Hey Ram...

Finally, am able to write this piece after a long hiatus....mainly delayed due to my persistence to wait till I get my new notebook. My ThinkPad has arrived and theres no more excuses to prolong this further,so here it goes....

Foreword:
The full credit to the (short) story goes to my wonderful grandfather, who penned this story during the times of freedom struggle of India and got it published in a national newspaper! Am just rephrasing this story in my own words with some modifications to the original story. Am dedicating this to my lovely grandpa and grandma.


Disclaimer:
All characters in this story are fictional and any resemblance is a mere coincidence :)

The Village:
It was the night of august 1947 when India was being given, or rather has been fought for, the much deserved freedom after almost 350 years. Gandhiji , armed with the weapons of non-violence and non-cooperation was able to convince Indians to finally unite against the colonial rule. Miraculously the system worked and Britons were forced to quit. It was the time for celebration, the home coming of many great heroes who fought for the country, lived and died for it. A young but ambitious secular India was born.

Though India was able to successfully vanquish their external foes it wasn't able to stay united, the only force which was the sole reason of its freedom. There was a growing unrest among two major religions of the society, the hindus and the muslims. The slogan of "Hindu Muslim Bhai Bhai" (hindus and muslims are brothers), the driving force behind the freedom movement, was no longer seen as valid. Disruptive forces within the country demanded for a separate country for the Indian Muslims. Unfortunately, the top brass of the Indian leaders decided to partition India into India and Pakistan and the worst nightmare began.

A village on the eastern border of India was witnessing the pain of the partition. The villagers were an equal mix of hindus and muslims living together peacfully. They never dreamt that they would be separated by fate and miss their dearest friends. For them, religion didn't hold any water....atleast till the partition movement. Rumours were spreading in the village that a train carrying hindus from pakistan was burnt by the muslims. Hearing this, the hindus of the village seethed with anger and were seeking revenge. Rumours were again spreading in the village that, some muslims were attacked by un-identified youth while they were returning from mosques after their daily prayers. No one knew the truth, all were rumours, but no one cared! The situation was going out of control.

On this particular night, the atmosphere was particularly tensed. The dead bodies of Amir and Ravi were found floating on the lake in the night. The bodies were sent to the respective families for the final ceremonies. Both the bodies were terribly bruised as if beaten to death by someone. There were no visible marks of any weapons but the bodies were mangled. The muslims of Amir's community blamed the hindus of brutally killing their son. Nobody saw a hindu attacking Amir but again no one wanted a reason (the truth being, both Amir and Ravi were secret friends playing near the lake when both of them accidentally drowned in the water. The bruises on their body were the courtesy of the fish and reptiles in the lake). It was decided that they would kill any hindu spotted on the streets tonight. They wielded the butcher's knives and ran amuck in the streets like mad men. Soon, the hindus came to know that their people were being attacked in streets by muslims and they weilded their own weapons. A riot ensured in the peace loving village and blood flowed like water in the streets. The red of the blood defied the black of the night.

A young girl was coming back from her friend's place on this fateful night oblivious of the blood shed going on. On her way home, she saw dead bodies on the side of the roads and was scared to death. She could see a few people with daggers running towards her shouting "Maaro Maaro" (Kill her, Kill her). She didn't know if the people were hindus or muslims, she didn't care. She just wanted to stay alive for the night and started running towards a dilapidated house with no lights. The house was empty and start dark, so she went inside and hid behind a cupboard. The people saw her movements, and came running towards the house. They called her to come out of the house or they would burn the house. The girl didnt budge, she knew she would be killed if she came out. She stayed put. These people were the relatives of Ravi and were in no mood to let any muslims stay alive tonight. They didn't know how many people were inside the dark house and hence didn't dare to go inside. They poured kerosene all over the house and summoned the gal one last time, "Bahaar aajao warna ghar jalaa denge" (Come out or we will burn the house). The gal was frigthened to death to move. She stayed behind the cupboard. With no response, Ravi's relatives lit the house and started to run away. As they began to turn round the corner they froze on hearing the dying girl's final scream reverberated in the air, her final prayer to her god,"Hey Ram......." .

Fire In The Belly

In every person's life there comes a time when he stands at the cross-roads. One has to make a possibly difficult decision to follow the further path. No matter how much you wish to run away from the juncture there is no escape for that. Its inevitable. It doesn't matter whether you take the right or wrong path, for that matter no path can be fingered down to be a right or wrong path. In life, nothing is Black and White. So in that case, what matters is the Conviction with which you make the decision.....the Confidence you have in doing what you think is right...and the clear Conscience with which you need to move ahead to make the journey. These are the three essential C's for leading a satisfactory life.
Paraphrasing an interesting conversation between Lex Luthor and Clark Kent in Smallville...
"Lex: Hey Clark...Did you read 'To Kill A Mocking Bird' ?
Clark: What about it?
Lex: Its a great book. You should read it once.
Clark: Is it? What happens in the end?
Lex: Its not about the end. Its about the journey!"
The goal in life shouldn't be about trying to reach a dead end and be happy with it. Suppose you reach one such end then what next? You will find that there's another end which you need to reach and you set up on reaching that. Again reaching that end, you find still another. Sooner or later you will realize that you are not able to enjoy the ends (technically, its not an end) that you worked so hard to reach. So what's the purpose of life if you are not happy? One has to realize that its the journey that one need to enjoy...the whole process of reaching the destination. Life will then become much more meaningful and pleasant.

