A simple strategy to handle tough challenges

 There's this colleague of mine from a different time-zone that I have a great rapport with. We enjoy working with each other. We've tackled some really complex technical challenges together and there's a great lesson I learnt from him, which I won't forget in this lifetime. 

Every single time, we got to the part of the problem that was particularly hard or open-ended, he would invariably start laughing and say "This is the fun part".  Initially, I found it a bit strange that he could be so light-hearted knowing that we are staring at a tough challenge ( a typical example would be that the customer reports that something doesn't work once in 63 times. and the number 63 keeps changing.  Random failures are always challenging to debug ) 

But after a while, I fell in love with his line - "This is the fun part". It reminded me that every technical problem or any problem , for that matter, that I've faced has run its course and is no longer a part of my life at the moment. 

Yes, this is the fun part... 

Since the last few months, I've been training my son in advanced ( for his age) math. He enjoys it, but sometimes he will stare at a problem and immediately respond with -"this is very hard".. In the last few weeks, I've been calling these problems as "Laddoo problems" and I will crack some silly jokes about how we're gonna eat up those problems and how tasty they'll be.. 

And he's caught on. He's more willing to attempt hard problems. He himself says - "Appa, this is a laadoo problem" :D. And he will crack some silly joke on it. The problem is no longer intimidating. 

This is the fun part 

This is a Laadoo problem. 

Pick one of them, or make up your own . 

The Rarity of Generosity

 I am part of a Whatsapp group that is filled with high-achievers. All of them are highly educated. Many are probably multi-millionaires. And yet, it is filled with the pettiest bickering of all the groups I belong to. Silly arguments. People trying to prove they are right, and even more vehemently, that someone else is wrong. People unwilling to revise their opinions even when shown adequate evidence that contradicts their ideas. People conducting themselves in ways that are far from dignified. 

You would think that surely, smart people should be sensible . I see ample daily evidence to the contrary :). 

I've always been a pretty balanced person, and always thought it was not a big deal. I have also been often told that I am a good listener, and always thought it was not a big deal. Maybe  it is not a big deal, but I'm beginning to feel that it is a bigger deal than what I thought :) 

Ten years ago, if you had asked me what I thought was the trait I admire the most, I would have said " Generosity of Spirit". If you were to ask me the same question today, I would give the same answer, with even more conviction. 

I feel like I should create a community of people with 4 traits - Intelligence, Genuineness, Generosity of Spirit, and an inclination to keep learning, growing and exploring. A community where people feel happy for other people's successes. A community that restores our faith in humanity, and wipes off the dust that we accumulate by being forced to deal with petty jackasses.  A community without a "holier-than-thou" attitude. I don't mind if we have just 5 members in the community. A thought on the top of my head, that I just had to put down.... 

Here is something to consider- If you admire someone or something they did, do you find it easy to express that in the form of a compliment ? If you are not the sort to go around complimenting others even when when you witness something special, fair enough - Are you equally reluctant to criticize others when they do something you aren't happy with ? 

Compliment more than you criticize. If you find that hard to do, you probably need to change your attitude, or surround yourself with more awesomeness in some way.. 

Things I suck at

 Now, this would be a long post if it were to be comprehensive :) . So I am going to limit myself to 5. 

1) I don't understand emoticons. Especially the ones that are to do with smiling faces. I once asked a number of doubts on these to my wife - Why are eyes bigger in this emoticon compared to the rest? What does the change in the shade of yellow mean ? Why is the mouth in the shape of semi-circle in this one, but not the other. Why is the head tilted in this emoticon ? .. 

Many more questions of this sort. It suffices to say she got irritated :) ..  

I now basically use all the smiling emoticons interchangeably. 

2) I don't know the lyrics of a single song. Even of songs I have heard hundreds of times. My mind always ignores the lyrics. It just focusses on the tune and the feel of the song. 

3) I have a terrible sense of direction. I once wrote a post on this. It is listed under the humour section. You can refer to it if you wish to get a deeper understanding of my incompetence in this area :) 

4) I know next to nothing about politics or how elections work. Of course I do vote. I vote for the "relatively" better candidate based on some research I do just before voting. 

5) Adding to the above , I am spectacularly ignorant about many things that a lot of people know and keep track of - like the latest car models .. the offers on various credit cards. Bargaining in general. My wife often reminds me to bargain before we start heading to the billing counter in a shop :) 

One of the best parts of getting older is that we make peace with what we suck at. I am glad that I am at an age where none of the above bother me

Of course, there are things I suck at which bother me :) Story for another day .... 

An Experience in coaching kids on music

 Work .. work .. work... The last 6 months, I have been submerged in work. Too many projects, too many critical issues.. And life was getting monotonous. 

For a while, I had been thinking about participating in some community activities.  Then it so happened that I had shared some of my you-tube links in my apartment complex group, and many seemed interested in playing the keyboard. So, I created a group, consisting mostly of parents of kids who are already learning to play the keyboard. 

