Showing posts with label Reality bites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reality bites. Show all posts
Capitalism and Football!
Spoo!

It’s a season of FIFA 2010 and the fever has definitely caught up all parts of the world. It also has caught up the young guys who play in the play ground near my place. Each evening when I went out for a walk in the ground, I used to see them play with the cricket bat and ball. But this week it was all different. I saw five teams play football and was amazed and amused. What caught my sight was that there was this team of boys of around 12-15 years of age. The image I got after seeing them was that they came from one of the posh schools in the locality speaking the “cool” form of English and naming each other with the most famous footballers of today. I saw a “Rooney”, a “Ronaldo” and a “Beckham”. I was taking my usual path and when I was almost near the goal post, I saw a poor child all of 6 years staring at the ball. All he wanted to do was just pick the ball when it went out of the court and give it to the boys. He was also cheering them in the language he knew and the game went on…

After I finished a couple of rounds, I saw these boys hit a ball outside the goal post and within a blink of the eyes that poor boy went running behind the ball. Well, that was expected, but what I did not expect was this! As soon as he caught the ball, he called out for another four guys to just feel the ball. And they all came closer to see the ball and played with it for a few seconds until one of the boys in the team asked them to hurry up and return the ball. This was not uncommon in our country but I felt a strong comparison with that of capitalists and the poor, the policies, the law and everything else. Let me explain how.

Let’s go back to a decade earlier when the United States ruled the world in terms of technology and economy. (It’s not that they don’t do it now, but it was stronger before the recession). And the developing and underdeveloped countries were aplenty in the world, which waited for help from the riche rich. So comparing that with the football team, here is what I saw. I could compare the rich boys with these strong countries who have the money to buy whatever they needed and be always joyful. They had their own limits to cross and formed a different cult. That poor guy at the goal post was one of these poor countries who always waited for a missed opportunity at the goal post. And of course try and utilize every missed opportunity along with other fellow mates. Was this not how outsourcing started? Not that we are slaves or so, but that we had the knack of utilizing someone else’s opportunities waiting for it all the time. And that’s what put us where we are today! I was completely lost in these thoughts for few minutes. And when I came out of it I saw that the football team was continuing their game and the poor boy’s team started cricket on their own and of course indulged in the same! Is this inspired by today’s way of the world? I gave up thinking!
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Delhi....dhamaka ;)
Spoo!
            Long time since i wrote something here and today i have a substantial amount to write! Well, its gotta do with my recent trip to Delhi, for an "innovation" competition. First time in Delhi, it was a different experience. Just thought that the visit was worth to be mentioned so penning the memories down here.

           As the Spicejet took off on a bright Monday morning from Bangalore i had many thoughts about Delhi. I knew about the couple of movies made on the old city of Delhi but the very picture that was there in my mind was the majestic "Rajpath", wide roads, ministerial cars, grand buildings........But as i landed at IGI, it was different :(. I could just see some marvelous buildings while the flight was landing which i presumed was Gurgaon, apparently a well planned city. But the view outside IGI was quite different. Our very own Devanahalli looked posh! As the taxi drove through the roads, it was just another city with the same problem of traffic congestion, lack of road sense and filth around. Being a capital of the nation does not really matter!

         After reaching the destined place which was in an institutional area, i was surprised to see a whole area around the IIT dedicated to only educational institutions, from IIFT to Kathakali International Society to Sangeeth Academy to Business Schools.....you name it, it was found! So also many hostels around for students. That was impressive. And it is campus life all round the clock! There are the roadside "kopchas" that take care of the lunch and dinner. Tasty parathas served with chutney and a smile is enough to satisfy one's hunger. Apart, there is a veg manchurian,thats actually saucy sambar and fried rice thats blackened to increase the carbon content! Well i had the privilege of tasting only these two "exotic" stuffs. I later planned to stick to the good old parathas.

