Emotional - Rational

Perhaps the 'greatest' person I had lived with

2012-01-28T01:01:00.002-05:00

Kalyani Narasimhan - (~) Oct 15, 1937 - Jan 28, 2012
She is fittingly my grand mother (referred as 'paatti' from now on). The grandest and greatest person to me, one step higher than even my immediate family members and I dedicate this blog to her as a simple token of all that she has done to me.

She told me that I was named Ram/Sriram as I was born when she was doing Rama japam. I was told that I was only two when my parents left me with my paatti when they had planned the holy trip to Kasi. So, my special attachment to her had begun even before I had any idea of who she is.

Born in the pre-independence era, I don't even need to investigate how 'wealthy' her family was. Hers was a family of at least 7. She had two elder sisters and two younger brothers. Her mother (Manga), whom I have the honor of seeing and interacting, it seems, had just one saree and after taking bath and washing the saree, used to dry one end while the other end drapes her! Such was her mother's dedication to her family that despite their poverty both their sons received good education and would be fairly well placed in the economy when they grow up. A few lines had to be said about her eldest sister (Indra). She was a revolutionist and was decades ahead of her period. To know that she, by her own will, spent most of her life as 'single' with her parents after getting married speaks volumes. Amidst such siblings in the beautiful temple town of Navalpakkam my paatti grew up. She was beautiful at 60, my earliest memories of her started a couple of years before that, and I can only imagine how beautiful she must have been when she was young! Thanks to the unpopularity of photography in her era, I am free to imagine a beautiful damsel.

I am not sure how educated she was. She can read and write a little, so must have definitely gone to mid school at the very least. But that says nothing about how sharp her mind was. She can crunch some numbers in her mind. One such repeated instance is calculation of days. For example if one wants to see what will be the 10th day from today. Her calculation goes like this "Innikku veLLi, veLLioda veLLi ettu, sani, gnayiru, gnayithu kizhamai di" (Today is Friday, from Friday to Friday is 8, Sat, Sun, Hey it is Sunday). I am sure many people with a masters will need a calendar to check this. And oh yes, she was a half civil engineer too! Drawing from her enormous experiences overseeing construction of several homes, she could precisely talk about the placement of doors, windows and shelves, sand:cement proportion, height of wall, thickness of basement/pillars/shelves anything and everything related to it. Contrast it with today's generation where people go for interior designers and outsource even where to place their TV. She also had a very sharp mind. That she had memorized many shlokas (verses) merely by listening to her father chanting everyday is proof enough!

My paatti was also an excellent wife and seems like was a daughter-in-law(DIL) par excellence. I am told that it is extremely rare for a mother-in-law (MIL) to praise her DIL and my paatti got her MIL's praise whole heartedly, so much so that when her MIL passed away she called upon her son and made him promise that he will take good care of her. I think one needs to reflect on this a little more. A mother imploring her son to take good care of his wife. Normally, you would expect the request to be the other way. So much was her love for her DIL and that impressive must have been my paatti.

Her role as a wife was the most admirable and enigmatic. Let us put things in perspective. She was the wife of a cop (my grand father retired as inspector of police) and there was nothing soft that she could expect of him and his job. Transfers were not only frequent but were also on short notice. There were times she had to move overnight. She must have been a teenager when she was married to and to plan your household things so that you are ever ready to move is commendable! Ikea would have loved to interact with her. She had three children and so ridiculous were the places that they went and stayed, that she had put many all-nighters just to ensure her children slept safely, for they had some uninvited creeping guests in the form of scorpions and snakes! Add to it was the shielding job she had to do, shielding her children from their father's brunt and brute. Yet, my grandfather listened to my paatti's words and somehow he never used to bypass what she said. Their understanding and marriage life was beyond my understanding.

Three children became two quite early, adding to her emotional burden. It is to her credit that she remained strong even after this traumatic phase. Realizing that the transfers are taking a heavy toll on her son's education, she was wise enough to figure out that it is not in the best interest of her son, if he keeps moving with them. So, she sent her eldest son to his grandmother/uncle's place, so that he could study uninterrupted. So after begetting three gems she was content with watching over just one. In retrospect, leaving her son with her mother proved to be a master move.

My earliest memories of my paatti were our weekend visits to her place. There are only two places where I loved the food. One was at home and the other was at my paatti's. Oh my! Her dishes are beyond description here. Every dish had chosen, freshly ground spices making the dish rich in aroma and taste. Even as I write, I just cannot avoid drooling! How lucky my grand father must be. Three times a day, every day! Lucky chap! My unconscious love started taking shape. Visits to her village town (Thiruvahindhipuram) were always memorable. We played daya kattai (dice), kallangai (stones) and many many more, enjoyable and fun filled.

First year engineering. My parents decided to put me in hostel and my grand parents disagreed and asked me to come over. So, at the age of 65, sixty five, my paatti had to turn back her clock. Thanks to the system of locating colleges in the outskirts and the mad rush to avoid traffic, college buses used to depart as early as 7 AM. And there she was, my paatti at the age of 65, meticulous in preparing my morning meal AND making sure I had something packed for lunch! Now, performing half of what she used to do, I still find it difficult to catch a bus at 10 AM and more often than not miss the 10 AM too. But, my paatti's record was clean. Not once was she late and not once did I have to miss my bus! Perhaps, there is a thing or two I have to learn from her planning and preparedness.

One year was a gift to me to be with a person I admired. I watched her closely. I went through live, one of her worst few minutes when her own brother had an emotional outburst that would haunt her for a few months. During this one year, I could roughly paint her past years in my mind. I nick named her 'cha cha' initialed for chamathu chakravarthy (supreme king of smartness). We went for walking together sharing stories, went shopping together - competing on whose bargaining power is bigger, went to temple together (till date her only relaxing task), secretly washed cooking vessels (for she would admonish me if she sees me). Her home (especially back in their village Thiruvahindipuram) was always open to guests. All one time guests who would come, use up space, have her hot coffee and delicious meals and would part just like that. Yes, it is fair to say she fed leeches and had no qualms about it. Such was her altruism and the inclination to help without expecting anything in return.

She had a humorous side too. Her scoldings for instance. Oh yes, such a gentle soul she was that even when she scolds, it will actually be funny. Here goes some of her frequently used words when we are mischievous "badava rascal" (not to be taken literally :P), "thaliya thattan pannan" (the goldsmith made the mangal sutra - no idea what it means :P) "motta badava" (tonsured fellow).

She was the one to whom my mother, uncle, her siblings and many relatives and random friends shared some of their joy and successes and many of their problems and misgivings for others. Sometimes over phone, that will last for hours, and sometimes in person. In short, she was their pressure reliever or more particularly she was a 'never really full vessel' in which people used to pour out all their emotions. More often than not, she was expected to be a passive listener, because if she suggests something the other party will not be in the right mood to listen to it. She was a survivor once. Second time around she did not want to bear it, not that she could not, she did not want to. It is fair to say that she has gone through hell on earth. May Sriman Narayanan give her a place close to Him.

I will conclude with the five best things I like about her

* Her shyness when I pull her leg (especially of her beauty)
* Her karacha maavu dosa (She makes it paper thin!)
* Her appalam kozhambhu
* Her kesari
* Her ability to digest all feelings and go about her task as if nothing has happened!

P.S. - The space between grand and mother(/father) is intentional.

Understanding babies/kids

2011-12-18T14:25:00.001-05:00

I should have maybe waited for 9.5 months for this blog. But I will accept this post as a premature baby :-P. Though involuntarily the seeds for this blog may have been laid when I saw the movie "Look who's talking", development of our brain has drawn my interest for long. But, what does a bachelor got to do with kids? Hmmm.. In an era when it is actually ok for a 'bachelor' to 'have' kids, I think, I can take some liberty writing about them!

Different studies have been done on how babies learn and a lot of research has been done, as google will show, and I can be sure that this will never be complete. Creation is a 'limit point' for the research 'sequence', an irrational concept (number) for rationals (numbers), the horizon for a voyager. We can only get closer and closer but will never 'reach there'. So, here is a peek at my own experiences and observations.

I have always enjoyed being around babies/kids. To me they represent purity amidst wickedness, calmness amidst commotion, clarity in confusion. Ever asked a kid a very intricate or complicated question? It will blurt out an immediate answer, nonsense/profound truth it may be. But, it is so obvious for the child. It needs no second opinion, no reservations, no approvals. For the kid, the answer is correct and it will resume/continue to do what it was doing. Yet the roles may reverse too - 'wickedness' in the face of purity (snatching its toy back from a younger one and letting it cry), commotion (that brutal, throat clearing, glass breaking cry) and confusion (why is it that mom has a biiiig piece of cake while I am thrown a morsel? Fair?). Because they constantly learn, they are constantly shaped by the environment. (I don't want to get into the argument of nature vs nurture. I believe it is a mix).

It is amazing to even try getting into the thought process of a baby. The first time it manages to hold and lift something, the first time it is able to squeeze something. We ignore these discoveries. We concentrate on the bigger and grander things, like its first few steps on its own, the baby beginning to flip over and hold its head. But the smaller things are too obvious for us. What will be our feeling when for the first time we are able to hold and lift something? We draw a blank. Joy? Yes, but how much? A baby for sure might question why is it able to move certain objects while moving some are impossible for it and it alone (for the 'others' around it are able to move). Why is it that I am so small while the others are so biiiigggg. Maybe if I climb over a stool I grow taller? A million questions. But none of them bothers them. They just keep moving with their life.

