The Year That Was!

In the end - it was a good year.
And the nostalgia caught up with me; as IIT Bombay placements happened 2000 kms away & I re had vivid recollection of the entire 365 days.

01/12/08: Got placed!
24/12/08: Married my brother off :D
09/01/09: CAT results
08/03/09: Memorable Goa Trip
09/04/09: IIM Calls
1stWeek/04/09: Org Citation + Hostel Cult Citation
April-May 09: DDP
25/06/09: Finally, AA in DDP. Ended a 9 Pointer :->
05/08/09: Convocation
27/09/09: Diveagar trip
16/11/09: KL Trip

Spl. thanks to DDP Stipend
Memorable tribute: Nipun's Car

मुंबई मार्केट - Marathi votes at discounted prices*

After a week in KL, I switch on the National TV & following are the successive ticker reads:

1. BSE to launch their website in Marathi as well.
   
2. Congress CM Ashok Chavan wants more railway recruitment for locals
3. NCP demands a train to be named after Marathi icon Sachin Tendulkar

The Marathi man residing in decrepit buildings in Vikhroli, Dahisar, Virar and Badlapur hasn't felt this important ever!!
And between them they span the entire spectrum of aspirations from working as a laborer in the Indian Railways to having pockets, deep enough for the money to spill-over to the markets.

*: Offer valid till another party stakes claim

Vote-it-eez?

It seems come elections and I get a sudden urge to blog :)

Some preliminary observations on Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections.

1. Hansel D'Souza contested elections as citizens' candidate.
While things would have been better had he won - he nonetheless got 10000 votes. The results have to be seen in the right perspective.
Convincing 10000 of your merit without a personality or party backing is tough. Most other candidates who win elections as independents - are local goons or like.
This should give a fillip to all who wish to contest from urban middle class pockets in BMC, TMC, PMC elections in a few years' time.

A1. Dr. Mona Shah / Meera Sanyal finished 5th & 4th respectively in Mumbai South constituency in LS '09
A2. Dr Vidyadhar Laxman Joshi - a 'true' PhD - polled 12000 odd votes. Finished 5th.

In conclusion, a sizable candidates who don't get media coverage but are good are sought out and voted for. :)

2. A not-to-be-missed trend this election - is MNS stepping out of also-ran shoes esp. in Mumbai city. MNS gets more seats than SHS, BJP, NCP to finish as the second largest representation from the city.

It has 23% of Mumbai vote share - second only to 28% of the INC. It has replaced SHS as the main alternative to Congress in the city.

My first estimate is that - it returns better figures in Nashik, Pune, Thane.

Probability

This is a solution to a problem posed in Probability by Salim Dewani (H#3 02-06), mainly because blogspot comments don't allow insertion of images.

[I shall hope to post something interesting soon. In the meantime, I wrote something.]

If you have had your try, I present a solution.

Consider a rectangle with the horizontal axis representing the time the dad leaves work and the vertical axis the time you leave home. Each point in the rectangle has an equi-probability of occurring. The points in the rightmost region represent starting times of the duo in which they can't meet Similarly in the left most triangle, the father has crossed D before the son, hence the path chosen after D doesn't matter.

Net probability = 0.5(Fraction of area covered by leftmost triangle - ADEFC route)
                                   + 0.5(Fraction of area covered by the leftmost triangle and the middle area - ADGFC route)
                                   = 0.5(32/300) + 0.5(210/300)
                                   = 342/600 = 0.57

[It feels so nice to be doing maths :) ]

1. An eyelash landed right in front of me and for the first time in my stay at IIT, I didn't know what to wish for.

2. Absence of short-term goals makes one acutely aware that you never had any long-term ones as well.

3. I hate rationalizing. It takes the sharp bite of emotions away and how-much-so-ever you nibble, you feel emotionally hungry.

4. Haven't had a near-death experience, but before graduating I have my entire 5 years flashing before my eyes - in exquisite detail. The detail amazes me. Its like I knew this day would come - when my sins / mistakes would have to be accounted for.

All of 22

As someone born in 1986, most of my family / society values were put in place by the time I was 10. (While these values will always be in a state of theoretical flux,) the concrete had set before waves of multi-cultural learnings lapped the Indian shores.

As a result on a host of issues, I find my innate values and new age wisdom to be clashing with one another. Do I believe in the virtues of liberal, rational and (seemingly) Utopian rule set that may fail in the future? Or do I persist with (possibly?) archaic, conservative values that will keep me safe in the past?

A boy has his first quarter-life crisis!

Branching Out!