We started out initially with 3 kids. I met them once every 2 weeks. I first listened to them play something on the keyboard to get a sense of where they were at. I then started teaching them some phrases of popular songs, and that's when it really hit me. 

When you work one-on-one with a child, it is absolutely critical to establish rapport and psychological safety. I was genuinely impressed by what the kids were playing, and I would tell them "very nice"  and it was then that I found a far more effective tool for keeping the positive vibe going - The humble high -five ! :) 

There is a reason shaking hands  builds closeness a lot better than simply saying hello does. The physical touch makes a big difference at a subconscious level. So, each time I taught the kids something, and they played it right, I would give them a high-five ! And each time they made a mistake, I would gently correct them, wait until they played it right, and then give them a high-five. Either way, they got high-fives :D...  I now strongly believe that the high-five is a supremely underrated tool in working with kids... 

Within a couple of sessions, the kids were enjoying me teaching them something, and I was enjoying it too :) It was at this time that I noticed that each one had a different learning style. One was very quick at grasping new ideas, and was constantly restless. I needed to keep challenging him with something novel and interesting. Another was very methodical, and very dedicated and sincere in his approach. Another had clearly not been taught properly, and had to unlearn a few things. 

Some kids still did not totally enjoy being taught in public, as they seemed to have a feeling of being scrutinized. I could totally relate to that feeling. So I sent  tutorial videos for each of the songs that kids could watch, and could then practice by themselves at home. They could take their own sweet time, with no feeling of being judged, and the next time we met, they were a lot more open about me helping them iron out a few kinks.. 

With time and rapport, these kids began to become more comfortable learning in public as well.. I now have a theory - You can push and stretch kids to the degree that you establish psychological safety. If you whole heartedly accept them, make them feel you believe in them,  and they know that you will not judge them if they make a mistake, you can get them to do hard things. 

I never criticized any kid for making mistakes, but I was gentle bulldog - I would gently but repeatedly insist that they play it right. If it was still too hard for them ,  I would simplify it, but encouraged them to learnt that simple phrase really well. 

After a couple of weeks, 2 more kids joined the group. With Independence Day exactly 2 weeks away, someone floated the idea of performing for the Independence day program . We further had a limitation that we could hook up only 2 keyboards at a time to the sound system. 5 kids and me. So we formed 3 teams. 

Each one of us would play the lead for one song, and accompany another song. We finalized the songs. I quickly created and sent out the tutorial videos for the songs in the keyboard group. We began to meet every 2 days. Each time I met with the kids, they had improved.

We were now withing 2 days of the D-day. I finalized the instrument to be used for each song and the volume levels for the lead and accompanying instrument. I created a plan for the final day - who would carry the keyboard, who would carry the stand, who would carry the adapters etc. Everyone had to do some work in addition to playing the instrument. The little 8 year old girl in our group was given the responsibility of giving the final counts after which we would all bow together before the audience. 

On the day of the final event, we were asked to open the show. 

Every single kid impressed with what they did on stage. They were calm and composed. They occasionally made mistakes, but kept moving on, just as I had reminded them so many times in the past. It is one thing to know that you should not stop when you make a mistake, but it entirely something else to actually keep going when a mistake happens on stage. I was really happy for all the kids and myself too. We all gave each other one more round of high-fives and took a few pics together :) 

The next day, I organized a small get-together, and arranged for some cup-cakes for all the kids, and had prepared a personalized note for each of the kids. The kids though, had a bigger surprise in store for me - They had created a hand-made card for me, thanking me for my efforts in coaching them.. I was so deeply moved. I was touched by their affection... 

I have played in so many musical shows when I was in college. But this was truly special - coaching kids to put up something. Post the event , a few more kids have joined the group. I want to try my best to keep this going. I want to make a kids-band here. My son is still young and playful, but he does show an interest in learning the keyboard, and I want to regularly take him along to the sessions I do with the kids. 

This experience reminded of a simple lesson- If you have a skill.. if you have some knowledge, share it with others.. It will give you a sense of peace and inner happiness, that no amount of money or fame can offer. 

updates on 2022

•  It has been a pretty good year. I am ending the year on a better note than the one in which it started. 
• Earlier this month, we did a trip to Gujrat. We loved Gujrat.  Nice people, great food, unique experiences. Statue of unity is a must visit 
• After learning a bit more about Sardar Patel, I bought this book  that has real life stories on Military heroes. Truly inspirational stuff. Want to become more courageous ? Read stories on courage 
• This year two things have caught my interest - Fatigue and Trauma. I am learning a lot about fatigue, and on how to increase our energy levels - from the cellular level to the macro level. This is partly because I have been experiencing some fatigue and I want to fix it once and for all. A line I read from a book written by 2 really wise people - " The ones who get the most done in life are the ones with really high levels of energy". Regardless of how intelligent, motivated you might, you are not going to accomplish much if you are low on energy. Anyway, I am learning a lot about it and it's been eye-opening. 
• Trauma - I want to learn more about this - well, out of interest, and also because everyone is traumatized one way or the other in varying degrees. Learning more about this will also make me more attuned to what a child finds disturbing. Maybe more on this is 2024. Next year will be about energy. 
• The million dollar question that every parent wants an answer to is -  How do you get your child to cooperate without using coercive methods ?  :) I have been making some progress on this one, and this topic is of great interest to me 
• I gave only a couple of speeches this year, but somehow have improved quite a bit a table-topics speaker.. 
• I had written a bunch of articles in 2020. I had not put them up here, and I think I will now. 

