Priyank's ruminations

A fresh look & feel of my blog...

2010-06-23T00:35:00.000-07:00

Kudos to the Google Blogger team who have done an excellent job of providing great tools to do all kinds of customizations to one's blog. It's quite user friendly and also very flexible. I know there are better products than blogger which provides almost all possible customizations, e.g. WordPress, but I guess for bloggers like me who do not have a constant urge to write something :), these tools are good enough and keep you motivated towards the main objective of blogging, which is to express your opinion about blah and do not waste time in learning all the fancy stuff. I strongly encourage everyone to try these new features released by the Blogger, if you haven't already done so.

I hope the Blogger team will keep innovating and will make this product the de facto product in this field.

Let me start fresh...

2010-05-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

After a long, seemingly never ending break, I am retrying to rejuvenate my dying blog. From now on, I will be regular in my blog postings to start writing about anything I feel strongly about.

Today, I have decided to write in the favor of establishing more & more IITs in India. Currently, there are fifteen of them, namely, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur (the oldest 5), Guwahati (1994), Roorkee (2001), and then the very recent additions to the IIT network: Patna, Hyderabad, Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Mandi (Himachal Pradesh), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Rupnagar (Punjab) , Gandhinagar (Gujarat). Given such a large population of India, I feel it makes sense to have more such institutes of national importance available to the people of India. I hope it will definitely give a great percentage of population ample amount of opportunities in the years to come in various fields of engineering and pure sciences.

But all this will be possible only when we also make sure that we aspire to maintain the teaching standards and facilities in all the new IITs. This will help in not letting IIT brand diluted over the years rather making it even stronger with the ever increasing alumni network.

Why I think this is going to be in favor of the growth of India? Just take an example of one of the most developed country in the world, United State of America, they also have lots of great universities with just 1/4 of the population of India and a great number of them are well equipped or even better facilities than available in the top IITs. Same is the case with China. I think every state in India should have their own IIT and the state government, private sectors and central government should strive to make them better & better over the period of time. I know it is easier said than done but just imagine India has more of IIT like institutes producing a great number of smart scientists and engineers in great many fields, wouldn't it help India lead in all those fields?

Some people will argue this is not going to solve the above problem as great number of IITians still leave the country to pursue opportunities elsewhere in the world but I still feel this is just a temporary problem which is going to be resolved in the coming years with the growth of Indian market and slow down in the US/Europe market and when people will start getting comparable or even better opportunities in India.

Excerpt from SV's work

2008-08-15T00:52:00.000-07:00

We constantly complain that we have no control over our actions, over our thoughts. But how can we have it? If we can get control over the fine movements, if we can get hold of thought at the root, before it has become thought, before it has become action, then it would be possible for us to control the whole. Now, if there is a method by which we can analyse, investigate, understand, and finally grapple with those finer powers, the finer causes, then alone is it possible to have control over ourselves, and the man who has control over his own mind assuredly will have control over every other mind. That is why purity and morality have been always the object of religion; a pure, moral man has control of himself. And all minds are the same, different parts of one Mind. He who knows one lump of clay has known all the clay in the universe. He who knows and controls his own mind knows the secret of every mind and has power over every mind

A true inspirational story

2008-07-16T00:20:00.000-07:00

“At the age of seven, a young boy and his family were forced out of their home. The boy had to work to support his family. At the age of nine, his mother passed away. When he grew up, the young man was keen to go to law school, but had no education.

At 22, he lost his job as a store clerk. At 23, he ran for state legislature and lost. The same year, he went into business. It failed, leaving him with a debt that took him 17 years to repay. At 27, he had a nervous breakdown.

Two years later, he tried for the post of speaker in his state legislature. He lost. At 31, he was defeated in his attempt to become an elector. By 35, he had been defeated twice while running for Congress. Finally, he did manage to secure a brief term in Congress, but at 39 he lost his re-election bid.

At 41, his four-year-old son died. At 42, he was rejected as a prospective land officer. At 45, he ran for the Senate and lost. Two years later, he lost the vice presidential nomination. At 49, he ran for Senate and lost again.

At 51, he was elected the President of the United States of America.

