I Proposed

Y3st3rd4y.
I Heard "Yes" !
Others heard "Yay!"

It was supposed to happen several weeks ago but my preparations were not ready. I could have waited for 1 more week to hit 14th but sometimes the black numbers on a calendar make no more sense than ant trails.

Now that this is over ... I have to plan the messy details. I am feeling tired ... feel the honeymoon is already over.

PS: Since you are sooo curious, my thesis proposal title is "New lower bound technique for constant depth quantum circuits"

Konbanwa

I was having a hard time concentrating myself since I woke up today. So when I was told about the Japanese Film Series 2009 at BU, I knew I had to be there tonight for the first movie. I somehow have to catch up the with proposal presentation but I doubt I would have gotten anything worthwhile accomplished in those 2 hours.

As I hinted, today was the first movie - Rikyu. Overall nice movie. It started with the message that this movie is about the conflict of art and politics ... and that was the sublime focus of the effort. The ending scene showed the revered tea master Rikyu walking away to court ritual suicide - I liked the way it was shot.

Like most people, especially of south Asian origin, I have great respect for the Japanese race. Apart from their sincerity and confidence there is one thing which I particularly like about them. Their respect towards everything that commands it. From the mighty steel structures to the stylish details - the actually take time and effort to appreciate the beauty in everything. Watching them, in person or in movie, is a learning experience of the oft-misquoted "beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder".

About the movie though, I am sure I have no qualification to make any technical judgement but I felt the movie was marred by its editing. As I said before, the movie tried to balance art and the harshness of Japanese lords (think 16th century). In fact, the main Lord was a comic character and he acted nicely. But serious editing issues ruined most of the artistic moments. Just when the mood for a particular scene was setting it, then the scene would cut. And there were several short takes which did not at all fit into the flow. The acting was good and the movie ... oh it was about a famous tea master and his ambitous comic warlord ... was well directed to show the Japanese way of life that I describe above.

Next week, it's a Kurosawa film that I have not seen. I plan to watch it too.

Dr No-Know

What are you doing here ?
- PhD. In theoretical computer science.
Why are you doing it ? You like it ... ?
- (pause) Why do people do things ... *shrug*

Between a student (junior, semester just began) and me (PhD, 6+ years).
The last sentence was a bit cliche - it sounded like "shaadi kabhi koi sochke karta hai?" from the movie KANK. But, really - why exactly am I doing a PhD ? That too in this good-for-boring topic.

It is definitely not job ... they are either PhD aspirants or wanna-be advisors who tell you that PhD can get you a good job straight away. More so if your topic is orthogonal to money making trades.

Money ... no job no athanni. And teaching jobs, the only ones we are not overqualified for, even claim to pay us with satisfaction. Its official.

Fame ... why not ask about being lucky to born as the prince of Brunei.

We are talking about books, journals and long nights with pen and paper ... so I am skipping the whole angle of social life, girls or glamour.

Someone at the corner beside the free coffee is mumbling satisfaction ... or is it me singing A situation leading to sweet salvation ? This is pure gambling ... achieving satisfaction is purely a mental skill .. yes *skill*. If you are desperate enough to be satisfied, it will happen. Things people do for ...

I don't think I had any particular benefit in mind when I decided to replace a good, interesting, paying (oh yes...) job by this doctoral pursuit of bottomless knowledge. I just wanted to see this field in greater detail ... and I think I just wanted to do a PhD. As simple as that. Well... not quite, coming to think of it. My job was interesting but was not creatively rewarding and not _that_ challenging ... you know ... yes, I enjoyed it but not in _that_ way. It is hard to pinpoint. Escape route towards fatal attraction ... a provocative mix to give birth to yet another PhD graduate student. Yours truly.

bananas ?

Do you know what a banana tactic is ? I am duh sure you don't. You can't. And you won't if you stop here. That's a good reason in my rule book, so read on...

I call it the banana tactic. I still have a mild addiction to my own life, so lets just say the name is inspired by what follows below. What is plagiarism elsewhere is inspiration in art and academics. So, no hard feelings please.

B: see u later. be back soon.
d: leaving ?
B: nah - going to get bananas.
(it was around 2:30 then and B usually finds midday ghas-phus around that time)
d: WHAT ! bananas ? you have decided to eat bananas for lunch to lose
that extra 2 kilos you gained <censored>
B: its funny. people don't respect fruits anymore.

And then I was bestowed the whats and whens.

You feel hungry. You step out. Wait you don't. It's cold so you find armour for windchill. As you add more layers, you start thinking where would you go ?

