Flesh Blood Bones and a Mind

Well that’s what the human body is made of. Somehow, I’ve always been interested in the evolution of human race, learning about where we came from and where are we headed has always fascinated me. From apes to today’s agile build to maybe a big supercomputer mind or whatnot. The possibilities with the upcoming new discoveries are limitless.

The human race as, other animals have been evolving steadily since their onset about 280000 years ago. The natural selection has played a very vital role in our development and has made us what we are today. From our tall and hunky ancestors we have become punier with more agility and our brain size has also shrunk. But the main question in front of us today is that are we still evolving?

The above daunting question has always aroused conflicting views. Some say that we have slowed down evolving with time. According to Darwin, individual animals best suited to their environments live longer, have more offspring, and so spread their genes through populations. This produces evolutionary changes. Large scale intermarrying and among humans has hampered this change as almost everyone’s genes are carried forward. Thus the opinion that we are heading towards an evolutionary standstill.

But there is another view. The difference between humans and other species is their ability to collect and preserve information in places other than their minds, and ultimately their DNAs. In species information is passed down through generations through the DNAs, that’s how they evolve. But the volume of information passed down by humans increased tremendously thanks to the amount of written matter which has been used to pass down knowledge from ages and the volume of which has steadily been on the rise over the last few centuries. This knowledge is making us more aware, more knowing, more complex and a more creative being and will shape our future.

According to some major scientists we would soon enter the phase of self designed evolution, where we can change and improve our DNAs according to our choice and priority. All major flaws of the DNA can easily be ironed out, or repaired in a more biological way of saying and new discoveries can pave ways to maybe even increase our intelligence and thinking power. The future holds endless possibilities and soon the key to their evolution would be in the own hands of humans.

Loser Politics

Well, let me be clear what I mean by the above term. Loser Politics is practiced by people belonging to a group mistakenly called politicians and who seem to think that that ordinary people would support them in their misadventures down the lane of what they think to be politics. Certain creatures belonging to this group of losers had recently got the opportunity to project themselves as champions of their unknown causes. Their causes which seem to resemble sentiment of people ages ago have recently come into light due to the Telangana issue, where due to fear that a fasting man may die and bring down the state in anarchy with him, the central government agreed in principle (read, just said it to bring the guy off his fast, without even analyzing the consequences of it.) to the creation of Telangana state from the Andhra Pradesh. The announcement was met with shock and brought the nation to chaos.

Whereas an anti-telangana movement broke out in full fervor in Andhra Pradesh, protests broke out in various parts of India with demands of new smaller states. In Andhra three disillusioned youths even committed suicide, as a mark of protest against the movement, maybe hoping to be remembered as martyrs for a cause. What cause I must ask? And no one apart from their families would bear the brunt of their foolish deed. No one would even remember the names of those wasted persons. Such persons are delusioned by the local leaders, who want a meatier role in the local politics, who in turn are being led by some so called national leaders into a cause meant to bring nothing but loss to the common man, just for some political gains for a political party or more for a person.

If all this chaos was limited to Andhra region, it was understandable. But after the announcement by the Home minister about the new state to be carved out, demands arose from all parts of India for creation of new states, small big, based on language, on a tribe of people living in a place, on some ancient region under a particular king, and what not. Even the chief ministers of some states and other politicians jumped in the fray asking their respective states to be divided into smaller ones according to their choices! Citing and quoting the ‘popular sentiment’ for demands of the ‘common people’ for their hidden agenda of breaking the states into areas with a mixture of the areas of their ’stronghold’ and the areas in which they are politically weak, so they are easily able to form governments in the smaller divided state. Funny, the same chief minister didn’t take cue of the popular sentiment and stop work of installation of thousands of her statues across the state when there was a hue and cry about it.

