Thursday, June 12, 2008

Potpourri

First some ramblings from life and its learnings. Life is stranger than fiction, but still the 'show' must go on. You get or lose the most unexpected things from the closest people: sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Life is full of surprises, and people are like seasons of Nature - it doesn't take time to change colors. And sometimes, when we are stuck at the crossroads of life, life looks like a singularity, a state when none of the rules or laws seem to be holding good. But singularities are the dawn to newer beginnings and life unfolds with all its surprises, sometime, somewhere, in some manner. The toughest thing in life is to trust life itself. And when we can do it, we win over our lives! And it is a great feeling!

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On a different note, I came across this list of 100 most genius people in the world. Tim Lee, the inventor of WWW, ranks first, surprisingly above Steven Hawking! And believe it or not, Osama Bin Laden shares 43rd rank with Bill Gates. Do you see anything common between them? And yeah for the geeks, Page and Brin are 20th ranked, while film maker Steven Spielberg is 26. I am intrigued by the number of artists, musicians and composers in the list! And the large number of British people and only one Indian (and it is not Narayan Murthy or Anil Ambani!). The number of Iranians, chess players and boxers in the list is also interesting! But there is less than 5 % women which is very unfortunate.

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ACM HyperText's keynote address is by Jon Kleinburg. Hope to listen to some thought-provoking talk!

4 comments:

alok said...

I can say an interesting potpourri.

Somehow I am in a fix when say “people are like seasons of Nature - it doesn't take time to change colors.” As far as I believe everything takes its own course of time to change and moreover people are so unpredictable when we say a ‘CHANGE’.

Hey, that 100 most genius list is a great piece of information. I am no way comparing people in the list but it just struck to my mind after going through the profile of Kirti N. Chaudhuri (the only Indian in that list), how well we (Indians) know ourselves? And how well the work done by us here in India is appreciated by the world outside … still thinking :)

And if women are less than 5% in the list; I am sure that their contribution behind making the people in that list exceeds 90% or may be more than that.

Munmun said...

@ Alok
About people, yeah hoping people change for the better, and as time comes, but things become difficult when you are a silent spectator and stand by to see everything so transitory.

Yeah believe me, I had no idea who Kirti N. Chaudhuri is till I saw this list. But I am impressed it was a historian and artist who made it to this list than any engineer, scientist, industrialist or mathematician.

I really hope the list has more women in the future - apart from women just being the sources of inspiration to the men in that list.

alok said...

Yeah ! I too hope so. Perhaps gender has less significant from whom someone takes the inspiration but I am still thinking about those two questions… I also put it on my blog - the genius

Aparna Ganguly said...

I read about the list. All I have to say to the world is: Wait n' Watch :)