The man in question: Abraham Lincoln.”
— Author Unknown

Last lecture by Randy Pausch

2007-12-27T10:20:00.000-08:00

A very inspiring lecture by Prof. Randy Pausch of CMU, nearly 2 hrs long, but strongly recommended to watch through end:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/front_im/pausch_9-18-07.wmv

(will redirect you to Google videos)

IITs/IISc lecture series on YouTube

2007-12-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

Amazing efforts to put out the CS/EE/other Engineering courses lectures by IITs/IISc faculty on YouTube.

Checkout the below link for the source of ultimate knowledge:

http://www.youtube.com/nptelhrd

A good chance to make up for those who used to bunk a lot of such lectures ;-). You might find some of your favorites topics. Enjoy....

मेरा पहला हिन्दी ब्लोग

2007-12-26T11:15:00.000-08:00

आज मैं एक प्रयास करने जा रह हूँ एक हिन्दी ब्लोग लिखने का देवनागिरी मैं।
सबसे पहले एक कविता का प्रसंग हो जाये।

वो पथ क्या पथिक-कुशलता क्या
जिस पथ पर बिखरे शूल ना हो|
नाविक की धैर्य कुशलता क्या
जब धारा ही प्रतिकूल ना हो|

यह किसी महानुभाव ने कहा था, जो मुझे अच्छा लगा और मैंने सोचा कि इसको और लोगों पर पहुचाया जाएँ।

मैंने अपनी अधिकतर शिक्षा हिन्दी मे ही की हैं लेकिन हिन्दी मे लिखें मुझे एक अरसा हो गया है, इसलिए शुद्ध हिन्दी का प्रयोग नहीं कर पा रह हूँ। इस बात के लिए मुझे शमा किजेयेगा।

धन्यवाद,
आपका मित्र,
प्रियांक.

Here comes another bubble...

2007-12-25T23:53:00.000-08:00

Check this out, a funny video about Valley:-

Bringing back to life

2007-12-25T22:18:00.000-08:00

Got inspired by someone to bring back this blog to life. I believe I would be able to keep this blog up-to-date with all kinds of fun stuff. So do come back and check it out in future.
From now on, I would put my own thoughts and some times someone else inspiring thoughts here, worth publishing on this blog.

So what I have been doing so far? Well.....I was kinda busy with work and with life. Now, I feel I would be able to find some time for keeping this blog alive.
Till then ciao my friends...

My NewYork Trip

2006-06-10T21:15:00.000-07:00

It was pure fun and only fun. I had a great time with my friends, Amit, Nishant, Avinash and Nakka. We had a gala time in Newyork. Basically, we simply rocked Newyork. Our main items of attractions were Libery island, Stetan Island, Brooklyn Bridge, Ground-Zero (former WTC), Wall Street, Empire state building.

Education

2006-06-09T18:19:00.000-07:00

Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-building assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library.

INDIA: My dear Motherland

2006-06-09T18:07:00.000-07:00

My life's allegiance is to this my motherland; and if I had a thousand lives, every moment of the whole series would be consecrated to your service, my countrymen, my friends.

If we (Indians) want to become equal with Englishman or the American, we will have to teach as well as learn, and we have plenty to teach to the world for centuries to come.

Thoughts of Power: Swami Vivekanand

2006-06-09T17:14:00.000-07:00

God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself.

Faith, faith, faith in ourselves, faith in God -- this is the secret of greatness.

To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. "I will drink the ocean", says the persevering soul. "at my will mountains will crumble up". Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.

This is a great fact: strength is life; weakness in death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery, weakness is death.

Doing is very good, but that comes from thinking. Fill the brain, therefore, with high thoughts, highest ideals; place them day and night before you; and out of that will come great work.

What is love: An interesting insight by Cornell University research

2006-06-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

In the summer of 1999, Cornell university published research purporting to show that love really is a drug. To be precise, it a cocktail of dopamine, phenylethylamin and oxytocin in the bloodstream that produces the sensation we call infatuation. Love, the researcher argued, was in fact a chemically induced form of insanity.

