Year 2011 - Fun Continues

The fun and travel legacy carried forward from 2010 has been taken care of well by 2011, and is being forwarded to its successor in a much better shape.

As usual, the year started with a fantastic run at Mumbai Marathon, where I could clock my personal best. And, the year ended with 3 more Marathons in 3 Months in 3 different Continents (Berlin/Europe, Niagara Falls/North America, Singapore/Asia). Though I couldn't improve much in terms of pace, I could sustain higher frequency.

As far as travel is concerned, this year is the best so far. Spent a month in California and planned every weekend in advance and executed the plan perfectly. Drove 5000 KM in 4 weekends, which include drives to Yosemite, Tahoe/Reno, Pacific Coast and Las Vegas. Visit to the Grand Canyons during the Las Vegas visit left me wanting, and Grand Canyons got added to the to-do list. Late in the year, traveled to Germany for Berlin Marathon. After the run, spent a week visiting Berlin, Amsterdam and Brussels. Just a couple of weeks after that, work took me to Canada and I spent a month there. I could manage to do a very long drive to New York, besides the Marathon at Niagara Falls, during that month. Another coupe of weeks later, spent a few days in Singapore. Last quarter of the year has been hectic with lots of travel and runs.

This year has been better with Bike too. No, not cycle, its about the Bullet. Riding started with a trip to Pondicherry in February and ended only on 31st December with a 5 day long ride to west coast covering Gokarna, Murudeshwar and Jog Falls. With a great gang of friends, did a couple of memorable rides to Coorg and Chikmagalur. Besides those, did a solo ride to Ooty with just Bullet and Kindle.

Cycling took a hit this year with absolutely no cycling outside cycle-to-work, which will also be ending right from the first day of 2012, as I am shifting to a house which is around 200 meters away from office, and I will be doing walk-to-work. But, that gives me a lot of time and I can renew my pleasure rides. BTW, I just finished 4 years of cycle-to-work and people at work refer to me as Cycle-Srini :)


Lastly, about work... I am at a kind of cross roads in my career. Nothing significant happened by the end of this year and am looking forward to next year for something interesting. Nevertheless, I achieved something. When they had a chance to say something about me, my team said, "Whatever the quirks, we all love our Cycle-Srini". And, that indeed is significant.

My Epitaph - by My-Team@Work

Epitaph. I am no Yeats to compose a beautiful epitaph to be engraved on my own tomb stone. But, despite being a fan of Richard Feynman and one of his many amazing books, What Do You Care, What Others Think?, I would definitely be curious to know what would people around me write on my epitaph, given a chance.

Yes, that's a bit too philosophical and far fetched. The context here is much lighter. My team had a chance to write something about me in the last month's news letter at work, and this is what they wrote:


For people in Bangalore office, Srinivas don't need any kind of introduction. For those across the oceans, Srinivas is the star of the XYZ team. He is as cool as a cucumber and never gets agitated (non-sober modes - see K for Kabini and S for Serai - are excluded here :) ). He is always very passionate about anything he does - be it book reading or doing tech talk or bug fixing or running marathons or going on long road trips. Some people believe that his skills as image consultant or PR person is very under utilized! Introduction on Srinivas won't be complete if there was no mention of his strong atheist belief and his hatred for God Men (or God). He also presents this dual personality wherein he is fully vegetarian within India and stays away from vegetables when he is abroad. He could be afraid of our 'holy cows' or maybe it is the synthetic vegetables in the West that scares him to eat non-veg. Whatever the quirks, we all love our "Cycle Sini" :)

Kabini & Serai were two places, where our office took us for over-night outings in the last one year. Naturally, there was a big opportunity to commit some chemical sins and a chance to put up some show after that.

I always struggle to fill 'about me' that shows up in social networking or blogging accounts. It was nice to get it written by others. Thanks team, particularly for the last few words. :)

My Recent Marathons: Berlin & Niagara Falls

Berlin Marathon

I registered for Berlin Marathon-2011 in Nov 2010, around 10 months in advance, but, still missed the early bird discount. That explains the popularity of the event. Berlin is one of the BIG-5 Marathons, the other 4 being, London, Boston, Chicago and New York, in no particular order. Boston stands out as the Marathon with the toughest entry criteria (one needs to have finished a recognized Marathon under 3 hr 30 min to be considered for Boston). If I ever become eligible for Boston, and if I ever have grand children, they and even their grand children can brag about that :)

Having run Athens and San Francisco last year, I was eager to see what makes a run so popular and keeps it apart from others. Though, I read news articles about last year run in Berlin claiming that there were 1 million spectators and innumerable bands to cheer the runners, it was hard to imagine. But, once the run started, it was quickly evident, why it is so popular. There were 40000 runners. Still, no scaling issues. The arrangements were just perfect. There was not even a 100 meter stretch that I can recall now, which doesn't have crowd to cheer or which doesn't have live-music. Slow runners like me also received the same warm reception as the winners would have received, which is, of course, typical to most distance runs.

Niagara Falls Marathon

Just 2 weeks after finishing Berlin, I got to know that I would be in Waterloo, Canada for a week (which later got extended to a month) on a business trip. As usual, I just searched for Marathons near-by. Luckily, it was the season for Marathons and there were two, on consecutive weekends, which are just 100 KM away from the place that I was going to visit. One in Toronto and another in Niagara. A quick search revealed the uniqueness of Niagara, as the only Marathon in the world that starts in one country(US) and ends in another(Canada). And, I happened to have Visas for both the countries, and the registration for the run was still open. I got the tickets booked to accommodate the Niagara one, and registered for it.

The run was not popular outside the US and Canada. As these are friendly nations with each other, apparently, their citizens in border areas routinely drive across the border. I am one of the very few registered runners who needs a Visa and an I-94 (Arrival/Departure record maintained by the US) to enter into the US. So, before even giving me my running number, organizers needed an I-94. Again luckily, I had a car, and I just drove into the US and got the document and drove back into Canada, in time to collect the running number. All this took less than 45 minutes. Impressive.

