Showing posts with label Facts. Show all posts

A collage of INDIA  

Created by Rakesh Prabhakara

This video is a mix of memories mortared with emotion and the kind of attachment I've been having , and shall have, with this beautiful country of mine: INDIA

I thank the Internet and the photographers, who deserve all the accolades, for providing me resources for the collage and I thank A.R. Rahman for the wonderful music composition, and I finally thank Asutosh Gowarikar for making such an inspirational movie 'Swades".



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ENERGY  

Created by Rakesh Prabhakara

Contemplating on where the future might drive us to, I realized that CLEAN n GREEN ENERGY would be the holy grail of mankind. The future civilization will have energy as their flag emblem; the whole world will unite to overcome the energy crisis which is sure to whip the crap out of every oil toper.  The dot com boom, the space age, the mobile communication, fancy electronic gadgets, convertible sedans, the greedy politicians and the endangered species: all have one thing in common; they need FOOD to survive. The food comes from the SUN and the SUN god pities the stupidity of current market trend, despite his hinting in the form of global warming, raising sea level and hyperthermia.

Well, what ENERGY am I talking about?

Certainly not oil, certainly not coal, certainly not batteries and certainly not cheesy burger and bean dip; it is Mother NATURE: she is the solution for all the above, she has the ingredients needed for the alchemists from across the world, to build her the sheath. But there is another thing apart from this that is as important as harnessing the free Palm Beach tan salon from the skies, it’s our MINDSET. Yes my dear people, it’s time for us to CHANGE.

Well, what CHANGE am I talking about?

The insalubrious market has become a necessary evil. We choose our career by looking at the epicenters of global transformations; we choose our jobs where there is prosperity in the form of Pandora boxes on the drawing tables of Engineers and Scientists along with free magazines with fancy beach resort advertisements in them. The change I am talking must come from within: one scratch in the space and time barrier would create an inexorable force of attraction towards goodness, and it all happens when we start THINKING about the safety of the future of mankind. I am not offending the current market but I am defending my propositions.

Mother NATURE, what is your opinion?

We have SUN; we are metaphysically SUN since we are made of elementary particles that sprouted out of the big bang and supernovas, and we need SUN. The factious Palladium based miniature Arc-Reactor, succeeded by the more powerful anti-metal called Vibranium which was found at the meteor crash site at Wakanda, could make Tony Stark’s second Marvel movie a box office success, but this ain’t reality dear: We are living in the era of dependency and we need to look at the holy-grail which has been shining upon us right from the time of our birth, timed and synchronized to 6’O clock in the morning depending on the earth phase, converting carbon-dioxide into sugar in plants and make sure we have a sound sleep every day (if you have a nagging wife or snoring roommate, it’s a different story). Following is a famous quote by the famous American Radio talk show host Thom Hartmann:

“In a very real sense, we're all made out of sunlight.
Sunlight radiating heat, visible light, and ultraviolet light is the source of almost all life on Earth. Everything you see alive around you is there because a plant somewhere was able to capture sunlight and store it. All animals live from these plants, whether directly (as with herbivores) or indirectly (as with carnivores, which eat the herbivores). This is true of mammals, insects, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and bacteria . . . everything living. Every life-form on the surface of this planet is here because a plant was able to gather sunlight and store it, and something else was able to eat that plant and take that sunlight energy in to power its body.”

I will end it this way:

SUN is, and has been a terrific energy resource for humanity in general and the output of power that reaches the earth from the sun is several times as much energy as people use every year. But the only limitation is TECHNOLOGY, the same  technology that has brought us all that we have desired. Now is the time to give a new shape to this Technology which shall not only benefit us, but also encompass the safety of the species around us, the ecosystem and specially the cute little polar bear cubs which are facing severe survival rate due to the warming…………


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Mind: A hyperbolic inferno  

Created by Rakesh Prabhakara


Man is a good trait follower and it is inherent in his DNA: he plays with action figure dolls while she prefers Barbie or kitchen set, he picks up the best of the apples in the orchards, she chooses vibrant of the colors to decorate her home. There are, however, other traits that are present in few and hence we posses general and specific traits. The general traits are apparent in most circumstances, while the specific traits are the tricky ones and very much proprietary of the beholder, hence, not traceable by the people surrounding him. The two major words: Concealment and Transparency can fetch right from a kid not willing to accept the fact that he messed up the refrigerator, to the white house bureaucracies. I have been trying to trace these specific traits, provided, they are interesting and worth possessing. Everything comes at a price, and time is more expensive than your VISA card can hold. We have the riches and their aphrodisiac being money, we have the poor’s and their inability to catalyze their subservience, nonetheless, the groups being the riches and the poor’s, have one thing in common: MIND. Our minds follow a hyperbolic trait: you have the asymptote being your place of origin; the rest is taken care of, by fortune or misfortune. The hyperbola could span as long as you live and remember that once it mobilizes, once your heart started to beat 22 days after your conception, there is nothing else other than death that has the access code to terminate the hyperbola, the flow of life.