Everyone stands at one or more cross-roads in their lives and currently I am facing one. Having decided to pursue Ph.D in computer science I have to decide the way I have to go about it. Essentially there are two ways, one is to get it done with by adapting to the system and get out. The other, more difficult one, is to be true to one self. I am not completely satisfied with the way I have completed my under graduation. Sure I have got some offers from universities, got placed in a company and earned a decent grade point but that's that. It might be merely because I have adapted to the damn system and just trudged along. I really didn't do any path breaking stuff or made a mark of my own. I don't want this to be repeated during my doctoral studies. I really want to learn something very interesting and implement it successfully. I don't want to fall into the norm of being a publishing press and churning out papers during my study. Rather than publishing numerous papers which are no good except for publishing I would rather prefer to publish one paper which I am really proud of. My idea should be able to be patented...should be implemented successfully in real world not just test-beds....and most importantly should be Commercially Viable. What's the use of publishing tons of papers if the idea cannot come out of the conference rooms into the public. Academic research with tight collaboration with industry will provide the right platform for doing innovative (pardon the cliche) stuff. No Co will be satisfied with just high-five ideas unless they can be made commercially viable because at the end of the day they are in the business for profits not charity.

Money is something which everyone likes no matter what phony things they say. Sure I too want money but I don't want to work for the sole purpose of getting it. There are other ways to earn dough more quickly than research. What would happen if you are earning envious amount of money but you are not satisfied with yourself. Would you be really happy if you sit idle and your bank balance will make your life more than comfortable? I won't be able to live like that and I guess no one can and should. Rather I want to work in the field I am passionate about (again pardon the cliche). If I really enjoy the work I do then I will definitely do it with sincerity and commitment and money will automatically come. The satisfaction that comes from living this way is unparalleled. But I am afraid I will be pulled back into the system and do what most others do. I can't and will not blame the system or the atmosphere if I end up that way..because I will be solely responsible for all my actions. I just hope this fire in the belly continues in my doctoral studies n my life ahead....

As a matter of fact, I don't know if research is my cup of tea...may be I won't like it after some time...or may be I will like it. But am now willing to take a chance...to the test the waters..to see if I can enjoy it. My current aim or rather the aim of my life is to find where my heart lies...I mean what exactly do I love doing....to find my destiny!

Memoirs of a Kone - Part II

Continuing from the previous post ......

Third year was the most exciting year both academically and other wise. The course load was comparatively less and moreover we began to understand the tricks of the trade (read getting grades). Here in IIT, a grade point average is not a true indicator of a person's intelligence or capability. Its a totally different ball game where the qualities of sincerity, dedication, determination and all that crap come into picture. Ofcourse for those who want to get good grades by hook or crook, there are other means like CCP(Cut Copy Paste), licking the profs in and out and myriad other such things. By this time, the scenario was clear among the students..those who wanted grades knew what they wanted to do..and those who didn't give a damn (mind you there were some excellent students in this category too) about grades stopped worrying about them. I realized that IITs are IITs not because of the faculty and the infrastructure...but because of the great bunch of students and the atmosphere. All in all it was peace.

The most exhilarating time during the 3rd year was the custom of doing internship abroad during the summers. It was a great avenue to improve your academic credentials on one hand and experiencing a new culture of western countries. Ofcourse, this was preceded by countless no.of emails by students trying to woo the profs of european, canadian and even australian nations. The resumes and skills claimed by us would put to shame even the most accomplished professionals in our fields :P. Such was the dedication or desperation whichever you might think among us. Some lucky bastards got intern offers after a few mails itself and other poor souls like me had to spam 200-300 emails to bag the offers. There were two other kinds, those who got internships passed on from their friends (yeah most of us were blessed with good souls with a ring on top of our heads) and those who didn't get offers or those who didn't even try. After the offers, began the running around police stations and going to embassies for visa stamps. For some it was hell n for others it went smoothly. Thus began our exploitations abroad.....

Me, I accepted the offer from one Salzburg Research center under a Mr. Hofmann working on Synchronized access networks. Work was fun because there was very less to do (though the folks out there felt we had done some excellent work ;) ) and the work culture was totally cool. After running at the heels of the profs bak in iit for every little thing, it was a welcome relief during internship where we were treated like equals. My prof was especially cool...he sponsored my trip to Berlin and Dresden and also drove me till Dresden in his car with his family. I had made some good friends in my hostel during that time and they were really good to me. My room mate, Jaffer, was a turkish guy studying law and he showed me around the city of Salzburg apart from playing tt with me. Gerald and Teresa were the two other good friends of mine who invited me to parties. Teresa even cooked turkey for us on Mother's day and wanted me to cook her an Indian dinner, but I never did for some reason or another. Coming to sightseeing, I had been to Vienna, Venice (the most beautiful and different city I have seen so far), Verona, Dresden, Berlin and Paris. Many of our friends were able to meet at some or others place and used to hang out. Myself, I hosted 3-4 groups of my friends when they visited my place. Suffice to say that it was a memorable 3 month period in our undergrad life.