Below is a mail my brother wrote out to a freshie-to-be. I found it extremely well balanced and (5 yrs after counseling) made me realize that this is what the profs. were trying to tell me back then.
[Produced verbatim, without his permission :P]
----------------------------
Some ground rules that one should know before you make this decision:

- JEE AIR is just a number. It just says how better you are over someone else to solve some types of problems that appear in the JEE exam. Many people in IIT have that intellect. Many. And that is irrespective of what their JEE ranks are. There are some (many) utterly dumb people crowding the double-digit ranks.. and there are some brilliant people inter spread in the lower ranks.. even 1000+
- The "stardom" that you get with your JEE rank either single digit or double digit will last you well till the end of the first semester and will vanish completely by the end of the first year. A completely new magic number called "CPI" takes over and it decides the amount of respect (a.k.a. 'bhaav') you will receive amongst your IIT peers. At that point, AIR and department become inconsequential.
- The intelligence required to succeed in IIT (and beyond) in the true way is much different than that is required to succeed as a student. (more on this later)

Conclusion: Try not to confuse your AIR with department just because everyone else is doing so.


Q1: What IIT Engineering Branch to select?

1) Follow your gut approach:

All wise people say this. And in many ways I can see how they are right. All engineering fields and sciences are quite similar at the core. Either people invent or they discover. But "the process" and "the media" is what makes some people click in some field over other. To truly succeed in any field (be in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, Aerospace, Civil or Metallurgy) one requires the same qualities - hard work, understanding of the fundamentals, patience and passion to pursuit challenging problems.

Everyone has some ideas in mind about what one wants to do in life. A good strategy is to look at all these departments w/o bias and select one that will get the best in you. (By bias, I mean "what fields others are chosing","Where is the latest trend?", "What is most paying" etc). I will explain all the departments in short and explain with examples how some people have made the best of the opportunities in their specific fields and how so many others have "wasted" their chances.

Moral of the story: If you chose something that you like, you will likely innovate and thus excel and shine irrespective of what the rest 50 in your class are doing. If you are passionate enough, there is a treasure everywhere in IIT. 95% of your batch mates will not mine it. But you can - if you want to!

Metallurgy: For some reasons, this department closes the last. 95% of the people are disenchanted and are more eager to get out of IIT even before they get in. However, there are exceptions. Every year about 5-6 of these Metallurgy students do stellar work. In Materials, Plastics, Silicons, and in so many technological items of day to day use. I have some friends who are in Stanford and are working on SUPER-EXCITING problems. Their work also affects Genetics - a field that might be the next HOT thing. So essentially, people who have made the best of the opportunities are doing exceedingly well. People who did not study at all in 4-5 years have left Metallurgy. Unfortunately 95% of the batch is such. The reason is that there are no "regular" jobs in this field. Either there are 5-6 PhD positions in top US universities or nothing! So the reason why this department lags in "AIR ranking" is because of lack of regular "MUNDANE DAY-to-DAY jobs". Ironically, most of the people from this department are pursuing "MUCH MORE BORING" and "MUNDANE" jobs in Software and IT.

Civil: You know what Civil engineers do. A couple of my colleagues have started construction contracts. May be earning in crores. Some of them have joined large construction firms and are managing huge business. Again almost 90% of IIT students who didn't chose to make the best of this opportunity are either doing mundane but well paying jobs in IT, Software or Finance.

Aerospace: This department has let down many of my friends though. Despite lack of jobs in this department, many students join this with high ranks too, because of the glamour of airspace. Again, lack of regular stock jobs. Hence almost 80% people are dis-interested from day 1. Some people have got disappointed with DRDO and ISRO in the past. Haven't heard many people doing PhDs, probably that is because US doesn't encourage Indians in this field (?)

Mechanical: Many mechanical people remain in Mechanical Engineering. There are many jobs in India too. This field is of course pretty exciting too. Involves a lot of physical hard-work as most of the people work in Car Manufacturing units and other factories.
Characteristics:
- Huge opportunities for people who want to make it. Esp. in the field of Robotics, Autos and even Aerospace.
- Starting salaries are low (but there is a huge potential if you prove yourself)
- As a mechanical engineer (even from IIT) you are likely to join at the bottom of the pyramid. This is because most of the companies in this field are old and orthrodox. (This is different to what happens in IT, CS, Finance or business). However, a good candidate is likely to grow very fast and manage HUGE responsibilities at a young age. Something that his/her colleagues in CS, Finance can't even imagine. A friend of mine who did his MS from UT Austin is managing a complete product end-to-end of his company (something related to robotics).
- Another friend did a PhD from Stanford and works on a close start-up in Bangalore. Very intelligent fellow. Says the work is pretty exciting. I can get you in touch with him.
- Another friend has started his own robotics company and is helping set up some Birla plant. (I am unsure of the details).

Moral of the story: Difficult for all the class to succeed, but some dedicated folks have done much better than even most of the CS batchmates

Electrical Engineering: Much more jobs, huge opportunities everywhere. Communications technology is still booming and will continue to do so for a while, I guess. Microelectronics will never exhaust. The machine is getting faster and faster and smaller and smaller. Many people remain Electrical Engineers. Good jobs and exciting start-up and research opportunities.

Computer Hardware Engineering: Strong Industry. Many jobs.
Computer Software Engineering: Strong industry and likely to remain so. Abundant jobs. And the Boom is still continuing. Look at Facebook, Twitter. and I am sure there will be something else.
Computer Science: Computer Science is the mathematics/science behind computers. When I took up CS, I was only partially aware of how exciting this was. Very theoretical and conceptual. Less practical and difficult to see the immediate impact of these theories. I was lucky to be in this department and I loved it.

