A Swiss woman .. or .. an Australian animal

Yesterday, when I was playing tennis, I noticed something really interesting. I saw a woman had tied something on her waist using some kind of a rope ... with both hands free for carrying stuff that was maybe more important. I stopped to look at her closely, and then I realized that this "something" was in fact a kid. Probably her own child. Found this quite amusing, so thought I should post here.

Anyone ever noticed something like this in India? I haven't! Now don't you start talking about Rani Laxmibai!

written on July 18, 2008

here because I don't want a random passer-by to read it .. will be kind of embarrassing :)

Kabhi na poori hone waali koi aarzoo si hai
Koi jo kahin hai hi nahi uski justuju si hai
Par najaane wo kaun sa ehsaas hai ki
Saanson se ruh tak sab mehkaane waali koi khushbu si hai

Lagta hai jaise anjaani kuchh kami si hai
Palkon mein jaise kuchh nami si hai
Par najaane kaunse wo sapne wo yaadein hain unhi palkon mein
Ki muh par ek muskaan jaise thami si hai

Khwahishen shaayad kuchh khokhli si hain
Zindagi shaayad kuchh dhundhli si hai
Par mujhe neend se jagaana na koi,
Band aankhon se duniya dikhti kuchh bhali si hai

India begin world cup campaign in style

Is this the one fall that India always needs before rising to the occasion? Or does this mean India will come back home soon to enjoy the spring season? Well, I have put in hope after a long long time! Won't lose it soon .. I still hope to see India lift the world cup. Go Sachin ... I am with you :)

An old memory - some kid math

Please don't get turned off by the mention of the word 'math' there ... don't worry ... I know my readers :)

Being at home brings back a lot of childhood memories and they are always fun to be talked about. And parents and relatives all around are only too pleased to reiterate them. Anyway, what I intend to bring here is my first mathematical 'discovery', which, to this date, I consider as one of my biggest achievements considering the age at which it came. I thought it had to go somewhere .. so why not here!

I was in class 5 or 6 I guess and so about 10 years old. We were taught congruence of triangles in school. For those who have forgotten this or those who never went to primary school (this is for you, Chandan :D) here is a link providing a description of the 'four' axioms for congruence. http://www.kwiznet.com/p/takeQuiz.php?ChapterID=2817&CurriculumID=24
Please don't take this as an insult if you remember this. This set me into thinking how these axioms guarantee congruence of triangles. This is one thing about that age ... you tend to ask a lot of questions to yourself and to others .. I probably still do .. but that is maybe because I haven't really grown at the same pace as others.

So I was soon fiddling with my compass and pencil trying to figure out a reason for these axioms. I soon figured out the reason, which in itself was an achievement, I think. The reason is of course pretty simple. For example consider the first one on the above link. If two sides and the including angle are given then we can draw the triangle uniquely using pencil and compass. Each of those axioms is based on a similar criterion. However, the fourth axiom (RHS) kind of confused me a little. What was so special about that angle being a right angle. I didn't really understand. While drawing, I tried to alter that angle a little. I soon saw that as soon as you reduce the size of the angle a bit there can be two possible triangles with the given dimensions. This was a good enough justification. But then ... wait!!
It doesn't work for acute angled triangles. But what if we make the size of that angle a little bigger? A little more than 90 degrees. It still works, or so it seemed. And then I drew again ... and then again .. yes, it was working!!!!!
So why restrict this axiom to just the right angle case .. it works for all angles greater than or equal to 90 degrees.

So now, what was the next question in mind? Or rather what were the next questions? Am I the only person to have discovered this? No, it can't be! But then it could be true as well! Most people around are not so smart anyway :D ... I was half imagining myself besides the likes of Srinivas Ramanujan with my picture in the next edition of that Mathematics book. It sounds a little funny now. However, it all just stayed there itself. I couldn't really discuss it with the teacher at school because I was never really liked by math teachers ... too bad this went unpublished until today :D. Probably what I "discovered" is well known by all and was well known even then.

But I still don't understand why that axiom was restricted to right angles in those text-books.

