the language of coding, WinSCP is an application and it played havoc with my program that depends on time!
So then what do you do when a phenomenon puzzles, amuses, frustrates, intrigues, etc. etc. you?? Geeks got it right! GOOGLE ye!!
Turns out there is actually a book on DST. I wont waste more energy typing out all that I read about DST. Here it is...
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/k.html
And as David Prerau puts it, changing clocks causes a lot of anecdotes as we Spring Ahead and Fall Back!
Monday, February 11, 2008
The Uni-error code!
Its ironic for someone who taught Computer Programming and that too C++ to be struggling with errors in a C++ code, but that's my fate now in MS! Wait a minute!! Did I say errors?? Oh no not atall! Our DBI code gives just one error...SEGMENTATION FAULT!
Programs I seriously think are like two year olds. You have to coax them into getting up and working. Even then they may do just what they want instead of doing what you want them to do. If you persuade them too much then they will sulk and refuse to compile. And as I just said before, if you really get them mad at you, they might just compile but when they run they'll give you the dreaded segmentation fault!!
For those who haven't yet entered the murky catacombs of C++, segmentation fault is that universal name given to all sorts of pointer problems. Perhaps ye gods who made the computer and its systems didn't want us mortals to understand all its secrets! But to get back to our uni-error, it crops up at unexpected places, it may show up on some systems and may not on others. It might come up once in a blue moon or once in a day or even once in a year. Sometimes it reveals itself to the customer but never graces the developer with its divine presence. So to all cricket enthusiasts, ha! You may have a lot of ways to get out in your game but we coders have a lot more ways to generate a segmentation fault in ours!!
Coming back to our code, like I described before, theres only one way to understand a two year old. Make friends with it. Give it candies and chocolates. Talk to it in its baby-language. And perhaps it will warm up to you and begin following your instructions. Same goes for programs. You have to give it a debugger like GDB (or give it to the debugger rather!), talk to it in terms of memory leaks and uninitialized pointers, make friends with it with debugging cout statements and comments and it will warm up to you unless it really hates you and absolutely refuses to run!
Thats what we tried with out DBI code and its up and running for now. but again, all this is just to understand one two-year old (or code) and when the next one comes along, we are compelled to agree "Oh segmentation fault, thou shalt rule the minds of programmers forever!!"
Just b4 I sign off here's something to cheer all you coders trapped in segmentation faults... http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/joke/haiku.htm
Programs I seriously think are like two year olds. You have to coax them into getting up and working. Even then they may do just what they want instead of doing what you want them to do. If you persuade them too much then they will sulk and refuse to compile. And as I just said before, if you really get them mad at you, they might just compile but when they run they'll give you the dreaded segmentation fault!!
For those who haven't yet entered the murky catacombs of C++, segmentation fault is that universal name given to all sorts of pointer problems. Perhaps ye gods who made the computer and its systems didn't want us mortals to understand all its secrets! But to get back to our uni-error, it crops up at unexpected places, it may show up on some systems and may not on others. It might come up once in a blue moon or once in a day or even once in a year. Sometimes it reveals itself to the customer but never graces the developer with its divine presence. So to all cricket enthusiasts, ha! You may have a lot of ways to get out in your game but we coders have a lot more ways to generate a segmentation fault in ours!!
Coming back to our code, like I described before, theres only one way to understand a two year old. Make friends with it. Give it candies and chocolates. Talk to it in its baby-language. And perhaps it will warm up to you and begin following your instructions. Same goes for programs. You have to give it a debugger like GDB (or give it to the debugger rather!), talk to it in terms of memory leaks and uninitialized pointers, make friends with it with debugging cout statements and comments and it will warm up to you unless it really hates you and absolutely refuses to run!
Thats what we tried with out DBI code and its up and running for now. but again, all this is just to understand one two-year old (or code) and when the next one comes along, we are compelled to agree "Oh segmentation fault, thou shalt rule the minds of programmers forever!!"
Just b4 I sign off here's something to cheer all you coders trapped in segmentation faults... http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/joke/haiku.htm
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Melting Moments!
Since cmng here to Gainesville life's been pretty calm (except for some bothersome issue that crops up everyday :D). One of the problems of learning to live by urself tho is gathering the wealth of experience in the kitchen tht only moms hav usually! The problem lies in gathering tht experience by trial and error and not by the more sophisticated way of lectures!!
Come beginning of sem and one course bothering me is Algorithms! Resorting to my tried and tested way of learning I decide to apply it to real life situations. But what do I pick on that will adequately test my Algo fundas?? Why some daunting household task ofcourse!!
So then one of the household tasks I wage a daily battle with is breakfast! Oh and also evening tea-time. Actually anytime I need butter!! Sounds strange?? Well thts one product thts been a tough nut to crack for me here! Talk about being as soft as butter! :O
What's it thts actually bothering me? Melting tht butter enough to put it on bread smoothly! The systems analyst that I am, I realised after 1-2 days that:
(a) the butter has to be stored in our freezer bcos theres simply no space in the normal portion of the refridgerator.
(b) I need to devise an algorithm for getting the butter to melt enough to put on bread.
(c) The worst case complexity of the algorithm shud be such tht the butter melts in time for me to have breakfast and rush to college.
I began by point (b). Tried out various algorithms for the butter melting.
--> Keeping it outside on the kitchen counter...takes too long.
--> Putting it in the micro and heating...I'd a river of butter and all totally liquid freely flowing...hardly any use and so much wastage!
--> Patting it on a hot pan...one side drips while the other is still rock solid!
--> Holding it under hot water...watery butter or buttery water for breakfast anyone?
So then due to lack of a good algorithm I'm unable to perform any analysis on it and am currently accepting proposals for a good algorithm to melt butter. Criteria...make it as fast as possible!!
On second thoughts, perhaps its one of those computationally infeasible problems??!!
Come beginning of sem and one course bothering me is Algorithms! Resorting to my tried and tested way of learning I decide to apply it to real life situations. But what do I pick on that will adequately test my Algo fundas?? Why some daunting household task ofcourse!!
So then one of the household tasks I wage a daily battle with is breakfast! Oh and also evening tea-time. Actually anytime I need butter!! Sounds strange?? Well thts one product thts been a tough nut to crack for me here! Talk about being as soft as butter! :O
What's it thts actually bothering me? Melting tht butter enough to put it on bread smoothly! The systems analyst that I am, I realised after 1-2 days that:
(a) the butter has to be stored in our freezer bcos theres simply no space in the normal portion of the refridgerator.
(b) I need to devise an algorithm for getting the butter to melt enough to put on bread.
(c) The worst case complexity of the algorithm shud be such tht the butter melts in time for me to have breakfast and rush to college.
I began by point (b). Tried out various algorithms for the butter melting.
--> Keeping it outside on the kitchen counter...takes too long.
--> Putting it in the micro and heating...I'd a river of butter and all totally liquid freely flowing...hardly any use and so much wastage!
--> Patting it on a hot pan...one side drips while the other is still rock solid!
--> Holding it under hot water...watery butter or buttery water for breakfast anyone?
So then due to lack of a good algorithm I'm unable to perform any analysis on it and am currently accepting proposals for a good algorithm to melt butter. Criteria...make it as fast as possible!!
On second thoughts, perhaps its one of those computationally infeasible problems??!!
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