So on one hand, you have so many people who have done brilliant things in all fields and on the other hand there are many people who have not made use of their Computer Science & Engineering education too (although it is supposedly so sought-after).

So PLEASE think what you would LIKE to do.... more than what opportunities are available.

2) Follow the people approach: For many people and most of the times, this approach makes sense. People know what thing is good on an average and they are good at predicting it. There is absolutely no doubt that the % jobs are in exact order of the AIR based rankings that departments get. Eg. There are abundant Computer Engineering jobs, there are many Electrical Engg. Jobs. There are fairly large Mechanical engg. Jobs and there are dwindling Civil, Chemical, Metallurgy jobs.

This is the reason why most of the people from Civil, Meta, Chemical want their IIT degree as a stamp and then get out into consulting or management or finance. For most of them, their IIT education is a waste.

Due to this, one merit in following the AIR based department choice is that if you chose a department what is well sought after, you are likely to be surrounded by more number of sincere and motivated people. Eg. Whereas almost 20-25 people in my Computer Science class were really good, only about 3-5 people in Civil, Meta, Chemical will be really interested in their fields of engineering.

But trust me: Everyone who was motivated enough, is doing very well.

Q2: IIT education: A General Bachelor of Business Administration OR an Engineering Degree

Today most of the IITans, are not doing engineering at all. They are either into consulting or finance or other forms of general management. They either go straight to IIMs or spend couple of years and do an MBA either IIM or International.

The best and the brightest of the lot who pursue this option also have excellent academic record and either a PhD offer from US univ or a good Job in their respective fields (Civil, Meta, etc). However, you will find that this route is occasionally followed by everyone to 'wipe out' the years spent away at IIT.

Anyways, for this reason it is good that you are chosing IIT Bombay. IITB and IITD give more wholesome education than any other IITs.

Q3: 4 yrs B.Tech or 5 years Dual Degree
Some facts to dispel certain Dual Degree conceptions:
1) Will I not be an IIT B.Tech?
- Of Course. You have 2 separate degrees. B.Tech and M.Tech. The B.Tech degree is "the same" in all forms and features to the B.Tech degree that a 4-yr student gets
2) Are Dual Degree students treated differently at the campus?
- This might have been a valid question 10 years ago. Today, with 60% of the students as Dual Degree students, the question is moot. The Dual Degree students are only clubbed together with Roll-Number. Rest everything is same at least for the first 3 years. Same courses, same instructors, same grading scale. Occasionally these days, it is the Dual Degree student who is the class topper despite his/her "low AIR rank"

Con: The only negative of the Dual degree is that you will graduate 1 year later than everyone else. So suppose, you plan to do IIM straight out of IIT or you want to do anything other than engineering straight out of IIT, then you are better off doing 4 yrs. instead of 5 yrs.

Pros:
- You get to spend one more year at IIT and make use of the Dual Degree program to learn more about your specific field of interest.
- Much more course flexibility offered. You can tailor your degree to your requirements. Eg. I specialized in Computer Science Theory. A Electrical Engineering friend of mine was interested in Physics. He used his last 2 years to do dedicated research in Physics despite being from EE. Now he is doing his PhD from Berkeley in Physics!
- 2 year Dual Degree project instead of a rushed 8 month B.Tech Project. B.Tech project gives you 8 months to work on something. Dual degree project however, is designed so that the student can explore, research and innovate in 2 years with complete attention of the faculty.
- I am not trying to market this program :D but during my Dual Degree Project, I have seen my guide move aside other students waiting in queue to meet him, so that I could meet him! Most Dual Degree students enjoyed this privilege.

If one is not in a hurry to graduate (or pay off loans or start earning) AND one wants to really give justice to the science/engineering aspect of the IIT education, I would strongly recommend the Dual Degree program.

On GDP:

.. does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our courage, nor our wisdom, not our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans

-- Robert Kennedy                   

on the campaign trail in '68.

Yet four decades later, it continues to be the most watched number each quarter.

MNS!

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, I did some number crunching to try and figure out the MNS effect.
MNS put up a candidate in 11 constituencies - 6 in Bombay District, 3 in Thane District (Thane, Kalyan, Bhivandi) and one each in Pune and Nashik. Other than the Kalyan PC, the NDA (SHS+BJP) couldn't manage any other seat - a fact obviously attributed to the fact that Raj Thackrey had some issues with his cousin.
Some numbers are shown below:


Quick Observations:
The NDA was massively affected in the PCs in which MNS contested.
MNS contested 11. Won 0. Second in 2. Third in 9.
SHS contested 06. Won 1. Second in 3. Third in 2.
BJP contested 05. Won 0. Second in 5.

