I have a habit of downloading a copy of interesting e-books that are freely available on the internet so that I can browse through my collection whenever I am bored and I don’t have a working internet connection.

This evening, I noticed an interesting PDF document in my collection which goes by the title “Interesting and Amazing Creations in Sanskrit”. The document is still available in the public domain. You can find it here

I found several interesting verses in them. Presenting one here just for the record

tam bhU-su-tA-mu-kti-mu-dA-ra-hA-sam van-de ya-to bha-vya-bha-vam da-yA-srI |
srI-yA-da-vam bha-vya-bha-to-ya-de-vam sam-hA-ra-dA-mu-kti-mu-tA-su-bhU-tam ||

The first line addressed to Lord Rama in prose order is:

bhUsutAmuktim udAra hAsam bhavya bhavam yato dayAsrI tam vande |

Meaning: I pay my homage to him who released the daughter of the earth (Sita), whose laughter is deep, whose embodiment is grand and from whom mercy and splender arise everywhere. = Lord Rama.

The second line addressed to Krishna in the prose order is:

bhavyabhatoyadevam samhAradAmuktim uta asu bhUtam srI yAdavam vande||

Meaning: I bow down before Krishna, the descendent of Yadava family, who is the lord of the sun as well as the moon, who liberated even her (Pootana) who wanted to bring an end to his life, and who is the soul of the entire universe.

The beauty of the verse in case you haven’t noticed already is that the second line when read in reverse is the first line, and the first line when read in reverse is the second line! In other words, this is an example of  a palindromic verse.

The PDF document contains several such examples of showcasing the wordplay found in Sanskrit Literature.

I shall leave you with two more:

1. Verse written as a magic square such that it reads the same when read in all four directions. These types of verses are called sarvatobhadra, meaning perfect in all directions. The four directions being:
   1. Starting from top-left parse the rows from left to right till you reach the bottom-right syllable.
   2. Starting from the top-left parse the columns from top to bottom till you reach the bottom-right syllable.
   3. Starting from bottom-right parse the rows from right to left till you reach the top-left syllable.
   4. Starting from bottom-right parse the columns from bottom to top till you reach the top-left syllable.
      Ex: This sarvatobhadra palindromic verse from Shishupala Vadha written in the 8th century by the poet Magha.
2. Verses which present a solution to the Knight’s tour problem ( I kid you not!). There is a quadruplet from Vedanta Deshika’s 13th Century composition named Paduka Sahasra. Each line in the quadruplet contains 16 syllables. Thus the first two lines can be arranged on a chess board from square 1 to square 32. Now, the third and the fourth lines of the quadruplets are anagrams of the syllables present in the first two lines. So if you now traverse the chess board following the syllables of the third and the fourth line, such that the syllables are ordered on the chess board as per the first two lines, you end up completing the knight’s tour. Here’s a demo of the solution to the knight’s tour problem available as FLASH animation. And here’s more material explaining the meaning of the verses.

I took the JEST-2010 (Joint Entrance Screening Test) today.

Institutes such as the Institute of Mathematical Sciences Chennai, and now apparently even the Chennai Mathematical Institute shortlist candidates for their MSc and PhD programs based on scores of this test. I wrote the Theoretical Computer Science paper.

I thought that the paper was very easy. The paper consisted of 25 objective questions and 6 “prove this” type subjective questions worth 40 marks.

I managed to answer 24 of the 25 objective questions. I couldn’t answer the one which was based on Graph coloring, a subject which I had skipped during my preparation.

Of the 6 subjective questions, I answered 5 worth 31 marks. I did not solve the 9 mark problem which was again based on Graph-coloring. I thought I would come back to it after finishing the other 5, but never got around to do it.

I have forgotten most of the objective questions. I do remember the subjective ones though. So, listing subjective questions just for the record.

1. A five pointed star can be formed by joining the Vertices (1,3), (3,5), (5,2), (2, 4), (4,1) of a regular pentagon. Show that the sum of the angles formed at the vertices of the 5-pointed star is 180 degrees. [4 marks]
2. An array contains N elements. Write an efficient algorithm to check if there are two numbers whose sum is zero. [5 marks]
3. Show that the Tower of hanoi problem can be solved in (2^n) - 1 steps if there are n-rings. For extra credit prove that this is optimal solution.  [6 marks]
4. A triolimo is an L shaped object formed by connecting three square tiles of a chess board. Given a (2^k)*(2^k) chessboard, if one of the squares, any arbitrary one, is marked red, prove that the rest of the chess board can be filled up with triolimos. [6 marks]
5. A Partition() Algorithm almost similar to the one presented in CLRS in the quicksort section was given. We were asked to answer
   1. What are the assumptions made in the code.
   2. What does the algorithm return.
   3. What happens when a certain loop is rewritten without certain conditions.
   4. What is the loop invariant. Prove it’s invariance. [10 marks]
6. Something on d-colorable, degenerate graphs, and their vertex cover. Don’t remember the problem since I didn’t get time to solve this one. [9 marks]

