Off to LNL

Looks like the trip to UBL (Hubli) will have to wait. I am proceeding today for a short holiday to LNL (Lonavala). While going, I'll be going by the Cool Cab service (from DDR) and while returning, it would be through the 1008 Deccan Express.

I'll be staying at some hotel that I've never stayed before...hopefully, it is good. Reviews after I get back to Mumbai.

Reserved for life

Oh this is getting too much to just sit quiet and not enjoy. The current HRD minister is trying to create more chaos than the previous one. While the previous one succumbed to people's pressure, this one is in a tight spot...only the Supreme can intervene now.

Some chaps (those retired guys get pension as well as money for doling out such crap reports) in some "Commission" came out with some report that recommended some such reservation based on the "caste" that one is born into. Whereas multitudes of people thought we were moving away from the "caste system", it seems these guys want to re-introduce it.

So, it seems, upto 50% seats would be reserved for the "lower castes" (SC, ST, OBC and any other minorities) in education (also professional courses). Someone is also recommending that these reservations be carried over to the jobs in the private sector. While the private sector (especially the IT industry which is supposed to be "knowledge-intensive" - doing VB is supposedly "knowledge-intensive") is crying hoarse that this would adversely impact their competitiveness, I propose that the reservations should be for life:

• Naturally, if people have landed a job not based on merit and competition, they would find the going to be tough indeed - that might work in a governmental setup, but in a private sector, these guys would most likely be sidelined (because many of them may not perform to the same level). As a result, I propose that promotions should also be reserved.
• Taking it further, everything should have reservations - power supply, rations, seats in buses (already some seats are reserved - no harm in reserving more seats - as it is, we commute by standing)
• Very logically, this is going to anger the majority (who should by then be the minority). As a result, one may try to append to their qualifications the "category" to indicate that they are from the general category. For example, Mr. A. B. C., B.E. (General).
  
  

All this fine, but one can see how this has clearly stirred up a division amongst the students (and people). In this article, one can clearly see the animosity that has been generated. My favorite part in the article is how the reserved guys make fun of the others

Look at us, we don'’t have to work hard at all. Our post graduation seats are assured no matter how badly we fare in our exams

There's also the part where the teachers have allegedly threatened the anti-reservation students with "dire consequences" and "appropriate marks" in the examinations.

Knuth tidbits

A few posts ago (this one) I had dropped a reference to Donald Knuth and what he considers as the work of his lifetime, "The Art of Computer Programming", a planned 6-volume series of books on algorithms and related applications. He has been able to complete 4 of those 6 volumes, so 2 more volumes remain to be done.

I was surprised to learn from many of the readers of this blog that they did not know who Knuth is and that they had never heard of him. After a quick confirmation with my (ex)classmate, we concluded that it was indeed very surprising that today's "youngsters" haven't heard of him - during "our" days (13 years ago), there was hardly anyone using the Internet in India - and when the Internet usage is so prevalent now, this should not have been the case. I guess "youngsters" these days are busy browsing other things. (Ah I get it...its the "generation gap"...for us, Knuth, Kernighan, Ritchie and Stroustrup were god...for the current generation, it must be Johny Abraham, Rakhey Sawant, and *Khan...I can see wallpapers of these people on youngster's desktops...that's true).

Anyways, I thought I'll put together some tidbits about Knuth from the various sources now available on the Internet.

• Knuth is a computer scientist (yes, that's a new word for a "discrete" mathematics person) and now a "Professor Emeritus" at the Stanford University.
  
• He did his B.S. (in mathematics) with "summa cum laude" (the highest honors) from the Case Institute of Technology
• His work was found to be so wonderful that by a special vote of faculty, the institute decided to confer the M.S. on him simultaneously along with the B.S.
• He later went on the write 3 volumes of "The Art of Computer Programming" series. These books (in 1999) were named among the best twelve physical-science monographs by the American Scientist in the same league as "Dirac on quantum mechanics, Einstein on relativity, and Einstein's collected papers".
• On the comment's to these books, Bill Gates had announced that if one truly read the books completely and understood them, then the reader should him a resume (to be entitled for a job at Microsoft).
• Knuth has a peculiar style of rewarding readers who point out mistakes in his books: he offers them a reward of $2.56 per mistake found. The 2.56 figure is because 256 pennies make a hexadecimal dollar.
• Version numbers of his TeX software approach the number π, that is versions increment in the style 3, 3.1, 3.14 and so on. Version numbers of Metafont (another system developed by him) approach the number mathematical constant e similarly.
• He has stopped using email since 1990; he claims it helps him to concentrate better. In his own words,
  

"Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things."

• Besides all this, he is an accomplished Pipe Organ player; he has a custom-built pipe organ in his home (with some pipes of the organ being more than 8 feet tall).
  

For more on him or his achievements and the numerous awards that he has won, one could refer to his 35-page CV here.

Masters of Rhythm

When it comes to rhythm, few can match the caliber (and *sound* understanding) of the complexities of rhythm music than Indian classical musicians. (The one that comes a close second would be the African rhythm players.)

Everyone (every "commoner") acknowledges the mastery of Ustad Zakir Hussain (and his late father, the great Ustad Alla Rakha). But, few know that Pandit Shivkumar Sharma was a tabla player prior to taking up santoor as the chief instrument. Because of his background, Sharma can play very complex structures - very few Indian instrumental musicians and singers understand the rhythm aspect - their forte is tone and tune. It is well know that Sharma and Hussain play "nested talas" - that is, a tala within a tala (e.g., a 7-beat tala within a 10-beat tala framework).

That was until I read about Palghat Mani Iyer (now late). Palghat (Palakkad) Mani Iyer had such a mastery of the mridangam (South Indian drum) that it seems he would choose the artiste whom he would accompany, rather than the other way around. Such was his mastery that he could play separate talas simultaneously one with each hand (as mentioned toward the end of this this article). Now that is something...

Truly, masters of rhythm.

End-sem exams over

The end-sem exams for this semester are now over. I can now move over to other things that I've been long postponing...like reading some books, learning some (computer) languages like TeX, visiting the UBL (Hubli) diesel loco shed (he, he...UBL has a stock of WDP4s - this is the currently the fastest running loco in India). Or buying that bicycle...:)

Many posts are languishing in the "draft" stage on this blog...maybe I'll find the time and interest to post some of them too.