Theory of everything

As the people who know me more intimately know, I have my own foolish theory of everything.
It goes something like this:All biology is chemistry.All chemistry is physics.All physics is mathematics.*

This is very crude attempt at generalization on my part.Here is one great physicist putting it correctly. And of course driving the final nails in the coffin of my theism in that process:

http://www.ted.com/talks/murray_gell_mann_on_beauty_and_truth_in_physics.html

Near the end of the talk he says:
"... They follow from the fundamental theory. They are what we call emergent properties. You do not need something more to get something more.That's what emergence means. Life can emerge from Physics and Chemistry plus a lot of accidents. The human mind can arise from neurobiology and a lot of accidents, the way a chemical bond arises out of physics and certain accidents. Doesn't diminish the importance of the subjects to know that they follow from more fundamental things plus accidents. That's the general rule, and it's critically important to realize that.You don't need something more to get something more. People keep asking me "Isn't there something more beyond what you have there?" Presumably they mean something supernatural.

Anyway there isn't.(laughter).You don't need something more to explain something more."

* This theory exist despite any particular expertise or excellence in any of these subjects on my part. We all have our theories, don't we?

Watching alone isn't always fun (and some wistful thinking)

Read this article in cricinfo and it invoked many a sentiments:

http://blogs.cricinfo.com/diffstrokes/archives/2009/08/solitary_watching_isnt_always.php#more

There have been multiple phases I have been following cricket in.

Apart from the recent past, I observed that I had never watched cricket alone. Along with the advent of 20-20, this has been one of the major reasons cricket viewing has changed drastically for me.The advantage is definitely any match that happens in England. I immensely enjoy the deep discussions as well as bantering. Cricket as well as commentary definitely takes a very different form in the place where cricket was born.

But otherwise watching cricket alone is a dredge. Here are different phases in my cricket watching career:

Early childhood, I remember my Dad regularly stuck to the radio. I still remember that cold winter Divali morning when he woke me from my slumber and told me that India had won the world cup. I had started liking the game before I actually saw it being played. The whole Divali days my dad just talked about cricket and nothing else. He was always a very big and secrete fan of Viv Richards. There is a small anecdote about his cricketing abilities. Actually I never saw him play except once.This was years after the world cup win. There was a match between students and teachers in his school. The teachers were about to lose. Just like almost everybody, my dad also had made several silly mistakes. He did not run fast enough, fielded miserably and definitely a stark different between the quality of the two. He went in to bat 6 down.He started biffing the ball all around the park. When he eventually got out (and most prob lost the match), somebody compared him to Viv Richards. I have rarely seen him happier. He kept on the cricket hat till we reached home and carried around that Richards swagger for many days :)I do not recall much about 85 champions trophy-87 world cup. I sometimes sneaked in some television when I visited my rich friends. I faintly remember watching some moments of West Indian trip to India. But both, (the moments and rich friends)were few and far between. Though I remember Gavaskar scoring his only century in one dayers in his last one day match, and we losing it to England in the semis (most probably).

This era changed to very serious and dedicated cricket viewing when my uncle, who stayed just next doors, got a color television. We all, nephews and uncles got big kick out of watching channel 9 coverage of Aussie cricket. My uncle loved cricket but loved his sleep almost equally. We used to wake him up early morning(sometimes even 2.30-3.00 A.M.). He usually used to be torn between cricket and his sleep. We used try to tilt him toward cricket. I do remember watching Sachin's debut. This was India's tour to Pakistan. Srikanth was the captain and definitely at his nadir. Akram just killed him. Most probably this was the first time I saw a human being completely dismantled on the cricket field. It was a shame that a free spirited cricketer of Chika's caliber should face such a fate.And of course everybody remembers