But mind is such a complex paradigm that it allows him/her to maneuver his chariot through detours and shaggy country roads. Now, I can confidently slip in the word “Generation” which is a complex amalgamation of traits, and a generation does not consider the term “progress” as a positive connotation of flow of life. Notice that few hours of time spent by a group of aspirers in their garage led to companies that made profit beyond their expectations. The recession turned the table by directing the same company employees to head back to their respective garages, and their despair would not help them build another ham-radio in the garage and create waves of hopes: they would rather sell their cars and feed their family. So, now you know that money is no more the decider of riches and the poor’s: it’s the MIND. What I noticed was that rich traits are not found in the riches; when diamond is dug out of the earth, it is covered with soil and it is usually mistaken to be a rock which holds no value. Great minds are never found on the podiums or Dais; they come at a cost of “failure”.

The A-S-A model

There is no definite theory that could explain why few men succeed and most of the men fail. Three words: “Action”, “Situation” and “Appreciation”: with their permutations and combinations, could be used as a model of success, but what is Success. The guys who build ham-radio in their garage would have no idea of what their invention could lead them to:

MODEL A --> They could as well demonstrate (Action) them in front of their classmates (Situation) and get some applause (Appreciation).

MODEL B --> They documented and proposed their prototype (Action) to a bunch of capital raiders (Situation) and got funding to further their research and establish their base which would later become a landmark for those who had to retire from that very base (Appreciation).

Now “trait” is the only foe of the above model, some people value success by getting a job with a handful of salary, some by getting recognized for being a valuable employee, or some by getting a permit from local constable to beg besides a 5 star hotel. “trait” is in direct correlation with “Generation” and your perception on success depends on the way people around you perceive at it. Choose your people wisely.

We have two men within us

Imagine a ship with two captains, imagine a country ruled by two leaders, and imagine an automobile with two steering and two drivers: Hold your dismay because you too have two identities within you. You watch a movie in which Al-Pacino gives a great motivational speech on the stage, you then climb on the stage and start shivering seeing the disciplined crowd. The two men within you cheated you: one of you made adrenaline flow through your brain while watching the speech, while the other YOU put you in a state of diffidence when you moved onto the stage. It is a typical “You think you will, but you won’t” situation. One of YOU believes in the A-S-A, while the other YOU opposes it. Unless both of you merge and form an alliance, you will not be able to SUCCEED.

Only our MIND can control the two men within us

Our flow of life might be hyperbolic: You become an engineer, and later, you will be appreciated for your work done on the infamous Mercedes Benz head-base architecture while your friend, within the building, will be appreciated for his work on conceptualizing the automatic parking system for the next generation automobiles. What I mean to say is that ones you pick up the tone of excellence, you will witness an exponential progress in your life, whether you intended or not, it’s like your mind takes over you and pulls in the Auto-pilot mode and you can relax. You will never have time to remember whether you shivered on the stage or not, since you will be busy holding the wireless pointer, controlling the slides, and explaining your company’s next release onto the market. Now, who do you give credit to: the YOU who followed the A-S-A model or the YOU that had once made you shiver on the same stage few years ago? Your excellence diverges like a hyperbola only when your dual identities converge to singular agreements.

How to control your MIND: how to be the charioteer

Steve Jobs says "stay hungry, stay foolish". Your success model depends on how much you are satisfied with it. Some become millionaires, some become Billionaires, and some become subservient enough to feed their family. This again depends on the rate at which the dual identities within you come into harmony. Like in case of the Billionaire, one of his identities helped in becoming a millionaire while the other kept pestering him to push the throttle to ten digits from six. In case of a millionaire, the two identities within him came into a premature agreement of satisfaction, if seen through the eyes of the Billionaire. So:

“Never let your two identities within you converge soon, never look at success the way your peers have been embracing, always be in opposition with the cause of your success and treat both success and failure equally, because "Failure" is the only sibling of success that helps in elongating the convergence .”Stay hungry, stay foolish...........