On the big day, we were asked to report 3 hours before the start of the run (to keep some time for document verification while crossing the border), and were transported to the start line in buses, which is in Buffalo, New York. The run started at 10 AM. Albright-Knox Art Gallery allowed us to wait inside and keep ourselves warm till the start of the run. Temperature was in single digits through out, but, it was at least sunny. So, I could venture out in my regular shorts and tees. First 7-8 KM of the course was in the US. We entered Canada through Peace Bridge. In the middle of the bridge, a small line with flags of the US and Canada on either side depicts international border. After entering Canada, till we reached Niagara Falls, the course was right next to a river (the same water that reaches the falls). Unlike Berlin, there were absolutely no crowds or music to cheer. But, the organizers made sure that there was a support station with water and electrolytes at every KM with out fail, till the last runner(I swear!, it's not me :) ) was out of the course.

The finish line was right next to the falls. As the number of runners was very less (less than 2000, I guess), they were reading out the details of each runner touching the finish line. While I approached the finish, I could hear "Mr.Guntupalli from Bangalore, India. Wow! India !". I could see only one more Indian among the runners (who appeared to be a seasoned runner and an NRI). So, India must have been announced only for me. Not sure, whether I did any good (Indians also participated in Niagara Falls Marathon) or bad (Indians run so slow !, as there was a big clock showing my finish time :) ).

Book Review: The Secret of the Nagas

The Secret of the Nagas
--- Amish Tripathi

I rarely look forward to sequels, be it films or books. But, The Secret of the Nagas (Book TWO of the Shiva Trilogy) is an exception. When I reluctantly picked up The Immortals of Meluha (Book ONE) from a colleague, little did I know that I was about to discover a brilliant story teller in Amish Tripathi. It is not an exaggeration to say that I forgot many times whether I was reading a book or watching a movie. An ardent fan of Indian Mythology in me (of course, when it is limited to admiring the masterminds behind such never ending, well intertwined stories) might also be one reason behind this appreciation. I hardly read 2-3 books per month and am not of the sort who finishes books in a couple of sittings (definitely not after buying this smart-phone, which pricks me to pick it up and check those all-important Facebook/Google+ updates, every few minutes). This book is an exception there too.

My only complaint about the Book ONE was, that's not very eventful, as the author had to spend a good part of the book in setting up the stage, that is India in 1900 BC with Suryavamshis (the conservatives following Lord Ram's principles in letter and spirit) and Chandravamshis (liberals) ruling the northern part of India, and south of the Vindhyas left to Nagas, the cursed and dreaded ones, each of them with their own value systems, life styles, apprehensions and perspectives about others. The only thing that is common among them is the belief in the legend of Neelkanth, the savior. Now, as the stage is set, Book TWO gave a perfect platform for the performance.

Hero of the story, The Lord Neelkanth, discovers at the end of the first episode, how wrong could one's perspectives get, when one doesn't attempt to get into the shoes of the other party. But, that knowledge comes with a cost, a full fledged war between two kingdoms. Neelkanth continues his exploration of India and search for finding the ultimate evil, that he believes is the root cause of all the disturbance. Neelkanth gets wiser and wiser during this exploration, as every new discovery blows away his prejudice. Every step he takes to get a closer look at the evil only reveals that it is the prejudice that made him see that as evil. And, he goes on and on to find the ultimate one.

Author introduced a few more characters in this part, all from Indian Mythology, while keeping their original nature from Mythology and tweaking them here and there to fit in his grand story. There are enough twists and turns and suspense of a typical thriller, unlike the first book. It is good to notice that the author delivered a better book in second part, though he must be under pressure, after the success of the first book. I am eagerly waiting for Book III: The Oath of the Vayuputras.

Why I Support Jan-Lokpal, despite the criticizm

There are discussions everywhere about the anti-corruption movement. Media, office, water-coolers, coffee-shops, mailing lists, blogs, social networks etc., There is a good sized crowd (mostly educated) that is against the movement. I tried to collect some of the questions that I faced when I said that I was a supporter. I will try to answer them here.

Bills are made in parliament through debate, not by arm-twisting and blackmailing.

What is this civil society ? Who appointed them as representatives ? Is there a place for them in democracy ? In a democratic setup parliament is supreme when it comes to making laws, and there is constitution to guide. How can someone draft a law and try to arm-twist the Govt. to pass it in parliament with a suicide threat ?

Apparently, there are several examples of civil society participating in drafting and making laws. N.Ram of Hindu sites 'labor laws' and 'laws related to dowry and women's rights' as examples, where unelected members participated. So, there is nothing new here. Moreover, Govt. itself invited them for participation after the initial protest, and when acceptance of the recommendations of civil society seemed suicidal, they started playing undemocratic, anti-parliamentary cards. No one is questioning the supremacy of parliament. What is being asked is inclusion of certain things in the bill, that would be placed for discussion. If it doesn't get through the houses, or if a group of parliamentarians turn against it, that would be a different issue.

Supporters don't know what all these pals are about. So, the whole movement is stupid.

All these mindless supporters don't know a thing about lokpal or jan-lokpal. They themselves are corrupt. Many of them would have paid bribe at some point of time. Giving bribes is equally wrong, if not more. So, they don't have any moral right to shout in public after paying bribes for years and getting things done for them.

Knowledge of supporters: Is that an issue at all for one to either support or not support a movement ? Does that mean one either supports or doesn't support a movement, based on the clarity of a subset of the current supporters (even if the subset is, say 90%) ? All the information needed to make a decision one-way or the other is out there. There are enough number of forums to post any query and there are enough number of people to interact directly to get any kind of clarification needed. Second question is about supporters being corrupt (by paying bribes). Why a person, who paid bribe, is automatically disqualified to fight against corruption ? Doesn't paying bribe sound like getting victimized !!! For example, if one doesn't pay bribe, one may not get a certain license. And, without that license, one's life would be different. There are no clean and simple systems to fight against that, and still get license without loosing lot of time,money and life in some cases. So, one paid. Now, how does that disqualify one to fight against corruption ? Some would argue, If there are no givers, there wouldn't be any takers. But, if one starts this at individual level, one can't lead a normal life. Hence, the support for such mass a movement.