Like I said earlier, the paper was easier than I had expected. But in the case of competitive exams, and I have experienced this in the past, there are good chances that you don’t make it to the next round if the paper was easy. An easy paper implies that most people would have solved as many questions as you would have. Since its on a relative scale, even a minor mistake in an easy paper would be severely penalised. More so in the case of JEST, since the subjective questions will be evaluated only if you have cleared the cut-offs set for the objective questions. Which means that no scope for any mistakes in the objective questions.

So, I hope that I haven’t screwed up anywhere in the objective questions, since they were way too easy.

The other thing about JEST subjective questions is that you have to answer within the space provided in the question paper. Which means that if you are proving a theorem, you need to be very judicious about which steps you are going to skip in case there is a space constraint.

Now, I not used to solving theorems in a space-constrained environment like this one. I don’t usually skip steps but on the contrary try to include as many of them for the sake of completeness. This is probably a bad-habit that I have acquired over the years due to my 100/100-in-mathematics obsession. Basically in those days, you wouldn’t want to lose out on a perfect score in mathematics just because the evaluator could not follow how you derived one step from the previous one. IOW, you didn’t want to give any opportunity to the evaluator to deprive you from scoring full marks. And in my home-town, a 100 in mathematics used to earn you a lot of respect.

But in the case of JEST, I guess the strategy has got to be different. One should make use of the space provided for rough work and copy only the relevant portions into the space provided for answers.

According to the IMSc website, the results should be out by end of March. So not much to do till then.

Finally, I must admit that I enjoyed the whole process of preparation very much[*]. I am revisiting CLRS after a span of 4 years, and it has been a very enjoyable experience. I think, after four years of working in the kernel and having dealt with a lot of similar algorithms, I am able to appreciate the design of some of the algorithms better than I would have while I was at college. Now that I have started studying the book, I want to continue the study habit. Of course, I won’t be spending as many hours per day as I have spent in these last couple of months.

Anyway, this is the first technical paper that I wrote after 4 years. I am glad that I it went well.

[*] I must also admit that the last couple of days weren’t exactly fun. That was the time when it struck me that I am not supposed to be reading for pleasure, but am supposed to be “preparing for an exam”. That was when I started having doubts if my preparation was sufficient. For that matter, I still wonder if any amount of preparation is sufficient for any exam ?! Especially for an exam like JEST which is relatively unknown unlike GATE. Thus without any problem sets to practice and with just one sample paper, I wasn’t sure if all that I had enjoyed studying in the last couple of months would be helpful on the day of the test.

[I am preparing for a couple of competitive examinations which has kept me from completing and publishing half-a-dozen half-written posts. I shall have more time to resume regular blogging in a couple of weeks]

We like illusions. Our leaders provide it and our media presents it. The real issues are forgotten. And hence they repeat.

We love it when stereotypes such as Cricket and Bollywood are chosen define us and our identity, because we are too lazy to find out who we are and where we come from. Frankly speaking it’s a hard task, and the resulting truth may not be pleasant, so we have chosen (consciously or otherwise) to outsource it.

Articles such as these attempt to wake us from our state of blissful sleep. But then, we are gifted with a short memory span, so we shall forget this too and go back to our dreams.

Surprised ? Don’t be!

Haven’t you learnt anything at all from the Bollywood or our media ? No ?

Ok, let me guide you on this path of being comfortably numb.

Let’s start with that magic mantra  Aall eej well .

Whenever you feel that something might wake you from your blissful slumber, repeat this mantra a few 100 times. Oh, if you don’t know the advantages of this mantra, here are a few.

• The mantra was discovered by, invented by the great Idiot genius Phusuk Wangdu , aka Rancho, who was played by the great thinking and perfectionist actor Aamir Khan.
• It has the power to breathe life into the new born baby which until then was acting as if it was still-born.
• you don’t have to worry about someone labelling you as communal, because the mantra is secular and liberal, unlike the pagan mantras such as the Ramaraksha Stotra or the Hanuman Chalisa.