There came the 7th semester of 4th year and then started struggle. It was the most crucial period of our lives coz we had to decide what we wanted to do or be in future atleast near future. I had plans to write CAT and do an MBA from IIMs (infact I mobilized the students of our batch to join IMS coaching in our campus) but after internship I decided that I wanted to be in the technical field. So I decided "I don't want CAT , I would rather stick to my mouse" :). Some of my frenz were preparing for giving gre (I had given it in the previous year itself) or going for CAT coaching or both. Then came the apping period...where we had the arduous trouble of selecting universities, trying to make pacts with frenz to avoid clashes (tho we ended up clashing almost everywhere) and preparing sops, resumes and all that shit. As all things come to an end, good or bad, the apping and CAT was done with by the end of 7th semester. Due to change of plans among iits, we had the placement period after 7th semester. CS placements were great as usual (I was placed with Microsoft IDC, Hyderabad) and the overall scenario was also quite successful compared to previous years. The management realized that the placements would have been even better, if companies were allowed in 7th semester itself as most of them couldn't wait and went to other colleges.

The final semester was the most enjoyed in our entire iit life, never did we feel better about being in IIT (intern being an exception). With only the thesis in hand, we had loads of time left and we utilized it the best as can be expected from a bunch of blood sucked bodies...yeah we played games (computer games mostly) like hell. The multi-player games in hostels and the computer lab were unforgettable. As the semester was coming to an end, the results of apping and CAT started pouring in. Anoop, a friend of mine, secured All India Rank of 1 !! and that was an highlight in the CAT results. On the apping front, many people got offers from top 10 right from the biggies of MIT and UCB (both to Mohit, another friend of mine) and the scenario in CS was better than others. Me, finally accepted PhD offer from Univ of California Santa Barbara (UCSB).

Time raced swiftly with project presentations and it was time for (under) graduation. Emotions started flowing left right and center as we realized that we won't be able to hang out as before. We promised each other that we would keep in touch though we knew that its very difficult. I would have cried if my tears can bring back my friends, but I didn't coz I knew the times are not gonna come back.I might not able be to bring back the times...but I have the memories which can bring a smile on my face whenever I feel nostalgic.I would like to take this opportunity, to thank all my friends who have helped me and been there for me when I needed them and am sorry to all those who have been hurt by me either knowingly or unknowingly. We may not meet each other in future or even be able to be in contact but my friend I ask you only one thing...Never forget Me....Kabhi Alvida Na Kehnaa.

Memoirs of a Kone - Part I

This piece has been in pending for quite some time now as its already been more than 2 months since I have (under) graduated from iitg. This is intended as a retrospection of my 4 year undergraduate life.

It all started on a mid-summer afternoon when I entered into the iit campus at guwahati along with my mom and bro (dad had been away on official trip n couldn't make it). Like all others starry eyed teenagers present there I was nervous and excited at the same time. Will iit education change our lives? Is our future set and on the track ? Is IIT a myth or truth ?....countless such questions dogged us as we went through our initiation ceremony. After setting up the essentials my folks had left for home and I was all alone in a new world or was I !?

I had 4 friends from my junior college and another 3 (who were our seniors in our college but joined iit along with us) and so it was not difficult to start. Also, there was Prasanth aka Pressy (as he was popularly known), my high school mate. Our initial trip was a trek up the famed hill spot inside the campus where one can have a wonderful view of the beautiful (ah! i have to admit it finally) campus. All the first years were stationed in Dihing hostel with no seniors present to curb ragging. But as fate had it, I was digging my own pit ! We had an intra-iitg mailing system called pine (one of my favs in my iit life) where we had an option of sending an email to an entire batch or all batches as we please. As my innocuous brain conjured up a brilliant idea, I sent an email to all batches, including seniors !, stating "I am a freshman and I want to make friends. Anybody interested pls contact me ....". Till date I wonder two things 1) Who the fuck told me the alias of sending mail to all batches 2) Was I insane. Anyway, the second yearites smelt bold and the bakra was summoned. Though I had a few ragging experiences by then, they were relatively mild compared to this. First I was given an eye-opening sermon by a senior, on the nature of true friends and importance of family friends which I had to endure for a good 60 minutes. Then from 10 pm to 3 am I had to bore the brunt of a bunch of seniors, esp kiki n homo, who made me do all silly things till (to quote from my cousin's book) ' I unleashed my weapon.... tears' . Apparently kiki was infuriated that I wasn't practicing TableTennis (guess i made an impression during the TT tournament held for freshmen in the initial days) and told me to resume practice. He also ordered me to do 2 things, to send an email to the entire batch saying that I only want girl friends and to write 10 points on why I think I was handsome. It goes without saying, that his wishes were not fulfilled :)



First yearites in our college were like a pack of wolves when it came to attending classes and having meals. They used to flock class rooms a good half an hour before the scheduled time to grab the coveted first seats (though in later years the back seats became coveted). The bland meals of the hostel meals were not to spared either. My room, 57, was a hub during the initial years for all sort of activities, mainly during exams. To my one side was Jaini and to the other was Nune (we both spoke to him only after 1 month !!). Jaini was laid back n easy going whereas Nune was a kind of tutor for us during exams (he studied undergrad an year before he re-attempted JEE). Computer games became an obsession among the students and we spent all our free time scouting for free PCs in our computer center to play AOE, Quake etc....n ofcourse the adult content passed down as a legacy by our seniors. We had a semester system which was interspersed with vacations. The first vacation of one month in december, made us to stay at home for longer and the second one of three months in summer had us yearning to get bak to college. After the first 2 semesters the inevitable happened...the realization that grades aren't easy to come by had dawned upon us and the entras (the students from AP were called so) began herding together most of the times as a band of brothers.