Many of you might not know that a baby's visual zone spans only a few cms. That is, it cannot see beyond a few inches. Must be boring you think. But, it spends days and hours awake entertaining itself in this small zone. Moving, flapping its hands, legs. What exactly must it be thinking? About its career path? Next meal? Next outing? Quite puzzling, isn't it? And if there is some intrusion in its visual zone, say your face for instance, it might draw a smile/giggle if your face is good enough or funny ,or a wail/cry if otherwise. Fortunately I have drawn more smiles and giggles than wails and cries. The trick is not to get too close to it :-D

Their cry is triggered by the drop of your hat or even somebody's hat. They cry when they are hungry or too full, sleepy or as they get up from sleep, miss something, want something, their own inability, for this and for that. Fair enough. The only way they can communicate is by crying. So, fair enough. But what I don't always understand is when they cry without shedding tears. In other words, they mimic the crying without actually crying. They are intelligent enough to realize that crying accomplishes things and you don't have to cry to actually cry! And above all, they start crying if they see or hear somebody cry. If yawning is contagious to us, as we tend to yawn if we see somebody yawn or hear a yawn or even read the word 'yawn' (chances are that you might be yawning now :P), crying is contagious to babies! But, why? I think a sense of competition comes to them. Kids always try to attract attention and they have been trained that crying is the best tool for it. So, they never mind using it.

How difficult is it to catch a child's attention? What does it want/expect? If it is a baby, is it just a funny expression or rather a weird expression? I think babies start giggling when they see something that they don't normally expect to see. But, once they see it and giggle, they expect a repetition and are conditioned. Peekaboo, maybe is effective for this reason.Beyond all, I think even as we grow, we retain these basic attributes. Like, trying to attract others' attention and many many more. Perhaps, there is always a baby/child in us (think Parent-Adult-Child or Sigmund Freud). I am sure a lot of research is being done on how we carry over experiences as we 'grow up', though many don't grow up actually :).

But let me accept. Children, kids or babies can be extremely entertaining in short bursts but can also be extremely frustrating over long periods as every mother would realize. We always tend to see the former and enjoy. Only a 'mother' sees both sides of their gift. So, the next time you interact with a baby/kid try to 'get into its diapers' a little (for they don't always wear shoes :-P). And spare a thought for the mother of 'Dennis'!

The art of removing the tail and why Zaheer is 'better' than Wasim Akram or even Steyn!

2011-07-31T21:45:00.004-04:00

Two separate incidents motivated me to write this article. When Ishant Sharma removed the WI tail in the 2nd test of the 2011 series cheaply (3 wickets fell for 4 runs), I wondered if Ishant Sharma was a specialist in removing the tail. That is, are most of Ishant Sharma's wickets, tail batsmen? Apparently not, as my analysis will show. My second motivation was when Broad and Swann saved England the blushes in the 2nd test of Ind-Eng 2011 series. How important is removing the tail? I think, you still have a chance to pull back things if you allow the tail to wag in the 1st innings. But, in the last innings of the test match, especially if the opposition is trailing? You have until then got 19 wickets in the match. How heart breaking would it be, if you do not remove the last man? Yes, surprisingly it has happened on 20 occasions in 2000 test matches. A perfect 1% as I write! Two of them against India (both against WI, one away (2006) and one home (1978)). India have managed to do it twice too (both against England in England in 1946 and 2007). England and WI have done it 6 times, Australia 4, Pak and NZ once, to complete the list.

So, here I analyze if there are any specialists in removing these tail batsmen among the 'great' bowlers. I define 'tail' by batsmen from No. 8 to No. 11. The keeper mostly comes in at No.7, unless you have 5 bowlers, and sometimes an all-rounder might also come at No.8. So balancing both, No.8 seems to be an ideal place to start the 'tail'. Of course with Broad at No.9 and Swann at No.10, the definition of 'tail' by sheer batting order does not make complete sense, but then all keepers are also not batsmen. So, no analysis can be done if we fret too much on defining the tail.

What % of a bowler's total wickets were from batsmen batting at No. 8 to No.11? The fast bowlers typically start the innings and hence a high % of their wickets will be the openers or positions 1-3/4. The spinners come in the middle and hence a high % of their wickets might come from the middle order 4/5-7. But, the tail enders are equally likely to get out to pace and spin. Of course, you must bring in the nature of the pitch into consideration. Keeping all these aside and purely involving in number crunching, we can expect each bowler to have about 33% (=1/3rd split of the batting line-up) of their wickets by getting the 'tail' out. Here is the actual percentages of the leading wicket takers and a few contemporaries.

	Wickets 8-11	Total wickets	%
M Muralitharan	260	800	32.50
S Warne	263	708	37.15
A Kumble	201	619	32.47
G McGrath	142	563	25.22
C Walsh	163	519	31.41
K Dev	123	434	28.34
R Hadlee	129	431	29.93
S Pollock	124	421	29.45
W Akram	145	414	35.02
H Singh	145	406	35.71
C Ambrose	112	405	27.65
I Botham	118	383	30.81
M Marshall	99	376	26.33
W Younis	109	373	29.22
I Khan	104	362	28.73
D Lillee	97	355	27.32
A Donald	86	330	26.06
B Lee	83	310	26.77
L Gibbs	111	309	35.92
F Trueman	97	307	31.60
D Underwood	70	297	23.57
Z Khan	55	273	20.15
J Garner	87	259	33.59
M Holding	69	249	27.71
D Steyn	79	238	33.19
I Sharma	34	120	28.33

The numbers speak for themselves. For Zaheer, only 20% of his wickets were from the tail. You could interpret this in a number of ways. The bowlers are sometimes too good for the tail or the bowler is just not interested in picking the low hanging fruits. They want a more challenging task. I will dare not get into this argument :P

To answer my question, few of the top bowlers are good/interested in removing the tail (< 33%), except Shane Warne and Wasim Akram. So, maybe captains should turn to their second and third best bowlers when the tail is on? And Dhoni should turn to Harbhajan!! Open for a discussion.

Courtesy - Cricinfo

Why do people lie

2011-04-21T17:28:00.003-04:00

Even though the motivation for this blog came after I heard that a 'friend' of mine lied to me (I am still not sure if it was a lie), I will try to abstract the word 'lie' and possible reasons for our urge to lie.
I have always felt "It is not about the number of friends you have, it is about the number of people who consider you as a friend. So a 'friend' is not your friend, but rather one who considers you as a 'friend' ".. seems good enough for a Rajini movie's punch dialogue :P

We all lie, have lied and will lie (how else can we sleep in the night? :P). When a passerby or our friends ask 'how are you', we mostly reply 'fine' / 'good'. And there is one example!

Lying for fun - Isn't this the coolest thing? For a few seconds or minutes we enjoy the moment. We deceived others! There seems to be some joy in it. Maybe it explains the inherent nature in us. Think April 1st.

We may lie to feel happy / escape punishment - The famous statement "I had nothing to do with it" Even though, we know we had everything to do with it ;), is one example. We want others to respect us always, never want the outside world to look down upon us. We don't dare to lose our image, no one shall remove the veil on our face.

We may lie to make sure that the other person does not feel jealous - Remember how we used to reduce or increase our test scores back in school? Childish though it may seem now, it has just taken other forms (income for instance) as we grow up. Once again, we try to mold how others think about us.

We may lie to ward off ego clashes - similar to the above but a subtle difference (jealousy vs ego) in the motivation behind the lie (others vs you)

We may lie to make others feel good - Child: Is my painting good? Father: It's so cute! It's awesome. Wife: I tried this recipe, how is it? Husband: It's delicious! Mother: Are you eating well? Son: Oh yeah, by all means :P

Except for the last reason, every time we lie, I think we gather some negative energy. I can never feel comfortable after I lie. More so if I am able to see that the other person is lying. Some people get used to it, they become immune to it, they just digest it. I am still learning.

And then there are lies that we say to hide the lies that we said before that. Because truth is always the same but a lie has the potential to take multiple forms. So then, we have to keep track of what lie we said and to whom we said (to save us an embarrassment :P). The cycle continues. We all know this, but just cannot stop lying for whatever reason!

I am reminded of the following quotes,
सत्यस्य वचनं श्रेय: | सत्यादपि हितंवदेत् । | यद्भूतहितमत्यन्तं ऐतत् सत्यं मतं मम ॥ Speaking the truth is good. But, more than truth, speak that which will benefit others. That which results in the welfare of beings is the real truth and that is my (Sage NAradA's) opinion.

"பொய்மையும் வாய்மை யிடத்த புரைதீர்ந்த
நன்மை பயக்கும் எனின். " (ThirukkuRaL by ThiruvaLLuvar)- If it will result in blemish-free good / benefit, even a lie can be considered to be true.

Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know - John Keats

So, when I thought my 'friend' lied to me, it did hurt me. I can never guess why my friend lied to me (if it was indeed a lie). But, my own definition of 'friend' and 'lie' soon made me feel lighter.

Am I really a vegetarian

2011-03-06T12:08:00.002-05:00

Caution: Some lines might be quite disturbing! Readers watch-out for *skip* lines. Though I encourage you to read everything.

A conversation I will distinctly remember in my life with a Polish/Austrian person (P)

P: So, do you eat meat?

Me: No, I am a vegetarian

P: So, you eat fish?

Me: No, I am a vegetarian

P: How about eggs?

Me: No, I am a vegetarian

P: So, what do you eat? Where do you get your proteins and nutrients from?

Me: Lentils, milk, fruits *bla bla*

The conversation might sound funny to some which was my intention too. But it is also a subtle way of stressing on the fact that there are people who don't even know what vegetarianism is, and they also don't know about other options available to them. I cannot blame them. Diet is a function of so many parameters and geography and climate play a big part in it. You can only eat what is available to you, but that is not an excuse for many in this world. When alternatives are available, there is another word for these people - 'selfish'. But in this 'selfish' world it is not necessarily 'wrong' and hence they exist.

People associate vegetarianism with religion. But just like religion is a way of life (which many might not agree), vegetarianism is also a way of life. To me it is the symbol of non-violence. I have had many childhood arguments back in school supporting vegetarians. Soon, the argument will revolve around 'killing' 'lives'. Do vegetarians consume only bi-products? Don't they 'kill' the plants (rice/paddy/wheat) albeit at the end of their life cycle?

When you move away from things that you took for granted, that is when you miss them. After I came to the US, I started learning more about our (then) 'non-violent' way of life from my grandmother, my elders, my friends and so on. And here I am presenting a few and contrasting it with our current 'way of life'.

*skip*

I was dumb enough to realize very late that a cow can lactate only for a few months and so you need to keep her under lactation! So, never questioned what happens to the calves (male or female) that she gives birth to. Forget even the atrocities that she has to go through (I will leave it to the reader to google for it if 'interested').

