Alvida Dr. Kalam!

It was a fine day at school. Unfortunately, I have forgotten which class it was. Our teacher wrote the following on the blackboard.

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam

Missile Man of India

 That's how I came to know about a man who shaped so much of my aspirations and dreams. Who I wanted to become in life. From playing with seashells on the beaches of Rameshwaram to building missiles for India, his life touched millions. And will continue to do so.

I remember a time, when there was a rumor of him visiting my hometown. We were all excited. I spent hours interacting with my father about the questions I would ask him. I was so desperate that I kept pleading my father to arrange any means possible. But as most of the rumors go, it turned out to be false. That day, I experienced my first heartbreak. I matured a little that night - thinking about the cruel joke, fate played on me.

The same feeling is rushing into me as I write about him. Magnified. I will never meet him anymore. Yet another dream engulfed by the tides of time.

The only solace I have now is the fact that time itself couldn't defeat such men. 

They have the Wings of Fire afterall!

Dude, science?

My mother loves plants. She has quite a wide array of plants in the modest space of my home. 

Lately, she has been troubled by an increasing pest problem. An insect called Mealybug has infected trees of hibiscus, mango and guava resulting in heavy defoliation(loss of leaves). She has used many spraying insecticides to no avail(mealybug develops a waxy coating which doesn't let the poison sip in).

After quite a lot of thinking and administering the sprays myself, I decided that there must be some array of chemicals which can be administered from within the plants. The chemicals go with water at the root, the insects ingest it along with the sap and then, die. Quite obviously, the chemicals shouldn't disturb the metabolism of plants.

A single search query gave me the answer. Systemicides. One of them is called imidicholoropid. Shortly afterwards, I took my bicycle and reached the nearest agro shop. I began to describe what I wanted. Here is a snippet of the conversation with the shop attendant S.

Me: Do you have an insecticide which can be administered to the roots?

S: Huh? There is nothing such as that. Describe me your problem.

Me: <Description given>

S: Oh, you take this pesticide. Spray it all over the plants. It is enough.

Me: No, it isn't. It has already been tried.

S: Tell me again what you exactly want.

Me: Have you heard of imidicholoropid? It works by getting into plants along with the water. The insect dies after ingesting the sap.

S: (smiling mockingly) Is it even possible?

Me: Yes. It is science. You use internet? There are pages and pages on the agricultural websites.

S: Dude, I am a practical person. I am in this business for 22 years. Science has not yet developed enough. What will fancy degrees do? I know more stuff than a person at an agricultural institute. (he then went on to describe his success at various farms and how he taught various degree holders 'things')

I left the shop feeling weird. A man who runs his living by selling things made possible by science(fertilizers, pesticides and genetically modified seeds) believes that science is a joke. What do you think is the condition at the level of farmers?

I don't know why science has such an outlook among the general public. Or why people tend to believe in religion or fantasies more often and far strongly than science. Forget those who never went to school - I have seen many educated people falling into the trap too. It is deeply troublesome that this question has not been sufficiently asked - what is the essential thing missing from science education?

I don't know the answers yet. But, I do know one thing as far as the human society is concerned.

Bullshit baffles brains.

One question

After coming through Storypicks from a TED talk, I decided to ask questions from my elders whenever I find time. The result has been amazing. I know more about my place, my parents and the arrow of life.

Yesterday, I went out with my father. In earlier days, there happened not many grocery shops in the town. As prosperity increases, so does the number of shops - I have seen it while I grew up. Naturally, it is going to be more evident in case of my father. So, I asked him: from where did he bought groceries back in his childhood?

He told me to tag along. He will show me the shop. I followed. It was quite a long walk. We entered a small shop facing the road. It was old - wooden doors, low banked doorway and consisted of two rooms. Luckily for me, there sat an old man. He recognized my father. After coming to know that I was his son, his joy knew no bounds. He told me how my grandfather, after getting his monthly salary, carried my father to the shop. How they had to have a short laugh. After a while, I bought two small copper plates. Before we left, he told me to keep visiting him and his shop.

It is an amazing feeling to hear about your father as a child. Hear about your grandfather - whom unfortunately I have never seen. All from someone living.

The wonderful experience originated from something very simple.

A single question.

A snap chat

Today, I was roaming with my father. After a while, a person called my dad from the other side of road. My father recognized him. While crossing, he told me that the person was one of his peers - who also topped the B.Com graduation exam in his time. I understood that this was going to be ugly.

So after a brief chat with my father, his attention turned to me. Let us denote this person by X. Here is the conversation that followed(recreated in English).

