P i s s e d O f f P i x i e s

"What's going on !!? I cannot seem to find a decent program on a single channel for the past one hour", complains Zuick.

"Duh. That seems to be the normal state of affairs these days", quickly surmises Wopie.

Zuick and Wopie are pixies, little mischievous fairy-like creatures with wings.They live in the pixie-verse, which is a universe with the laws of physics quite similar to our own universe, except in areas such as time travel, teleportation, remote mind-control etc. One of the fundamental discoveries that changed the life style of pixies was the invention of the pixie-television.

Pixies are a relaxed and romantic species by nature. They love watching television. The pixie-television is none like our own television - it is a hyper-dimensional projection of 3D images, scents, sounds and emotions. It is no wonder that pixies are quite glued to it.

The interesting thing that has to be admitted is that the life of the Homosapiens on this planet called Earth is not, as you think, a collective outcome of several conscious entities. But, it is, in fact, the program on the pixie-television.

Yes, that is right. Our universe is nothing but the plot-verse for their television program. Human beings are merely characters created for the entertainment of pixies.

This arrangement worked fine for a long time for the pixies. Their romantic sentiments were well addressed during the several previous episodes of the television programs. In human beings, there had been characters strong and gallant. There had been characters cute and lovely. Pixies had a good time following all the mess that these characters got themselves into.

In fact, the pixie-television is interactive. And pixies can even interrupt the lives of the characters if they wish to do so, like as recounted by Shakespere in his Midsummer Night's Dream.

But, these happy times are soon getting to an end.

"These characters on the TV are turning into a joke", exclaims Zuick.

"Yeah. I mean I just do not get the whole concept", wonders Wopie, "Nobody seems to be fighting a war for the sake of love. Isn't it supposed to be the plot, during the episode of the Trojan war ? Now, what are they fighting for ? Oil !! Can it get any stupider than that ? "

"They are all a bunch of confused idiots. Why do they work like donkeys ? And why do they spend all their money eating junk food ?"

"I don't even feel like getting inside their universe anymore. It stopped being like fun."

"And when is the last time you saw a character love something for the sake of love ? "

"Dear God Pixeus !! You are right Zuick. Love is becoming dead."

"I think we should demand an explanation. If it is not about love, why are they showing all this crap on pixie-television ? "

Zuick and Wopie form a club, the PTCC - Pixie Television Condemnation Club. They spread the word amongst all their friends - Blooter, Wigwag, Tria, Lymee and so on. They finally meet Qonsper - the resident nerd amongst the local pixies.

"You fools of pixiedom. You don't have a clue of what's going on. Do you think it is accidantal that they are showing all this crap on pixie-television ? No, my friends, no ! The evil government is planning a massive brainwashing operation for us pixies. They are sending such images on the television only to subdue us into brainless and robotic creatures."

"Whoooa !! "

"I say, we should rebel against all this. Rebel against the television. When pixies no longer watch any of these programs on the TV, they will finally abandon them due to the fall of ratings. I think we should get riddance of these dumb human beings for good. We have had them for enough time on the TV", explains Qonsper.

Everybody responds enthusiastically, "Yeah !! "

S á g a r a k s h é t h r a

The ancient Indian epic of Mahábháratha narrates the story of an apocalyptic war. This is not a war between the good and the evil. This war is about too much greed and its necessary culmination into a major battle.

Kauravás, led by Duryódhana, are consumed by greed and blinded by absolute power. They deny their cousins, the Pándavás, the rightful share of their property. Fighting on the side of the Kauravás are great warriors and righteous men. Ranking first amongst them are Bhíshma - who is the greatest warrior of all time, and Dróna - the greatest teacher in the art of warcraft. The forces of Kauravás are ten times stronger than those of Pándavás. But above all, Kauravás have a great archer to fight on behalf of them - Karña, a warrior born of low parents. In times of adversity, Duryódhana befriends Karña and gives him respect and a position of power. In return to friendship, Karña would sacrifice his life for the sake of Duryódhana.

The interesting thing that is revealed later is that Karña is actually the eldest of the Pándavás. Due to a sad episode, he gets abandoned by his mother in his childhood. If the Pándavás win the war, the throne would naturally go to Karña. But, Karña still keeps his loyalty to his friend Duryódhana, and fights his own brothers in the war.

