Information overload

The world wide web started with hardly any useful information for the likes of an average internet user of today. It started simply as a way of communicating conveniently among the universities and science labs. See the history of WWW on Wikipedia here -> WWW .

When all types of industries, institutions and geeks started uploading information on the WWW - publishing and sharing, then came the likes of search engines Lycos/AltaVista that became popular. See the history of search engines on Wikipedia here -> Search engines .

Then came Google - which completely changed the way people browsed the internet. Instead of typing an address in the URL bar of the internet browser, they started with Google always. A lot many percentage of people still do the same.

But with the amount of information that can be browsed on the WWW these days, google search results are also overwhelming. So much so that it is becoming impossible to conclude reading on a topic, you never know how much is enough.

You search for a news piece and find millions of hits!

How do you know that which ones are worth reading, or good! Good articles are now at the mercy of the Google page rank algorithm.

Imagine the amount of difficulty a new portal will have - aggressive marketing, and ads everywhere like on TV/radio is probably the only way of boosting initial number of visitors. Even if a portal has excellent articles, tremendous value - unless millions of people hit it, it will not feature in the initial pages of Google search results. And the problem is even more glaring is the portal deals with generic topics.

Probably the next step in search is a question-answering kind of system, that can search within the Google search results to pull out useful results. And they will introduce their own ranking algorithms...

With so much information on the WWW these days - if you are a student or an upcoming professional - you are clueless about how much information is enough, and you can never be sure that you did not miss out on some valuable information. It is just impractical to find the best category by browsing through search engines.

It is tiring, it is endless.

These days I find Wikipedia as the best source of information to know about anything, and have stopped browsing through Google now. I search on Wikipedia, browse known and trusted news portals like Nytimes/BBC/CNN/Timesofindia/Hindu, and be done with it for most of my reading on the internet.

I know there are millions of web pages sitting out there with valuable information about so many things I would benefit from. But have to live with the incompleteness.

May be soon Google will not be the starting point of net browsing any more, people will go back to typing the URL address on the internet browser :)

Unless..... somebody comes up with search templates, where you can fill values based on which you want to search - and generic fields which google/yahoo/bing all understand and give you results accordingly. Then the ranking algorithm is yours - the user's. And there can be default set of values for users who don't care either way.

Or

Unless.....somebody comes up with the big daddy of Google using some magic... :)

Until then... so long ...

Loads of friends

Thy who hath friends, has learnt the art of living... - anonymous

Friends on Orkut, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Random sites (rediff.com, indiatimes.com, bigadda.com whatever), on iGoogle (Google just launched social network applications on iGoogle - check it out if you have not so far), MSN messenger, Yahoo messenger, GTalk, Skype, Yaari, on X, on Y, on Z... hhhmmmm ....

Loads and loads of friends everywhere - through every portal.
Have you learnt the art of living?

From savvy at 10.15 AM: Running for a meeting...
From savvy at 10.30 AM: Getting bored in the meeting
From savvy at 11.00 AM: God, finally it is over!
From savvy at 11.15 AM: Need coffee after that boring meeting
From savvy at 11.30 AM: Dreaming about lunch already
From savvy at 12.30 PM: Wow, I am in the coolest restaurant in the city!
...
blah
blah
blah

Okay, okay, point taken - you want to know how your friends are doing, and what they are up to. But these? Running commentary of daily activities? Would you opt for that?

You care a lot about your friends and would love to know what they are up to.
But certainly, a continuously tweeting friend is not cool at all :)

Gone are the days when there were mails from friends written thoughtfully, about their happenings, their feelings, their thoughts and how they are going on about their life in general. - Those were fun to read, brought a smile on your face.

Gone are the days when a friend would call up sometime to ask let us meet over lunch or snacks to catch up. Those were the coolest restaurants around the city, even with the most careless cook.

Can you imagine what happens if all your friends start tweeting/scrapping/walling/poking you at the pace as in my example?

Friends are one of the best things about life, you love their updates tweets/pokes/scraps/mails/phones/meeting-over-lunches ...

