When you get stuck

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance:

Getting stuck is the commonest trouble of all. Your mind gets stuck when you're trying to do too many things at once. What you have to do is try not to force words to come. That just gets you more stuck. What you have to do now is separate out the things and do them one at a time. You're trying to think of what to say and what to say first at the same time and that's too hard. So separate them out. Just make a list of all the things you want to say in any old order. Then later figure out the right order.

Quality

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance:

1. Quality is a characteristic of thought and statement that is recognized by a non-thinking process. Because definitions are a product of rigid, formal thinking, quality cannot be defined.

2. I was talking about the first wave of crystallization outside of rhetoric that resulted from Phaedrus' refusal to define Quality. He had to answer the question, If you can't define it, what makes you think it exists?

A thing exists, if a world without it can't function normally. If we can show that a world without Quality functions abnormally, then we have shown that Quality exists, whether it's defined or not. Subtract quality from a description of the world:

Fine arts, paintings, symphonies, poetry, comedy, sports, tasty marketplace items, movies, dances, plays and parties would all be gone. A huge proportion of us would be out of work, which would force us to indulge in non-Quality work. Pure science, mathematics, philosophy and logic would remain unchanged. If Quality was dropped, only rationality would remain unchanged.

The world CAN function without Quality, but it's not worth living. The term WORTH is a Quality term. Life would just be living without any values or purpose at all.

Please don't want!

I might be repeating thoughts from the post "Love and marriage" before, but I want to write this post, because I want to think straight. I think well when I talk to someone or I write things down. So, here I go:

I realize that it's perfectly possible to live with a person you have never known before, for the rest of your life. A small example: How do roommates live together? Do they not fight with each other, but yet adjust even for a a duration of a couple of years? There is proof for this, Indians realize it: They get married and then fall in love. Love is not essential before marriage. What is essential is the ability to adjust and sacrifice things for the one you love. Where love exists, hatred exists there - every coin has two sides. What half the Americans do is they divorce when that hatred pops up in at least one of their hearts. In my opinion, if they still stick together long enough, they can begin to love each other again. Since love didn't last long before they hated each other, that hatred will not last long too, they only have to wait it out. Love seems beautiful, and then they get married. Hatred and problems are ugly and hard to cope with, and they get divorced. That's how half the people live here. Now I begin to think that marriage and divorce are two sides of the coin of "a life together". Oh! Another point - If you WANT to get married, you should be ready for a divorce - "Desire brings misery" seems true everywhere. Then how do Indian people get married? I got it! It should happen by itself. You should not look for someone to get married to. What Indians do is let their parents find someone for them. They don't even ask their parents to find someone for them. Now, THAT seems right! The concepts of divorce and love marriages are FOREIGN to the Indian people. Maybe this is what is one of those things that are bringing the rich tradition of India down. Indians don't divorce because divorce doesn't solve the problems you face in marriage. It only helps you escape. What guarantees you that you will not be in the same situation again if you marry someone else next? Nothing. What will you do then? Maybe you will realize then, that divorcing is a waste of time, and a big pain in the neck and adjust with your second spouse for the remaining part of your life. My first husband, my second wife, etc are terms that make me sick to the stomach. I don't want to hear such stuff. Makes me want to go back to India and settle there for ever.

I might speculate on what kind of person is going to marry me, but that will only crank up my desire to get married, which I don't want to have now. Remember, marriage must happen by itself. Don't want it! What will I do if someone approaches me? Tell her to ask my parents :) Haha! That obviously seems stupid, but it's deep, going by the explanation I have given above.

What a realization! In this perspective, relationships are a waste of time. Valuable time you can spend doing other important things to develop your personality and character. A person dies, but his character remains. What defines a person is his character but not always his job.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe I am right, but these are my thoughts and hence I am.

The Eternal Law

A paragraph from "The Man Who Knew Infinity" by Robert Kanigel, pg 35:

The genius of "The Eternal Law", then, was that it left room for everyone. It was a profoundly tolerant religion. It denied no other faiths. It set out no single path. It prescribed no one canon of worship and belief. It embraced everything and everyone. Whatever your personality there was a god or goddess, an incarnation, a figure, a deity, with which to identify, from which to draw comfort, to rouse you to higher or deeper spirituality. There were gods for every purpose, to suit any frame of mind, any mood, any psyche, any stage or station of life. In taking on different forms, God became formless; in different names, nameless.

