About
Yet Another Self-Important Blog.
Rohit Singh
Email Me
Blogs
Use as directed or at your own risk.
Links
These are a few of my favourite links.
[Fri, 01 Oct 2004]
When do you not tip?
Tipping in the U.S. is invariably a painful exercise. Tipping at a
full-service restaurant is a hard enough job-- what with the
considerations of rounding off the bill to a nice number (that can be
easily divided by 'n' where 'n' is the number of people at the dinner),
feeling the need to express one's displeasure at the service, placating
cheapo friends who feel any tip is too much and feeling guilty about not
tipping enough.
But what about self-service and quasi-self-service places? For example, should you tip at buffets, especially the Indian lunch buffets? I know of quite a few people who think it is not needed at all. After all, all that the waiter does is bring you water and clear up the plates. Heck! that is what he's being paid for. However, I've almost always left a measly tip- essentially the credit-card equivalent of leaving the coins behind. More guilt-assuaging than anything else.
What about other self-service places? There's places like McDonalds that are trying to develop a tipping culture. That's just wrong- there's zero service involved. Sometimes such places will try to guilt you by writing "For the Childeren's Fund" or something like that. In other places, the penny jar is devolving into a tip jar. The penny jar was originally meant to be a take-a-penny/leave-a-penny jar. If I owe $5.27, and I only have a fiver and a quarter, I can't just take 2 pennies from the jar. No sirrrree.. I have to hand in a $20 and will drop the 3 pennies in the jar. Have never seen the take-a-penny thing working.
What about Starbucks? This one hits a raw nerve because the coffee (and cookies etc.) is obscenely overpriced as it is. The moral case is also weak because Starbucks is known to be a good employer. Still the employee point of view-- that the more hairy orders require special effort (and hence tips!)-- can't be ignored. Still, as this fiesty and rather vehment "no" on the customers parts indicates, I don't think you need to worry about tipping at Starbucks anytime soon. And don't tip at McDonalds or Burger King or Pizza Hut (unless it's delivery) either. You are just making it harder for the rest of us.
[Wed, 22 Sep 2004]
Let no pigeon fly...
This was a TOI news item about an Indian student in Chicago being ticketed for napping on the train (the motive behind the law seems to be keep people alert against pick-pockets etc...). Here's a list of some very weird U.S. city laws. For example, Bellevue, KY makes it illegal for pigeons to fly over the city.
India too has interesting laws. Until a few years ago, there was this law which stated that every district headquarter must have two earthen pots filled with clean water for drinking. Turns out that the law did make sense when it was written- in the 1800s. Am not sure if this one is still on the books.
[Wed, 08 Sep 2004]
Jerusalem, Kashi, and Yin-Yang
Recently, when I was reading a book on Chinese history and culture, it
suddenly struck me-- how odd is it that 5 of the world's greatest religions
are intimately related to just 2 cities in the world: Jerusalem (Judaism,
Christianity, Islam) and Varanasi aka Kashi (Hinduism, Buddhism)!! Indeed,
I am hard-pressed to think of a major world-religion that isn't connected to
either of these cities. The only other candidates would the philosophies/religions of the Far East. But Confucianism, Taoism, and Shintoism- the major
spiritual sects in the Far East- are not religions in the real sense of
the word. They are more like philosophies than religion in that their theologies are far less developed than the other major religions. Nature-reverence, ancestor-worship and a rulebook for moral behavior is what characterizes them.
A related and interesting observation is about the similarities between the religions that share a common "holy" city. All the Jerusalem religions are monotheistic in a very unambiguous way; there really is no one else but *the* God and unless you accept him, you are damned to hell. These religions also have codified instructions for specific choices to be made in day-to-day living. "Don't work on Fridays" (Islam); "Don't work on Sundays" (Judaism) or; "Observe Lent" (Christianity).
On the other hand, the Kashi religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, are rather evasive about the whole monotheistic-vs-polytheistic issue. Hindu mythology is expressly polytheistic. But it does have a subtle monotheistic slant as reflected in the notion of the divine Trinity being one meta-entity with mutually complementary gods: Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Provider??), and Shiva (Destroyer). Hindu *philosophy* (as opposed to the *mythology*) increases the ambivalence, by distinguishing the notion of a "Nir-gun" [ethereal] God as opposed to the "Sa-gun" [anthropomorphic] god(s). Buddhism evades the notion of an overarching God altogether by focusing on the individual and the notion of a personal "nirvana". Unlike the Jerusalem religions, both Hinduism and Buddhism are non-prescriptive religions that, in their essence, do not tell you how to live. The fact that priests in both the religions have developed a rigid set of rules for daily living is another matter. Hindu mythology, in particular, is replete with cases of revered rishis and sadhus who'd be considered distinctly unholy by today's rigid standards.
I think there are other differences as well. (Beware!! I am not a theologer!) Both the Kashi religions make it possible for the individual to reach the highest level of religious enlightenment simply by meditation and self-reflection, an option not available in any of the Jerusalem religions. In the latter, an expressed and repeated devotion to God is essential. The Kashi religions are very comfortable with the notion of reincarnations, while the Jerusalem religions are not.
In one very interesting way all these 5 religions differ from the Far Eastern spiritual sects. A fundamental belief in the latter was the humans are essentially meant to be happy and not suffer. As long as they behave well to others, they'll lead happy lives in harmony with nature, which is pretty much the most you are supposed to want. In contrast, both the Jerusalem and Kashi religions take a rather dim view of human life-- a person can't be "saved" unless he/she makes specific efforts to redeem himself. And even then, more often than not, the "saving" counts only when you are dead. A corollary of this seems to be that monks are common in these religions whereas original Confucianism/Taoism didn't have followers who gave up all worldly duties/tasks and just devoted themselves to the service of God or the search of enlightenment. Indeed, this was the basis of an argument, about 1400yrs ago, that the Taoists used to fight the spread of Buddhism: "Indians are basically evil and hence Buddhism is suited for their redemption. Chinese are basically good and hence it is not suited for us." Nice...