Similarly, there are several other things which have been provided to us by the great culture of bollywood, such as

• Jadoo ki Jhappi, which automatically causes any form of tension or suffering to melt away taking the recipient to a state total forgiveness.
• Ass-licking-Gandhigiri, where you smile at someone’s repeated mistakes and cover it up, which grants an instant enlightenment to the person making those mistakes.
• Aman-ki-Asha, which follows the golden principle of “If you want to be at a somewhere, act as if you’re already there”. In this particular case, it doesn’t matter whether there exist conditions for peace between the two neighbouring countries or not. Reality doesn’t matter. What matters is how well do we portray that the peace exists. Again, this is easily achieved by having artistes from across the border perform here.
• Rang-de-basanti revolution: When something bad happens,

1. Organize candle-light night-outs.
2. When 1 fails to yield results, just shoot the god-damn person who’s responsible for it.

• Doubt: What about taking the constitutional approach and trying to bring the person to justice ?
• Answer: That would require brains, patience and vigour. We don’t have these as we are dumb, impatient and impotent. So, the only way to bliss is through the path mentioned above.

There are many more such great plots and devices that the culture of Bollywood has bestowed upon us which can help you forget the reality and transport you to the la-la land, where like they say, gham bhi na ho, aasoo bhi na ho, bas pyaar hi pyaar pale:

• Where of course, Pakistan is a great neighbour. So, to hell with all the tensions which are unnecessarily created by the warmongering people on this side of the fence.
• Where Kasab is not Kasab the terrorist, but an aspiring actor who was mistaken for his screen performance. Feed him his Biriyani. He needs to look good.
• Where the member of one community pleaded the original inhabitants of the place belonging  another community to leave the place. That’s the reason why a certain community’s population has drastically decreased in the valley of Kashmir.
• Where one may not be able to afford basic commodities like sugar or dal due to exorbitant prices, but one automatically become satisfied when the prince tours the metropolis in a local train like a common man, despite the fact that several thousands of rupees worth tax-payers money was spent on his security.
• Where the truth in any field is decided by judging the opinions of any popular personality, whether the personality has any expertise in that field or not. Oh, BTW,  the phrase used to refer to this pramana (means of obtaining knowledge) is “Law of Indian Expertise (LIE).“

Long ago, I had studied this subject known as mathematical logic. There was this thing called the implication, which was a statement of the form “If p, then q” where p is the premise and q is the conclusion. Interesting thing about this was that if the premise p is false, whether the derived conclusion is true or false, the statement was considered true. I never really understood how this applies to the real-life.

But now I am able to see it. In the world of illusions, there’s no limit to the number of possibilities. Anything can emanate from anything, and one can consider anything as truth. Doesn’t really matter, because when you are ready to give relevance to a false premise, why would you bother about the conclusions ?

And this is the beauty of it. As you see, you need not be involved. You are dispensable. So you need not worry at all. All that matters are acts. Like that circular ring which appears when you rotate a burning stick in a circular fashion. For our purpose we only have to consider the ring to be real. There are two ways. If you know how to rotate this stick, join us in keeping this illusion alive. Else, just follow the steps mentioned above and you’ll start believing that the illusion is reality.

That’ll help you too to sleep peacefully forever.

[Based on the comment originally posted on Atanu's post "Bomb Blast in Pune"]

Every Upanishad begins with a Shanti Mantra or a Peace Chant. Some of the popular Shanti mantras include “Om Poornamadah poornamidam…” which is the Shanti Mantra of the the Ishavasya Upanishad as well as Brhadaranyaka Upanishad. Another popular Shanti mantra is “Om Sah navavatu…” which is the Shanti Mantra of the Taittiriya Upanishad, KaThopanishad and Shvetashvatara Upanishad.

The shAnti Mantra for the Aitareya Upanishad, which belongs to the shAkala shAkha of the Rg Veda is as follows:

OM vAG me manasi pratiShThitA,
mano me vAci pratiShThitamAvirAvIrma edhi |
vedasya ma ANIsthaH, shrutaM me mA prahAsIH |
anenAdhItenAhorAtrAn saMdhAmi RtaM vadiShyAmi |
satyaM vadiShyAmi |
tanmAmavatu |
tadvaktAramavatvavatu |
mAmavatu | vaktAramavatu vaktAram ||
OM shAntiH shAntiH shAntiH ||

Meanings of words:
vAG = speech.
me = my
manasi = in mind;
pratiShThitA = be rooted;

manaH = mind;
me = my;
vAci = in speech;
pratiShThitam = is rooted;