Dangerous trend. Remember Ramdev episode ?

This is not a good trend. Even if Hazare is a saint, what if someone misuses it ? Ramdev had already tried it with a ridiculous set of demands and there was a huge crowd there as well.

Democratic protests didn't start with Anna and neither would stop with Anna. If the demands are ridiculous, protesters will not get enough support. I did fast along with Anna a few months back. I was against Ramdev. Ramdev's list was not practical, though sounded good. There was no clarity on why he was doing. One can't do fast-unto-death with a demand: 'I want Rama Rajya'. But, Anna's fight is for a law drafted by well known people whose lives are up there for public scrutiny. So, there was no trend. Even if something comes up, that will die a peaceful death, as happened in Ramdev's case.

There are more important issues. Why waste all energy on corruption which can't be eradicated ?

Supporters are not really serious about society and its ailments. While there are so many serious evils in the society, how come corruption has suddenly become such a big problem ?

Corruption has been a problem all the time. There is no specific order among evils. All are evils. But, there is a movement now. There is a solution proposed, which has been scrutinized by many. The next step is to fight for its acceptance. So, why not fight for it ? There is a bill to work against corruption in front of the parliament for the last 40 years, which is not even being discussed, despite several scams in the last couple of years with astronomical figures. So, why not now ?

The sought after bill is not great and doesn't eradicate corruption

What is the guarantee that this bill will eradicate corruption ? We already have so many laws. Do we really need one more ? Will a stronger law really work wonders ?

Jan-lokpal is not a panacea against corruption. As it was mentioned time and again by the group that drafted the bill, it will not eradicate corruption. And, no one has any illusions about it. But, it will bring a strong law with which several corrupt would get caught, and that works as a deterrent for many. The current laws are not enough. That's why the lokpal bill in the first place (40+ years back, but never made it to a law).

Govt. is actually doing a good job. See all those big shots in Tihar. Has it ever happened ?

Why fight against the Govt. that is already taking serious measures ? A bunch of big shots are in jail. Has it ever happened in the history of independent India ?

Yes. That's really encouraging. But, how did those arrests happen ? Did Govt. do anything on its own ? Senior ministers gave clean chit to their colleagues. Even after those scams were open to public scrutiny, those big-shots were stuck to their posts for some years.

That's enough for me to get convinced and support the movement.

Book Review: Outliers

--- Malcolm Gladwell

In author's words, Outliers is The Story of Success. The story of what typically makes outliers outliers. The story of what makes a person, a society, an organization, a genre of people more successful than others. Rather, it is to emphasize the point that IQ and talent, though necessary (but not sufficient), may not always create outliers, historically. It brings out very interesting patterns from and analysis of otherwise innocuous methods and processes, which typically we take for granted as fair.

The book comprises of success stories from a bunch of independent areas researched by the author (and of course, references from works of several others), with a common theme i.e, to understand outliers.

Is there any relation between one's birth month and one's chances of making it to the national soccer team in a South American country (where people believe that national soccer team comes out of pure meritocracy) ? Yes, there is. No, it is not the work of stars. It is us. The answer is simple. The same dilemma many parents would have faced, while sending their kids to school. This year or next year ! A few months early for this year. But, a few months late for next year (After all, one doesn't plan the month of birth of one's kids, in accordance with the admission criteria of local schools). The decision made at that point may be making or marring a kid's chances to be an outlier right from there, as he would be competing with a bunch of kids either younger to or older to him (mind you, the advantage for an older kid at that age could be 25-30 %, due to the probable one year age difference among kids at that age, and the outlier there will get the best training in class and never need to look back). The author has all the statistics to put forward this theory.

Ten thousand hour rule. What is the difference among a world famous guitarist, a popular guitarist in a live music band in your favorite down-town restaurant and a guitar instructor of a school in the next block. Ten Thousand Hour rule answers several similar questions. This rule states that after a certain point, more than inherent talent, what makes a true outlier is practice. Not just some practice, but Ten Thousand Hours of practice. Author has statistics and proofs from fields as diverse as music (Mozart), software programming (Bill Joy) etc.,

Then comes one of the most hyped up things, particularly when one is still in school. IQ. Analytical Intelligence and Success. How are they related and how are they not related. The question whether IQ helps in success or not is, of course, a no-brainer. The question here is whether is that necessary or necessary and sufficient. Author discusses an elaborate study called Termites done by Lewis Terman which has several interesting things from the field of Analytical Intelligence Vs Practical Intelligence as take away.

Concerted Cultivation is another interesting theory that is discussed with examples from lives of a couple of personalities (accepted as outliers). It is generally accepted that opportunities are everywhere and one just has to look around and grab. Concerted Cultivation is about, what parents and their parenting style has to do with the emergence of outliers, and how it is not nature, but nurture, that results in outliers.

Finally, the book is not only about successes but failures as well. In this already flat world, we are getting more and more exposed to the role of cultural differences in getting things done at work. A sneak peak at how far these differences go, by doing analysis of why a particular airlines had very high number of crashes compared to any other airlines, reveals something called Power-Distance Index(PDI) and how is it different in western and eastern countries. Simply put, PDI is about hierarchical culture, where subordinates are very submissive to authority. How did it lead to more plane crashes in a particular country makes an interesting read. Apart from that, there is transmitter oriented and receiver oriented communication, again tied to countries and cultures, that too aids in making or breaking things. It seems, in some cultures the onus of communicating a point lies with the transmitter and in some, it lies with the receiver. If receiver has no clarity about the culture of transmitter (or vice-versa), the communication can never be as intended.

One important thing to note at the end is, this effort is not to undermine or downplay the impressive (unimpressive) role played by the discussed outliers at several stages of their life, by attributing their success (failure) to unfair practices (though hitherto unknown) or opportunities provided by their parents or some social and cultural differences. This is to expose the path that lead to these outliers, which may help many to act better when faced with similar or even not so similar situations.

