In a Nutshell

This report presents the analysis of performance of the subject, Mr. Saurabh Gupta, during the undergraduate course consisting of 10 semesters at IIT Madras. The performance was evaluated in terms of GPA (on the scale of 10).

The figure 1.1 reports what it claims to report .

Fig 1.1 Performance of the subject during the 10 semesters at IIT Madras

Observations:

1. An unstable, restless and exploratory zig-zag graph with GPA ranging from 9.1 to 5.0.
   
2. Grade card (which could not be published here) shows grades ranging from 'S' to 'E' which makes this GPA range feasible. Fortunately the subject avoided the 'U' and 'W'.
   

Note: It was stated by the Assistant Registrar that the subject was the last one to get listed on the roll for Convocation 2009 from the class of 2009 (B.Tech + M.Tech + Dual Degree).

10 Things to Do before I turn 30 !!!

Let me keep the introduction and verbal part short. I love Bullets:-

• 10 things to do before 30
• m not mentioning any career related ambitions or goals
• I have a plan for each one of the following and shall post it sometime when I m in a mood to write.
• let the pictures talk now
  

Here it goes:

1 Bungee Jumping: (preferably in New Zea land, the place for adventure sports)




2) Go on a road trip to Ladakh

3) Trek to the Mt. Everest's BASE CAMP (maintaining on the right side of the fine line !!)


4) Drive (not own) Bugatti Veyron on AutoBahn (German expressway)

5) Own a Honda Accord:

6) Listen to a live Orchestra (preferably Yanni; but I am not too sure when is he planning his next one)


7) Get / buy / build a backyard telescope:



8) Rafting (Not in India where its like rafting in Venice)


9) Start / buyout a racing /rallying team in India (stop raising your eyebrows; I have a plan)


10) Travel to one of the poles and look at Northern lights for hours:

This is my answer to feminism!!!

This theory talks about our past. Past from thousands of years ago, the part of history during which man's existence was not even documented in the form of fossils. Man represented man then. Presently the word man is often used to represent human kind (an inconvenient and indigestible fact for the feminists out there though). But then, it was only man and the iron content (Fe) along with the word man was zero, i.e. there were no females. Man was focused and the sole purpose for his existence was to work, perform and compete. No family, no longing, no love and no hatred. It was just man and his pleasure from the satisfaction he derived out of his performance. The Human race was mightier with lesser deviations and stupidity around.

Then came the aliens. An alien contact, rather attack. As man was more powerful, focused and had developed better resources, he was not only able to defend himself but crushed the alien powers with an adorable ease. An ease which makes an herculean task look like a chore. Aliens then realized the futility in banging themselves head on against humans and tried to come up with a key to this lock, a key with right levers which could open the door and save them from the effort of trying to break the wall. The key was "females". They planted females on earth and pheromones in us. The females were supposed to make man fall in love with them, deviate him from his purpose and even fight amongst themselves, in order to lead towards self destruction. Quite an intelligent plan and kudos to the one who came up with it. Though it requires patience but the effects can surely be seen around. Think about it! Whatever man does is more or less centered around family, girlfriend, wife and love. Man fights, goes to war, has a huge ego and even destroys himself for this species called female.

But, as we have antibodies which fights against any foreign elements in our body and rejects them, nature has also been trying hard to replicate this action into the picture when it comes to female species. In a way nature is trying to reject this foreign element which has been planted by aliens for destruction of human race which in essence is man. How? Well here it is:

· It's a valid assumption that most of the females are bad in Mathematics, which is supposed to be the central language of universe. In a way nature made it difficult for them to comprehend this language. This is exactly similar to how each region has a different language to fend off the foreigners.

· Females are physically weaker than man, a smart move by nature to avoid any head on conflict with the planted aliens

· Females are less practical than man which helps man to survive nature and its furies better than females. So nature can come up with atrocities and man would be saved in Noah's ark.

· Females have poor direction sense. In a way nature is trying to say it directly to them "Get Lost!!"

It's a fight between pheromones and nature now. We can't leave such an important task to the chance, the chance that nature would eventually succeed. Somebody needs to step in and work things out for nature. |Nature is slower and has more patience than aliens. But I doubt this would help.

