Grave Issue Of Tomorrow: Power Crisis And Mitigation

I would really suggest you to read this article: Google pushing for energy efficient PCs. Now whether they are doing this to challenge some of the existing giants in the PC manufacturing industry (like IBM, HP etc) or just to cut down some of their huge expenses on the micro-controllers in their research labs is a different story altogether. Nevertheless, on a more commonpace note, one of the prime concerns to environmentalists and power scientists round the globe has been the energy crisis which is predicted to shackle the world in its claws soon. Despite this, coming to US, I was pretty astounded at the way and the extent to which people waste power/energy, especially electricity and water. As an example, none of the computers in any of the labs stays powered off ever! We never remember to power off the lights in our apartments (more since the electricity bill is inclusive in the rent!). Believe it or not, I recall, sometime in a casual discussion with my Dad after my Las Vegas trip, he was telling me that the total amount of power expended in those big-huge video screens in the casinos can actually cater to the power requirement in a few hundred villages in India!
Jokes and analogies apart, the issue is grave and serious. US is a rich country at the present day. And probably that is why nobody cares about saving/being thrifty about expending electricity/water/gas. But this matter needs more farsighted and thoughtful attention by all. It is really a pleasure to find that industry giants like Google are surging forward to throw some light on this issue, even if it delivers some of their selfish motives in the long run!

Can TCS/Wipro/Infosys Make It?

The other day we had a heated brain-storming with a few of my Indian friends here and Indian friends working in India. As my Dad always would say, four years down the line when I graduate with a PhD, and start my hunt to gulp a US Green Card, the situation in India too would be worth considering as an aspiring and inspiring research test-bed. So would my friends in India always say that India has changed a lot. No doubt India has changed a lot, but what kind of a change is it? Changes are always welcome, but are these changes going to be temporally consistent? How will they contribute to a persistent progress in the technology sector?
The Indian software companies are doing good! But check this link of the fortune 100 companies: none of the Indian companies (not to talk of the software sector) appear there! Well yeah still these companies are doing good and at least improving the job sector; but a careful insight will only reveal that all of them are working in the service sector. Basically they are the hunting ground for the companies of US for outsourcing projects! Cheap labor and quick work!
Agreed services are earning revenue inside the country. But this is bound to be short-lived. Being in the research sector and having worked at the much famous and coveted company AT&T Bell Labs-spun-off (Avaya Labs), I know how much attempts are being made here to automate services besides outsouring. And once these are realized, there will not be any need for even outsourcing!
Services, BPO and outsourcing cannot be the areas which a huge nation can thrive upon when we talk about technology. It is a bare truth that none of the good cars, microchips, popular software products are hardly indegenously made in India. So the question arises, what needs to be done?
The answer is a sound research base in India: an indegenous endeavor to risk ahead and start never-done-before projects. Yeah, now the issue is this needs money and involves a lot of risks. But consider the case of companies here like Google. Every other month they are releasing all novel stuff in beta versions (Gmail/Orkut/Google Desktop/Google Earth/Google Imagelabeler). They are risking around, investing money, looking ahead and thereby earning. Earning for themselves, earning for US!
We need to have a vigor like that in the Indian software companies. Mere servicing Microsoft or importing car engines from Toyota will not work long. We need to develop the culture, the culture to take newer strides by ourselves, the attempt to create a scenario where 'WE' can outsource our stuff! Somewhat a look out like hers, my internship supervisor at Avaya Labs.

All Those People, Or Those Few Rare?

Don't you think twenty-four years of life are quite a long way: not because of the temporal aspects of it, but I believe it is that period of life when you gain the most variagated of experiences ever possible, it is the time when you change 'roles', you meet multi-faceted people, you dream most, and last but not the least, you are struck with the craziest of ideas! It is the time to mould your life in a way you dream of! I strongly judge this period of life to be the most exciting, interesting, beautiful and happenning.

I have met all kinds of people: people with a conservative view of life, not ready to take risks. Then there have been people who do not bother about these things, they think others who 'analyze' like me, or are not 'damn care' like them to be someone 'out of the world' and wasting time, they would label such 'blogs' to be sheer waste of time. Not that they won't blog. They would have a altogether different meaning of blogging on their minds. There have also been people who only bother about making money, to them money is the ultimate solution to all problems. It is partly true though, but only as long as it does not hinder with your desires out of life, your expectations. Also I have met people who would definitely do different things, but would boast on all what they do differently.