Book Review: Many Lives Many Masters

Many Lives Many Masters
--- Brian L Weiss

Though it is ironical to drop "God is not great - How religion poisons everything --- Christopher Hitchens" to read this book, I couldn't sustain pressure from a couple of friends to check out this supposedly very convincing true story of a prominent psychiatrist's past life therapeutic experiences with one of his young patients.

If I have to describe this book in one line, it goes like this. It is about a person experiencing and recollecting most of the things (from several past lives) that Lord Krishna had tough time explaining to Arjuna just before that great Kurukshetra war, which forms The Bhagavatgita.

Catherine, a psychic patient, walks into the clinic of Dr. Brian, an Yale Medical School educated psychiatrist, allegedly a firm believer in intense scientific methods, and seeks his help in getting rid of her anxiety. And they both claim that what followed had changed their lives for ever. How ? Catherine recollects several of her last lives spread across 1000s of years and narrates them, as if doing live commentary of a cricket match, during her hypnotic sessions. Masters, who govern the world, used her as a medium to talk to the author and answer several important questions that humanity has been breaking its heads to get answers to, for several centuries.

Summary of the universe demystification attempt:

• There is something called soul, which never dies. It just moves from one body to another
• Your brain stocks all memories across lives, but, you may not be able to recollect all of them at a time of your choice
• You will end up reincarnating with a certain set of people close to you through some or other relation
• There are some masters who govern the world
• There are some planes which are hierarchical and one ascends/descends them as per one's learning and good/bad deeds in a life
• People, who met with near death experiences, have a lot to say about soul leaving the body, seeing some blinding flash of light, talking to some monks before deciding whether to leave the body or not, and somehow soul coming back to the body
  
• etc., etc.,

Sounds familiar ? Yes, the Hindu philosophy. No wonder this book is even referred at Hinduism.about.com. So, at the end, there is nothing new in the book. This psychiatrist just claims to have a living proof to theorize several hypothesis used by current day religions. I must say, a pretty bold claim.

But, he proved one thing. Humans are darn gullible. Nothing else can explain my friends' recommending me this book, and actually believing in everything that the author wrote.

Book Review: Games Indians Play

Games Indians Play - Why We Are The Way We Are ?
--- V Raghunathan

Though most of the content is not new for many, Games Indians Play presents good analysis of "why we are the way we are", when it comes to our civic sense and our competitive attitude at all wrong places, and how we live up to disparaging remarks like "India is a functioning anarchy" etc.,

Author was a professor at IIMA for two decades and worked as a top executive in successful corporations, and a well published researcher in behavioral economics and finance. He uses his academic tools and research to explain the behavior that we see in our day-to-day lives in India, and how we are different from(inferior to ?) many better functioning western civic societies, though our average IQ levels are quite high by many standards. If one is in a perpetual denial about such facts, this book is highly recommended, as the author emphasizes very early in the book that recognizing and appreciating the problem is the first step towards solution.

He uses classic Prisoner's Dilemma to introduce the difference between cooperative and defective behavior and how it applies to a society. How our short-sighted intelligence and instant gratification lead to our doom, where as, though apparently less intelligent, cooperative behavior leads to long term success and how instant gratification is seen in every walk of life in India. There is a convincing discussion on how things like 'tolerance', that we typically are proud of in India, are applied at wrong places and how that keeps us from punishing the offenders, which leads to titles like "A functioning anarchy".

The conclusion was on an interesting philosophical note, by creating a parallel between what Krishna taught Arjuna in Gita with the Game Theory. How everybody doing what they are supposed to do(Dharma), for a successful society is nothing but what Game Theory calls Cooperative Behavior, which will not have any instant gratification, but, will lead to success in the long run.

Weekend Log: Sunnyvale Visit

As usual, I had planned the weekends well before the weekdays, once my one month visit to Sunnyvale was confirmed.

• Yosemite National Park
• A long drive through Pacific Coast Highway
• Bay to Breakers run in San Francisco
• Lake Tahoe/Reno
• Las Vegas
• Grand Canyons
  

Hurrah ! The plan has been executed perfectly ( actually, a little better than planned, as the long weekend allowed us to visit Grand Canyons as well, during our Las Vegas trip )

One month stint started as we reached Sunnyvale on a Friday afternoon after a boringly long journey (except for the 'Big Bang Theory' videos in plane). Rajiv, a colleague and an old friend, was accompanying me (One good thing about him is he doesn't drive. So, no competition to drive :)). We directly went to the rental car office and picked up a Nissan Altima, a car that I loved among several I tried during my last visit.

The next morning, we left for Yosemite National Park, a 350 KM drive from Sunnyvale, famous for its lakes, streams, and waterfalls. As we had a very little time to spend there, we enjoyed the drive more than the park. Last 50 KM drive through a narrow spiraling road passing right next to a stream/river was the best part of the trip.

We did the most awaited Pacific Coast Highway drive the following weekend. We had a simple plan. Divide the day into 2 halves. Drive away from Sunnyvale for the first half and drive back in the second half. The serene blue sea one side and dark mountains on the other and a never ending smooth serpentine road and almost zero traffic. What a bliss ! We went to San Francisco on Sunday to watch Bay to Breakers run, the craziest crowd that I ever witnessed. Everyone were dressed uniquely to show their creative zeal and some appear to had felt that the creator is creative enough and came on to the roads as they were sent to the earth (yes, stark naked). And, I could hardly find anyone startled by looking at them. We spent the later part of the Sunday, walking through de Young art museum in Golden Gate Park and roaming near Golden Gate bridge.

The third weekend had been reserved for Lake Tahoe, a huge 500 square KM lake bordering California and Nevada states. The mere size itself makes a million beautiful views. After a nice early morning run in the chilly Tahoe, we drove around the lake and trekked a bit in snow covered hills in the vicinity. We drove to Reno, a mini Las Vegas, in the evening and fooled around a bit in the Casinos.