Incidentally, this question could be a hundred-dollar question or a hundred-cent question based on your spatio-temporal coords. Here it's really hard to find good stuff to disguise as lunch material. And if you have one of the many Indian restrictions, you are better off acquiring a taste in raw leaves. Which is not that bad anyway ... oh, well... I learned fast.

So ... instead of hoping for a miracle, B hoped to get a banana or two. They never fail, kind of like books or dogs or shrimp - all of them are hard to hate. If something nice to eat is found, good for you. Oh ... something nice do come up once in a while, it's not thaaat bad. And if you will pardon my adultery with food, I even miss McD fries after not having them for half a year. Personally, I find stuff to sate my appetite.

Oh I veer again. The point is, when you want something, you set something as your gold standard. Then you either hanky-panky try to reach that. Or you say that you are not going to get it realistically, and instead shoot for something less royal ... so much less that you are never gonna be disappointed. Either way, you can be content. Take your pick. I christen the latter way of life as banana tactic.

I personally tend to choose the former path. Being obsessive with almost everything I do, I mean the stuff I really really have a passion for, I overdo what I should do. Kind of like trekking my way to El Dorado instead of watching it in 3-D in IMAX. Failures and disappointments are my closest enemies. They come with this dude called me.

I think it helps if one has a blend of no-compromise and banana smoothie. In the end, being content matters. Do we agree on that one ? Maybe not. I have a fascination about the 'process' being right more than the 'end'. I guess the banana tactic is not my kind of game. Still its a good tactic. And a good name.

Do you want to know about Salami tactic now ? Fear not, it's not mine. Ask Ask.

shhhoking

It was shocking. It was shocking when I first heard it on CNN IBN livecast but at that time it was still in design phase. I read it today in The Telegraph and now it is seriously shocking!

After the 4 southern states and Rajasthan and Bihar, Maharashtra Assembly also passed a law for the domestic workers or housemaids or bais. What do they have to do? Register with the government. What do they get? Job security and perks like the salaried class. Weekly day off, proper sick leave, bonus, PF, pension, health insurance yada yada yada. Easy brownie points for the government.

This is one of the many unorganised sectors in India where some of the above perks might be beneficial but way too cumbersome. It does not make sense to have a compulsory weekly day off for a housemaid. What happens if the milkman says he won't come on Sundays anymore ? In fact, some of the perks are better left on a one-to-one compromise basis, as an understanding between the house mistress and the housemaid. That is how it currently is. In my opinion, there are other unorganised sectors which could be regularised with more efficiency and would actually make sense.

What was shocking was not the passing of this law. Well it was, to some extent. I, however, kept wondering how such a law is going to be implemented. Making a simple thing complicated by introducing paperwork never works. Then came the fun part. This law is going to be a welfare law, which means its just a recommendation. No one is going to be punished if they do not follow it, in short a big thumbs down to implementation. Shocked ?

The state is supposed to set up a Domestic Workers’ Welfare Board where housemaids have to register to avail these facilities. Presumably, the board will also take care of the government's share of the help. With any board in India, comes a party banner - is anyone else finding it fishy ?

I wonder why there is no such law in my darling state West Bengal. We are supposed to be the first to think and pen down the law on paper.

Green bong intellectuals

Kolkata is a city full of intellectuals. You can find them of course in schools and colleges, but surprisingly you can spot a few even in the local chai-shop, in the evening gatherings in a park or even in an government office full of sorry-we-donot-work babus. A few of them, I suspect, are self-proclaimed antels. That is not the point.

I do not know if intellectuals are only supposed to use their so-called intellect to endlessly ramble about subjects of their liking, or disliking or of indifference. Or they have nothing else to talk about and so they create a subject from thin air. But historically the bengali intellectuals have caused many a changes to the society. Mainly through their voice, their writing, their support and in some cases, their actions. Even the politicians of east India knew how to think. If you do not think, you do not exist. This is not exactly what Cogito, ergo sum means, but I consider this a necessary survival guide. Bengalis as late as in 1970s knew this in one way or the other. No more now.

Statesman Gokhale once said What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow. This statement is true even today in a sense ... we kind of think even today - because we do nothing else.

There have been two occassions which caused a furore among these thinkers. One was the infamous Nandigram incident and other the Rizwanur case. There were mass protests by well known individuals, young credit-card rich generation and have-nots all alike. Kudos to them, but in hindsight both of them had a political flavour; protest the oppressions and favour the helpless. Instant brownie points - makes you a hero overnight.