Apart from this, regional political outfits with names like ‘Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha’ or the ‘Vidharba Mukti Morcha’ have just sprung up out of nowhere and have started demanding statehood for their respective regions. The CM of Uttar Pradesh had also proposed a Bundelkhand out of UP, and ‘Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha’ is also demanding the same. But the head of a political party was heard saying that their Bundelkhand was different from Mayawati’s Bundelkhand as they differed by a couple of districts! I mean, what the hell! Demands are high for a Gorkhaland in West Bengal, and even a Bodoland, for the tribe in the East. There is talk of splitting UP in four and even for a Coorg out of the state of Karanataka. Has politics in India fallen to such levels? Or people are also as angry at these people calling themselves politicians and common man’s saviors, as I am currently?

States are supposed to be formed for better administration of a region. They are not and should not be formed on the basis of language, religion, color or some ancient connection. The central government should recognize this and drill some sense into the goons who considering themselves to be champions of people’s causes and are disrupting the common man’s life for goals they know can’t be achieved and goals even the common people know deep down that they do not want. What they want is proper administration with normal lives.

Then why the need of scuffling over statehood I ask? Why do some people try to infuse their parochial patriotism into the feelings for their home state when there is no place, and no need for that. All land in a country is the same and we belong to a single nation, isn’t it? Well some ‘national’ and local leaders certainly don’t consider so. They just seize their petty chances at playing whatever role they can play in politics and get in front of a TV camera with a reporter asking stupid pre-discussed questions. Such people are total losers. They know it. They know they have no future in politics and therefore, jump onto topics they know can cause some bus-burning, or even a little rioting if they are lucky and can give them a little muscle therefore a little political mileage. Such people can be put to rest only by the people, I say.

Denounce them, drill some sense into them. But first of all you yourself need to think up and decide what’s right and what’s not. It is for the people to shun such losers and decide what’s good and what’s not for them. It all comes down to that only.

ACM ICPC 2009, in God's own Country

The International Collegiate Programming Contest organized by the Association for Computing Machinery is one of the world’s biggest coding competitions. The ACM – ICPC is a 3 layered contest, with the first level being online, the second being regional rounds held at centers across the world. In India, this year it was held at IIT Kanpur and at Amrita University in Amritapuri, Kerala. The top teams of these regional rounds get to compete in the world finals. This year, our team (Rachit Mittal, Surendra Sirvi and me) got the chance to compete at the Amritapuri site of regionals, against some of the best teams from all over Asia. Teams from countries like China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and South Korea had come to compete, apart from India.

It was a frenzied carnival of fun, algorithms, competition, rivalry, and culture against the backdrop of the beautiful state of Kerala, truly, God’s own country. The Amritapuri campus is situated in the beautiful Kollam district of Kerala. It’s right next to the sea and therefore enjoys the most beautiful sights that the sea and the backwaters can offer. The Amrita University had been established by Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, popularly known as Amma, and the Hugging Saint. Her ‘Math’ is located in Amritapuri on a small islet separated by the mainland by a thin strip of sea. The college is situated on the mainland. Our accommodation had been arranged in the Math only so we had to crossover whenever we wanted to go to or from the college. The place of accommodation was a 17-storied building. The roof presented an enthralling view of the mainland, crisscrossed with backwaters, which were spotted with fishing nets, and the majestic Arabian Sea, spread from left to right. On the day we went to the beach there, we were also able to spot dolphins jumping from the surface of the sea a little distance off the coast! The math is really a place to relax and enjoy the nature.

The Indian Programming scene has been pretty dynamic since the past years. Currently the top team in India, the KingsGambit from IIIT- Hyderabad has already qualified for the world finals from Kanpur. The runner up of the Kanpur regionals this year, Team CounterGambit, from the same college, had come with intent to qualify for the world finals from here. Other top Indian teams like DaretoCode and Phoenix had also come for the event, after succeeding in its online qualifying stage.

The contest started with much enthusiasm with a practice contest and a cultural program, mainly depicting the cultural heritage of Kerala along with some western dance numbers. The next day was for the main event. The five hour coding event began in the morning. All heads were bent trying to solve the ten questions which were set. As time progressed, it became quite clear that team CounterGambit would win the event as it was leading from the beginning. But team Oasis from Sogang University, South Korea turned the tables in the last half an hour, submitting two correct problems during that time and edging out CounterGambits to win the event here and also qualify for the world finals. They were cheered highly by the volunteers as they made their way out the contest arena. The award ceremony followed the event, in the evening.

