its maths, stupid!

mathematicians can prove it all! the recent revelation that mona lisa was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6%fearful and 2% angry is yet another indication of that. the software which arrived at this outcome used key facial features with respect to the 6 basic emotions - anger, fear, disgust, joy, sadness and surprise. mathematics has, even in the past, been appllied to many phenomenon not directly related to it. thanks to the da vinci code, 'the golden ratio' or 'the Divine Proportion' is now well known. the ratio, denoted by the greek letter 'phi', is 1.6180339. its evidence can be found in diverse fields, ranging from the physical appearance of a human (like the distance between your eyes, or the length of your nose) to poetry to the double helix of the DNA molecule and to so many other areas.

the same mathematics which brought tears to many of us, can also account for the degree of humor in a joke. criteria such as the length of a joke and the quality of puns in it are used to rate a joke on a scale of 0-200, with 200 hailed as the funniest. not even god can escape this marvel called mathematics. a scientist derived an equation to prove that the probability of god's existence is 67%. this is not all. another researcher brought up the theory that not january 1 but may 18 would be the perfect day to make a resolution. his theory took into account factors as the length of the day, brightness of the sun and proximity to bank holidays. talking of delaying your new years resolution, anyone!

seems its high time we started taking maths seriously! what say?

monkeys, autos and terrorists

the terrorist attacks last month shook us all up. but i thought i'd put the whole thing in perspective and so we could all hold our heads up and not let a bunch of misguided fanatics worry us too much. instead of giving a brave emotional speech, i thought doing a little scientific analysis...

going by even the most exaggerated numbers, i can tell you that the chances of losing your life in such an incident are 1 in 1.5 million. on the other hand, the chances of losing your life in a road accident (about 3000 people per year) are 30 times more!

of these road accidents about 1% are caused by autos. so the chances of your being run over by an auto are 300% higher than being felled a terrorist. now only 1 in 3 autos has a properly running meter. so the chances of your getting killed in a fanatic terrorist attack are roghly equal to your getting run over by an auto rickshaw with a properly running meter!

since there've been 900 reported dangue cases, its also a fact that you have 20 times more chances of getting killed by a mosquito than a terrorist. also, there are 5000 monkeys but 3.8 mobile connections. so there are more chances of a monkey hitting you with a cellphone than a terrorist hitting you with a bomb.

also, even there are no loteries in delhi, many people buy tickets from other state lotteries and on an average there are 10 winners out of a lakh every month from delhi. so the chances of winning a lottery are double that of being knocked of in a terrorist attack. and while in the last annual sex survey, only 0.1% women claimed that they have ever seduced a colleague, when you translate this into numbers it means that you have a 260.45% better chance of getting into an explosive situation with that cute secretary than any other bang that you are scared of!

so, our hearts go out to those who've suffered a loss. and we hope that the perpetrators be hanged by the neck. but the city will rock on. as it always has.

what a relief!

exams are one of the most dreadful things a student has to face. you have a zillion topics to cover from another zillion books, and there are not many people who can boast of having all the required material needed for an exam, prior to it! still you manage..., you have to! i, for one, am never able to complete my course at all, forget completing it on time. everyday seems like a whole year(the syllabus never ends!). its so long that you can actually recall every second (actually, it happened this last sem, god knows why!). and ironically, before the exam you wish the last day was longer (so you could finish the syllabus). and then comes the last exam, whose end (happy or sad) brings back the same old feeling of joy you had when you were a school going kid.


actually, this was what i experienced during the last 2 weeks of november (my fifth semester end sems). post exams, life is completely different. suddenly, the air seems so fresh (i think i'm getting emotional here). suddenly, you get 10 hours to sleep and so many more hours to just lie around doing nothing. and then you wake up after 20 days, realising that u've just wasted that precious time doing nothing. you fool, you bloke! (ps: that "you" is rhetorical). sigh! i still wont listen! cummon guys, its party time! new years coming. after all vacations come after 6 long months.


well, anyway, here's an interesting piece i found, going through the newspaper. it brought a smile to my face and i'm sure it will to yours too. its written here in first person.