Avir-AvIr-ma-Edhi = Brahman reveal thyself to me;
vedasya = of the VedA theme;
ma ANIsThaH = may I master;

shRutam = that I have heard;
me = me;
mA = do not;
prahAsIH = forsake;

anena = by this;
adhitena = by studies;
ahorAtrAn = days and nights;
saMdadhAmi = continuously live;
RtaM = truth; Order of the Universe;
vadiShyAmi = I speak;

satyam = truth;
vadiShyAmi = I speak;

tat-mAm-avatu = may that protect me

tat = That;
vaktAram = he who speaks (Teacher);
avatu = protect;

shAntiH = peace be;

Meaning:

May my voice be established in my mind. May my mind be established in my voice. Oh Brahman, reveal thyself to me. O mind and speech, enable me to understand the truth that vedas teach. Let not what I have heard forsake me. Let me spend continuously my day and nights in my studies. I think truth. I speak the truth. May That protect me. May That protect the teacher. Om Let there be peace.

Let us rewind back a several thousand years to huge battlefield in the northern part of today’s India which is completely enveloped by the massive armies of the two warring camps. The finest and the best of the warriors from all over the civilized world have assembled in this battlefield, to fight for one of the two camps. Each one of them has a reason to be here. Some are fighting for honour, while some are fighting for land, some are fighting for displaying their valour, while some others are fighting because they have an obligation. The whole atmosphere is charged up, with battle cries resounding in all directions.

Amidst all this din, a warrior prince, one of the greatest archers of his time, asks his charioteer to take him around, so that he can get a good view of the warriors whom he must contend with in this great display of arms. The charioteer obliges and stations the chariot right at centre of the two armies, such that they get a full view of the mightiest amongst the opponent warriors. He then says, “Look, Oh mighty prince. The entire Kuru army has assembled before us. These are verily the men whom you’ll have to fight.” The prince takes a good look at the enemy. Stationed among them, he sees, his grandfather, his teacher, his friends, relatives, well wishers - his own people! His palms begin to sweat slowly loosening the grip on his mighty bow gAnDhiva. His brows rise, leaving lines of doubts on his forehead. An ominous cloud looms over the battlefield. It takes the shape of uncertainty and grief in the heart of the prince. “How can a person fight against his own relatives. And to what end ? For mere wealth and kingdom ? How can I enjoy that wealth which is stained by the blood of my kinsmen ? Am I not better off leading the life of a mendicant than fighting all these elders who deserve not the sharpest of my arrows but my humble devotion? I am confused. How do I know what is good for us ? This grief, this uncertainty is killing me, it is drying up my senses. The pain cannot be extinguished even if I were to obtain unrivaled prosperity on this earth or even if I were granted lordship over the gods themselves. In this situation, nothing strikes me. Please tell unto me without any hesitation, what is the right thing that will be good for all of us ?”. Saying thus, he sits down on his chariot, depressed. He adds “I shall not fight.”

The charioteer smiles. He was expecting this. The moment the prince asked Him to take him around the battle-field, He knew this was bound to happen. However, He did not hesitate to position the chariot right in the middle of the two armies with the full view of the opponents. He wanted the prince to know whom he was fighting. He knows that the seeds for this battle had been sown long ago. The poisonous sapling that arose was nurtured night and day with hatred, jealousy and greed. The Wax house, the game of dice, they were additional feasts which encouraged the growth of the plant into a mighty tree. All efforts to prune its growth had been tried. But they failed, since the poisonous tree had grown too strong. All these many years of feeding had made it quite strong. Now, it needs to be struck down with the mighty blow, before it can be uprooted completely. He knows all of this very well. He knows more. Thus, when he sees the prince in the shattered state, the charioteer who is not only the prince’s closest friend, but also his mentor and confidante, smiles and tells unto him “You speak like a wise man, but you are grieving for those who are not to be grieved for. The wise don’t lament about the living and the dead. There was never a time when I, you or all these kings did not exist. Nor will there ever be a time in the when any of us shall cease to exist.”

Thus began that divine charioteer the discourse which unraveled the mysteries and the sciences behind all of this. That immortal discourse is today known as the Bhagavad Gita or the Song of the Lord.

