Chapter 21
One of the things I wanted to do this year was to add to the book I'd been working on. So, after a gap of 18 months, I wrote a Chapter in the last week of this year. For those of you who know the secret location :) let me know what you think of Ch 21.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
one of the songs i played and sang live. this one is pretty bad towards the end .... not sure if its me or the mike reverb. anyway, the others i sang sound much much worse (if thats even possible)...
abhishek on lead, arun on drums and prashant on bass are great as usual.
ouch ouch ouch... this ones for posterity ....
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
"The Kite Runner"
Read the book in pretty much a single sitting last night. I have to say that the book was sensitive, deeply moving and touchingly expressive, but .... but.... but ... the book is a very very sad tale with little else but tragedy and pain that binds the characters and their fates together. Central to the book is betrayal, and the guilt that follows, lingers, and eventually dissolves into the narrator.
Saddeningly, the book probably does have a lot of truth insofar as it points to the general level of suffering and atrocities that cloud Afghanistan. I guess one can only wonder how terrible things must be in reality on those barren climes and plains.
Was the book unputdownable? ... yes!
Could I have done without reading it? ... yes! The world can be a terrible place, and to be reminded of that in 300+ pages, on every page is needless, at least for me.
Read this book if you have the stomach for it. If not, you are better off being ignorant about the evil that exists in the world.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Strapped up, Plugged!
Played a concert on the evening of 21 Dec. Was a lot of fun.
Played and sang "Yellow", "Wonderwall" and "Summer of 69" ... and also played on "Hotel California".
Its the most fun thing I've ever done at the workplace or at any workplace organized event.
Watch this space for videos.
Played a concert on the evening of 21 Dec. Was a lot of fun.
Played and sang "Yellow", "Wonderwall" and "Summer of 69" ... and also played on "Hotel California".
Its the most fun thing I've ever done at the workplace or at any workplace organized event.
Watch this space for videos.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Black-Scholes Revisited
Came across this rather interesting paragraph from an essay in the TechnologyReview. You can read the full article here (requires registration)
Although I had learnt the Black-Scholes formula for option pricing somewhere in finance, I had no idea that the experssion for volatility had demonstrated properties of Brownian movement!!
I guess research must already exist that pares off Chaos Theory against the behaviour of financial markets.
...............................................
Came across this rather interesting paragraph from an essay in the TechnologyReview. You can read the full article here (requires registration)
Although I had learnt the Black-Scholes formula for option pricing somewhere in finance, I had no idea that the experssion for volatility had demonstrated properties of Brownian movement!!
I guess research must already exist that pares off Chaos Theory against the behaviour of financial markets.
...............................................
Though derivatives were simpler once, they were never very simple. The breakthrough in the valuation of derivatives in general, and options in particular, was the model and formula know as Black-Scholes, first proposed by Fischer Black and Myron Scholes in the 1970s and formalized by Robert Merton in 1973. (Merton, like so many of the best quants, came not out of Wall Street but out of academia, earning a PhD in economics from MIT in 1970.)
In quantitative finance, the formal expression of Black-Scholes by Robert Merton is so important that everything that followed has been called a "footnote." The Black-Scholes model assumes that a stock's price changes partly for predictable reasons and partly because of random events; the random element is called the stock's "volatility." The idea can be represented mathematically by a simple equation:
St is the value of the stock, and dSt is the change in stock price. The symbol µStdt represents the stock's predictable change and 
its volatility. (View the results of Black-Scholes model using this interactive calculator.) That final, kabbalistic combination of letters, dWt, is the mathematical expression for randomness, known as either Brownian motion or the Wiener process. (Chemically, Brownian motion is the random movement of particles in solution, identified by the botanist Robert Brown in 1828 and mathematically described by the great MIT mathematician Norbert Wiener. Black-Scholes shares some qualities with heat and diffusion equations, which describe everyday events like the flow of heat and the dispersion of populations. That some physical processes seem relevant to finance has inspired all kinds of far-out work, such as efforts to bend general relativity to a theory of finance.) Black-Scholes prices an option according to the amount of randomness in a stock's price; the greater the randomness, the higher the stock could climb, and thus the more expensive the option.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
IT Refunds, People, Salaries & Humility
A few months ago, I visited the Income Tax office at Bellary Road, more than halfway across town, to respond to an erroneous notification that I'd received. It was an afternoon, and I was surprised by the sparse population of visitors such as myself. Very unlike India, I thought.