And finally there are some rare people who are altogether different from all of the rest. Society calls them radical thinkers. But ironically they are the ones for which homo sapiens are humans today! Had there been no Galileo or Newton, probably we won't have been using this Internet to post this article on the Blogger! Jokes apart, but I think these are the people who rise above the mundane commonplace thoughts and ideas. They belie that life has to be the way any Tom, Dick or Harry has.

My greatest endeavor of life is to join the folk of these people. As an aspiring researcher, I want to be driven by instincts, intuitions and radical thinking. I want to visit those winding, never visited thorny roads to explore every nook and corner possible to research upon. And I believe my best friend in that endeavor would be my faith in self...

Tagged (1)

Candid Diary 's questions have been quite hilarious and interesting! Although pretty late, yet here they go...

If you were to adopt a pseodonym it would be:
Anything other than Mary/Kathy/Kristie... every other woman here has one of these names... oh my god! This sucks...

If Condi Rice/ Jim Kerry proposes you:
Condi Rice: Oh, please, now don't do diplomacy with me!
Jim Kerry: Are you really serious?? Or still being in your humorous mood??

What’s you solution for conflict between Israel and Lebanon:
Ohh wow! Ask Uncle Sam: the so-called mediator of all the wars (sarcastic smile)...

Your recipe for a weird food. Yuck!
'Cockroach Soup': I heard they cook something like that in China! Or may be 'Shit Curry'...

What would you do when you find there is no toilet paper/ water in a loo:
Would first check and only then go! Else look for other options!

What do you do when your partner weighs 300 lbs?
Ditch and will find a new partner!

What do you do with a schizophrenic cat?
Exchange her with the neighbor's!

How do you handle a wrong job?
I am never in a wrong job: since otherwise I won't be there!

When did you have your last black out?
Oh! Don't ask me! That is a part and parcel property of my memory's hard disk!

If you were to choose between aphrodisiac and an aged partner…
Age doesn't really matter always you see: the 'urge' and 'ability' to 'perform' is important!

You catch Cupid admiring his work on you. What do you tell him?
Okay, tell me, what exactly you want?

Something that you would never tell your bf / gf?
That I went out on a date with his friend (not to talk of gf!)...

What’s the secret of your health?
Just not to be too much conscious about it!

One reason why a dog is better than a man:
Dogs don't 'pretend' like Men...

Your message to the blogger community:
Yeah, please do keep on reading my craps!

The Pros and Cons

There have been 5 long years in the engineering sector: now, attempting to steer away a bit from the conventional research realm and trying to look at the engineering aspects from an altogether different perspective, landed into exploring this course on Cognitive Psychology and Ergonomics. But as I have moved ahead of the superficial academic nook and corner of it, I have started to think differently now. This, coupled with me having been in the mundanely-captioned 'Land-Of-Opportunities' for an year now, let me put down the pros and cons of the education system here: might be a lesson to consider for the 'thoughtful' administrators back in India!

Pros:
(1) Education, whatever is your major from Fine Arts to Finance to Rocket Technology, happens under the same physical location mostly, affiliated to the same co-existent university: this faciliates interaction, engineers interested in photography can take courses with the Art & Sciences Department. This encourages inter-disciplinary academics and research. Contrast with the Indian system: now you know why US is foremost in all the good research!
(2) Students in their undergraduation are free for the first two years to look around, take course from several majors from music and theater to civil engineering, and then decide on one as per their performance in those and interests. Contrast with Indian system: you will hardly find another Tom, Dick or Harry complaining that "I don't know why I did enginnering"!
(3) Graduate courses hardly have those time-bound examination concepts. Instructors profess a more spread out and overall performance of a candidate through the semester. Contrast with the Indian system: only the sincere and actually 'smart' guys succeed!
(4) Students mostly are more self-responsible. Many of them are supporting their own education since they graduate from the high school. Contrast with Indian system: you won't find parents visiting their kid(s) every year twice during the exams!

PS: Not to talk about the great 'boons' to our Indian system, like the high degree of corruption, political tools like reservation, the act of selling examination papers much before the actual test, and favoribility on the basis of being some MLA'a kith and kin, minority, or regional/religious/caste/creed/sect/sex issues...

Cons:
(1) Jobs opportunities in US are better; and there really is a high 'dignity of labor'. So you might argue, many undergraduate students can be found to be idling away the four years learning nothing! This is kind of less common in India, since they face this tremendous competition for jobs to survive.
(2) Can you think you another good thing with the Indian education system?

eRationality

The other day was just going through the MIT Media Lab site (of course, in context of the discussion with some friends and bosses about the insight into human behavior as a computer scientist!). Even if you are miles away from this kind of domain, I would suggest you to definitely visit the research work there as an interesting past time: they attempt to look at some of the most commonplace, intuitive aspects of human mind, tangibility and behavior, far away from the techie aspects of conventional research.