I am sure people have explored these parallels before. It'd be interesting to see what they came up with. To repeat, I am not a theologer/theologist/whatever!!
[Sat, 17 Jul 2004]
On James Lyngdoh
This is an Outlook book review about the memoirs of James Lyngdoh (India's ex-Chief-Election-Commissioner). But it isn't really a book review. It's a psychological profile of the guy, talking about his genuine dislike for pols and his genuine affection for jholaa-waalas and NDTV reporters. And his absolute conviction that he was doing good for the "mute millions". Which, to some extent, he was.
James Bond, desi-ishtyle...
Apparently, real life jasoos-es are somewhat boring. There seems to be more hanky-panky in an anti-nuke conference than in one laden with spies from the subcontinent.
[Thu, 15 Jul 2004]
New Item on My ToDo list...
Since mom's visiting these days, this particular item is available in reasonable quantities currently. Still, it's nice to know you can make Gaajar Ka Halwa in 30min. I wonder if it's semi-decent.
The milk powder reminds me-- I haven't seen the equivalent of MilkMaid here.
Ingredients
500 gms. carrot peeled, grated
200 ml. milk
1/2 cup sugar ground
1/2 cup khoya or milk powder
1 tbsp. ghee
1 tbsp. almonds, pistachios, chopped
1/2 tsp. cardamom powder
1/4 tsp. saffron crushed
Method
Mix carrot and milk in a deep microwaveproof bowl.
Allow for ample boiling space in the bowl.
Microwave on high for 8 minutes. Stand for 5 minutes.
Stir well, add khoya or milk powder and sugar and stir again.
Microwave on high for 8 minutes. Stand for 3 minutes.
Add ghee, cardamom powder and mix well.
Microwave on high for 2 minutes.
Garnish with chopped nuts.
Serve hot or cooled.
Reheat in in microwave for 1 minute before serving.
Making time: 30 minutes
Makes: 5 servings
[Tue, 13 Jul 2004]
The Video Game Face
Many people-- and I first noticed this in my dad-- are sucked in when
playing a video game. I do too. Thus, when you are racing a car and you
have to take a sharp left your body bends towards left; even the joystick
banks towards left. It's as if you are sitting in that car, cringing as
you scrape by the car to your right. I guess one test of good game design is how well it can suck you in.
Ditto for driving- lanes that seem so wide when you are standing on ground seem impossibly narrow when you are driving.
So it turns that this is not just a figment of my imagination. There is this notion of the peripersonal space (NYT) that extends to about an arm's length from our body, or if we have a tool, till the tool's reach. Our brains seem to be especially attentive to things happening in this space.
Will This Guy Win'em All ?
Seven gold medals...wow. Swimming and running are unfair sports, though. In no other kind of sport can you prepare for so many different events in one go. Are the skills required in 100m freestyle swimming that different from those required for 200m freestyle ? Ditto for 100m sprint vs 200m sprint.
Still, seven gold medals...If he were Indian, he'd increase India's medals tally by a gazillion percent. Seriously, of all the major-sized nations, we must be the ones with the most pathetic olympic record. Blame Tendulkar :-)
[Sun, 11 Jul 2004]
See, I told ya..
Even the Guardian says our society has a renewed interest in food these days. It's a great article, though. The article talks about this street in Paris (where else!) with ultra-fresh produce where you can only buy if you have an account. There are no prices marked on the produce. So, of course, you don't know what you are paying. It's amazing how many ingenious ways people come up with to "spread the wealth".
[Fri, 09 Jul 2004]
Plain Philter Coffee
Every (sub)culture with far too much free time
gets more and more involved in elaborate food
prepration. Case in point being the French. Even Americans are getting into the whole "eating good" thing.
Since their notion of cuisine had been limited to the 'BBQ', they
have a bit ways to go. Still, they are getting there. Here's a brand new
hypothesis: half the people in Utopia will be cooks (or, atleast, fancy
themselves to be cooks) running small bistros. The other half will fancy
themselves as foodies and will go around
sampling these bistros. The problem is that the Utopians
will be incapable of eating a TV dinner.
Once you get used to nice food it's hard to accept
quick-fix food.
Seriously, even getting coffee in my office is now an elaborate exercise in decision making. Stata has numerous coffee sources. Many of these I have access to, especially when no one's watching. The old, "put-on-a-pot" coffee-maker is about antediluvian as my family's first TV which had a knob for selecting one of 8 channels. You can use the funky mini-espresso maker in the W3C wing on my floor. That coffee is good only with milk and sugar. If you want good black coffee, the place to go is the 8-th floor where they have another funky coffee maker. This one takes small prepackaged boxes with just enough ground coffee for one serving. Pick the flavor you want, pop the box in and, presto!, the machine will brea fresh coffee for you. This one's coffee is quite aromatic. The cheaper cousins of this are the flasks on the 6th floor which the gnomes fill with really nice coffee. The coffee they use is nice, but isn't always fresh. Finally, on the topmost floor sits the grand-daddy of all coffee-makers. It's a full-blown espresso maker, complete with a shiny insert-and-twist-thingie and a shot glass. Took me about 30 min to get it to work the first time around. Even its froth-maker works.
And of course, there's StarBucks. Since the closest one is too far (about 400 yards), they are opening a new one in Stata's ground floor in Fall.
I forgot to mention the gazillion varieties of tea (regular and herbal) available for your drinking pleasure in the pantry.
[Sun, 13 Jun 2004]
The Great Language Debate
Slashdot is carrying yet another story comparing various programming
languages. In
this case, it is just scripting languages but there are other studies that
do compare even more languages. It has taken me a long time to settle down
on my everyday languages. For quite a while, I'd fiddle with any new
language I came across. ML and Clean were the most tempting. There's something to be said for writing in a functional language. All that funky "everything is an expression" stuff is pretty cool. But I/O and data-structures are just a pain in the neck. Writing real ML code turned out to be enormously painful the last time I
tried it. It didn't help that I was using it for an assignment and the
assignment was due the next day and I had forgotten most of CS350. Still,
they say OCaml, a variant of ML, is really fast and has good libraries. Until I get around to that one, I'll keep fiddling with Python's lambda and map statements.