Niagara Fall Trip

2006-06-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I went to Niagara Fall with my brother and his friends. It was a fun trip with full of excitements. I must admit that I had lots of fun during this stint. Six hours of non-stop driving, kudos to my brother, seemed worth while when we reached the climax of our journey. Niagara fall is undoubtedly an awesome sight to visit. Look at the wonderful rainbow in the picture, I never saw rainbow so closely. I can still feel the mist of the niagara fall on my face when I see its snaps.

As it was a long weekend, it was totally jam-packed. The lighting arrangement in the night time was outstanding. There were all sorts of color lights cutting through the wildly flowing water. Believe me, Niagara is a must visit for anyone who is visiting East coast.

Some more snaps to check out:-

Niagara Fall Trip

My Graduation Ceremony at UT-Austin

2006-05-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

Finally the day arrived when I finished my M.S. in Computer Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin. I felt like as I am on cloud number nine. Definitely, it was a great achievement for me as I worked very hard towards getting my degree. All well if it ends well, wisely said by someone.

These days I am in Connecticut with my elder brother and having a gala time at home. I have lots of plans for my summer break. Let's see what all I can fulfill.

In the evening, I went for a stroll of this small city, Stamford. I found it very nice and peaceful. Downtown is just walking distance from home which makes it all the more better.

I spent my most of my day in sleeping, surfing and eating. I am a jobless fellow these days. It is good to be jobless for sometime as it gives you some time to ponder over where your life is heading and which way you want it to go. One should spend sometime in one's own company sometime, it helps a lot in understanding the innerself.

Holiday time

2006-05-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

After a long wait, I have finally come out of Austin and enjoying my summer break in Stamford, Comnecticut. It is a calm and small town. I plan to make the most of these holidays and visit as many places as possible. I have lots of things on my to-do list like reading books, roaming around, meeting friends and some small tasks that need to be taken care of.

I would keep updating this blog quite often now as I have plenty of time now with me :-).

Thought of the day

2006-05-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

About Love & Unselfishness

Does there exist anything called "Unselfish Love" in this world anywhere? I think it does else we would not have been here. Who are we? Why we are here? I think there is no point rambling about these questions, just relax and take a chill pill.

Greedy vs. Dynamic Programming

2006-05-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

Greedy or Dynamic Programming? Which one to apply when is one of the most interesting problem in Computer Sciences. Both are pretty good techniques in solving the optimality problem. However, people like to have a bias for DP in comparison to the greedy approach because Greedy does not always give you the absolute optima, due to hill-climbing problem you might stuck to a local minima. I know a couple of friends of mine are super geeks in applying DP. DP is an elegant method to solve most of the optimization problems.

Sense of humor

2006-05-11T05:16:00.000-07:00

It is a very sensitive topic as some people try very hard to show that they have a great sense of humor but most of them fails miserably. As it is not at all an easy task to make someone laugh on your joke. Good sense of humor is not very common. There are many levels of good humor and that helps people to develop their social circle. One can see it as a well known computer science problem of clustering. Same kinds of people cluster together to make a group.

Common interview questions on algorithms

2006-05-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

Common interview questions on algorithms

Problem

Given N machines with M integers (not necessarily distinct), How would you find the median among these M * N integers with a constraint that these Machines cannot hold more than M integers?

General thoughts

2006-05-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

Today after a long break, I again decided to fill this space with some thoughts of mine which were coming like a fast flowing river in my mind. The reason for my absence from this place is a classified information which cannot be made public. lol. just kidding. nothing serious, was just busy in my MS at University of Texas at Austin. Believe me getting an MS from UT is quite engaging task. If you want to do it in the hard way and perfectly. This is going to be my last semester here, hurray....yep, I finally reached this milestone. Spring, 2006, that's when I will graduate from UT. I spent two really great years meeting with some extraordinarily smart people, who inspired me in many ways.

These days, I am relatively free, so felt like blogging. I think it is a good habit to blog, a vent for getting your thoughts structured and maintaining a personal diary as well. I think I would keep blogging as an when I get a chance. So stay tuned.

So what are my plans to do after I finish my M.S. First thing first, I want to spend my time with my elder brother, Mayank in Connecticut and plan to visit the north east area. I want to spend half of my summer in visiting the east coast as I know that as soon as I start working at Google, I am not going to get this big vacation!!!! So, this is going to be a party time for me!