Time Complexity

For those of you who don't know what it means...in algorithms, it is used to find the upper bound on the running time of a set of operations, by looking at how much each operation takes to complete.

Today, I was really trying hard to study for my qualifiers, which are in about less than a months time. Now, this is all after 2 months of really casual preparation for perhaps one of the most important exam of my life. So I started studying at around 10 in the morning. I was reading the chapter "Graph algorithms". I had taken a math course in spring 2010- Combinatorics and Graph theory. The reason I took that course was because  I thought it would be useful to me in my Ph.D. It didn't quite turn out to be as I expected it to be. Nevertheless, I was somehow happy to be back in school and taking courses. I was doing research as well which really excited me. I somehow liked that spring semester. I kinda miss it now. I wanted to be good in combinatorics by the end of it, Damn! it turned out bad. I still can't do it properly.

Hmm...Summer has been really hot. So hot, that it feels as if the sun is really angry at me for not being in the lab or at home doing something useful. May was good though, even though it was hot. I had lots and lots of ice cream. I never knew I enjoyed ice cream so much. Had fun. Sitting by the water in Meramec springs was really worth while, I really enjoyed it. I wanna go there again. Play with the water. Saw that when you splash water, you can see water droplets float 'on' water; reason--high surface tension. Then they break eventually.

One day, I was sitting in front of my house and I saw a spider build its web from scratch. Fascinating to see how good it was in keeping the same distance from one strand to the other. I kinda envied it. It had no exams to prove its merit against. If it failed, it would learn from its life's mistakes, because, if it can't prey, its going to die. So it has to be better. Intellectual evolution.

All this with the song "Khaabon ke parinde" playing in my head in an infinite loop.

Then, I heard the sound of the drill bit from the adjacent room. Time was now 12:30 pm. I realized I wasted about 2 and a half hours!!!! Time I can't get back. So, I told myself, "OK! have lunch and come back and study".

I got up from my desk...went to Vimal's, chit chatted for a while, invited him over to my place for sweets. On the way, we decided to go to his place for Dosa by flipping a coin to simulate a random walk. We did, but it was short lived. We decided against it and walked to my home :) had sweets and left to his place. We spat on statistics' face by doing so and it got back to us, we got held up with something and more time was wasted. So, we had dosa, which was really good. Then I felt so sleepy, I came home and slept for about an hour. After I woke up, I told myself, OK! study until late in the night. Went to library. Came home, made tea. Cooked. Told myself-- "OK! Eat and go to the lab and study!"... So I went to the lab. Studied for 10 minutes. Couldn't concentrate. Got up. Went out, walked alone. Came back to the lab. Took my bag and told myself. "OK! go home and study". I'd been browsing since then, chatted with my friend and now I've been writing a blog!! and its 1 am. Man, i'm addicted to internet. Vimal! internet is equally dangerous. It can also drive a person crazy. And, just now I told myself, "OK! don't waste time tomorrow" :D

So you see, terrible algorithm, terrible preparation. Very very high time complexity to finish ONE chapter. Bad. Phail! Ek dun Phail! Bahut hee kharaab. Yeh ek din mein karna tha!

So..."OK! go to sleep and get up early" :)

Cheers,
Brijesh

Practicality and Hope - My Perspective

Chapter I - The philosophical approach

Life treats us in exactly the same way we let it treat us; consciously or otherwise - Brijesh [I know..I know :D]

First among the three blogs I have been itching to write for a long time. This one is a result of the transformation I have undergone as a person. It reflects how significantly my thinking has changed and how much of it still fears to change. Like most people, I have my own take on things, in other words my own philosophy towards life. As philosophy is the super set of a plethora of ideologies, I find myself constantly at loggerheads with my own take on life and the way I live it.


I've had this blog saved as a draft for over a year and a half now, I've made many changes, partly because I wasn't sure about certain things, but mostly because I couldn't figure out a way to put my thoughts into words.