I always liked Python more than Perl. The conversion is now complete. The only Perl code I now write are one-liners. Python can't be used to write one-liners but its verbosity and forced indentation and intuitive function names make it easy to read. And the final time to write the program isn't that much anyway. Now that I've gotten used to its modules, its gotten easier for me to write scripts that do lots of pipes and program-running business. These days, during the course of work, a hairy command line will typically pull in many different languages:
cat test3_${j}_${i%.policy}.ct | perl -ne '{chomp; print "echo ",$_," | addZero | chainbuild --param '${j}.prm' --fixomega --pdb > test3_decoy_'${j}_${i%.policy}'_",$.,".gly \n ./nbEasy test3_decoy_'${j}_${i%.policy}'_",$.,".gly | grep neighbouring \n"; }' > test3_${j}_${i%.policy}.1
ls ${j}/test3_runs/$i| GetStructParamsAll.py | tail -1 | perl -pe 's/\s+/\n/g;' | sed '1 d'| perl -ne '{chomp; if ($.%3==2) {print;} if ($.%3==0) {print " ", $_, "\n";}}'| perl -ne '{ if (/\S+\s+\S+/) {print;}}' > ${j}/test4_runs/${i%.gly}.tors
chainbuild is a C++ program, with 3rd-party Fortran libraries. I use awk/sed usually, and call in Perl's regexes if awk would get too unwieldy. Perl's -pe/-ne flags are really handy. Shell scripting is useful for running simulations and any script that is permanent enough to go into a file is almost always Python.
Sometimes I wonder if I go overboard with this scripting business. But, then again, its pretty useful.
[Mon, 07 Jun 2004]
Broadway Boogie-Woogie
My sis-in-law, a really good painter, painted this really funky-looking
painting. The painting is mostly white canvas crisscrossed by thick black
lines (vertical and horizontal only, please) and some squares filled with
either blue, red, or yellow. Not only is the painting pretty cool but, for some reason, I also find it very cheerful, for lack of a better word!
It also reminds me of a bedsheet that mom gave me
during IITK days. The bedsheet was white with thick black lines and a
regularish pattern of blue, red, and yellow filled squares. Must've been
from handicraft store. I liked the bedsheet too. I wonder if the villager
who designed it knew about Neoplasticism. More on Neoplasticism soon.
Anyways, all visitors to her (my sis-in-law's) home speculate on the motivation behind that painting. One theory that my brother likes to offer, tongue firmly in cheek, is that its much harder to paint exactly straight lines than to paint landscapes and hence the painting offered more of a challenge than the landscapes that my sis-in-law usually paints.
Now I've figured out the origins of that painting. The origins of that *style* of painting, that is. So it turns out there was this Dutch guy, Piet Mondrian, whose theory about painting went something like this: all of painting is basically about drawing and coloring. As per his style/philosophy ("Neoplasticism"), the basic drawing element is the straight line and the basic "primordial" colors are red, yellow and blue. Combine the two. Of course, if you make pretty pictures and people like them enough to ask you why you made them, you have all the leeway in the world to propound on the "philosophy" behind Neoplasticism. See this page for a voluminous discussion and some links. There is a lot of bullshit about mysticism and spirituality and the infinite nature of vertical/horizontal line. Also, Harvard's Art Museum is having a retrospective of some sort and they too have some pretty pictures.
Mondrian went further actually. His weirdest stuff, IMHO, was a painting made by crisscrossed colored adhesive tape. Line + Color = Colored Lines = Essence of Painting. One such painting is titled the Broadway Boogie Woogie.
This is "normal" Neoplasticism:
This is "experimental" Neoplasticism:
This is Synthesis aka adhesive tape selling for a BIG money:
This is the tangent I shot off from
Who said you can't get your education from comics!
[Tue, 18 May 2004]
LA Times Editor on Journalistic Ethics
Its an awesome article, read it in its entirety. Just a few tid-bits:
"I've come to realize that the looseness of the journalistic life, the seeming laxity of the newsroom, is an illusion. Yes, there's informality and there's humor, but beneath the surface lies something deadly serious. It is a code. Sometimes the code is not even written down, but it is deeply believed in. And, when violated, it is enforced with tribal ferocity."
...
"All across America, there are offices that resemble newsrooms, and in those offices there are people who resemble journalists, but they are not engaged in journalism. What they do is not journalism because it does not regard the reader or, in the case of broadcasting, the listener or the viewer as a master to be served."
"In this realm of pseudo-journalism, the audience is regarded as something to be manipulated. And when the audience is misled, no one in the pseudo-newsroom ever offers a peep of protest."
....
"We live in changed times. Never has falsehood in America had such a large megaphone."
He was talking about Fox News- who else! On a related note, here is an anguished article bemoaning The Times of India's fall in standards. TOI, atleast the web edition, really really sucks these days.
[Wed, 12 May 2004]
IIT Kanpur tops survey of Indian Engineering colleges
India Today's annual survey has my alma-mater, IITK, back on top, after a 3-year stint
away from the top. The survey is kind of fishy. Objectively, there really is not much
you can say about comparing between the different IITs- each of them have specific strengths and weaknesses. Still, we won and
thats what matters!! To all the other IITs: loooooooooooosers ;-)
Personally, I think IIT Kanpur and IIT Bombay produce the most well-rounded people- haven't had the chance to hang out with too many IIT Delhi guys. Academically, I've found amazingly smart people from each IIT (not counting some new "IITs") so that one is hard to judge.