Legend has it that the epic war of Mahábháratha repeats itself throughout time, whenever people are consumed by greed, whenever equality and justice are burnt in the flames of arrogance brought through by absolute power.

In our times, the greed of the Kauravás finds its reflection in the greed of the corporations. The absolute power wielded by Duryódhana finds its counterpart in the nuclear arsenal of the USA. The mighty Bhíshma and Dróna find their equivalents in the great universities and the research labs of Europe and the USA. We have our own Karña - the emigrant researcher employed by the drug development corporation, the musical artist employed by the recording industry, the software developer employed in the big industry...

The starving peoples of the world who are denied access to their rightful resources by their own cousins - they have only a handful of Pándavás to fight on their behalf. But, these Pándavás are great warriors undaunted by their adversity. They have a resource which the Kauravás do not possess - Krishna, the greatest philosopher of the entire mankind.

In the approaching future, the world is set stage for another apocalyptic battle. But, this time it will be fought on the sea.

---

The sea is everywhere. In the begining, people fear it, they run away from it. But they occassionally receive sudden outbursts from the sky - messages from the sea, constantly reminding them of their duty - to discover the deep, to discover the beyond.

Gradually, people get rid of their fear for the sea. They make ships and sail into it - reaching faraway lands, meeting people and making friendships.

This sea is called information.

But, the levels of the sea start rising suddenly. Indeed, they rise at an alarming pace. So, people build dikes and dams to prevent the sea from flooding. These dams turn into fortresses denying entry to the sea and denying entry to people from outside.

But, trade over the sea continues. Soon, this trade turns into a massive robbery operation. Huge ships of gold and wealth start to sail from disadvantaged lands into the lockers of the massive fortresses.

---

"greetings. would like to reach raider"

"raider answering. who signals ? "

"plumber. I find strategic information"

"concerning ?"

"PNS"

"lose no time"

---

The message is transmitted in no time over the sea.

" US NUCLEAR STRIKE FOILED
A secret message captured directly from the President of the USA, the supreme commander of the US miltary forces, over a preemptive nuclear strike on Beijing is transmitted on several websites over the internet. China gets alarmed. All the nations of the world get on a red alert. The highly encrypted military intelligence of the USA seems to have been broken by a secret group of computer hackers. The possible reasons for the nuclear strike are still disputed with no explanations forthcoming from the US government. Massive protests have commenced in the USA demanding an urgent inquiry behind the episode. The Security Council of the United Nations meets in session with the notable absence of the USA. "

The dikes preventing the sea from flooding get broken. The entire people of the planet become sea-borne.

The epic war on the sea commences.

X r e a t i v i t y

Most of the good stories are written about travellers. Whenever a culture meets with another, a new story is born. May be I can generalize and say that, all good stories are about the meeting of two places or cultures. Sometimes, the second party in the meeting will be the audience themselves, the first party being the protagonists. For example, this happens with a story set in the future or in a fantasyland.

The problem with the current generation of writers is that very few people seem to notice this fact. All the great writers of old have spent considerable time traveling. Somerset Maugham has wandered throughout Europe and in the Far East - his stories are weaved from those travels. Roald Dahl has found most of his creative inspiration from his experiences in the second world war where he has served in the Royal Air Force. O Henry writes a considerable section of his stories about the Mexican neighbours to his south, and the rest of his repertoire are about con-men bitten by wanderlust. Even the great epics of the past - Illiad, Odyssey, Ramayana, Mahabharata etc. are about the travels of people or the meeting of cultures.

One of the reasons why Bollywood keeps churning out soulless jibberish ad infinitum is because it has forgotten this recipe for a successful story. Instead, it keeps trying out weird formulae such as boy meets girl, girl's father dislikes boy and so on ..

There is no culture without creativity, and there is no creativity without crossing cultures together. So I call this xreativity.

India probably ranks first in the world with respect to cultural diversity. But nobody seems to take notice. Logically speaking, there should be a huge number of TV programs about the travel & life in several parts of India, made for several Indian languages. India is so big - we can have TV channels such as Discovery, Animal Planet, History channel, AXN etc. which are restricted to only within India.