They have a pretty few very interesting research groups. One of them that caught my attention is the group on eRationality! They say, "The eRationality group studies ways in which human decision processes deviate from the expected rational prescriptions. We investigate (and practice) semi rationality, bounded rationality, and just plain irrationality. Our long-term goal is to create new environments: physical and digital, in which tools are implemented to overcome irrationality-based behaviors in order to ultimately increase welfare and maximize happiness."

Imagine some system trying to tackle your unintentional irrational behavior on the Blogger, for the 'welfare' of the larger community as a whole! But more than that, like the ever-unanswered-question "who will guard the guards" the question arises, how do you define 'irrationality'. And provided the freedom that a person has to fully express his/her thoughts and views which he/she thinks rational, who is a system to put a bar to that?

The broader question arises, "Are we embedding technology too much in our lives today? What is a research just for the sake of research if it shatters the very base of how our society is built?"

Contrasting Philosophy And Technology...

This is not one of those areas that I generally would think of in my idle hours. Nor am I those thoughtful-kinda-philosophical researchers who would think windingly on whatever issues they encounter in casual talks. But it kind of ignited this desire in me to look for what people think in this arena: and that was after we, three colleagues had this heated thoughtful brainstorming on the philosophical aspects to be nurtured in a PhD student of engineering (I was although reticent, just digesting whatever they were putting forward).
The problem is that engineering and philosophy are typically conceived as two mutually exclusive domains. In the minds of most people, engineering and philosophy do not have much to do with each other. They are, as it were, giant islands separated by a large body of water.
In fact, from the perspective of some members of the engineering community - not to mention those of the philosophy community - the situation is even worse. Engineering is customarily divided into a number of different branches: civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, etc. Something similar goes for philosophy. It too includes different branches: logic, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, etc. Representatives of some of these areas of the philosophy world, especially ethics and aesthetics, seem to have mounted canons on their areas of the philosophy island in order to fire away at selected domains of the engineering world.
Since quite a while, members of the philosophical community or its fellow travellers have been accusing engineers of building nuclear weapons that could destroy civilization, manufacturing transportation systems that are a blight on urban culture, designing communication technologies that can enhance central or authoritarian controls by both governments and private corporations, creating computers that depersonalize human life.
Insofar as they have become aware of such attacks - and to understand and defend against them - philosophy is crucial to engineers. Philosophy is thus important too, in a second instance, because engineers actually face problems internally or professionally that they admit cannot be resolved simply with engineering methods alone.
There are times in the engineering world when engineers ask themselves questions about what they should be doing or how they should do it that cannot be solved by technical expertise alone. Questions of safety, risk, and environmental protection are only the more obvious manifestations of variables that call for ethical judgment in assessing their proper influence on design decisions. Philosophy (especially ethics) is an internal practical need of engineering - and is so recognized by the professional engineering community.
What is mean is not that philosophy and engineering are two geographically distant islands anymore, as is hyped of. Both the parties actually realize the need for a symbiotic relationship in between. And whenever one party would try to let down the other and falsify the symbiosis, 'existence' would lose existence in the real sense...

At The Core And At The Periphery

Research is not just about academics. Nor is it just the other thing one does in life. It is like a journey towards eternity: a coveted voyage and a never ending excitement in life!

I am a newbie in this domain. Still, I believe deciding on a PhD program has been one of the most marvellous decisions I have ever taken in my life. Research has been intertwined in my life ever since. It has delved into every nook and corner of my life, my passions, my thoughts, my every day doings. It has made my life so different!

Things are not so red and rosy in this arena as it might seem to be. Since my childhood I had this wonderful inclination towards new things around us. I was always moved by these novel hunt for the surge of newer thoughts, explanations, beliefs, endeavors; till, I came to know that this is what they call to be 'research'. But it was never so easy: the technology submerged and exposure congested ambience around us in India always put a bar to kids thinking on the unconventional lines of a career: and I was no exception! But I am happy that, my ever long desire to stand differently in life and somewhat aversion from the mundane thoughts did not dry up the old borne desires of hitting challenging things in life. And I came here, the much proclaimed 'Land of Opportunities' for the first and the final endeavor of my life!

Yeah, this is the first and the 'final' endeavor. Because I believe, human beings can be sincere to only one endeavor in life: and the priviledge goes to 'research' in my case. For me, it has widened up newer horizons, for I believe, research is not just another job you would do 8 hours a day and then it would dwindle away from your mind. It is something which is ever persistent: not the work, but the essence of it. And experiencing that essence changes your life altogether! I feel as if my mind is now 'open', it is 'free' and this feeling of freedom, believe me, is so different and captivating!