Sachin Tendulkar - दिल है कि मानता नहीं

After having watched cricket quite religiously for a number of years, I almost quit watching cricket a few matches after last world cup. And during the time I watched cricket, it was more for Sachin than for anything else I guess. It might sound foolish but it gave some satisfaction to watch a graceful shot come from Sachin's bat as compared to it coming from any other. And then when I realised that it would be really unlikely to see the same old Sachin back given the age and the injury worries, I quit watching cricket and shifted to tennis. Most probably, I will quit watching tennis too when Federer retires. Probably that is what passion is. It blinds you! It makes you think one-dimensionally. But I like doing things that way :)

Anyway, passion is not what I want to talk about here. Now that the world cup has begun and India's campaign will begin soon too, here is a review of the previous world cup and a preview of the current one with respect to Sachin, as I see it, of course.

World Cup 2003: India started out on a disastrous note with a dismal performance against a minnow (I don't remember which one it was and am too lazy to look it up) followed by an equally bad performance against Australia, India looked all set to come back home empty handed. But our dear Sachin Tendulkar had different plans. He realised that, as usual, he has to do most of the work alone. Next came England. With this shot against Andy Caddick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMbIO5aCBI0, Sachin announced what plans he had for World Cup 2003. The rest, as they say, is history. Sachin led India to the final almost single-handedly. What next? Well the whole of India was waiting for the cup. Various statistics came up. I remember myself going around telling people that the cup is India's because India has never lost a world cup final (India played only one world cup final before that) while Australia loses every alternate World Cup final. These stats are a lot of fun :). However, Mr. Zaheer Khan had different plans. Having reached the final, our dear Indian bowlers began to think they are the best in business, almost equivalent to the likes of McGrath and company. Result - Zaheer Khan began the first over with a lot of aggression, a lot of sledging, those exchange of looks with the batsman .. all so perfect. The only thing that was below par was bowling. We almost lost the match in the first over. The rest of the match was just resting on the hope of a revival which was never to be. India had to chase 360. Sachin got out in the first over and with him went India's hope of lifting the cup. The rest of the match was merely a formality. So as I see it, the rest of the ten players owe the world cup to Sachin and to me.

World Cup 2007: After having enjoyed detachment from cricket (yes, detachment is really really peaceful), I want to once again follow this world cup with the same amount of enthusiasm, maybe one last time, hoping for a positive result. This is most probably Sachin's last world cup, and probably the only achievement missing from his glorious career. He has promised the fans back home that there will be something to cheer about when the team returns. I would be waiting for some six off some 'Caddick' announcing Sachin's intentions. I know there are a lot of players in the current Indian team who are looking good .. and also that Sachin has not been doing all that great in the past some time .. but I still believe or maybe want to believe that Sachin Tendulkar can still do anything. I want the WORLD CUP ... बस मुझे और कुछ नहीं पता :D

On the way

Have been off blogging for some days .. but will resume soon ... for now .. am at home .. Zurich can rest in peace for a few days, people can sleep in their rooms without having to worry about the laughter of a certain Indian guy living in Turnerstrasse 21.

Btw, the flight was great .. there were two Hindi movies in the flight ... Jaaneman and Khosla Ka Ghosla. Chose to start with the former 'coz of Preity Zinta :)

However, couldn't bear that one past the following few lines of the opening song

"Main Pareshan Hoon Ek Majboori Par
Hoga Gam Jaankar Saath Hoon Main Magar
Mujhko Rehna Padega Zara Doori Par
Sirf Do Hi Mahine Hai Seh Lo Agar
Mera Future Hai Teri Kasam
Mera Future Hai Jismein Piya"

I couldn't stand this even for Preity Zinta!

Anyway.. so then moved on to this other movie .. Khosla ka Ghosla .. this one was total fun. 2 hrs of total entertainment. A story about a typical middle class man KK Khosla who spends all his savings to build a "ghosla" to live in after retirement only to find it being possessed by a certain Mr. Kishan Khurana ... played by Boman Irani. And then it is upto the Khosla household to cheat back Kishan Khurana and get their house back. If Bollywood moved a step in the right direction with comedies like Hera Pheri and the MunnaBhai double, this one takes it a step further!

And yes, I don't know why ... but I listened to the last song "chak de phatte" of the movie at least 20 times ..maybe it just sounded too Indian .. or too Chandigarh'ian' :D

Randomisierte Algorithmen und Probabilistische Methoden

Don't look for your dictionaries - you won't find these words. This is the title of the course whose exam i have tomorrow. The lecture notes are in German and am having a great time learning German and Randomised Algorithms at the same time. What is more interesting is that the exam is open notes. Real fun!!!! You can't imagine how much fun it is when you come across words like 'Aufrittwahrscheinlichkeitserzeugende'. This is how the instructor puts it. In front of the class, she looks at me and says .."Well .. er .. how should I say .. er .. this .. er .. is an advantage for those who were born and brought up here in Switzerland. I am sure you will do well without the lecture notes too". And I was like .. "if you say so!" :D. But no matter what they do, no one can make me write lecture notes in class.
Btw, I am by no means complaining. In fact, I am pretty sure there is no univ in the world that could be better for me than this one .. this is even if I overlook the fact that it is in Switzerland :).

