Sudipta's Life

One way of looking at marriage is to think that you are moving in with a room-mate of the opposite sex. The way we speak, the content, the choice of words, the topics - all of them are novel and unique and are fascinating to understand and observe. "Understand" may be an overstatement here, though. We mortals merely seek to understand the quirks of the opposite sexes' mind. In corporate lingo, "strategic alignment of priorities and cohesive engagement in synergy of visions" needs to happen. To paraphrase, the two must see things in the same light. Take, for example, the concept of a dress. Or rather, what to wear. In spite of all the evidence you may cite, as a general rule, guys don't care about what they wear as much as women do. Yes there are carefully careless girls out there and so are smart and well-groomed men, but we are talking averages here. More importantly, guys do not notice what other guys are wearing. Actually it is more like something not e...

I was returning home after some tuition classes one day. This was when I was in class 11-12, (for my readers in the US, this is your "high school"). In a more or less crowded mini-bus, a stranger with a stubble of a beard and a "knowing" smile came and sat beside me. He was about 45 years of age. Lungi clad, unshaven for a couple of days maybe, with a "jhola" in hand from which two or three plastic bags and vegetables were peeping out: this person seemed very friendly and simple. We exchanged pleasantries and he commented on the school bag I was carrying. Out of courtesy, I told him that I was a student at that time and I was returning back from some tuitions, preparing for my JEE and Higher Secondary exam and stuff like that. - "Where do you study?" I answered. The next question took me by surprise, though: - "Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?" -"About what?" -"Oh nothing big... just about some stuff yo...

I know I should be seeking compensation from Mr. Ratnam, but his pseudo-protagonist and himself have become equally evil by subjecting movie-goers to a torture as long and boring as this movie. I haven't written many movie reviews in the past, but given the standards set by the movie, I doubt if I can do worse. Seriously, sire... semi-psycho and pseudo-Maoist protagonists deserve a much more ugly death and much less sympathizing on screen, let alone showing the police as a bunch of incompetent buffoons whose camps are always available for over-running by a herd of bare-bone cows on their last scamper. Lets start at the beginning. Imagine, if you will, a perfect confluence of the movie Predator and Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead . Arnold Schwarzenegger was covered in mud as a natural camouflage while hiding from the super-powerful alien. Howard Roark begins the novel while standing naked on a clifftop watching the rising sun. And what does Mr. Bachchan do? He is covered in mud, ...

Cameron Herold: Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs | Video on TED.com

In short, no I don't think so. We are the most diverse, yes, but no we aren't the most racist people in the world. I see this being thrown around quite a bit, and it hurts to see even educated people blatantly criticizing our own countrymen without thinking it through. This post is directed at addressing that question. I am going to support my point with five arguments. First, I believe what we mistake for racism (most of the time) is actually rivalry and some of the things that come with it. Second, the immensely diverse nature of our society and country is actually an asset which we confuse with xenophobia to call ourselves racists. Third, yes, there will always be some among us and others who will be intrinsically anti-social and absolutely racist - but you cannot disown them, as the " No true Scotsman " fallacy points out. And oh, lest I forget, some of us do behave in a manner that portrays a negative/uncultured image to the outside world about Indians. These p...

From the OSS Simple Sabotage Manual : Transportation: Railways (a) Passengers (1.) Make train travel as inconvenient as possible for enemy personnel. Make mistakes in issuing train tickets, leaving portions of the journey uncovered by the ticket book; issue two tickets for the same seat in the train, so that an interesting argument will result; near train time, instead of issuing printed tickets write them out slowly by hand, prolonging the process until the train is nearly ready to leave or has left the station. On station bulletin boards announcing train arrivals and departures, see that false and misleading information is given about trains bound for enemy destinations. (2) In trains bound for enemy destinations, attendants should make life as uncomfortable as possible for passengers. See that the food is especially bad, take up tickets after midnight, call all station stops very loudly during the night, handle baggage as noisily as possible during the night, and so on. (3) S...

This post has gone through three different names. At first, it was called "Why study the theory", and was juggling between the words "theory" and "history". Then I mentally named it "Start from scratch". Until, finally as you see above, it has been renamed to "Reinvent the wheel". Quite simply, I believe there is knowledge to be gained from re-inventing the wheel. If nothing else, there is knowledge in being aware of the background of wheel-making. To know what can go wrong, and how to fix it if something has gone wrong in the process. You will know what purpose it serves, and what other substitutes might exist and why certain design decisions were made. I know this sounds contradictory to what a lot of common wisdom says. But I will try to argue my point nonetheless. And by the wheel, I am speaking metaphorically of course. When there are easy steps outlined that tell you exactly what you need to do, life will always be easy. Think...