Hope you had a good year. Wishing you a happy healthy new year in 2023.... 

The Best is Yet to Come. 

Recent Learnings

1) I am currently reading "Pre-suasion" by Robert Cialdini. It's a brilliant book. Cialdini is an academic, and I admire his ability to write a rigorous yet fascinating book, where he makes his points almost entirely through case studies and stories. It has 230 pages of content , followed by 100 pages of academic references ( yes, a listing of about about 1000 papers ! ) , and 80 pages of notes. Some reviews claimed that they felt 'cheated' by the book, as only half of it was 'real' content. I was rather amused by these claims. I would rather Cialdini explain the concepts in 230 pages than in 400. I think I bought the book for about 10 dollars, and it would still be a steal at 10 times the price. Cialdini probably added a listing of those 1000 references to establish the level of rigour behind some of his absurd-seeming claims, but I didn't think it was necessary. I would have believed him anyway :)

I have been yelling from rooftops (figuratively speaking of course; I don't have access to the terrace at the apartment complex I stay in)  that logic is not the all-powerful force. I have read about two thirds of the book, and Cialdini leads me to wonder if logic is of any use at all ;) If you think you have a logical, well constructed, well reasoned argument that you shall present to persuade someone  about the merit in your idea, you would be grossly mistaken in your assessment of its effectiveness. Read this book to find out why. Cialdini is better known for his other book - 'Influence' ( which I am yet to read, though I am aware of its ideas). but this one is a great read as well...


 2) One of the more interesting things I've come across and studied a little recently is Transactional Analysis - a theory of personality. I love the concept of ego states, and it is a simple and powerful framework to analyze interactions. Unlike other personality theories that coin fancy terms to intimidate readers, TA is relatively simple and immediately applicable.

3) One of the other things I have been doing this year, is giving speeches. I am getting better as a speaker. My last speech was on reciprocity styles, based on Adam Grant's work.. If you're curious to discover what your reciprocity style is, you can take his quiz here : 
https://www.adamgrant.net/give-and-take-assessment

The Right Message from the Wrong Messenger

Several years ago, I had read this wonderfully wise book. I'm not sure if I have written about it here in this blog. I was so impressed by the book that I googled and looked up the author. I found that he offered a 3hour consulation package for $ 1500. After giving it some thought, I went for it. I wanted to pick his brain, and get his perspective on certain issues I was facing.

I was disenchanted by the end of the first call. He was nothing like I had imagined. His tone of voice was very different from what I had imagined, but that I could ignore. What I had trouble making peace with was that he was clearly way too self-absorbed. He spoke way too much about himself, repeatedly highlighting his accomplishments. In the one call where I made a mention of an achievement of mine, simply to set the context for the rest of the discussion, he made numerous boastful remarks in the rest of the call in a display of petty one-upmanship.

At the end of 3 hours, I acquired two insights. Both would seem prosaic were I to state them here. But When you pay $1500 dollars for 2 insights, they suddenly each become worth 750 $ ;)  I took those 2 expensive insights seriously, and it made a real difference.

Once my disappointment with the overall experience settled down, and I thought about the stark difference between his book and persona, I had a sobering realization. Maybe he had had some life experiences that had made him deviate from his core ideas. Maybe he was surrounded by people who didn't value him, and hence he felt compelled to announce his accomplishments ? He had a wonderful message to teach, but it wasn't clear that he was embodying it himself.

This episode made me examine my own growth more critically. Was I 'better' compared to a few years earlier, simply because I could articulate my thoughts better ? And I came up with 2 lines that I keep reminding myself of regularly to this day. They're each worth $ 750, and you're getting them here for free ;)

1) "How I live is what I know" - I'm no smarter merely by reading books, or taking courses, or talking to people. Eventually how I live my life is THE true representation of what I REALLY know. The rest are mere ideas. If I really 'knew' them, they would be a part of my life. Do you 'know' that exercise is good for you ? if you really knew it, you'd be doing it.

2) "I'm not an armchair philosopher" - It's easy for me to get lured into intellectual debates about things. And for a while now, I am at a point where I want to avoid them. Cos the more I discuss things, the more more I strengthen the illusion that I am doing something awesome by discussing great ideas :) Discussing philosophy, while not worthless, is not a substitute for action.