Research is not knowledge, neither information. It is a perennial source of acquired wisdom, something which is much above the former two. And it is this wisdom which would nurture the difference in everything: it sows the seed to reap harvest on a 'complete' world by the attempts to mitigate the 'incomplete' things. And that is what which would make one feel so 'complete' in the end.

Research is a committment, a life long committment for me. Getting at its core, do you experience its beauty and finding answers to the problems around you, you cull out answers for your own 'self' being: in a manner as though one has been destined to do this through the life as it comes. At the core and at the periphery, the world gathers more meaning, the horizon extends to infinity and you strive to be just a part of it!

Orkut: The Status Quo Of Today

Now it has been long in the minds of everyone who has been there around in Orkut since quite a while. Isn't there kind of a 'status quo' associated with certain things in Orkut which would define someone to be 'active' or 'popular' or 'famous' on Orkut? I am sure you understand what I mean!

Here are some of the things I think could be branded as the parameters of this 'virtual' status quo in this 'virtual' social community worldwide:

(1) Number of Friends: The bigger your friend list is, the more status you have. It is so because, it reflects how huge loads of friends you have made till this time. And being able to make more friends has a common conception (or misconception?) that the person has an amazing outgoing and amicable personality, a direct indication of being able to stand out in the crowd, more status in the vitual community!

(2) Number of Fans: Perhaps one of best things that has made Orkut so much popular is its notion of being fans of your liked few. Should you have more fans (hilariously preferably of the opposite sex!), it means how you are liked by all around you, more diverse shades in your personality!

(3) Number of Scraps: What does that indicate about Status Quo, I am sure you might be wondering! Well, in my view, I think it potently declares how good (or bad) communicator you are. Of course, should you have loads of scraps in your scrapbook, it also does hint that people around you are concerned/interested about you. Don't you think that these things count towards being a person who can direct, lead, mingle with people? Does not the number of scraps then qualify to be a parameter of Orkut's Status Quo?

(4) Fans-to-Friends Ratio: This is another interesting aspect to look at while analysing this Orkut Status Quo thing. What it defines is a parameter called Orkut Performance! Imagine a person who has just joined Orkut, may be three months back. Her/his fans-to-friends ratio would dictate a farsight into her/his Status Quo. How? See, should this ratio be same as the ratio of another person who has been in Orkut for a while and has decent status on Orkut, with current friend count more than the former, it can be predicted that the former is going to gain more or at least as much popularlity on Orkut as the latter soon in the coming times!

(5) Orkut Album and Profile: They are clear enough indicators. More impressive the profile is, the more expressive you are. The more the tendency towards unusual tastes and variegated photos (especially of your travel in distant lands!), the more does the status creep up!

(6) Testimonials: They are there to testify the varous shades of your personality. People would write their friends' testimonials as though the friend has been the best and the most perfect person in the whole of the Earth! The more of your friends indulge in this act, the more proof does it bear to your acquired status!

(7) Communities: People visiting your profile really 'dig' into your communities. A varied tasteful person would subscribe to so many elite taste oriented communities: it would give the other person a bird's eye view of your overall personality as a whole. The impression the person would conjecture out of that conjures up your status in her/his mind.

There can be many other things also. Some of you might disagree on the whole notion of 'status' associated with a virtual social community; or some of you might be thinking I am crazy about analysing an issue which is dumped with fake profiles, so what is the point in wasting time over surmises of the associated status. But I think these things would always be there. Are not there people with fake identification in your real world?

I firmly believe in the notion of these virtual social networks, not because that is one of my areas of research, but because it is something which I feel has been a boon of technology with an incessant target to hold and knit this disintegrating world together!

The Difference: Why Or Is It Worth It?

Have you ever wondered the ill consequences of we, the human beings, being able to 'think' and 'feel'? Ask me, I would say, these are the worst things for which I would curse Darwin's Theory of Evolution!

We, the human beings, 'think', build up all different kinds of relationships, cheer, enjoy, share, fight and the relationship grooms. We generate as a consequence, more and more expectation out of the world around us, the people, the relationships, be it parents, friends, spouse or boss! But as you see the things sailing all smoothly in the waves of time, there is this one unruly wind which comes and blows away everything: leaving little or no marks or remnants of our treasured relationships over time. They are the toughest times: we get upset, we lose our strengths, we 'feel' as though the life has come to an end. We still try our best to make all ends meet, to grab a shaft in the profound dark waters: sometimes, to only meet a fag end eventually. Still we never give up, we dream of newer dreams, 'think' of brighter things and in course of time we by hook or by crook cull out a way, a motive to keep you boat of time sailing forever!