So of the three things that influence our lives most, this blog is dedicated to Philosophy. Science and philosophy have to coexist for growth. Religion is the prophesied child of philosophy. A gift to our revered intellect. It was supposed to 'enlighten us'. A gift to help us grow. Unfortunately, we couldn't handle it and looked at it as a path to be powerful in society; as a source of dominance. As a result, what should have brought us peace and growth, bound us for centuries together in relative darkness. We tainted religion because we never understood the true meaning of it.

If you consider fire to be human intellect, philosophy/religion was supposed to be the fuel. Instead of using it as a torch, those who had access to it, started using it as a weapon to threaten others into submission and fuel hatred. If we think about it seriously, over the last two millenia, religion has brought us largely (and its a very large 'largely') hatred, indifference and biased opinions about other people. To a great extant, it has suppressed growth. I'm not saying it hasn't done us any good. It has. I has given hope to many people. Unfortunately, that hope turned into a sort of excuse to perform below our potential. Hope is indirectly a reason people go into depression (which generally arises from being unable to achieve something). Here is where GOD comes into the picture. The idea of God was created as our reference to all things good. It is a state of being which every person can achieve. But we don't. Why?, because we bank our progress on hope. If you were a 'i-make-my-own-life' sort of a person(a morally and ethically sound one at that) then this is your equation for success.
Success = (Hard work + Attitude = 90%) + (Luck =10%)
Now, if you are a hopeful person who has escapist attitude and tries to give excuses for failures, your equation for success would be
Success= (Hard work + God's grace= 90%) + (Luck =10%). If you see the difference, you can clearly say that you lose attitude. And to me attitude defines a person!

I'm not challenging you to be an atheist or an agnostic. I'm just asking you to be bold enough to take charge of your life. It's you who either make or break it. Be less dependent on god. Hope less and act more. In the process, lets not shun our cultural heritages. Cultures have become part of our identity. Without culture, life will be dull and colorless. But I hope there is a day when we look at religion from a completely different angle and look at 'God' and say 'Yeah..I can be like that. I will be.' I hope religion, castes and blind beliefs don't bind us from experiencing bliss.

On a personal level, I hope I don't lose something I've grown to hold close to my heart because of such beliefs.

26Cheers

Character, Self Belief and Attitude -- OUR IDENTITY

For starters-- I HATE hypocrites..I CANNOT tell how much I hate them. But, if we look closely, we all are at times (to always depending on people) hypocrites no matter how hard we try not to be. The guts to accept our faults and make honest attempts to correct ourselves defines who we really are. To me that is THE attitude which defines us and shapes our lives. We can have a peaceful sleep only with a clear conscience. No matter how successful we are, success without a clear conscience is futile. And I strongly believe success is not the only measure in judging a person.

Many of us are not born with such an attitude. Our conscious effort to develop one such establishes our character; something that we can proudly associate with until our death. The best part is, attitude is contagious. The worst part is we don't realize it. Once we develop such an attitude, the only thing left is self belief; and the two biggest hurdles in our path are our fear of failure and escapism. Its like a cycle. If we lack self belief, we have failed even before we started. Once we start failing, we lose courage and develop a fear of failure. This fear of failure breeds an escapist approach to satiate our ego. As a result of our failures we try to avoid identifying ourselves with our failures (which are a very important part of our personality development). We slowly disassociate ourselves with our TRUE IDENTITY. We then try to be successful to redeem ourselves. Slowly, but surely, our notion of wrong and right fade and 'by any means' seems to appear acceptable to 'achieve means'. This is when we have truly lost ourselves.

Why all this??....In our world where success is measured by how fat our pay cheque is, there are millions of people who have lesser opportunities to lead a 'materialistically' comfortable life as compared to us. We crib about a lot of distractions, which, from someone else's perspective relate to nothing they have to endure on a day to day basis.