I wish India Today (and others) would recognize that IITs really are the best colleges in India- not just the best *engineering/professional* colleges. After all, few colleges require everbody to take 3 courses in pure sciences, 3 courses in math, 1 course in programming and atleast 4 courses in humanities (many people take more). And the rest of curriculum has enough electives for you to explore what you want. Thus I got a chance to fiddle with a few physics courses before I was convinced that string-theory really did make my head hurt.
On a related note, IITK's director Prof Dhande is visiting Boston- general alumni relations and faculty hiring trip, it seems. He taught us two courses- engineering drawing (TA101- the scourge of half the student-body) and computer graphics. In TA101, there was this moment when a particularly painful student, in a lecture-room filled with 150-odd students, was belaboring a minor point. Prof Dhande's reply was classic: "yeah, you are right but that doesn't mean I am going to marry off my daughter to you"
[Fri, 07 May 2004]
Ben Bitdiddle and company
In one of my courses here, I ran across the cast of characters that make
up the background stories in assignments. The cast seems to pretty
consistent, especially in CS systems courses. Google tells me that the
character names have spread beyond MIT but I have a feeling that these
names ultimately originated in MIT.
So the main character in most stories is Ben Bitdiddle. Its probably stupid to ascribe specific levels of intelligence to various characters but I think I have seen a pattern. Have blog, will speculate. As for Ben- well, he has lots of initiative. He's always willing to try new things viz. designing new chips and writing weird programs. He oftens starts companies to market these ideas. Ben, however, is rather unimaginative. His attempts are invariably bogged down in some techinal problems and his attempts at solving them are rather naive and can almost always be improved. Enter Alyssa P Hacker. Alyssa, the uber-hacker, is the one who'll tell Ben that there is a better way of doing things. At this point, the problem set usually turns towards you and asks you to help Ben do what Alyssa says can be done. Alyssa is kinda zen-like in that sense.
There are some other characters that show up often. Louis Reasoner is typically a partner in crime with Ben, helping him design new chips and write weird programs and start companies. I can't make up my mind about how smart Louis is meant to be. But the feeling I get is that she's Ben's lackey and a rather dim one at that. (hint: "Alyssa says this can be done in .... Show Ben and Louis how this can be done. Louis is not too bright, so remember to comment your code"). Another major character is Cy D Fect. As the name suggests, Cy is typically involved when his design/program has unintended consequences. Then there's Lem E Tweakit who's forever making half-baked optimizations to Ben's stuff. There are a couple of other PHB types: Oliver Warbucks and DeWitt Aull etc. but I have only heard of them.
So what prompted this long speculation? I sighted "our genomic hero: Ben Basepair" in the final test of my Comp Functional Genomics class. Not a bad name, waise.
[Mon, 26 Apr 2004]
My New Office
Worth $280 million. Lots of people hate it (Stata Center). I like the interiors, I think they'll grow on me even more. In general, the building has grown on me. Until we moved in (about a month ago) I thought it was hideous and a horrible waste of money. Now I only think that it was a tad costly.
Lots of funny stories about the building are already becoming part of the lore. Will write about them later. Here's one: Richard Stallman (of GNU and Free Software Foundation fame) has an office in Gates Tower. He prefers if we called it Minas Morgul.
Forgot to link in this article from the Boston Globe.
[Fri, 23 Apr 2004]
Warning Signals ?
Lots of low-intensity quakes in Delhi. Warning signals ? I didn't even know Delhi was on any fault line. I hope/pray nothing big comes along. It's too painful to even imagine otherwise.
Jaw-jaw better than war-war
Some edification on particularly effective diplomats in recent times. I've always felt that France and China owe a lot of their position, post WW-2, to some stellar diplomatic efforts. France, especially, has a disproportionate role in EU and world due to their diplomacy.
How to tell between an automobile and a programmer
Leslie Lamport (the guy who wrote LaTeX) did a lot of work on concurrency and distributed systems. I was looking at his webpage for some course-related stuff and came across this monologue. Kinda funny. I am excerpting a part of it here. The moral of the story is that the guy says programs should be verfied/checked, rather than debugged. Fat chance.
"Our man in the street could try asking an auto mechanic to tell him ab out automobiles, then asking a programmer to tell him ab out programs, and comparing the results. The mechanic might reply as follows. "An automobile is constructed by people. After they have finished constructing it, it runs. However, it may have some bugs. [Most mechanics would use the term "problems", but everyone understands this one when he sp eaks of `bugs'.] These are usually minor [such as non-functioning windshield wip ers], but occasionally they are serious enough to make the automobile stop running. The bugs are found by testing, and are fixed. The automobile then runs prop erly, and is sold to the user. The user then op erates the automobile. However, as he uses it, new bugs may app ear. Therefore, the automobile must b e maintained. Maintenance is also required if the user wants to modify the automobile--for example, to improve its performance [perhaps by `souping up' the engine]. When the automobile becomes to difficult to maintain, the user has to buy a new one."
Unfortunately, the programmer might say almost exactly the same things ab out programs! Our poor man in the street would be no further towards his goal. The reader has undoubtedly guessed by now that I am not interested in explaining the difference between a program and an automobile to the man in the street. He was just a pedagogical device, and will now be returned to his street. My purpose is to explain the difference between a program and an automobile to programmers.
An automobile runs, a program does not. (Computers run, but I'm not discussing them.) An automobile requires maintenance, a program does not. A program does not need to have its stack cleaned every 10,000 miles. Its if statements do not wear out through use. (Previously undetected errors may need to be corrected, or it might be necessary to write a new but similar program, but those are different matters.) An automobile is a piece of machinery, a program is some kind of mathematical expression.
Programmers may be disheartened to learn that their programs are not like automobiles, but are mathematical expressions. Automobiles can be loveable--one can relate to them almost as if they were alive. Mathematical expressions are not loveable--they are hard to relate to. Many programmers may feel like clinging to their b elief that programs are like automobiles. However, further thought reveals that mathematical expressions do have certain advantages over automobiles.