The best had been kept for the last weekend. A 10 hour drive on Friday evening took us to Las Vegas at 1 AM (and of course, whole Vegas was awake to receive us). As I was not interested in the sin offerings of the sin city, I chose to watch The Beatle's Love by cirque du soleil, a show that is a mix of circus, acrobatics, gymnastics, dance, music, at Bellagio Hotel/Casino. It is hard to exaggerate the precision, perfection, and use of technology by cirque du soleil. Even the grandness of Vegas would be humbled on viewing their performance. They perform all over the world, it seems. Whenever I see their name in future, I would just walk in (Thanks Apoorv for recommending this)

The most memorable part of the entire month would be the visit to Grand Canyons. As someone in our bus said (we took a bus trip from Vegas to Grand Canyons), "one word is enough, GRAND". Grand Canyons show the layers of earth formed over the past 1800 million years i.e, almost half the age of earth, worn and exposed by water courses. It is hard to imagine how a water course created a 1.6 KM deep and 30 KM wide canyon. One can stand on a rim of canyons and see Colorado river flowing at 5000 feet down. Trying to describe Grand Canyons using my modest vocabulary would be an insult to their grandness. Apparently, human artifacts that are as old as 12000 years were found in these canyons. Nat Geo has made an IMAX movie about canyons covering the places which are otherwise inaccessible. We visited south rim of canyons after watching Nat Geo's movie in their IMAX theater close to the Grand Canyon National Park. I would love to keep a couple days for this place, when I visit next time, to walk down all the way to the bottom of the canyons and trek back.

That exhausts all the weekends we had and car's trip meter shows 5000 KM, and a few more hours to go before we leave for Bangalore. But, it is not over yet. We have 15 hours of transit time in HongKong and we will be visiting a couple of places in HongKong too.

Book Review: The Varieties of Scientific Experience

The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
-- Carl Sagan

This is a compilation of lecture series given by Carl Sagan as Gifford Lectures (They were established to "promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term — in other words, the knowledge of God." The term natural theology as used by Gifford means theology supported by science and not dependent on the miracles. The lectures are given at the Scottish universities: University of St Andrews, University of Glasgow, University of Aberdeen and University of Edinburgh. - Wikipedia)

The lecture series is organized into 3 parts. First part deals with the origin of universe and how evolution of science has lead to the diminishing role of god, which also gave some death blows to human vanity. Switch from Geocentric to Heliocentric theory, made earth 'an earth' from 'the earth' and world we live in 'a world' among many probable worlds. The discussion around the origin and evolution of life (that took billions of years after the formation of earth) also answers some of the arguments put forth by the people, who believe that such complexity can't be arrived without an all powerful god. There was a nice back of the envelope calculation to understand the time that we took to reach this level - If our ancestors (father, father's father, his father... ) walk one behind another at ordinary human pace into a room, it takes one full week to see a creature that walks on all four legs. Now, it is rude, and we make only fools of ourselves, if we simply attribute such beautiful and complex evolution to some super-nature, with out appreciating the evidence of evolution.

The second part discusses the origin of life and presence and importance of organic matter. Author has extensively worked on projects related to extraterrestrial intelligence and an active member of SETI Institute (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) that claims, "We believe we are conducting the most profound search in human history — to know our beginnings and our place among the stars". While calculating the probability of extra terrestrial life, he proposes a formula with multiple variables, among which one variable stands out. Average life of a technical civilization. How long a civilization, with 10 times more nuclear weapons than what is needed to destroy the entire civilization, survives ? Now, we don't have an estimate here. It could be anything. If all countries are sane enough, we may live really long. But, that variable has a lot to do with the chances of meeting or not meeting our friends on other planets (if there are any, and if they are advanced enough to contact us, won't they be stupid enough to destroy themselves ?)

The final part discusses the greatest delusion that humanity suffers from (the God), what a religion talks about our responsibility to get life on earth going, man's relentless struggle to find someone to worship, relation between religious experience and molecular influence on human mind and body, the statistical significances that we generally take for granted (the general rule in the universe is: extinction is the rule, survival is an exception) etc., He concludes with some stress on the importance of the current times that we live, where we see unprecedented changes and technological advancements, and why should we question everything and try to know the truth, with a courageous intent to figure out the reality without emotional predispositions.

And, finally, with utmost humility, he declares, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and that's true with God as well. But, very important thing here that shouldn't be missed is, it is neither evidence of presence. The onus to provide evidence still lies with the believers.

Needless to say, one of the best books that I ever read.

Come April 5th, Anna Hazare goes on fast to fight against corruption. Do you care to join ?

From a Volunteer of 'India Against Corruption':

A mahatma announces fast unto death

Anna Hazare has given an ultimatum to the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to enact stringent anti-corruption law – the peoples “Jan Lokpal Bill”! Jail to the corrupt must become a reality! We have been betrayed by those that are leading us!

When & Where?

From 5th April at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi and hundreds of cities in India and Abroad http://indiaagainstcorruption.org/citycontacts.php

Who is Anna Hazare?

A soldier, lone survivor in his unit in 1965 Indo-Pak war, Anna dedicated his life to the well-being of society. A bachelor, an ascetic, he has no possessions, no bank balance and lives in a temple. He is a living Mahatma Gandhi!

In Maharashtra, Anna has single handedly transformed barren and dry regions into green and food surplus areas. He has fasted unto death on several earlier occasions. He forced the Maharashtra government to dismiss the corrupt - 6 ministers and 400 officers. Due to his fast, the govt enacted the Maharashtra RTI Act. In 2006, when government of India tried to amend the Central RTI Act, he again went on an indefinite fast and forced the Indian government not to amend RTI Act.

Leaders, organizations and the common man from across India will be with him. This is a do or die moment – let us make it happen!