In that discourse, He tells the prince Arjuna,

mAtrAsparshAstu kaunteya, shItoShNasukhaduHkha dAH
AgamApAyinonityAH, tans titikshasva bharata. (Chapter 2, Verse 14)

yam hi na vyathayantyete, puruShaM puruShaRShabha
sama duHkha sukhaM dhIraM, so’mRtatvAya kalpate. (Chapter 2, Verse 15)

nAsato vidyate bhAvaH, nabhAvo vidyate sataH;
ubhayor api dRshtontaH, tv anayos tattva darshibhiH (Chapter 2, Verse 16)

Roughly translated to:
“It’s the sensory perceptions O son of Kunti that give rise to opposites such as Cold-Heat, Happiness and Sorrow. These are not permanent, for they arrive and disappear. Hence O scion of Bharata endure them.

The person who is never affected by these opposites, who treats happiness and Sorrow as the same, who is steady under happiness and sorrow, such a person is certainly eligible for immortality, O Best of men.

Of the unreal, there is no being. There is no reality in the non-being. The seers of the truth have verily concluded this after observing the two.”

Ages pass. Great men come and go. They say great things which remain with us for a while before they too like their originators get buried in the sands of time.

But once in ages comes along a someone who breaks free from the shackles of time, arises from the dark dungeons of ignorance and cross the mighty ocean of experience, when the whole world is still soundly asleep. His mere thought enlivens the spirit. His actions inspire people to strive for things beyond the mundane. His words shine like the sun in the sky bearing witness to all that has been said and all that will be said. He is verily the giver of the greatest bliss and the greatest knowledge. Of such a Yugapurush it is said:

vasudeva sutam devam, kansa chAnUra mardanam
DevakI parmAnandam KRShNa vande jagat-gurUm

Wishing all readers a Happy Krishna Janmasthami.

Towards the end of the SandhyAvandanA, I remember reciting the following:

bhArgava, chyavana, ApnavAn, aurava, jamadajnya, pancha rShi pravarAnvita
vatsa gotrOtpannaha
AshvalAyana sUtra, shAkala shAKhAdhAyih
gautama sharmaH
ahaM bho abhivAdaye

Which translates to:
Hailing from the lineage of the five excellent rShi’s namely BhArgava, chyavana, ApnavAn, aurava, jamadajnya,
Born into the vatsa GOtra,
following AshvalAyana’s sutras, student of the the shAkala shAKha,
I Gauthama Sharma,
Offer my Salutations.

This abhivAdane is used by a Brahmin while introducing himself to another person. It provides details such as the Pravara and Gotra i.e information about the lineage, the name of the SutrakAra (Author) whose laws he has been following, the Veda Shakha that he has studied/is studying.

Of these, I knew the meaning of  Gotras and Pravaras at the time of my UpanayanA. However, I had no idea about the the Sutra, nor about the Veda Shakha. The former, I am yet to understand completely, but regarding the latter, I have managed to gather some information in these past couple of months.

During the dvApara yuga, a sage named Krishna DvaipAyana, who was well versed with the Vedas realized that as the commencement of the new Yuga (Kali Yuga), the mental faculties of men would decline. Hence an individual Brahmin would not be able to remember and master all the Veda mantras. But Veda mantras were the very basis for humans to realize the eternal truth. Veda mantras contained in them not only the rules for outwardly conduct but they also served as guide to inner purification. Hence to aid mankind, this kind sage classified the Vedas into four divisions[1]. They are:

• Rg Veda whose mantras are conducive to worship or prayer,
• Yajur Veda whose mantras portray the ritualistic and yajna procedures,
  • Shukla Yajur Veda
  • Krishna Yajur Veda
• Sama Veda, which are hymns in musical form
• Atharva Veda, which stress the performance of yajnas and contain mantras designed to protect men from dangers and enemies.

Owing to this super-human classification effort, sage Krishna DvaipAyana obtained the name Veda Vyasa. Vaishnavas believe that Lord Vishnu assumed the AvatAr of Veda Vyasa for the purpose of organizing human knowledge for the benefit of mankind.

Lord Veda Vyasa further divided each of the Vedas into several sections or branches. Each branch is known as a shAkha. Thus a Brahmin of the latter age was expected to know one Shakha of any of the Vedas at the least. There was no limitation on how many shAkhas a person could master.  There were many who did manage to master more than one Shakhas. Some of the common North Indian surnames indicate the proficiency of a person in two or more Vedas. Dvivedi, Dubey, Dave were the ones who mastered two of the Vedas. Trivedis and Tiwaris mastered three of the Vedas. Chaturvedis , Chattopadhyayas were well versed with all the four Vedas. [4]

Each Veda shAkha consists of the following parts:

• A Samhita
• A Brahmana
• An Aranyaka
• An Upanishad.

