The Loop

FOR i=1:buy_gun
{
The week starts on Friday with the 3 wise men meeting. The next 2 hours are filled with an incessant droning noise which is interrupted by spots of abstract math. More like mild chicken pox. After some vigorous nodding and numerous attempts, the wise men and the underling arrive at what looks like a “To do” list for the next one week or so. The underling is repeatedly told that such a list eliminates confusion (In other words, to remind them of what exactly their roles are in the project, so that they don’t get caught out in the next meeting and avoid coming up with pearls like “Which data? Oh THAT data, oh yes I thought you meant the OTHER data”)

With the underling’s life force a flowing puree, he walks back home looking like dried panda. One of the wise men would obviously have had a new idea and emailed the underling (only!) that he would strongly suggest trying them out. This is by Saturday. As “cc” are not important in his life, the other wise men wouldn’t have been aware of it. Of course this completely bollockses the “To do” list agreed by the others the previous day. Meanwhile, the underling works through the nights and sometimes day to meet the project targets.

I say,” sometimes day” because a fine research lab has meetings. The better the lab the more meetings they must have had to get there. It could be the weekly journal session where random co-workers present a brilliantly irrelevant topic. And then there is the odd visiting scientist who ends up on campus largely due to faulty Sat-nav. Now it is only inevitable that he presents his current paper to an audience of underlings and their minders.

Due to the fast and racy life, it’s a Friday before i can blink. The same things go into an infinite FOR loop (of course, this doesn’t apply to the times when one meeting lasts till the next).
}
END loop;

Losing equilibrium

Equilibrium is when things happen effortlessly, leading to peace, not having to worry about the myriad variables in our lives which affect us. We put a lot of effort to push things towards this equilibrium. We push with great fortitude with all our conviction. We refuse to recognize that equilibrium is not a way of nature. It is simply unnatural. On the way, we even award ourselves countless medals for courage, patience and even intelligence. Yet we strive towards it, well knowing that it will definitely last for not more than a few moments.
Ironically, it is the pursuit of equilibrium which causes much of the anxiety and pain. What would happen if we let go of our quest for happiness/equilibrium? Would it lead to happiness? But then how can that be?

Along the Cliffs

The last weekend was a long one. As the weekend approached I made grandiose plans of being “productive”. This usually involves having visions of being extremely creative and doing unbelievably clever things. Along with my visions I had made plans with a friend to hike from Dover to Deal. As I wasn’t involved too much with the planning and organizing, it turned out to be well planned.
Me, my arguably better half, my friend and two of his friends drive to Dover in a hired car. Ten others joined us in an empty car park in Dover. Most of us were all set with the proper hiking gear, along with one girl who thought heels were made for hiking. She was arguably the funniest sight all morning. This was later easily beaten when we saw that the path was filled with slush from heavy rains the previous day.
The view, standing on the white cliffs of Dover was unparalleled. On the horizon was the French coast some 25km away. Most of the walk was barely 2 metres from the edge of the cliff which made it rather more interesting.
Apart from the 3 of us (Me, the wife and my friend) the rest of group was mostly Chinese, which meant that all communiqués were in traditional Chinese. Not much of a problem for me as I usually tend not to speak in Chinese while walking. By lunch we were in the quiet village of St.Margaret’s, where we planned to stop for lunch. The Chairman among the Chinese had decided not to stop for delicious hot lunch and continued walking. As the Chairman knew the area well, the rest of us presumed that the lunch stop was just round the corner and continued walking. We soon realised that there wasn’t going to be any lunch. This resulted in some very upset and hungry ladies. The men married to any of the ladies were obviously mauled to near death; some even contemplated jumping off the cliff to avoid prosecution. The unmarried ones (the Chairman was, obviously) got away scot free. Much rest, two apples and a bag of crisps later, we continued walking and taking in what was more of the stunning landscape.

Knowledge transfer

A conversation between me and my PhD advisor:

Advisor: ……. it’s a continuous and a mutual learning process, you know. You learn from me and I…. er…ummm ....... learn from you.
Me: Yeah..

Nano

Tatas Nano has received a lot of press in the UK. I do not know whether it was intentional (a planned PR strategy) or just plain straight forward news reporting.

Whatever the underlying reason, a lot of people here have heard about it. I have had 3 to 4 instances where people have asked me about Nano (presumably, just because I’m Indian). Most people have completely bought Ratan Tata€™s logic of cheap small car. I too am very proud of it not because someone made a 1-lakh car, but as an ambition it is truly spectacular.

I remember a year or so ago, reading an interview with Soichiro Honda, the top guy at Honda. He scoffed at the concept of Tata’s small car as trash. Such a statement coming from a Japanese company was quite ludicrous. In the 60’s when Japanese car makers such as Daihatsu, Nissan, and Honda etc wanted to enter the UK car market, they were ridiculed by British car makers such as British Leyland. Japanese cars at the time were horrid looking mash of European designs. So poor was their reputation that no one at the time considered that Japan could make cars, forget being a world leader. However, in the present day in the UK, Honda is one the top car companies by sales.

I am not saying it’s a miracle which will happen with Tata as well. However, I do think the possibility is truly endless. I do not even know if Nano is going to be successful commercially. Petrol prices are very high and are not going to be cheaper ever. Running and maintaining a car is not the same as maintaining a scooter. Maybe people will run it on LPG. Tata is probably not having a big profit margin. I would guess it would be somewhere around 5-10K, being very optimistic. Would this mean they will make up for that with expensive spares? 

And environment ? Pah, I dont even believe in Global Warming.

At the moment all looks well. Go! Tata.