*resume*

Contrast it with the situation just two generations before, my grandmother's family had their own cow. She (the cow) was called Lakshmi. My grandmother told me about stories of the calf and how it would hop around and they can even leave a baby unattended! The calf will just hop around, up and over the baby. Call it coincidence, bravado or foolishness it highlighted one important point, the mutual love and the trust that existed between the animals and us. And they used to rear the cow for milk only after the calf had consumed enough for itself and the beauty was, the cow still gave enough milk for the whole family (a family of easily 6)! And they exchanged calves. You did not have special male breeds (oxen) for the farms and the male calves were in demand too. And cows were given a proper burial after their life and not sent 'elsewhere'.

And how about plants? Every one knows how current farming is done. Completely mechanized and made commercial. But again a 'few' years back or maybe even now, plants were never uprooted. Spinach for example, only a few branches were removed and the rest were left on the ground. So, they were still 'products'. Fruits were never nipped in bunches. At least a couple of fruits were left in the trees, they were never made to look bare. The same applied to flowers and any plant produce for that matter.

'Non-violence' was written all over. Not only 'written' but also spoken. For instance, my ancestors used the word 'thirutharadhu' for 'cutting' vegetables. It was not 'naRukkaradhu' or 'aRukkaradhu' which actually means 'cutting'. 'Thirutharadhu' literally means 'correcting'. We 'correct' the shape of the vegetables, not 'cut' them. I could not stop admiring our 'olden' and 'traditional' ways. Even the 'produce' was treated with love and care, not only the main plant and animals.

What is 'sustainable' then, may not be 'sustainable' now. To feed 7 billion people in the world and 1 billion people in India it does need innovation and a change in methodologies and principles. But, the nadir that we seem to have hit upon makes me feel bad that I am part and I am contributing to this system. But, when I see at least a few people questioning such means and relishing old methods it helps in keeping the 'hope' alive. Veganism and Organic are alternates but still not substitutes to our olden days. Though I am not fully convinced of both, organic seems to be a better start than other alternatives currently available. Still looking for better means and I guess will keep looking.

Why we do what we do

2011-02-01T22:28:00.006-05:00

I kept postponing my first blog on religion because I think I am still not knowledgeable enough to talk about it and not 'mature' enough to discuss it. I still believe so, but my friend's thoughts has evoked a few opinions of mine. Before I opine, here are a few disclaimers:

I am not categorically proving anything. These are open topics and I would be glad to agree with you if it is logical.

Let me start off on a lighter note

There was once this village, where the people performed a pooja every month. Before commencing the pooja, they frenetically search for a cat and tie it to a post and then and only then they commence the pooja. This was obviously amusing to a new comer who watched the proceedings for the first time. He knew this was odd and started to investigate and found that years before (say a generation before), when the pooja was conducted, a cat made its way into the venue. Thinking that it might disrupt the proceedings, the then priest had ordered the cat to be tied up, only to be released later. And lo, this act was included in the set of procedures from then on!!

After you have laughed at the above story, let me tell you another one

There was this another village which had a beautiful pond in its capacity. The village had its own set of rules and it was forbidden to fish in the pond during the waning cycle of the moon (Full moon to no moon). It became a tradition and after generations, another new comer was curious about this rule and argued that it was a superstitious belief and there was nothing wrong in fishing all season. The villagers 'believed' so and soon started fishing on all days. And the pond became dry (of fish) because of exploitation.

Two stories, both of customs emerging from tradition. When we had full information we saw the reason behind the tradition and when we did not have that information and broke the tradition, we paid for it. These were simple and straightforward cases. So, we could cheat and look at the solution. What about not so obvious cases? Can butterfly effect be ruled out?

And here starts my actual blog on religion

Religion to me is based on 'belief'. And this makes it abstract and makes it difficult to explain. And this is why even extremists are able to defend their extreme views. Because they 'believe' so. Why does it make it difficult to explain? Because, you don't know where to draw the line. If you believe in one step, somebody believes in 2 steps and it becomes 'complicated'. If you ask him to reason out why he believes in that extra step, it will not take much time for him to retort by asking you the same thing (Why did you believe in Step 1?). If religion is based on belief, philosophy, I would say, is based on leaders. Dwaita, Adwaita, Vishtadvaita all came about because of leaders who could think beyond a common man can. Based on debates one won over the other. There was only one winner at one instance and it was the leader who won and not the philosophy.

And as soon as I start, I realize it is becoming too big both to my comfort and your comfort. So, let me quickly answer some questions by my friend and continue the discussion 'later' :)

1. Why Abishekams (ceremonial bathing of 'God')?

Though I am not in favor of abishekams because of 'my' belief system, I would still not condemn this. Abishekams were more justifiable centuries ago when there were lavish resources. If literature evidence was to go by, a few centuries ago there was no concept of donation as there was no one seeking for a donation (now a days there is no one to give!). But why don't I condemn Abishekams today when there is shortage of resources? I see abishekam as an act of indulgence by the person who arranges it. And my question to you is don't we indulge? Right from ice cream to other 'wasteful' food to vacation time, entertainment etc etc? Why don't we donate this to the poor and live with the basic necessites? Because we want to be 'happy'. Any idea how much milk the restaurants, the cafetaria, retailers waste every day? A trivial portion of the abishekam, I would say. If that indulgence is ok, then we don't have the right to complain about Abishekams. We feel happy in our indulgence and they feel happy in theirs. If only all parties realize what they are doing, we would at least transcend one 'yuga' before. Alas, the world is not ideal. That is why, though I would not approve of it, I don't have the right to complain.

Why on a 'stone'? If you believe in God (Step 1), then you cannot question the one who believes God is in the 'stone' (2 steps). Where do you draw the line? It is 'his' belief.

2. Sat Sangh - Men and Women separated to not 'distract' each other

All my answers revolve around the belief system. The question here was if you want to link with God's message, why can't you control your emotions? Why should you be separated from the other sex? Haha, if only everybody had control over their minds. Let's take an example of a person trying to be on a diet. Will you test him by keeping his favorite foodies on the table and ask him to stay away or help him by keeping things away? Yes, control even when opportunities exist is the ultimate goal. But, to reach there it takes time and I would not blame small steps towards the goal. Is physical separation enough? Nope, but baby steps are a good beginning and they 'believe' so.

3. Disrespecting 'fertility'

Our elders had the most respect and concern for women who were in their menstrual cycle. But, sadly I think it was twisted like the cat story. They did not want them to suffer and helped them to take complete rest. So, out of kitchen, need not say prayers (or mantras) aloud, and not even undergo the pain of going to a temple. Just be at home, take complete rest and do whatever they feel like. And this I think has been misinterpreted now as a sign of stripping women off their power. What was a good old tradition, became a customary ritual that is sadly bordering on ridiculing.

So, to summarize though personally I am not for 1,2 and 3 and in fact vehemently against 3, because of 'my' belief system, I would not complain about 1 and 2 as they are relatively 'harmless', when you take it to non-religious extensions. Someone else will come and say, even 3 was acceptable to him for which I will keep arguing (endless). Any 'belief' as long as it does not directly hurt anybody is personally ok with me and that is my belief system. Or may be I should say (being an MBA) 'it depends' :P

Bonus question - Is Hinduism an example of polytheism (more than 1 God)

An often repeated question. And a simple answer is there is nothing called Hinduism which is an artificial terminology (more on this later or you can 'google'/'wiki'). Each one's religion is monotheistic and Vedas say "Ekam sath vipraaha bahudha vadanthi". There is one truth, which the learned call by multiple names. Freedom of choice has been misinterpreted as confused plurality. I can write a separate article on this.. May be some other time..

Comments most welcome.. Hope I did not hurt anybody.. Credits to all the intellectual discussions I have had with so many friends and relatives in my life.

Should domination be shown by demeaning?

2011-01-31T01:15:00.003-05:00

I could only fume at this news. Yes, it is most likely that the students were at fault. Yes, it is most likely that they had involved in illegal and fraudulent activities. Yes, 'they' are a superior nation and these students are dependent on 'it'. Yes, they are immigrants. But, is this the way to treat them?

Can't the tags be put as arm bands? as waist belts? as wrist bands? Why on ankles? Even mentally challenged and hysteric persons will be rarely treated as 'beasts'. I am glad they were not 'collared'. In an age when hand cuffs are considered to be demeaning - ankle tags? After all 'they' are the masters here..

Will fume more later.. And I will take back my words if I find their action reasonable..

Update on March 12 2011
It was interesting to see this after a few weeks
http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/13/stories/2011031365461800.htm

The difference that Zaheer makes

2010-12-27T12:59:00.006-05:00

Even before this article came I was determined to write an article on Zaheer Khan.. He has been the spearhead alright.. But how crucial has he been?
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That India would perform poorly in SA was not a prediction that would win you an orange juice (I am a teetotaler :P ). And remove Zaheer, India would succumb barring miracles was written all over their batting kits. In fact I would go one step further and say Zaheer seems to be like what Sachin was to the ODI team some time in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Just the sheer presence of Sachin in the line-up would boost the team's morale so much that India suddenly had more chances of winning. That is, beyond Sachin's performances, his presence in the team contributes more to a win. A statistical analysis on this, I leave it to the readers. Let me concentrate on Zaheer with stats.
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What better way than a statistical analysis to prove a point? A bowler seems to be only as good as his previous match and India for some strange reason forget everybody but Sachin. It is only 'His' (it is fair enough to make him divine right?) record that we tend to remember. Hence, I resort to stats.. Here, I try to analyze how Indian bowlers have performed in terms of wins and in terms of wickets in the matches that Zaheer has played and the ones he had missed.. especially from 2007 to 2010. Zaheer did not miss any match in 2009 and hence the comparison with and without him will be meaningless for 2009.
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Why from 2007? My gut feeling is, it is from 2007 that he became pivotal. You are welcome to extend the analysis and let me know.
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Table 1 - Winning percentages with and without Zaheer (2007-10