The margins of defeat for Kirit Somaiya (Mum NE) and Ram Naik (Mum N) [both BJP] were heart wrenching. Infact, in 7 of the 10 seats the NDA lost, the margin of defeat was less than the votes polled for MNS. (Combined voteshare is the 2nd last column). Hence the following questions arise:
Q1. Did the MNS solely eat from the Sena BJP vote bank?
Q2. Would the absence of the MNS candidate have resulted in NDA taking these 7 seats?
Q3. How did the MNS become such a force to reckon with? Is its Son of the Soil movement find takers across the urban landscape?

Fact: In the Municipal Elections in Mumbai, Thane and Pune about an year back MNS showed no dent in the Sena votes. All wards together about 400k votes went the MNS way in BMC polls '08. However this election MNS managed 800k votes in the 6 Mumbai Seats.

Fact: The semi-urban seats of Palghar, Maval, Raigad, Baramati, Shirur and Shirdi (seen above) in the Mumbai-Pune-Nashik triangle, where the MNS had no candidate - were dominated by NDA. (Other than the fiefdom of Baramati, ALL the other 5 were bagged by Sena + 1 Indp)

Q4. Raj Thackrey claims Sena should be satisfied that he didn't have candidates in other parts of the state, else a similar fate awaited them. How true would this claim be?

Remarks:
1. There is little to substitute good work. Priya Dutt, Milind Deora and Eknath Gaikwad were known to have worked well. They romped home clear - MNS or no MNS.
South Mumbai (Lalbaug, Parel, Dadar, Matunga - all supposed Sena / MNS strangleholds - lie in their domain. Though Assembly wise splits aren't available yet, I suspect each Assembly seat has to be favorable to win by wide margins.)

2. I defined a rough metric for a good candidate. I prefer a

• Younger Candidate,
• A more educated candidate and
• One with less Criminal Cases against him.

These were chosen since they were easily available on the affidavits submitted by the candidates. Of the UPA, NDA and MNS candidates the one scoring highest on any metric got 2, the second got 1 and the last one got 0. The net scores (out of a maximum of 6 and sum of 9) are seen in the last column of the above table.

An interesting observation is seen:
In 10 of the 11 constituencies, MNS candidate were atleast as good as the NDA one. In 6 cases the difference was significant (2 or more). Again, in 6 seats the MNS candidate fared better than even the UPA candidate - on this metric.
A lot of people around me voted MNS looking at the individuals.

Raj's choice of candidates, IMO, was a significant reason for votes going to MNS way. Explains the meteoric rise of MNS from the BMC elections an year ago - where Sena and MNS had similar candidates.

3. Although I don't have handy data to prove this, I have a hunch that the NDA + MNS vote share this election is significantly higher than the NDA share in the last election. Which means that people came to the MNS fold from places other than the NDA. Given that, both SP and BSP had a poorer showing in Mah. this time around, it would seem that those votes would fall to UPA. They mostly did - but maybe some voted MNS.

My Conclusion:

• It was a smart choice of candidates that helped Raj more than anything else. Sena giving tickets to equally notorious fellas didn't help them. Both could learn a lesson.
• In atleast 3 places though UPA vote share is far less than their wins reflect. Given that UPA otherwise crumbled in the Pune Nashik Mumbai triangle, they should thank their stars.

Fix-it!

Did ToI know something that Lalit Modi didn't want us to know?!
The time stamp says - 3 Hrs ago, when the match ended some 20 mins back :P :P

But Mumbai Indians lost again :(

Train Spotting

Hey all,

For the past 15 days, we have been trying to get our coding skills polished and shining before we possibly put them away for some time.

The idea is to map the trains in India every minute for an entire day and watch the video :D
A sneak peak video can be found at:


However, we never realized how intricate the railways network in the country was until this threw up locations that Google couldn't locate or wrongly located. In order to improve the video, we require 5 minutes of your time:
1. Here you'll find the trains that have behave erratically (due to a mistake in the raw data) and the corresponding approximate times at which they do so.
2. Pick some random entry that you want to correct.
3. Go here and enter the train number of the corresponding train. A train schedule shows up.
[If it throws an error, blame the government website and try again in a few hrs! Thanks already!!]
4. The train will be between some two stations at that time (Step 1, 2). The data of one of the stations is most likely to be wrong.
5. Open Google Maps. Use common sense and basic knowledge of India's geography to locate the Latitude and Longitude of the stations. This spreadsheet will guide you to current values of the co-ordinates.
(A -1 in the spreadsheet indicates data currently unavailable).
6. In case, you locate an error in the 2nd spreadsheet values of Latitude or Longitude - do kindly mail me at shantanugangal at gmail.

I really hope that this cooperative effort will help us quickly get our data sanitised. You have no idea how thankful I would be, since checking all the error prone entries is tough for a single guy :D

Example:
1, 2. I want to fix the fifth row -- 1007    10    20
3, 4. Train is between Talegaon Station and Khadki Station, at 10h20 for the Train number 1007.
5. The co-ordinates of Khadki (19.88, 75.32) in the second spreadsheet are wrong because they are hardly near the train way from Lonavala to Pune.
6. The correct co-ordinates of Khadki are (18.566527,73.84203). Do mail me such errors in the 2nd spreadsheet.