The statement in bold made me so emotional. I was overwhelmed with feeling I can't describe in words.

Squiggly line

Oh, squiggly line in my eye fluid. I see you lurking there on the periphery of my vision. But when I try to look at you, you scurry away. Are you shy, squiggly line? Why only when I ignore you, do you return to the center of my eye? Oh, squiggly line, it's alright, you're forgiven. - Stewie Griffin

I like the squiggly line...I don't know what they are called, though.

One of my ideal jobs

I would like to become a librarian. If I become a librarian, I can read all the books I want. Yes, I am after knowledge. Knowledge is in the library. Library entices me because I want to have all the knowledge I want in the short life I have. Vivekananda defines knowledge as a classification of all information, at some point. Classification of everything in the world. That reminds me of the library. Library is organized and classified. It is a hierarchical structure and represents the classification Vivekananda talks about. That's why I like libraries.

But, if I become a librarian, its obvious that I will not have time to study. Because the job of a librarian is not to study, but manage the library. His job is to help others study. Oh! Even a librarian doesn't have the time to study. I need to work and earn money to live and no time to study. All the time is being lost in working, and there is no time to study. That is why I am doing a PhD. To study. But what I am going to study during my PhD is a drop in the ocean of all knowledge. How do I drink the ocean? I can't live forever, so it's kind of impossible. I need to decide what to study and what not to study. Knowledge and experience also lies in telling what is important and what is not.

Ripples of thought

I began thinking about thought. Religion and philosophy and science have something in common. When you go deep enough, what some people don't understand or realize is that the world is an illusion. All the world is human imagination. Some of my previous posts say these things. I am pretty sure this sounds outrageous to you, the reader. Imagine an object, like a chair. What is a chair? Describe it for me, please.

A chair is something you sit on. You can feel it with your skin, and you can sense its weight if you lift it by hand. Your mind senses the existence of the chair through the skin and muscles. Your mind feels the chair. You can see the chair with your eyes: It's black or brown, made of wood and is hard and has legs and a backrest, etc. You describe what you see. Sight through the eyes reaches your mind. Your mind sees the chair. If the chair smells like something, you can even say your mind smells the chair. If you hit the chair, you can hear it being hit. Your mind hears the existence of the chair. What is the fifth remaining sense? Oh, the sense of taste! I am pretty sure that, if you lick the wooden chair, you can taste the chair :) Your mind tastes the chair. I keep using the word mind instead of the brain, because the brain is just a physical object. I refer to the mental concept behind the brain, the mind.

Having your mind sensed the chair with all your five senses, can you still imagine a chair even if the chair doesn't exist? Yes, you can. So, it means that the chair need not exist in reality for you to imagine it. What the human mind needs to imagine a chair, is an a priori concept of a chair. But, I find it hard to believe it. That needs memory. Where does memory come from? This is where I get stuck. Having discussed this, if you extend this discussion, I think you can see that the world doesn't exist outside the human imagination.

Wiki says this is the mind-body problem. This is the dualism in nature. Energy and matter, mind and body. Dualism everywhere, balance everywhere. I need to take a further step into monism. It seems intuitive to me that there is only thought in the world, and there is no physical world. Don't ask me why. I can't answer that question. Because I don't know why. I only think it's true. Maybe that's what God means. I hence question the existence of God. I try not to believe in God, for the purpose of finding and realizing God. That's the best way to do it. Reasoning and logic can take you only that far. Philosophy and religion go beyond reasoning. That's why the general public look at philosophers and religious people as crazy people without a purpose in life. That's because these crazy people question the purpose of life, and move the masses and disrupt their routine life. The government doesn't want the public's life to be disturbed. They are against philosophers and religion. I think this is where the concept of "separation of church and state" comes in.