The quality of cricket peaked at 92 world cup and maintained through till the 96 world cup. Most probably start of the golden era of cricket viewing (my as well as for the public in general, in my opinion). 92 world cup was played during my S.S.C. examinations. I couldn't view a lot of matches completely. But South African athleticism along with breathtaking telecast took this experience to a different plain. New Zealand tactics(Martin Crow-Mark Greatbatch's attacking cricket, Srikanth and almost every team failing to play Patel's spin in first 15 overs)and it going horribly wrong, Pakistan flair helped by generous dollops of luck.Jonty Rhode's athleticism(Inzy's run out especially)are some of the things I will never forget. This left a number of unforgettable images etched on my mind. But the most I remember are not happy ones. This can be called the theme of cricket. Its tragedies are lovelier than its triumphs. Somethings I do remember most vividly. Srinath's last ball heroics which triggered a comedy of errors where Venkatpathy Raju foolishly lost us a place in the semis is one of them. The South African tragedy of 1 run of 22 balls is the biggest. But the most interesting tragedy is the personal one. I had my last exam on the same day as the finals. It was geography, I think a smaller paper. I ran out half an hour earlier, as soon as finished writing the paper.I had calculated that I will still be able to catch half and hour of cricket where England will defeat Pakistan. But it was never to be. Half way to-wards home, I saw one of the regular cricket viewers walking slowly away dejectedly. I tried to stop him, but he just motioned me away. Pakistan was winning !! I stepped inside my uncle's house just to see final few moments where Neil Feirbrother was scratching around, delaying the inevitable. England had collapsed under the pressures of last innings dramatically. A recurrent tragedy in world cups was played again.Where England reaches finals just to lose it to somebody.

The next two years were pretty quiet, spent studying for HSC, make of break exam for the life. Cricket was even a lesser footnote during those times.

96 world cup came at the right time, just after I had settled down in PICT,first time in a hostel,first time away from home. We had only one television in the canteen. We used to gatecrash into the canteen every night. Everybody used to watch the matches very quietly in the beginning. But Once Sachin (and India) started to do exceedingly better, we lost control. Our strict administrator somehow overlooked the noise we made. It was as near as it can reach to viewing the match in the stadium. We used the tin covers of utensils as musical instruments, banging them together as loudly as possible. Quarterfinals with Pakistan was the match to remember. First half belonged to the final burst from Jadeja's blade. Second half was the Sohail-Prasad incidence. From the beginning something was amiss for the semifinals. We were restless and fought with each other. Despite the first over wickets, India allowed the Lankans to build back the innings. The disintegrating Eden Garden's track destroyed India's dreams in the second innings. Most notable picture for this edition? Indulger on song, Kambli in tears, Disilva masterfully guiding the run chase. This was the first time a team won the world cup chasing.

Then I moved to Bangalore and hit the golden age of cricket viewing. Abhya-Amya-nikhya-Ravi-mugz(reluctant)-Pad-Dina-gortyaa gang were the best companions anybody could have while watching a match. Many-a-times we watched it live at Chinnaswami. I saw Sehwag's debut, Kumble's 400 th wicket and a lot many events live.On the eve of 1999 world cup we went out and bought a television. (and a refrigerator). The cricket was sometimes exhilarating but the company was always !! Lara-Tendulkar discussions were as serious as Gandhi-Nathuram discussions. Match fixing was as big a black mark as was coffin corruption.

Slowly guys moved out, getting married one by one, jumping companies, making sense of their lives and those moments kept slipping though the fingers.

Now-a-days, cricket watching life has come a full circle. We, me and my Dad are the only ones following it together. We just have switched places, he do not *get* the 20-20 and I vainly try to explain it to him. He knows very little English, but sometimes delightfully understands the strategies discussed by the commentators as if by magic. Cricket has grown more aggressive and my viewing passion has actually mellowed a lot.

The cherry on the top will be if this full circle completes. My son will be almost of the same age in 2011 as I was in 1983.I will be almost of the same age as my Dad was then. If I could just say the same words that my dad said to me that morning "Bharataane worldcup jinkalaay", and initiate him in the family tradition of cricket watching, that will be a deservedly remarkable peculiar thing for this remarkable peculiar game.

The stranger : Part 1 - Introductions

I remember vividly how and when I met him first. After that everything was so easy and simple. It was so surprising that I had not felt him before. It has been some time since I talked to him first. Now that things have completely fallen into place and he has gone back into hiding again and the feelings have become kind of blunt against the thick black wall of time, I can think about it rationally and maybe even share it with close (and not so close) people. Though after meeting him it is kind of pointless. It is not that meeting with him has changed me completely. In fact we both would prefer that we forget each other completely. Though we would definitely be comforted if we knew that we exist.