Unlike an automobile, a mathematical expression can have a meaning. We can therefore ask whether it has the correct meaning. One cannot talk about the correctness of an automobile--it may run properly, but it makes no sense to say that it is correct. Since a program is a mathematical expression, one can (at least in principle) decide if it is correct."
Of course, all the usual disclaimers about copyright still apply.
[Thu, 22 Apr 2004]
Wealthier Students, Poorer Society
NYT has an article about the increasing fraction of students (especially in top-ranked univs) coming from rich backgrounds. For example, the median family income of a Harvard student is $150K. The median family income of an American is $53K, one-third of it. And its not the bottom quartile of families that has suffered the most. They were always poorly represented. The middle-income families are the ones that've suffered the most, relatively.
"At the most selective private universities across the country, more fathers of freshmen are doctors than are hourly workers, teachers, clergy members, farmers or members of the military combined."
Wow!
Having lived in Stanford and MIT campuses (and near UCSD campus) I can personally vouch for how rich the general undergrad population seems to be. BMWs were far too common in the undergrad parking lots at Stanford. Uber-cool (and pricey!) gizmos are far too common at MIT (less space for cars here ;-).
The reason for this development seems to be that *everybody* is much more desperate to get their kids into good colleges. Richer parents can, however, spend a lot\ more on college-prep, building up an impressive app packet for their kids. And it shows- almost all colleges say that applications have been getting better and better. Some of the undergrad application resumes are just mindblowing. Of course, they are also padded- there just can't be so many multi-tasking socially-conscious polymath prodigies around. And the whole early-decision stuff favours people who don't need fin aid i.e. the rich kids.
There was one more reason why this article struck a chord. Charles Vest, one of MIT's longest serving presidents, is retiring. His eloquent farewell letter mentions a DOJ-initiated lawsuit regarding financial aid in the early 90s. At that time, top univs used to compare notes to best disburse financial aid in the most beneficial fashion (esp to poorer students). DOJ slammed, of all things, an anti-trust motion against them! Apparently, MIT was the only univ that didn't back down. They took it to court, and finally won. Sorta. The trends in fin aid still changed and merit-based financial aid systems started replacing need-based financial aid systems. Admissions, of course, have remained need-blind and merit-based. This change in financial aid means that less aid now goes to poorer, and often less qualified, students. Here's Vest's comment about this:
"...All these factors have combined to cause a massive shift of financial support away from the poor- est students and families to those with somewhat higher incomes. Despite the very real pressures on middle-class families during the last dozen years [i.e. they might need the extra aid], I consider that the world of financial aid is less noble and fair than it once was."
This also ties into the brouhaha going on in India over the IIMs' fees (and soon, I'm afraid, IITs' fees). To be fair, the median family income in India would be about Rs 50K, assuming families with atleast one regular job-holder. As such an IIT fee of about Rs 20-40K is fair considering that my estimated expenses at MIT are $52K (they pay :-) and the median American income is $53K. The IIMs' current fees are about 2 times the median income, but I think thats fair- people who go for MBAs often have savings or loans they can take. Hell! even IIT kids are getting richer. Most of them can now afford computers in their dorms. Even 5-6 years ago, there were lots who hadn't used computers until they came to IIT and could never imagine getting one for home use. The reason why more rich kids are getting into IITs is probably the same as in America- their rich parents can better help them prep.
Of course, I neglected to mention that its pretty much impossible for any really poor kid (whose parents earn less than Rs20K/pa) in India to make it to the IITs/IIMs. His schooling just won't prepare him for the entrance exams. But that discussion will involve India's non-existent primary/secondary education set-up...
[Mon, 12 Apr 2004]
Civic Institutions In India...
So the Supreme Court has once again expressed anger/frustation at the Gujarat state machinery for what they didn't do. Every time someone comes up with how the "recent" wave of intolerance in India and the rightward shift in politics is doomed to destroy its democracy, its useful to be able to point them to things like these and tell them why the Indian civic system is stronger than what people give it credit for.
Reminds me of an exchange that took place last week at HBS. Indian students at HBS had organized a day-long India Business Conference, complete with big names and all. During a panel discussion, somebody asked Montek Singh Ahluwalia if the civic structures in India are degrading and isn't this degradation disastrous for the Indian democracy. His reply was "well, that's not really true. Some institutional change is normal as a democracy matures. And many elements of the civic life have become stronger [- the election commission, the supreme court, and the various NGOs etc..]"
Overheard...
From a friend: "Never work for a hot female. She has too many hooks into your brain." :-))
[Sat, 10 Apr 2004]
(Two) Theaters of the Absurd
Trust Dharmendra to make the best poll promises- "a Basanti for every Veeru".
Surprise Surprise, Laloo doesn't like being taken pot-shots at. Houses of glass and stones and so on...
And one would've thought that he'd stop explaining his middle name once he turned 70.
For once TOI gets out of its usual tabloid-y mode to point out something of interest- our politicians get real good deals on real estate.
If you count a Kennedy as a friend and you are in politics and you're American then you must be golden, right ? Umm...not exactly...
This poor fellow says "com'on, lets stop fighting and lets play fair.". Pat comes the reply, "not until we beat you, buster."
[Mon, 22 Mar 2004]
The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri
A friend lent me the book y'day. I had been wanting to read it, partly because I liked her first book (Interpreter of Maladies) and partly because of the interesting (pet) names of the main characters in the book. Plot-wise, the book is yet another in the long line of books picking at the emotional scabs of the Indian diaspora. The anxieties, the self-doubt and the chronic subduedness of displaced Indians (and their progeny) make ripe pickings for Indians writing in English. It also makes good reading for the majority of Indians and Americans as well. But I can't help feeling that Indians in foreign lands are being mass-psychoanalyzed, their every action interpreted in terms of "existential angst". I feel like a bloody goldfish in a fishbowl sometimes.