Finger-ing

Thane was among the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra that went to polls today. And after missing out on the Corporation elections an year after turning 18, I was determined to vote this time around.

However, the party positions and choice of candidates led to an interesting predicament.

History: For the last 2 decades, Thane has been consistently with the BJP-SS combine. The rise of Anand Dighe thru 90's ensured that the Late Prakash Paranjpe won Thane comfortably in '96, '98, '99 and '04 (until his demise in Feb. 2008).

A few factors have completely altered the political equations this time.
1. The (engineered?) accident of Dighe, means Thane has no single organizational center.
2. Prakash Paranjpe was very loved for being a cultured and clean person in a populace dominated by Middle Class Maharashtrians. (He died due to Cancer in Feb. '08).
3. Following delimitation, the middle class voters of Dombivili, Kalyan were moved to Kalyan LS Seat. These were staunch BJP supporters but did vote for the SS candidate (given Paranjpe's image and so on.)
4. Raj Thackrey commands sizable youth loyalties.
5.

Come '09: I would expected to be dictated by Family, Social traditions to vote BJP-SS. However, I am largely satisfied by the UPA performance in the last 5 years and very happy that they had balls in the N-Deal faceoff!! The only major disappointment was Affirmative action.

However, I am not of the opinion that party affiliations should override the candidate's suitability when voting. And you too wouldn't want Dr.Sanjeev Naik to be your MP. His affidavit says he is 12th pass, but has no qualms about attaching a Dr. before his name. (Some unaccredited US group has conferred this degree.)

I don't even want to get started on the SS candidate.

The only gentleman-politician candidate with a real chance of winning was Mr. Rajan Raje from the Mahrashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
1. He is LLB from Bombay University - a farcry from both.
2. He figured 16th in the SSC Merit List (unconfirmed)
3. He has no criminal cases against his name - unlike Naik and Chaugule.

The clinching reason for me was the fact that while he might agree with the MNS philosophy he has never been associated with any rioting, vagrancy. So for me it came down to choosing between:

1. A good candidate belonging to a party with a off stream agenda or
2. A candidate with questionable character who would most likely bring the UPA to power.

Party vs Individual : What would you do? Let me know

--
Edit:-

The panwalla shop gossip indicates that MNS might play spoilsport and even trump SS in the Thane Assembly Constituency!

Pulp Fiction!

1. Notice the excitement run through your body
2. Feel the firmness of the pulp
3. Pull off the shirt in a single motion
4. Use plastic protection
5. Squeeze in rhythmic motions until;
6. Liquid froths at the tip
7. Lick the liquid and enjoy the experience!!

This is how a good boy has his virgin Alphonso :-)

A for Apple

The following was posted as a comparative analogy in the debate involving IIM A vs. IIM B vs. IIM C. Smashing read eventhough it might not make too much sense nor help anyone take a decision on the ground :) [Donno who the original author is .. but what the heck!!]

An MBA is like a marriage. You're happy and excited when you're getting married, but it doesn't take much time to realize you were better off as a bachelor.
So in that sense the institute is like your wife. You are stuck with it once you're married.
In this case... your spouse is always going to be more famous than you and as much as I hate to say this "you shall be using your wife to further your career!"

Continuing this analogy a little further... since most of you have met your wives not more than once or twice, this essentially is an arranged marriage for you. (The smart ones ofcourse believe in love at first sight),

So the people in this group are lucky enough to have the option of marrying A or B or C. My friend from IIMC compared these to Aishwarya Rai (A), Bipasha Basu (B) and Celina Jaitley(C). The choice is yours whom you want to marry. However there are a couple of small little issues:
1. You have to share your wife with 300 other people.
2. You can't marry all three of them,

But that essentially is the choice between A, B or C. You could marry Ms. A and introduce your wife as being world famous in India. One who is undoubtedly "the most beautiful woman in the world". One whose face is recognised throughout the world. Essentially she represents the Indian woman to the world. Or... you could marry a certain Ms. Basu with whom you could have a lot of fun! But you'd often end up saying "Well.. she's beautiful in her own way." Or... you could marry Ms. Celina. No doubt she's beautiful but one for whom you would have to say "So what if she can't act. She has the potential!"

WIMWI

My blog followers (all 4 of them) are treated to the good news that I converted my IIM-A PI call into an admission offer.

[ok! I know the above is too flashy for the usual me, but what the heck]

Series

Find the next number in the series:

a) 10001, 122, 101, 32, 25, __ ?

b) 10³, 10⁹, 10²⁷, 10², 10⁰, __ ?

First should be routine, the second is nice. Post answers in comments!
(Courtesy Jose.)

Public Works

Work on the IIT section of the Vikroli Jogeshwari link road has been on at full throttle the past few months. Any public infrastructure project in this region has taken thrice the sanctioned schedule time but right from the outset the Gandhinagar - Y Point stretch has been different.