	Matches played	Won	Draw
India with Zaheer	32	16	11
India without Zaheer	17	6	5

which means India have avoided defeat 27 out of 32 matches (84 % of the time) and 50% of the time they ended up winning when they had Zaheer. But if he misses out, the result becomes a mediocre 64% and 35% respectively. Even if you associate an equal 1/3 probability for a win, loss and draw, it means without Zaheer, India does just what you expect, Win 33%, Draw 33% and Lose 33%.
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The remarkable aspect is, there is not much change even if you break the table to each year as the tables at the end of the blog show. If anything, he has been spectacular in 2010 in which he was just part of one loss out of 8 matches (and India won 5)!
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With data should come the analysis. Otherwise there is no point.. Why is Zaheer important? It is not a big discovery that you need 20 wickets to win a test match. Matches like Chennai (2008) are one-offs (I love Sachin's 100 in that :) as much as I love Sehwag's 80). And more than winning, wickets help you at least a chance for a draw rather than what happened a few days before when SA plundered 225 runs in one session. If you don't take wickets the opposition just shuts you out of the match and you are only left with a mountain to chase and hence is my next table. It is another simple table in which I have analyzed the opposition wickets taken by the Indian bowlers with and without Zaheer.
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Table 2 -Number of times opponents have been all out (innings with minimum 30 overs) (2007-10)

	Innings played	Opp team all out	6-9 wickets
India with Zaheer	56	43	10
India without Zaheer	29	11	4

which means when Zaheer was present 43 out of 56 times, that is 76% of the time, the opposition was curtailed and if you also include 6-9 wickets then a whooping 53 out of 56 times 95% of the time the opposition was not allowed to get carried away. Contrast this with the scenario when India did not have Zaheer, the percentages drop to a pathetic 37% and an average 51% respectively.
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And there my friends ends my argument.. Did Zaheer have the 'vision' to sit out for unfriendly pitches and was able to foresee the end result? You can become an econometrician if you can prove this... .
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Who said cricket is an individual game? It is very much a team game in which the team performances 'sometimes' is more than the individual performance. (Zaheer's average in these 4 years is 25, 36, 33 and 22 not much away from his career average of 32). There is more than his bowling that Zaheer brings to this Indian team. He just lifts the performance of everybody else!

Appendix - Breaking down Table 1

2008-10

	Matches played	Won	Draw
India with Zaheer	23	12	8
India without Zaheer	11	4	3

2009 and 2010 (Zaheer did not miss a single match in 2009)

	Matches played	Won	Draw
India with Zaheer	14	8	5
India without Zaheer	5	2	1

2010

	Matches played	Won	Draw
India with Zaheer	8	5	2
India without Zaheer	5	2	1

The longest & hardest walk in my 'life'

2010-12-23T22:26:00.007-05:00

In my 'life'?? Have I lived that long?? It has been a long enough journey and in various walks of my life I have had several walks :P .. I have walked all the way from school to home, a distance of no less than 1050 meters! Then, in my engineering I bettered my childhood record by walking almost from St. Thomas Mount to my home (Nanganallur) .. maybe around 2-3 kms... Walking was never my intention and my pursued activity. If an opportunity comes, I just take it. When my grand mother (paatti) or father (thatha) calls I go with them. My paatti is talkative and my thatha is rewarding. Paatti talks about her past, the world's past and invariably most of them will be repeats but with interesting additions. Thatha buys me something at the end of the walk, sometimes as small as a tea and vada, sometimes at a bakery or even a restaurant. Food straight after an exercise, that was his way of life! (He is a retired inspector of police).
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Though I prefer (and love) cycling to walking anytime, it was in my fag end at IIT that I took up walking as a recreation. We formed a team and enthusiastically explored the interiors of IIT. We would have easily spent an hour walking from one end of IIT to the other in the early hours. Many of us had not woken up so early even for an exam!
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But, beyond all these was the some walking I did a few days before.. I have the habit of exploring new places on my own when I visit them and get doubly excited if I have company. If I go to a new city I explore the public transportation (Rochester is horrible on this and Chennai is awesome!) and try to avoid autos and taxis. There is a definite chance that you take a longer route via bus, explore more places, go more slowly giving yourself time to see around, waste less fuel by sharing a common ride and beyond all I am a Grad student :P with monetary considerations.
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If I go to a new place (NY, DC, Austin), to go from point A to B, I first explore maps.google, find the distance and check for public transportation. If the time and strain are reasonable I go for it. I also try to have a map (DC and NY maps are so good. You can literally go around DC just with the help of a city map) and the map guides me around and it also helps me to check if I am in the right direction and help me if I am lost. Just the basics, nothing extraordinary..
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Murphy's law. I was in St. Louis recently for a conference. I had strategically booked a hotel located midway between the airport and the conference place. But my strategy was wrong. Neither the airport was nearby nor the conference center was nearby :P Equidistance does not mean comfortable.
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St. Louis was south of Rochester and my understanding was if you move towards the equator from North it will get warmer. Mistake! It is true only if you move 'enough'. :P St. Louis was horribly cold and the weekend I landed there was an imminent snow storm predicted. Somehow part of Murphy parted from me and I managed to take a pair of thermal wear along with me. The stupid conferences played their part - they always start at 8 with breakfast at 7. So if you need free breakfast you better get there by 7. The organizers are absolutely heartless having no emotions for sleep deprived and at the same time oversleeping students..
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Anyway, I left by a taxi and evening on my way back wanted to try the bus system. The bus stop at the conference was just a 7 minute walk and I thought I will at least pack my dinner at the Univ (conference center) subway. Got hold of a map from the univ website and with directions from a few students reached subway. It was already windy (signs of the impending snow storm). All I had was my formal suit on top of a thermal wear. I fortunately had taken one more set of trousers, a cotton one that looked more like a Jean.. I had taken that along just in case I want to go around the city :P. So thought, something is better than nothing and wore that on top of it feeling less cold (not more warm).
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The wind chill was so ridiculous that I could not even speak on phone with exposed hands. Maybe I should have gone by a taxi. But then, there was my ego. Having decided to go by bus, how can I change my mind? So waited for the bus. It was bang on time (something I always appreciate in the US). According to google maps the ride was for 24 mins and then another 5 min walk from that stop. The bus had the route map and I was easily able to follow the route and get down at the correct stop.
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Then the fun started. After 2-3 minutes of walking I knew this was anything but my hotel's place. Maybe I am walking in the opposite direction? Called up my friend and checked up with him. A gust of wind and my hands were bare.. I was in the correct direction and it was a 5 min walk. So, kept walking.. 10 mins and no signs of the hotel. Another call to my friend. He said you will see a cemetery.. Yes I did..., and if you cross the cemetery, in the middle of the lake there is your hotel! Lake?? cemetery??!! I did not remember anything near my hotel. Maybe, because it was dark (Sun rises only at 7 and sets as early as 4 30 PM in winter). So kept walking crossed the cemetery. Another started, yes another cemetery that is.. Four cemeteries went past!! Wow, I proved my bravery.. But with the freezing temperature and wind chill how about my fitness??..
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Kept walking, from what was supposed to be a 5 min walk, it soon crossed 45 mins easily. The worst was except for a few cars passing by, the roads were also empty. So, it was probably the stupidest decision to walk and a great lesson was learnt. I wanted to call a taxi but I did not know where exactly to call him as I was just blindly walking on the same road and had no clue where I was. So, determined to continue, kept walking. Saw a few houses, should I step in? Will it be safe? Unsure, continued my walk further. A used car shop and it was open! Gathered my guts for one last time and went in. A lady and 2 guys. Asked them about the hotel, they said it is maybe another 10 mins just after the next signal.. The few minutes indoors gave me some much needed comfort.. Just another 10 minutes, let's do it.. Continued..
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Crossed the signal, little did I know that the red sign was also for me, no sign of the hotel even after the sign.. another 15 mins.. saw Walgreens!! My eyes lit up. Not that I have reached my hotel, but now I have a place to call the taxi to. Went inside and asked the cashier for the hotel. She suggested to get across the street and go by the bus. Bus!! No way, I thought, it is highly likely that I will cross my destination and walk backwards now, especially after everything today. But then, my ego slowly started creeping (imagine Ring).. Slammed it in with whatever energy I was left with and called up a taxi. 10 mins passed and my phone rang, the caller said the taxi was waiting outside Walgreens.. I walk out, a few more minutes of searching, and could see nothing.. Called up Taxi again.. Apparently he had either gone to some other Walgreens or Walmart.. Finally it came and the hotel was a good 2 (TWO whole miles) from Walgreens! If I had continued walking, it would have been another hour at the very least!!. The only good thing about the weather was it kept my footlong from subway fresh enough for dinner!
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Thankfully I am alive and I am able to pen this.. Google maps duly got an earful that night.. The funniest aspect was just out of curiosity checked up the same route in google maps the next day and alas it asked me to take another connecting bus from that stop :O
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And there folks ends my strangest, longest and hardest walk!! Promised myself to never do this again.. But aren't promises meant to be broken? ;)

Chocolate Mysorepa

2010-11-28T02:01:00.007-05:00

You all must have tasted or at least heard of mysorepas.. What kind of Mysorepa will a US citizen like? Surely, a flavored one? So, tried making one and you could visually see how lovely it is! Find below the recipe and the instruction (a patent is pending)

Recipe:

Things needed - Pillsbusy brownie mix, a banana, oil, bowls, a baking tray and a stirrer

Follow the instructions in the box, just don't add eggs and replace them with fruit jam or a banana if you feel like adding more twists!

When you bake the 'mysorepa' if the instruction says 20 mins, make it 40. If the temperature suggested is 350F, choose a random number between 200 and 300F and keep playing with it. To appear like a professional, regularly open the oven and poke the 'mysorepa' with a toothpick to see how much it has cooked. Do not draw any inferences. It is just to be involved in the process. After 40 mins remove it and allow it to cool down.
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Make sure you finish it the same day, the older it stays the biting strength required gets multiplied.
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P.S - It is highly likely that your mysorepa could be totally different from mine. Do not lose heart, keep trying until you perfect the art. It just comes by practice, though I figured out the recipe in my first attempt.

