Easier to find someone to have a drink with...

than to find someone to play chess with.

http://www.nehasblog.com/2013/04/are-you-guy-tough-luck-bro.html

Kudos to the girl for saying the truth. For once, let it be politically incorrect!

Personal Info Directory

An uncle of mine passed away in Goa while on an assignment from his company. He was a brilliant man and had worked for a number of companies in senior level positions. However, he had not been diligent enough to carry forward his provident fund or nominate his wife or son on any of his accounts. My aunt and cousin bro had a lot of difficulties in meeting all the concerned people, submitting the required documents and claiming the funds that were rightfully theirs'. To add insult to injury and grief, not all people in power are helpful even to a widow in mourning... 

This and some other experiences made me think. A small part of the results was an Excel file in which I recorded my personal information. This workbook has sheets for personal info, bank accounts, insurance policies, vehicle details, employment records etc. I have also included a sheet where I have pasted the scanned copies of documents like the passport, visa, employment offer letters etc. 

I have also pasted the soft copies of two of my papers that were presented during the last year (2011). I am also updating the file regularly with additional info and my family members know about this file. This would help me find any info I need quickly and also my family members in case they do need it.

The relevant sheets have a column for nomination as well. This will help persuade one to register a nominee and the family members to know it.

I think this kind of an activity would be useful for everyone of us. It will make us collect all the relevant info in one place and keep it updated. I am sharing the first version of the book. It simply has the sheets and columns in place to fill up the relevant details. 
I am sure that I am not the first one to create something like this or use some system. However, it sure provides a start to those who need it. Please go through it and use it if you find it useful. Also, please do not forget to give your feedback. Any suggestions for improvements and new ideas are welcome!

Please download the file from here.

A girl in love...

If a man opens the car door for his wife, either the car is new or the wife is. If a woman laughs at a man’s joke, either she likes the joke or …

It’s almost always a pleasure to look at girls but observing a girl in love is something different. She will adore the object of her affections, overlook all the injustice he does to her, forgives almost all the mistakes except for looking at other girls and simply loves him. A man loves sometimes from his eyes, sometimes from his organ but a woman loves from her heart. I remember reading somewhere, why don’t men look into the eyes when they talk with a woman? Because breasts don’t have eyes! I don’t know what the girls have to gaze at except for the beer bellies or the facial stubble some specimens of the male species maintain. She will look into your eyes and peep in your heart. Agreed, girls are low on testosterone but when a girl loves a man, she goes beyond the surface and loves the entire package!

She will talk your head off and will tell you about all the little things that happened to her. She will be a loyal supporter and her whole life will revolve around her man. All she asks for is you love her forever. 

She wants him to touch her once he has touched her heart, she wants him to cuddle her, to embrace her. Though she will die of embarrassment before saying so in as many words.

A woman just has to look cute to please a man but a man has to be and do a lot of things to please a woman. However, once she is smitten by the love bug, she lives in a dream world of her own. She will keep looking at him lovingly when he is with her and will keep dreaming about her man when he’s not with her.

Sometimes I wonder how it would be being a girl but being a man and to experience the affection of a woman is not bad either!

Isn't it stupid???

I have always hated wearing shoes when not needed. I like to take them off the first chance I get if I am forced to wear shoes. Granted there's no option while playing football or going on a trek but why in the office???? Fortunately, both the companies I worked for preferred to look at the quality of my work rather than the type of my footwear.

When I was transferred to Delhi though, my new boss grilled me about the sandals I was wearing at the IGI airport at 12' O clock in the night! I had to run out to the market and buy a new pair of shoes before attending office the next day.

Wonder what would happen if I attend a job interview in sandals. Does a company reject an otherwise good candidate just because he is not wearing shoes?

Here is someone who shares the sentiment and puts it in a much more colorful way than I have...

http://superblog.crazyengineers.com/2011/07/27/why-do-indians-wear-shoes-isnt-it-stupid/

We should be ashamed of ourselves...

We should be ashamed of ourselves for the pathetic condition we have forced our country in. Brave soldiers sacrifice themselves for the motherland and the spineless politicians continue to insult them!

Here is another example of how the world looks at the India map and how we like it to look. An example of how the sites display differing maps in different countries.

