Monday, June 11, 2007

New Blog

Hi, i have made a new blog. The contents of the old blog have been copypasted here. The details of the old blog are also here.

observation and experimentation

I read an article in wikipedia, which said that history and archaeology were not sciences because they were not experimental but only observational. Now much of cosmology is still observational. So cosmopology is not a science? What is experimentation?Experimentation is based on the belief that what is is not the same as what can be and then trying to design the alternatives. It tries to create models of the past or the future from present conditions and accepted scientific laws. Hence experimentation is a form of observation with the following characteristics-
1- Belief in the probabilistic nature of creation.
2- Belief that laws can approximately describe nature
3- Belief that human interference does not create unforseeable changes
Hence experimentation is a combination of consciousness and experiencism, based as it is on the presumptions of external reality and beliefs coupled with observation.Limiting science to necessarily include experimentation is in my view wrong as many great scientists would become non-scientists.

Hatyara Kaun- a comics


Today i am reading a comics called Hatyara Kaun . This is a comic of Super Commando Dhruv which was published more than 10 years ago. This comics is associated with very painful memories. It was published during the summer vactions after class 5 exams were over. I had som details about the book like the appearance the Samri, the soaking of Jingalu's Guru's strength by Chandkaal etc. These details whetted my appetite. The book was with my best friend , whi had gone to Mumbai inorder to have his thread ceremony done. I contacted him after he had come back to get the comics. I walked 2 kilometres to his house in the blazing sun , my heart full of enthuasism. And there I heard the shocking news that his father had expired. He was going to leave Rourkela. I was totally destroyed. Psychologically I was so broken that somehow I made a connection between Raj Comics(the particular brand of comics which I patronized ) and his misfortune. And I stopped reading the comics which I loved more than any other thing. Today more than 10 years later, I have again made contacts with the long-lost ,dearest friend and started reading Raj ( especially SCD my all-time fav) Comics. Both are due to the internet and orkut. As i came to know about the existence of the comics in electronic , I was driven by my deep emotions to read id and write a blog about it. I hope I have laid some of my demons to rest. I have read many great works of fiction but except for Brothers Karamazov none had influenced me so much.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

XIMB

Well, I am spending my 4th month in XIMB. I think that now I am experienced enough to comment a bit on life here.Life here was hectic in the 1st term but in the 2nd term life is pretty cool. Almost everyone here is career-consious but many, infact most donot want to be sour faces constantly worrying about their career. Hence they are also fun-loving. Here almost everyone is helpful but baring a few almost no one is very forthcoming about himself/herself.This is not the place where one would find close friends. The place is marked by market virtues like courtesy, self-interest,civic mindedness and concentrate only on those present and forget the rest. This is appropriate for a B-School.

Monday, October 16, 2006

T-34

Quantity has a quality of its own- Joseph Stalin
The T-34 was the tank which symbolized the victory of quantity over quality.It was the most produced tank of the war(over 40000 units)and was instrumental in the Soviet victory. Stalingrad, Kursk,Berlin everywhere the tank got the better of its german coyunterparts due to sheer numbers. Incidentally, in 1941, it was the best tank in the world . At the time of operation Barbarossa, a German commmander said "We had nothing comparable". But while the german army introduced new and better versions of tanks like the panzers and the tigers, the Russian relied mostly on this tank and concentratedon production.
The Russian tank factories had to be shifted part by part to the Urals where the so-called "tanko-"grad was built. In one of the biggest production miracles, the Russian cut the production cost from 269,000 roubles to 135,000 roubles in 2 years. The tank production time declined by half in the same period. The tank factory was earlier run by skilled workers. Due to war, the workforce composition became 50% hitherto unskilled women, 15%boys,15% elderly males and 20% skilled workers. In 1941, the Russians had better tanks but Germany was winning.In 1943, the Germans had better tanks but Russia was winning.The Russian victory was the victory of quantity(man and weapons) over quality(man and weapons).
Is the strategy still applicable today. Not only in war but more importantly in business. Is it a better thing to improve productivity or to introduce new products? I think productivity still wins over products.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