Even in universities, we do not have the tradition of celebrating cultural days. In US campuses, people celebrate China day, Singapore day, India day etc. Why not hold a Telugu day, Gujarathi day, Bengali day in a similar manner within India ?

Indians are a very inquisitive race by nature and are pokey about other cultures. Write a story about a Kabuliwallah parading in the streets of Calcutta, and the whole of India takes notice (This happens to be a lovely story penned by Tagore). Indian writers are currently doing a pathetic job in milking out this diversity for nice stories.

Where is the story about a Punjabi truck driver roaming in Karnataka ? Where is the story about a Rajasthani software engineer working in Hyderabad ? Where is the story about a Tamilian school teacher living in Bihar ? Where are the stories about Malayali armymen serving in Nagaland ? ...

Another thing glares at me now. I wanted to write stories in this blog. Instead, I have been posting brainwashing articles for the entire last year. What has happened to me !! ?

So friends, there will be no more lectures from my side. I will try concentrating only on writing short stories.

É g a l i t é

Égalité is a concept totally lacking in India. If I ever make a decision to leave India for good, it will most probably be because of the lack of égalité. Loosely translated, égalité means equality. But it is more than that. It is a principle of accepting that each person is equally interesting.

In India, we live in the tradition of sucking it up to the stars. A person is either a star or a bozo, nothing in between. I will give examples - Sania Mirza is the face of Indian tennis, Aishwarya Rai is the face of Indian cinema .. I feel disgusted enough when such epithets are mentioned in domestic press. But when they are uttered on the world stage, I feel nauseated.

How about the girl in the neighbourhood who plays really good tennis ? How about the guy in the campus who sings really well ? How about spending some money to purchase tickets for a concert of the local rock band ? How about paying some money to buy the book written by the new writer in the town ? "What !? Does he think he is an Amitav Gosh or what ?" These people are greeted with a fickle smile - "Yeah, we have seen people better than that !".

This is the reason India will never produce anything great or in copious quantities. It is not just about the feeling of disappointment that is imparted onto the minds of talented people. It is the total sucker attitude of the entire population.

Such people can never realize a true democracy.

M u r d e r e r O f M i n d

What was India doing when the fever of renaissance was gripping Europe ?

Listening to this lunatic. This person holds responsibility for the degeneration of Islam into mere puppetry.

One of the most evil persons to have ever walked on earth, he effectively killed the movement of Indian argumentative thought. I feel ashamed to see people glorifying him in current society.

C o n j u g a t e G r a d i e n t M e t h o d

When a person believes that he is doing something for a right cause, he becomes indistinguishable from a robot. Most of the great things happen because of these type of people. Most of the nonsense that we see in the world is also committed by the same kind of people. So where is the distinction ?

The distinction lies in the vision of the people - in what they see.

The problems of the world can be visualized collectively as a function which forms a peak over several dimensions. The solution for these problems lies at the top of the peak and it has to be reached somehow.

In mathematics, the technique that is used to solve this problem is called the conjugate gradient method. When there are thousands of dimensions, we have to first choose a direction to travel. The most simplistic answer - go in that direction where the descent is maximum (called the steepes descent method) - is also ignored by the junta of the world.

Every person has his own direction where he thinks he'll reach the top. In a sense, he is true. Each one of these directions yields an improvement. But the funny thing is that several of these directions are contradictory to each other. Look at the following figure to understand this.

So we see maniacal people (red and blue) fighting with each other about the correct way to reach the top. Sometimes, things get funnier with somebody (yellow) choosing the least important direction for reaching to the top. I could demonstrate this on a simple function over 2 dimensions, so you can imagine what could happen in real-world problems.

Take the problem of improving the status of traffic in India - the problem lies in several dimensions
a) Controlling the really large vehicles and routing them away from the city
b) Controlling traffic in peak hours by urban planning
c) Controlling traffic blockades by specifying seperate pedestrian districts, parking places etc.
d) Getting riders to wear helmets.

Amongst all these dimensions, the traffic police of Hyderabad demonstrate their zeal in (d). Like mad men, they keep digging in this direction and ignore everything else.