The hospitality of the host college was great during our stay. They provided top notch stuff for everything, be it rooms, food or for any other help that we may needed. The enthusiasm of the volunteers (from first to fourth years) was contagious and it was them who made the trip memorable for us. The next day, after the event we went to a few beautiful places nearby, namely the Thenmala ecotourism centre which also houses an adventure zone for the adrenaline junkies. The Palaruvi waterfalls, the most beautiful in Kerala were really pleasant and refreshing sight. And where in India can you go from the seaside to deep into the mountains in just an hour! The varieties in nature were just awesome.

The best of programming teams, competition in the air and Kerala at its best. What more can a person ask for. It was a truly enriching event and would be cherished by us for a long time to come. As the train chugged out of the Kayankulam station we couldn’t help but think about what all had this short period of time with strangers had taught us.

The times of Shaktimaan and Scooby Doo...

“Shaktimaaaaan…. Shaktimaaaaan…. Shaktimaaaaaaan…. “.

I was going to start another CS clan when the familiar sounding tune came floating into the room. For a second I was dumbfounded. Then someone came shouting that the episodes of the popular Indian superhero series had been released on DC. Whoosh… Switching off the clan, I downloaded the episode in an instant. As the familiar Shaktimaan song started playing, all the faded images of it, which were lying somewhere at the back of my mind came rushing back. And along came many things. The emotions, the feelings we nurtured for the superhero 10 years ago…, it all came back. The memories of childhood came flooding to my mind in instants and I found myself engulfed by them, smiling as I remembered old incidents and characters whom we have watched growing up. Who, in some way or the other have contributed in making our character what it is today.

I still remember how on Saturdays we would rush back from school to be home on time to watch the Indian superhero in action. Missing a single episode was out of question, be it exams or anything. It’s the same story of the whole generation of Indian kids who have watched the series growing up. His costume was a rage. And even the lecture he gave on good habits after each episode went down well with the kids. He was their idol, their superman.

Along with Shaktimaan, we hold the same nostalgia for other stuff that came on TV during that time. Be it Scooby Doo, the favorite Great Dane, or Captain Planet the environment savior. Personally, I owe my environment freakiness to him. J

It’s the sweet nostalgia of those leisurely times that surrounded me as I watched episode 1 of the superhero saga. And somewhere inside I felt a heaviness, knowing that those times are long gone and won’t be back.

Thoughts on Environment - 1

Global warming… Ozone hole… Rising temperatures… Rising sea levels… the banter about all this and more is getting louder and slowly, as these things which are a result of our narrow minded development policies across the globe is set to get louder in the coming days as the nations across the globe have started to recognize the powers of the demon they have created through the past decades. The statements of President Barack Obama about the necessity of the changes needed in policies and the new reforms to be introduce the much needed changes in the general American lifestyle, and also the remarks of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the recent Indian Science Congress about the environment problems of India signify the same.

I have always been attracted to the nature since I was a kid. I was always affected by the plight of what saw around me, be it the cutting of a tree of the ill treatment of a poor animal. But I could not build up the courage to act decisively in these matters. But I thought I’ll do what I love… writing. So I’m here trying to pen down(maybe that expression will stick around for sometime) the recent thought turmoil of my mind for you.

There’s a myth among the middle classes that if u want to do something for the environment, consume less, keep a car for a longer period of time, use lesser plastics etc. But seeing it economically if we consume less, demand for it will decrease and production will therefore go down, resulting in downsizing of companies and the loss of job of thousands...So, consuming less will not solve our problem. What we need is a complete system overhaul. But I’ll come to that later.

Let’s take up the topic of Recycling. Recycling is the biggest guilt management activity we do in our lives. It’s a way we see as putting down some of our guilt of using plastics all the time, of using a car with high emissions, of using air conditioners all the time and so on… People sometimes take the wrong approach to recycling. Recycling is fine, but sometimes it goes over the top. See this one, recycling 10% of a city’s waste plastic use more energy that producing a whole new bunch of them. We try doing small recycling at our home too, that’s really nice but it contributes almost nothing towards the entire system. So, is recycling benefitting at all? Well, the answer is still yes, but not very much. The current phrase about recycling is really down cycling. We are just peddling the same things back into the system when the amount being produced is the same and keeps on increasing.