It was LakshmiPujan, actually a holiday. Though it was one of the biggest festival and we were celebrating it first time in our new home, I went to office that day. I had planned to return early but as it happens most of the times, I ended up extending my stay. Hyderabad, just like any other 2nd tier Indian city, has its own share of pollution. But it was worst that day. The smoke from crackers was hanging in the midair ominously. Strong smell of burnt sulphur was burning my nostrils but it was somehow comforting. Somehow the act of burning explosives and money and creating noise seemed to enthrall all and sundry.

For me, an inexplicable pall of gloom was hanging about, just like the sulphur cloud. I could somehow cut it with a shovel. It happens generally that comfort bores me. Moreover adventure upsets me. Neither do I have stomach for adventures. That makes me belong to a category where I sit on my couch and watch Nat Geo or discovery channel.

So on my way back, I thought of picking up some sweets for kid and family and entered a departmental store. I was looking at different sweets and there I saw him for the first time. He was looking at me steadily, he was not afraid of being spotted this time. He was standing by the side of a pond, moonlight shimmering on the still dark waters of mind, the black sand on the shore and he, just patiently standing there, looking at me.

At first I just saw his outline. He did not even try to be more conspicuous. He was just standing there, waiting for me to see him. His hands were hanging by his side, he looked the same age I was. But definitely looked frail. He was not much used to the sunlight but his gaze has adjusted to darkness. It is not easy to tell what he is wearing, or he is wearing anything at all. Can be flowing robes or can be just loincloth. Whatever he is wearing, the bones of his chest are completely visible even through all that darkness.

"What a moment you chose. Not that I am doing something life changing or something. But it is positively uncomfortable when I have handed over things over the counter and the lady across is waiting for me to pay up. I have my wallet open and my hands are rummaging through it to get the change. Can you hold on for a moment?"

"...."

He just stood there for a moment and then turned around and disappeared by the time I paid up.

The sands and the water were there. Moonlight still glimmering as it has been all the time. But he had vanished. I could not trace him for quiet sometime. But we both knew we will meet.

Batala House: 10 months later

A brave inspector laid down his life while battling the terrorists.

A storm of allegations, counterallegations, denials, vote bank politics from all the sides passed over. There were intellectuals on both sides, being used by the wily politicians. It was very sad to see the people who act as the only custodians of truth and impartiality twisting the truth to suit their agendas.

But there is one irrefutable truth. It is the fact that there has not been similar kind of bombing anywhere in India after the encounter. It means that Delhi police has really dismantled and destroyed the IM infrastructure. It will really take a lot of time for some other such module to setup and trained. The nation can take the sigh of relief by then.

And of course not forget the hero, who laid down his life in the line of duty, MC Sharma. You are still alive in our thoughts.

A strong BJP is a necessity for Indian democracy

I has been quiet some tine since the congress is firmly placed at the helm.

Still the secularists have not stopped gloating about the defeat of religious extremism. The BJP itself is torn from within and till now has not shown itself to be above the failure.

The thinkers inside BJP have already conceded that it can not come to power on a sustained basis on the Hindutva agenda. Gods and places of worship is not a sustained model. Bajpeyee knew that and concentrated more on right wing nationalism and progress. Though some pretty good work was done, it surpisingly was not enough to get them back to power.

It is really surprising that a party which continued to remain one for more than 50 years out of power can not now digest two contineous defeats. This definitely denotes that during its rise as one of the national parties who matter, it has definitely diluted its ideology. Picked up large number of floatsam hungry for power. And worse, some of the staunchest stalwarts were damaged beyond repair by one whiff of power.

Trusty cadres is something which will point to a strong party in India from now on. Rahul Gandhi looks like he is trying to build one. Left already has a good structure. BSP is one such party. But depeding on a parallel organization for its ideology and think tank is somethink unique and one of the main cause of everything that is wrong with BJP. There is a Strong thought in BJP to move away from extreme Hindutva agenda, but the dependence of the mother ship is something which is stopping them.

For the Sanghrajya to be successful, there needs to be a very good and delicate balance between the regional parties and the national parties. This balance is right now skewed in the favor of regional parties. To keep the only remaining national party on its toes, there needs to be a very strong and challenging national opposition party. BJP's growth is necessary for both our democracy as well as our Sanghrajya.

And moving away for radical Hindutwa and establish its own cadre is necessary for BJP.

Hurrah to a stronger BJP. Hurrah to a stronger democracy. Hurrah to a stronger Sangharajya.

Seven point someone

While a lot of things have been happening in life, I have been trying to improve on somethings I have kept in background.