"my scooter traced a comet's trail as it came to a screeching halt in front of the metro cinema in kolkatta. the traffic police inspector had ordered me to, as i was overspeeding. he asked me to show him my driving licence. i said i didnt have a driving licence. i never had the time to have a licence made. the inspector said, "and you had the time to drive on the roads putting yours and other people's lives in danger!". meanwhile, another inspector had stopped a rikshawpuller behind me, and i could hear obceneties being mouthed at the puller. i considered myself lucky as the mobile court charged me for a fine of Rs. 50 and let me go. i silently put the fine slip in my rear pocket and left.


i was going to the public library to have a membership card made. the registeration fee was nil. as i approached the desk, the official fixed his eyes on me. he handed me a form to be filled for the card to be made, which i duly did. then he asked me for an identification proof, ration card, driving licence or passport etc. i didnt have a ration card that time and it never occured to me to get a passport made. and about the licence, the less asked the better. so there was a problem. then, as it occured to me, i slipped my hand into my pocket, and took out the half torn fine slip i got about an hour back. i showed it to the registrar and said, "this is the slip i got when i was fined for overspeeding today. it is the only identification i got." the registrar smiled at me and said, "this will do." and saying this he handed me my membership card!"


ps: i have tried to make this article as accurate as possible. thats coz i lost that aricle, so i had to reproduce it myself.

brutal october..:-|

october is one month, which not only i, but everyone in India awaits eagerly. after all, its the time when india celebrates 2 of its most pompous festivals - diwali and eid. school children and office people await their holidays, businessmen await "luck" and people like me, who have nothing to await except their even semester result(which is 4 months due now) and odd semester finals, just look forward to some chahal-pahal in the house and in the markets(to hang out with friends).

this is the time of the year everyone looks forward to derilously. the festive season begins with the navratras, followed by "dusshera" or "vijayadashmi", and then after a small lull, "Diwali". for the muslims, it is the holy month of ramzaan and they await the festival of Eid. the mood among the people is jovial and the hustle-bustle in the markets is a thing to watch. everyone is exuberant.

and so was i, as the awaited month approached. my month began on a happy note...with my sessionals over just 4 days earlier and the LH fest to look forward to(something which has become a routine for every mastikhor DCEite).
LH, for the uninitiated, is Lady Hardinge Medical College. an all-girls college with a biannual cultural fest which we guys feast upon.
me and my friends had a blast at LH, just like we always do. our stories at LH are worth sharing, but sometime else.

girls are one thing i fail to understand miserably, and my first disaster for the month was caused by a girl...an old school friend, still in contact. now, what happened is something i desperately wanted to write, but am afraid to share...as my friends read my blogs. it was not a great disaster as such, but nevertheless, it left me more confused as ever....what on earth do these girls have in their minds...!? will we ever get to know? what say, atul. anyway, as the date of an event i was to organise in college approached, i forgot about the incident, as i became a bit busy.

following dusshera, something weird happened. almoast suddenly, all my friends started behaving strangely towards me; infact, everyone was against me. everything i said or did, was looked down with suspicion. as my friends put it, i had changed...god knows. but i'll tell you what, when your friends, not just exclude, but throw you out of a silly class report, then its gotta be serious than mere a change.

putting this behind, i diverted my attention and energies to our tech fest. we had a major event on the first day itself, and were all geared up, except for some irresponsible chaps(read amit). though the preperations were good...we had some hiccups in the prelims. however, those were taken care of, and the prelims were smooth. the problem came in the final round, when a major software refused to work(and it didn't for the rest of the round). even though i refuse to take the blame, but the responsibility of the final round was on my shoulders and i had to make a check, which i didnt.

i would say, things were still okay....but, it seems, they were not meant to be. i met with an accident, as i was driving home with my family from a party. now, i can't exactly recall what happened as it was very sudden; all i can remember is our maruti 800 was hit by a massive truck(we were on a highway) from the driver's(my) right side. the impact threw our car from the first lane to outside the third lane, into the muds. thankfully, the car didn't overturn, i applied the brakes in time and no one was hurt. the car, though, was in a complete mess, shattered. we somehow made it to our house. obviously, it was not my fault, but then i was the one driving...!

and then, the bomb blasts..they find a mention in my post as it was a terrible trajedy. it makes me feel, maybe october was not so bad afterall. i could have been in sarojini nagar or paharganj that day.

the blasts were a contemptuous act by some crazy minded "animals". sending a macabre message on a day of festivity is an act of disgust. the explosions took place within a span of 18 minutes, at paharganj, sarojini nagar and govindpuri, to dampen the diwali spirits. the explosives used in the bombs were those which have been used in J&K before. the blasts took at least 60 lives and left as many as 200 injured. the scene at the blasts was gory, as mangled bodies, sundered limbs lay strewn across the market place. bright lights and diwali colours added for a strange contrast. investigations are on, and it remains to be seen whether the perpetrators will be punished this time or not.

well, this past month was nothing less than an ordeal for me. it is coming to an end now...or is it...?