So as we started off in the beginning of the blog, we 'think', we 'feel'. How is it so? Do other animals/plants also 'feel' or 'think'? What is their rationale of life to them? Is it just survival and reproduction? Or more wide horizons as us: better lives materially, good career, advancing technologies, fruitful and potent relationships? Are those living beings hurt the same manner as us? Do they fall in love like us? Or more appropriately, do they fall apart and then again gather strength to get to life when a precious segment of life, say relationship would sever?

Many of you would say that 'no': they do not have a brain, or a less developed brain to think to this extent. But don't they have their definition and parameters of living? They do have all the basic instincts as us, fighting for survival or finding an apt mate: so why not 'emotions'?

To argue, if they do not at all have these traits, then why 'we'? Why is it the human beings who have to be so different and probably as bad to suffer on feelings? If you would say, it is something which has been inherent in the fact that human beings rule the world today and not lizards or rhinos, then I have a question for you: has this authoritativeness brought mirth to the world, or has just been another ill consequence of we being able to 'think' or 'feel'? Intelligence the 'cause' and 'mental suffrage' and 'termination' at the end?

You are to answer, are these kinds of abilities in human beings, a boon indeed? The difference, why, or is it worth it?

We, The People

Preamble

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Visit to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia last weekend was a different experience altogether. Probably it was a feeling that makes everyone, be it an American or not, to experience a very unique feeling altogther: as if you are a part of this piece of land since eons, as if you are obliged to feel proud at its achievements. Talking practically probably it is just because of the way they present it; or may be something else, but I truly loved that feeling! Experiencing that wonderful feel is now like a coveted cherished dream deep down my heart.

As would the preamble dictate, I don't know why I find it as captivating our very own India's preamble. A strange sense of freedom and liberty runs through the who of your mind: its unforgettable.

After my visits to Washington DC and Philadelphia, called the 'Home of Freedom" that is, the place where the declaration of American Independence was made, I somehow have arrived at this conclusion that the Americans really project very 'wide' their sense of freedom, their liberty, their power, their huge realm of achievenments in every sphere; talk about their National Air and Space Museum in DC showing all those real NASA rockets, Appollo or the first plane of the Wright brothers all of which have revolutionized the progress on the roads of mankind, or be it the delegate session in National Constitution Center in Philadelphia conjuring up the whole scene of declaration of American Independence. I found it to be really awesome because it aroused a sense of pride among everyone and kind of, in a way, recapilutated all what US has done towards the betterment of the mankind, whatever may have been the actual motives!

I was just wondering why is the scene so different in India. Even on August 15 or January 26, not even a handful of us feels proud over our achievements; just tell me how many Indians know that the progress we have made in these 59-60 years since Independence, its one of the most peaking in such a small duration as well as something everyone of us should be proud of.

I don't mean all Americans are patriotic. Nor do i say that Indians are unpatriotic. But one thing I believe the difference lies in where the former knows that they are a part of a strong nation, a segment of a strong cluster of mankind, and that feeling takes care of everything. But unfortunately it is the exact opposite in India. We feel gloomy, we feel insecure, we feel left out, we feel inferior; although a careful invetigation will only reveal that we have as many things to feel proud of as are things to feel gloomy. So better look at the brighter aspect; and then there would be no reason to say, I am an NRI, not an Indian!

Dim Sum Vs Momo!

Yesterday finally had this expeirence, tried this new thing: Dim Sum! Italy won and coupled with a bored weekend trail, just thought of eating out. But was in no way interested in getting ready and going out: a mile's walk from the dorm. What just clicked to my mind is ordering something home. Moreover some colleague told me earlier that there are these few eateries (specially Chinese andThai ones) nearby in and around the beach who make 'free' home delivery! The next thing, pick their menu and dial their number...

Yeah but I needed to decide what to eat: espcially I being a very much Chinese/Thai cuisine person, it takes a while to decide. So with a lot of vigor, started off reading their menu from the very beginning: what just flashed by was this 'Dim Sum'. I thought 'wow' that would be great to order! The final menu: Dim Sum and Spring Rolls... ymmm...

On eating I found Dim Sums quite resembling those Indian momos: the specials of the north-eatern India, specially Guwahati or Shillong! Next was thus a 'cyber' research on the difference and similaries between the two!