I was directed to a lady, who acknowledged the problem and reviewed my rectification request. I submitted the same, and forgot all about it, especially since I didn't hear from the office ... I assumed that they'd botched things up as usual.
In the meantime, on a completely separate issue, I received a refund that was long pending. This time, the refund order named a bank account number from 2003 which I closed earlier this year. Naturally the refund cheque was now useless. I finally made up my mind to go down to the office again and take a chance at having this rectified. It'd also give me a chance to ask about the first problem.
I drove down there, and went up to the 4th floor. I usually seem to have a decent pictorial memory, but thankfully, this time I also remembered the name of the lady I'd met. I scanned the office, and recalled her approximate location. Looking for a somewhat familiar face, I walked up to her and said "Ms.Radhika?" She smiled in acknowledgement. I said that I'd come by a few months ago regarding something .... before I could finish, and without batting an eyelid, she remembered who I was, and said that the first problem had already been rectified, and that she had verified it the day after I had visited the office. I was just amazed.... I kept asking "Do you remember me, do you remember what I came for". She kept answering, "Yes" with a smile. I even repeated my PAN# a few times ... hoping that she'd feel the need to check, but she simply assured me that it was taken care of. Sensing my distrust, she simply restated the problem and said that it had already been rectified. I was just flummoxed.
With regard to the second problem, she directed me to the concerned Assessing Officer. I went in, armed with the refund order, and a letter, expecting to go through another rectification request and oblivion. The Officer was a kind old man, who asked most politely for a photo ID, and was very hospitable ... so distant from the kinds you usually meet in the other State offices. One polite conversation and a few minutes later, the rectification was complete and I was good to go.
I guess theres a lot that can be said against the system and its flagrant inadequacies, but it does seem to have a smattering of good people. I was just so fortunate to meet two of them on the same day. Say what you will, educated Indians tend to be really sharp, and thats that!
Trust me on this one or observe for yourself. Young Indians in the non-IT segments of society, at least in Bangalore, and *on*average* still seem to have a sense of humility which is completely missing from those sitting in front computers on their fat wallets and staring the livelong day at Orkut or whatever crap social networking site there is out there. All you need to do is talk to someone in healthcare, banking or services for a minute and you will see what I'm saying. Unfortunately the lot keying in code or hitting refresh on their Outlook windows simply doesn't understand that their pride is based on little more than chance and currency conversion, and that in due course as oil climbs, the rupee weakens they will be hit hard by realities.
Humililty is a great bedrock from where one can develop the perspicacity to think, evolve and act. Unfortnately, it is fast becoming a scarce commodity among the overpaid twenty something engineering grads in the IT industry. A problem further compounded by a lack of understanding and appreciation of the lives of those who don't have the benefit of Alt-Tab keys. You only have to observe the way these idiots speak to local waiters in restaurants to know what I'm saying.
This disparity, where a double PhD holding rocket scientist at the Indian Space Research Organization gets paid less than a fresh grad who joins an IT MNC will be addressed at some point by global forces and market economies. It simply will ... this bubble is going to go away, and there's nothing anyone can do about that. If you don't believe me, read any basic economics and watch what the Central Bank has done in the last 18 months. Already, companies like Trilogy which wanted to pay a US salary in India are having to shut entire groups faster than you can say Lord of the Rings.
When we go back to paying what people deserve the wheat for sure will be separated from the chaff.
Something for all of us in IT to think about ... humbly.
On a lighter note, I am reminded of a friend of mine who is was being patient with the demands of a fresh grad he'd hired. This rookie went on about his salary, what someone else was making, that he wanted a better set of headphones, a faster computer, how he didn't want my friend to follow up on him, etc etc. When challenged he retorted that he was a "knowledge worker", and that he needed this environment to deliver. My friend simply asked him a few questions about the knowledge area that this rookie was supposed to be working in. Expectedly, there was no response. My friend simply said "Don't call yourself a Knowledge Worker anymore. I know that you have no knowledge".