When Veda VyAsa made this classification, there were 1180 Veda Shakhas in total [2]. Of these 1180,

• 21 belonged to the Rg Veda
• 109 belonged to the Yajur Veda
  • 15 from Shukla Yajur Veda
  • 94 from Krishna Yajur Veda
• 1000 belonged to Sama Veda
• 50 were from the Atharvana Veda.

Unfortunately in the present day, we have lost a lot many of these Shakhas due to lack of practice.

Among the 21 Rg Veda Shakhas, apparently only one is in active practice today. And that is the shAkala shAKha, to which my family belongs. In fact most of the Gaud Saraswat Brahmins belong to this shAkha. The Brahmana, Aranyaka and the Upanishad of this Shakha all go by the name Aitareya. Hence the Shakha is also referred to as Aitareya Shakha. However, there is still a claim that the sAnkhyAyana shAkhA is still known to a few vEdapathis in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, but this is not certain. sAnkhyAyana Shakha has Kaushitaki BrAhmana, Kaushitaki AranyakA and KaushItaki Upanishad

Of the 15 Shakhas of the Shukla Yajur Veda, only two are known. Them being kAnva shAkha and the mAdyAndina shAkha.

Of the 94 Shakhas of the Krishna Yajur Veda, the Taitreeya Shakha is fully available and is in active use in South India, while another shAkha named the maitrAyanIya Shakha manages to survive in Maharastra.

Of the 1000 Shakhas of the SAma VEdA, we have lost 997 Shakhas. The Surviving shAkhas are talavakAra ShAkha of the Jaimini school, the rAnAyanIya shAkha and the Kouthuma Shakha.

At one point in time, it was feared that all the 50 Shakhas of Yajurveda had gone extinct. However, one shAkha was found to be in practice and continues to survive today. It goes by the name Sownaka ShAkha. Most of the samhitAs of the Atharva VEda are lost. The only BrAhmana of this Veda that’s available today is the gopatha BrAhmana. Among the Upanishads of this shAkha, Prasna, Mundaka, mAndUkya as well as the Nrisimha thApini Upanishad are available and are actively studied [3]

In the present times, the sUtras and ShAkhas seem to have lost their importance. Most people don’t even know about their sUtras and shAkhas, let alone knowing their contents. Unfortunately, I belong to this category of people.

Looking at the the interest (or the lack thereof) which the current generation of Brahmins is showing in the study of their scriptures, these remaining few vEda shAkhAs run the risk of becoming extinct. One of the main duties of the various Mutts is to work towards preservation of this ancient knowledge. However, it’s interesting to note that some people simply categorize them as Hindutva Mutts and easily get away with it.

Sigh! Sorry state of affairs indeed.

References:
[1] Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, The Vedas, Bhavan’s Book University, 7ed, pg 110
[2] Ibid, pg 112
[3] Ibid, pg 113
[4] Ibid, pg 111
[5] Kireet Joshi, The Veda And Indian Culture:an Introductory Essay, Motilal Banarasidass Pub, ISBN:8120808894, Pg 91 Read the rest of this entry »

A month back, before this year’s great Indian cricketing Circus Began, I made a few predictions the teams involved. About the finalists of this season, I had said,

Though I will be rooting for Royal Challengers Bangalore throughout the tournament,  I don’t think they have it in them to make it to the semis yet. The team still has to shed off it’s test-team Image. It’ll happen in some time, but probably not this year.

And

And finally Deccan Chargers. They have a lot of stars. But I doubt if they can get their coordination right.

Needless to say, I would have had to chew my hat if I ever wore one. Since I don’t, I seek redemption through this post by bowing before the destiny which could surprise me and most of us with yet another fascinating script.

Now, we all know what/who destiny is, don’t we ?!

PS: Care to predict next season’s finalists? I heard that the odds are in favour of Kolkota Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians!

Personally, I have been disappointed with the election results of 2009 since the party which I had been rooting for lost by a huge margin. But knowing that elections are only a part of the process and not the process by themselves, it’s time to move on and reflect on what next do we expect from the people who participated in the process.

Lets look at the good things that this verdict has brought:

• We have a stable government at the center. The absence of a “khichdi” government, where the coalition partners can hold the major party at ransom when it comes to discussing specific policies is great for the country. A stable government is definitely good when it comes to delivering the goods.
• The left parties, which did play the part of a road-block in the previous five years have been voted out. That saves us the time of beating around the bush.