Mech Engg revisited - Part 2/2

2010-11-26T19:07:00.004-05:00

Synopsis - My car's Check Engine light was on and it had a very rough idling but otherwise ok. I am trying to fix it myself.

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... contd from Part 1
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So, after that embarrassing moment, I again decided to take things in my own hand. This time with a little more preparation. I google for the problem and find pictorial solutions. It gave a step by step instruction including the tools I need and the set of things that I need to do. One of the lines read "You might want to buy a pair of gloves to avoid your hands getting bloody"!! Wow, this is 'interesting' I thought and yes I did buy a pair of gloves finally. Went to autoparts and got an entire tool box set (shallow and deep sockets, levers and the like, a carbon cleaner that could potentially clean the EGR valve).

There were even videos on how to clean the EGR valve. But they were for different models and makes and so were not of much use. My father warned me of penny wise and 'dollar' foolish, as I was dealing with critical parts of my car. But, given my excitement of doing a surgical operation on my car I set my fears aside. I opened up the outer skin (hood). The first thing was to give it some anesthesia (disconnect the terminals of the battery, it is a paradox here that you cut it open and then give the 'dose'). This is to ensure my safety rather than the car's though (sorry for the PJ).
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The EGR valve was supposedly beneath the inlet manifold, terms which were familiar but of no practical use. It took me a while to identify the manifold and remove the inlet hose. This was to clear the 'clutter' to reach the EGR valve. I was excited to see the throttle valve. It is a cylindrical disc that controls the flow of air to the engine. When you step on the gas, it is this disc that moves to feed more air (and hence more fuel). I had seen 2d diagrams of it but was quite thrilled to see it after reading it more than 4 years before.
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Pulled out some more plugs, some electrical connections like ignition plugs to finally see the EGR valve. It was way down, almost an arm's length, and the bolts were rusted really bad (my car is about 7 years old). I had to remove it first to clean it. But, none of the tools I had could make the bolts budge. I understood the reference to 'bloody' work. It was indeed. Alas, I am limited by the simple curd rice I intake, I thought :( . The entire adventure turned out to be a dampener! Is that all, couldn't I finish the race after coming so close? It was frustrating, but I was left with no other option but to put things back where they had to go. Thankfully, I was able to start the engine again, which meant at least I had not messed up anything.
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P.S - The problem started getting worse and I finally made up my mind after the anti-climax to take it to a nearby mechanic. He was not sure of the EGR and asked me to change the spark plugs and other regular maintenance and after all those permutations and combinations finally said he will rather replace the valve than clean it. The problem got resolved and the car is running fine as of now..

Mechanical Engg revisited Part 1 of 2

2010-11-16T23:45:00.002-05:00

After a hiatus, finally I write something.. I really envy the frequent bloggers.. How do they churn out so many creations every now and then..
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I had got a car in April, a 2003 Mazda Protege and it was running well. Driving in the US is a pleasure. In India, you can trust your fellow road users to MAKE mistakes, suddenly swerve the car to show their prowess at the steering wheel, test your reflex by turning on the indicator at the last second and test your brakes by crossing the road exactly when your feet is about to give some gas. In the US, I can trust my fellow road users to adapt to MY mistakes. Pedestrians are super careful and will dare not cross until all cars come to a complete stop or disappear from the horizon, and drivers follow lane discipline and traffic rules to a T. It is credits to them and Him that with very limited driving experience in India, I managed to take my parents and my sister around when they visited me. ~3000 miles in 4 weeks was something even I did not imagine! I am in no way blaming the Indian traffic (which I have every right to). I know the root causes are in population density and there is no way individuals can be made to follow traffic rules unless it is ingrained in their blood. Alas, this article is not about traffic rules!
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So, the car was running well. Suddenly, sometime in the middle of August there were first signs of craziness. One good thing about mechanical things is that they do not suddenly fail. They wear, giving you enough time to act and then if you are lazy come down crashing. So, the signs that my car gave me was rather rocking! Yes, when I started the car or when I was idling, it will rock and vibrate as if it wants to throw me out as though I am in a bull fight! But curiously it will stop misbehaving if I step on the gas (accelerate). The technical name for such a thing was Rough idling!
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Just like how when a child misbehaves and the mother will give stare , where in it will stop misbehaving only to start causing embarrassment at the opportunistic time, I figured out a way to handle my car. Every time I idle, I will switch to neutral, keep one foot on the brake and one foot on the accelerator. It was extremely funny (and dangerous, as even if I miss one action, I am sure to get into trouble). Soon, the car was unhappy with the attention I gave and the check engine light (CEL, the miraculous light that shows up in the dashboard if it detects some malfunctioning in the engine) was on. So the Mazda dealer said he will charge me $50 for just diagnosing. I thought I could do better and went to Autoparts to get the diagnostic kit for free. The kit gave me two codes P0401 (EGR Insufficient flow) and P300 (cylinder misfire). Don't ask me what the codes meant. they sounded as crazy as my course codes.
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But, I figured out that the problem was with the EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculator) valve. It is some valve that controls the exhaust gases (which you know is nasty smoke) and the valve is blocked. Quick googling actually hinted that it is a common problem with Mazda protege and can be fixed by anybody. Call it adventurous, audacity or sheer stupidity I thought I will do this myself. So, I decided to brush up my mechanical engineering (not that I learnt anything close to practicality, but did remember studying about this EGR, in theory that is), opened the hood and tried to locate the EGR valve with no idea on what it would even look like. I disconnected the battery. Removed some wires and tubes and still had no idea where this stupid EGR is. Somehow managed to put everything back and ensured the car started again and the brakes were working. Of course the problem remained. Removing the battery and putting it back obviously would not have solved this problem.
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So one day my department wanted me to engage a visiting person for break fast (recruitment drive). And I had to take my child along:P . I thought I am just going to drive it to the hotel (5 mins) and then have breakfast at the hotel and then drive back. And so I thought. But, as luck would have it, the person said let's go out for breakfast.. Ahem ahem.. Err.. 'Don't you have a car?', 'Of course I do, Let's go' came my spontaneous reply. Funny moments ensued with my car sensing the right moments (traffic lights) to play some rock and me trying to calm it by feeding it some gas. Somehow managed to finish breakfast at Bruegger's and drop him back at the hotel.
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To be continued (Next week)

What I do and what you can too - Global Warming

2010-08-22T13:38:00.007-04:00

Watch this if you can spare 90 minutes .. or at least the last few minutes of the movie if you are too busy.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
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Global Warming - The words that scientists use to always threaten us doubting our very survival in future. Some take it easy as we are all going to survive 'tomorrow'. But it is the question of how many tomorrows. We all know our current way of living is unsustainable. But yet, we dismiss it saying what can 'we' do. It is the job of scientists and 'others'. Our contributions are too trivial for this. I beg to differ and ask you to be generous in begging (you got to appreciate the oxymoron there :P )
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What am I doing from my side? A few trivial things but I believe it makes a difference. And I request you to join hands and even tell me if we could do more

I am not a materialist. I buy/get only things I need and use. Nothing more (and maybe something less). You don't have to be a miser but at least you can avoid using resources lavishly. Following are some examples
I try to use as less paper as possible, double side printing (or sometimes even avoid printing if I can just peruse it in a comp), do not use paper towels but switch to good old cotton wipes, be as efficient as possible on the paper towels in restaurants (absolutely never take it and dump it in a dumpster without using it)
Bike (=bicycle in US) to places where I can bike and avoid using my car
carpool whenever possible
Being a vegetarian (Processing meat consumes 10 times more water and uses 5-10 times more energy!)
Try to get the produce from the local farmers who use less energy and of course do not pack it in plastic bags. It is also good for my health
Use a grocery bag instead of the tens of plastic bags each time I shop
Recycle and reuse whenever I can (the plastic bags, paper)
Switch to organic whenever I can afford
Avoid wasting food and water.

Spider solitaire - the road to victory (how to win)

2010-07-31T15:13:00.010-04:00

Well, before you think 'what's the big deal in solitaire', I would urge you to try playing it once. Spider solitaire-> difficult-> 4 suites. Chances are that you probably would not be able to complete even one suit. It is a tough game and can be painstakingly slow. Few people will actually believe that I got addicted to this game.. A stupid game but fascinatingly overpowering. First I just wanted to win, which I somehow managed to if I played more than 20 games (a success rate of 5%), then I wanted to strive for consistency. Can I win every game? I must admit I have not been able to, but what I have achieved is a success rate of close to 50% (large sample size of course), that is a win every alternate game! A result developed over months and probably more than the number of ODIs Sachin has played. It all might look really very silly, but (Ripley's) believe it or not, I am actually quite serious! Am I the only seemingly jobless guy to even attempt this? Surely not, there must be quite a few souls out there who would have said 'the grapes must be sour' and walked away. This blog is sincerely dedicated to those souls :P

Ok, what do you need to win in this game? Patience, time and iteration. And mind you it is a product of all three, so if you do not follow even one, you must depend on Lady luck. There are three diffrent levels Easy (single suit), medium level (two suits) and hard (four suits). Single suit you must be able to win hands down. I have finished it with a little over 100 moves or perhaps even lesser. The medium level (two suits) can be difficult at times but it is easy enough you can finish all games. Depending on other factors I can finish in about 150 moves or so. But I never got addicted to these two levels. The difficult is the hard nut to crack and following are some tricks of the trade.

Terminologies

Stack - Any series of cards stacked one over another at least respecting the card order

Correct stack - A stack with cards of the same suit

Pack - the cards that are in the upper most row with face down. I believe there will be 10 packs.

Deal - The cards that are in the bottom right corner.

Basic rules of the game

It is like any other solitaire game. You must form the combination KQJ1098765432A of 4 suits*2, that is 8 series in all. (Yes, there are two packs of cards out there). But when you stack cards, other than respecting the order there is no other restriction. That is you can stack a 2 spade over a 3 heart (or club or spade or diamond). As long as you respect the order KQJ1098765432A you can stack any suit over another. This was probably the first attraction to me towards this game. Other rules we can learn as play (There are no other big rules I believe).

