I like reading in the bathroom. It is one of those places where your mind can be at peace, where you'll always have a good reason to give to others and yourself about why you are reading something that may not be of utmost necessity or for that matter it is a good place to read something which you absolutely detest but have to read; because there is no escape from the pot! I think, I also remember reading some sort of a psychology report on the subject of how men tend to be more of the bathroom reader kinds rather than women...it is one place where the woman cannot nag the poor man and hence give him some moments for himself and his good book.
You might be wondering what the name of this post has anything to do with what I have said above. And no I am not about to give an atomic analysis of what lies in the commode. This morning I took this book called: The World Treasury of Physics Astronomy and Mathematics. It has articles written or delivered as lectures by famous scientists. I started reading the first chapter which was amount atoms and how atoms make up everything we know. Now this book has on it's later pages some very interesting articles on quantum mechanics, and I wanted to get to them as soon as I could; so given this situation I would not have spent much time on this very basic chapter about the atoms. But something about the very simple yet engrossing style in which the theory of atoms was being explained made me read more of the article. I was thoroughly enjoying myself, reading something as basic as the forces of attraction between molecules of water and forces of repulsion when you try and force two molecules toward each other; and was surprised and happy to have found such a well explained article on something so mundane.
And then I realized that I had somehow missed the cover page of this article, maybe just flipped it without realizing it. I went back to it and saw the source of the article: "Atoms in Motion: an excerpt from one of the introductory lectures given by Feynman to a class of freshmen and sophomores at the California Institute of Technology, 1961-62". I smiled to myself when the greatness of the man hit me. It is only people like him who will make the most mundane things the most interesting and the most difficult of concepts, intuitive and easy to grasp. It is people who understand the subject so well that they tend to explain it so beautifully that they leave you enlightened! Oh and by the way, the first page of the article had a quote by Richard Feynman:
"If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis (or the atomic fact, or whatever you wish to call it) that all things are made of atoms - little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied."
Monday, March 10, 2008
Monday, November 28, 2005
Cricket on Doordarshan? ...Oh no :-(
I am writing this post while the last match of the one day international series between India and South Africa is going on. India is batting; chasing a pretty low total and the match is at a crucial stage. Sachin Tendulkar has just been dismissed by a stunning catch, and the chances of the match being a cracker have just increased. And yet I am sitting in front of my computer writing a blog post (after a very long time). A Cricket aficionado would call me a complete hopeless case in the cause of popularizing cricket.
But no; that'’s not why I am not watching the game; I do follow at least the Indian team with a decent amount of enthusiasm and concern. The reason is the hopeless television coverage by Doordarshan. Well it is politically correct for doordarshan to be given television rights for covering a series featuring India, so that people in India who don't have cable TV can see it, but that does not mean that they have the right to subject the viewer to such a poor sports show. And I am not talking about the game itself; the quality of cricket has been high; it'’s the general quality and entertainment value of the show that I am talking about. Firstly, there are too many commercial breaks during the match. End of over… Before even the fielder has thrown the ball to the keeper, there is a commercial break taken; and it happens after every damn over. The whole continuity of the show is lost. There is so much happening on the field between overs; fielders move about to change ends, the umpire gives a warning to the bowler for running on the pitch, there could be a very interesting exchange of words between the bowler and the batsmen; friendly or otherwise, someone in the stands could be doing something funny, there could be an interesting cricket statistic to be shown, or the commentators could just be discussing some interesting incident from their cricketing lives. We just miss all of it; lose out big time on the whole built up atmosphere in the stadium, the essence of the game, the thing that gives the show some entertainment value. There is just no point to it. All we get to see are six deliveries of an over...over and over again. Well you do get to see some really interesting ads repeated a lot of times for drilling their stuff into your heads… Like the moisturiser cream ad where the focus of the shot is not on the cracked up feet of the guy...but on Kareena's cleavage. Well you get too see so much of those bloody ads that many times I take time to fall asleep because the stupid advertisement music is running in my head. Well I don'’t want to go on an on about the whole ads issue, but really it does suck. Just as a comparison, if we take ESPN-Star Sports'’ coverage of cricket as an example; it is so much better just because they do not take breaks after every over. There are many instances where the game is shown seamlessly for a period of two to three overs at a stretch. That and the discussion sessions with the expert panel, between, before and after the two innings, makes the star sports show so much more enjoyable...and also keeps semi-enthusiast of cricket riveted to his seat.