Second year is the strangest time in an undergrad life...u feel liberated coz u r no longer a freshman ducking at the site of a senior, u can have the revenge on ur seniors by taking it on ur juniors :) and yet ur confused to understand the system. We had one other thing to look forward to in our second year. During our first year, some of the seniors had the pleasure to share a hostel, Manas, with the gals (as we had verrrry less ratio of gals they didn't have a separate hostel !!!). Many if not all were secretly hoping to land in that hostel by hook or crook. But as are the ways of fate, a new hostel was built entirely for gals in our second year and they were shifted. Thus we were deprived of the company of non-males (as they were called here for obvs reasons) for better or worse. Again all of us, second yearites, were put in Manas without any seniors. The turning point of my life happened during the initial days of second year. Studs who are in top 10% of their branch had an opportunity for branch change. As we were the first batch of bio-tech students in iitg I was eager to change to either to ece or cs. But I was standing 5th in a class of 20 after the end of 2 sems and clearly didn't stand a chance to branch change..only students had a chance to branch change in our bio-tech class. But miracles do happen...the first and third rankers didn't want to change branch as they liked biotech. So the 2nd and 4th rankers opted for a change and got ece and cs respectively. Now there was this pal from mech who was enamored by bio-tech and decided to opt for branch change to bio-tech from mech (many of us didn't undstand why). Anyway, as one outsider came to bio-tech , I got the chance to change branch and got Computer Science !!!. Even now I feel I was lucky to get CS branch and will never regret that decision. I love CS :)

Unlike in first year, most of the classes of students of different branches were different. Core courses were started and I had the first touch of computer science. For whatever reason, I couldn't cope with the course load in the 3rd sem and my grade point average dipped. The 4th sem was a nightmare for the CS guys...we had this hardware lab where we were supposed to build a raw CPU.
The effort put was no match for the low credits allotted to it. Finally our group couldn't make the CPU working on time, and we borrowed the CPU of another group and showed it to the instructor (yeah...it was total fraud). Surprisingly we got 10/10 in that course where as the group from which we borrowed the CPU got 9/10 !! But again logic takes a back seat sometimes in iit.

Forgot to mention about the festivals in our iit. The cultural fest Alcheringa and the technical fest Techniche were quite famous in the north-east region. Alcheringa became a hunting ground for the desperadoes among us. As the chics from the NE region flocked the campus, the iit guys bored with the chics inside the campus preyed upon them. Many of the liaisons were abruptly cut short after the end of the festival, which was held for 3 days but some them gingerly clinged upon their catch. The good thing was, it brought out the talents of the studs as it was totally organized by the students right from getting the sponsors, publicizing the event in local colleges and organizing events. The best Alcher we had was in the first year where we had a rock show by Brahma and an eastern music show by Euphoria. Though Techniche was not held at as big a scale as Alcher, nonetheless it had its share of followers who were determined to show their technical skills. We also had an intra-iit festival called Manthan where all the batches used to compete with each other (which later was competed among hostels) in various cultural and sport events. This list would be incomplete, if I don't mention the two sporting events we had Inter-IIT sports meet and Spirit - NE sports meet. It was a welcome relief from the mundane routine of the college and all the pupils looked forward to it enthusiastically (though the enthu slowly died with years).

I would cut this blog here before it becomes any longer......I will be writing another blog about our effervescent third year and happy-go-lucky fourth year...So long

The Matrix - A Perspective

This not just a mere review of Matrix, the film. A sociological perspective is interspersed with the narrative. Here it goes....
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Before delving into the discussion, it would be better if we understand what "Matrix" actually is. According to Morpheus (one of the main protagonists of the movie) "Matrix is a computer generated program. It’s a world that has been pulled over the eyes to blind the people from the truth. It’s the truth that all the people (well most of them) are in a prison, a prison of mind, where they don’t know what they see, what they feel or what they think." In the sociological sense we can think Matrix as a cyberspace where people live without knowing that it’s a virtual simulated world controlled by someone else.