So, what does this verdict mean for the new government:

• People of the nation have shown their faith in continuity and a stable government, which means the people at power better deliver. Dr. Singh might have succeeded in emerging out as the “stronger” persons of the two projected PMs, but now it’s the time for him to display that strength.
• In the absence of the Left in the coalition, the UPA has fewer excuses this time not to deliver on the promises made to the common-man.
• Populist schemes like NREGA might have helped you win the election. But in the view of the current economic conditions, it’s time to move to more productive use of national resources than just providing an employment “guarentee” to the rural people by paying them to do tasks which generate little value to the society.
• The state of Affairs that the UPA Coalition inherited from NDA in 2004 was far far better compared to the state of affairs that the UPA coalition of today has inherited from its previous instance. Whether it is economy, security, education or infrastructure, foreign affairs,  there’s a lot of work to be done. The government cannot afford to falter in any one of these if they want to see India play a crucial part in the global power-game.

As for BJP and it’s allies who will grace the opposition, they do have their share of work to do as well:

• BJP needs to understand that there is nothing wrong with Hindutva as a philosophy. But they must understand that the word “Hindutva” has gotten negative connotations over these past few years. BJP could do well to correct this misconception and propogate it’s original meaning which was “Integral humanism”. To do this, mere propaganda won’t suffice. It has to be complimented with actions which derive inspiration from the philosophy. And these actions have to come from the grassroots and not merely at a national level. And please, rhetoric of the kind which the likes of Varun Gandhi like to indulge in, certainly won’t help.
• BJP must show that it takes it’s slogan of “Nation First, Party Next, Individual Last” seriously. They could start with electing the leader of opposition in a transparent manner. That’ll go a long way in bringing credibility in the minds of the people. Else the line between dynastic politics and backroom consensus appears to be quite thin.
• As a senior member in the opposition, BJP should show maturity in the manner in which it conducts itself in the parliament. It need not waste time in scoring political goals, when it could help come up with a workable alternative. If some proposal is in the interest of the nation, it should not matter who proposed it, as long as the member of the parliament work towards getting it implemented. Help out first, and you can blow your trumpet later.
• It needs to understand that no matter how dumb and sycophantic our mainstream media is, it’s here to stay. And like it or not, it is going to mould the opinion of lot of urban voters, many of whom have outsourced their judgemental faculties to the mainstream media. So, being on the wrong side of the media won’t help no matter how good your agenda is. Either learn to play by the media or work towards forming an alternative right-of-center media channel which acts more responsibly than the current bunch of players do.
• Finally it must realize that while culture is important, for people to appreciate it, they need access to a stable livelihood. An empty stomach cannot comprehend a great culture. So, BJP needs to focus on working towards creating a wholesome environment in which people can appreciate culture. Providing good governance definitely forms a part of that wholesome environment. Please don’t put the cart before the horse by paying way too much attention on cultural-revival unless you find the existance of the wholesome environment. Such an act would prove counter-productive.

And what does it mean for us, the once who voted these people into power:

• Elections are only the beginning of this new process. One must remember, whether the party which one prefered has won or not, the ruling party represents us (hopefully) for the next five years.
• Whether the party sits in ruling bench or in the opposition, it has an obligation to perform it’s role to the best of it’s abilities.
• We’re in a “Democracy”, the definition of which includes “Government of the people” clause. Clearly, it’s not as if our participation ceases to exist once the elections are over. The elected member are merely there to execute the agenda as expected by the citizens. If they’re not doing their role in the expected manner, it is our responsibility to provide feedback by voicing out our expectations. This feedback loop is integral for the growth of any system.
• The media, which forms an integral part of the system is supposed to pave the way in making sure that system gets the honest feedback it deserves. Unfortunately, the media from it behaviour in the past few years has shown that it cannot be without bias. Thus we must make use of alternate mediums such as FM Radio and the internet effectively to ensure that the message is not lost out.

Like every other election, this election too comes with a To-Do list for each one of us who are the stakeholders in this institution known as the democracy. I hope we are upto the task enthrusted upon us.

So, the great Indian Cricketing Circus called Indian Premier League, v2.0 is going to commence today. This time however, it has been outsourced to South-Africa, due to the National elections in India. Truly shows the how cricket has become globalized, since you could take the Indian Premier League out of India, but probably not vice-versa!

Though I hadn’t expected the last season to become such a huge hit, I did sit up till late in the night to watch almost all the matches. And I did make a whole lot of predictions, some of which hit the bulls eye, remaining ones went way off the mark.