Well, the issue of the panel of ex-cricketers giving their intelligent insights on the game, and the value that they add to the television cricket coverage, is so juicy that it deserves a blog post of its own. To just delve a little into how doordarshan so totally sucks at that too, just give a little more attention to the hand gestures that Kris Shreekanth makes while talking; they are hilarious. He does this batting action with his hand while talking about a batsman and a bowling action in case of a bowler, and he even changes the hand he uses for left handers! Now that is so ridiculous, and the pain on the viewers part is aggravated by the fact that he is speaking utterly useless stuff. Any kid who has just seen cricket for a couple of years will also be able to predict what he is going to say next. Well, that really does it for doordarshan'’s coverage. Makes me sick in the stomach just to think about the Fair and Lovely Fourth Umpire show. And the most important part is that Doordarshan is the only broadcaster of the cricket series. If there had been any other, there wouldn'’t have been this blogpost, because I'd still be watching the match on the other channel. So thanks DD, for shaking me out of the no-posting phase. Now I gotta run to see how India is doing in the match! Jai Hind!
But no; that'’s not why I am not watching the game; I do follow at least the Indian team with a decent amount of enthusiasm and concern. The reason is the hopeless television coverage by Doordarshan. Well it is politically correct for doordarshan to be given television rights for covering a series featuring India, so that people in India who don't have cable TV can see it, but that does not mean that they have the right to subject the viewer to such a poor sports show. And I am not talking about the game itself; the quality of cricket has been high; it'’s the general quality and entertainment value of the show that I am talking about. Firstly, there are too many commercial breaks during the match. End of over… Before even the fielder has thrown the ball to the keeper, there is a commercial break taken; and it happens after every damn over. The whole continuity of the show is lost. There is so much happening on the field between overs; fielders move about to change ends, the umpire gives a warning to the bowler for running on the pitch, there could be a very interesting exchange of words between the bowler and the batsmen; friendly or otherwise, someone in the stands could be doing something funny, there could be an interesting cricket statistic to be shown, or the commentators could just be discussing some interesting incident from their cricketing lives. We just miss all of it; lose out big time on the whole built up atmosphere in the stadium, the essence of the game, the thing that gives the show some entertainment value. There is just no point to it. All we get to see are six deliveries of an over...over and over again. Well you do get to see some really interesting ads repeated a lot of times for drilling their stuff into your heads… Like the moisturiser cream ad where the focus of the shot is not on the cracked up feet of the guy...but on Kareena's cleavage. Well you get too see so much of those bloody ads that many times I take time to fall asleep because the stupid advertisement music is running in my head. Well I don'’t want to go on an on about the whole ads issue, but really it does suck. Just as a comparison, if we take ESPN-Star Sports'’ coverage of cricket as an example; it is so much better just because they do not take breaks after every over. There are many instances where the game is shown seamlessly for a period of two to three overs at a stretch. That and the discussion sessions with the expert panel, between, before and after the two innings, makes the star sports show so much more enjoyable...and also keeps semi-enthusiast of cricket riveted to his seat.
Well, the issue of the panel of ex-cricketers giving their intelligent insights on the game, and the value that they add to the television cricket coverage, is so juicy that it deserves a blog post of its own. To just delve a little into how doordarshan so totally sucks at that too, just give a little more attention to the hand gestures that Kris Shreekanth makes while talking; they are hilarious. He does this batting action with his hand while talking about a batsman and a bowling action in case of a bowler, and he even changes the hand he uses for left handers! Now that is so ridiculous, and the pain on the viewers part is aggravated by the fact that he is speaking utterly useless stuff. Any kid who has just seen cricket for a couple of years will also be able to predict what he is going to say next. Well, that really does it for doordarshan'’s coverage. Makes me sick in the stomach just to think about the Fair and Lovely Fourth Umpire show. And the most important part is that Doordarshan is the only broadcaster of the cricket series. If there had been any other, there wouldn'’t have been this blogpost, because I'd still be watching the match on the other channel. So thanks DD, for shaking me out of the no-posting phase. Now I gotta run to see how India is doing in the match! Jai Hind!