The moment the Gurudwara was moved the intent to get stuff moving was apparent. And within 4 months, I am happy to say that I have travelled on the newly laid lanes on either side of the old road. (A guiding map can be seen here.) However the way the lanes are laid out is inefficient, atleast to a passerby. The new lanes are completely disjoint from the old ones and (in places) at a different elevation too. From Gandhinagar to YP, there is a huge chasm between lanes flowing in the same direction. As a result the roads have taken up a greater area than the area usable to traffic. However I am positive that the planners had an excellent reason to design it such.

But to be frank, I have felt (and been telling it to anyone who lent me an ear) that the traffic scene had shown a significant improvement since the same time last year even before the new lanes were opened. Frankly, the situation (beyond YP) on the downhill was never really too bad. It was the other lane that posed an uphill task. The reasons were clear to see:
1. Bad state of roads leading to slowing down of traffic.
2. Frequent breakdown of heavy vehicles that found it hard to negotiate the stall-start-move a couple of feet-stall routine on that stretch.
3. A signal at YP that was adhered too 30 secs. too late, coupled with
4. traffic streaming in from the Maddu Mess lane leading to general indiscipline.

In the last year, they managed to (howsoever temporarily) fix the roads.
But the turning point was the closing of traffic from inside IIT-thru YP-towards Andheri and in parallel preventing the traffic from maddu lane to move towards Gandhinagar. With 1 fixed and 3 & 4 eliminated, things in the past few months were genuinely good. If I experienced traffic on the uphill (near Suncity / Vodafone), I routinely bet with myself that a tempo or larger vehicle would have broken down right in the middle of the lane somewhere ahead - which it what it almost always used to be.

Point being that I am genuinely satisfied with the BMC, MMRDA on these fronts - [1. Improving existing road conditions; 2. Getting 2 new lanes up and running] - and would like to pause to applaud them.

However, in the last few weeks I noticed a really disturbing trend. Since vehicles exiting IIT through YP can't take an immediate right towards Andheri, they move a hundred feet left and take a U-turn in front of Phule Nagar (BEST bus stop). A passenger vehicle exiting IIT is likely to be in the left-most lane. Hence the U is neither quick nor clean. An Alto can cause significant disruption in both directions.
Similarly, the exit of the Maddu mess lane into the Gandhinagar direction is blocked using simple concrete bricks. Persistent nudging at them by Bikes and Autos creates a breach. All it takes is 4 bikers to wiggle through over and around the bricks, and before your eyes the break is big enough for a rickshaw to pass. Santros, Boleros and tempos follow within minutes.

Its really disheartening to see people (either campusities or visitors), and I can cite a few other examples of we behaving such. How hard is it to realise that there was a reason the police didn't want you to go towards Andheri after exiting IIT through YP. Ditto for those wanting to go from Powai market towards Gandhinagar?

How does the Police (given the weak dividers that fall apart in 15 nudges and the unruly traffic) maintain any flow on the road?! If at the end of the day people in Powai (both IIT campusities or those living near the Market) are experiencing incessant honking, layers of dust and smoke it is likely to be thanks to someone they know, rather than the government.

I will try and get some pics. or maps to make the point more visual. Also, the condition of the roads will only be tested in the monsoons. On that front the MMRDA isn't off the hook yet. There is a lot the government can do, but the locals too need to stand up and act sensibly.
In the mean time, this article compares Indian Urban Roads (in New Delhi) to London and Tokyo.

Fundae!

Well with the CAT results, I am surprisingly being sought out to dish out CAT Fundae. I happened to write a couple of articles for a web portal - Test Funda.

The articles can be found:
1. 10 months to CAT ’09
2. Verbal Ability

If you happen to reach the end of the articles, do let me know how you find them.

The IIM A PI

Unlike the other 6 calls that are scheduled in Bombay, my WIMWI Personal Interview doesn't give you that choice. Its held in Ahmedabad itself. My date with the interview panel was on 14th February at 1:45 pm. However the panel seemed in no mood to spread the love.

I flew to Ahmedabad on the morning of the interview itself. (In retrospect, a bad idea since I was counting on airlines to deliver on time.) Many people in my panel had reached the night before. Ahmedabad also gives you campus accommodation at a reasonable price, something I didn't known off! I was on the same flight as Ameya Muley (CSE BTech 05) and Glenn (who was with me at IIM K). As a result the rickshaw fare was split 3 ways :D Yay!!

14th Morning was (apparently) the first slot for IIM A calls this year. So the essay / no-essay mystery wasn't resolved until we actually reached the campus and spoke to people in the morning slot. The waiting area too was definitely better. We reached around 10 am, giving us ample time to kill and ample cookies to eat. The interviews of people in the morning slot were a mixed bag - which told me that second guessing the panel was an utter waste of time. However given the number of people (from IITB / CSE) that I knew, it turned out to be a good killer of time.

Our proceedings began with an on-time attendance at 1:45, in which we were slotted in 3 panels of 9 each. I was the 8th fellow in the 3rd panel which meant that their love would test my patience. However, we were called in a room and asked to write on Whether Nehru's temples of learning should remain elitist? 10 minutes is definitely less for the essay and most of us barely finished it. I wrote a few lines about why IITs/IIMs were set up and how elitism is a natural outcome of the engendering factors. We left our grade card copies behind along with the essay. This round was done with by 2:15 pm and I settled in for a long wait. The coffee, cookies and chatter helped a great deal.