Just that I was getting a bit bored with the Google translator .. so thought of uttering a bit of crap here.

Something totally random

here are a few lines I wrote recently ... my first attempt at "so called poetry" .. and it is here unedited :)

Title : SNOW

There was a child
So innocent, so pure
Transparent like droplets of rain
Now he has grown
To be so serene, so calm
So composed, so correct
But, not transparent any more
The innocence, the purity are long gone
Or maybe not
Probably they still remain
The look is beautiful
Maybe more than ever
But it is all hidden behind that white cover
And yet that cover probably has to be there
For the world outside is too cold!!!


I didn't force you to read it :D ... however, now that you have read, please leave a comment.. Please note that I would consider it very very rude on your part to read this and not leave any comment!

An evening with Kishore Kumar :)

Today, while listening songs on musicindiaonline I landed at this.http://www.musicindiaonline.com/music/compilations/s/album.3369/
This is a compilation of a live show at Los Angeles performed by the legendary Kishore Kumar, arguably the best (male) playback singer of all time. It is quite a fantastic collection of songs. It starts off with the light comedy songs and then moved on to "heavy-weight music" as he puts it. Ended again with a few light ones where he was at his yoodling best :). I just wished the show would have ended with "Chalte Chalte mere ye geet ... ".. I think all Kishore Kumar shows should end with this .. probably he forgot about this song or maybe this was released after that performance. Anyway it was two hours of great entertainment. I thoroughly enjoyed the awesome Sunday evening with Kishore Kumar!!
By the way, if you are interested in listening to the songs at the above link, these songs are listed in alphabetical order .. I would suggest listen it in the order in which they are given here. http://www.yoodleeyoo.com/database/index.php?load=film&film=Kishore+Kumar+Live+at+Los+Angeles
This is the order in which they were sung at the show. This way it is much more fun, especially as Kishoreda gives an introduction before every song every time starting with "to doston ..." .. it is very very likeable. You get the feel as if the performance is going on for real. How I wish there was just one more enthusiast here for similar stuff. Life would be so much more fun then. Damn CKD!!!

Federer's best year begins

January 1, 2007

I think this date marks the beginning of what will be the best year in Federer's tennis career. When I say this, I am completely aware of what he has achieved in the last 3 years and how difficult it will be to surpass that .. I am also aware of the threat Nadal provides and also of the improved Roddick after getting the services of the great Jimmy Connors as coach.

Federer lost 5 matches in 2006 .. 4 to Nadal and 1 to Murray. The reason why he lost to Murray is quite well known to the entire community and so, that loss is hardly something to worry about. Youngsters like Gasquet, Baghdatis and Murray will provide threat to Federer at some point of time, but I don't think these players can cause any harm to Federer in 2007.

After that win in the Master Series against Nadal, I don't see even Nadal troubling Federer much this year (even on clay). I think Federer has a decent chance of winning the Roland Garros year. According to me, Federer was the best player even in the Roland Garros 2006 (Yes, better than Nadal). What prevented him from winning that title and getting his name written in history books as the 'greatest ever' was probably some kind of a mental barrier that he had when playing against Nadal. If this is to be believed then I guess the mental barrier should be overcome by now(at least to some extent) after the last 3 encounters of Federer with Nadal in which Nadal has been beaten by "The Emperor". I just hope Nadal plays at least some tournaments this year before the clay season and not just come out of the den when the clay season begins, like last year.

The match between Roddick and Federer at the Master Series seems to suggest that Roddick can defeat Federer once in a while but I don't think this would be possible because it will take quite some time for Roddick to begin to believe he can defeat Federer.

Federer has been breaking a lot of records. One record which has stood unbroken is John McEnroe's record of the highest winning percentage (82-3). 2007, I think will be the year he will break this record as well. Federer will start as favorite for each of the 4 grand slams.Here is what I think will be the odds for each of the 4 GSs.