Monday, August 29, 2005
The Regular routine of College Quizzes
Had gone for a quiz in Sinhagad College of Engineering (SCOE) today. It was part of ‘Pinnacle’ their annual electronics fest. Bunked a whole day of college and went there simply because this was one of the first inter-college quizzes that I (partnering Kunal Thakar) had finished in the top three (second to be precise). Hence even after knowing that the quiz will be made by pretty inexperienced people, (The handful people in SCOE who can be considered to be decent quizzers (Exceptions: Anish Bhat and Hrishikesh Kavade) have passed out of college), we went; you know just to try and repeat our performance of the earlier two years. The trip to SCOE, though a bit tiring because of the traffic and the dust, is pretty good because of the last section of road that leads up to the college. It’s a small ghat, with some parts that are broken tarmac and some that are fully dirt roads. So you can really try out some dirt biking, throwing your bike around turns, deliberately causing the rear wheel to loose grip a bit so that you can try an opposite lock like the crazy speedway riders. Kunal was holding on for dear life behind me.
Anyway, the quiz elims started pretty much on time, and they had an acrostic question before the main questions. The funda was that all the answers to the following questions began with the letters of the answer of the acrostic question taken in order. This is a very stupid way to do it, because anyone who gets the acrostic answer has too much of an advantage over the others. The acrostic question was: What id Ritchie Benaud’s autobiography titled. We didn’t get it. Fortunately none of the other regular teams got it either. We qualified for the finals which began after an excruciatingly long waiting period of almost four and a half hours; during which time we roamed the campus, ate at some of the many different eateries on campus, and chatted a lot (had just read in TOI that like walking about gossiping is good for health).
The finals began and it became obvious that the organizers were very inexperienced at making quizzes. Firstly the quiz had the direct and pass format; and the scoring system was one of the most badly screwed up systems I have seen till date. You get a different number of points for a right answer in every round. Like the first round had 40 points for a right answer on a direct and 20 for a pass. The second had 60 and 30; and the third had 80 and 40. Amazing no? We were debating on the possibility of one of the teams ending up with 4 digit scores eventually. One round also had 100 for directs and 50 for passes. And there was no uniformity whatsoever in the difficulty level of the questions. One team scores 100 points on a sitter and another team (in most cases, our team) got a question like: picture of a blue stuffed cat shown and we were supposed to identify it. The answer was: Bob the builder/repairman’s cat Plichard. I mean what the fuck? The bloody toy is meant for toddlers, and we are supposed to know its name. No one got such questions. Kunal Sawardekar and his partner Puranjay Parchure of Fergusson College won the quiz with 530 points and we placed second with 500. Kunal S is one hugely lucky fellow. He got two of the biggest sitters of the quiz when others were getting screwed on their questions, and was awarded 100 points on both occasions. I am calling him lucky just because he got some extra cash. I have no regrets whatsoever of coming second in a quiz like this one.
Looking back, we ( the VIT quizzers and Kunal S) have done so much of college quizzing in the last two years that I think that we should really think about whether its worth or time to go for such frustrating quizzes any longer. It is an enjoyable quizzing experience that we are looking for, not the incentive to get yet another certificate of yet another college event. But then at the back of my mind I do know that most probably I will end up going for many more such quizzes this year, just in the hope of getting a good quiz, and a taste of Pune college quizzing for what will be my last year in VIT.