Secondly, being a 'philospher' strengthens the 'spectator' in us. We watch what happens passively, and look to glean insights or draw interesting conclusions or theorize about various possible scenarious. The more we strengthen the 'spectator', the more we weaken the 'gladiator' ( for want of a better word) in us; The more we avoid getting into the arena.

If you are trying lots of things and find you are being scattered or generally ineffective in your approach, it's time to take a step back and reflect and philosophise. Many of us, do enough of that already. It's time instead, to stop reflecting, and instead get into action. Get into the arena. 

Ramanujan and Chola Temples

I fulfilled one of my long-held dreams last week when I visited the home of the great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan in the town of Kumbakonam. I am a huge admirer of Ramaujan. Visiting his home.. Look through the window besides which he did much of the work on his first notebook.... I was overcome with emotion. 

I had watched the movie 'The man who knew Infinity' and I hated it; it portrays him as a weak and a troubled soul, perhaps because the lead actor specialized in those expressions.  

Most people think of Ramanjuan as this old-time mathematician. On the contrary - Ramanujan's work is a hot topic in current research. His papers have been cited more times in the past decade than ever before ! Infact, his papers have been cited 379 times just in 2019...i.e.99 years after his death !!! I can ramble on and on about Ramanujan...One of my greatest inspirations...

• Along with Kumbakonam, we also visited the beautiful temple towns of Chidambaram and Thanjavur .. the truly magnificient Chola temples built during the times of Raja Raja Chola . The Brihadeshwara , Airateshwar temples. I dont what know what it was this time round - but I couldn't help but wonder what is must have been like 1000 years ago when these incredibly beautiful temples had been newly constructed...And as we were driving, we were listening to this eminent doctor, who's coined this funny acronym - RNI - Resident Non-Indian. By RNI, he was referring to someone who lives in India, but no longer thinks like an Indian :) Maybe it was a mix of the Chola temples, Ramanujan and the doctor - but I feel like I want to learn more about India... 
• My latest phase is one of decluttering . eliminating things I dont need. I always thought I didn't have the habit of hoarding things.. Afterall, we've moved so many times, that we always threw away tons of things during each transition. But I discovered, I hoard atleast 3 kinds of things 

1) Books - that I dont even have the intention of reading in near future, but which I felt were 'too good' to dispose. I donated some of these books to a nearby library, where hopefully they'll find some readers

2)Print-outs - I have this habit of taking a print-out when I want to read any useful article/doc which exceed 5 pages - I found hundreds of pages of printouts . I threw away most of them 

3) Wires - I have't thrown them away yet :) 

But getting deeper into this idea of decluttering, I was looking at what some really productive and sane people say no to, and I found a really nice list, and a bunch of frameworks, which resonated with me.  When you remove things that no longer serve you, you make space for better things to fill up the space.. and time.. I have experimented with numerous things over the last 2 decades ( I never seem to  run out of things to fix in myself;) , but I can say with complete conviction, that there's no better way to start changing one's life than to first decide what to say No to. 

Of Dashed Hopes and Unfulfilled Dreams....

My schooling years were mostly unremarkable. I never particularly liked or disliked school. ( Correction - there were times when I really disliked school :) My one and only truly enjoyable educational experience was during my Masters when I found myself surrounded by a bunch of equally electronics-crazed kids, as we set out exploring our new-found freedom by engaging in numerous silly antics ;) 

My schooling years were unremarkable primarily because they were filled with sorry stories... miniature tragedies... unfilled dreams.. and many more things of that sort :)  Adding to the misery were some fond hopes I nurtured then of being a hero by bringing glory to my school through some magical act of awesomeness.. Between the ages of 10 and 12, my mind had invented atleast 50 different ways in which I would become a hero, of which sadly none came true :D .. I narrate one such below... 

My father had recently bought for us a beautiful illustrated book on the 'Life and Times of Tutankhamun', the Egyptian Pharaoh. To me it represented a strange new land, strange new traditions, esoteric information of the sort I hadn't encountered up to that point, and fascinated by the customs and dress-code that filled up the pages, I devoured the book.. I was absolutely mesmerized by it. 

So much so that I had a dream the following night, which went as follows - 'Right in the middle of a History lecture, our Principal would burst into the class and announce 'Students, It is with the last shred of hope that I enter this class, having encountered no success in all the preceding ones. Our dear school finds itself in a tight spot..in dire straits and stands at the risk of facing humiliation. There is an Interschool quiz happening on the Life and Times of Tutankhamun later this afternoon. Does any student know about this Pharaoh, so that we can enter this contest and salvage the school's pride ? Do we have a saviour in this class? '

At that point, I would solemnly raise my hand, and quietly announce with gravity- 'Yes Miss. I do know about Tutankhamun' ( a la 'Main Hoon Naa ' ;) . The Principal would then grant me a super-wide appreciative smile, and express her relief at having found a hero, and I would then be escorted to the venue in an AC-car;) Incidentally,the Quizmaster would have set all the quiz questions from that same wonderful book I had read, and needless to say, I would ace all the questions and bring great glory to school !