X: So, you study CS at BIT Mesra?
Me: Yes.
X: What about the semester exams? What is your GPA? Your rank?
Me: (Honestly) Not good. Just above 7. I don't study. Rank is nowhere. Virtually unknown.
X: What? My daughter studied IT from __ in Bangalore. She has a CGPA of 9.483. She happens to be a gold medalist. (To my father) What is your son doing? What has he achieved? Even if he hadn't told you, let me. Placements are going to be difficult for him.

(That was the blow.)

Me: Why are you asking my father? Ask me. I don't even know my CGPA to three decimal places. What have I achieved? Nothing significant. But as you will definitely misunderstand what I am trying to say, I would add one instance. Few days ago, I won a tablet from American Express. How? By actually writing code. As you seem the person who quantifies everything, let me tell its price. About Rs. 16,000.
X: Arey, why are you firing up? No company cares about whether you have won a tab or not. They care about your exams.
Me: With two sems left, I can't do much about my academics now. I am in no mood either. Just like you don't give any worth to my achievement, I don't give any to your daughter's. Afterall, this is a free country. But do expect me at your home someday. I will have a job then.

That was all. My father was actually laughing on the way to home. Told me, he never expected I would say something like that. For the very first time , he told me that I have grown much.

So much for an occasional chit-chat.

P.S: No offense to any highly 'ranked' scholar reading this. I am not glorifying low CGPA either. Just remember that whatever you do in life, you also have to pay the consequences. No hard feelings there.

Time for a reboot

I knew something was wrong. I was feeling too sad. I took my phone and searched through the contacts. One by one, the names of my 'friends' passed by. I reached the end. I couldn't call any of them or tell them to have a meetup. How could I? I haven't talked or met with them for two long years.

It was around October 2012. I let it go. Afterall, I have to focus on my career. Sadness is for the weak.

The years have went by. I have grown sadder. I find social interactions immensely awkward and troublesome. I haven't made any close friends - the type of friends I made in school, the friends who I could kill for, the friends whom I left - all because I had goals to fulfill.

My satisfaction levels are down too. I don't feel that good from my achievements. Take an example. Some days back I won a Samsung Galaxy Tab from American Express. It didn't feel like anything. People were congratulating me. I was thanking them and thinking why the hell are they doing that. Do they think that I am happy?
  
After some soul-searching since yesterday, it looks like I am stuck in Overkill Cult. I have become too goal oriented. So much that I find friends and families not worth my time. I have the next book to read, next contest to attend, next lecture to watch, next article to go through and so on. Incidentally, none of them revolves around friends or family members.

Why do we work? To make our lives better. To spend quality time with people who care for us and are close to us. What is the worth of our work, if it forces you to leave people in the sidelines?

It's time for some action.

A new book I found about total Solar Eclipses.

I am reading Totality: Eclipses of the Sun. Finely written book, if you're interested in why people around the world cross seas to view solar eclipses. Infact, this book has one of the finest first chapters.

I am going to end this post by adding a beautiful image of Baily's beads. The red paint you're seeing are called prominences which consists of very hot gases.

A Realization

Note to anyone interested: it is my first blog post written from a library. The library mentioned here is in BIT Mesra.

When I started using Facebook in 2011, things were a little bit different for me. I was surrounded by many friends, had shallow tastes and thought of myself as the greatest genius walking on the face of Earth. Things have probably changed for the better in all those years (atleast I like to think so).

I shouldn't bore with those uninteresting details of my life (or should I, Random Reader?). So, many things in short, I thought Facebook as something which was purely meant for entertainment. Entertainment for my previous self was goofing around practically doing nothing. So, I couldn't really understand why Mark Zuckerberg's motto for creating Facebook was to connect people. Or was there really a use for social networks?

But things changed when I started reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality(you should try it preferably after reading the original version by J.K. Rowling). As over the years, my interests have become increasingly unique and different(my friends say so), I found that no one in my batch or immediate circle of friends was reading it(as far as I know). But, as it was so beautifully written, I had to discuss it. With someone.

Within the last few days as HPMOR was ending, I have discussed the plot and the characters with people from Melbourne, Bangalore, Sydney, Boston, Chicago, Kharagpur, Warsaw and Mumbai. It didn't matter whether the person I was talking to was a guitar player or an AI researcher or a mother who recently gave birth to a son. We were in for a cause - to have a great time by discussing a thing that we loved.

It was such a great experience. Playing games like "Not Paranoid Enough" with people from opposite the globe, is a thing I seldom do - infact it was my first.

All because of Internet. All because of social networking sites like Facebook. And, most importantly because of people.

I am studying engineering now. One year left of my undergraduate studies. I sincerely hope that I am able to do justice here by creating something that makes someone's life a little bit better and happier.