Life is questionable. Philosophy says life and death are two sides of the same coin. Thus far, it's obvious. The Hindu god Brahma creates life and the Hindu god Siva destroys life. There is the third god in the trio, Vishnu, the God of preservation and sustenance. You can call the forces of life and death by any name. Names are not explanations. Selfish people make advantage of the fear of death. As long as humans remain humans, that is, the need for food, shelter and clothing exists, humans will fight among each other. Differences will exist. The world will remain like this. You cannot change it. Practice your principles instead of preaching them. Even if you preach them without practicing them, you will be a hypocrite.

I begin to think about hypocrisy. Most people think hypocrisy is bad. Hypocrisy is when the person does not practice the idea he supports. Should he follow a principle he states for the principle to be true? That's definitely a big NO. Gravitation exists whether or not Newton discovered it. For an idea or principle to be true, the person stating it need not be the one following it. See the idea, not the person. Lobbyists and reporters make a living based on the fact that people think hypocrisy is bad and hypocrites are questionable creatures. Perhaps they are right, because it's more impressive for a person to preach something when he follows it, because people will not question him: Why don't you follow it when you say it's true? Actually that question is unnecessary, because that's where it gets personal. People get personal instead of helping each other out towards achieving a common goal.

The identification of a common goal is important for people not to fight with each other. It all comes back to the same question again: The purpose of life. Since nobody knows the right answer (there is no right or wrong), people can't pursue that goal, and they set their own goals in life and pursue it. If it conflicts with the goal of another person, they fight.

Love and Marriage

All that I talk about love and marriage are from my personal experience in this month. I read somewhere on the internet that experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. It's absolutely true to me in this case. Absolutely. I began to ponder over the concept of marriage for the first time when this hit me in December 2007. As far as I understand, marriage is a necessity. The little bit of philosophy I read a while ago tells me marriage is a necessity and a duty, whether it's social, personal, emotional, or spiritual. It is a step towards higher realizations of life. Given this hypothesis, I will discuss my thoughts on this. I have seen two cultures in my life: Indian and American. The more time I spend on it thinking and hence the deeper I go, the more similarities I see, differences are only apparent superficial and shallow - they only divide people and cause disharmony among people who are not so broad-minded to see the similarities within.

Similarities are in the answers to questions like "Who?", "Why?", "When?": How do you choose whom to marry? Why should you marry that particular person? When do you decide whether or not to marry? When do you actually marry? These are the thoughts that seem to have similar answers across cultures and borders.

I will start with saying that you can marry anybody. ANYBODY. (Start the thinking process with disbelief, and build up on it.) That's true only when both the partners realize it's true. Since no two persons are alike and nobody is perfect, it means that marriage is aimed at bringing two people, who are most similar, together. But, is that necessary? Can differences be eliminated with time and harmony be achieved? Apparently not, because life is short. It will need sacrifices from both sides to make it work, because love means giving and not expecting to receive. What can bind them together? Is love a prerequisite for marriage? Millions of people who have never even known each other got married and lived together for all their lives. Love cropped up in their married lives either as a necessity or by itself. I am pretty sure they are happy with their married lives. You can't measure happiness, but you can tell it works, because happiness doesn't come from outside, but it's inside yourself - only the external world drives you away from discovering it within yourself.

When do you decide when to marry? My opinion is this: You think about getting married when you start feeling alone, because everybody else is getting married: Your friends, your relatives, your siblings, etc. Since they have their own personal lives now and they can't afford to hang out with you and spend time with you; you are left alone, and you start thinking about company for yourself because everybody else you know has company in their lives. I think this is where same sex marriages come in, since that company need not always come from the opposite sex, unless you are heterosexual, and feel the need to satisfy your physical desires. Since nobody I know is not after satisfaction of those desires, marriage is not essential in that respect: personal necessity. I think this is why some cultures have very early marriages, since people achieve puberty at very early ages, ages at which they don't even know what to think and don't even have the knowledge to understand what is happening to them.

My posts might be disjointed because I write as I think, and I can't write as fast as I think, and if I think about how to write while writing, it blocks the process of thinking itself, and it doesn't serve the purpose of writing. So, I ask you to bear with me and be patient as I learn that art of writing and thinking at the same time.