Step #1- Start simple. A game well begun is half done, but even if you begin well, there is no guarantee that you will able to finish this game. But beginning well is the easiest and the most basic step that we can take so that we find at least the initial part easy. What is beginning well? When you start the game, you will see a display of cards. Try to see if you can stack some of those correctly (at least 2 immediately) that is stacking with the same suit. Even though you can stack a 2 hearts over a 3 spade, stacking a 2 heart over a 3 heart will enable you to move the 3 and 2 together. That is, if a particular stack is correctly stacked (all of the same suit) you can lift them as one. So, when you start the game, at the first look, see if you can stack at least two cards correctly (same suit). If not press F2 to have a new game. Keep doing this till you can begin easily.

Step #2 - Iterate. Once you begin well, chances are that you might have more than one move available to perform. Feel free to choose any move, but remember this point. Once you have taken a move and got stuck, press ctrl-Z (undo) and come back to the point where you have more than one feasible move. Now, try the other moves. See if it is any better. If yes, good. If not, bad luck. Go back to the original move (yes, you can press ctrl-z any number of times, at a small penalty. But, at this point let us concentrate on winning the game, efficiency can be dealt with once you have experience).

Step #3 - Always have an eye on correct stacking (as it enables you to lift all of the stack together in one clean pick). For example let us say you had a stack of 4 and 3 diamond on one pack, a 3 club on another pack and a 2 spade on another pack. Now, you have two options. You can either put the 2 spade over the 3 club or the 3 diamond. Suppose you choose to put it over the 3 diamond and let us say a 5 diamond gets revealed. Now, the stack of 4 and 3 diamond could be put over the 5 diamond to create a bigger correct stack. But the 2 spade over the 3 diamond will prevent you from doing this. So iterate by putting the 2 spade over the 3 club and free the stack of 4 and 3 diamond. Now you have made a bigger correct stack.

Step #4 - Try to reveal as much as possible (to get empty slots). Once you clear all the cards in a pack, you get an empty slot and this will be very handy. In the above example instead of a 5 diamond, lets say a 5 of hearts turned up. You still go ahead and do the above steps, because if you stack the 4 and 3 diamond over the 5 of hearts (even though incorrect) it will enable you to reveal one more card that is beneath the 4 and 3 diamond, thus getting you closer to an empty slot.

Step #5 Respect the order. Say if you have two options, you can put a 10 of hearts over a Jack of spades or a 9 of clubs over the 10 of hearts. First, understand that both are incorrect stackings but you don't have a choice. Now putting first the 9 of clubs over the 10 of hearts will 'lock' the stack 10 and 9 as you cannot lift them together to put them over the Jack (they are of different suits). But of you first put the 10 of hearts over the Jack and then the 9 over 10, you have revealed two cards (one beneath the 10 of hearts and the other beneath the 9 club). But since you have incorrectly stacked, always keep an eye on a possibility of step 3. You should mostly prefer correct stacking to incorrect one (exception is talked about below), since a correct stacking enables you to lift togther.

Step #6 - This is a follow-up of Step #2, Iteration. If you have two feasible moves, one that will result in correct stacking and the other with an incorrect stacking, try both and stick with the one that revealed many cards or was more useful. That is, not always do we go for correct stacking. It varies from situation to situation.

Step #7 - Managing the empty slots.

Now you have an empty slot. How to best use it? Empty slot in Spider Solitaire is a definite achievement. Use the empty slot to rearrange cards into correct stackings. You will be amazed at how much one empty slot can help you achieve. For eg you have one stack of K hearts, Q and J of club, and another stack of K club, Q and J of hearts and an empty slot. Use the empty slot to correct these two stacks. That is, keep the Q and J of hearts in the empty slot and stack the K,Q and J of hearts together. Then stack the K,Q and J of clubs. It is crucial to get back the empty slot after this rearrangement like how we got it back in the above step. Now use the empty slot for further rearrangement.

Swapping empty slots

You can forego an empty slot if you can get another by rearrangment (although two empty slots will be awesome. I have rarely lost after I get two empty slots). For eg K, Q, J of hearts stacked over a 10. Now, using the empty slot you can make it KQJ10. There are many more such possibilities. So be open and look out for them.

Before you click deal for a new set of cards, make sure you don't clog the empty slot. Either keep just one card (after all your iterations) or keep a correct stack. This way you can again have an empty slot reasonably quickly. Of course, if you happen to a get a King in the deal in the empty slot then sorry mate, it is blocked!

Step #8 - Before you click deal, press 'm' or 'h'. It is an hint for any available moves and you might have overlooked any move. It might appear as cheating and some may avoid doing this. I do it so that it saves my time. But, be careful though, the hints or the moves the computer shows are not the best ones. You should try to follow the above steps as and when possible.

Major tips

#1 Try to create empty slots (that is clearing all the cards in one of the stack). More the empty slots the merrier. Empty slots can be used to iterate as you can keep cards in the slot, rearrange and then remove it again. Thus, empty slots can be a temporary place to keep the card to perform many of the above steps. So if you have an option of removing a card from a bigger stack and removing a card from a smaller stack, other things being the same, opt for removing from the smaller stack (you are closer to getting an empty slot)

#2 Avoid keeping an Ace or a King in the empty slot. Because a King can lock the empty slot until you finish the series and an Ace also sort of locks the slot as you will not able to stack anything over an Ace.

#3 Feel free to undo (Ctrl+Z) as there might be several steps possible at a given point of time and nobody is sure what is right. So you can try one combination and if it does not go well, press ctrl+z all the way down and try the other combination. In Windows xp you cannot undo the step where you completed one series and you cannot undo once you opened a new deal. But in windows 7 you can undo just anything. Some might think this is cheating. But if it is allowed, why not do it? Besides, I don't think, this game is designed for winning every time. It is still a random deal and hence you might be still unlucky and end up losing.

And after typing all this, I just happened to google for 'winning spider solitaire' and actually found quite a few useful links myself :P .. So the biggest tip is to google perhaps!! And yes, why do you need patience? Because, on an average before I finish this game, it takes about 300 steps and some times even close to 500 steps. That many iterations may be needed. So if you lose the game with less than 100 moves, sorry you need to iterate a lot more than that!! Good luck!!

Why I hate Solanum Melongena

2010-03-26T17:26:00.009-04:00

It is crowned the King of Vegetables and is known as eggplant in countries like U.S., Aus... With the hue and cry over Bt Brinjal, I just started wondering why I hate this seemingly lovely vegetable... I am sure there are many lovers of it including my immediate family members... But somehow brinjal could never relish my tongue...

It all started when I was a kid, when my tongue was learning the tricks of the trade and when your mother had all the control over what you can and what you cannot taste... When, for the first time brinjal made its entry into my soul.. like many kids my body after a sequence of chemo-physio-thermo-kinetic reactions decided to frighten my mom with an allergic reaction. Out came abnormal bumps and out went brinjal from my diet. Little did I know that it was not only my skin but my muscles had joined the war too. (FYI tongue is a muscle)

As I grew up my mother again decided to take control of my diet. Brinjal can no longer be denied entry. Allergy can no longer be an excuse. So what do you do when you are force served? You keep it in a corner of your plate, promise that you will eat at the end of the meal and then silently manage to tuck it and throw it when nobody notices. But if you are caught, you have to gulp it down ensuring that it never kisses your taste buds, lest you have to 'make' faces. (So with a laborious maneuver you take the small pieces, position it perfectly to fall directly into the throat and in a split second motion allow it to pass through the oesophagus). Slowly my mother gracefully understood that I was smart enough to waste it (without their notice of course) and stopped feeding me, thinking 'if you don't eat it, you are at a loss'. Thinking of 'punishing' me, she 'rewarded' me by keeping Brinjal away! So the deal was every time she makes Brinjal, she should also make my favorite tatoes (potatoes) so that I have some veggies to eat! Awesome!

Why do I hate the King? Is it because it somehow for me resembled a 'fish' and being a vegetarian I just could not stand it? Well, frankly having never eaten or not even seen a cooked fish dish, the argument looks too far fetched. The only fish that was close to being blue, like Brinjal, is the Blue Whale and I have no clue if someone eats it! Or maybe was it the very appearance? Its 'kozha kozha' (mucilagenous/sticky) nature that made me feel odd, whenever I touched it or put it in my mouth? Or is it just a feeling that I could not overcome?

So after years of abstaining, I finally decided to try it again. After coming to the US, when my cooking experiments had temporarily taken rest, I thought why not give it a try! The egg plants in the US resembled the size of a blue whale's egg (oops whale is a mammal.. never mind.. if a whale decides to lay eggs, it might resemble it?). Chopped it into big pieces.. fried it.. spices.. the dish was ready... it din't have any resemblance, what so ever, with what my mother makes. Good for me, I thought. This should be better than how my mother makes. First spoon....yucccccccccck! Never! Never will I attempt again! But within minutes, I reneged and the buck I wasted on my experiment found its way into my stomach somehow, after fighting and gulping for 30 minutes! Phew!

I think I found the answer, rather an excuse. Wiki tells me that Brinjal has the highest amount of nicotine among all edible plants and 9 kgs of Brinjal has as much nicotine as a cigarette! Since, I am a non-smoker I will not eat Brinjal! Its NOT a food for thought for me.. He he..

Beware, citizens of Venus! Men are coming!

2010-02-05T18:05:00.006-05:00

Men are from earth and women are from Venus? Move over ladies and make some space, we are already there!

Lions (Male) sport manes, lioness don't. Peacock (Male) spreads its tail feathers, peahens cannot , and Bucks (Male deer) grow antlers while the Does don't. Yes, you can guess it. The male species try to attract the female ones by their physique and fancy accessories. But human beings are peculiar and the behavior is reversed, or so I thought....

But I think we have started going 'primitive'. We have enough animal instincts already but this one 'attraction' thing was reversed and we have started to fill this gap. We are trying to exploit the world of Venus. Working out and hitting the gym is no longer reserved for Arnold.. Men are worried about their single pack (of fat/belly) and want to convert it to at least two if not six. Tight fit shirts are slowly starting to appear. Though the word 'metrosexual' has been around for some time now, I think it is accelerating even faster of late.