And then, there are people who are literally loading the communication portals :) They are still the same friends you care about, but they all seem distant when you have to opt for 'don't show updates from this person' because of the communication overload.

Happy tweeting/scrapping/messaging/e-mailing ... whatever ... !

To whichever country you go, have the fruits of that country

In Odia, there is a popular saying "je deshe jaai, se phala khaai" - which means, to which ever country you go, eat the fruits of that country. One way it is logical, that you don't have to import/export a lot of things required for your daily living, is not it ? :)

Now that I am based in the USA for sometime, it makes all the sense to try eating the fruits here - and yes, for somebody like me who grew up in a far away place from the north India regions where fruits are in abundance, oh boy, happy I am to see all the different types of juicy and fresh fruits here! I believe, if I don't eat lot of fruits in USA, it is kind of an insult to being here!

Keeping the literal meaning aside, if you think about the proverb, it actually means that just gel with the local culture. USA is one of the best places on earth to gel - it welcomes all kinds of people, from all over the world, and being the richest country, it attracts so many foreigners for work. In India, I never saw so many non-indians, like the way I am seeing non-americans in america. It is definitely a much much more favourite destination to stay, and not just to visit.

However, to me, it looks like people from different cultures and ethnicity tend to form their own close groups as social circle. It might be kind of an identity crisis, an urge to hold on to your own culture as much as possible - just to have that "I am still close to home" feeling. For example, indians who would have ignored some festivals while living in India, tend to being particular about celebrating those when in USA. I wonder why that urge ... I mean, holding on to one's own culture is fine, but doing that out of a 'otherwise I am lost' feeling is not exactly healthy I guess. Over time, you are a bunch of 'desis' who just move around with desis, and even if they stay here for like 20/30 years, their complete friend circle is only desis ...

Hmmm ... may be that is a good thing to do in the long run, at least you are not exactly lost, but hold on, is it true? You are lost in India also when you go back after 30 years, and you are lost here as you never attempt to gel into the society...

It is just my observation until now, but may be this is the reason why the next generation grow up into becoming ABCDs - I wonder what happens in the second generation!

Anyway, I am also trying to have the fruits of this country, and stay close to the desi culture as well :)

Government versus voters

Amusing.

That is what I would call the recent parliament election results.

Irony is that, some news channels and analyst forums are trying to show it as 'vote for good governance'.

Good governance for last 5 years?

Has the naxalite movements being channelised to better directions?

Have we been able to stop the violent activities of the nothing-else-to-do maoists?

Did we do the right thing and the best thing after the Mumbai attacks?

Have we contributed much to the development of J&K (remember the politicising of amarnath land)?

I have nothing against the ruling UPA personally, but the way the results are being projected as 'win for good governance', I am against it.

It is as usual, vote for varied reasons, there was no single/multiple unified agenda for the parliament elections. Some regional feelings, some political dynasty emotions, some got-to-vote-for-someone and so on ...

And some analysts are calling this election as 'death of communal forces'.
What??? With 150+ MPs of NDA, and given that it is termed as the 'communal forces' by the media, would you call it as death?

... the varied reasons also include communal feelings, regional petty politics (remember the anti-northindia movement in MH?) and the Gandhi factor in UP.

Nevertheless, I have a feeling that if our PM can be more adventurous, and decide to give the home ministry to Rahul Gandhi, it will be very eventful and hopefully there will be some positive steps towards a better india. I am assuming that Rahul has no personal agenda because he is already being given everything in a platter, he should use this opportunity to actually make a difference. And with youth on his side, and some innovative thinking, he can take the governance to another level.

Have you seen this , that lists out some young MPs with famous fathers/grandfathers in politics? I would not mind them as long as they don't have a personal agenda. One way, given that they are already so privileged, they can do lot better than others who are still building their money empires from politics in their first generation.

:) Some positive thought that is!

thanks

Thanks to the ones who took the poll and I am encouraged to continue writing some other pieces of the story, will go on posting as and when they are ready.....