Just take a look at the map on the page:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-friends-dont-let-friends-use-internet-explorer-6/8851?tag=content;siu-container. The writer has shown an image from another site. So, this is how the Indian map looks like outside.

Here is how the map looks like when the actual site is opened in India. Notice any difference in the border of J&K, which we proudly like to claim as an integral part of India?!

Feels like the Sarangi has gone silent... RIP Ustadji

RIP Steve

Uncommon common sense!

Theirs' was a class of intelligent, selected boys. The school's admission tests ensured so. The school has a reputation built partly on that.

The Sanskrit teacher, in one of the weekly unit tests, asked them to translate an unknown Sanskrit verse into Hindi. It was a verse describing the great country of India. One of the guys, who never studied for exams, was in problem. Sanskrit wasn't one of his favorite subjects then. He couldn't get the meaning just by reading the words.

For those who know a bit of Sanskrit, a part of the verse said, 'हिमालयस्य दक्षिणतः'  Our poor hero was trumped by the Sanskrit text, couldn't make out the meaning but used his common sense and translated it as he thought appropriate.

The D-day came. The teacher distributed the answer sheets. this poor guy was trying to see where he had scored a few marks and lost many. Suddenly someone who liked to pick on him snatched his paper and pushed him towards the teacher. Saying that now it was his turn to get his marks reduced. This guy was terrified. His score wasn't much to write home about in the first place. A further reduction would be disastrous. He had no option though. The teacher got his paper and read the translation he had written. A miracle happened. 'He's got it right!', she exclaimed and sent him back to his place.

She then asked our poor hero to read out his answer to the entire class and everybody was asked to take it down. To his utter surprise, everybody else, including the Sanskrit scholars in the class had written statements to the effect that the 'Himalayas are to the south of India.'

It's better to be dumb...

It's better to be dumb and fortunate,

rather than being intelligent and unfortunate

I had resisted writing these lines for quite some time now. A few recent events brought it out again.

One sees people around oneself who are incompetent, unwilling or simply a pain in the a** and still getting away with it all. 

There is no more cruel a joke than someone being granted smarts enough to think and all that he\she gets to think about is why do I think so much and why don’t the others think a bit.

One who knows, one who can think has to do good. Who else would?

Guess one has to go through life and face whatever it has to offer. It’s not a bollywood pot-boiler where the good guy gets the girl and the bad guys get thrashed.

I remember attending a Marathi drama ‘Yada Kadachit’. It can be called as a spoof on the Mahabharata. In the last scene, someone, probably Krishna says that ‘finally’ the truth prevails. Duryodhana, one of the villains Indians love to hate, has a ready backlash, why finally?

Again guess it’s not the end till the good guys win!

A Sanskrit verse goes like this:

It's better not translated and felt in the original but still.. 

Take me from the untruth to the truth, take me from the dark to the light, take me from the death to immortality (or in a more heartfelt way, take me from this fragile, cruel and what-not world to the eternal feeling of blissfulness.)

I sometimes use these lines to joke around. I like to say that these lead me to three girls, 'Satya', 'Jyoti' and 'Amruta' (Agree that ‘Satya’ doesn’t exactly sound like a girl’s name, especially after the movie of the same name)

However, I sometimes think about these lines as I did while writing this. There is a more profound meaning somewhere there.


PS: Blogspot didn't save my original version. Possibly has a problem with the image pasted. This is what I could recollect after pouring my heart out the first time. Hope I could do it justice the second time around.

Patterns and habits and results

If you keep on doing the things that you always did, you will keep on getting the results you always did.

If you fall down a hole, stop digging!

Two statements to always keep in mind. Two statements I have experienced to be true. Two statements that tell me what was, what could have been,. what is and what could be.

I am not giving out actual examples from my life but have seen these work both ways. Always be alert about what your habits are getting you into, what kind of pattern you are following with yourself and those around you.

A right pattern, a right habit will serve you well while a wrong one may get you all messed up.

Being proactive is one of the most important habits you can inculcate. Steven Covey rates it as the first and the most important of the seven habits of highly effective people.

The use or not of this one habit can make a lot of difference in your world. It sure did in mine!