Now comes the emotional part: Is marriage a necessity for satisfaction of emotional desires? For most people it is, since they are emotional. But what exactly do I mean by emotional desires? It's the need to share your opinions, feelings: both happy and sad. This brings together people who think along similar lines: they must have the same tastes, the same culture, come from the same place, speak the same language - in short, have the same superficial attributes of life. But what I think they must have in common is the thought process. If they think the same way about life, that is enough to bring them together. All differences can be eliminated in due course of time. Of course, they can never be truly eliminated, but only reduced. Differences keep occurring in life not only in marriage, but everywhere: in your job, in your own mind, in your family, with your friends. What needs to be common to the two is the way they try to overcome these differences. That is what I call similarity in thought. But if, given a problem, there are always multiple ways to solve it. Do the differences lie in the problem statement? Or do the differences lie in the paths they take to achieve the same solution to the problem they both agreed on?

Coming to the spiritual need of marriage, I don't know if it's a necessity or not, because spirituality is in the mind and not in what you do. Can you be spiritual even if your partner is not? Should I be talking about this in the first place, since most people don't find it entertaining enough? Should I care for what other people think about spirituality? Should I write about it whether or not there are people to read this? I write because I want to share it with somebody nonexistent, when nobody I know is willing to listen to all this crap about my thought process. Maybe that is why I don't talk much and think too much. It's getting worse by the day, which I don't want to happen. Maybe I should post this stuff on some dating website when I need someone. :)

I have to read my book now, so see you later.

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

Thanks to Amith for suggesting that book for me to read:

Some extracts from the book:

Laws of nature are human inventions, like ghosts. Laws of logic, of mathematics are also human inventions, like ghosts. the whole blessed thing is a human invention, including the idea that it isn't a human invention. The world has no existence whatsoever outside the human imagination. It's all a ghost, and in antiquity was so recognized as a ghost, the whole blessed world we live in. It's run by ghosts. We see what we see because these ghosts show it to us, ghosts of Moses and Christ and the Buddha, and the Plato, and Descartes, and Rousseau and Jefferson and Lincoln, on and on and on. Isaac Newton is a very good ghost. One of the best. You common sense is nothing more than the voices of thousands and thousands of these ghosts from the past. Ghosts and more ghosts. Ghosts trying to find their place among the living.

A nice sense of duty

This comes from page 514 of "Einstein" by Walter Isaacson.

Einstein's search for a unified field theory was proving to be futile. But Einstein never regretted his dedication to it. When a colleague asked him one day why he was spending - perhaps squandering - his time in this lovely endeavor, he replied that even if the chance of finding a unified field theory was small, the attempt was worthy. He had already made his name, he noted. His position was secure, and he could afford to take the risk and expend the time. A younger theorist, however could not take such a risk, for he might thus sacrifice a promising career. So, Einstein said, it was his duty to do it.

I think this is amazing. The way Walter Isaacson puts it, Einstein was like a lotus leaf in water, affecting it, but never wetted by it - this is exemplified by instants where Walter says Einstein was always amused by the world, and was mostly a spectator than a participant in it.

Newton and God?

If found this on page 125 of "Einstein" by Walter Isaacson and it impressed me a lot. I think this explains the fact that science and religion are not separate, but two paths to the same goal.

The concept of absolute time - meaning a time that exists in reality, and tick-tocks along independent of any observations of it, had been a mainstay of physics ever since Newton had made it a premise of his Principia. The same is true for absolute space and distance. "Absolute, true, and mathematical time, of itself and from its own nature, flows equably without relation to anything external" wrote Newton. Absolute space, in its own nature, without relation to anything external, remains always similar and immovable.

But even Newton seemed discomforted by the fact that these concepts could not be directly observed. "Absolute time is not an object of perception," he admitted. He resorted to relying on the presence of God to get him out of the dilemma. "The Deity endures forever and is everywhere present, and by existing always and everywhere, He constitutes duration and space."

Spirituality on the way to Chicago

This amazing person met me while I was waiting to board the plane from Pittsburgh to Chicago today. He was Christian and he took Hinduism and its teachings to his heart: he said it made more sense to him than Christianity. We had a wonderful discussion regarding spirituality and the meaning and purpose of life. I was getting along well with the conversation because I had read part of Vivekananda's works, but at some point I blanked out because he talked about more complicated things than I could understand.