Lets just think about it when we crib about something the next time. Lets put a stop to escapism. Lets be successful, but with conscience and honesty. With belief and largely unblemished character. Lets identify ourselves with PURE AWESOMENESS.


26 Cheers

Roger Federer..The greatest player in the history of tennis!!

To be brutally honest..there are very few things that make me more happy than watching Roger Federer play tennis.

HE IS A TRUE GENIUS!!!

I have had arguments with many of my friends about his game and his greatness, about how much he has achieved over the last 6 years or so and about his domination of men's tennis. Not once have I felt otherwise about his game. People keep saying he hasn't been able to overcome the challenge Rafa poses and that Rafa has more wins over him. I would like to remind all the guys out there that Rafa beat Roger more often in clay courts. Most of them in finals. There is no question of doubt that Rafa is the greatest clay court player in the history of the game. But, Roger is second only to Rafa in clay courts. His game on other surfaces is unmatched. Not even by Rafa. Roger has had more success on any surface than any other player in the history of men's tennis. Bjorn Borg came close to matching Roger's feat.

Coming to Roger's game..He has the best forehand in men's tennis, best backhand, best backhand slice, an extremely good forehand topspin, one of the best serves in the circuit, one of the best defence (Rafa many be sometimes a notch above him), the ability to move from defence to offence at will, an exteremely good court coverage, a very potent drop shot and the icing on the cake...he has a court temperment that is unmatched. What else would a tennis player need. He is probably the only guy so far in men's tennis who does'nt have a weakness in his game. Even modern day legends like Smapras, Borg and McEnroe and very recently Rafa have agreed that Roger could well be the greatest player to wield a racquet. Roger once stated that he has a level that nobody in the current circuit has. If you go by comaparision, Rafa is a great player, Roger is a genius and arguably the greatest by acclamation. To sum it up..Jim Courier once asked Rafa what he would do to be sure that he wins..and Rafa replied.."I would play with Roger..not against..but in the same team and then I cannot loose". Agassi once spoke of him after loosing the 2005 US open final "Against Sampras you always had a chance..you kew you did..but against Federer there are no chances..he does'nt have any weakness in his game".

By numbers..
Roger has played in the last 19 of 24 grand slam finals!!!. A feat never before done. I think no one will be able to do it.
He has won 2 grand slams 5 consecutive times...another feat nobody can match.
In 2004 his win percentage was 94.25%!!!!
Has won 65 straight matches on grass.
Won the 2005 Wimbledon without dropping a set. The last man to do something like that was the great Bjorn Borg.
Has won 3 of 4 grand slams in a year 3 times..another feat no body has done before.
Won the most one sided grandslam final in the history of open era tennis..winning the 2004 US open 6-0,7-5,6-0 against Leyton Hewitt.
Won the Laurels world sportsperson of the year 4 times in a row. Again, something never done before.
Won 14 grand slams in just 40 slam appearances. Sampras took 52 to get to his 14th and last in his last match in professional tennis.
has dominated men's tennis for the last 6 years like no one has ever done before.
Once said "I have created a monster..have'nt I"..about his achievements in the sport.
Has reached a record 10!! consecutive Grand Slam finals between 2005 Wimbledon and 2007 US Open.

What else do you want me to say about the greatest player in the history of men's tennis. I just simply can't tell you how happy I was when he lifted the Coupe des Mousquetaires. I have a strong feeling that all the pressure is off him now that he won. I very sincerely hope that he gets back to playing like he did about 2 years ago. I have to come to terms with the fact that he is almost 28 and that age is playing a great deal on his game, but, I have to say that
I AM HONOURED TO HAVE WATCHED ROGER CREATE HISTORY AND MORE THAN HONOURED TO HAVE WATCHED HIM PLAY.

I wish him all the very best with all his future endeavours. I hope he wins all the titles he comeptes for :).

Thank You Roger Federer...THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!

