The world, how it works, surroundings, myself, etc.

Friday, August 20, 2004

The Cat Who Fought.


Imagine a picture on a wall with a strong and determined cat murdering a big long snake. Its authority is questioned by a little girl who's answered by her Grandma.



Tired of playing the day long,
And bored of the oft heard princess song,
Alice put the picture's occupation at stake,
And demanded -- "This cat it slaughters the snake!"

To the picture on the wall her tiny fingers pointed,
The authority of the cat had she daunted,
"We don't want hatred far or near,
Why does this cruel cat hang here?"

Little Alice had struck a pragma,
As she questioned thus to her Grandma,
Who stood agape at her innocent thought,
Sure it was befitting what she sought.

Not that she despised the picture's air,
She just looked for an errand here or there,
On which to put the blame of her mind,
Suggested - "A dustbin the picture should find."

Grandma, having resolved to correct her activity,
Continued to bring out the cat's gravity,
Chose to disclose her through a song,
Of the fateful night when all went wrong.

"In your mother's arms you used to roll,
With chuckles and giggles answer here call,
Through her velvety locks your bright eyes shone,
No one denied you - you crowned the throne."

"In days to come, you learnt to talk,
They were afraid - you had learnt to walk.
Riding on curiosity, you'd set to motion,
Without your parents' slightest notion."

"They'd hunt around, have a tough time,
And teach you aloud - never cross the line.
With absolute innocence you'd nod your head,
And get outside - you'd have no thread."

"They were scared, had their plans sorted,
When long and huge, a snake had been spotted.
They devised early, a cat was brought
To keep you busy was all they sought."

"You played with the cat and looked content,
You took it withal wherever you went,
You didn't roam out for days indeed,
The plan had worked, your parents were pleased."

"Then came a night when the winds were cold,
You were playing and weren't on hold,
Your fancies took a dazzling turn,
When light at a distance you saw one burn."

"Your knees and hands carried you out,
There was no one to see you, no one to shout,
When you paddled your way and the stars shone,
You cat followed - you weren̢۪t alone!"

"The strong winds blew cold as ice,
The venture wasn't cheap - we pad a price!
Coz right where the out gate creeper hangs,
A big long coral snake carried its fangs."

"Innocent, excited, naive and blaze,
You crawled over doped in craze,
To where the reptile's nest lay,
You had wronged - one could only pray"

"But alert, seasoned, agile and deft,
Your strong cat attended you since the moment you had left.
And before any mischief dawned your head,
The long snake charged eyes all red."

"The snake ran fuming; you were its prey,
Erstwhile your cat had smelled the fray,
Made up his mind of however it be,
Would contest the poison till it flee."

"Thus flared up the clash and fierce it was,
As your cat pounced upon it under its claws,
But the fiend was long with hisses slipped,
And the friend was bit - it was whipped."

"With troubled motion the cat redid its hold,
Gobbled the snake's head - yes, it was bold.
The combat had caught your eye's gleam,
Frightened, alarmed, aloud did you scream."

"Before long, the song was sung,
A crowd gathered, the dead snake was sung,
The life of the girl had the cat cherished,
Fought till breath's last before it perished."

"The might was narrated over and again,
Of how the brave cat fought in the pain.
To tribute the courage against the hiss,
Was crafted this picture to hang where it is."

"In years to come your fiend looked at you,
From the picture on the wall you almost threw,
Sing of its bravery, not of malice,
Acknowledge its deeds - what do you say Alice?"

"True for sure I had a friend,
Whose selfless deeds I couldn't comprehend,
The picture must remain here and not be banked,
I love you, my friend," Alice thanked.


My poems at http://students.iiit.ac.in/~nirnimesh/myPoems.html


Purpose of studying something.

What is the purpose of studying something? Knowledge? Well, yes. To the
extent that one is able to absorb enough ability to
read/write/understand things in written, studying, as in schooling, is
quite necessary and vital too. However, isn't it that the ultimate aim
of all this is to be able to "apply". One learns algebra, for example.
But the reach of algebra does not settle down to passing an exam and
moving forward to the next class with another myridad set of such
subjects to be digested, studied for the exams and to be forgotten
later. Sure algebra must be taught, no say against it. However, the
perspective has to be more resulting. One needs to absorb the abstract
nature of how things work in that domain and apply it to another one to
result something.
Let's say one reads a research paper, puts in considerable amount of
effort, hard effort. But in due course of repeated studying of the
research paper, one's mind gets tuned to that paper, with the thinking
getting limited to the first and the last pages of the paper. Hence, one
should not overdo. In terms of Pattern Recognition systems, this could
be called overfitting in which the (PR) system learns just a bit too
much from the training data (the research paper in this case) and gets
too nicely suited to it that it fails to correctly classify novel inputs,
which actually was the aim in the first place.


Friday, August 06, 2004

My hostel mess.


Whoever named it, it for sure suits to a T. I was so so angry at my
hostel mess one day that I could not help writing a firing mail to the
administration. Well, things did happen after this. Situation didn't
remain that bad at least.


Here's what I wrote.

Dear Sir/Ma'm,

This is with regard to the newly installed OBH mess and related
state
of affairs. And please please don't regard it as just another
resentment.

This is not the first day for such thoughts but it's sure the last straw
for me. I try to summarize why:

- Some days ago, it was promptly declared (without prior notice)
that
the OBH mess would remain non-functional for 2 complete days. Hours
before the lunch time, we received notification saying that arrangements
had been made for all (around 800 of us!!) to have food in NBH, and most
would have to stand while they eat.
- I didn't have money, nor the inclination to go upto Indira Nagar
in
the outpouring rains at food time, on the 2 days.
- The caterer and mess had been changed and after paying well in
advance
our Rs 5000/- for the mess charges, we expected the mess to be a delight
(the music system, flower pots, and the curtains in the mess pointed to
it). However, what we instead got is a blow in the face.
- Mess has inadequate (rather, hardly sufficient) food. This was
at just
around 9:00 when I went to the mess. The queue elongates from the mess
counter to the mess-entrance. Needless to say, it typically takes around
20-35 minutes before one touches the plate.
- Though the OBH mess was functional from 1st Aug, I've not had
proper
food in the compulsory mess since yesterday.
- The Sunday biryani was without any curry (vegetable).
- Tonight, used/dirty plates lay stray right near the entrance
with no
one to carry them away (an open invitation to files?)
- Far insufficient number of tables/chairs in the mess. I've seen
some
of us actually standing and eating (plate in hands!!)
- Whatever few number of tables were arranged, they remained
uncleaned.
- Unending fight for roti(s).
- Hardly anyone to get us water. (okay, an old story)

Some of us tried to talk to the caterer, and we got the answer that the
management/administration has _NOT_ provided them enough number of
utensils and enough number of tables/chairs!!

I understand that the new mess takes time to settle, but I'm sure you
won't take it as an excuse for utter non-performance. We do expect the
administration to plan out things for us, don't we?
I'm sure if our parents come to know of this state of affairs regarding
the mess (including no food), they'd take strict exception to it. I know
I might have sounded a bit sour but dear Sir/Ma'm I couldn't help it --
I'm hungry.

Please try to work out something.


Dear Director Sir,
We didn't ask for any soothing music in the mess. All we plead
is
clean,timely,edible food. We, as humans, require food. Is that really
too much to ask for?


Please, please help.

A student.
On behalf of a large number of us.