Off to Las Velas!

It all started 2 weeks ago. A friend of mine and me were having a certain fermented grain mash drink and enjoying the best home made mutter paneer that the world could make, when suddenly my friend remembers something.

Friend : DUDE! There is this awesome trip organized by Treks and Trails to this place called Velas in Ratnagiri, where the annual Turtle fest would be happening! It's going to be so awesome! The Olive Ridley Turtles get to see land only during this time!! All the eggs laid on the beach are collected and placed in a common hatchery which is barricaded from all sides and is guarded throughout the day. Each morning at 0700 and evening at 1730-1800 the baskets covering the lid are open to check if any turtles have hatched, if they have they are counted and carefully laid in another basket and taken closer to the water. They are then gently placed on the sand and they slowly make their way to the water. Their first baby steps are not only endearing to watch but also important if it is a female, as she records in her memory the site of her birth only to return here after 15 years to lay her eggs!! There's going to be lots of people in the group! I'm going, are you game?

What I heard : DUDE!..... awesome trip.... Treks and Trails...............Lots of people! (The grain mash did have its effect of course)

Having worked in the corporate world and mastered the art of the ultimate survival kit, I realized that the last word was the strategic word I needed to make my move.

Me : RIGHT ON DUDE!! CHEERS! LET'S GO GO GO!!

And thus started the trip to the Turtle festival!

We now go to Friday evening, when the bus would pick us up from selected places within Mumbai before going to the destination, about 4 hours away from Mumbai. The bus was scheduled to reach Dadar at 11 PM. I had packed up my bag and with full enthu walked the way from my home to the pickup point, where I met up with the Leader of the Group, his wife and their cutest, sweetest little daughter.

Others in the group started coming in a bit later. I took this opportunity to introduce myself to them, you know, to get to lighten up the mood, and to get to know a few of the chicks (yeah all us men are alike! :P)

Me : Hey! I'm Kartik.

She : Hi... I'm xyz... (and goes back to looking at her mobile phone frantically moving those opposable thumbs in a quick typing motion)

Me : ummmmm...... (looking around. Find another guy in the Group)

He : Hey.. I'm abc  (and goes back to looking at his mobile phone frantically moving those opposable thumbs in a quick typing motion)

Me : (Thinking the world has been taken over by smartphones. There is no need for aliens to come here to take over the world.. Smartphones have already done that!)

Meanwhile, I keep getting a whole lot of messages on my smartphone. I look it up to see what all the activity was going on, only to find that the Velas Whatsapp Group was full of activity!

An excerpt from the same is given below

Guy 1 : Reaching place in 2 minutes

(after 2 seconds)

Guy 1 : Reaching place in 1 minute

Gal 1 : Bus has reached Goregaon

(Picture of some mall posted)

Guy 2 : GUYS BUS GOING TOO FAST! IM JUST OUT OF MY HOUSE... please don't mind if I'm late..

xyz : I am here at Dadar now. (AHHA so THAT's what she was doing!)

Guy 1 : Reaching place in 2 seconds

Guy 1 : Reached

Guy 1 : In bus

Guy 1 : Bus started from Goregaon, reaching Bisleri in 5 mins

......

I now understood why everyone around me was so engrossed in their phones, and I went back to listening to the radio. Finally in sometime the bus came, and we were all in! Only 2 more stops and we were on our way! W00T!

Me, being the smart one, thought "I might as well sit in the back, so that when my friend comes we can sit together and then talk and what not!". So I ran in first into the bus and went directly to the back and took a seat. Oh, how I would regret having done that.

If you are taking the bus to the place, please take with you some padding for your bum. You would really need it during the bus ride to the place. The route was a rollercoaster of a ride! There were so many bumps and speed breakers that you could not shut your eye for even half a minute before you were thrown to orbit. Add to it the bus going at full speed, and my pathway to the moon was only blocked by the ceiling of the bus.

We reached Velas at 6.30 in the morning, next day. The plan was to go to the rooms given to us, freshen up and then go to the beach for the first attempt at seeing the hatchings. But, as you would know, nothing happens on time over here. If we say 6 AM, we actually mean 6.30-6.45 ish. This meant that we had to get out of the bus, all dreary eyed and walk past some mangroves to the beach to get to the enclosure where the turtles were being hatched.

And I was astounded by the scenery of the beach. The mountains to the north and south, and the rising sun from behind was a magnificient sight to see! The silence and calmness of the sea was a great break from the loudness and the cacaphony of Mumbai. I could have spend all day just lying down and gazing at the scenery ahead of me all day. If only the summers wern't so hot here!