Anyway, the quiz elims started pretty much on time, and they had an acrostic question before the main questions. The funda was that all the answers to the following questions began with the letters of the answer of the acrostic question taken in order. This is a very stupid way to do it, because anyone who gets the acrostic answer has too much of an advantage over the others. The acrostic question was: What id Ritchie Benaud’s autobiography titled. We didn’t get it. Fortunately none of the other regular teams got it either. We qualified for the finals which began after an excruciatingly long waiting period of almost four and a half hours; during which time we roamed the campus, ate at some of the many different eateries on campus, and chatted a lot (had just read in TOI that like walking about gossiping is good for health).
The finals began and it became obvious that the organizers were very inexperienced at making quizzes. Firstly the quiz had the direct and pass format; and the scoring system was one of the most badly screwed up systems I have seen till date. You get a different number of points for a right answer in every round. Like the first round had 40 points for a right answer on a direct and 20 for a pass. The second had 60 and 30; and the third had 80 and 40. Amazing no? We were debating on the possibility of one of the teams ending up with 4 digit scores eventually. One round also had 100 for directs and 50 for passes. And there was no uniformity whatsoever in the difficulty level of the questions. One team scores 100 points on a sitter and another team (in most cases, our team) got a question like: picture of a blue stuffed cat shown and we were supposed to identify it. The answer was: Bob the builder/repairman’s cat Plichard. I mean what the fuck? The bloody toy is meant for toddlers, and we are supposed to know its name. No one got such questions. Kunal Sawardekar and his partner Puranjay Parchure of Fergusson College won the quiz with 530 points and we placed second with 500. Kunal S is one hugely lucky fellow. He got two of the biggest sitters of the quiz when others were getting screwed on their questions, and was awarded 100 points on both occasions. I am calling him lucky just because he got some extra cash. I have no regrets whatsoever of coming second in a quiz like this one.
Looking back, we ( the VIT quizzers and Kunal S) have done so much of college quizzing in the last two years that I think that we should really think about whether its worth or time to go for such frustrating quizzes any longer. It is an enjoyable quizzing experience that we are looking for, not the incentive to get yet another certificate of yet another college event. But then at the back of my mind I do know that most probably I will end up going for many more such quizzes this year, just in the hope of getting a good quiz, and a taste of Pune college quizzing for what will be my last year in VIT.
Zen and the act of Motorcycle Riding
We used to have something called "moral science" as an extra classroom activity when in school. In that we used to try and meditate for a while, chant Om etc. I found all this very boring and pointless. The teacher used to tell us to empty our minds of all thoughts and then concentrate. Bloody, what the fuck do you concentrate on if you don't have anything in your mind? My mind used to stray away on a lot of things. I fell asleep most of the times or would try and open my eyes and look around to see what the others were doing.
On a motorcycle, its different. You are going, say in a ghat, at pretty high speeds. What is going on in the mind at that time? The next approaching turn; what speed can you take that at? Does it open out enough to allow that kind of entry speed? Is there gravel or water near the turn's apex? Is the turn blind, could there be some vehicle coming from the other side? All this and much more goes through the mind in just about 2 or 3 seconds. The turn arrives in that time. You have to go into it at a certain banking angle, got to have the fingers ready on the brakes just in case, got to be ready to change gear if needed, and ready to take evasive action if at all something or someone is in the middle of the road after the turn. And in a ghat kind of place, this goes one and on, till the ghat gets over. You really have no time to think of anything else, because you know that you cannot afford to think of anything else; a bad accident is so much more likely to happen if one does not pay attention to everything. Now that's real concentration. You automatically forget about people you love or hate, your boring college or work, are you hungry or not, what are you going to tell your dad about having smuggled his bike out for a ride; everything other than that bloody approaching turn. This people, is meditation. You are concentrating so hard that it's a state of bliss; nothing else can trouble the mind. Is this not what the doctor recommended as meditation? Is this not better than any conventional meditation? The feeling you get after such a ride is awesome. It's a mixed feeling of exhilaration and fear. Fear because you suddenly realize that you were doing something pretty dangerous; there is no time for fear in the actual process; it comes later.
All the thoughts flooding back to the mind later on gives the impression that you were detached from your body when riding the bike. It is a real nice; "achieved nirvana"; kind of feeling.