When I first saw the 'Fair & Handsome' ad, I thought it was ridiculous. I know women fall for the beauty products just like flies getting attracted to light but to imagine the same fate for men was too far fetched for me.. Yet, that's exactly what reality turned out to be. Words like 'color of the skin is not important even for women' I know will fall in deaf ears but now when men go after fairness and whiteness it sounds strange.

It is a famous saying that 'Men fall for women who are bautiful whereas women like men who can speak well'. But will the saying lose its relevance now? So what next? Will the future wallet of Men come with special features to fit the make-up kit of men (ala handbag). Even if it comes, will men be smart enough to pack a dozen items in that small space? And then there will be some funny things too.. Imagine a fat guy trying to show off by wearing tights or a guy's wallet spitting out a dozen items when he tries to get his credit card! Crazy things await!

Who wants to live on Earth any more.. So ladies, here Men come!

P.S - If there are any hints of male chauvinism, it is purely unintentional. I know I cannot generalize my opinions for all women. I just went with the mass opinion on things which I believe is true for 'most' women.

The aura that comes with being at the top

2010-01-27T22:06:00.010-05:00

Disclaimer - This is not a sports articles though it will start with that note

Two instances... One in which, Federer came back from a set down, suddenly shifting his gear and moving to 'his' zone, just blasting Davydenko to reach the semis of Aus. open and ..... Two in which, Aussies digging deep and finding their resilience, came back from a situation of no-return in the second test match against Pak.... But that is only one side of the story.. the other way of seeing it is ofcourse Davydenko going down after leading 3-0 and that too after already pocketing a set, and Pakistan managing to find a door to defeat after dominating Australia for 3 days...

A lot has been and always be written about the top and superior guys. All credits to their spirit for hitting back from such situations. But spare a thought for the 'heroes' (or rather comedians?) of the other side. Because even we get into such situations without even realizing it. And so here goes my comment on trying to investigate what actually happens.

Though several philosophical and technical explanations can be given to scenarios such as above I think the aura of being at the top and the underdog(relatively) tag might play a crucial role here. The underdog may just cannot believe that he is at the top there. It is not only a thing of surprise for others who are watching him, but even within himself he is quite surprised. 'Is it that I am really playing that well or is it that he is having an off day here?', and that I think is a killer doubt, your concentration wavers and there you have lost your energy!

The reason why I had put the disclaimer was it is not a scenario that happens only in sport. It happens in my life and so (I believe) it does in each of our lives. It is because of the simple reason that you can never be 'the best' in what you do (and even if you do, you cannot be 'the best' in everything you do). And when we seem to be winning against an individual whom we consider (and the world in general) as superior to us, we lose our way somewhere. It might be studies in school (you beating the top ranked guy in small tests and then losing out on the Final), might be in presentation skills with a co-employee, might be winning contracts for a small company and then goofing up when it comes to a bigger client.. I am sure we will be able to think of several examples of our own.

Under these circumstances, I think, it is important to remember how we reached that winning position. It well might have been that the 'superior' person was having an off day, but we cannot take the role of our hardwork lightly. It deserved every winning step that we achieved.

But this is where sport differs from real life. What is 'winning' in life? Nothing is permanent as we all know, so it is that 'fleeting' superior satisfactory performance that we call win, it is the consistency of wins that we call a success. But we all know it is not an end point, it is a continuous journey that we are always reminded of. We keep raising our bar. (Even in sports one might argue the same thing about winning, but I guess I communicated what I intended to)

Being aware of such a thing is of course the first thing in preventing the slide early. We need to remember that if we slack even for a moment, our so called superior opponent will just cruise through. It is hence important to sustain the steam, it is not about self confidence or belief, but rather about indefatigableness, the power of never giving up till your goal is reached.

Are Indian rookie bowlers underbowled?

2010-01-04T23:10:00.004-05:00

It has been some time since I wrote.. Here is one again on Cricket, a thought I wanted to record long before.. so before I forget..

It is the final day of a test match. India needs just 3 more wickets to seal the test match with a lot of runs to defend themselves and an entire three sessions. Whom do you think will open the day's bowling? You can expect the 'leading' pace bowler (currently Zaheer Khan for example) and the 'first' spinner (currently Harbhajan Singh). I would not say it is a bad decision. Obviously, you would want to seal the win as quickly as possible without letting things out of your control. But in the process what happens is you tend to 'overbowl' your main bowlers and 'underbowl' your sideline bowlers.

One can argue that it is fair enough as the last wickets are mostly easy scalps and your main bowlers deserve them for all their hardwork through out their career. Their confidence can also go up with two to three wickets added to their names and of course their stats page. But at what cost? One, you tend to 'overwork' your bowlers. It is perhaps the ideal situation to give your bowlers some much needed rest (that too in such a packed calendar now a days). Two, best chance to give your sideline bowlers some work to complete. Those two to three wickets will be a huge confidence boost to the young chaps who would want to cement their place in the teams. I think the twin benefits of the latter are much more than the possible benefits you get from the former. In case your main bowlers are out of form then it can be argued differently.

I guess teams like Australia consider this factor (though I know I have to prove this with stats or examples), if my memory serves me right. They trust their young bowlers to finish their job for the team.

No stats here. Just my plain opinion. If I find some time later I would back up my opinion with stats. It will be an interesting task in itself.

My experiments with cooking

2009-07-11T22:26:00.015-04:00

After a series of serious ones here is a light 'kitkat' break.. Days before I left for US, my mother began pleading me to learn some basic cooking stuff and as like any male progeny, I duly brushed aside her comments. Perhaps, the only thing she forced me to learn was vegetable rice and I nonchalantly nodded for the series of instructions she told me. (Man! if the simplest of recipes had so big an instruction set.. nope I am not thinking ahead)... But soon I was made to repent for my non-heeding..

Making the cooker 'feel the pressure'

This was the first of many things that made me feel "what we often take so much for granted is not that easy". Forgetting to put the whistle, adding salt, to add water to the cooker base before keeping anything etc etc.. What are the implications? Here goes one.. In my enthusiasm, once I forgot to add water to the cooker. The copper bottom (which is welded to the bottom of the cooker) took all the blame and decided to loose 50% of its circumference. Meaning, it was kind of hinging at the bottom. As a result the cooker did all the modes of heat transfer, conduction (direct metal contact where the hinges are alive), convection (metal and water) and radiation (where the hinge is pretty much open). And after a few months of attempts, I successfully de-bottomed (if there is a 'de-throned' there has to be a 'de-bottomed' too) my cooker. It's no longer the famed 'copper bottomed' butterfly. It still has some traces of the weld material and statinless steel. I still have some time though to penetrate this material.

An hungry chef is an advantage

One worst part about cooking is when you are really hungry, you badly want somebody to cook for you, so that, you can eat immediately. You just can't see the processing of your food, you badly want the whatever you are making to get cooked immediately. Remembered of my mother time and again, "Amma I am hungry". There she goes in 2 mins I have my plate ful, the latter even if I am not hungry :P. But the good thing about cooking is, if you are that hungry it just doesn't matter how bad your cooking had been. It just directly goes into the stomach bi-passing all its senior managers including the tongue.

Forgetting Physics lessons can be dangerous

Physics tells me that the boiling point of water is much lower than oil and my first teacher (mother) has told me never to mix water with oil and heat, but throwing caution to wind and not bothering to wipe the vessel, one day I started heating oil in a vessel that had droplets of water.... an immediate diwali was celbrated and i went (s)currying for cover! (For those who did not understand the water droplets evaporate and the vapour actually blasts, splitting some oil in the process which is ofcourse way too hot for your skin)

Forgetting can be equally interesting

Usually before you fry, you add oil followed by mustard seeds, and wait till the mustards blast (this is kind of a cooking timer, as the mustards blast once the oil is hot enough! lol), but one day I don't know what was going in my head, I poured the oil, kept the mustards in my hand and kept staring at it as though something miraculous will automatically happen, it was ages before I finally realised that the mustards are still in my hands!! Even worse was the day when I din't even turn on the stove and kept staring at the oil and mustards!

... and can also lead to serendipity

Another day - had forgotten to add water for Dal. I discovered dal coagulates together to form a heap. i thought these dhal unite under the 'depression' of lack of water. But later, realised that the heap was because when i pour dal it automatically results in a heap (ok ok it is a PJ .. sorry).

Another day - first ever experience of the sabji (Kari/Kai) getting blackened. I wasn't to be blamed this time though. It is cricket 07 (a computer cricket game). I thought I will play just one over before the sabji is done. 1 over became 2 .. 2 became 3 and sabji became hot and black :P .

But experimentation is not funny

Cooking is best learnt/enjoyed by experimenting ;) . So I don't follow recipes exactly. I figure out why my mother cooks in a certain way by trying the exact opposite :D, and thus prove that what she does is perhaps right! But then there is a limit to experimentation. I got so bored of eating beans, carrot, turnip etc again and again that I wanted to try something different. Saw somethign called 'Celery' in the shelf, it was green and cylindrical (like carrot), thought it will be like snake gourd and tried to make a dish out of it. After opening the cover i realised they were stalks ('thandu' in tamil), but still was courageous enough to continue. The dish was bland, and the oddest thing that I had tasted. Curiosity led me to find out that Celery is something that is put in a soup!!

Introducing Sambhar Makhani

Well, we have heard of Dal Makhani, but what in the world is this? Honestly, I wanted to make Dal Makhani. But though I had the beans and stuff, I did not want to put Garam Masala as it had a tinge of onion and garlic and I wanted to make a sattvic food :P. So I decided to put some sambhar and rasam powder and thus was born Sambhar Makahni lol. To me cooking is not analog, it is digital. Either I like it (edible) which is 1, or I don't which is 0. And this dish was thankfully a 1 !!