Across India, join Swami Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravishankar, Swami Agnivesh, Arch Bishop Vincent Concessao, Mahmood A Madani, Kiran Bedi, J M Lyngdoh, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal, Mufti Shamoom Qasmi, Mallika Sarabhai, Arun Bhatia, Sunita Godara, All India Bank Employees Federation, PAN IIT Alumni Association, Common Cause and many other prominent organizations and leaders, as India comes out on the streets! 100+ CITIES WILL RALLY BEHIND ANNA!

This is a defining moment for India that can give our children a better future! Let us unite and stand by him! Thousands will be there to support him. Will you be there?

Confirm your participation here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=197559453604800 or here http://aidindia.org/main/component/option,com_facileforms/Itemid,466/

Anna’s appeal to the people:

When I sit on fast from 5 April, I urge my fellow countrymen to

• Join me in fasting for one, two, three or whatever number of days you can comfortably fast.
• Along with fast, please pray to God (whoever you believe in) for better and corruption free India. Collective prayers from all the people of India would definitely have a huge impact.
• Write an impassioned plea to our Prime Minister that we look upon him to pass “Jan Lokpal Bill”, else we will be compelled not to vote for his party in next elections.
• Remain calm and peaceful and develop the courage to go to jail, if required, in this next freedom movement.

If possible, come and stay with Anna at Jantar Mantar for a few days from April 5th.

Would you like to stay updated about this movement? Let us know your contact details atindiaagainstcorruption.2010@gmail.com

Salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill

Drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal, this Bill has been refined on the basis of feedback received from public on website and after series of public consultations. It has also been vetted by and is supported by Shanti Bhushan, J M Lyngdoh, Kiran Bedi, Anna Hazare etc. It was sent to the PM and all CMs on 1st December. However, there is no response.

1. An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up

2. Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations.

3. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.

4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.

5. How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.

6. So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a month’s time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

7. But won’t the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won’t be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process.

8. What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

9. What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.

JAN LOKPAL BILL will act as deterrent and instill fear against corruption

(This movement is neither affiliated nor aligned to any political party)

India Against Corruption: A-119, Kaushambi, Ghaziabad, UP | 09718500606

www.indiaagainstcorruption.org | indiaagainstcorruption.2010@gmail.com | facebook.com/indiacor

Please circulate this mail as widely as possible, consider it a personal request.

Warm REgards
Nitin Jagtap

http://randomstep.blogspot.com/

http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.org/

Book Review: More Malicious Gossip

-- Khushwant Singh

After living a life touching the highest echelons of journalism and diplomacy, Khushwant Singh, obviously, has a lot of interesting tales to share. More Malicious Gossip brings out his interactions and experiences with top notch politicians, diplomats, bureaucrats, artistes etc., in the first half of the book. The second half is devoted to his travelogues (India and abroad) and his musings (philosophical and otherwise).

Being in the close circles of the people he wrote about, author routinely touches their private lives as well, which many readers may not appreciate or may not find any value in knowing. Nevertheless, many of them make interesting reads, as those power barons responsible for today's India hardly make any distinction between their private persona and office. As the author was a globe trotter as part of several diplomatic missions, his account of some of the places he visited (Syria, Germany and many Indian cities) also makes a good read.

Finally the musings section concludes with a few powerful articles on God, religion, superstitions, racism, marriage, death etc., One of my favorites is as follows: Every thinking man must make up his own religion. No rational person can subscribe to theories of the origin of life or conjectures of life hereafter put out by different religious systems. he should content himself by making his own code of conduct for his years in this world...

Another good thing about this book is, it can be read even after an another-not-so-good-day-at-work. Such a light read, it is.

Book Review: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

-- Douglas Adams

This review may be very redundant, considering that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Douglas Adams are almost a cult, well before I learnt alphabets. But then, there are late starters. And, I believe, starting late is never a sin.

While reading The God Delusion, I came across this witty and intriguing quote by Douglas Adams "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too ?" And, I naturally picked this book during my next visit to the Landmark.

The story is set at an astronomical scale, where earth is just an experimental planet that came out of a factory that manufactures customized planets to order. Earth is made by some supercomputer to find/verify answer to the great question on "The Life, Universe and Everything". When the experiment is just about to get over, earth gets demolished to make way for a hyper-spatial express route through our star system. One human escapes from the Earth, just before its destruction, by hitchhiking a spaceship along with an alien who lives on earth for sometime. The human, along with the alien, travels through the space and gets thrown out of the spaceship, as the captain doesn't like hitchhikers. Another spaceship rescues them while the ship is in improbability drive. They, along with the residents of this new spaceship, go on exploring another planet that manufactures customized planets to order. This new ship escapes an attack, again through improbability drive.

The story sounds like, it meets an abrupt end here. Probably, because, it is part-1 of 5 books. I am not a lover of science fiction. But, it sure did arouse enough interest in me to check out the remaining stuff too.

Changing Times - Indian Police

For those who are waiting for sophistication among Indian Police, it seems, they are almost there. Well..., may be, not all (Considering this digital divide experience, not very long ago). But, surely, there is some change. And, that is on a positive side.

Proof 1:
A year back, my passport application has come to our local police station for address verification. I received a call from the police station, as expected. The call goes as follows:

A lady constable: Hello Sir ! Am I speaking to Mr. Srinivas ? (In crisp English, In "Hello Sir ! This is so-and-so from ICICI bank" style)
Me: Yes. (I considered to cut that call for a moment, thinking that was yet another tele-marketing call. But continued, as I was jobless at my the then new workplace)
Constable: Sir ! We are calling from HSR layout police station. You passport has come for verification. When can you come to the station, Sir ?
Me: ?!??!! (A call from police station, in crisp English, calling me Sir !!)