They say that originally a Cantonese custom, dim sum is inextricably linked to the Chinese tradition of "yum cha" or drinking tea. Travelers journeying along the famous Silk Road needed a place to rest, so teahouses began springing up along the roadside. Rural farmers, exhausted after long hours working in the fields, would also head to the local teahouse for an afternoon of tea and relaxing conversation. Still, it took several centuries for the culinary art of dim sum to develop. It was originally considered inappropriate to combine tea with food - in fact a famous 3rd century Imperial physician claimed this would lead to excessive weight gain. However, as tea's ability to aid in digestion and cleanse the palate became known, tea house proprietors began adding a variety of snacks, and the tradition of dim sum was born.

More research went on. What is it, exactly? Let's start with what it is not. If you're the type that enjoys browsing through a menu, then a dim sum restaurant is not for you. There's no ordering; instead you choose from a wide assortment of snacks that the waiters bring out on carts and trays. Also, if you're looking to have a romantic lunch, then a dim sum restaurant probably isn't a good choice. First off, the atmosphere is hardly conducive to romance, what with the clattering of trays, people calling out their orders, and large groups of people talking at each table. Besides, the best way to enjoy dim sum is with a large group; otherwise you'll fill up on a few items and miss the opportunity to sample everything!

Now momo is the other name of the traditional Tibetian dumplings (Dumplings is again Chinese!). The two are similar in the sense that both are steamed and both are stuffed with minced or grounded chicken/beef or pork (anything else do you know?)! There is also yet another weird variation for momos in Sikkim: cheese, usually fresh cheese stuffing!

Now you can enoy some great taste of dim sum (but sorry, just for your eyes!) in the pic here above!!

Finally, made it for the Trip: Boston Is Here...

It had been a much waited weekend: the 4th of July. An escape from those rigorous office schedules, many a times boring, many a times too melancholy. It just occurred to my mind that time is ripe to go around and visit the bare miminum places: you see, when you are staying on the east coast for 3 months! Count on the weeks and find that it has been 5 weeks already, and not many good places I have been, save liberty and simply loitering around 42nd St Broadway and watch those plays (which, to me, are good one-time-see, but not more than that!). Even those hot dogs are not enough to keep you engrossed for even a single day beyond 5 weeks!

The issue, might be sounding a bit weird, but the prime motivation for the trip was not really places, it was an escape from that haunted, lone, cold, dull, gloomy ambience of south Jersey. A break was then a mere necessity...

Landed up in Boston on Saturday late night: imagine, first time experience: slept the rest of the night in Boston South Station. But now one thing I know, nights in city's din and bustle are not that bad, provided you are not concerned about your security! When woke up at 8 am on Staturday or something, the neck was really aching bad: the ill postured sleep!

Started off to get the subway to New England Aquarium. Nice place out, surrondings quite a lot resemblign those of old-now-modern cities like London. Star fishes, Jelly fishes, Penguins and Sharks: all captured in that 512 MB new card I bought from the Manhattan mall the day before. Time to leave for the Science Park.

Dinosaurs, NASA and everything. More captivating part was although left to the end when we were about the leave for the Boston Tea Party Ship. It was a wonderful river side view from the background of the Science Park, as you see here above.

Boston Tea Party Ship was a different experience altogether. Very different touch from those perceptions of a busy city: much reminding of the days European colonies in US. And it was there where I ventured finally to try some proper seafood: guess what! oyesters! It was a simple oyester sandwich, but tasted awesome, esecially in an ambience surrounded by ships and cruises, an old harbor and a distant skyline!

Left was the major attraction of Boston: the freedom trail. It was evening by that time and I was really tired. Still how could I miss that 2.5 mile walk on the freedom trail? The biuldings on the freedom trail were special, built in the olden times and keeping up those heritage and the rich American culture that was imported from Europe. Far away were those huge buildings well lit like a busy city. The contrast was really vivid!

The trip and the day as well ended when we boarded the chinatown bus from South Station again in the evening. Passing by, I could see those directions to board buses for Montreal and all, and a sweet, quiet but passionate urge crept inside me: when will I ever make it to more beautiful places?

My Techie Life...

It has now been two days since I have been debugging the Python script. One problem is fixed, that the next one would come up. But the feel is now much much different. Its not like those times of ASU when there used to be sleepless nights and erroneous codes. I still remember that night towards the end of the Spring semester when I did not sleep the whole night and kept working on the avaya code. I had a meeting with Ajita and Doree next day at 11 am. Still, it was just too much inside my head that I should show a preliminary agent-selection, however it is possible. Despite that the results were not that great, still it was a big boost to my enthusiasm in the project!