Wow , what a wonderful dream... :) 

Being a student who had attended enough moral science classes , I had internalized some of the lessons on the virtue of patience ( only some because I had slept through the rest:) . Now, I had come to the conclusion that my dream was reasonable, but decided that I needed to give the universe some time and space to work on it. I wasn't the incorrigible manager who always demanded immediate results afterall..

So I decided I would wait for 2 weeks, with my anticipation ,impatience and resentment growing steadily with each passing day.. 'Why isn't the Princi here, yet?' was the all-consuming question on my mind. 

By the end of 2 weeks, I was totally irritated with Tutankhamun. Of what use was a life that could not even inspire a quiz at the right time? :D

All this comes to my mind since I will be giving a short talk to the school students in a career counselling program that's being organized. And no, I don't plan to tell this story there ;) 

Reflections

I cant believe it ! It's been 13 years since I started this blog.. A warning to the readers - The blog is now entering the difficult teenage  phase ...;)

I was reading through some of my earliest posts, and chuckling to myself.. the naive, idealistic young man who wrote those posts.. I like him .. I am especially proud that he defined and stuck to his 'normal' regardless of all the cynicism, skepticism and the numerous incredulous expressions.. The naive, idealistic young man has grown into a less-naive, less-idealistic, but still-young, young man ;)

The one thing that's been constant for the last 13 years,( and even earlier) is that I have always been a struggler. I struggle at everything I do and like doing, be it circuit design, music, language, people skills and everything else.. I remember this moment years ago, when I was really frustrated with myself, for not having gotten better, despite doing that thing for so many years... and then I had this light bulb moment - ' It wasn't that I hadn't improved.. What really was happening was that my horizon had shifted. I had subconsciously raised the bar as regards what I expected myself to be able to do '. This has been a recurring theme in my life, and is eloquently captured in the book 'The practicing mind' - the one book that parallels my life the most...

I had attended a technical talk several years ago. I remember nothing from that talk, except this one line the speaker said in the middle of his talk - ' A good working definition of stress is the gap between expectations and reality', and when I thought about it, it seemed SO true, and hit the point home. Let go of expectations, and learn to revel and take joy in each moment, as I learn and grow. I have come to believe that mental-tension is the biggest enemy of learning.

There are 2 major lessons I learnt in the last 2 decades. Both pertain to the precious
1) Waste no time. Time is precious. Make each day count.
2) Do everything in your power to surround yourself with people who are like-minded. Like-minded spirits who share the same values. People you can truly have a deep conversation with, and who help bring out the best in you, and who you can support and encourage to excel and live in their incredible true self. An hour of meaningful conversation with even one such person is worth more than 10000 hours of superficial conversations with the crowd. These people are truly the panacea for the soul. This area has been a challenge for me, since most of the handful of people with whom I share a great connection are all in different time zones! I have decided that I will not let that be a constraint.


Moving on, there are some who spend their entire lives mastering one craft. The one thing their life is all about. I have enormous respect for such people. But I have never been such a person. To me, The Renaissance Man has always been the ultimate inspiration. To grow and expand in many directions.. To get a sense for the numerous flavours of beauty that this world has to offer. Yes, I seek beauty in everything in life...

The Trip to Kashmir

And here we are ! It's been a long time since I posted here. Much has happened in my life since then.. I got married to a wonderful girl. I'm actually learning cooking now! ( Credit goes to my wife for the patient teaching. ) Not quite experienced enough to start a cooking blog though( I'd run out of content in no time if I did ;)

I've gotten way more disciplined, focused and have a set morning ritual that I do every single day. ( Here's a secret I'm letting out for free : Please start a morning ritual if you don't already have one.. Mine includes Meditation, Journaling and a bunch of other things. It works best and will do wonders to your sense of living with purpose, if you do it consistently over a period of time, and eventually make it a part of your life ). Other tips will be made available on demand, for a nominal fee ;)

There's been no shortage of travel either.. I've been wanting to travel to Kashmir with my wife. The situation there has been volatile for years now. I checked with some locals, and we did travel anyway early this April, and it turned out to be absolutely fantastic ! Seeing the Tulip Gardens in full bloom ( They are in full bloom for about 2-4 weeks each year starting early April) will remain an unforgettable memory...

The pictures aren't quite bright since the weather was cloudy much of the time. The actual scenery is spectacular... Our infamous pony-ride ( of which there are no pics here ) will be featured in an exclusive post at a later date..

Tulip Gardens, Srinagar

Sonmarg

Aru Valley

Betaab Valley

Betaab Valley

Gulmarg

'Do you really need all these wires ?!'