Your habits serve you well. Make sure that you keep on picking up the right ones and weeding out the wrong ones. 

My affair with....... R

My introduction to the R software was as an under graduate student of statistics. One of the teachers was very enthusiastic about it. However, at least initially, I did not share his enthusiasm for R. We were still learning the very basics of statistics and as a consequence, used R for pretty basic computations and graphs. That failed to sustain my attention.

However, things changed when I started exploring R on my own, especially in the university when I was enrolled in a post graduate course in statistics. As my knowledge and understanding of statistics increased and improved, my admiration for R followed quickly. I was taken in by the amazing data acrobatics offered, the latest theories incorporated, the open community model and last but not the least, the zero license fees!

The affair continued in my second job which is at a CRO. Though SAS is the software of choice for statistical analysis in the Pharma industry, R can work well as a validating program. I started using R to validate SAS outputs and found it very reliable and flexible. It used to take us almost a two page SAS code to compute pseudo SD, but with R, I could do that (and more!) in about five lines of code. I also developed a macro (or a set of functions to be more precise with R) which automates a regular task of validating routine SAS outputs for safety memos. Currently, as a part of the QA team, I am using R to create validators for the innovative software products developed in the company. R is not only a good choice but also the only choice when it comes to validating first to market products.

I can go on and on with R. It was R 1.4.1 when we first met, now its 2.13.0. I have seven versions of R installed on my machine at work. I wish all the best to the R team and say a heartfelt thank you. Looking forward to learning more of R and more of statistics.

You don't know

You don't know what you had
   unless you lose it

You don't know what you missed

   unless you get it

Statistically inspired movies and serials

If a statistician starts making films and serials, the names will be...

Statistician No. 1

Data Ho Na Ho

Lage Raho Montgomery!

Rehna Hai Control Limit Me

Kabhi Discrete Kabhi Continuous

(Ab)normal Banaya Aapane

Humara SAS Aapke Paas Hai

MSc Koi Khel Nahi

Maine MSc Kyun Kiya?

MSc Kiya To Darana Kya?

Kahani Chi-Square Ki
  

प्रकृति, संस्कृति आणि विकृति

भूक लागल्यावर जे सुचते त्याला प्रकृति म्हणतात.

पोट भरल्यावर जे सुचते त्याला संस्कृति म्हणतात

अणि

डोके रिकामे असताना जे सुचते त्याला विकृति म्हणतात.

My name is Khan!

My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist.

Why is it so difficult to get this simple message across?

Why is it that ‘mature’ and ‘intelligent’ people have trouble understanding what seems to be obvious to someone supposedly ‘abnormal’?

Why is being different equaled to being wrong?

How come the people who worship a stone idol as GOD fail to see the humanity in another human being?

Why is it that my love story has to end, even before it started just because she was born in a different religion than mine?

Why does it take a crazy man to take on the society and do what his heart tells him to?

Why do we clap and applaud the movie in the movie hall and forget the essence the moment we walk out?


WHY DO I THINK SO MUCH?

Who am I?

Kindly let me know if anyone has found a better answer than the following to this Q.

Parampareche pike ka 'Pipe'?

Once upon a time, in the mysterious land of the sadhus and elephants and rope tricks also known as India, there lived a sadhu in his ashram. He, together with his disciples used to perform a 'puja' everyday, which involved the offering of milk and fruits and sweets to the deity. A poor cat, pulled by the sweet and tempting aroma of the food and forced by the rumblings of an empty stomach, used to sneak in the ashram and gorge on the offering.Until, that is, it was shooed away by an angry sadhu and his disciples. Finally, one day, fed up with the disturbance caused by a mere mortal creature in his dealings with the almighty, the sadhu ordered the disciples to find the cat and ensure that it's tied up to a tree in the ashram while the 'puja' was in progress. The disciples obeyed. Every day, just before the puja, someone would search for the cat, bust its hiding place and tie the frightened animal to a tree. Then there would be no disturbances in the great sadhu's dealings with the deity.

Thus was born one of the great Indian traditions!

Even to this day, just before the puja is to be performed, a cat is searched for and tied to a tree near the house.

The Maestros