I suddenly felt an intense need to capture the moment. Capture the essence of what was the Velas beach. Capture what would be a memory to cherish for the rest of my life! Yes, my dear friends, the photographer in me had come out! Only one problem though, I did not have any camera. CRISIS! What do I do?

To know more, you would have to read the next part in this series!(Wah! I loved the suspense created in this ending! :D)

The Bald Chronicles

OK. So this is something that everybody seems to be facing these days. They cannot do away with it, or wish it away. The Thailavar himself, the one and only Rajnikanth, has it! Not even he can get away from it! This seems to be the one way ticket to all things related to doom and gloom. Rather, that's what all those hair products say!

In the little time that I have had almost no hair, I have begun noticing the small changes in my life, which I am chronicling here. Some of them are real, some of them just made up in an attempt to revive this blog, which has been really really dormant! In any case, because of the sheer number of people in this world, I am pretty sure at least one person would be able to relate to these!

The opposite sex, in their quest to evaluate you to make their holy matrimonial decision, would be completely blinded by the bright light reflecting from off your head, that they would miss out on seeing the sheer awesomeness that the rest of your face brings. You are already at a disadvantage when you realize your prospective partner making a Chinese face (-_-) (that was an attempt at the Chinese face, in case you were wondering) when talking to you, or holding her hand next to her eyes when facing you to talk to you. This is a guarantee of impending doom in your quest to get the desirable mate. To combat this, you go to a rather dark place with her. Of course, you tell the prospective mate that you want to have the "ambience" while talking to them! Very smooth indeed!

So you start combating this lack of hair by developing another skill. After all, its not the hair that matters, right? You will try to show off this new skill to her, to take her mind away from the "doom" that lies right in front of her face. Probably show off by cracking a few jokes. That ought to work, right? I'd say if any chick likes this blog post, I'm already halfway to developing my extra skill! *Wink Wink*

Your parents start giving very small references to your hairline in each and every sentence they speak with you, be it over the phone or in person. You will start hearing very subtle references to "grafting" operations when you are with them. This is almost always followed by the impending doom that awaits you if you do not do anything about the hair situation.

"How will any ponnu (tamil for girl) marry you?"

"Look at this boy, he has so many cases, its the hair!"

"Ayyooo Rama! Please do something about your hair, there is no way a girl is going to meet you! They will all stop at the photograph stage itself!"

"Here apply this oil everyday in the morning, massage it for good 15 minutes, all your hair will come back! And so will those ponnus!"

You have to give it to them though, they are more worried than you, given you don't have any candidates for matrimonial harmony yet. And with each passing day, your hairline isn't advancing.

So, in your quest to hide the effects of an impending baldom, you start combing your hair, or whatever is left of it, in such a way that the entire world "thinks" that all is hunky dory on the top of your head. In fact, more time will be spent next to the mirror moving each hair in place than in your breakfast table in the morning. That is a FACT! If that doesn't work, in comes those hats. Of course, hats won't work when you have to go to work in a corporate company. Your hand will spend most of its time on your head, moving the hair in place to make sure most of the bald head is camouflaged. This is in addition to what you would do in front of the mirror, when you walk, when you talk, it's like an automation that you have programmed your hand to do.

The colour of your hair wouldn't matter much at this time. You would actually be happy if you see white hair, because that is always better than having no hair, right? Each hair falling (from your head, of course) in your line of sight is met with the loudest shriek you will ever hear. It will be so loud that your neighbours will come running scared thinking that a murder happened at your place!This is in the beginning, however. Later on, you realize "Meh... just another one... tell me something new!" and go on to doing your usual hair camouflaging that you do in the morning.

You now try to use other accessories to camouflage the lack of hair at the top. You do this by wearing "reading" glasses, getting that intellectual look. Or even better, shave your hair off entirely, thus not having to worry about the lack of it.

You begin to notice the lack of hair in every person passing by. That would be the first thing you notice, and you try to find solace in the fact that everyone is in the same boat as you (rather you THINK they are in the same boat as you).

You always try to blame the baldness as a "heriditary" condition. But, lets face it.

Your grandparents started getting bald when they were 60

Your parents started getting bald when they were 40

You started getting bald when you were 20...

What about your children? Are they going to be born bald?

All in all, it does look like all's lost. Baldness is here to stay, and it's an everyday battle you will face from the day it starts to keep the rest of the hair in place. I wish all those people in this position all the very best! Rock on! Or rather, I should say, Hair on!