The main plot of the movie revolves around the self-discovery of one Thomas Anderson aka Neo aka The One. He leads a double life as a computer programmer at a reputable firm and a hacker. He doesn’t believe in fate because he doesn’t like the fact that he cannot control his life. He knows that there is something wrong with the world but he doesn’t exactly understand what. His routine life takes a turn on a fateful morning when he wakes up to see his computer talking to him. It tells him to follow the White Rabbit and when he does so, he meets Trinity. She tells him that people are watching him and she knows why he is there. Though Neo is initially confused and intimidated by all the strange things happening around him, he decides to meet Morpheus to know The Truth. Face to face with Morpheus, he embarks on a journey to know the truth the about himself, the world and the Matrix. Morpheus tells him that one can’t be explained about Matrix but it has to be known by oneself. He offers him a choice of Red Pill and the Blue Pill. If one selects Blue Pill they can forget everything about the Matrix and just wake up and live life as they have lived till now. Taking the Red Pill on the other hand, takes them into a new world where the reality of the world is revealed. Without any hesitation Neo accepts the Red Pill and thus the wheel of events is set into motion.

In the first of his training programs, Neo is taken inside a computer program along with Morpheus. There is an interesting dialogue between these two protagonists during this simulation. Neo asks Morpheus “Is this Real?” for which he explains “What is Real? If reality is simply what we feel, what we touch or what we see then reality is simply electrical signals interpreted by the brain.” He further explains that the world that people are living is just a dream world, a simulated environment. Some time during the end of 21st century mankind has united to celebrate the true birth of AI, where machines had a single consciousness. Man had been dependent on the machines from the beginning but fate it seems doesn’t exist without a touch of irony. Initially the machines were dependent on solar energy for their working. Later on they realized the potential of human energy and started “Fields” where human growth combined with fusion technique was developed as a perennial energy resource. So, humans were no longer born but they were grown.

In this process, the machines have gained supremacy over the human beings and so they have been relegated to a place in the underground. At present there is a small population of Real People living in a place called Zion hoping to gain back control from the machines. Morpheus, Trinity and other crew members of the ship where Neo is taken are a group of fighters from this world who are trying to sneak into Matrix and gain control. Morpheus believes that Neo is The One who can do this daunting task of fighting the Matrix and getting back the power to the real people. Of course for this to happen, Neo has to first believe in himself. He has to believe that he is The One and that he is capable of doing it. The entire theme of this movie centers on this realization of Neo.

Deviating slightly from the context of the movie, it would be interesting if we try to visualize a world as depicted or rather prophesized in the movie. Can Artificial Intelligence reach to such levels where the machines can actually overpower the human beings in every walk of life? Will a time come where the machines can actually think for themselves? This of course is an eternal debate and there is really no clear answer. Rather than fighting over the issue of whether machines can think or not it would be interesting if we can divert our attention to the issue of whether we would like it that way? To answer this we have to revert back to the main idea behind the invention of the machines. The concept of machines has been shaped by man to reduce his work load. Machines were expected to do the jobs in an efficient manner in less time than a human being. Probably the man of the industrial age hasn’t thought about the modern concepts of artificial intelligence and virtual world during that time. So, machines started literally as slaves to human beings and slowly developed into a state where they can be autonomous systems now. However, we have to be cautious regarding the independence of the machines from the man. Are they really independent? Any autonomous system, even today, relies on a basic code which has to be coded down by man. There is still not a system which can write that basic code for itself. Even in AI, the machines are fed with a basic set of rules. The
beauty of AI lies in the behavior of the system in new environments. Though the response to the basic rules is known, it’s difficult to predict the behavior of the system as whole when a new environment is encountered. The same is the case with Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms and such. Hence, for time being we can be assured that man has still an upper hand to the machine.

Coming back to the point of discussion here, The Matrix, another important beings in the Matrix are the “Agents”. They are the gatekeepers of the system. They can move in and out of any software potentially hardwired to the Matrix. Agents are sentient programs and every person who is not unplugged is a potential agent. Since agents are the guards that hold keys to all the doors of the Matrix sooner or later they have to be dealt with. All the people who have so far tried to defeat them have failed because they are guarded by the rules of the Matrix. Only when a person breaks those rules can he fight the agents. Morpheus tells Neo that, he believes that Neo can succeed where others failed just because he can break those rules. At this point Neo asks whether he can dodge bullets when Morpheus tells him that when he is actually ready he doesn’t need to! Agent Smith is the main agent in the Matrix. He is the anti-hero and is always on the look out for keeping the enemies of the Matrix at bay.

Oracle is like the prophet of the Matrix. She knows enough about the machinations of the Matrix and makes prophecies which never went wrong. She tells Morpheus that he will find The One and Trinity that she will fall in love with him. The confrontation between Neo and Oracle is one of the remarkable sequences of the film. When Neo confesses to her that he honestly doesn’t know whether he is The One, she tells him that being The One is like being in love. One just knows it through and through, bones to bones. She also prophesizes that there will come a time when he has to make a choice between his life and Morpheus’s because only one of them is going to live.