Australian Open (Federer 70%, Others 30%)
French Open (Federer 50%, Nadal 48%, Others 2%)
Wimbledon (Federer 90%, Others 10%)
US Open (Federer 90%, Roddick 5%, Others 5%)

I would have liked to put Safin's name in this list, but he is a little too inconsistent to be able to win a Grand Slam title (which requires winning 7 matches in a row)

The bank story

I have almost never ever used a bank account for any kind of transactions .. I don't know how to use an ATM card for withdrawing money from a bank. Anyway, so when I moved to Zurich, since I wanted some place to keep my scholarship money .. I was told that having a bank account was, in some sense, obligatory.

So, not realising how difficult this would turn out to be, I entered a bank called Credit Suisse for opening an account. Anyway the start was not too difficult. A person, let me call him Mr X, opened a savings bank account for me. It took just about 15 minutes and it looked quite simple.
No, the story does not end here!!

I began receiving loads of papers from the bank. These Swiss banks take a lot of pain for security .. I haven't seen the security of banks at other places to compare but I still think this is a bit too much. Anyway I was not using the bank account much (not-much is often used as a code word for saying not-at-all :D) except that my scholarship had started going there. One fine day, I was told by someone that the card that I had received was not a credit card. Now don't laugh .. I don't know how a credit card looks like. On this I decided to go to the bank again to ask for a credit card .. God only knows how I would be using the credit card ... but I has seen people use it and it always looks kind of cool .. so I also wanted to try it :)

Anyway, so I returned to the same branch of Credit Suisse with my query about the credit card hoping to find that same Mr X there. However Mr X was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was a good looking female, lets call her Miss Y, there. But the good part virtually ends here. She began the conversation with the usual greeting in German, "Gruetzi". By now I had learned to pronounce this properly so I also uttered it without realizing where I am heading for. Anyway, she began talking in German and it took her some time to figure out that I do not understand German. Unfortunately, she was not very comfortable in English. More unfortunately, she knew some English!! I realised how dangerous "little knowledge" could be just then.
As we were having a hard time understanding each other, I explained her the reason for my having come there. With some words and some signs thrown in the conversation, we finally managed to arrive at a conclusion. I got a private bank account for which I was required to pay 6 Swiss Francs per month, and what do I get in return, ... the [i]much needed[/i](God only knows for what) credit card. Anyway, as I had signed the papers and was about to leave, I asked again just to confirm whether I will now get a credit card ... and then she says we give credit card only to people who have income beyond a certain value. What this account gave me was a Maestro Card by which I could pay at shops etc. However, by now, I had come too far to be able to say that I do not want this account now. The lady was already quite pissed off because of the effort she had to put to explain everything to me. So I exited hoping to come back again and close this account.

ASIDE: the above story has not ended yet ... this is another incident that took place when i was coming out of the bank that is kind of .. interesting. As I was getting out of the bank, I saw a person withdrawing money from the ATM. I was a little curious about how this machine works and so I tried to see what he was doing. I knew this was something weird that I was doing... anyway the guy turned around and I immediately turned back thinking he might think I am a fool. But I soon realised he might be thinking I am actually spying on his secret code (or whatever you need for that ATM thingy to work) and might have some evil intentions. After that we both walked in opposite directions, occasionally looking back at each other, for different reasons obviously ... it was really really funny :D

Anyway, coming back to the original story, I returned to the bank a few days later hoping to find Mr X or someone else (anyone but Miss Y) and get the private bank account closed. I had got to know from others by now that we can get a student account using which we can get maestro card for free. And also learned from someone else that there is another bank that offers a credit card also for free with a student account. So I was kind of undecided about what I want to do. Anyway I entered the bank .. sheepishly looking to see if Mr X was there. But unfortunately only Miss Y was there. I was about to turn back .. but she saw me. And she called. I had no option but to talk to her only. I told her I want to close the bank account. She obviously remembered me. She asked why do you want to close now? I said I have to pay 6 CHF per month for this bank account while some of my friends have a student account so they don't have to pay anything. I don't know how but she thought now I am asking for a student account. She said we can't open a student account for you now. You can't have so many accounts. I said .. I want to close .. and laid all the cards on the table .. she asked, so do you want to close the private account..and i said no I want to close ALL the accounts (as if I had some 100 accounts there) ... and she was like really really angry. But what could I do ... I wasn't at all aware of what I was doing. She completed all the formalities and asked me to sign the receipt which said that I get 3800.70 CHF .. which meant I had got 70 cents interest... awesome, right!!!! And then she paid me 3800.20 CHF ... but by no means was I going to ask her for the 50 rappen deficit. I would let her keep that as a memory of having met me.