The post 'Rebels and results' is an excerpt from a set of stories I am planning to write based on my college life experiences. I just wanted to run it through you guys to check whether I am completely off, or at least somewhere near 'readability'...

Rebels and results

From the dark corners of the hostel corridor, Ramesh came running, panting, yelping for Hari. Opening Hari's room door with one hand, still breathing very heavily, chest thrusting up and down, sweat falling down his forehead - he cried "We have done it man! we have done it! Let us pack for home ... glee ... glee ... can't wait to attend my sister's wedding ceremony!"

Hari, as calm as ever, so very acquired characteristic of a small town boy - gave a sigh. Left his books on his bed, slowly got up and glanced at Ramesh. "So man, credit goes to you!"

And again, so very true of those small town boys, thought in his mind - 'Rascal, he has to attend a wedding, for that, the whole class has to suffer with a rescheduling of the exams! What happens to my hard work of 10 days preparatory holidays? Does somebody, the so called friends, care about it? All selfish guys, so full of themselves! What do I go and tell my mom, exams are postponed, yet again? How many times will she have to pay for my trip to village? Will Ramesh's dad pay for it? For how many of our batch mates ? Hoon... "

Aah, and there he goes again, with the outward politeness. 'Ramesh, how did you do it, it seemed so unachievable with the new discouraging principal at the helm?'

'Don't you know a thing? Come on man, don't study so much that you lose all clues about what is happening around this place. It is a long story - can't say it now.' Ramesh said, and started running ahead to other nearby rooms of his classmates to break the news.

'Go back to your bed and continue studying, you will get 5 more percentage of marks this semester with the extra time .. haaa haaaa ....' . Ramesh's voice was heard from a distance, slowly fading, from the other corner of the long hostel corridor.

Hari sighed again, even more deeply this time. Continued looking towards Ramesh's path and wondering what to do now. Neither can he concentrate on studying now, nor can he close the books and take part in the supposed-to-be-happening party in the hostel this evening. It is against his principles, he does not want to encourage anti-exams campaigns or take part in the victory celebrations. But does he have a choice? He closed his room doors and locked it from inside. Sat down noisily on the bed, forced his thought to concentrate on the chapter he had open in front of his eyes.

At the other end of the hostel, a group was slowly gathering in front of Vish's room. There was excitement everywhere, loud shouts, door bangs, running footsteps all around. Ramesh was thinking hard on what should be done to make this evening as memorable as possible. .....

Cleansing the parliament/vidhansabhas in India

Saying that our political system is a mess - is a big under-statement.

There are 1000 parties in India listed under the election commission for elections this year -> see this . What a huge list of choices with only few worthwhile candidates?

Now one more startling fact is 120 MPs have criminal record in the current parliament -> See this one .

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says that good politicians do exist, provided people are aware and can take a good decision. I think it is an impractical solution, at least in 2009 - asking for majority voters to be aware and to choose right/wise-ly.

What I wonder is, why can't we pass a bill saying that nobody can contest for MP/MLA posts if they have a criminal record? As in,
- pending case where s/he is not cleared yet.
- if there are any proven criminal record in any lower level court even though applied/pending in a higher court.


Now now, if you think about it, it also seems impractical :) no political party will like to support such a bill in parliament (check out the list of political parties fielding candidates with criminal records to support what I am trying to say here).

But then, can the election commission bureaucrats make a rule like that?

The political drama

When Orissa was going through all the turmoil in Phulbani after Sri Lakshamananand Saraswati's murder, BJP was probably seeing the golden opportunity to spread its wings in the state. So called communal feelings were at a high and the Hindu population was on a boil.

No wonder, that the BJD and BJP have parted ways in Orissa. The political drama that unfolded this week was expected. BJP would have asked for more seats and BJD can't be expected to agree after such good response in local elections.