For the sake of the movie, we have to discuss two other things, the squids and Cypher. Squids are the machines designed to do just one thing, Search and Destroy. To keep them from attacking the ship, the crew uses EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse). On the other hand, Cypher is the rat among the crew members. He is foolish enough to believe in the material pleasures of the Matrix and is ready to leave the reality and get back into the Matrix. Agent Smith capitalizes on his weakness and tries to destroy the crew members.
One of the fascinating things in this movie is the transportation technique used by Morpheus and his crew to enter into the Matrix. They use a kind of tele-transportation where by plugging them into a networked system they can enter the Matrix. We can visualize this as a kind of back door to the Matrix. We will again take liberty to stray out of the current topic here to discuss about transportation. Do we have any analogous techniques in today’s world for this technique? The answer is yes. Take for example the virtual reality (VR) embedded computer games. By strapping the player to a machine and connecting him to sensors the user is taken into a virtual world where everything seems so real. The sensors are used to give the feel to the user as if the things he touch and see are real. The flight simulators used in pilot training programs are also a good example for VR. So what happens in The Matrix is also a similar phenomenon. Since it’s a VR world, the crew members are transported into and out of that world.

Back to the movie, after meeting Oracle Neo is apprehensive about his real identity. Whether he is The One or not? He is almost convinced by Oracle that he is not because he himself is not sure. On their way back to the telephone, which is their means of transportation back to the ship, the agents attack the crew members. Some of the members are killed by Cypher by unplugging them from the ship. Morpheus is caught by the agents while Neo and Trinity get back to the ship. But Neo wants to get back to the Matrix because he thinks he is not The One and that Morpheus is unnecessarily sacrificing his life for him. So he finally convinces the remaining crew and he along with Trinity go back into the Matrix. After a typical fighting sequence, both Trinity and Morpheus are back into the ship whereas Neo is trapped in the Matrix.

Into the climax of the movie, Agent Smith shoots down Neo. He is about to die when he wakes up again to face Smith. At this juncture, he understands his true destiny. He realizes that his identity is The One. This is shown in the movie in an amazing way where bullets sprayed by the agents stop in their tracks in front of Neo. We can recall Morpheus’s words earlier that once he is ready he no longer needs to dodge the bullets. Neo is faster than the bullets now, he can break the rules. Bullets can no longer damage him. He is the ultimate, the hero, The One. In a sociological perspective, we can discuss about the question of Identity of Neo. We can draw parallel to his identity to the identity of any being in the cyberspace. What is an identification of a person communicating in cyberspace? We know that a single person can have multiple identities at the same time easily in cyberspace. In that case, how can we pin point a person based on his cyber-identity? I believe that as long as there is no restriction on the online identity that a person can use, for example like SSN, it’s very difficult to identify a cybernetic user.

For digging deeper into the aspects of Matrix and the identity of Neo, discussing about the next parts of the sequel (Reloaded and Revolutions) is mandatory. Without those two the story is incomplete and we are, to say in Morpheus words, “Like Alice… tumbling down the rabbit hole”.

Y Not Voice Blogging?

I was just wondering why there hasn’t been a "voice" blogging system instead of this traditional text blogging ? Or may be there is and i dont know of it. I have googled though n cudnt get hold of ne meaningful stuff. So I was just thinking about the odds against voice blogging and got some points.

First of all, I have nothing against text. The beauty of words can never be sidelined and as an ardent lover of great books I can’t refute it. But when we talk about the two things that have prime importance in today's world, time and flexibility, I think voice has an upper hand over text. Speaking wat you want is generally 10 times faster than if you write it down. Flexibility wise, of course we all know that its much easier to speak than to type stuff.

Another important thing is that voice carries more emotional attachment than words .Now dont start rising from your seats...saying that there had been great novels with powerful words that influenced people's minds and hearts more than wat voice/visuals could do so let me put it in another more acceptable way.... getting an emotion across is easier through voice than text. For example....wat do you like better on your b’day , a greeting card written in an effusive way or a phone call with that person and a heart to heart talk? I definitely prefer the latter. Bottom line is that pain to mouth is much better than pain to hands.

So, Iam looking forward to the day when I am not hindered to blog wats on my mind just because Im lazy to type the stuff on the keyboard. I just speak my heart out in my microphone and (voice) blog it. Wouldn’t that be nice.!!?? Of course it can’t stop with voice, it will go till video n god knows wat but every revolution starts with a single step!

.an afterthought.....its funny to think of the place where i got these thoughts...Im sure that u must have understood!..now dont ask me :)

The Unforgettable Adventure -- Tawang

This is a trip turned into an adventure !. 17 of us planned a trip to the hillstation, Tawang (in Arunachal Pradesh) as we had 5 days of holidays for sankranti. We hired two sumos (i'll call them: red, white) and one bolero (call them: black). As you can imagine, all the vehicles were jam packed and there was little place to move inside. This was the initial problem we faced...but the worse was yet to come !!!


Day 1 (11th Jan): The Journey
Since some of the guys hadnt yet got the inter-state license to enter arunachal pradesh (its a sensitive area , so the restrictions) we decided to wait for those guys(black) at Khanapara(in guwahati) till they can get their licenses and join us there. There was a small hill near our stop..so me,pressy,vpk,varma,jaravind and vinay(l to r in the pic) decided to do a little trek up the hill to kill the time. Though vinay was scared in the middle of trek due to the slippery path, he continued with us after a lil persuasion. Finally we reached the top of the hill and waved to our remaining guys standing near our vehicles. After spending some time on top, we returned back along a different path. Surprisingly the downhill journey was easier than the uphill one which is not usual.