But, once I reached the police station, I had to shell out a few 100s as 'verification charges' (the phrase used by the one who verified my address, sitting right at that station, and looking at the same documents that I submitted to passport office, which have been forwarded to him, with out asking me any more questions :) )

Proof 2:
Today, I took a U-turn on my bike, where it was not allowed, while frantically searching for an address along with a pillion-rider. A traffic police constable jumped in front of the bike and asked me to stop. The conversation goes as follows:

Me: What ? (very confidently, as I have not seen 'No U-turn' board)
Constable: No U-turn board (points me to that)
Me: Oh ! Ok
Constable: Pay 100 Rs to Inspector (points me to an inspector fiddling with his blackberry)
Inspector: Your Driving License Sir.
Me: I hand over my DL
Inspector: Your vehicle number Sir.
Me: I give up !

Inspector types my name, vehicle number and offense on his blackberry, points it to a portable printer (works over blue-tooth, I guess) and gives me the receipt and my license and says "Thank You Sir !"

Ride, Run, Music...

The last two weekends have been quite hectic with loads and loads of fun. A long ride to Pondicherry for Auroville Marathon occupied a weekend and whole night musical extravaganza - Fireflies Music Festival, the next weekend.

We (I along with Anand) started on Friday afternoon on 2 Royal Enfield classic bikes (I on a 350 CC and Anand on a 500) to Pondicherry. The road was great, Sun was not very harsh, traffic was not too bad either. We reached Cafe-Coffee-Day, Shoolagiri by around 3:30 PM and took our first break for our late lunch and of course a Kaapi-Nirvana. Soon, we committed our first and only mistake by getting into Thiruvannamalai route (the shortest route to reach Pondicherry), instead of taking the Bangalore-Chennai express highway. Distance wise, that's the shortest, but is in a pathetic condition. We could reach Pondi only by midnight, maneuvering the beasts through the potholes (and waterfalls at some places. Yes, right, dry waterfalls across the road).

Saturday, we enjoyed the hard earned rest, by slowly and lazily riding our bikes across the small bylanes of that french town with street names that sound like 'Rue *** ***', stopping at anything that looks interesting (yes, an all female group of students from Mumbai, who are on their architecture study tour, is one of them) and keeping our tummy full. We reached Auroville village in the evening and I joined the Marathon crowd. The crowd was huge, as Auroville Marathon is becoming more and more popular every year, due to its scenic off-road course through Auroville forest.

Sunday, I finished my joyful 21 KM run by 8:30 AM and we were on our way back by 11. From the lesson learnt during our onward journey, we chose a different route (that is 100+ KM longer). The roads were smooth and the ride was pleasant, though we started feeling the heat building bottom-up, by the time we reached the Cafe-Coffee-Day. We reached Bangalore by around 9 PM. That made it an 800 KM ride + 21 KM run weekend.

The next weekend needed a different kind of endurance. Fireflies Music Festival: A big banyan tree, half moon shaped stair case around that (with uneven and stony stairs, as wide as 2 to 4 feet), a few thousand people spend a whole night in open air, on those stairs, while 12-15 bands perform different kinds of music from 6 PM on Saturday to 6 AM on Sunday, under the banyan tree. As we are regulars (didn't miss last 3 years), we were well equipped with food, drinks, mattresses, pillows, sleeping bags etc., and made ourselves comfortable well before the bands tuned their equipment. Rock bands dominated the festival this year. I especially enjoyed one band from Chennai that experimented with Sanskrit Slokas, Flutist in Thermal and a Quarter, Violin by Dr Mysore Manjunath. Being awake whole Saturday night took Sunday completely off my calender, and that made yet another weekend.

Book Review: The God Delusion

-- Richard Dawkins

Though I have been agnostic (more of an atheist) ever since I started reading and having discussions with friends, who have strong opinions (one way or the other) about god, religion, traditions etc.., I never read any authentic work that presents comprehensive research done on such topics. I heard about Richard Dawkins and his The God Delusion in one such discussion at my work (which is very open to such discussions on a dedicated mailing list for people to express their views on anything under the Sun). And, Dawkins instantly made to my all time favorite author list.

Just after turning a few pages, I realized that my romance with this book is going to be a long lasting one. Interestingly, neither there was any bashing on the believer philosophy nor the usage of strong or insulting words, while presenting the work, which is organized almost as an academic book. The book starts with a chapter that calls God a hypothesis, as several experiments were done world over to verify the innumerable claims from times immemorial and how *all* of them failed. It goes on to discuss why there almost certainly is no god by discussing several things from religious scriptures, people's experience, quotes from popular scientists etc.,

After doing a great job in setting a proper foundation, and giving readers a million things to ponder, the author moves on to more interesting and a bit complicated issues like the birth of religion, and what would have made every single human habitat to come up with or believe in and follow one or the other religion, can people be moral with out religion, will the world become chaotic with out any religion etc.,

It concludes with a peek on how subversive can a religion be towards science, how dangerous can absolutism get and discusses some interesting and generally overlooked logical fallacies, again with excellent real life examples.

A highly recommended book. There is enough content to make everyone silently ponder, whether one is a pro-theist, agnostic or atheist.

Mumbai Marathon 2011 - End of My Mediocre Running

Mumbai Marathon has been very special and close to my heart for multiple reasons. This is the place where I started running a few years back. My first distance run was a 7 KM dream run in 2006. I remember keeping my legs in a bucket with salty hot water for an hour for relief, after finishing the run :). Even after experiencing the fun at The Mecca of Running (Athens) and San Francisco, I couldn't help looking forward to 3rd Sunday of January, when entire south Bombay takes a few hours off to give way for runners, and to cheer them in every possible way. And, this year was no different.

As usual, before reaching Mumbai, I spent a day in Pune and met a few friends and had a great time. One has got an infant son, and another one has a 2 year old , and yet another is expecting one in a month. Now-a-days, the gifts I carry for my friends are mostly books like What to Expect When You Are Expecting, teethers, soft-toys, infant gift-sets etc., :) So, I aptly landed in Pune with my backpack full of them.

The day spent in Pune had been great. Lunch with Anjali, a student-turned-friend, after meeting her adorable infant son Anay, Dinner with Nihar and a couple of others preceded by an elaborate session with some delicious de-hydrants (if you know what I mean), and post-dinner late-night mischief in apartment complex etc., allowed us to get to sleep only in the wee hours of the following day.