Anyways, on to the book. Ashoke and Ashima are first generation immigrants to U.S. After getting his PhD from MIT, Ashoke moves (family in tow, of course) to a Boston suburb, to a nameless college and an eventless career. Ashima, ever the dutiful wife, gets over her acute boredom and discomfort once kids arrive. Socially, their lives revolve around the Weekend Bengali Friends Network. The book is mostly about their son, Gogol and how he hates his name for much of the book, changing it to Nikhil at the first chance he get. The latter parts of the story are spun around episodes in Gogol/Nikhil's life-- his various ill-fated relationships and Ashoke's death.
I like the book-- it is written beautifully. Jhumpa Lahiri has a way with words, unpretentious yet very beautiful. I hope to re-read the book again, more slowly. Here's a passage:
"They were brown shoes with black heels and off-white laces and stitching. There was a band of lentil-sized holes embossed on either side of each shoe, and at the tips was a pretty pattern pricked into the leather as if with a needle. Looking more closely, she saw the shoemaker's name on the inside, in gold lettering that had all but faded....Ashima, unable to resist a sudden and overwhelming urge, stepped into the shoes at her feet. Lingering sweat from the owner's feet mingled with hers, causing her heart to race; it was the closest thing she had ever experienced to the touch of a man. "
Just for comparison, see the following passage. It is from a review about this book!:
"Spanning three decades and two continents, The Namesake's story line is episodic, nearly picaresque, a literary form whose expansiveness and fluidity assert a sense of individual autonomy and mobility. The story limns the unforgiving and often repressive claims of memory and family tradition in unresolved discord with the equally insistent immigrant claims of establishing a new and meaningful identity in the New World."
I do have a couple of grouses about the book, though. The book pretends to care deeply about the Gogol/Nikhil dichotomy, especially in the initial parts; it tries to weave it in with his teenage angst, his relationships, and his eventual self-discovery. I can see the motivation for doing this but I wish she had found a better peg to hang the initial parts on. Parts of the plot are somewhat predictable but that doesn't take much away from the book. Another interesting thing about the book is how it rarely describes how Ashoke and Ashima feel. Their lives are described more by how Nikhil remembers them rather than by describing what goes on in their heads, though Lahiri *does* do the latter as well. I couldn't make up my mind as to whether Lahiri wanted me not to care much about Ashoke and Ashima or if she was portraying them as "reserved" people, the emotions hidden behind a facade of dull and mundane life.
On the whole, a great book. Although, I do wish Jhumpa Lahiri would stop writing about self-discovery and related emotional issues among first and second generation Indian-Americans. She's too good to beat this dead horse.
[Thu, 26 Feb 2004]
Unicode coding
Da dude is yapping about some unicode stuff he did at work. Reminded me
of my own non-encounter with unicode during job. Me being the data formats
guy, my team-lead bounced off a bug-report about a file that could not be
opened. Apparently, this particular data format had the file name copied
*inside* the file (don't ask why!). Just before that field, there was a field that mentioned how long the next field (file-name) was. And the two didn't agree i.e. the file's name was shorter than it was supposed to be.
This bug had come from a Japanese sales guy who was in total panic over some big deal that depended on fixing this bug. Now, almost all of the file seemed to be in ASCII text-- it was mostly DNA sequence data only. But the file name wasn't! It was a Japanese file name, written in Unicode. Each unicode letter is 2 bytes. ASCII, with 128 chars, is only 1 byte and one bit is still left empty. The short story is that the program was confusing the higher order unicode byte for the null character and terminating the string-read.
The right way would have been to fix all our code to use Unicode libraries so as to read these things even if they were written in Egyptian Hierloglyphs. In addition to this being damn tedious, we'd have lost the sale and it wouldn't be fun listening to a Jap swearing in English. I did what my boss recommended- skip reading the file-name from inside the file. The damn thing is already known.
(Re)Heating Tortillas
Tortillas, as compared to rotis, inspire the same feeling in Indians that
Canada inspires in Americans- "almost like us, but just a bit weird".
Tortillas are too big, a bit too rubbery, have too much oil, and are too
un-fluff-able for roti aficionados. At the same time, they are made of
wheat, are thin and round, look quite similar to rotis and are far closer
to rotis than any other species of normally available bakery products.
Therein lies the dillemma.
The biggest problem with tortillas is heating them. Any self-respecting roti is warm, soft, and a bit fluffed up. With tortillas, however, getting both the "warm" and the "soft" part is tricky. Forget about the "fluffed-up" part. Microwaves, unfortunately, make hot papad out of tortilla. As it is, frozen tortilla already has some papad like tendencies. Even heating it on a tawa doesn't usually get rid of the frozen chip-like parts. The worst part is, a heated tortilla has to be eaten immediately. As it cools, it hardens. So the 2nd tortilla on your plate is already a papad by the time you get to it. Another option is to use more oil and make parathas out of tortillas, since hardened parathas are not as bad as hardened rotis. However, its just not the same thing.
Today, I tried something. I let the frozen tortilla, from the fridge, sit in water for about 15 secs. The resulting thing seems like it is barely hanging on to itself and will decompose into dough any minute. I then transferred it to the hot tawa/pan. Here's the important part: You have to use tongs or something to flip the thing very frequently (every few seconds) otherwise the wet stuff sticks to the pan. But if you manage to do the flipping well and wait until some brown spots appear, you have a warm and soft tortilla (with a nice paratha-like sheen) that stays soft for quite a while.
[Mon, 23 Feb 2004]
"The Crush", anyone ?
This is just bizzare. Something's wrong with a judicial system that will let this happen...
I was wrong about the movie reference. This is Poison Ivy, this is The Crush
Maaro Isko
Somebody should tell the bozo that Irfan Pathan wasn't around when we thwacked his morons in South Africa. His star bowler was reduced to mouthing incoherent explanations for why he didn't click.
[Tue, 17 Feb 2004]
Sad Sad Nation
Was watching PBS which was running a show about food for the British Royal Family. Apparently, the queen likes to eat Fish and Chips when she's alone. The chef actually said, "Fish and Chips fit for a queen". Thats just so wrong! Reminds of the line from 'A Fish called Wanda'....