We need more concrete and group efforts by the people to make things better. Like if a manufacturer launches a new product it should be asked to him how the product will be disposed off. New technologies keep propping up, but they survive only if the people support them. If we support the products which indeed are eco friendly then things would get better. The IT boom took place in India in the 1990s. Today, we see computers everywhere. But have we ever thought what happens to our computer when we discard it after 2-3 years of usage. The life of a PC is extremely small, and new technologies are coming up by the day. The waste, referred to as the ‘E-waste’ has been massive and is increasing as old technologies which remain of no use pile up. Currently there is no other alternative to it other than reuse and recycle it.

Continued in the post below............

Thoughts on Environment - 2

Continued from the above post...

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Today we face a lot of challenges in this field. Global efforts are on currently to reduce global CO₂ emissions, trying to reduce the release the hazardous materials in the atmosphere and to introduce a change in the lifestyle of the people, making it eco-effective. New innovations will play a big role in this. The new technologies which are turning up should be eco-effective. It should be appropriate and available to all. The transfer of eco friendly technologies from the countries where there are developed to the places where they would prove effective in reducing the adverse affects of development should be made easier. The developing countries need to develop, no questioning that, but instead of taking the wrong and damaging paths, which have been treaded once by the developed nations, they should take the greener road to development. And the developed nations have the responsibility to share their knowledge and data in helping them do so. Profit should cease to be an issue in this case.

The formulation of right policies by the legislature is also one of the prime challenges. After its formulation should be enforced properly and a continuous monitoring of them and of other policies on the global level is needed. Along with this the right education is also needed to the young. The Indian Supreme court’s judgment of making environmental studies a compulsory subject in schools and all undergraduate courses in the country will prove to be very effective in the coming years. An effort in this regard is needed in the industry too. Seminars should be organized and industries made to understand the ways in which they can efficiently become eco-friendly. The governance in this field is a crucial factor. In this capitalist world it may be difficult to implement policies that are good for the environment but affects the development of a field. But tradeoffs are always there and seeing the bleak future that we have, it is essential that the narrow mindedness in our industries and future plans culture be eased out.

Then there is the big question of Development vs. Environment. It has remained a shady subject and though widely debated, the people have yet the find a solution for the problem. The development guy says ‘we need to develop at all costs. It’s our need for survival.’ The Environmentalist says, ‘No development at the cost of development’. Both are right to almost the fullest extent. But then, what to do?? The answer to this would be that development and environment are not adversaries. It’s not the case that one will have to be compromised for the other to continue. In fact to keep developing we need the environment to support us by providing the resources and taking in our waste, whatever it may be, and enabling us to progress with time. Development works in the domain of environment. True, we need to keep developing in our quest of everything with time. We can’t survive if we don’t. But it can’t be done single mindedly. Development needs to be within the limits of the environment, that it needs to survive, which we need to survive on this planet. All development measures must take into account their impact on the environment and what are the ways in which they can harm it the least, working in a way that everyone benefits, and we are able to preserve the beauty of nature for our generations to come.

Synapse 09: Trying something new...

Hi... I told you that we were trying to do something very different for Synapse this time. Enough technical we thought. Suddenly the idea of making a short movie jumped up from nowhere. Even the theme was decided within 15 minutes. We decided to take up a different. A genre usually not tried in college made films… HORROR.

We finalized the story. Four characters. And named the movie ‘SHE’. We had some problems finding the heroine for the movie(after all who wants to be seen on screen as a witch… lol). Well, finally we found our girl and began shooting. The first scene was a day scene and was shot easily in a couple of hours. That night we even edited that scene and finalized it, even added the sounds. A couple of days later, we were to shoot our first night scene. It was supposed to be the introduction scene for the supernatural element. Eerie…

Well, we reached the pre-decided location and tried to shoot. But all our efforts went in vain. We were getting a black screen at the camera. Very less lights. We tried very hard, tried different angles, even changed the location but to no avail. We returned disheartened, knowing that we would have to drop the idea of making a movie.