What surprised me was when he said India was going up and the US was going down - there is so much hate and materialism in the US. He said that! I remember my father saying something like that from the news that India's culture was influencing the world in some way (he said this yesterday!) and I saw a living example right today!

I am glad I was thinking along the same lines as such an experienced person (he is 60) and that means I have learnt something in life from experience. What I found especially interesting was his answer to the question "What is the purpose of life?": He said God created the world and matter to experience his fullest/lowest potential. Experience and knowledge is the ultimate goal (I agree with that) and it can only be gained when there exists polarity (good or evil/right or wrong/up and down) in life. That's what the world is! We also discussed Maya (the illusion) and Advaita philosophy. It struck me today in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, when I saw a book on Einstein, that his formula E = mc^2 is a mathematical formula for the teachings of Advaita philosophy that the material world (mass/matter) is a consequence of the supreme consciousness (Energy). This totally makes sense to me! It's also fully understandable how Einstein could come up with such great thoughts just by thinking, because everything in the world is an outcome of thought and experience.

End-of-Semester updates

Hi all,

Just thought I would update you with recent events/issues here:

1. Chicago trip:
I am leaving on the night of friday the 21st of December by Southwest airlines to Chicago and returning on the morning of 24th the Sunday to Pittsburgh...no idea how they will receive me especially since peddhamma is leaving for India, and I have never known them :)

Many friends of mine are going to India in December, but many are staying too. Dhishan is going to Raleigh to meet his relatives, Naresh was asked by his uncle to come but he refused to go - picchi naayana: wants to work without a break even in December holidays (not that it's bad though, I admire his diligence)

2. Casino night:
I attended a Casino night arrange for the BME grads and learned to play Poker and Blackjack (both are card games, based on strategy and guesswork) and Roulette (that rotating coloured disk on which you let a ball stop on a number - totally based on chance). As a board member of GBMES (Graduate BioMedical Engg Society), my duty was to attend and take photographs of the event, but i enjoyed it a lot too..

3. Camera/Photography:
I want to learn photography, so i bought the camera with lots of manually controllable features. I hope to learn new techniques and skills in photography (Summit 2008 I told Akka about has a course on Black and White Photography too) during the December and after. Will have to warn myself and others that Photography is an expensive hobby, and lenses cost a lot :)

4. Dance classes - shoes
As i told you, I plan to compete in the upcoming Ballroom Dance Competition in March in Pittsburgh, and hence am now searching for Latin dance shoes. Lauren and I roamed around the city to search for shoes, but I couldn't find any that fit my feet (dance stores cater more to Ballet dancers than Ballroom dancers). I will try to find som luck in Chicago, and if all else fails, I will have to order them online without trying them on first.

5. Music interest
To be discussed and pursued later in my (PhD) life: I want to learn to play the flute, but i think I have enough on my hands already, don't you? :)

6. Courses - Biochemistry, Statistics and Image Registration:
Biochemistry has been very interesting - protein structures and functions and dna/rna replication and transcription, and all that stuff...i love it!

Statistics is hard - not because I don't like it, but because the course is entirely theory based and no practical problem solving...all the problem solving will have to come in my research, and I have to learn things the hard way. :(

Registration in Bio-imaging course was relatively easy, mostly because the Professor is new to teaching himself, and the course deals with matching images say for example between CT scan of brain and MRI scan of brain...

7. Research:
Currently I am working on a project on automated tracking of particles in a movie/image sequence. It has to do with position prediction using filtering techniques and stuff. I like the work I am doing, but have to put in more effort and concentration. Never before did I realize so much the need for mental effort and control of the mind.