My entry in an MOOC - Diving in Football

It's been very busy busy over the past few weeks. Having nothing to do before other than read football articles on the web and stare at any update coming on facebook after office hours, I came upon this site on my College alum forum, and decided to take a plunge at a couple of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOC) (I do recommend Coursera to everyone, it's a great way to recap your past learnings and, if you pay a nominal amount, get verified certificates to prove you have done something!)

As part of one of the courses I was doing (A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behaviour by Dan Ariely), we were asked to identify an irrational behaviour and provide solutions to solve this behaviour. The following entry below was my entry to this assignment. I would love to hear opinions/feedback/ other possible solutions or anything else, for that matter, on this.

Diving in football

This is one of the issues that FIFA has been trying to solve for a long time now. Wikipedia defines diving as an attempt by a player to gain an unfair advantage by diving to the ground and possibly feigning an injury, to appear as if a foul has been committed. Alexandra Pizzera and Markus Raab, in their paper “Does Motor or Visual Experience Enhance the Detection of Deceptive Movements in Football?” define Deceptive movements as movements that purposely mislead the observer or opponent as to the attacker’s true intention or direction of movement. Dives are often used to exaggerate the amount of contact present in a challenge. Deciding on whether a player has dived is often very subjective, and one of the most controversial aspects of football discussion.

Whilst this behaviour was not detectable in yester years of the game, this has become very rampant in the modern version of the game. Consider the following statistics on the EPL by Opta:

1. A QUARTER of English Premier League football players who fall down after being tackled are diving
2. In the season of 2009-2010 in the EPL, a total of 168 yellow cards were shown for diving, dissent or swearing. That’s 1 card every 2 games. And these are simulations detected by the referees; there is a possibility of many more not being caught by the referees.)

This clearly shows that this behaviour is rampant in football, and there is a need to eradicate the same from the game.

Why is this behaviour problematic?

Say you are in the 85^th minute of the game. The team in red is in the penalty area going for goal against the blue team. The striker has the ball with him, and is dribbling the ball against the blue defenders. All of a sudden, the striker, while trying to go past a defender, simulates a dive and goes down like a pack of pins. The referee blows the whistle and indicates a penalty to the red team, much to the dismay of the blue team. Even worse, as it was a clear run on goal, the blue defender gets a straight red card, and the blue team is now down to 10 men. The red team scores the penalty and the blue team just doesn’t have the time to get back in the game.

The situation above happens quite a lot in the game. Players look for the minutest of opportunities to simulate a dive and gain unfair advantage. You can clearly see why this behaviour is problematic, and needs to be removed from the game.

Research on this behaviour

1. Tackling Diving: The Perception of Deceptive Intentions in Association Football (Soccer) [Paul H. Morris and David Lewis]: This talks about how footballers attempt to deceptively exaggerate the effect of a tackle, and also provides a taxonomy of typical behaviours associated with deceptive actions.
2. The act of simulation in football appears to be within the fudge factor range of honesty (Week 3 Lecture 1). This also creates a conflict of interest in the player, with the reward of simulation (a penalty or free kick and possible card to opposing player) being much higher than the loss if he does get caught (yellow card to player).
3. Does Motor or Visual Experience Enhance the Detection of Deceptive Movements in Football? [Alexandra Pizzera and Markus Raab]: This talks about whether motor and visual experiences enhance the detection of deceptive and non-deceptive actions in football. This study shows that prior visual experience in football was shown to enhance deception detection.

Solutions

• A solution based on the research is to train the referees through motor and visual training so that detection of the same increases during the match days. Training through videos increases the chances of the referees to catch such simulations on the field. However, this does not put the onus on the player to reduce the behaviour, and chances are that the behaviour would still continue, if not increase.

I believe that in order to greatly reduce this problematic behaviour in the game, the following would need to be followed:

• When a player is caught simulating in a game, the team is penalized a goal. The goal is the most important statistic in any game. So, penalizing the team for the simulation would induce the factor of loss aversion and the player would look at not simulating from next time onwards, as now the team would directly get penalized by a goal, rather than by something that could lead to a goal. We would also be reducing the fudge factor, as now the player committing the dive could be blamed for the loss of the team.
• In addition to this, we would introduce a simulation tax in the salary structure of each of the players. If the player is caught simulating, the amount, decided by the FA, would be deducted from the particular players salary. This would create a loss aversion on the individual player.