Next surprise was Prof. Mishra (of mech dept) and co. joining our group for the same trip. Seems he too planned the same trip with his family and a trio of his phd students as he was happy with the just concluded conference which he organized. Initially we thought that he would be a pain in our ass as we probably coudnt enjoy with him being around. But guess what, our journey was made easier because of his generous help which you will find out. Finally, the black guys arrived after getting their licenses and we resumed our journey to tawang at 12:30 pm with 4 vehicles (brown scorpio of Prof. Mishra).



Our initial plan was to stay in a place called Bomdilla for the first nite. But as fate had it in our trip, nothing took place as planned. This was a pleasant change though. Mishra had arranged for accomodation at a place called Tenga which was 45 km ahead of Bomdilla in a military camp. We were thankful to him, that we could call it a day 1hr before than planned as all of us were tired. Brahmi had already vomitted in the black sumo due to the twists and turns on the hilly path. We got three cottages for ourselves and also delicious dinner ready by 8 pm. As all of us were famished (you know how the hostel's food is like esp. iitg's) we pounced upon the dinner like hungry dogs. The cooks didnt except this and we were soon short of dishes. The people who ate last had to be satisfied with only one or two items. Since we were 17 guys (excluing Mishra's gang) with 3 cottages, we had 6 in each of the cottages except one. In our cottage... 6 of us cramped in one double bed and you can imagine how it would be like. For an outsider it would seem like an orgy for sure! Since we were tired we didnt mind and simply dozed off after watchin some television.


Day 2 (15th jan): The first of the twists
After having a nice breakfast (Poori) we took some snaps and started our journey. Since the whole journey for today was mountaineous we decided on a round-robbin rule for people who sit on the back side of our sumo. We had our initial twist just after we stopped for soup enroute. Our driver was young and relatively new to this trip so he was cautiously slow. 5 min after our stop, Mishra's scorpio slipped on the route and fell into a ditch on the right side of the road. This was because of the ice formed on the road. Luckily there was no casuality and with so many guys around we could literally lift the vehicle and put it back on track. Then Mishra and we guys parted our ways coz he had a different itinerary. So we were back to the three sumos -- the red (i was in this), the black and the white.

My main motive for making this trip was to see the snow for the first time in my life. Though I had been to europe, last summer for my internship, i couldnt play in snow there because of the season and place (austria). We were told that there was not much or no snow in Tawang but there was little ice. This disappointed most of us and especially me. I had already seen the worlds' biggest ice caves in Salzburg and was not so enthused by the ice. But fate had something else in its store for us !!


After an uneventful journey we reached Tawang at around 8:00 pm. We already booked our accomodation in Hotel Budha so we all collapsed there. Here we had 5 rooms for us and so two of the rooms required 4 guys. Again I was in one of those two rooms (im not gay btw). As we had blowers in all the rooms save one we had no probs. We had a pathetic dinner at a nearby restaurant called Gauri Chen and hopped back to our hotel. I was skeptic about eating non-veg outside as the place was notorious for mixing dog meat with chicken (can you believe it ?) Back in hotel we played cards (kyaa kare aadat chodi nahi jaati) for sometime and then dozed off.

Day 3: Final Destination
Our main destinations in Tawang were the Madhuri lake uphill and the Buddhist Monastry. We decided to finish off the lake because there was a restriction to not stay on the hill after 3pm. Some time through the uphill journey (we were at a height of about 13k feet.) all the three sumos got separated ! To our utter surprise, we found snow on the hill and were excited about it. We, the red ones did a halt at one of the snow filled places and played like hell. It was great, believe me.


Finally we found the other 2 vehicles near Madhuri Lake. Since we were already late we, the red guys, decided to not go down to the lake but wait for the other guys to come back. There was another small slope filled with snow rite at the place where we were waiting for the guys. So when the black guys came back, we played with the snow again. We had a funny snow battle, with everyone throwing snow on each other. Myself, Bharagav, Ciddu and Grc decided to take a paradox pic and removed most of our 5 layered protection (dont worry...only the upper portion). U can see the pic for yourselves. During that time, Brahmi started throwing snow on us and ciddu tripped in the ruckus that ensued. He got senti and sweared at Brahmi but then everything cooled off and started our way back. The white guys were still down at the lake and so we waited for them at the nearby military camp. They finally after a 90 min wait.

We succesfully came downhill before the 3pm deadline despite the delay but most of the guys wanted to eat something as they were all hungry after all that happened. So we decided to eat lunch and then go for Monastry. After having lunch/dinner at the same pathetic place it was already too late for monastry and we decided to cover it the next day. The rest of the day was uneventful with the usual television and card games.

Day 4: The ultimate Adventure
The day started off with snow fall outside. We were finally happy to see the much awatited snow fall. Our desires were fulfilled. But it didnt stop there !!! With the cars going to garage for some repairs, we had to start our back journey without covering the monastry. Many people were upset by this decision but we had to do this because of the deteriorating weather. Our hotel manager urged us to start early because there was heavy snow fall on our way back.