So, tournaments such as these give rise to a lot of “Dream Team” competitions, which ask you to pick your dream team of 11 players within a specified budget. You have maximum N substitutions throughout the tournament, so it’s about picking the right person at the right time. My room-mates regularly participate in such competitions. But the drawback of this N substitutions rule is that you gotta keep following every game and keep thinking about the substitutions pretty much throughout the tournament. Lot of work for us busybodies!

Hence, this year, my room-mates have decided to ditch the various dream-team contests and have instead come up with one of  their own. With the initial points borrowed from cricinfo site, the goal is to pick the best 15 with the upper-cap of 130000 points (Let us simplify this to 130, as it makes easier reading). This 15 is going to be fixed for the whole tournament. So, everyday, whoever amongst these 15 play, you’ll gain points according to their performance.

So, for my team, I went by a simple strategy. If I had to pick 5 teams who would enter the semi-finals, they would be the following in that order : Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab.

So each of these 5 teams should have 2 players at least. So, the strategy is to have one all rounder in each if possible. Next choice would be a batsmen, and finally bowlers. Also, of the two, have one Indian player who is sure to play in the 11. Based on these constraints, I picked the following:

1. Chennai Super Kings: Albie Morkel (9.5), Suresh Raina (9.5)
2. Delhi Daredevils: A.B. DeVilliers (6.5), Virender Sehwag (10.5)
3. Mumbai Indians: Abhishek Nayar (7.5), Dhawal Kulkarni (7.5)
4. Rajastan Royals: Ravindra Jadeja (7.5), Munaf Patel (8.5)
5. Kings XI Punjab: Yuvraj Singh (11), Kumar Sangakkara (10)

That leaves us with the remaining three teams. Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkota Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers. I want to pick one from each team.

Though I will be rooting for Royal Challengers Bangalore throughout the tournament,  I don’t think they have it in them to make it to the semis yet. The team still has to shed off it’s test-team Image. It’ll happen in some time, but probably not this year.

As for Kolkota, they seem to be a confused team. I mean, their strategy w.r.t experimentation is akin to shipping bleeding edge software in production systems. Innovation is good, but it shouldn’t try to disrupt the proceedings so badly.The multiple-captain theory is in my opinion one of the most absurd things I ever heard. I was thinking what algorithm would they choose to decide when are they going to select a new captain and who is going to select a new captain! Probably the coach decides the “when” and the players vote for the “who”. Or the outgoing “who” nominates the new “who”. It’s totally crazy!

And finally Deccan Chargers. They have a lot of stars. But I doubt if they can get their coordination right.

So, my one player per these team would be:

1. Royal Challengers Bangalore: Praveen Kumar (7.5)
2. Kolkota Knight Riders: Ajit Agarkar (7.5)
3. Deccan Chargers: Rohit Sharma (10.0)

Since I had to pick only one player, I might as well pick someone who is going to be in the team. So, choosing a non-Indian player seemed like a risk. Hence these.

That leaves us with two more players. I believe that this IPL’s finalists would be Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils. So, based on this belief, I would go for the remaining two players from these two teams. They would be:

1. Chennai Super Kings: Makaya Ntini (7.5)
2. Delhi Daredevils: Glenn McGrath (8.5)

That brings the tally to 129, which is equivalent to 129000 points, well within the 130000 limit that we’ve set for ourselves.

Lets see how things play out. Let the Circus Begin!

Hello everyone,

On April 7th this year, this blog completed three years of it’s existence. It started off to serve the purpose of a Petri-dish into which I could pour my thoughts, inspect them over time and probably become wiser. No, I hadn’t read Harry Potter back then so I didn’t know about the Pensieve. But that’s exactly the purpose this blog strives to serve.

In these three years, the blog has changed it’s locations three times. It started off on blogger, then moved to Wordpress, moved back to blogger before getting a more or less permanent place to settle down.

Since I write primarily to clear my own thoughts, the most of the posts do have a personal tone. Also, I tend to write posts on things, which are sometimes obscure to the general public. Thus, I am not under any delusion that this blog has a great number of dedicated readers. However, I do know that there are a few who subscribe to my blog-posts. Amongst them, some of you have commented on my posts, and helped create a discussion out of what took birth as a vagrant thought at the back of my mind. I do want to thank you for this. The rest of you, who for some reason, didn’t feel like making your opinions known, probably this is a good time to come out and say hi.

So, I ask you to provide feedback on what you do like on this blog and what you would like to see improved.

I wish the blog a belated “Happy Birthday” and declare the thread open