I, Erectus, am starting a new religion, a new force, a new cadre just to do this. We don't need anyone to believe in, no need to follow anything or anyone. We are just united by one purpose, which is to help the nature out by working against the feminists who are the aliens itself, in guise of females keeping a close watch on the progress of their plan. But we need to be really secretive about this so that feminists don't get a chance to report this development back home, which might trigger an immediate head on action by the aliens. If this attack happens, I am afraid that we might lose in the war as the females have been at work for thousands of years now and they surely have made some decent progress as we are not what we were before they were planted.

It's not the question of feminism or anti feminism now. It's the question of survival; it's the question of enlightenment. The purpose of mankind now is not to leave a mark on others, but it is to survive so as to be able to leave a mark on the future. If you have read till here… you do believe that it's not farce. So join me if you feel like or be saved by me like others.

PS: I am planning to call it Erecticism... the religion !! :P

ROME !!

Rome.... The greatest empire the world has ever known. Unmatched in its brutality, its genius, its lust for power and love. Its a story of great soldiers, huge battles and doomed medals. There are tales of love and betrayal and there are the emperors!!

Of late I have been watching few documentaries on Rome. The empire, its rise and fall, Julius Caesar, Constantine, Gauls........ Battles, Love, Hate, religion, Strategy, art, architecture, politics ...its mix which is not only fascinating, but also a great lesson. After watching these documentaries, I realized that history is not primarily for history ! It is for future. Rome's history does not teach you how to fight or oppress Gauls. It tells you about human character, ambitions, commitment, perseverance and beliefs. The things around us might change but the underlying human nature and tendencies save been more or less constant over centuries, rather millenniums .

The way Caesar fought Gauls is similar to a hostile bid made by Mittal Steel to Buy out Arcelor. The way Constantine brought Christianity to Rome is similar to the way Bush wants to bring Democracy to whole world. Rome's puppet government in Egypt is similar to Bush's puppet government in Iraq or Afghanistan. Caesar's siege of Roman Senate is similar to many military coups of present.

BTW, if you are even a wee bit interested in Rome's history, watch History channel's series on "Rome: Rise and fall of an empire" which comprises 6 parts.

"Men wanted:
for hazardous journey. Low wages,
bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness.
Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition
in event of success "
- Sir Ernest H. Shackleton


Those enthused by the above should check
the following one out:
http://blog.ted.com/2007/06/to_the_depths_o_1.php

It is a presentation by Bill Stone at TED (cave explorer
and diver -- who has invented robots and breathing
equipment to let him plumb Earth’s deepest abysses)

Time travel

Ironically, movies like Lake House, Frequency, Time machine, Back to the future, etc make me wonder if time travel will be possible at any point of time in future. While watching these movies, I keep guessing what will happen to the whole system as a consequence of the changes brought in due to time travel. Generally, the script writers are able to justify the alterations due to the time travel, but this is limited to only central part of the script. What should be realized is that once time travel happens, the surroundings will become much more dynamic than what is shown in these films. Even an infinitesimal change in the system will have a metamorphosing effect on the surroundings and this is not depicted in script. It is not that this is not thought about; the actual problem is that these effects are so burgeoning, penetrating and omnipresent that it is simply not possible to think about even a percent of them and further present them. I remember reading a story about time travel in class VIII, in my English course book. The story talks about a time in future when time travel is possible and is available to commons. A group of people travel to past, when dinosaurs existed. The company which organized these trips had, somehow, laid a pavement to keep the tourists approximately 6 inches above ground to avoid any contact between the humans and the surrounding in the past. This was done as the significance of an infinitesimal alteration on future was adequately understood. In the story, one of the people accidentally steps on the grounds and kills a small organism. The group leader frowns on him for doing that and asks them to stick to their plan of hunting a Dinosaur!!!!!!!!!!
When they return to the future, they find that everything has changed. Quite amusingly, one of the changes was that the spellings were changed everywhere. I could not understand that how can an organism have such an effect on language and much more unconvincing was that only spellings were changed, alphabets were all same. But let’s not go into that. Why I brought this here was to highlight the fact that the surrounding will become much more dynamic once time travel happens. Just imagine a world equipped with time travel. Time travel in one corner of the world will have huge effects on the other. Imagine this, you wake up at 6 AM and go to pee while, simultaneously a person, in other part of the world and completely unrelated to you, goes back to the past . Due to his travel, there are alterations in past and somehow, directly or indirectly these alterations result in elimination of the bog from the past and in present. So at 6:00:01, you may end up standing on a highway or a theatre or a restaurant or somewhere, anywhere……and definitely peeing. While you come in terms with the reality, someone else will board a flight to past and you will be again taken for a ride. These rides will go on and on, each time someone alters the past.
We can’t even imagine what it will be like living in such a world but it is definitely fun pondering over it.