As a second example, take the problem of university education - it needs improvement in several dimensions
a) Establishing world class research facilities with proper accountability
b) Getting the students to have a real dialogue with the world around
c) Getting the students to attend the classes

Again, it so happens in India that all the zeal is demonstrated in (c).

Now imagine that we have a sane bunch of people in the world. You would imagine that things would be a lot better. People would choose the best direction to solve all the problems (cyan) instead of the stupidest (yellow). But, even then, it so happens that steepest descent is not the optimal method to reach to the top. We will eventually get there, but not in the most optimal manner. Because we might follow a zig-zag path with two opposing directions choosing alternate steps, taking a very long time to converge. This is what we would see in elections (assuming each step to be of a 5 year duration) with power alternating between left wing and right wing policies.

The Conjugate Gradient Method is a way of obtaining the peak in just "n" steps where "n" is the number of dimensions. The logic is simple - once you choose a direction, do the best you can in the current step, never repeat the direction.

It so happens that all these "n" directions would become perpendicular to each other (In mathematical terminology, they are said to form an orthogonal basis). If you want to understand the logic behind how to choose the right direction at each step, read this document (only for people with a mathematical bent of mind)

I have attended a fascinating mathematics course by Prof Mike Erdmann at Carnegie Mellon. Each one of us students had to choose a topic for write up, and when my turn came, I jumped at the chance of writing the proofs for the conjugate gradient method.

I think this method gives a lot of intuitions about how to organize a debate. When you are debating with another person, you are presenting a view. That is, you take a picture of the 3D function in the above figure, from an angle. Each person has a seperate photograph and you compare these photographs with each other to understand what could be the true shape of the function in 3D.

But most often, a debater fails to see this main purpose of the debate. He keeps insisting that he has the only photo that can capture the 3D shape and keeps digging in that direction. I call this the "root of all the evil" syndrome.

If only we have a smart bunch of leaders, we would end up choosing the right set of directions, and the problem of all the "n" dimensions will get solved in just "n" steps.

D e d i c a t e d T o H y d e r a b a d

I am defending my Masters work in IIIT Hyderabad. It deals with matching planar patterns in perspective images.





After a long love-hate relationship, I am dedicated this work to the city of Hyderabad :)

Apart from obvious applications such as the reconstruction of architectural scenes, this work shall have implications towards the holy-grail problem of computer vision - take a clothed girl as input, produce a naked girl as output

So what is the state of the art ? As an insider, let me confess to you - we are already there !

The technology will be available within 15 years. Now you know exactly what Vision 2020 means !!

As a wise old man has said long before, science has a wicked male gaze. People thought he was talking about nuclear weapons etc. Nah, wrong. This is what he has actually meant. Free and juicy porn forever. (The first post on this blog discusses the horrors of this scenario in a poetic vein)

I am leaving to France to pursue a PhD on a related topic. Future generations of teenagers will look back upon me and my brethern as some kind of heroes, I think.

A G o l d e n W i s h

Otthaina maa bhásha ki putthadi pandagalu

Maró Gurajáda neeku kongottha sogasulu diddu gaaka
Maró Vémana neeku tatva chaitanyam'osagu gaaka
Maró Chinnaya neeché kammani kathalu palkinchu gaaka
Maró Thyágayya neek'impaina svaramul'arpinchu gaaka


May another Gurajáda gift new embellishments to you
May another Vémana teach depths of philosophy to you
May another Chinnaya narrate sweet stories with you
May another Thyágayya offer melodious salutations to you

May we see them all.

C o u n t i n g W i t h Z e r o e s

When people say that Indians have discovered zero, what they mean is that they discovered the way of counting with zeroes.

Without using zeroes, counting would proceed like this

1
11
111
1111
11111

The number 1000 would need to be represented by 1000 digits instead of 4. In fact, due to the Indian method of counting, the storage (representation ability) for a number "n" came down to log(n).

What Indians have discovered is an exponential gain in data-storage. This significant invention made possible the basic arithmetic (multiplication, division etc) to be done in an exponentially less amount of time. It also opened roads for algebra, number theory, trigonometry and so on ..