Those who are in Kolkata or somewhat updated about happenings there know about the Green Crusade going on these for last half a decade or so. Sadly it can be summarised as Subhas Dutta vs State. Kolkata, along with the national capital, has been branded as the two most polluted cities in the region. Delhi is taking stringest measures, and is quite successful in that. That means we are going to the retain the top post all by ourselves. Feels nice ?

After a lot of drama in and out of the courtroom, finally the government seemed to be cornered this time. They had to remove all two-stroke autos from the streets of Kolkata. Well... as expected, that did not quite happen. The government found way to circumnavigate the ban; opposition and other parties raised other objections. In short, the autos are all back on the streets.

What is happening with the auto-wallahs and the government (the police in Bengal is effectively a government department) is expected. What I find surprising is the absence of any so-called intellectual in this movement. Couldn't they simply promise not to ride two-stroke autos. Granted that will cause them a lot of inconvenience. They can settle for a compromise - do that on every alternate day for the next 1 month. Something in which they suffer a bit to make sure the auto-wallahs and the unions and the parties suffer a lot more.

I heard TMC called an auto and taxi strike today - apparently Ms Banerjee thinks that if the public faces inconvenience, then there will be a flood of sympathies for the ban protesters. I am scared that she might actually have a working strategy there. Instead of countering her style of inconvenience by boycotting autos and making their life hell, the evergreen bong intellectuals will silently use other means and return to riding auto to earn their daily cup of tea. And talk about other issues like why is Australia cricket team doing so bad.

Here is a strategy: every alternate day, for 2 weeks, do not ride 2 stroke autos. 2 stroke autos are easy to recognise, they are labelled "2 RE" at their back. And a sign of protest, wear a green patch, cloth or paper, somewhere in their body.

Make them realise that you think about your city. You can at least be selfish and think about your own personal health that is in danger due to the smoke belching three-wheeler beasts. Make them realise that they could own the vehicle but you are the customer and decide the market. Make them realise that public opinion just does not mean rambling over cups of tea in coffee house and then hopping on to a Belgachia-Lake town auto because it is convenient.

Thinkers of the city which never stops thinking ... for once, stop pretending and actually think.

One person parties

How come there are all these "one person party"s mushrooming all over
India like the roadside temples ? The English word "party" means a
group of more than one person. Contradiction ab initio.

I would like to focus mainly on the one-woman parties but I cannot
really blame the women; they are following the men leaders. Yet, there
is a difference. Like it or not, political movement in India is male
dominated. Maybe it is like this in other countries too.

Wait there, I didn't say male centric. South Asian countrymen (or
citizens, to be politically correct) like the idea of a woman at the
center. "Nari jaati", "Nari shakti" etc. attract middle class
intellectuals and have-not poor folks at the same time. For different
reasons though. I have 27 seconds to explain this. Keep reading.

For the would-be intellectuals, having a woman at the center is a
glorious way to flaunt the tag of world's largest democracy. It speaks
volumes of our open political system, underlines the principles of
equal opportunity and reminds everyone else that we are different.
Well, I think we are differently chauvinist, but keep that aside for
now.

For the have-nots, it is a chance for them to be heard. Men can go and
earn the bread they eat for dinner. And women, who are pretty good in
managing households of these men, can go and manage an even larger
household of men. She has a natural talent for that. They can discuss
next day strategies over dinner.

There are leaders who are likable for different reasons. A woman is by
nature kind, gentle and serene; this makes them extremely approachable
- a desirable mention in the CV of any aspiring politician. I would
like to talk to a woman instead of a cunning, rough and corrupt man
any day of the year. Women can be corrupt too ... but hey, their
number is insignificant compared to the male counterparts.

Hence, we have numerous one-woman parties. These parties end up having
a few other important leaders but still all the decisions are taken by
their leaders. To me this feels like a small scale dictatorship and a
milder one.

There is nothing against the rules to ban these parties. There should
not be one. History shows us how ideas from a single man or woman can
change the society. It is ok for a single person to take forward an
idea. That's how revolution starts. But it is foolish to blindly
follow this person without following the idea. Sadly, that is the
state of the Indian voters these days; they are mesmerized by the
wowness of their women leaders.

I am not an usual male chauvinist who scoffs a women in power. I only
blame when blames are due.

My first ballet

Ballet is a dance performance with elaborate sets and matching orchestra in the background. That is how Steve described it to me. He was right, but the words carry more meaning than they might sound.