'Do you really need all these wires ? !' - This is a question that my mother first asked me over 15 years ago, and hasn't stopped ever since :-)

It all began with my interactions with DV sparking my interest in electronics in high school. DV was about 5 years my senior, and a first rate circuit design wizard. He wasn't particularly social, and it was hard to get him to talk, but he had a rare knack - for debugging circuits that didn't work - and perhaps it was this 'detective work' aspect to it that first lured me in. Soon, I had my own soldering iron. and spent most of my weekends trying to rig up circuits - getting speakers to sound alarms, leds to blink, and later, clap switch circuits, FM trasmitters, and so forth..

After a while, I learnt that with copper-clad PCBs, it was possible to 'draw' the PCB traces without having to use external wiring ( of course this wouldn't work for complicated wiring that needed multiple layers, as that needed more sophisticated equipment). Armed with Ferric chloride solution, I would etch out the unnecessary copper, leaving behind only the traces I needed to interconect the components on the PCB. All this meant that my circuits looked highly un-polished - a fact that didn't bother me in the least, and in fact added a touch of old world charm :-)

All the constant clutter on my table - of half built circuits, was a cause for concern for my mother, and she thought it was perhaps a teenage fad that would pass. She was wrong ;) I soon ended up saving 'any' piece of equipment that remotely had anything to do with electronics - Radio-sets that didn't work, old telephones, alarm clocks. I think at some level I believed that each of these gadgets possessed a soul, and it was my responsibility to see to it that they were properly preserved, until I had acquired the skills to restore them to their past glory :-)

A few years later it was music that again raised 'why all these wires?' questions, and really, it was reasonable  question to ask- I had my keyboard, and a pair of amps all of which needed to be powered. I had cables connecting the keyboard to the amp, as well as to the PC, which in turn had to be powered up. Add to this the external sound card, and a few USB cables - It was quite a task to convince people that all of these cables were absolutely essential to be able to play and listen to 'Jingle Bells ' :-)

All this comes to my mind for a reason - while rummaging through one of the boxes in my top shelves, I found some of those circuits I had built all those years ago.. Here is one - built over 15 years ago.  The blinking LED would 'race' from left to right, and then cross over and begin again. the speed at which it raced through could be controlled with a potentiometer. The other side shows the wiring - It is a bit of a miracle that it worked at all! I notice that there are 10 resistors but only 9 LEDs. Presumably one LED refused to function; luckily a corner one, that I must have gotten rid of.

Components mounted on the PCB

The wiring underneath

Memories from the Japan trip

There is a principle in biology that loosely states that selfishness benefits individuals, and altruism benefits groups. The Japanese appear to have applied the latter idea repeatedly over several decades to result in society that lives with grace in the face of repeated natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes.. I've travalled to other countries, including one that is a far more popular destination, but Japan impressed me a lot more for a variety of reasons. Some memories that stand out -

• I was a little apprehensive about finding food ( and in hindsight, justifiably so:-), and the language barrier - Very few people speak English in Japan. I carried a Japanese phrase book with me and was able to manage pretty easily. With the phrasebook in hand, and with the Japanese's patience and eagerness to help, language turned out to be much less of a problem that I had originally anticipated.
• One statistic claims that there is one vending machine for every 23 people in Japan. That is incredible in itself, what is even more impressive( atleast when travelling from India ) is that there is no evidence of litter on the roads to indicate their presence.
• There are markings in Braille adjacent to elevator buttons so that the blind can independently operate the elevators.
• The Japanese are naturally very humble - Along with about 200 others, I entered an auditorium where a senior person was to give a presentation. It so turned out that there were no chairs in the auditorium. With absolutely no hesitation, all of them, including very senior managers, sat down on the floor cross legged, and patiently sat through the lecture. You won't find this in a corporate environment perhaps anywhere else. 'Sitting down on the floor' in my opinion is one of those great levellers in life ;-) 

Almost everywhere I went, I found that people are sincere and dedicated to whatever work they are assigned, and are eager to offer help or assistance. This was a refreshing change from the apathy that we often see in India. My guess is that sarcasm isn't common in Japan ( I'm far from being a fan of sarcasm) In fact, I think excessive street-smartness is in a way, the opposite of sincerity.

There might be aspects to Japanese culture that we can't understand, and perhaps even some that we might find hard to accept, but in all my interactions with the Japanese, I came away with a deep sense of respect for their attitude and outlook towards life..

A not-so Random thought

On return to India, I shall devote my energies to writing a book - "The Art of surviving in Japan - A handbook for the vegetarian". I am not picky about food ( as long as it is vegetarian and not too bad), but my stay here has really tested my patience in the food department ..:-)

Having spent the first week living mostly on salad, fruits and bread( and needless to say, having developed a great deal of respect for Indian cooking :-) I've learnt some handy survival tips ( which included learning a lil Japanese ) in the second week. I discovered a new found fondness for pancakes.. (Ah I shouldn't reveal all the secrets and save some for the book too :P ) My back-ups i.e. ' MTR Ready-to-eats' provide some respite, but I use them frugally to save some till my departure ..:-) It's good to plan and balance one's frustration levels. ;)

Food frustrations aside, I found many things wonderful about Japan ! Details in another post later ..