Okay, I wont any more drift away from the topic I was initially discussing, yeah, so what I was telling is that, I now really curse the ASU CS Dept that PhD students can do only one internship. Had they allowed more, I could have really gathered handsome industry research experience in these 4-5 years! Its funny but you know, what really came to my mind right now is that duration of this PhD! I have just taken two and two courses in the past two semesters and I really dont know if I can finish graduating in next 4 years. The load after coming to US has been pretty much, more since I was not used to this kind of ambience before. And then a first hand hand to research! Yeah, but I would really admit that after joining Hari's group, things have changed in life! The approach he adopts in training students, specially the newbies, is awesome (let me not talk of those meeting 'wait' times!).
Hitting back from New Jersey to Tempe, it would be again the rigorous life a graduate student. The worst part are the courses! Yeah, probably this Fall I would want to get rid of those 'have-to-take' stuff: Combinatorial Algorithms, and Software Verification, Validation & Testing. The former is known to be really tough. Let's see what is in store for me! But yeah, I am sure, after Avaya, I will get back home with much more confidence than before, and beat the teneousness much better!

Academia and Industry: Research With a Difference!

Corporate Research! As if a whole new sting of nice feel runs from the top of your head to the toe! So here is me, in it, by luck or by effort, by hook or by crook!
Avaya Labs Research, the then spun off segment of AT & T Bell Labs; the Bell people, who have long been known for their services as telephony people across the world. But yeah, believe it or not, Avaya does stuff which is much much more interesting than those conventional stuff!
Its basically IP which is their center focus money delivering 'cow'. But the department I am into, Collaborative Applications Research, extends much beyond those peripheries. Its interaction, communication, presence, availability, interruption: but all considered on an entrerprise domain and from a user perspective.
Anyway, after a whole lot of technical jabbering, I should now talk sense and talk like a human being. What made me dig up this corporate research thing, is that it really preapres you for life. Any situation; I learned how to grasp things in no time and be ready to implement and use them at the tick of the mext moment. I understood nothing is unmasterable if you have the desire to deal with it. And that is what matters in life in the end!
I have like learnt four new tools since I arrived here and used all of them. The code is now being demoed to customers and will be ready to sell once we are done. This has given me a tremendous feel of satisfaction and confidence! From now on, I believe, my courses when back in Tempe will not give me nightmares or sleepless nights!
And yeah, my schedule! I swear, I believed it could never set to right till I came here and got into this habit of getting up early for office. And its so true that starting your day off early changes your life! All along the day, your vigor is on and you accomplish stuff much better!
So count it in: take my word, corporate exposure always helps!

How is 'Blogging' There in Your Books?

So here is Munmun back to the 'blogging' world after almost an year: see, how long a vacation it has been! Or was it really? Things have changed like daily meals: nevertheless, better don't ask me for the good or for the bad. I guess a sensible, diplomatic and pragmatic answer would be: yeah, it has been a mix of everything: after all, its the life experience that matters, not the 'good' or 'bad' of it. Anyway, after enough of philosophical note in the very beginning, I now want to change the track. Yeah, I have been writing since long back, many times regularly, sometimes intermittantly, but one thing was always common: it was mostly my explanations of my life experiences, but now I want to fetter those shackles, all I want now is to capture the essence of it: that is what sticks with you in the end at all times!
Being into research for an year, the very word 'blogging' or 'blog' has a whole lot of diversified meaning to me. Let me jot them down here (you will find 'your' definition of 'blogging' here probably!):
(1) 'Blogging' is a juicy pastime after a kind of tiring, rather grilling office weekday or a day long work with your advisor.
(2) 'Blogging' is a platform to resume your writing habit again and to brush up that really coveted hobby/skill(?) .
(3) 'Blogging' is a means to ward off the idea that there isn't a boyfriend/girlfriend!
(4) 'Blogging' is a side job while you are doing some really crap surfing or chatting on blind 'cyber dates'.
(5) 'Blogging' is a means to ventilate your subdued frustration after watching a highly bogus movie last night.
(6) Yeah, those comments by your friends after you write a blog isn't a bad time pass at all! On a serious note, you can judge your thoughts, compare with others and have some fruitful, mind-boggling discussion with your best friend on Yahoo Messenger or the phone.
(7) Ask my faculty advisor about 'blog'. He would say, "Ohh yeah, it is one of the best means to visualize a social network in a virtual world like Internet. I am extremely interested in social networks. Like, you can mine those 'blog' databases to find people of similar taste and interest. Like a company dealing in cameras might want to mine a blog database and find cliques of people particularly discussing some special model of Canon or some newly released feature in Nikon SLRs."
(8) Talk to my internship mentor or supervisor. They would look at the 'blog' from their product selling's point: "Yeah, blogs. They are an immense source of information for us since we look at the user (person) perspective in social networks in blogs where there have been very little work or real time system development till now. We can have some really interesting publications later."
(9) And yeah, how can we ignore that 'blogs' are the 'food for thought' for people in Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Research? No, you should not get jitters of tomorrow in some corner of the newspaper you read that Google Search will now be driven on personalized scales: they would now use the social network structure analysis from places like Orkut and the blogs on the open web to direct their search for you: just and specially for you: ones that taste your tongue!
(10) After subscribing to all these nine dimensions to think about blogs and blogging, what do you now expect my thought would be? Or will I at all be having any tenth thought on blogs? What do you say?