Navin Patnaik has some guts, I must say, whether misplaced or not only time will tell. But he did the right thing for his party in Orissa by parting ways with BJP. He has been called the 'Betrayer' by some and 'a masterstroke player' by some. He is both, but he can play intelligent political games. There is no benefit to BJD from the partnership at this time, so why not break it! Nobody expects moral commitment from political leaders, not in India! BJP should have been more accommodating as it is the one who would have benefited from the partnership, they could have waited for a better opportunity to demand much more....

I get this feeling that BJP has lost its charm, Congress has the momentum and the so called 'third front' is definitely not going to get majority to form a government at the centre. So, looks like we will again have a hung parliament with Congress forming 'yet another' alliance to form a government... whatsoever, it is sad to see no single party being able to convince the population about its credibility.

In my opinion, all regional parties should be asked to contest at least from 5 or 10 states, to qualify for the parliament seat elections. That will discourage the regional sentiments and more and more political parties will be forced to look at the benefit of the country and not just for their own state or constituency. It is ridiculous to see regional agendas taking higher priority for the parliament elections.

May the citizens rise to the occasion and vote for people who have the right election agendas and not for the ones who go on distributing 100 rupee notes ...

Change in co-ordinates

Changed co-ordinates from 18°37'50"N 73°47'20"E to 40°34'59"N 74°15'52"W.

What I have immediately started missing is, as Dipti once said, the live telecast of cricket matches. I would have loved to watch - no rewards for guessing :) - the 3rd ODI between India and New Zealand.

Weather is cold in this part of the world, air is dry, roads are excellent and humans are rare to find :)

Anyway, after listening to 'highest number of jobless people in USA this month' news for almost two days, I am a bit cheerful about the other bit of news 'About 2 million jobs exist even in this market'.

One can always choose to see the glass half full, and feel good even while contributing to one bit of the empty air in the other half :)

The theory of perception

A part of us is what we perceive to be.
A part of us is what others perceive us to be.
Which is the real 'us' and what percentages work best for a peaceful life?

The other day I was trying to convince somebody on why it is ok for a brahmin to marry a non-brahmin, and how all human beings are born equal and deserve equal respect. Can you guess the results of my attempt? Na, I could not convince...

And then there was this argument on whether females should work outside of the home or not, and yet again, I failed to convince the person.

These things got me thinking, how/when and whether our perceptions should change. Yes, agreed that, whatever we are, our life is based on our set of values and perceptions about life and world. As our values change, we change as a person. But exactly when we start becoming better or worse, it is difficult to judge.

I am watching myself changing perceptions as I have grown and migrated from village to town to city to abroad and all the way back again (I still live in a village, a small town, a town and a city to get a feel of all). Whether all of them were for good, I can't say. But yes, as a person I have changed, definitely. For better or worse, nobody can say, because these things are so relative and vary from person to person, nobody can make a judgement or concluding remark.

I think the core set of values/perceptions never change though, and probably they make the 90% of the person who we are. And the 'social' values that is the remaining 10%, keeps on changing. All the problem starts when we focus on the 10% rather than the 90%...

Anyway, the point is, as our perceptions make us what we are, it is so difficult to convince people otherwise. Even if most of the world thinks that it is a wrong perception, it is still difficult to convince the person. Reason may be, as the perception changes, the person has to change, and it becomes extremely difficult when there is no willingness. One has to let go of her identity and become another person altogether, it is surely not easy. But sometimes, it might be the right thing to do.

So, go ahead and embrace change for better...whenever that is the right thing to do, that causes less pain to somebody and that embraces humans.


Change is inevitable, and change there will be, we have to decide our course - for it or against it - in all aspects of life.

My theory of perception is, see everybody's perception and empathaize, that helps to understand the person and handle the situation in a better way.

An inspirational quote to start the new year

Disclaimer: it is not my creation.

I don't remember where I had seen this or who wrote it, came across it while browsing through some old collection of quotes (college time hobby).

And as expected, got inspired by it - once again.



To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go,

This is my quest to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far.

To fight for the right without question or pause,
To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause.



Best wishes for the new year!

May this year bring us peace which is not at the cost of innocent lives.
And may we have the courage and the wisdom to defend us and punish the criminals conspiring against our country.