Memories from the Chennai trip

Some memories from my recent trip to Chennai .. My brother-in-law and sister put together a fantastic plan to make it great fun !!

1) Cholamandal artists' village  - There wasn't much happening in the village when we arrived, but there was an interesting paintings-gallery to explore, with a good deal of 'modern art' .. Another delightful discovery from this trip was that my sister has taken her painting skills to a whole new level ! :-)

1) Dakshina Chitra was definitely the highlight of this trip ! Founded by Deborah Thiagarajan, it recreates  various architectural styles in South Indian traditional homes with painstaking attention to detail - the kind of houses your grandparents might have lived in if you hail from a traditional family. I was blown away by the extent to which they've committed themselves to this venture, and the rustic charm is truly authentic ! My parents would've loved  Dakshina chitra, and I will revisit this place with them at some point. Exploring this place fully would take atleast four hours ! ...A few clicks, including that of a person weaving a silk sari, and a shadow puppet performance.

Last year I had returned with the Melodica. True to tradition, this time my sis got me an instrument called 'tic tac'. Tic -tac is meant to be operated somewhat like a yo-yo, except that you've got to keep swinging it in a circular fashion, an act that will induce it to sound like frog with a sore throat earnestly crooning away to glory...:-) My bro-in-law and I took turns in operating this not-so-melodious instrument with much enthusiasm, causing much embarrassment to my sister :P

3) Cholayil Sanjeevanam  - We stopped here for lunch. Before I describe this is more detail, I've got a confession to make- I am a person who skips all the food related descriptions when I'm reading a book..:-) I enjoy good food (though I'm not really a foodie), but I operate on a simple principle - If you're going to talk about a certain recipe, I am willing to listen patiently, but only if you're going to give me some of that to taste once you're done with the descrition :P  Not surprisingly, I have no patience for cookery shows .. :-)

The meal begins with a few juices in varying colours, presumably Getafix's handiwork, after which follow several courses. That you end the heavy meal without feeling particularly sleepy is a testimony to their methods of food preparation involving naturopathic methods. I would recommend trying this place if you're into health-food; actually even if you're not ..:-)

4) No trip to Chennai is complete without a visit to the beach .. An image of the Kovalam beach ..the one aspect in which Chennai beats Bangalore .. :P

In all, it was a fantastic trip with a different kind of 'Chennai-experience' ... :-)  

Kungfu Panda turns Harry Potter ?

I finally did watch Kungfu-Panda 2 ! While I enjoyed watching it, I have to say I enjoyed the first part even more. Some of the rapid sequences in 3D left me feeling a little dizzy, and I thought the producers were trying too hard to showcase all the awesomeness ! I would've liked the tone overall to be a little more measured, and I really was hoping to see more of Master Oogway, perhaps in flashback mode. But I definitely have to give it to them for the incredible attention to detail in each frame!

While I am a reasonably articulate person, I've realized that I'm quite bad at narrating movie storylines to others. I've observed that I have a tendency to describe almost all stories this way - " Hero came. Villian came. They fought. Hero won.Villian went to jail. ". This insightful description usually receives a thumbs up and an understanding nod from most guys, though some self-proclaimed intellectuals will insist that the story is 'multi-layered', with deft touches and subtle nuances that philistines such as ourselves, who are not as discerning as them can't hope to perceive. Members of the fairer sex are rarely impressed by my description.

My sister on the other hand, has a near photographic memory for the visual medium. Months after watching an insipid movie, she can tell me the story frame by frame, effortlessly making it seem like a thriller, leaving me on the edge of the seat! I think story-telling is a wonderful art form and hopefully I'll get better at it someday :-)

Mindbenders!

I have just started a new blog dedicated to math and logic problems. You can find it here 

Problems, and other interesting diversions !

I'm planning to start a problem-solving club along with a few of my friends in this lab. We will pick some interesting mathematical and logic problems and discuss them once a week. I'm hoping this will help us stay ( or become:-) mentally sharp :-) I've always loved maths, but over the years, I've changed my gears from one where I was in a quest for understanding complexity to one where I'm in search of elegance.

So, we will pick problems that involve simple ideas, but which need a good deal of ingenuity so solve. In math, there are a remarkable number of non-trivial results that can be arrived at by clever application of elementary ideas. I can think of a couple of results offhand that seem extremely hard to prove, but which can in fact, be solved very elegantly using some simple concepts -
1) Prove that there are an infinite number of primes.
2) For every number 'm', prove that there exists a number 'n', such that the product of the two, m*n is a number that contains only ones and zeros .