That night in the gloom, came a new thought, why not change the theme and the story?? BANG! All of us brought our minds to the table and within five hours (11pm-4am), we finalized the scenes and characters for our new movie. Thus, ‘ETHOS’ was born. As we had only 4 days left, the shoot was completed in two days. Half the team then put their heads in editing the scenes, trying to put the scenes together and the other half searched for the music tracks to be played as background score in the movie. Finally, after another two days of fighting over tracks and adding them the whole movie was finished in a total of 4 days.

Though we may have not won the event, but we did have loads of fun making the movie. We’ve even made a hilarious making of the movie. It’s really excellent. I’ll try to upload both the things on Youtube soon. Hope you’ll like them…

I’m thinking of writing on some serious issues now. So, watch out this space for more.

Also, in relation to the previous post, i have also made an account on Flickr to upload my pics.

Do go through my photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/naman_anand/do put your comments in there... :)

i am in love....

I don't know whether the beauty of photography lies in the art and the science of the shots taken or is the luck of the guy who just happens to be at the right place at the right time. What i know is that i have fallen in love. And that too with my digicam. My romance with it started during our rural Internship last December in Rishikesh and I fell for it fully in dehradun, a photographer's dream.

Before dehradun the words like ISO, exposure and shutter time meant nothing to me. But a little introduction to my camera by my sister got me to know it much better, and in time fall in love with it and the magical pictures I could click with it. The FRI (forest research institute) campus in dehradun is so beautiful and picturesque it is that it is really a photographer's haven. Since then, life has changed for me. I've begun to see the places, wherever i go in a different light, always trying to find the best angles, thinking how I can capture the objects in the best lighting schemes, deciding upon exposure times. I had the same feeling as i had had the first time I wore my spects. The same joy I feel again and again, whenever i have my fingers on the flash button. The feeling of doing something creative along with it being such an enjoyable experience creates a real bliss.

This led me to see our college campus in wholly new light too. The campus of our institute is indeed one of the most picturesque in the country, but at 6 am in the morning, it can be a much more enchanting place. You can just take the camera and wander aimlessly here and there, and end up capturing many beautiful shots, even the peacocks can be caught roaming about much freely and you can just click away merrily.

We’re planning something fun soon, for Synapse, our college fest. Will post stuff about it soon. Keep reading… :)

Photography bug...

Hi, i know im posting this after a long time.. and a lot is overdue that i have to write about my December vacations. But i'll leave that to the next post. This one is about my latest obsession. My Digicam!!! I have fallen in love with it.

I got my photography bug from my sister. I had been getting inspired by Di’s pics all the time but, when I met her last winter and learnt the finer points of the trade, I got hooked. We got some really ultimate pics of the FRI(forest research institute) campus in dehradun. So beautiful and picturesque it is that it is really a photographer’s dream place. Since then, I’ve just been in love with my camera, taking it with me wherever I go. In hope that I may get a nice shot somewhere. Always hoping..

After trying a few shots at it at home, I succeeded in bringing in to college this time. As known, DA-IICT is one of the most picturesque colleges in the country. You can just take the cam and wander aimlessly here and there, and you can capture many beautiful shots of nature. So, I decided to try it out this morning. Woke up at 6, and headed out the hostel.

Along with the usual close ups of some really beautiful flowers I got to capture loads of beautiful morning snaps. I roamed just about everywhere in the campus, seeing some new areas along the way. It was truly a remarkable experience. I saw the scenes around me in a new light. Capturing such scenic beauties was utter pleasure. I tried real hard to get a pic of 3-4 peacocks sitting together, but as expected, they flew off at even the slightest noise of my feet. Though i did manage to get one in flight.

I’ll definitely open a Flikr account soon.. As soon as the net of our college boosts up again. Maybe u can tell then whether i've made some progress over the time or not.. ;)