8. Bathtub issue:
The bath tub at home was recently blocked with my hair that is constantly being lost :( It took a week to get the maintenance guy free, but a minute to fix it with a vacuum plunger :) . One day I went to the showers at the swimming pool to have a bath when we couldn't use the tub :)

9. Wine and cheese party:
I don't remember whether i have told you about this or not, but I went to a wine and cheese party with Lauren at one her friends' house:

Following is an extract from an email to my friends:

Naresh and I didn't do anything for Thanksgiving nor visited any place, we neither did homework or much fun-work :) . I just stayed home and did nothing but watched movies all day...By the way, I bought a Digital SLR camera (canon digital rebel xt) for 570 bucks...that's yesterday the last day of sale, in Circuitcity store here. And I went to a wine and cheese party with my dance partner the day before...I didn't have any wine though...had a nice experience of a typical american friends' party...what happened is this: they had wine first...i had tea and water :)... and crackers (like papads, made of rice, wheat and rye) and other stuff..then i listened while they talked and joked abt parties, vacation, wines etc...then we had desserts - cookies, cake etc...then we played a game called auto auction (it's a board game of business with cars - involves strategy and luck - i learnt abt maintaining a poker face :) )...then we watched a recorded TV show called the big bang theory and the gospel bill show...it was comedy...then we left and went home... while the others stayed on to play other games..

If anybody wants fundaes abt buying Cameras ask Naresh...he made me buy this..not that i didn't want to, though :) ...his iris recognition research has a lot to do with cameras and macro-photography - oh i so envy him for that..especially since mine has nothing to do with microscopes :( though the images i work on come from many hi funda microscopes i have never seen in life...

10. ITA test

This is the international TA test. All students who have TA duty have to take this test. I took it and was placed in category 2 - which means I can TA any course and any lab, but have to concurrently attend 15 hours of teaching related seminars the semester i am TAing a course. Have to really improve my English speaking, haven't I? I might have to TA a course next semester.

11. Summit 2008

I told Akka about this, but now there is no chance akka can come to this (Registration ended): It's a three day event on Jan 11,12,13 next month. There are many learning activities like photography, drawing, rafting, yoga, cuisine, dances, etc. I gave my preferences for my courses and will be assigned the courses some time later.

12. NCSU trip
Jayanti Srikant is at NCSU (North Carolina State University) and Dhishan and I had plans to visit Raleigh city, but Srikant said he might not stay there since his cousin was going to Virginia and he might join him. So, I cancelled this thing.

13. Courses next sem:
I might have to do Physiology, Cell Biology and Image Processing using Wavelets next semester depending on the outcome of a Petition I filed to the Graduate Affairs Committee of our department. I will update you after I know about it.

That's all and have a nice day :)

Vamshi

The Parable of the Black Belt

Source: http://www.cs.unc.edu/~azuma/hitch4.html
%%%%%% Begin %%%%%%%%

Picture a martial artist kneeling before the master sensei in a ceremony to receive a hard-earned black belt. After years of relentless training, the student has finally reached a pinnacle of achievement in the discipline.

"Before granting the belt, you must pass one more test," says the sensei.

"I am ready," responds the student, expecting perhaps one final round of sparring.

"You must answer the essential question: What is the true meaning of the black belt?"

"The end of my journey," says the student. "A well-deserved reward for all my hard work."

The sensei waits for more. Clearly, he is not satisfied. Finally, the sensei speaks. "You are not yet ready for the black belt. Return in one year."

A year later, the student kneels again in front of the sensei.

"What is the true meaning of the black belt?" asks the sensei.

"A symbol of distinction and the highest achievement in our art," says the student.

The sensei says nothing for many minutes, waiting. Clearly, he is not satisfied. Finally, he speaks. "You are still not ready for the black belt. Return in one year."

A year later, the student kneels once again in front of the sensei. And again the sensei asks: "What is the true meaning of the black belt?"

"The black belt represents the beginning -- the start of a never-ending journey of discipline, work, and the pursuit of an ever-higher standard," says the student.

"Yes. You are now ready to receive the black belt and begin your work."

To me, there are two lessons in this story.

First, the Ph.D. is the beginning, not the culmination, of your career. Don't worry about making it your magnum opus. Get out sooner, rather than later.

%%%%%% End %%%%%%%%

Sonic boom

If you are interested, first watch the Youtube video linked to by the title of this post. It's a very interesting video that explains in simple terms how and why a sonic boom is caused.

Here is my attempt to explain to you and myself and understand the principles behind supersonic flight: Actually I am trying to answer this week's question in The Hindu's SciTech section's Question Corner.