Yay!
Finally overcame my laziness and got a small TV. You haven't seen Rocky until you have seen it the 50th time on TV.
Now if I could only figure out the channel which will show Cheers re-runs at 2am and I'll be golden.
On a related note, I hate this marketing practice of closely positioned "price-points". I always overspend :-((
On yet another related note, the basic MIT cable package doesn't have Food Network :-((
[Sat, 14 Feb 2004]
Teaching Physics to High-Schoolers
About a week ago, as I was walking along the infinite corridor I saw a
poster for MIT Educational Studies Program's HSSP flyer. Essentially,
people sign up to teach classes (a 2hr class every Sat over 10 weeks) to
high-schoolers. Classes range from "Self-Hypnosis" to "Algebra-I". On a
whim, I applied. I've always wanted to try teaching freshman physics to unsuspecting kids- it can be quite similar to whacking them with a cricket bat, I am told. Moreover, I had missed the deadline so there was a low risk of the HSSP people actually calling me up. Unfortunately, I wasn't too late- they emailed back asking me to show up today with some sort of a
syllabus. I had a short interview today, got some feedback on my proposed
syllabus and was asked to attend a teacher training class which also took
place today. So anyway, I
am now set to inflict myself on unsuspecting high-schoolers and insist
that they learn about Newtonian Mechanics. How many of them will want to
do that is a different thing altogether.
So the current plan is to orient the class around problem solving sessions, e.g, "is it better to push a box or pull it?" or "why do ice-skaters pull in their arms while spinning?" etc. Hopefully, I can sneak in some of the underlying principles when solving these problems. Its going to be hard to keep math usage to a minimum, though. Even though I am aiming at juniors/seniors, I have been asked to avoid differential calculus-- very few high-schoolers are expected to know it. Still, I plan to cover to vectors, S.I. units, 1D/2D motion, Newton's Laws, force-body diagrams, conservation of linear momentum, and hopefully some rotational dynamics (billiards shots!). Lets see what I get to. Any interesting physics problems I can steal from you ?
[Wed, 04 Feb 2004]
Seek Inner Peace
Kind of a contemplative article about the Japanese not really wanting to compete anymore. They'd much rather slow down and smell the roses, the author claims.
[Sun, 01 Feb 2004]
Trip Diary
Here I am, sitting in the cafe in the Charles De
Gaule airport at Paris, on my way back from India. The last 10-12 days have been very hectic. But they
have also been very fulfilling, and not just gastronomically. They did
pass by very quickly though. It was only 14 days ago that I had been up
all night in my apt in Boston, wrapping up some work so I could catch a flight back home the
next day. The flight to Delhi was rather uneventful, the only annoyance
being the way Air France hauls people between terminals at Paris CDG. I am
quite sure its rather cheap for them to run buses that loop around all
terminals. But I am also quite sure that this was one time when I made the
transfer more slowly than my luggage. Since I had to go from 2F to 2E, the
bus took me via 2A through 2D before getting to 2E. In contrast, getting
through Delhi airport was a breeze. They finally got the brainwave to
fix the way people queue up at immigration. Now there's only one queue and
people at the head of the queue are directed to the next available
officer. Earlier, one needed an oracle to divine which queue to tie your
fate to. Baggage was swiftly delivered and customs was a breeze. On the
whole, I think it was even faster than SF. Now I await the new regime at
Logan where they will take my photo, fingerprint me, and keep the info in
their records for decades, available gratis to all and sundry in the US
Govt.
Despite, or maybe because, how short this trip was I pigged out big time this time. Here's a sample of the dishes: gaajar ka halwa, keema, chicken, lamb, matar ki poori, normal poori, aloo ke paranthe, laal peda, nimona, chane aur lauki ki daal, poha, chhole bhature, shahi paneer, mirch ki sabzi, makke ki roti and many others. Missed out on mushroom matar, though.
I also ended up visiting quite a few places and met quite a few people, both old and new. The first 2-3 days in Delhi were lots of fun. A wealthy MBA even treated me to lunch, coffee, and a movie. Barista has lowered their prices for coffee. It is now Rs35 for the regulation mocha/latte-- only about twice of what I would gladly pay for it. This also means, probably, that the coffee at not-that-hep chains like Cafe Coffee Day is now sensibly priced. In the last trip, I'd seen some school kids studying in a Barista. This time I saw eunuchs and a wannabe rock band. We're getting there, America. Only if the shopkeepers at South-Ex improved their English and somebody did a Jerry Springer-like desi show, we'll be all set.
I even drove around Delhi, for three days, without my Indian driving license. Here's a thumb-rule for which side of road you should be driving on: the median of the road should be on the driver's side. Driving in Delhi wasn't too bad. Delhi-ites are slightly flexible in their interpretation of traffic rules but, still, its more than you can say for Banarasis. Driving in Banaras is essentially video-game driving, the only difference being that the max speed is 30kmph and you are not allowed to mow down humans. Good practice for GTA3: Vice City.
Also attended a friend's wedding in Jaipur. It was lots of fun-- we even managed to get the bride and groom to perform Govinda-ishtyle thumkes on the stage. We had encircled them so Parents & Co. couldn't see what was happening. We then managed to get the groom, Amit, to come down to the main pavilion and dance to the tune of "main zoru ka gulaam ban ke rahoonga". But before we could entice our not-yet-bhabhiji to come down, Amit's mom shooed us all back to the stage. Damn!
Compared to Boston, the weather was positively warm. But since floors are cold and indoor heating is absent, thick socks and infrequent baths are recommended. The roads are improving. Delhi-Jaipur road is quite good, though eastern UP is probably 5-10 years behind the rest of the country in getting decent roads. As a city, Banaras keeps baffling me. Nothing seems to change- the way people spend their time, the lack of any real industry (apart from silk sarees and carpets), the abysmal infrastructure, lots of horribly poor people, no real middle class, and a few outrageously rich people (not all of them honourably rich) and a predominantly feudal mindset. Ah well, things can only improve.