‘Hife & Daw’!(courtesy: T.T.N.) fart session between me and paedo.

It was some time ago that I heard a song which goes something like this “ if you do Friday night right, then there is no Saturday………bla bla” . But after listening to that song I have ended up wasting most of the Friday nights in pursuit to make it right. Anyways, last Friday night I realized the true potential a fart session holds and its sheer power to enlighten a person./*for those who are not aware about the actual meaning of fart session in IIT, our group discussions are referred as fart sessions for obvious, BUT NOT LITERAL, reasons.

This is about a fart session me and paedo had last Friday night. We started
discussion about the most arbit scenes of Mithun’s movie and how everyone used to appreciate the things which we find ridiculous now. The movie Disco dancer, songs like “ ud gaya kabootarwaaaa“ etc. Then, I don’t remember how exactly we started discussing Military power of USA and how much more powerful it is than rest of the world. After having a discussion which sounded like a plot of a sci-fi film, we started discussing diplomacy, world affairs on world stage and whether military prowess is more powerful than diplomacy. Well, that eventually led us to discussion about lobbying by Jews in US and how it affects the US policy towards Arab nations. This eventually led to an argument that Islam and Christianity are basically missionary religions and their aim is to spread itself, which always include war, both defense and attack. So basically what is happening today between Arabs and Christians is because of the wrong foundations. Well this discussion about lobbying took us to lobbying by industries and since I was having a discussion with Paedo so it didn’t take time for us to involve bio-tech industries. It didn’t take much time further to exclude all the other industries!

The rest session is very long and confusing if written in a paragraph form. So I will write it in a dialogue format.

Paedo: You know that the Bio-tech industries are the ones who lobby the govt. to ban neo-research in the field because if every thing is allowed then most of these companies will become out-dated while they blink their eyes.

Erectus (Me): Well! If its important for a industry’s survival to lobby and get things done by unscrupulous means then we should have nothing against it because lot of people and families are dependent on it.

Paedo: Like, recently when Bush banned steam cell research, his actions was more based on pressure from industry itself than on ethics ground.

Erectus: People have countered this ethics ideology by saying that what about those cells which are cultivated in lab and about 2/3 rd of them are disposed because they are not used.

Paedo: Do you think it should be allowed.

Erectus: Yes, because it has not taken the actual form of a life. We have created it and the possibility of this 7 celled structure eventually leading to a human life is created by us and not GOD.

At this moment I was not speaking about emotions and consciousness which later formed the base of my argument.
Paedo, at 4AM was too active to loose this chance.

Paedo fires: Then the concept of the movie” The Island” is justified where clones of human are developed in accelerated growth medium to serve as source of organs for the “Natural Human”. These clones, when later found that they can not survive without society, where placed in a confinement which replicates a society and are made to believe about a fictional epidemic on earth. They are told about the only island free of epidemic and these people, who are made to meet demands, are going to be placed on that island, while actually they are taken to an operation theatre. These people believing what they are told are actually very happy while leaving and their friends are also happy about them.
So this thing should be allowed or not?

Erectus: No, this is similar to sedating a”natural human” and taking his organs out for those who can pay.

Paedo: But in this case his family is left alone and in pain.

Erectus: You cannot fool a person and serve your purpose and call it ethical.

Paedo: But that human is not natural, God had not created a place for him. We created him for our use.

Erectus: Just because you created him, it doesn’t mean that you can meddle with his life. He has a story about his life; he has lived and felt his surroundings. You have no right to alter his surroundings so that it serves as a stock of organs for you rather than a human being.

Paedo: So why is it right to cultivate an E-coli and use it for research. It also is a living form, it has life, it responds to surroundings and it is well aware of its surroundings.

Erectus: Biological awareness is different from emotional awareness. Body is different from mind, or lets say body is different from emotions. Our body is aware to many things which “we” are not aware of and it responds to the surroundings in many ways which we don’t control.