The age old Konundrum

PREFACE: All of the below is meant in good taste. :)

The most important decade of your life is probably the decade between 15-30. This is the time when a lot of things happen that potentially define the rest of your life, like:

1. You graduate from your college with a degree, and enter the world out there.
2. After a couple of years coding, get irritated with the sheer amount of copy pasting and googling involved, and prepare for your post graduation, and a means to reach ultimate happiness! For most of us, that would mean giving the CAT and entering the RAT race to get into those prestigious B-schools.
3. Go from a slim, athletic person to a plump, stout guy in a matter of a year or two, as the amount of idleness involved while in our professional lives takes a toll on our bodies. (Sometimes waking us up from our slumber and actually trying out those gyms to reduce and impress them lady professionals! ;))
4. Fall in love with someone on the way, and develop your emotional side for possible breakups or, if you are really really lucky, carry it forward to marriage!
5. For those not so lucky in finding that special one, have constant pressure from your relatives, parents, neighbours, other friends who are already married, till one fine day you say "OK FINE I'LL DO IT!", and start on your way to projecting your former slim self on portals specifically designed to ensure that  the better slimmer (on photos!!!) get to see other people who would have put similar covered up photos.

It is simply amazing how parents tend to motivate their children to go ahead in their life, especially during these few years. They almost always use extrinsic motivational techniques, and their most used, abused tool is the carrot and stick.

1. When you are a kid, you are in the tenth standard. Your first board exams!!!! GASP!! TOO MUCH TO STUDY!!! What do your parents tell you?? "Beta/Kutti/DAI (a very affectionate way of calling your kid in Tamil) you only have to study now. Your life will be made after this for sure!!!". You say to yourself "OK just a few more days to eternal happiness!" and somehow pass your board exams with flying colours.
2. Two years later, and you find yourself giving ANOTHER board exam. This time your XII boards. What do your parents tell you? "Beta.. you only have to study now. Your life will be made after this for sure!!!" You are at that stage in your life, where you think you have heard this before, but still think it cool that you need not study so much from now on, and give it one final push to pass your second board exams with flying colours.
3. Graduation. Again the same old studying and the need to pass your exams. What do your parents tell you? "DAI! Study now! Once you get your job your life is settled". You see, parents would ave learnt from the first two times that saying the same thing may not work the third time, hence they add another extrinsic motivation in your mind, a JOB. You think "Meh. I've heard this before. However, getting a job does sound interesting." And thus you reduce to cramming for the exams the last day and getting your degree.
4. A couple of years into your job, you realize you're through coding (I'm sure most Indians would think that, you B.Techers!). What do your parents say? "DEI! Do post graduation in MBA. You will get extra salary. Once you get new job your life will be made for sure!!". You think to yourself "Where have I heard THIS before?!?!".... but then do a simple comparison between coding now for X salary and showing that others have coded for 3X salary and realize that the benefits hugely outweigh any costs. You take the plunge and do your MBA.
5. You are now showing that others have coded for 3X salary. Life, ideally should look good and made for sure. WRONG. Parents say now "DEI! You have gotten good job with good salary and everything. Now bring good girl to family, and your life will be made for sure!!". You would also get subtle references life "Hey did you know it is your friends wedding next month?". You think " Will this ever end??" and start forecasting projected scenarios of how this could continue in the near distant future (After all, you do have to make some use of the things you learnt in your MBA, right?) and finally realize that this is a vicious cycle that will never end, for after the girl comes to the family, kids would make your life made. And by the time you achieve everything, you would have been primed to take this cycle ahead with your children.

All of the above happens when you are in your prime, and it is upto us to solve this age old konundrum. All the best to those of us who have almost completed this cycle, and to those who are just beginning on theirs!

Maths and the Languages

Ever wonder why the Asians are inherently better in Maths than the Europeans and the Americans? Malcolm Gladwell gives a very interesting and thought provoking analysis of this phenomenon in his book "Outliers" (It's a MUST READ if you ask me, a lot of interesting stuff mentioned in this book!). The basic funda over here is that the way the language number naming system is structured makes it easier for an Asian to do 2 things :

1) Memorize more numbers than what an American or European could.

2) Easily do basic calculations (Additions, subtractions) on the top of your head, or quicker than the Europeans/Americans.

This got me thinking. Does this work in the Indian Context as well? Do the difference in the number naming systems in Hindi and in any of the South Indian Languages (Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada or Telugu) have an effect on our conception and understanding of Math? Can being good in Math also be rooted in the group's culture? Let's put it to the test.

I'm taking Malayalam as an example, but for all the south indian languages, the number systems are similar.