One of them is health. I have lost double digit kilograms and now building my "lean muscles" :)

But more on that later. Some other day when I reach a milestone I have set in mind, I will gloat about it.

Today I am gloating for something else that I decided I will do. There have been many instances in last 10 years where I wanted to continue my studies and do the masters. There have been people in my room (Amya,Pady etc) who actually appeared for a number of exams (GATE etc). Studied seriously for some of them (GRE/TOEFEL) and actually got admission to US universities.

I just kept lazing around, finding different reasons to not apply for entrance exams and then more reasons for not going to those exams I applied for.

With the tremendous support (and cajoling) from my better half, I finally decided to get a masters. In all enthu I applied for BITS MS course. I have been tracking what is happening there in my another blog, which can be seen here.

The pattern of the exam is that there is a midterm closed book test with 40% of the marks and full term we have a open book exam with 60%. After the initial euphoria, I studied only for last two weeks just before each of the exams. It was pretty bad with a lot of things happening around. Work,kids,home everything was crying for my attention.

Pallavi took care of everything else. Made sure I am not disturbed. Put up with vagaries of my moods. I desperately wanted to do well, at least to justify all the pain she had gone through.

And I finally made it. Good thing is that i did not drop any subject. Better thing is that I scored more than just passing marks in each of the subject, which is a definite improvement over me during graduation :) Best thing is that I got a CGPA of 7.6.

This is just the beginning, I have three more semesters to go. But as they say, well begun is half done. Full to credit of course goes to Pallavi :)

Book Review :: Ping : A Frog In Search of new pond

Yesterday night I stayed back in the office and came across this audio book.

I have read my lifetime's share of inspirational books. This was one of such books.

Not as good as Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which is completely spiritual and who took my cheese which is management oriented, this book just tries to bring these two theories together.

I think it is worth reading once if you are not doing anything else and are feeling a bit down, such book can give temporary kick. I have lost faith that any of these can change any body's life completely.

Debates : Frequency hopping

I am involved in two different debates right now and life looks very good ;)

One at the office on a semi-social DL and another at the social yahoogroups of Marathi friends.

First debate was fully loaded with a lot of pitfalls. It was something related to Palestine and with a Muslim employee. I was very careful not to step on any toes as the admin would have ordered the debate off the air as soon as any distant reference to personal background would have been made.

The other side did not have any such limitations. He quickly piled on the propaganda. Before we could dispute that Jews have had a continuous presence in Israel since time immemorial, he had stepped his propaganda up to (a) this is the biggest conspiracy of the western nations (b) Palestine is the biggest problem which is one of the major root causes of the militancy everywhere in the world (c) We should look at what is driving the terrorists to terrorism. Look into the hearts and minds of them.

He never had any proofs to his claims. He could not prove that Jews did not have continuous presence in their holy land. He could not point to any Palestine kingdom there. He could not prove that this is the most essential thing to world peace. But his last statement, professing understanding of the terrorists was completely uncalled for. There was a straight and unbroken line of propaganda and misinformation here. And he put it forward in such a way that he did not need to prove any of it. And one of the closely guarded DLs in MS was used to spread the propaganda.

When I pointed this out and appealed to him not to do so. He claimed harassment based on his personal background. The administrator of the DL jumped in and made us shut up. But the damage was done and message was conveyed, without having to prove anything to anyone, a debate was won by proxy. By proving that I was racially motivated and all my points were non-sense.

Another debate was going on in parallel on the Marathi DL I mentioned before. People were debating the best way to inculcate traffic sense in Indians. One of the friends, a staunch BJP supporter, suddenly raised the issue of money being wasted in wrong schemes, the example he gave was of the Jaagore campaign.

He insinuated that because it did not raise the percentage to 90%, this was a complete failure and a huge wastage of money. since the time BJP was about to loose, he has been raising this point in a lot of unrelated debates. On being confronted, he came up with an excuse that "this was just a metaphor and not related to the main point".

So here are two main ways a very good opposition to a point can be ignored/worked around:

1. Increase the rhetoric to the next level. Jump to the next point without proving the earlier one. Let it blow full steam. If you belong to some disadvantageous group, make full use of it.

This can be called frequency hopping. Or Ghoda-Chatur debate :)

2. Make the point you want to debate in the context of another debate. Upon questioning, mentioned that it was just a metaphor. Change your frequency back to the old programming. If nobody opposes it, your point is made anyways.