As you might know, sound is pressure changes in air (that's why sound needs a medium to travel). Every moving object changes the pressure of the air it's trying to occupy as it tries to move, and this makes sound, whether or not we can hear it.

As explained in the Wikipedia article here, it's accepted by the current scientific community that the sudden drop in pressure is what causes the visible condensation cloud that surrounds an aircraft travelling at transonic speeds (speeds slightly below and above 330m/s).

As the nose of the aircraft hits a point in the plane into which it's moving, pressure of the air suddenly rises, and as the aircraft moves through the plane, it falls steadily and goes below the normal value to reach a minimum, and when the tail of the aircraft leaves the plane, it suddenly rises back to normal again. This can be thought of as tracing the letter 'N', and hence the name of the wave, N-wave. This N-wave follows the aircraft wherever it goes.

Now, in this N-wave there is a point at which the air pressure goes below a certain point, causing a corresponding sudden drop in temperature. The temperature goes below the dew point, and hence causes the water vapour to condense into water droplets, forming a condensation cloud around the tail of the aircraft.

I hope that explains the formation of condensation cloud. I still don't understand how dew point works though, I hope I can make another post out of it.

Dr. Kalam's visit to CMU

Yes, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam visited CMU today, and due to a lucky coincidence (I was looking for something to eat), I had the opportunity to attend his talk and the interaction session that ensued. At the beginning of the talk, he asked the audience to pick a topic that they wanted him to talk about. Unfortunately, nobody suggested anything (and I neither) and he fell back to his default starter topic - his career and contribution to India's science and technology.

It was amazing to hear him say "I don't buy the brain drain." And I agree with it too. The world knows no borders - the countries are human made divisions on earth for their self-destruction. Even Sunita Williams, after having spent a record time in spaceflights and spacewalks, said the same thing - she couldn't see borders between countries.

He concluded his talk with the an answer to the question: "What's India's biggest problem right now?" - Confidence.

Naresh got an autograph from him at the end.

bolisms

Metabolism is the term used to refer to the set of all the reactions occurring in the living body.
Metabolism comes from the greek root metaballein "to change". I think it has nothing to do with the word meta, meaning beyond/para.

Metabolism can be split into catabolism and anabolism. Reactions can occur in two ways, remember? A + B gives AB in anabolism, where the reactions occur to build up tissues and cells. Catabolism is the other way round: It's the breaking up of large molecules into constituent parts, and then used in assimilation.

How's that now?

Fats, Carbs, Calories and the whole shebang

I was always confused when people discussed fats, carbs and their calorific value, and what makes you obese, etc with or in front of me. So, to avoid that confusion and shun the ignorance, I decided to do some research myself and this is what I found out about food and nutrition:

Calorific value of each: Each gram of fat has 9 Calories, each gram of carbohydrates, or carbs, has 4 Calories and each gram of protein has 4 Calories of ENERGY (along with the building blocks of the body), which is equal to that of carbs. Note that 1 Cal = 1 kcal of energy, which is the standard convention, but is rarely used. It's surprising to me to note that the body can survive without carbs - because, unlike vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fatty acids, etc, the carbs are not essential nutrients - the body can synthesize everything it needs from the essential nutrients mentioned above. For example, glucose, a carb, can be synthesized from the protein you eat. Then why should we eat food with carbohydrates in it all? Because carbs are the most important source of energy and the most abundant in the food we eat.

Fat is not what you think it is: It's unfortunate that it was named fat by someone I don't know, and this whole confusion always pops up when people discuss fat(s). READ CAREFULLY: Fat is ESSENTIAL for the body, because some important vitamins can be digested only in conjunction with fats (fat-soluble, they are called), and fats are required for maintaining healthy hair, skin, cell function, body temperature, basically MAKING the body, AND they also serve as energy stores for the body, and the last function is what scares people away from fats, and the primary purpose of fats is forgotten and we tend to think that fat makes us fat. Then what makes you look fat if you are eating too much? It's the excess energy you are eating in the form of Calories (all that comes from carbs, fat and protein in total), that you are not spending fully, that gets stored as body fat and that's what makes you look fat.