I have just started reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". I expect the book has a lot more stuff like the post I have written here. I met many people who said that they could not appreciate the book much. I expect that it would be much more effective on a person like me who has already done a decent amount of motorcycle riding, and hence has made a few observations on the whole motorcycle riding experience for himself.
On a motorcycle, its different. You are going, say in a ghat, at pretty high speeds. What is going on in the mind at that time? The next approaching turn; what speed can you take that at? Does it open out enough to allow that kind of entry speed? Is there gravel or water near the turn's apex? Is the turn blind, could there be some vehicle coming from the other side? All this and much more goes through the mind in just about 2 or 3 seconds. The turn arrives in that time. You have to go into it at a certain banking angle, got to have the fingers ready on the brakes just in case, got to be ready to change gear if needed, and ready to take evasive action if at all something or someone is in the middle of the road after the turn. And in a ghat kind of place, this goes one and on, till the ghat gets over. You really have no time to think of anything else, because you know that you cannot afford to think of anything else; a bad accident is so much more likely to happen if one does not pay attention to everything. Now that's real concentration. You automatically forget about people you love or hate, your boring college or work, are you hungry or not, what are you going to tell your dad about having smuggled his bike out for a ride; everything other than that bloody approaching turn. This people, is meditation. You are concentrating so hard that it's a state of bliss; nothing else can trouble the mind. Is this not what the doctor recommended as meditation? Is this not better than any conventional meditation? The feeling you get after such a ride is awesome. It's a mixed feeling of exhilaration and fear. Fear because you suddenly realize that you were doing something pretty dangerous; there is no time for fear in the actual process; it comes later.
All the thoughts flooding back to the mind later on gives the impression that you were detached from your body when riding the bike. It is a real nice; "achieved nirvana"; kind of feeling.
I have just started reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". I expect the book has a lot more stuff like the post I have written here. I met many people who said that they could not appreciate the book much. I expect that it would be much more effective on a person like me who has already done a decent amount of motorcycle riding, and hence has made a few observations on the whole motorcycle riding experience for himself.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Sunday, June 19, 2005
French, anyone ?
I go to the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) every Sunday (almost) to see the French films screened there. The entry is free of cost which along with the fact that its a French film is truly an added incentive for going there. The place is just something like at a two minutes walking distance from my house. It has a very appealing laid back attitude to it. Also the people who turn up there to see the films are true film lovers. It's real nice to see a film in such company. The French films (most of which I have seen) have near perfect characterization and in general have a very relaxed feel about them. I cannot put into words exactly how different a French film is from other European or American films; you have to see some for yourself to realize. Also, even the one's which have a serious underlying meaning to them are not mentally taxing. The films go at an easy pace, and have little bits of humor that keep popping up suddenly. I must say the French films will top my list of foreign films in terms of the sheer number of films that I found pleasing, though it is some of the other European films that I would say are my favorites and have left an impact on my mind. That's it I guess. I have got it. The French films are very nice and all but very few leave an impression on your mind. I wonder if its the same with the French people.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
The Bet
Recently placed a bet with
Post Exam Idealistic Rantings
Posting after a long time. I am just plain lazy. Have a lot to say about a load of things but just don't feel like devoting time to sitting down and writing a post. Anyway, finished off with exams. As is with every semester, the Pl just does not seem to end. Also subscribed for a BSNL dataone connection just before the Pl which has unlimited download till the 30th of June. So basically spent the whole of the Pl downloading stuff; and did just one chapter from a total of 5 huge subjects in the Pl. I had really stretched it a bit too far this time and was really worried about my survival in the exam. Though I noted that this seemed to be a common phenomenon among some of the TE students. It is probably because all of us have done five semesters in the same stupid way and the more intelligent amongst us are pretty bored with the system.(though don't want to speak to early; will wait for the results).
Kunal and Arnold were some of the others who happened to go my way this time.
Tried some astro photography with my new digital camera a few months back. Do not have a camera attachment for my telescope and hence the camera moved a lot. Had to hold the camera steady for quite some time (1.5-2 secs). will get much better results and will also be able to shoot fainter objects with a proper camera attachment.
Sunday, February 06, 2005
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