A good debater should have good strategies in place to evade these tactics. If you have a very good and strong point.

If you yourselves are on a flimsy ground, you should be able to use these two tools very effectively :)

twitter: real time foot in mouth

Aiyyyyo ...

England is going great guns. Peterson has tried all the good shots he has and shelved all the spectacular ad risky ones. They are nearly 10 per over and except Afridi and Ajmal to some extent, bowlers are helpless.

I take this opportunity and tweet about Peterson. Just like any sane person with a twitter account and laptop on his lap would do. (FYKI for a week my kids are travelling and hence lappy has regained its lost perch there).

And AP Electricity board takes this opportune moment to do a batti-gul on me.

I wait patiently. When some Babu in the electricity board feels like doing it, the electricity comes back again.

And England is struggling. Frantically run overthrows in last over, one over costing 15 and butter fingered Pakis somehow push them beyond 180. At least there is some hope :)

But it definitely teaches me to think twice about I tweet about something real time. Either I need some patience OR I need thicker skin. I am working on both but the second looks pretty attainable at this juncture in life !!

Blast from the past: Ashiqui

Happened to watch this movie in a tinpot bus on my disastrous journey back from Pune. The old days came alive again.

The days when I'd just entered the teens, my world was limited to the small town of Udgir. Almost nothing was impossible. Richest of my friends had the Hero MTBs with horizontal handles. Bikes were rare even on the roads of the town and cars were almost never seen. The world was so small that even distances of 3-4 KMs used to feel pretty large. Now-a-days I just marvel how tiny that world was. What is a quick walk of 10 minutes now was a grand excursion then, small two lane roads were highways we were warned to be careful on. Measly sum of hundred rupees was an asset to be held on to for months together.

So at such an interesting juncture in life when I was just enjoying the first few days of heady teens did this movie hit my senses full blast. I see it now and I see how gullible I was then. Or how gullible youth is in general.

The movie was one of the first of what is now known as Bhat formula. Hummable music (preferably lifted), DOA storyline (the timing of the movie is very short. And the funny part is that the movie is over before the half time of that short time. Then it is pulled across the rope by some twists you can tell coming from miles away), bad camerawork, barely passable screenplay, very bad acting, generally nasal singers (from Kumar Sanu to Himesh). But astounding and heavenly lyrics.

And the lyrics are the ones which got my goat that time. I liked them so much that it glossed over all the other shortcomings of the movie.

Here is a sample:

I think the Bhat's have mastered this formula over last twenty-twenty five thirty years. Only addition to the formula are a little bit improved screenplay and a lot of skin. The quality of the lyrics unfortunately is not the same.

Volare ... Kandhare

When Bauji-Bauji first suggested this song as my family song, my investigative juices boiled over.

What can be common between Gypsy's of Italian origin and a true blue Udgir based family?

Other than the high rates of procreation, there is very little to find.

If if bauji-bauji has been reusing sodawater bottle bottoms for glasses from ages, he has definitely not gone complete blind, so he will never suggest that I am as handsome as an Italian gypsy. I would strongly refute the similar claim about the fairer halves of our family, if I am doing it from the confines of a nuclear bunker. But you get the picture.

And then what would drive bauji-bauji to filter through archives of some alien language songs sung in last centuries to find a moniker for my family?
Though anybody who has lived with Bhaau for some time will vouch for a quaint underground stream of kindness under his rough TamBram exterior, I never expected it to erupt out so forcefully at this juncture.

Then I listened to the song and then it all was clear like an autumn night!! This was just old MPalya habit exibiting itself. Most of the Jyokes were just plays with words and yours truely was blamed for many of them, so this song was pretty apt.

Thank u Bhau :)

Glorious uncertainties

The game is known for its glorious uncertainties.
Even the slam-bang-thank-you-ma'm kind of latest incarnation of it has somehow maintained all this romance. This is despite all the bastardization that is forced on it. This fact makes it even more remarkable.

So the romance has outlived and thrived despite all the trappings. Last year it was an unheralded underdog team led by a maverick. This time previous year's worst and next-worst team will be slugging it out in the finals.

The fully blooded beautiful arcs traced by Gilli's bat is something that remains etched into memory. Maybe one of the enduring images of this IPL. Along with those two oneday world cup finals. Way to go Deccan. Way to go Gilli. Way to go Bangalore.