CBSE to go soft on spelling errors

the central board of secondary education will no longer be chasing the spelling devils. from now on, students of 10th and 12th standards will not lose marks for incorrect spellings in all the subjects excluding the english language tests.now, this might come as a good news to the examinees, but according to some, the decision will ruin the quality of education in india in the long run.

as it is, our education system is completely examination oriented. students study to pass exams, and not to learn. now, students will no longer make any conscious effort to spell correctly, leave alone learn spelling. for if 'could' is the same as 'cud', why waste time on the extra o and l. also imagine the plight of the examiners who'll need to check thousands of papers full of incorrect spellings. products of a system which lays no premium on spelling correctly will be severely handicapped in this competetive world. anyone studying english during his/her education, will, at some point of time or the other, have to interact with a person with a different mother tongue, either verbally or in writing. english then becomes the only medium. now if students do not learn the language correctly when they can learn the most, they'll never learn; and pay a price throughout their lives. also, such a step is derogatory to the english language, i feel.

those in favour of the decision may argue that it is the ideas that matter. as long as the student is capable of communicating the answer to the examiner, the spelling should not matter. but then, examination is not about communication, it is about education. it is about making students learn, when they can learn the most, when the time is ripe. also, people argue that one should allow a person use the language the way they want to. that, change is the need of the hour and english should not be left behind in this wave of change either(the sms culture is a BIG example of this change). but, people forget the fact that correct spelling is the essence of any language. good education must include learning to spell correctly apart from comprehension. by becoming soft on spelling errors, cbse will encourage intellectual shoddiness.

another point worth arguing in the age of computers is the fact that there are plenty of spell checks available today...now that nobody writes with a pen, they type. but, to use these spell checks, the knowledge of spelling is again essential. for if a person does not now the difference between 'their' and 'there', 'know' and 'no', the spell checks are not going to help.

the bottomline: cbse's license for spelling errors spells chaos.

inclusion of caste in census

this is my first serious post, and for a starter i think this is a very boring topic. but nevertheless, i found it debatable in the newspapers and thought of writing about it (some of the ideas are from the paper though).

first the facts. the british government started the inclusion of caste in census in 1881. this was obviously done to divide the people in india on the basis of caste...(which they actually succeeded in). then, in 1931 this exercise was done away with. caste data, since 1931 was excluded from beind collated in the census. the debate has now again been triggered on whether caste enumerations should be included in the census or not.

the census is a stastical exercise done every decade to know about the social and economic conditions of the people so that the government can gauge the development of the state. now, the government plans and implements certain policies for the growth. some of these policies are exclusive for certain sections of the society, for example, the reservations bill. there are reservations for certain backward classes and castes. to implement these policies effectively, the center must know the accurate data about the social conditions of such classes in society. till now, all the data available has been extrapolated from the data collected in 1931. hence, the collation of caste data becomes necessary.

now against the motion one can argue that since caste was included in census to create divisions amongst people it should not be included. indeed, any civilised state would not want its people to be divided on the basis of caste. also consider that india, with its varied heritage and rich culture, has more than 3000 castes and subcastes. then there are classes in majority in some parts and extinct in others. for example, the yadavas are in majority in bihar, but you don't find them in southern india at all. in these circumstances, it would be very difficult for a state to relate its development on the basis of caste. rather, the true measure of the development of the state should be the economic growth of the people rather than the social one. also, conside the curropted politicians in india. legitimising caste in census would make politicians pit one caste against other, arouse people to rise at the cost of the other caste, and demand concessions from the government.
caste should not be legitimised, i feel, as it would mean people lose their indian identity.

all said and done, i feel that the caste system is now so deeply rooted in the indian society that it would be very difficult to completely remove it. an indian society without caste can, i think, only be dreamt of. so, instead of worrying and debating, the government should accept that it exist, without actually including caste enumeration in the census.

I Me Myself

Hi

Perhaps it is time i let the writer in me take the front seat. because i think i can write much better than i can develop a software. besides software engineering sucks. DCE, on the other hand, is undoubtedly the coolest thing on earth!

Anyways, so happy reading my posts. Keep commenting.

Rajat