In the end, the trip became really hectic. India trips shouldn't be much shorter than this. So many things happened that even my memories are a bit mixed up.
Now I am back on my way, waiting at CDG for my connection to Boston. Strolling through the airport mall is an experience in itself. Amazement gives way to an inferiority complex ($250 for a Hugo Boss t-shirt) which soon gives way to irritation ($250 for a cotton t-shirt!). All I can see at CDG are Armani, Gucci, YSL, Hugo Boss, Chanel and what not. I just can't find a $1.50 chapstick. A mocha and muffin cost me about $10, obscene even by Starbucks standards. Sure, airport malls are costly but still... Ah well, there are enough beautiful people for all the beautiful shops in Paree. Just like enough people in Delhi will pay Rs 1000 for a dinner. Then again, maybe I really am a cheapskate.
Funnily enough, American coffee shops advertise their French Roast and their Italian espresso. The cafe at CDG, in turn, sells the San Francisco Steamer Coffee. The love-hate relationship across the Atlantic will continue, it seems.
[Wed, 31 Dec 2003]
End of Year Stuff
Pretty much every magazine seems to be having their end-of-the-year
issues most of which have a retrospective on the year that passed by.
Time's person of the year is the American G.I. Also, check out Newsweek's
Year in Pictures. There's a really cute picture of a church's cross, lighted lavishly
with lights in a stormy background. I thought we had seen something
similar when I and a friend drove cross-country. I checked out the map and
it does seem plausible- the church is on I-70 in Kansas, which is where I think we saw it.
Pretty much all the Indian Magazines (India Today) are talking about how the year was for India. Outlook does have a slightly different focus- they are talking about the zippies. Zippies are the post Gen Y generation- aged 15-25. I just missed the cutoff. Its official now, I am an outcast from all generations now. Its OK, I'm anyway sick and tired of all these surveys where each generation turns out, surprise surprise, to have a heart of gold and be totally driven.
The best set of articles is in BusinessWorld. Built around a rehash of the Goldman Sachs study but they have a really nice article about how India's foreign policy (and the world's perception of India) is changing for the better. They make a good point of how the world won't de-hyphenize "India-Pakistan" unless we do it ourselves first. Do read their round-about way of stressing the "its the economy, stupid!" thing at the end of the cover story.
[Fri, 26 Dec 2003]
Indian Freedom Movement, circa 1908
The Atlantic Monthly has an archive feature where they publish old
articles. Somebody on Sulekha posted a recent article, from their Oct
1908 issue titled "The New Nationalist Movement in India". Go read this
article (local copy). It is a long article but worth every minute.
Some of the prevalent sentiments just made my blood boil. Like the Canadian P.M.'s statement that
"The Empire of Rome was composed of slave states; the British Empire is a galaxy of free nations".
Or why millions died in the famines-- they were too poor to buy food:
"the average daily income of the people of India in the year 1850 was estimated as four cents per person (a pittance on which one wonders that any human being can live), in 1882 it had fallen to three cents per person, and in 1900 actually to less than two cents per person".
Or the claim that governing India was an expensive task:
" Of course the reason why is plain: it is because it is a government carried on not by the people of the soil, but by men from a distant country. These foreigners, having all power in their own hands, including power to create such offices as they choose and to attach to them such salaries and pensions as they see fit, naturally do not err on the side of making the offices too few or the salaries and pensions too small. Nearly all the higher officials throughout India are British."
Finally, there was a good rejoinder to the disgusting statement that Indians can't rule themselves:
"It is said that India is incapable of ruling herself. If so, what an indictment is this against England! She was not incapable of ruling herself before England came. Have one hundred and fifty years of English tutelage produced in her such deterioration? As we have seen, she was possessed of a high civilization and of developed governments long before England or any part of Europe had emerged from barbarism."
There was this funny (in retrospect) remark that avg Indian income was $6.00 annually and he paid $2.00 in taxes and how no American would tolerate paying 1/3rd his income in taxes. Heck! They pay a lot more these days!! Kudos to the Soviet Union; if only for having made the rest of the world a little more welfare-oriented.
Google rocks!
Google's rendering of 5 days of Christmas. I guess they were too lazy to do a "12 days of Christmas" series.
What the Heck!!
My horoscope (on Yahoo!) for the day:
"If you let it, this is bound to turn into a silly day, dear Libra. Your best tactic would be to simply give in to the strange patterns at work in the universe. Communication seems to get blocked at every turn. You can expect to have technical difficulties, such as a phone malfunction or a computer shutdown. You and your mate will speak as though in two different languages. No one seems able to get his or her point across. Don't fight it. Just laugh along with everyone else. Tomorrow, all will be normal once again."
Did the guy have too much eggnogg or what!
[Mon, 15 Dec 2003]
No complaints....yeah, riiight...
Too-much-pain-in-the-neck ex-roomie too-many-fundaes-for-his-own-good and self-described-better-looking-than-Arshad-Warsi and your (at least, my) pun-nightmare, has his own blog now. Copycat!
"Hasla la vista"!!! Arrrgh....
All this new-fangled stuff...
Seems like Indian Railways is introducing swank new coaches for their
"elite" Rajdhani Express trains. The coaches look damn cool, compared to
what used to be. However, traveling in A.C. coaches is just not the same
as traveling in 2nd class (atleast when the weather is good). The
smells and sounds and the option to sit on the door with your feet
dangling are just not there...
Ponting Panting
U.S. media has an odd fascination with using puns as headlines. The
disease seems to have caught on to Indian media as well. Aargh....
CNN is definitely the worst offender. Once I caught this headline in their ticker-tape: "The Reproducers: Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker have a baby [boy/girl/whatever]". Of course, the pun was on the hit Broadway show "The Producers" in which Broderick had a starring role.