I decided to spend the afternoon before Christmas Eve watching The Nutcracker (artistic designer: MIKKO NISSINEN). I have never been inside any opera house before, let alone see any live opera. So this was supposed to be a memorable experience. It was, for all the right reasons. The performance was at the Boston Opera House in the theatre district of Boston. The opera house was magnificent, with decorated walls and ceilings and beautiful chandeliers providing just the perfect lighting. For some reason there was a strong smell of alcohol where I was seated but that might just be some exquisite perfume (or an already tipsy opera fan). Oh, I got a $20 student rush ticket but got a seat in the 6th row from the stage so I was pretty fortunate that way.

Anything I say about the actual performance would fall short of its actual beauty. I have been to a few Bangla theatres and watch a lot of movies onscreen. I am also a big fan of classical Indian dance performances. But this turned out to be a completely different visual experience. Simply put visually stunning. The set and the promps were just magic. The dances were just in tune with the orchestra music, which was also wonderful. I wonder if I can buy the score somewhere. The dancers were graceful, the direction was perfect with the required amount of humour needed to keep the kids in their seats and the the whole experience was very very colourful.

Simply put, I am very impressed. I am glad I decided to watch one ballet performance by our own Boston Ballet. I really am.

Bostonians are not rude but ...

I find the people of Boston extremely friendly and cordial. But I have also been told that there is a lot of racism here, especially among native Boston people. Maybe I have only seen the good side of Boston because I usually interact with the people in academia. Academia is the last place to foster racism; so, that might explain my biased opinion about Boston. I still believed what I saw ... until ...

Someone (from Arlington, I believe) posted an ad on Craigslist about

Queen IKEA platform bed. Delivery possible - $80 (Arlington)

One of the interested customers, who happened to be an Indian, emailed him an oft-asked question:

Hi
Is it still available. is mattress included in the price? Pls send
your contact details.
--
Thanks & Regards
S.S.

This somehow angered the seller and here is his email that I wish I never saw:

This is the IKEA website of the platorm bed.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S99849763 (RETAIL $180)

Quoted from that page:
Slatted bed base, mattress and bedlinens are sold separately.

The slats are $40 extra for a queen bed size.
The cheapest [indian] mattress is $70.

Frame180+mattress70+slats40=complete290.00
Do you really think Id sell a $300 bed for $80?

> Hi
> Is it still available.
IF IT WAS, why woudnt you include your phone number like the other 9 people?
Do I really want to spend 5 days emailing back and forth when a 10minute call would suffice?

> is mattress included in the price?
Did you bother to do ANY research on the bed? The other 9 people did.
They realized that $80 for a $180 bed was a good deal.. I even added the slats ($40) to the deal.
$220 value for $80?!!! Any smart person would jump at the offer...9 people saw the value and sent their phone numbers in the email YOU DIDNT.

> Pls send your contact details.
Why? So I can listen to the the world's most annoying accent
INDIAN/PAKY try to tell me that I should sell it for less? DISCOUNT? DISCOUNT? Then be told to deliver it wayyyyyy out in some shit town - because indians are too cheap to live in the boston area.
You'd want me to deliver it during traffic time or during the snow storm because DOT DOT DOT Indians are self centered, inconsiderate assholes.

Then I get to your house, it smells of curry and body odor and the heat is at 90*.
Your husband cant lift (INDIANS ARE WEAK) and youre no help. Your children are ugly and in the way. Then after all that, you, AS INDIANS, would want to re-negociate to an even lower price.

I didnt put my phone number on the posting because I didnt want to have annoying indians calling me at 1130pm like it was 2pm.
I dont deal with indans anymore. I just say NO and hang up.

This is the IKEA website of the platorm bed.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S99849763 (RETAIL $180)

Quoted from that page:
Slatted bed base, mattress and bedlinens are sold separately.

The slats are $40 extra for a queen bed size.
The cheapest [indian] mattress is $70.

Frame180+mattress70+slats40=complete290.00
Do you really think Id sell a $300 bed for $80?

FUCK INDIANS (DOTS not feathers)
FUCK INDIA
GANESH IS A WHORE!

--
Thanks & Regards
S.S. (CUNT INDIAN)

The interested buyer was extremely annoyed due to the abusive language against Indians in general and had to post this email to a list from where I came to know about this incident. But please please tell me, that this is an exception. Boston is a fantastic city. I love Boston.

Miss you India!

Nandini said this to me recently,

The world sometimes feels so big.
I feel so small.
At 5'4" I feel very overwhelmed in this country.
But its not the same in India!