          And i did have a chance to see old Delhi, the Mehruli area, where the Qutub Minar stands tall. You can see the rickshaw fellows waiting for capped visitors with glee in their eyes on seeing one. Then a whole lit of "must visit" places pop up! Of course i did ignore the list blissfully :) And it was pretty much crowded to be a residential area! Weather was chilling in the mornings and nights and the afternoons were warm-- thats typically Delhian, i was told. And being from a busy city, i found it great to see a city wake up at 10 or so. Hmm..will it ever happen here?

          One daunting feature in Delhi, the local CNG run public transport! If you have seen the Delhi Metro and assume that the other public transport is on par, be ready to take a shock. Its really pathetic! You can hear the engine screech half a kilometer away signalling you to move aside if you are on the road or the horn can actually shiver you to death! I promise i am not exacturating. The crowd happily hangs out of the doors and makes merry. I too travelled in one such buses and was confused to find who the bus conductor was, to collect the ticket. Yeah, they do not wear uniforms.......American culture huh? I dont know! But given all this, the ticket prices are 73.29% lesser than Bangalore's! That was stunning!

                But all these given, it was still a great trip. Unwinding for three days in a new and friendly environment was something great! Thank you Delhi :)


PS: This is in no way to hurt people with special sentiments for Delhi. Just my thoughts. Any co-incidence is purely non-intentional :)


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Applied Algorithmics to life!
Spoo!
Hmm..., sorry if the title sounds too geeky, but trust me, that is how things are here around me! This is also an inspiration drawn from my algorithms class and i thank my teacher for his unstoppable thoughts. I was pondering on how algorithms are applied and just thought of applying to our lives, and guess what? It works :)

Lets apply the concepts to a day to day activity like...waiting for a bus (actually, i am missing it a lot). Lets start with a liner programming model. Here your linear goal is to get into a bus that takes you to a desired destination and you are happy. The bounds of this equation become the bus being there on time and no traffic jams on the streets. This is how the problem is viewed in the discrete world. In the continuous world, you also have a range of values on the bus's state like it coming on time, being empty, you getting a window seat, your fellow passenger being sweet etc. etc....And along with this is the traffic constraints being continuous with values that the jam is small, manageable or a deadlock! (Bangaloreans need no intro to all these).

Now this continuous linear programming model can be given to a NP Solver to obtain a feasible solution and you might get something like getting up early and being in the bus stop before its too late, adjusting/sharing a seat with someone/ standing on the bus/ avoiding a crowded road (that depends on the bus driver's intelligence) etc etc.......... I too was expecting any of these but...........Oops! It says "NP Hard! Cannot solve any further!"

Yeah, many many activities are NP Hard. Just realised it and gave up thinking! Non convex optimization is something i need to master :)

Well, food for thought!

Disclaimer: I really dont know if the above concepts are mathematically right, but thats what i could make out in my class :( I also dont know if a NP Solver recognises a NP Hard problem. Need some light on them!
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Demons and more demons!
Spoo!
This is quite a serious write, may be the most till date. I was really puzzled and pained to know the new levels of child abuse thats happening around the world. And to my surprise its not in a "third world country", but also in one of the most "developed countries". Yeah, I hope people remember incidents in Austria that shook the world recently. And as a continuation to the whole saga, we had such series of haunting tales to tell in India and other parts of the world too. What a shame? I stress that its not just a shame to the people involved, but to the race of entire humanity. We are supposed to be bestowed with amazing levels of intelligence and reasoning along with pretty high quality and quantity of so called "emotions". But these gory incidents suggest that everything is dipped deep in water, never to rise. Is it that we have lost it all or just not bother about it?

Well, all this just makes the world very very unsafe a place to have humans any more, its because only they are mentally hurt by such incidents and not animals in general. When you cant be safe in a place where you are born and with people who are supposed to give you the greatest amount of care, then where do you turn to? Well, all these suggest its not a mere issue of being "downtrodden" or "illiterates", but quite more in breadth and depth. Its gotta deal more with the way someone is supposed to see the world. Materialistic insight may be a cause to such things.

Its definitely not an easy task to survive among the demons and only among the demons. But all i hope is a bright angel who can set things right and let the world be the place it has to be!!!

PS: This was just a write up thinking about victims of such a ghasty crime. Hope there is smile on their faces very soon :)
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