Paedo: What emotions are u talking about? How can u say that a bacteria does not have emotions.
Erectus: By emotions I mean emotional consciousness. For ex: if I see a beggar on a road side, moaning with pain and if I couldn’t help him at that moment, then I will feel bad about this, even though I m not attached to him, I am not dependent on him. This emotion, it is not biological, it’s because I am conscious.

Paedo: You know that there is a plasma transfer mechanism in bacteria where a bacteria transfers a huge part of it’s plasma to other members of the colony, even though he won’t gain anything from that bacteria.

Erectus: But he will get from the colony when he is in need. To be a part of colony he needs to sacrifice today. It’s a symbiosis rather than emotion.

Paedo: Well! Symbiosis is not the word as it represents mutual dependence between two different species.

Erectus: Don’t take the argument towards definitions. You understood what I wanted to convey. Neways, the colony of bacteria has some rules which help it survive and evolve.

Paedo: Then the emotion you have for that beggar is the result of your upbringing in a human society which has laid out certain rules to help itself evolve. These rules include that its members should be compassionate towards each other.

At this point I was about to submit to the argument that emotions are biological and even lowest form of life have emotions. Then, out of nowhere, a term made its acquaintance in the discussion, “ Higher level of emotions”.

Erectus: If emotions are biological in root sense, then it is unethical to cultivate a life form with this high level of emotions, for research or used as stocks or organs. These higher levels of emotions are what we are concerned, because those “ lower form of emotions” are just a biological response of life to its surroundings, while the” higher level of emotions” are the ones that differentiates ethical and unethical in this case.

Paedo: So cultivating guinea pig for research and dissecting them is ethical because they lack this higher level of emotions. Even cultivating other animals is ethical because they lack these higher levels of emotions.

Erectus: Who says that these animals don’t have higher level of emotions? The level may vary, but they are there.

Paedo: Other animals may have but guinea pig…..they don’t have them.

Erectus: It’s because they are grown in a secluded and modified surrounding. What if I keep a guinea pig in this hostel, won’t it become a pet. Now, a pet definitely has higher level of emotions which are not a result of symbiosis. For example a dog, which is well fed by its owner, wags his tail when u look at him and pamper him affectionately.

Paedo: You seem to start countering yourself. You said that guinea pig can be cultivated and used for research, without disturbing the peace of ethical nerds.

This is bound to happen in any long fart session (Ya! We have been talking for two hours by then and usually it’s difficult to maintain coherence between your starting points and the points u make at the end of discussion). Clearly,a lot of dynamics is involved. From thermodynamics point of view, the energy involved from discussion melts icebergs of earlier opinions, volcanoes form new islands of opinions and knowledge. That is why this fart sessions are so important to any human being, or lets say for any living form with” higher level of emotions”!.

Lets continue…….

Erectus: I think there is confusion and let me state my final stand. I cannot guarantee that it conforms to my first stand. I am against cultivation of life forms which have higher levels of emotions, for research purposes. The line separating higher levels of emotions from biological emotions is decided from our present knowledge and not from our assumptions. We are supposed to act on our present knowledge. That restrains cultivating guinea pig for research and allows cultivation of E-coli for research as ethical. If we are cloning human being, that once it gains the higher level of emotions, we should not use it as stack of organs or research purpose, but this does not relieves us from the responsibility of seeing to it that he/she is taken care of till it becomes self-reliant.

Paedo: My stand is that cultivation of any living form for research is ethical, as god has not created place for it and we are the ones who introduced it in this universe. We should not bifurcate living form into ones that can be cultivated for research and ones that cannot, on the basis of a line, higher emotion and biological emotion line, about which we have no detailed and specific knowledge. So if we are allowing E-coli, we should allow humans too for being cultivated for research purpose.

Summary (in a very dramatic way by Paedo): Some people believe in a line, based on the level of emotions present in a living form, which defines cultivation of it for research as ethical and unethical. While other contends that we have no knowledge about the line and either it’s ethical or unethical for all life forms together.

Well! That eventually led us to have first Saturday’s breakfast of the semester.
I wrote this blog because I felt that it was too interesting to be lost in the past and I felt an urgent need to write it somewhere and found this blog to be a perfect place.


PS: @ Paedo-> If you find any discrepancies in the details, go and fuck yourself as I wrote it and things are bound to go my way in return for the pains I took to write it. Anyways, u can use the comments column to crib!