A few months ago, I visited the Income Tax office at Bellary Road, more than halfway across town, to respond to an erroneous notification that I'd received. It was an afternoon, and I was surprised by the sparse population of visitors such as myself. Very unlike India, I thought.
I was directed to a lady, who acknowledged the problem and reviewed my rectification request. I submitted the same, and forgot all about it, especially since I didn't hear from the office ... I assumed that they'd botched things up as usual.
In the meantime, on a completely separate issue, I received a refund that was long pending. This time, the refund order named a bank account number from 2003 which I closed earlier this year. Naturally the refund cheque was now useless. I finally made up my mind to go down to the office again and take a chance at having this rectified. It'd also give me a chance to ask about the first problem.
I drove down there, and went up to the 4th floor. I usually seem to have a decent pictorial memory, but thankfully, this time I also remembered the name of the lady I'd met. I scanned the office, and recalled her approximate location. Looking for a somewhat familiar face, I walked up to her and said "Ms.Radhika?" She smiled in acknowledgement. I said that I'd come by a few months ago regarding something .... before I could finish, and without batting an eyelid, she remembered who I was, and said that the first problem had already been rectified, and that she had verified it the day after I had visited the office. I was just amazed.... I kept asking "Do you remember me, do you remember what I came for". She kept answering, "Yes" with a smile. I even repeated my PAN# a few times ... hoping that she'd feel the need to check, but she simply assured me that it was taken care of. Sensing my distrust, she simply restated the problem and said that it had already been rectified. I was just flummoxed.
With regard to the second problem, she directed me to the concerned Assessing Officer. I went in, armed with the refund order, and a letter, expecting to go through another rectification request and oblivion. The Officer was a kind old man, who asked most politely for a photo ID, and was very hospitable ... so distant from the kinds you usually meet in the other State offices. One polite conversation and a few minutes later, the rectification was complete and I was good to go.
I guess theres a lot that can be said against the system and its flagrant inadequacies, but it does seem to have a smattering of good people. I was just so fortunate to meet two of them on the same day. Say what you will, educated Indians tend to be really sharp, and thats that!
Trust me on this one or observe for yourself. Young Indians in the non-IT segments of society, at least in Bangalore, and *on*average* still seem to have a sense of humility which is completely missing from those sitting in front computers on their fat wallets and staring the livelong day at Orkut or whatever crap social networking site there is out there. All you need to do is talk to someone in healthcare, banking or services for a minute and you will see what I'm saying. Unfortunately the lot keying in code or hitting refresh on their Outlook windows simply doesn't understand that their pride is based on little more than chance and currency conversion, and that in due course as oil climbs, the rupee weakens they will be hit hard by realities.
Humililty is a great bedrock from where one can develop the perspicacity to think, evolve and act. Unfortnately, it is fast becoming a scarce commodity among the overpaid twenty something engineering grads in the IT industry. A problem further compounded by a lack of understanding and appreciation of the lives of those who don't have the benefit of Alt-Tab keys. You only have to observe the way these idiots speak to local waiters in restaurants to know what I'm saying.
This disparity, where a double PhD holding rocket scientist at the Indian Space Research Organization gets paid less than a fresh grad who joins an IT MNC will be addressed at some point by global forces and market economies. It simply will ... this bubble is going to go away, and there's nothing anyone can do about that. If you don't believe me, read any basic economics and watch what the Central Bank has done in the last 18 months. Already, companies like Trilogy which wanted to pay a US salary in India are having to shut entire groups faster than you can say Lord of the Rings.
When we go back to paying what people deserve the wheat for sure will be separated from the chaff.
Something for all of us in IT to think about ... humbly.