What makes you look fat is actually adipose tissue, also informally known as body fat, and is typically present deep beneath the skin in the form of adipocyte cells. The main function of body fat is to be used as a reserve energy source for the body, as mentioned above. Adipose tissue is built up when you are taking in more energy than you are actually spending, and this energy can come from protein, carbs and fats - in the ratio I mentioned in the first paragraph.

Lesson learnt: It doesn't matter if you are eating carbs or fats or protein or anything else, if you want to be in control of your weight, your flab and hence your health, eat only that many calories you are going to spend - and that's what my dad's been telling me all my life - "Exercise cheyyaraa naa kannaa!"

First post during my PhD life

I am taking three courses here and I also have to start some project work after discussing with my advisor today what projects are available in the first place. I am doing Biochemistry, Intermediate Statistics and Image registration in Bio-Imaging - the three courses. I didn't think I would do chemistry ever in my life again, but this biochemistry is different: it is clearing some of my unanswered doubts in chemistry and biology - exactly because of which questions that were left unanswered, I used to hate chemistry during my JEE days.

Statistics is the extension of what we did in PRP, but it's getting much more complex with multivariate analysis. The only problem (maybe not a problem, but a plus point in the long run) is that we have three assignments every week...one every week per course...and no copying - the TAs are competent enough to detect fraud, unlike back on our campus. I am very disappointed by the plummeting quality of JEE, GATE and other entrances to IITs by the year. They are the first step in maintaining the quality of education at IITs.

In addition to this, I will have to start research in day or two. As we come to the topic of cooking, it's completely different for me here. We are buying vegetables off the store called Giant Eagle and are cooking every dinner - Naresh and me. Naresh is helping me a lot with everything. It's good that he is a little miser than me: when I answer his question - "Why do you need to buy that thing?" it helps me answer myself and gain control of my own spending. There is also an Indian store called Kohli's where you can basically get all the spices for Indian cuisine and all edible items available in India that you can't typically buy in the US.

Life is not yet boring here - I am taking Ballroom dance classes this semester - (I think you know what ballroom dance is...), so I have something to look forward to when the week gets boring. And some weekends we go out to some place to visit in Pittsburgh - we visited the Ventakeswara Temple here - the largest in the US, on our first weekend. We went to a museum (Carnegie Science Center), but it was basically like a children's museum - all physics principles we studied at school demonstrated by working models. Then we went on top of a hill in the heart of the city (called Mt. Washington, and people live there, it's not just a hill) in the center of the city (main areas/centers of the city are called Downtown areas anywhere in the US, like Mount Road in Chennai, Koti in Hyderabad, etc), and it was very good to see the whole city from such a high point above the city. These are the three places we visited. I am planning to buy a camera sometime later after I get my first stipend at the end of this month and write a kind of online blog article explaining my experiences in my first month in the US for people who want to know abt my welfare - and they can read it...

Get more enthusiastic - mingle with more people and ask questions to everybody you meet - life will get more interesting. I am trying to change myself after I got out of the campus - talk to more people, try not to be feared by things that look insurmountable at first but are just pebbles later on, get active in whatever you do, utlilize all the resources here - by the way, all games and sports are free here - they give you all the equipment when u show your id card - we played baddy twice, frisbee once, some indoor games like pool, foosball, TT sometimes. I am trying hard to balance my curricular and extracurricular life, and have to get used to resisting temptation, I don't want to repeat the same mistakes I made on the campus at IITM - tempted by the comp and waste time on movies. It's good that there are no DC++s or somethings like that here. We can watch movies online but have to put fight and search for the movie we want. I haven't tried that yet, and I have no reason to try anytime soon.

I request you all to keep me updated with happenings in India and for that matter anywhere in the world- it could be anything - what's happening in AP, India, your family if you want to let me know, your office, political situation that's not reflected in the newspapers, rumours, gossips, philosophical articles - virtually anything you think would be of some or even no value to me. Email is the only means of visual and more effective communication. We can't trasmit all the information we want over just voice on the phone!

This is the first time I am writing such a long post after I got here.

PS: This post is copied in most part, from an email I sent to my friend, since I didn't want to write it in a new way and spend a lot of time on it.