SHE GOES ON AND GETS

The ripples of sea water,
The sunset there,
Beckoning waves and the blowing winds,
And the passing Sun’s blare:
The end of one ‘Day.’

The ‘day’ tough though,
Toiling through and through,
Not to talk of a break;
Not even heeding out through the track,
Consequences it might yield to,
Work and Duty- being the lone facets to cater to.
Who knows how the sunrise tomorrow is going to be,
The vast oceanic life is culling to be.
Her job is done,
But no eye to if it should leave woe or fun;
A new ‘Day’ and novel responsibilities,
And again a selfless journey without knowledge of all feasibilities.

The curls and curves of life,
A voyage as though on the edge of a knife;
So amidst this vulnerable ambience,
One and all has to carry through with patience,
Shattering all sense of expectation,
Lest they end up in one’s wish’s violation.

That very person will then continue to view every sunset there,
As each day passes and a new day awaits with glare;
And then through the red sunset, she will peep into the golden sunrise,
And someday her heart will unfurl with joy and surprise,
That her honest labor is here to gratify,
The caustic salt of the sea water failing her toil and success to ramify.

FAILURES ARE THE HOPE !

Came down on me all the gloom of Earth ,
Which I had not faced since my birth ;
Life stood standstill ,
Without a bit of my consent or will ;
It was as is coniine had entered my nerves ,
Driving all my thinking into labyrinthine curves ;
The sun of my life connoted to be set ,
In absence of any chance to let me awake .

But as I sat in trance by the seashore ,
I heard a rather bizarre furor ;
I found that it was my conscience ,
Showing me the ray of hope and patience ;
Hope ,which never prevaricates ,
The tireless pursuit of happiness which it never abdicates ;
Hope obliged me to obviate my anguish ,
To mirthfully embrace my failure and my life to refurbish ;

Because ,failures are a prelude to success ,
And hope taught me to smile again with a digress ;
So today I do not want to obliterate ,
My appalling failures with ponderousness ;
And ,I know today with failure and success juxtaposed ,
The two adorn life with tenuous but profound ecstasy aforth .

UNEARTH...

I can see the sunrise there,
Beckoning me to survive,
A light to guard me through the dark layer,
So that I continue to struggle forever.

Life is not an end,
It taught me that,
And should you face with not a fame,
It is never your fate to blame.

So time is yours to muster up
The courage you have within,
To write your fate with ink evergreen,
And never to let it screw your work in.

Proceed hence, like a winner,
And you will not find anybody then to shatter
The confidence you embed deep down;
And then only you can dream of winning the real crown.
Belief in yourself is what you need,
And then you can afford to lead
Even the worst segment of your fortune,
To paint it all over again with your own maroon.

So yearning for a success is never enough,
If your chivalry not overrules all the tough,
Blow forth the zest hidden in your handful,
So that you conquer all the mournful,
And then every sunset will accrue a sunrise,
And it will not at all come as a surprise!
Unearth your innate flair,
And that is what should be your soul's blare.

THE MUSIC OF HEART

Agony had delved deep into her blood,
Imbuing her nights with tearful floods;
For, clutched in between her love and responsibility,
She knew her love's ultimate goal's infeasibility.
Responsibility was something she was obliged to stick to,

And she felt it better to live with a broken heart hitherto;
Life was but driven into the deep darkness of despondency,
And mind being a cadaver's occupancy.
And then, all of a sudden sun seemed to rise once again,

Inkling the dawn to a new life without terrain;
She felt how materialistic she had been,
Merely looking for her love's culmination as her thoughts used to careen;

Ashamed of her selfish attitude,
She ultimately decided with enough certitude;
She would carry on with her love with all her venture,
To enable it bloom with even more care and nurture;
Love turned to be the essence of her life,
What if she knew it will never yield a settled sunrise;

And how placated she felt with this truth of her life unravelled,
And she went about her life with this harangue;
To preach one and all with all mirth,
That love is ever above all the world: truly, the music of heart!