A million Cheers,
Brijesh

Elections..Campaigning..Voting

Similar Results..Almost always the same fate..

We Indians are like Hobbits..Change comes.. if at all..very slowly. Many might not agree with me on this. But I am more than sure that they hail from an urban background..with most of them having little or no theory or evidence to back up their claims. We are so very contented with the slow change, even though we crave for more. We try to 'find' excuses for the socio-economic irregularities that are widely prevalent in our society. We are almost always never happy with the government, but almost always vote for the same political party. We only go by comparisons among ourselves whereas we ought to look outside the box. Never have we taken matters in our hands. Matters that are purely ours and ours alone. There is no doubt we want to be a truly powerful nation.Yet, we hide under the mask of helplessness to hide our selfishness and sometimes our gutless attitude. We turn away from our problems and remain hopeful that everything is set right. We are 99% of the times never proactive about our growth "as a nation". This is exactly what we Indians are. This is the core of our true personalities. We talk about governments' accountability. But, never have we questioned our own. We are so engrossed in throwing the blame on the other sections of society that we forget our own responsibilities as citizens. We have little knowledge about the schemes our government puts in action. We keep fretting about all its irregularities and how it affects our day to day lives.
And then come the elections...most people who vote for a particular party are long term loyalists. Most of the educated youth are not in the voters list. Even if they are many don't vote. This is the saddest part. We have tainted actors, cricketers and politicians term after term. But we still elect them. There is no proper reasoning to our actions and the choices that we make. We somehow fail to see the repercussions of our choices. I hail from Andhra Pradesh. Recently my state had the assembly elections. Mr.Chiranjeevi, the megastar of Telugu filmdom established the Praja Rajyam Party. His election campaign was very closely monitored. Almost all his fans wanted him to become the "next Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh"!!!!. Surprisingly, a majority of his educated fans also wanted him to be the next CM!!. I can't understand their logic behind backing him for the CM's post-the most important position in state politics. He never had any political experience of any sort, and I most certainly doubt his knowledge about the actual irregularities in the previous government's welfare schemes. Had he won the election, many of his cabinet ministers would have been inexperienced candidates. I am ashamed to say that the political scenario in the state is mostly caste based. The congress has the 'Reddys' in majority, TDP has the 'Kamma' community and PRP has given tickets largely to the BC and 'Kapu' communities. This is really shameful. 95% of the educated people also think in these terms. Seriously, caste system in India is hindering our growth as a nation. The other day I was reading an article about a certain Mr.D.P.Ojha DGP, Bihar. How he was suspended for bringing out some cases pending on a notorious RJD MP Mohammed Shahabuddin. He was fired by the Rabri government last December. He later submitted a 100-page report on Siwan Mohammad Shahabuddin revealing his links with Pakistan's ISI and other international criminal gangs. He stood as an independent contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the Begusarai constituency in Bihar. He started the "Clean Up Bihar" platform. I don't know if he won (I hope he did), but if he did not, then it's a shame on the part of Biharis to elect an extremely corrupt government. There are only a handful men who dare to speak the truth and do the right thing, come what may. There are even fewer educated men who have come into active politics. This is something that we should be completely ashamed of.

There are so many things that we ought to do, but we don't. We, so very often, resign ourselves to our fate. Very rarely do we try to change the way our system works. We have only ourselves to blame for the situation we now are in. We are so very much like Hobbits. It's as if we despise change. But, there is bound to be change. I am one among the many hopefuls who would like to contribute a lot towards it, and I will. Someday, there will be a REVOLUTION!

Someday..'MERA BHARAT HOGA MAHAAN'!!..in every sense

26 Cheers
Brijesh

VERSION II

CHAPTER III

THE GRASS LOOKS GREENER ON THIS SIDE

On the flip side, there is something interesting going on. I will publish what's happening at a later stage. Until then, I have my fingers crossed!