Finally at around 5:20pm I was called in. While I was pretty relaxed all afternoon, I got a bit nervous just before entering the room. I handed over my file to one of them (L) , while the other (R) had had a good look at my courses and began spreading the love.

L: So tell me something about yourself?
M: blah fart blah fart fart!
L: But everything that you said is already here (in the form). Tell me something more.
M: some more blah. (In retrospect, should have capitalized on this)!

R: So I see you have taken a course in Convex Optimization?
M: Yes
R: Can you tell me what a convex function is?
M: (excited at knowing what the exact answer was, started blurting out inexact terminology...) the graph of f(x) at a midpoint of x and y is lower than midpoint of the function values.
R: (with a wtf???!! on his face) Can you be more clear?
M: The value a function takes at the midpoint of x and y is less than the average value of f(x) and f(y).
R: (Goes to the board and draws a sinusoidal wave) f(0) = f(2pi) = 1. f(pi) = -1.
M: blah blah blah ..
R: (hurling mental expletives my way) Wait take a paper and let me know once and for the last time.
M: (finally clearing up the air) For 0 <= m <= 1, f(mx + (1- m)y) <= mf(x) + (1-m)f(y). R: So what do you know abt the derivatives of f(x)? M: 2nd derivative is +ve R: and first? M: +ve .. no wait .. can be -ve R: So is it -ve? Take a katori.
M: sorry -- It can be +ve and -ve but it is an increasing function.
R: Increasing??
M: Non-decreasing (pulling at my split hair!!)
R: ok.. so what is a convex Set?
M: If X, Y \in S then mX + (1-m)Y \in S, for 0<=m<=1.
R: So you call such a combination of X and Y as,
M: Convex Combination
R: What would you call it if you removed the bounds on l?
M: Linear combination
R: What is a Linear Transform?
M: told
R: What is an Affine Transform?
M: said something which was eerily similar to Linear Transform
R: Isn't it the same as Lin. T?
M: (mumbles) I am not sure what an Affine Transform is.
R: (fuming) and you say that degree project is in Optimization.
M: (It wasn't) No sir, its in Theory (and explained the confusion)

R: So tell me whats NP?
M: (roll of eyes, mentally) told. Proof verification etc.
R: So can you check primes in polynomial time?
M: Yes
R: Are you sure?
M: I think so (but was mentally in unfamiliar territory)!
R: How?
M: not sure..
R: Can you check composites in poly time?
M: Yes. We can ...
R: So what is NP-hard?
M: I think, it is ...
R: No that is NP-complete.
M: Sir, to the best of my knowledge. NP is ..., NP-hard is .... and NP-complete is their intersection
R: ok. So are their problems which aren't solvable?
M: Yes
R: Like
M: PCP - Post's correspondence problem
R: What is it?
M: Explained what I remembered. I think it was correct.
R: Can you prove that PCP is not solvable.
M: Outside the scope of the syllabus :P
R: Any other problem?
M: umm..
R: Halting problem
M: Yes, the Halting Problem is ....
R: ok.
L: So what are your hobbies?
M: (They were listed in the form) Reiterated.
L: You cycle in Bombay?
M: Try to but have been from .. to .. in Himachal.
L: What do you read?
M: Named a few
L: Thats it? :-o
When Was the last novel that you read?
M: White Tiger, 2 weeks ago.
L: Before that?
M: Hungry tide, around Aug.
L: (complete smirk) Is that what your top-hobby is? Reading 1 novel in 6 months
M: shrug
L: so trekking would mean going to Matheran a couple of times!!
M: No sir. Did this did that..
L: hmmph!
R: So tell me why do you want to do an MBA?
M: Sir, in college I did th (cuts)
R: you know, we really hate this answer. This seems to be the stock answer they teach in classes or something. Do you have any idea what real life management is about or what you'll learn in classes?!! Its not the same as Event Management. If you want to organise Mood Indigo or Saraang, so join an Event Management company. (kya samaj ke kahaan kahaan se aa jaate hain!!) Any IIM call you attend, ye answer mat dena. Humein bol diya to thik hai (.. anyway shayad hi lenge)
M: Sir, that was only part of the reason. But I really want to learn, network and other default reasons.
R: (giveup)
L: (core dump)
L: So you seem to have taken a course with Management school. What was it about?
M: Game Theory to various sectors
L: What can you say about the Infrastructure industry in India.
M: (stumped!) Slowdown, demand bottoming out and chug chug .. stall
L: ok.. What was the major event wrt. Public Transport recently?
M: Railway Budget was presented yest. (13th Feb.)
L: How was this yr. different from others?
M: Interim. The details of the budget new schemes etc. can be changed by the next govt.
L: What new schemes?
M: New trains. New coach factory in Bihar.
L: What about Bombay? Anything for Bombay?
M: Not that I could catch
L: What about A'bad?
M: umm..
L: Anything that Bombay-Ahmedabad have in common in the budget?
M: umm..
L: Was initially Bom-Ahm and now might be extended to Pune
M: Sir, had I read about it, I would have recollected it by now. x-(
L: hmm... They plan to run the first bullet train from Bombay to Ahmedabad.