birthdays

Well we celebrate birthdays and no issues on that but I would like to ask just one question- How many like to age?If we do not want to age why do we celebrate birthdays?Birthdays symbolize aging . On our birthdays we age by 1 year.The main thing is that people want to feel their importance and the birthdays symbolize that. Birthdays symbolize that our entry into this world . By celebrating burthdays we want to convey that we are somebody- our entry into the world has some significance. And that brings me to the chief topic- significance and importance of the individual. I passionately believe that any society which does not guarantee every individual some respect is undermining one of our strongest impulses and thereby undermining itself . Man tends to attack anything which inhibits his basic impulses . Does our present society respect every individual irrespective of class,caste,gender? I hope the answer is positive.

XIMB

Well, I am spending my 4th month in XIMB. I think that now I am experienced enough to comment a bit on life here.Life here was hectic in the 1st term but in the 2nd term life is pretty cool. Almost everyone here is career-consious but many, infact most donot want to be sour faces constantly worrying about their career. Hence they are also fun-loving. Here almost everyone is helpful but baring a few almost no one is very forthcoming about himself/herself.This is not the place where one would find close friends. The place is marked by market virtues like courtesy, self-interest,civic mindedness and concentrate only on those present and forget the rest. This is appropriate for a B-School.

Quality and quantity

Quantity has a quality of its own- Joseph Stalin
The T-34 was the tank which symbolized the victory of quantity over quality.It was the most produced tank of the war(over 40000 units)and was instrumental in the Soviet victory. Stalingrad, Kursk,Berlin everywhere the tank got the better of its german coyunterparts due to sheer numbers. Incidentally, in 1941, it was the best tank in the world . At the time of operation Barbarossa, a German commmander said "We had nothing comparable". But while the german army introduced new and better versions of tanks like the panzers and the tigers, the Russian relied mostly on this tank and concentratedon production.
The Russian tank factories had to be shifted part by part to the Urals where the so-called "tanko-"grad was built. In one of the biggest production miracles, the Russian cut the production cost from 269,000 roubles to 135,000 roubles in 2 years. The tank production time declined by half in the same period. The tank factory was earlier run by skilled workers. Due to war, the workforce composition became 50% hitherto unskilled women, 15%boys,15% elderly males and 20% skilled workers. In 1941, the Russians had better tanks but Germany was winning.In 1943, the Germans had better tanks but Russia was winning.The Russian victory was the victory of quantity(man and weapons) over quality(man and weapons).
Is the strategy still applicable today. Not only in war but more importantly in business. Is it a better thing to improve productivity or to introduce new products? I think productivity still wins over products.

Birthdays

Well we celebrate birthdays and no issues on that but I would like to ask just one question- How many like to age?If we do not want to age why do we celebrate birthdays?Birthdays symbolize aging . On our birthdays we age by 1 year.The main thing is that people want to feel their importance and the birthdays symbolize that. Birthdays symbolize that our entry into this world . By celebrating burthdays we want to convey that we are somebody- our entry into the world has some significance. And that brings me to the chief topic- significance and importance of the individual. I passionately believe that any society which does not guarantee every individual some respect is undermining one of our strongest impulses and thereby undermining itself . Man tends to attack anything which inhibits his basic impulses . Does our present society respect every individual irrespective of class,caste,gender? I hope the answer is positive.

Life

In the winding and serpentine alleys of life

Where we meet our parents, children, friends and wife

Where we have our moments of peace and strife

Pain sometimes pierces us like hot butter cut by knife

We know not what we did to warrant the punishment

Our body and will is broken , our confidence is bent

Then good-times come like rains heaven-sent

And the blood and tears is replaced by perfume and scent

Life seems to be coated with honey

We get a pound where we expected a penny

We get everything- affection, fame and money

Life appears enticing, warm and sunny

But in the corner there is a storm,

The bad times come back, this is the norm

Sometimes like an eagle we soar in the sky

Sometimes like a helpless child we fall and cry