The Malayalam number naming system is logical in nature. 11, for example, is said as "ten-one", whilst the tens (other than 20) are said as "three-ten","four-ten" etc. (30 : Muppathu "Moonu-pathu")

Hindi, on the other hand, has a much more complicated logic in their numbering. Hindi cardinal numbers up to 100 have no specific standardization. Up to 20, the numbers are unique. After that each tenth number (such as 30, 40 etc) is unique. The rest of the numbers take the form of prefix of incremental digit and the base of preceding tenth number. However these prefixes and bases vary slightly and random manner.

Now, if we were to ask a South Indian youngster (a seven year old) to actually mentally calculate the sum of two numbers (say 17 + 42), it would actually be easier to do so in Malayalam, as he would automatically say "one-ten-seven" + "four-ten-two", thus getting "five-ten-nine". However, as a Hindi speaking youngster to add the numbers, and he would have to convert the words to numbers, and only then would be able to do the math. 

This would show that South Indians are able to learn the basics of Mathematics much quicker than the North Indians, and would thus, on a whole, be better off than the North Indians in Mathematics. And this has always been the general perception as well. (Well, please do correct me if I am wrong!).

On the other hand, the Chinese, Koreans etc. have an even more logical number naming system, and are thus able to grasp and learn mathematics even faster, which is why you see the Chinese always doing better than the Indians in exams like GMAT

Thus, it goes to show that what is perceived as an apparent attraction to a subject may have a more culturally rooted reason to the pattern. So don't worry if you are not good in Math, you can always blame your forefathers!!

Do comment on your views, would love to hear from you!

So what has changed???

There used to be a time when life used to be much simpler. All you had to worry about were those meddling assignments and exams. The rest of your life was all about playing badminton, drinking beer, having food, playing Counter-Strike, flirting with the opposite sex and partying through the night. The hardest you had to do was to try to stay awake in class and try to sleep at night. You had all the time in the world to do whatever you want.

And then came placements. The single biggest phenomenon that would change your life forever. It's the gateway to, what we see at that point in time, infinite prosperity and happiness! 

Two years hence, after getting into the harsh reality that is the corporate world, I ask myself this one question.

So what has changed???

Let us take each point from the first paragraph and scrutinize.

1. All you had to worry about were those meddling assignments and exams : Well... these ain't there no more! However, these have been very conveniently replaced by ratings and salary hikes. The difference? Getting lower marks in your assignments and exams never made you sad.



Y U NO GROW SALARY!!!

2. The rest of your life was all about..... : Life? Do we have something called that now?!!?!?!
• Playing Badminton : That's not there now. It has been replaced by Table Tennis. You just never lose those damn calories with this game, though.
• Drinking Beer : This neither. However, the pot belly has come!
• Having food : Oh yes. This is a basic necessity, after all. But, with your newly profound sedentary lifestyle, with you having to use your brain (Apparently!!) more, having this is going add to that belly!
• Playing Counter-Strike : ummmm..... what's that game, now?
• Flirting with the opposite sex : This is possibly the only thing keeping us sane while in the corporate world. Especially when you are single and very much ready to mingle. Or even for that matter if you are taken or married. The fact that your day becomes much brighter just by seeing that pretty face makes you believe that there is something to always look forward to in this chaotic konundrum called "life".



Wouldn't you just love it if you could see her everyday!! 

• Partying through the night : If partying means "spending long hours outside your home making that presentation for someone else to present", then yes, you would be partying through the night. Every night.
3. The hardest you had to do was to try to stay awake in class and try to sleep at night : Well, now its just the opposite. You just end up staying awake through all the meetings and by the time you reach home and just touch the bed you are fast asleep dreaming about that person in office. Ah! The one thing that make your dreams sweet!
4. You had all the time in the world to do anything you want : Well, how that has changed!!! Weekdays in office, and by the time its the weekend, you have time to only catch up on the sleep you lost during the week.... and *poof* its Monday and time to run off to work again! Or Sunday, if you are in the Gulf.

So yeah, quite a lot has changed. But then, I remember those wonderful words spoken by those souls who were "Waiting for the end" and were "Not Alone".

"But in the end, it doesn't even matter....". (Though, if you really look at it, it DID matter to these guys, because without that song, they wouldn't have gotten to where they were!!!! Ah, the irony of life!!!).

And with that, I take my leave to wake up to a new tomorrow. Cheers!

The return of the Konundrum

One year and one month. Since my last post. Talk about stagnation!

It's high time this place started "happening" again!