Marathon day started innocuously, as usual. Woke up at 3 AM to catch the first train from Kharghar at 4:10. Train has already a few people with Marathon bibs and we started our usual chat about our previous timings, temperature prediction for the day, heat on the new Bandra-Worli Sea-Link, our target time etc., I mentioned that my aim would be a 5:20 finish. The first half of the run (till 21 KM) was not much different from last year, both in terms of my speed and temperature. At around 22 KM, we reached Mahim Causeway and were about to enter Bandra Reclamation and the new Sea-Link. That's where I started feeling the heat and felt that, it was just going to be a repetition of last year, and will lead to a 6 hour finish. But, once we entered the bridge proper, we were welcomed with Lucozade energy drinks (unlike last year, where we had this 8 KM stretch of the Sea-Link with out water and energy drinks). That revived the spirits and I took to running at my pace and never stopped after that, except for the preplanned walk breaks around water stations. Last 5-6 KM were memorable, as I could run at the same pace as I ran the first 5-6 KM, which I could never manage to do in the earlier runs. And, those little kids offering Parle biscuits, chocolate candies, water bottles shouting 'uncle...! run', whenever I thought of a walk break, really helped. At around 4 KM from finish line, a 3-4 year old beautiful little girl (yes, I know that's redundant. How can a 3-4 year old girl be not beautiful) saw me running towards her and opened the wrapper of an orange candy she was holding and held it up for me, right when I was crossing her (Just imagine !). Oh ! My ! How can I not go to Mumbai Marathon again ? At least for that little candy after a 38 KM run :) Emotion really did hit me for a moment and I thought, I should get married at least to have someone like that little angel at home. Of course, it didn't last long :)

I touched the finish line at 5:13:25, well with in my budget. And I bid a heartfelt good-bye to the mediocre runner in me. Running the whole distance (21KM in Half or 42 KM in full-marathon) at a stable pace is what makes one a distance runner(of course, I mean recreational runners, not to confuse with those deadly Kenyans). And, I am finally there. Now, will work on improving the pace.

Split times at various timing-chip readers:

Distance (KM)	15.1	24.2	29.9	42.195
Time (Hr:Min)	1:48	2:53	3:36	5:13

The evening too was well spent. A bunch of ex-colleagues from CDAC met at one of our favorite restaurants in New Bombay, Bhagat Tara Chand, Sanpada. I regained all those lost calories with Ghee Chapatis, followed by generous helpings of sinfully sweet Moongdal Sheera, a specialty dessert at that restaurant.

Book Review: More Salt Than Pepper

--- Karan Thapar

More Salt Than Pepper is a collection of newspaper articles, that one typically finds in editorial page on Sundays, written by Karan Thapar, an acclaimed journalist, over the years.

The author was born in a high-profile family. Romila Thapar, a distinguished historian (or an infamous historian according to Sangh Pariwar) is his cousin, and a close relative of him was married to a niece of Nehru. That would naturally have given him access to several things, right since he was a child. The topics include his childhood memories (being son of a high ranking Indian defense official and relative of Gandhi family, a rich childhood in many ways), his journalistic journey, experiences in London as a student and journalist, his interviews with the who-is-who of India for the last 20 years etc., Though one can find a clear bias towards congress and aversion towards BJP and Sangh Pariwar, most of the articles bring out interesting perspectives that one can be identified with.

There are several silly articles too, about neckties, e-mail forwards of poor jokes that are not in good taste etc., But, those can be overlooked considering that it is a compilation of articles written over many years. So, if one is a fan of those witty articles in Sunday newspapers in editorial sections, this book comes with around a 50 of them and makes a good quick read.

One of my fastest reads in the recent past.

Year 2010 - Year of Travel & Fun

Year 2010 turned out to be a much more fun filled one, than what I would have thought in wildest of my dreams. I could easily name it 'Year of Travel and Fun'.

The start was not so great, with me seriously contemplating on switching to a different workplace. But, that confusion ended in a month and I was on next lap of my journey. A week gap before joining the new workplace gave me an opportunity to do a solo 2000 KM long ride (Bangalore -> Tirupathi -> Guntur -> Hyderabad -> Bangalore) on my Beastly Beauty: Enfield Classic-350, and keep me fresh for the new assignment.

The new workplace had a lot to offer, and soon packed me for my maiden overseas visit to Austin, Texas. Thanks to friendly colleagues and my friends, I could pack a lot of stuff in just 12 days that I spent in Austin. Got lost while cycling in Austin on the very first day, spent the only weekend I had there in the best possible way trekking, canoeing and camping.

Soon, I was asked to spend 3 months in California. And, I guess, I could make most of my time there. Started playing with a 4-wheeler, yet another first this year. Drove weekend after weekend, thousands of miles, visiting places and making every weekend a perfect break. Also got an opportunity to attend a couple of world class Information Security conferences (Black Hat and Def Con) at Las Vegas. And, nothing can be an exaggeration about those conferences and Vegas.

In the running front... Wow ! What an year !! I could realize my Athens Dream. Ran the 2500 years commemorative run, the Athens Classic Marathon and San Francisco Marathon, timed with my stay in California along with my domestic runs at Auroville, Pondicherry and Mumbai. Extended my Athens trip to visit Santorini (A Greek Island), Madrid, Barcelona, Zurich, Swiss Alps and Paris, which will remain a memorable one for a long time.

Cycling... Got hold of this sleek Trek 7.2 Fx in California and brought it back home (as I had to part ways with Merida SUB 40 MD). Retraced the Marathon route on cycle in San Francisco and did quite a few rides in the local parks there. Apart from cycle-to-work, Nandi Hills ride is the memorable one that I could do this year in Bangalore.

The year ended in the wilds, while I spent the last three days of the year in TopSlip and Parambikulam forests in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, spotting a lot of wild life and wandering lazily in the serene forests, with some of my friends.

That's quite a list. I definitely couldn't have asked for more.