Right now....my room is bustling with friends..that's something that I like unless it interferes with my privacy :)..everyday seems to be a weekend..yet, I'm waiting for weekends :)..(what a lousy bugger I am!!..always wanting a holiday..haha).

I'm mighty happy that the F1 season has started. I want Kimi to win somehow, however, getting ahead of that Brawn car will pose some challenge even to the likes of Kimi, Lewis and Massa. The diffuser is certainly the difference..and for experienced drivers like Jenson Button and Barrichelo..its like a magic wand they can use anytime. I'm also excited about the new rule changes...overtaking looks fun and with the new set of rules from the next season about the drivers' championship..things look verry interesting. :)

Roger lost another semifinal..and to Murray again. I HATE to see Roger lose. I just can't digest the fact that he's losing more matches of late..mostly because of the number of unforced errors! I know how frustrating it must be for Roger, but yes..he has to admit it..his domination over world tennis has faded. If he can come back (which will be bloody brilliant)..make less errors, get more first serves in and not panic on important points like he used to about 3 years back, then there is a very high certainty that he will win at least 2 of the next 3 grand slams this year.
Go Roger!!!

Coming to cricket..India is playing well..they are not particularly playing brilliantly..I mean with consistency. There is a lot of work to do if they have to beat the likes of SA and Australia. There is a lot of promise for the future, but there is lots to do. Sachin is enjoying his game and Dravid is back to form and I'm happy. Should India win this test in Auckland, it will be a very big achievement for the team. Next up is IPL. The atmosphere will certainly be different but SA are great hosts. I want Deccan Chargers to do well and Mumbai Indians to win. Then World T20 and the Champions Trophy..Phew!!!..lott of cricket to come over the next 6 months. Should India win any of these tournaments, boy... its gonna be great!!!!.

In the meanwhile..the selectors should be looking at a good spinner. Somebody who can endure all that international cricket has to offer. A leg spinner who can do at least half what Kumble has done, will be a great find. Piyush Chawla is promising, but is very young and needs loads of guidance.

So many things to keep me busy...so much to follow. I'm finding an excuse in all these activities and neglecting things that give me real pleasure...Sketching, data mining, photography, blogging, workouts, badminton..It's almost as if I have given up sketching (bloody hell!!)..

I have to get back to being active..come what may..and most importantly, I have to do something that will define my future..the only thing that is presently most important to me :).

Speaking of all these..life's not that bad after all...there is always a greener side..it's only for you to find it and make it look really good and promising, and believe me when I tell you..you always have the chance to control your life. So do I and so I will!!!

26 Cheers
Brijesh

Disturbia!!

CHAPTER I

PROBLEM

I don't know what's happening to me of late..I have left reason and logic has abandoned me as a sort of retaliation. It's hurting me from the inside..I have never been in this mental state before..for I know what to do in order to get out of this situation..but strangely enough, I'm waiting for chance to turn my fate into something better. It's a huge risk, in that my life and my career depends on the decisions I make now. I have some pretty promising things happening for me, things that are in my control, but control is something I don't have over myself. It's been a pretty long time since I had a peaceful sleep. I fear getting turned into someone who does not know himself. This is actually bad ..because, it's like I am sitting right in front of the control button with the power to do what I want to do and get to where I want to be, but I'm not doing anything about it. It seems as though my mind is paralyzed. There are things that I want to do, but I am avoiding them for no reason as such. This is annoying!!

CHAPTER II

ANALYSIS

Third week of Jan '07...(can't remember the exact date)..but this was the first indication of things to come. Something happened which I am too shameful to disclose. That triggered the snowballing laziness.

And it gets even worse in that I know the solution to my problem..and I am only shying away from it..for reasons I can't explain..not even to myself..and I am ashamed to say that.

I need to act fast..or else I am sure I WILL LOSE MYSELF..and I cannot let that happen...I cannot live with that guilt.

26 Cheers
Brijesh