(look at each other) L: thats ok! Take a toffee and your file.

(as I rise)
R: So tell me, Do you celebrate Valentines' Day?
M: If I had a girl-friend, I definitely would.
L (to R): IIT-ian hai yaar.

All Laugh and curtains!!

It went on for about 20-22 minutes. In retrospect, that I got hassled up at the start was my undoing. Had I taken a short breath before each answer more of what I said would have made sense in much less time. The panel was much better. After a long day, I was just happy it was over.

The IIM K GD - PI

The IIM Kozhikode Group Discussions were the first to start. Apparently they hand out a number of calls and hence their rounds last a while. Mine was on the 12th of February in the afternoon. The venue for the IIM K calls is Dadar Catering College also known by some freakish long official name.
I had a quiz in the morning, which meant that I had to rush to Dadar thereafter. The cab was pricy and I ended up paying through my nose. The K call letter had a set of 4 questions to be answered. Due to quiz mugging I could only manage 2 until I landed inside a cab. I never appreciated the smoothness of the Eastern Express highway as much as ever before nor did I realize how much could be written in a minute of red signal stillness. I reached just in time for the attendance. They had 3 panels of about 9 each. I was the 4th in the panel 3. They started delta late and called our panel to a room.
We were to be watched over by 2 profs. P1 - wearing denims and sneakers, who did most of the talking and P2 - who seemed very observant. The GD topic was given on a paper and wanted us to discuss whether UGC should introduce Astrology as a subject in universities. I made half a dozen good points. The GD went on well with most points being covered. At the end of it I was satisfied :-) They asked us to leave our forms behind and step outside. So far so good.

The waiting area was a corridor with a single file of chairs. I felt stuffy and had a walk around the college. The interviews before mine were turning out to be a mixed bag of acads + workEx. I made a few conversations but largely kept to myself. Each of the first 3 guys took an average of 20-25 minutes.
I went in with my file and an unusual perkiness. They didn't ask for file and the other thing put them off!!

P1: How do you calculate the distance between 2 points?
S: In what dimensional space [...]
P1: Choose something
S: under root of square of blah blah
P1: So if I give you a distance matrix between 20 points can you determine their co-ordinates?
S: If there is a solution, there are infinite.
P1: many questions abt. the same thing. It seemed like a favorite questions with him. He had asked a few other people the same question. I don't know what he was trying to get to - but I seemed pretty confident that it was a simple question and not much could be different. Went over the basics of co-ordinate geometry, whether translation / rotation happens and how.

P1: Moving on. If I want to host a website how do I do it?
S: blah blah abt. buying webspace, setting up server etc.
Each time I didn't say something - he would prompt me for it and I would with time figure out what he wanted. I said everything (right and wrong) that I knew about hosting web pages, internet connectivity, DNS, Apache servers, IP addresses and allocations etc.

Having spoken about these main headings he abruptly said I could go. I was surprised since he hadn't had a look at my form while that was the only thing P2 did. P2 didn't say a single word. They didn't ask for my file - which I presumed was a routine. The overall experience lasted barely 10-12 minutes so I really don't know what to make of it. Either they have a strong reason to take me or they thought I was too arrogant and anyway wouldn't join and hence have a strong reason not to take me.

However I did meet a few people who I think am gonna be meeting often in the coming few weeks. The indepth knowledge of the procedures and technicalities that they have awed me. To sum up, it was a decent experience but not as much a preparation for IIM A as I had hoped. Thankfully, the return ride fare was shared !!

Debate!

Life is general has been good to me in the last few months. (I hope I don't have to regret it though .. )
NLS Quarters, Bro came, Mihir got married, Got placed, Dada got married a few times over :P and to top it off - CAT results (Here and others)!! Eventhough just before the results came out, I had realized that my performance was better than I earlier thought, the actual result was unexpected.
The past month (****!! Its a month already) has been a blur. It was heartening to know that so many people genuinely care about you and take efforts to wish you well. While a thank you is definitely called for (and procrastinated) this post isn't about that.
Its about:

BCG	IIMs
+ Great Job	+ Good Formal Education now
+ Firang MBA later	+ Relatively cheap (fees)
+ Job in otherwise bad times	+ Land a job when the good times return
- Have to continue education when times turn	- Lose out on Intl. exposure

I have left it at even keel at the moment though I have a few reasons on either side :D but (to the few people who read this) I want to hear from you - What according to you is the best course of action?!

9:00

6:59 by Shane Koyczan starts

I’ve been told
that people in the army
do more by 7:00 am than I do
in an entire day ...

While, 9:00 am isn't quite the same as 7, still when you are in time for a 8:30 class only to realise it got cancelled - a surge of happiness floods you that the entire day lies ahead of you. :-)

Until, you open e-mail, reader, blogs, and before you know it'll be lunch time!!