Interesting, both these have solutions that someone in high school can probably understand ! There is also a class of logic puzzles I stumbled upon a few years ago that involves a touch of psychology !:-) I'm looking forward to discusssing some of them with these guys. At this point, I'm reminded of an interesting quote - 'There are three kinds of mathematicians- those who can count, and those who cannot' !:-) Let's see which category we end up falling into !

More adventures in teaching

I spent an hour with another class today. This time, I picked English. However, I didn't want to talk about rules of grammar, nor did I wax eloquent on conjunctions and prepositions( Frankly, I can never quite remember which is which :-)Those who've read an earlier post of mine would've guessed that I didn't venture into poetry either:-)

I split the class into three groups, and we had a few rounds of 'unscramble the word' ! The kids were quick to answer, and keeping score helped to maintain their interest. To prevent chaos, I laid down a rule - If I asked team 'A' a question, and someone from a different team blurted out the answer, team 'A would get full marks, and the other team wouldn't get a question for the round. With a strict implementation of this rule for a couple of rounds, the class got much easier to handle:-)

After a while, we switched to a different game. The idea was this - Say I gave them the word 'STAR'. I wanted them to come up with a sentence in which the first word began with 'S', the second word began with 'T', the third with 'A', and the fourth with 'R'. I was initially a little apprehensive about this, and was wondering if this might be a little too hard and open-ended for them, but the students proved me totally wrong ! Infact, I thought they did better than adults would !

They discussed amongst themselves, and worked together to come up with meaningful  sentences! :-) A team got full credit as soon as I got one good sentence from them, but anyone who had more ideas was welcome to share theirs ! I awarded bonus points for answers that struck me as particularly creative ! Over 50% percent of the class had something to say, which I thought was incredible ! I can only recall a few of the many smart answers I got !

STAR - Stop Talking And Read
BRAIN - Bunty Ran And Insulted Naveen
GAME - Girls Are More Enthusiastic !
HOPE - Hack Our Principal's Email ! :-)

You can find my friend Lalit describing his experience here!

Adventures in teaching

Late last week, some parents whose children study in the Kendriya Vidyala approached one of the student bodies in IISc. The parents said that some teachers were away for a couple of weeks on paper correction duty, and asked if some students from IISc could volunteer to take a few classes. There was no need adhere to any syllabus, and the idea was to just trigger some ideas in their minds, and nourish the spirit of scientific enquiry. Around 30 of us volunteered, and I spent an hour with Class 9 students today !

I decided to talk about recreational math, an area popularised by Martin Gardner in his articles in the 'Scientific American'. I am firmly of the opinion that recreatrional maths should be made a part of the mainstream school curriculum, and am sure it would greatly help motivate students to study maths. So, I picked some relatively simple, yet interesting problems that involved math/logic in some form. Some students were very enthusiastic, and came up with lots of interesting ideas. I'll reproduce here, the content from the discussions that ensued after a couple of questions -

1) I posed this problem - Anand stays in the tenth floor in an apartment complex. Each evening, after getting home from school, he uses the lift to get to the fifth floor, and then climbs up the next five floors. Why ?
                 
               After a while, the students figured out that Anand was rather short, and only could reach up to the button corresponding to the fifth floor. I then asked them what he could do to solve this problem. I got a range of solutions. One said Anand ought to carry an umbrella with which he can tap the 10th floor button. Another said he could climb up a stool( meant for the absent lift operator) and press the button himself. Someone then proposed that Anand should ask the watchman to help press the button. This was immediately followed by several answers, which replaced the watchman with a van driver, auto driver, bus driver, and the likes :-) Meanwhile one student helpfully suggested that Anand should have more complan :-) I wanted as many of them as possible to open up, and offer their opinions, so I let this go on for a while:-) Eventually, to bring it to a logical conclusion , I suggested that Anand should probably move to a flat on the fifth floor, which I admit was rather lame:-)

2) Another problem involved Harry Potter, and his wand, except that they were on the two sides of a river. "How can Harry get hold of his wand?" was the question. There were a few other details I included such as the width of the river, and the length of the blocks of wood, which were available in plenty, but that weren't long enough to help get across the river. The students however, chose to ignore these details, and came up other innovative answers to help Harry :-)

One immediately responded saying Harry could use his broom to get across ! So ofcourse, I barred the broom usage, which led one to suggest that Harry should swim aross. To make it interesting, I introduced some crocodiles into the river. The student however persisted with his swimming approach, and suggested that Harry ought to use his magical powers to defeat the crocodile, and then swim across. Meanwhile, another pondered over the possibility of taming the crocodile, and asking for its help ! Of course, we were really quite far from the problem statement, but I didn't really care. The students were earnestly trying to think up solutions to solve Harry's problem, and were enthusiastic in their responses !

There were a few other questions, which they actually did solve, somewhat to my pleasant surprise. As I walked out of the class at the end of an hour, I could hear some students jubiliantly yelling 'Yay', but a couple of minutes later, two students followed me outside, and shyly said ' nice class!', so needless to say, I was thrilled ! All in all, it was definitely an interesting experience !