On a lighter note, I am reminded of a friend of mine who is was being patient with the demands of a fresh grad he'd hired. This rookie went on about his salary, what someone else was making, that he wanted a better set of headphones, a faster computer, how he didn't want my friend to follow up on him, etc etc. When challenged he retorted that he was a "knowledge worker", and that he needed this environment to deliver. My friend simply asked him a few questions about the knowledge area that this rookie was supposed to be working in. Expectedly, there was no response. My friend simply said "Don't call yourself a Knowledge Worker anymore. I know that you have no knowledge".
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Wonderwall
One of my favourite songs... and probably long overdue. First heard it while walking through a subway station in London's underground. Was walking out of a train, through a tunnel, and approaching a T-junction, when someone began playing the song at the junction. It was a street performer. The song continued for most of my walk out of the tunnel, and I was mesmerized. It was the first time I'd heard it. When I asked around and listened to the original, I was disappointed. The street performer's rendition had far eclipsed the original.
Here's my effort. Hope you like it.
One of my favourite songs... and probably long overdue. First heard it while walking through a subway station in London's underground. Was walking out of a train, through a tunnel, and approaching a T-junction, when someone began playing the song at the junction. It was a street performer. The song continued for most of my walk out of the tunnel, and I was mesmerized. It was the first time I'd heard it. When I asked around and listened to the original, I was disappointed. The street performer's rendition had far eclipsed the original.
Here's my effort. Hope you like it.
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Tuesday, December 04, 2007
A time for old friends
Went to Rangashankara after a while with an old friend. The play was in kannada and called "Heegaadare Hege". The title (translated to "what if it were like this") was promising, but the play itself turned out to be disappointing. We were left wondering if the person who played the wife in the play was a woman or not!!
Anyway, this lady friend of mine (who now lives in the US) was apalled by the sights outside Rangashankara. Things don't seem to change ever. As we left after the play, like Siddhartha, we saw some terrible sights. An old man aligning with the breeze as he eradicated the liquid refuse from his corporal self by the convenience offered the side of the road (after he'd finished watching the play, of course)... someone honking while i waited at a red signal ... etc etc. All very funny indeed ... "this is simply not on" was her refrain, and I chuckled to myself. What can one do, indeed? I still don't understand how someone would spend money to watch a play, and then use their bladder to create art on the street just outside.
Anyway, everything else aside the great thing about meeting 0ld friends is that you can live off the memory of what you were when they knew you. You can tip a bottle of water onto their noses and be called "juvenile" (I don't think I've been called that in a very long time) and you can also count the milestones or bemoan the lack of them over a meal.
Anyway, this seems like a good time for meeting old friends. Meeting G and N for lunch tomorrow... should be a lot of fun.
Also, congrats to another old friend, S (hip_prudster) for defending her thesis and getting over the line with her PhD. I don't know how I'm going to make fun of you anymore if I have to call you "doctor".
Went to Rangashankara after a while with an old friend. The play was in kannada and called "Heegaadare Hege". The title (translated to "what if it were like this") was promising, but the play itself turned out to be disappointing. We were left wondering if the person who played the wife in the play was a woman or not!!
Anyway, this lady friend of mine (who now lives in the US) was apalled by the sights outside Rangashankara. Things don't seem to change ever. As we left after the play, like Siddhartha, we saw some terrible sights. An old man aligning with the breeze as he eradicated the liquid refuse from his corporal self by the convenience offered the side of the road (after he'd finished watching the play, of course)... someone honking while i waited at a red signal ... etc etc. All very funny indeed ... "this is simply not on" was her refrain, and I chuckled to myself. What can one do, indeed? I still don't understand how someone would spend money to watch a play, and then use their bladder to create art on the street just outside.
Anyway, everything else aside the great thing about meeting 0ld friends is that you can live off the memory of what you were when they knew you. You can tip a bottle of water onto their noses and be called "juvenile" (I don't think I've been called that in a very long time) and you can also count the milestones or bemoan the lack of them over a meal.
Anyway, this seems like a good time for meeting old friends. Meeting G and N for lunch tomorrow... should be a lot of fun.
Also, congrats to another old friend, S (hip_prudster) for defending her thesis and getting over the line with her PhD. I don't know how I'm going to make fun of you anymore if I have to call you "doctor".
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