I went out .... trying to show that i had been insulted by something :P .. but I knew for a fact i had made a fool of myself.

Abhimanyu's death

just saw this posting in a community on orkut .. on a discussion abt Abhimanyu's death

"Krishna was teaching Arjuna and Uttara was also seated with him who was pregnant at that time.Both started sleeping and Krishna still found a voice of nod which was from Uttara's womb.

He stopped it there as abhimanyu was not of age to study chakravuh yudh as it is taught after 16 only.(*it is also being said that as krishna killed his uncle (kansa)also and he was afraid of a repitition as he was the uncle of abhimanyu*) this caused incompleted learning which led to abhimanyu's death "

see the line in the paranthesis .. :D

'My financial career'

A recent incident that happened to me in a bank reminded me of this story :)
This is a story that I had read long time back and I read it again today and I enjoyed it even now. If you want to read it, it is here .. http://students.iiit.ac.in/~nirnimesh/Literature/MyFinancialCareer.htm

What happened to me was something similar.. well I won't write it here in detail I guess... but I have it written down and you can email me if you would like to read the full story :D

'How are you?' and 'It was nice meeting you!'

I am never able to utter to anyone the above mentioned phrases. These phrases have been thrown at me various times but the frequency has increased many times since I have come here(Zurich)!
"How are you?" .. If someone meets you 10 times in a day .. he would ask this question 10 times .. it is so weird to keep on repeating the same words .."I am fine! How about you?" .. However I ask myself .. does he really care how I am .. of course not .. then why do this .. just to be nice .. it is too pathetic!!

And also the phrase ...'It was nice meeting you' ... that is uttered to every person you meet the first time .. this is ridiculous .. it can't be nice for you to meet every Tom, Dick and Harry .. if someone says this to me after meeting me the first time .. I can't just help thinking .. "what was so nice about having met me?" .. Why do people have to say this????

Salt in milk

I don't know if it is a good idea to proclaim yourself as a 'fool' .. but here I do it

Yesterday at breakfast time .. after boiling milk .. I put 'sugar' in it (2 spoons :)) ... then I put chocolate into it and I was so happy(swiss chocolates generally make me happy!!) .. and then as I tasted it, I got the shock of my life (slight exaggeration)... it was salty .. I tried it again .. it indeed was salty ... I normally am not used to wasting food .. but I couldn't do anything about this .. I had to throw it .. why do these people have sugar crystals and salt crystals of the same size.. ok maybe I am making a lame excuse .. maybe no one else would make such a mistake

So here I have described how I tasted salty milk for the first time in my life .. so much for 'living-in-zurich-and-cooking-on-my-own'

Ich wohne in Zurich (Switzerland)

"Ich wohne in Zurich" is German for "I live in Zurich" :)

I moved to Zurich (for a few years) a few days ago. Before coming here, I was a little skeptical about how it would be to live in a foreign country .. everything will be so strange, so unusual all around .. I was almost certain that the hard life will begin now!! ... but I must admit that things haven't been too bad till now .. things certainly are unusual and strange .. but some are unusual for the better!!

Cars stop at the crossings to let pedestrians cross .. this to me was really really funny in the beginning
Also I have never held a map open in a public place for more than a minute .. everytime I find someone coming over to help .. this is again something quite unusual!

Hmm .. so I do miss quite a few things from India .. one thing I miss quite a lot is of course Bollywood .. yahaan to Hindi movies bhi German mein dub karke dikhaate hain [:-(].. but then as they say .. 'you win some, you lose some' .. but I think I will be able to spend good time here!

The thing that keeps me really happy here is, of course, 'Swiss Chocolates'

My first post :)

First thing .. I am beginning to write something after 7 years (yes it has been 7 years since I left high school) ... so in case you are looking for some good piece of writings, I am very sorry to tell you that you are at the wrong place. However if you like me and/or are interested in knowing what I write .. you are welcome to stay for more :) So, what is the reason for starting this blog .. so that I can improve my writing skills .. and to make myself muse(sometime later in life) at the kind of things I used to write and think at some point of time.
If you don't know me this blog would hardly make sense.. so I won't introduce myself.

Also all of my posts would be a random outpour of thoughts and not some well structured essay .. so please bear with me :)