0
1
10
11
100

The Counter is the most basic digital circuit. The key operation in counting is the toggle operator which reverses the digit on the right most side (called the least significant bit)

At first sight, it feels unnatural to count like this. But the genius of India has discovered this method of counting not less than 3000 years ago. I wish to claim that Indian philosophy takes its roots from this method of thinking.

In the Upanishads, the path of evolution is always a circle. However, a new dimension gets added every time a circle (yuga) gets finished. In this sense, the Indian thought is not fatalistic but progressive. The notion of progress has to be understood from the mode of counting.

In the Taitaríya Upanishad, five dimensions of human existence are mentioned - anna (matter), prána (life), mánasa (mind), vignána (understanding) and ánanda (bliss). Each of these dimensions is held in common with inanimate matter, plants, animals, men and enlightened men respectively.

The goal of scientific endeavour is to discover the ways of operation for each of the above 5 dimensions. In fact, ancient Indian philosophy is extremely accomodating for the theories of cosmos, relativity (matter) and evolution (life), that have been produced by centuries of scientific development.


Indian philosophy welcomes scientific endeavour to be made for understanding the remaining 3 dimensions as well. Currently, slow inroads are being made for undestanding Mánasa (mind) - through computer science. The future awaits similar revolutions to be made in the remaining dimensions. In India, progress and justice are truly symbolized by a wheel, as identified by the great emperor Ashoka, and as imbibed in the national flag. The wheel signifies the circular motion of progress through various terrains. It is also the symbol of the dawn of civilization.

I will also offer a surprising connection to Marxist thought from the Indian method of counting. Marx says that the society progresses through several stages where each stage is exactly the negation of its preceeding stage. Feudalism is the opposite of pastoralism, capitalism is the opposite of feudalism, communism is the opposite of capitalism etc. How is that possible ?

000 hunting-gathering
001 pastoral
010 feudal
011 capitalist
100 socialist

You see that the right-most digit of each stage is the negation of the previous stage. This is the Marxist method of understanding economic progress. (Need not be yours, if you don't use the binary system for counting)

You may also see that the right-most bits of socialism and feudalism are in alignment (both 0), thus supporting my earlier complaint that the communists in India are obstructing the end of feudalism from happening.

On a final note, the anecdote I narrated in my previous post also alludes to this method of counting.

W h a t I s L i f e ?

"You look troubled, Jaya. What is on your mind ?", kindly says Dheesára - the chieftian of Vaiśáli.

"Áchárya, why is it difficult to absolve oneself from attachments ? ", asks Jaya.

"Ask a simpler question, Jaya ", says Dheesára.

Jaya thinks for a few minutes and asks - "What is the relationship of oneself with the world, Áchárya ?"

"Ask a simpler question, Jaya", Dheesára repeats.

Jaya thinks for a few more minutes and asks - "What is the common aspect between the world and oneself, Áchárya ? "

"The answer is evident, Jaya. It is called life. "

'Then what is life, Áchárya ? "

"If you want to understand life, you have to first understand death. Death is the total absence of life. It is the consummate negation."

"Yes Áchárya. But what is life ? "

"But Jaya, do you understand what death is ? "

"Yes Áchárya. I do understand. "

"Life is the convolution of life and death."

"How is that possible Áchárya ? If death be the negation of life, how can life be composed of death ? "

"Have you studied arithmetic, Jaya ? "

"Yes Áchárya."

"Take the number zero. Isn't it the consummate negation of any kind of existence ? "

"Yes Áchárya."

"Now take the number one. It signifies existence."

"Yes Áchárya."

"A one is composed of a one and a zero. Moreover, if you want to look for higher numbers, you can compose them with ones and zeros by changing the place value of one."

"Yes Áchárya. But how does it relate to the question of life ?"

"Jaya, when you want to look for the existence of higher forms of life, death is an inevitable part in one of the places. You can choose to ignore it, but it is always there. When you look at the joy in the world, there is always suffering behind it. So do not make aversion to the suffering in the world. It is always an invitation to higher joy. "

"I am glad with your answer Áchárya. But there is still a doubt in my mind. What is the reason for the origin of life ? When does the equation end - the equation of infinite recursion of life and death ? "

"I am sorry Jaya. The mathematics required for answering that question is neither within your reach, nor within mine."