To be frank my cooking is not that bad. But then as you can see there were many a interesting happening in my cooking career ;) Variety is the spice of life, but when I cook even if I add spice, it becomes another variety and thus I survived an entire year by just managing with less than 5 recipes (Sambhar, kuttu, rasam, sabji)

Budget is no longer my gadget

2009-07-08T19:26:00.001-04:00

'Yup! It's budget time' says the MBA in me. 'So what?' says the rest of me. Until I decided to do MBA, I was never really bothered about the budget except for the income tax rate which affected our family income. But then, during my preparation for MBA, I had analysed the then budget left, right and centre. No, No I din't analyse so deeply! I just looked at what the Left had to say, what the Centre had to say (No PM is going to blame his FM, it is anyway through him) and the opposition and then read what the national dailes had to say and so on. MBA first year, look at all the above from an MBA perspective and if possible add your perspective too. Come second year things started to change....

The railway budget will invariably have some price revisions (cuts if the election is close by and rise in first class price if the election is over) and some new trains for certain states based on which local party is part of the coalition. But then not many is really interested in the railway one. It is the next day that matters.

How about the union budget? Not many Indians are aware of the fact that less than 10% of our population constitute the middle class and higher. (But then they are responsible for a big chunk of the GDP). So for 90% of the people the budget matters very little. Schemes keep popping up under various names (yeah the names do change like James Bond movies), but then nothing great has happened in my personal opinion. Other than his own income tax and other consumable tax cuts the middle class is not bothered. Who is left? The honchos and they make sure they looby enough to get what they want both above and under the carpet. Afterall they are the funders for the parties.. hmph

Just like how inflation changes prices every year, I think the FM adjusts the rates here and there to make sure there ARE changes in certain figures (You see the budget has to run certain pages at the bare minimum right?). The % increase in defence outlay matches the % increase in MIG crashes. To match the dropouts out of midschool, give higher education more funding. Seriosuly guys I am fed up!

People think of giving rice for 2 Rs and ration cards for free. But then the number of looters will far exceed the benefactors. Why cant they think of implementing a scheme which will make them earn their 2 Rs. Surely the looters cant loot the jobs? But then how to generate so much employment? Infrastructure, agriculture (give the seeds and fertilizers free), government schools..... avenues are plenty. But everything has its own loopholes to make sure that any scheme benefits only the 'sharks'.

Yes, it has been years since we had a revolutionary budget. What is happening to the tax money? What is happeining to the education allocations? Agri allocations? Small scale industries development? It is a basic principle that you cannot treat the entire nation and reform the nation at one instance. But why not start from a small place. Say, one city from every state and then move from there on? But then politics can be a so frustrating speed breaker that it can be so steep to even decide which city should be the first.. Yes, pilot projects do exist but they hardly take off !!

India has come a long way, but then it has already taken a long time. It is progressing but not at the pace it has to and no where near the pace it is capable of. When can we see the turnaround? Not far says the optimist in me.... Jai Hind!

Sachin not only scores but also 'wins'

2009-06-28T10:58:00.007-04:00

Yes, I am yet another Sachin fan. There had been days, I will check the highlights package to catch a glimplse of his solitary boundary. Yes, he has changed a lot, adapted a lot, curtailed his shots a lot more. But nothing above has happened to my adulation. In fact he made his debut in 1989 and I started my education around that time. He is still playing and I am still studying lol ..

A few days before one of my friends argued that Sachin has not produced many match winning innings and that is where Lara scores above him. My immediate gut feeling was he was wrong. Having a keen interest in stats I wanted to prove him wrong and that too statistically. The post is an outcome of that.

When it comes to greatness, stats is not the right tool. And I never want to get into the argument of who is greater. To me, both Sachin and Lara are great batsmen, and by loving Sachin more I am not going to rile Lara. And I dont want to compare greats and rank them. I believe each one is at a different level and it is foolish on our part to attempt a comparison. Yet, I wanted to bring out a common misconception that Sachin has not won many matches for India. And what better than a Test field (ODIs, it is obvious that most of his tons have won matches for India).

What are the stats am I going to employ? I dont want to complicate reading and interpretation. I will just take into account two things, 100s and average in the matches players have been part of a winning team and a subjective interpretation of some of their big scores, again, when their team has won. So here is that table!

Player	Total	Won	100s	Avg.	Major Venues	Major opponents	Major Scores
Sachin	184	63	20	66.6	Eng, Pak, SL, WI	Aus, Eng, Pak, SL	155* v Aus, 193 in Eng, 165 vs Eng, 194* in Pak, 214 v Aus
Lara	131	32	8	61.02	Aus, NZ	Aus, Eng, Pak	132 in Aus, 213 vs Aus, 153* vs Aus, 167 vs Eng
Richards	121	63	12	52.43	Aus, Eng	Aus, Eng	Lot many to put here
Dravid	160	56	15	65.8	Aus, Eng, Pak	Aus, Eng, Pak	180 vs Aus, 233 in Aus, 148 in Eng, 270 in Pak
Sehwag	92	37	7	57.2	Pak, SL	Pak, SL, SA	309 in Pak, 293 vs SL, 201* in SL, 165 vs SA
Gavaskar	125	23	6	43.97	Aus, NZ, WI	Aus, NZ, Pak, WI	118 in Aus, 102 in WI, 166 vs Pak

Note: The 'total' column gives the total career matches and the 'won' column gives the number of matches his team has won when the player had been part of that team

All stats pertain only to the 'won' matches.

In the major scores column, 'vs' indicates home matches and 'in' indicates that the score was made overseas

Look at Dravid's stats it is stunning!!

Sachin has also scored a 248* in Bang and a 176 against Zim

Sehwags's average shot up after the tour of SL in 2009!

The conclusions from the table are immediate and obvious. Sachin has a century in approximately one out of ever 3 wins and Lara has 1 out of 4. Sachin's average is also almost 5 points higher than Lara's. And, a look at the high scores column will indicate Sachin's 100s were by no means small ones. They were big 100s. Both had relatively weak teams and had to carry a heavy burden. Both were greats. No doubt about that. I just want to show that Sachin had also won many matches for India. And, there is a big boost to these stats post 2009, when Sachin is having a golden period.

Obviously the likes of Bradman, Ponting, Waugh won most of the matches they played in and hence their performance in their career will not be much different from their performance in the wins. Hence it will be an unfair comparison and hence I am not including them. But I fully agree that the above stats will be much better and much higher for them. And then there is that great Sobers, who not only won matches with his batting but also his bowling. Because of his all-round skills I had to exclude him from the list. And so is the reason for Kallis. And again I fully agree that their stats would be awesome too.

Obviously matches won is not the only thing, there would have been many a matches the above people would have saved and many a great innings but still their team would have lost. But to analyse these innings will bring a lot of subjectivity like pitch and other match conditions. Anyway my objective was to just point out and try to eliminate one misconception on Sachin.

Why is Sehwag part of the list? It is another belief that most of his tons have won matches for India thanks to his 300 against Pak and 200s against SL. Nevertheless they were one of the greatest innings and lets not forget the fact that Sachin scored a 195* in the same match.

Our side is also 'greener' !

2009-06-28T01:45:00.002-04:00

This is my first post.. hopefully a non emotional, non rambling rational one :)

Comparisons.. As an Indian, we were born and grew up with it all along, that it has been following us faithfully like our shadows. In fact, over time we have actually been consumed by it and WE have become the shadows and the comparison is perhaps leading us!

What we currently do always looks tough in relative to what we have 'successfully' passed, that is, once the next task is over. For eg, once we start our midschool, primary school looks a cake walk and when we write our board exams, midschool was more fun and easy, and when we nervously sit before the comp for those semester results during our respective degrees (remember that one exam or perhaps more than one, in which you got a nonsense paper or had a bad day and had to bribe Lord Ganesh, a 100 situps to make sure you clear it?), XII exams did not look that hard. Yes, the repercussions at each stage were quite different and had different influences. But, once the hurdle had been crossed and we take up the next one, we always tend to feel the last one was easier...

And so what's the point? What has it to do with the title? It doesn't stop with personal comparisons.. The title was to intend a dig at "Grass looks greener on the other side" .. Just like how we discount our previous hardships as easy when compared to the present ones, which is perhaps not quite correct as we are comparing two different scenarios in which our capacities were quite different, we make the mistake of comparing our life with others..

People who are at work, tend to compare their life with those who study. They think while they are slogging for their boss, to earn their pay cheques, their friends are perhaps having a great time playing sports and what not.. The same way those who study think of their friends who work, wondering when they are still studying and cramming for the exams, the folks who work are cool, they earn a lot and enjoy life.. (I am not a sage here and I have fallen prey for this many a times and perhaps still falling)

What I have listed is just one example of a very common comparison.. There are many such comparisons between jobs, between students, between personalities, between couples and whatever you can dream of. The truth is both of them (the comparing parties) are wrong (though not fully).. the reverse comparison actually shows that their side is greener and that is what is my post about..

To generalize and take it to a more abstract level, happiness is more from within and it is YOU who decides which is greener.. that is not to say you must be complacent about your status quo and do nothing about it.. Constructive criticism will always be helpful .. It helps in making your side more greener and you do it not because you are worried about the other side being green..

I think you will enjoy life from this perspective.. This life is about YOU and about YOUR happiness.. You do not need to feel sad about your relative position when compared to others..

Emotional - Rational

Perhaps the 'greatest' person I had lived with

Understanding babies/kids

The art of removing the tail and why Zaheer is 'better' than Wasim Akram or even Steyn!

Why do people lie

Am I *really* a vegetarian

Why we do what we do

Should domination be shown by demeaning?

The difference that Zaheer makes

The longest & hardest walk in my 'life'

Chocolate Mysorepa

Mech Engg revisited - Part 2/2

Mechanical Engg revisited Part 1 of 2

What I do and what you can too - Global Warming

Spider solitaire - the road to victory (how to win)

Why I hate Solanum Melongena

Beware, citizens of Venus! Men are coming!

The aura that comes with being at the top

Are Indian rookie bowlers underbowled?

My experiments with cooking

Budget is no longer my gadget

Sachin not only scores but also 'wins'

Our side is also 'greener' !

Am I really a vegetarian