On our return journey we had to pass through one Sela Pass which was the highest peak around there. We had an inkling of danger as we progressed through the snow capped hills which were pleasant on our forward journey. The roads were covered with snow for the most part and it was difficult to drive. We halted at the Frozen lake which was quite an attraction in itself. Brahmi and others made a tiny snow man (if you can call it that! ) and we played again for 20 min or so. Few minutes after resuming our journey, we were into deep trouble. We , the red guys got separated from the blacks and whites. Hoping that they were safe we just tugged along the impossible roads. Our sumo skidded on a U-Turn beacuse of the heavy ice/snow laiden road. Though i was happy seeing the snow fall and 1 feet high snow, it was clearly trouble. Instead of immediately helping the sumo to get back on track, i was taking pics of our sumo. After facing some music from my frenz i also helped them and we got the sumo back on track. Other bypassers advised us to go back because the further journew was even dangerous and already many vehicles were stuck. But we didnt want to wait for one day and also we had to catch up with our other 2 vehicles which were quite ahead of us by now. By 4:30 there was complete snow fall, the path was covered with ice and to make it worse we had fog. So, we were travelling on damn slippery road, with dangerous curves, valley on one side and snow on the other and top it all with zero visibility. and almost zero fuel We decided to call it a day and save our ass asap.

As luck had it, we found a guest house just in time our fuel exhausted. By that time we were travelling at a speed of 1 kmph with hearts in our hands. It was so damn cold outside that the water on the windshield was turning into ice within seconds and every now and then we had to stop our sumo and scrap the shield to remove ice. So this guest house was like a life boat in the middle of an ocean. The situation reminded us of the old horror flicks where a group of frenz stop in the middle of the journey due to some car trouble and end up in a purani haveli (the guest house resembled the haveli). The cook/watchman of the guesthouse cooked us a sumptous lunch with eggs,dal,cabbage and we were full. Even the rooms were having fire places so it was really pleasant to have these comforts in such a drastic situation. Though it was chilling cold outside, we were happily playing cards in the warmth of our room. All the time, we were hoping that the black and white guys have safely halted at some place.

Day 5 : The Reunion
After having maggi prepared by our cook we resumed our journey. Everything was nice except the fuel. It was almost zero and we had to refill the tank before we got stuck somewhere. So, we started asking every tom dick and harry on the way for fuel. We got an ass hole who tried to sell us kersone in place of diesel but luckily one of us spotted the blue liquid and we could the disaster. We came across a military camp and narrated our sad story. Here I would like to add that, the military people throughout our journey helped us in many ways. Without them it would have been a different story altogether ! 4 of the guys went to talk to the Colonel there and finally convinced him to give 5 litres of diesel. Luckily this guy was from Andhra Pradesh (like us) and so helped us. Finally we were happy, despite the 45 min blah blah of Col.Prince, that we had a enuf fuel to reach the nearby gas station.

Finally we were able to refill our tank at a place called Dhirang. At a checkpost near Tenga we came to know that the black and white guys passed the same point 1hr back. We were happy that the other guys were also safe in their journey. At Bomdille to our utter surprise we found the two vehicles parked near the road. When we disembarked our vehicle, we met our remaining frenz. The atmosphere was totally different than we expected. They were very relieved seeing us finally after our separation the previous day (we were too ofcourse!). We came to know that, they thought we stuck somewhere in the mountains in the yesterday's snow. They were so tensed up that they called up Mishra (he was back home to guwahati by then) and told that we were missing. He ordered these guys to stay at bomdilla till they can find out about us. He also contacted the military at the nearby area and it seems 5 patrol jeeps were sent to find our probably stuck sumo. After all this happened, they were really excited seeing us alive ! So it was a happy reunion for all of us and we vowed not to be separated again. But as i said...nothing went as planned

1 hr from Guwahati, at a place called Tezpur we decided to stop for dinner. It was alreay 6:30 pm by then. Suddenly , at a junction, the black and white vehicles took a right turn (for a short route). But our driver, did a wrong turn and the traffic police asked the driver to sideline the vehicle. In the tension, our fellow took a left turn and drove at 100 kmph in fear of being caught. Thus again we got separated ! Cursing our luck, we stopped at a restaurant and informed the other guys (mobile connectivity was working again as we were near guwahati by then) about the situation.
After having a light dinner we headed for our destination. By 11 pm we were back in campus (others came 90 min before us), and may be for first time in our 4 yr life here felt good being in the good ol campus.!!!

MS vs MS !!!

Donno how many are following (thats a big word..i know) my blog..but i will keep going whenever i have time

so im back after a long hiatus from my last blog during internship...

Got placed in microsoft-hyd in campus placements. tho i was lil unhappy initially that i coudnt clear the written of google, i am happy that i got placed in just my second interview. Best part of the placement is that its in hyd (tho im not from hyd im a telugu guy and what gulti will be insane enuf to not like to do job in hyd). on the other hand i am waiting for my apping results for my ms/phd. actually i just sat for placements as a backup option. since the US univs give out their decisions only from feb end onwards its a painful waiting. now i have to decide whether to go for ms/phd or take up microsofts offer and then apply after 1 year experience. i really hope that i get a gud univ and do my ms (tho i applied for phd in 6 univs im little scared now for committing 5 (more) yrs)....i really dont have any mood to do job right now.

btw...i hope the title of this post is clear ..... my dilemma of chosing between MS (Microsft) and MS (Masters in US)

so long....