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My love to the Jews  

Created by Rakesh Prabhakara

“Father God, we just ask you to open your wide, wide arms and look down upon us, Lord, and lead us, and let us know what we should do to stop this, this terrible, terrible holocaust.”


I, for once, ask myself what is life?a life not dictated by the lord, not dictated by the evil, not dictated by the fate itself? A child playing with her doll, when entering into the gas chamber, is as good as a goddess playing with her miraculous presage. I see that I have a loving family and yet I see hatred in the eyes of my foe in spite of seeing his/her stupidity or that of my own. But hatred to an extremity of killing innocent ones is just as good as loving your profession as a confused human being, not knowing the real purpose of surviving the recently advocated word LIFE.

After having meticulously studied the documents, literature and visual documentaries of the happening of the events during the times of the NAZI rules during the end of 1930s and the beginning of 1940s, I have realized that I am more educated and at the same time am serving no purpose to the realization. There is no definitive cause of my sudden transformation based on my conscience, the feeling of remorse when human does things that go beyond his/her moral values, and believe that I am blessed for having that conscience.

Following music is dedicated to all the young angels resting in the heavens.....



What is happiness? How do we embrace it without knowing its significance even in small quantities? Like bread satisfying our hunger than the crumbs or crumbs satisfying our hunger than nothing, or nothing satisfying our hunger than death itself? There is a saying that in order to know the path that leads to the destiny being good or bad, we need to keenly observe the successful people or the lucky survivors and look at them in the same perception. For me, happiness is all about embracing the ‘good’ and excluding the ‘bad’. The only thing that has changed with time is the goodness of good and badness of bad. We now feel that getting a job, earning money to survive, living a comfortable life and marrying another soul results to happiness. But there was a time when feeling good was all about being alive for the day and hopefully stay alive for the next day as well, and believe me, these men/women lived ten years of our life in one day. Happiness comes from the ‘feeling’ alone and not from the material world surrounding us.

What is Love? When the entire family got off the train and the moments before they were executed in the gas chamber, when the women and children were separated from their men, when the parents were separated from their children, there was love everywhere, a love of unimaginable magnitude, a love so pure that even death would fall on to the ground, bare feet. This scenario defined ‘love’ which cannot be found in any modern dictionary, For it shall manifest itself when there is no alternative way of looking at your family for the last time. But this term is misused in other circumstances; love for money, fame, and prosperity. It’s not real; it’s as synthetic as the money or the fame or prosperity. For me, love is respect, love is a real spring flower that shall die but when in bloom, it would display wonderful colors attracting bees to pollinate and also contribute nectar, and this is how love should be.

PHOTO: Family members say goodbye to a child through a fence at the ghetto's central prison where children, the sick, and the elderly were held before deportation to Chelmno during the "Gehsperre" action. Lodz, Poland, September 1942.

What is fear? Fear serves no purpose in life, but if seen as an opportunity, might help us overcome it and help ourselves to excel in life. The NAZI perpetrators feared of losing their career, had they not met with the objective of executing the innocent Jews, in large numbers. The Jews feared losing their loved ones, losing their life, had they not met with the objective of being brave, bold and fight for their life. Interestingly, the perception is what separates and/or masks the true meaning of fear like in the case of happiness, hatred and love. The fear of being shot at the forehead, is way too dense than the fear of losing one’s job. The only way to experience fear is during the moments before being shot at. We experience fear when being belittled, when being laid off a job or when being betrayed by the loved ones, in which case we are to tag ourselves of being immature and illiterate. It is always good to weigh the fear before letting it affect us like plague. Fear of going to the stage and giving great talks, mesmerizing people is like a baby excited by the banging door, But, if counteracted more than required, could lead to becoming someone like Hitler himself. Hitler was the baby excited by the banging doors during his childhood that led him to excite hundreds of thousands of soldiers or executioners in disguise, by banging the speaker table.

Being spiritual myself, I have practiced accepting all religions, colors and ethnicity, but deep down the line, I provide room for my religion, color and ethnicity as a mark of respect to my parents, my creators who have bestowed lots of love to me and I safeguard them by respecting their beliefs and Morales. Do good deeds, help people, protect nature and all the living creatures, conserve forests, water resources, soil and air. We must expand our identity and promote global citizenship. The age of harming, harassing and hatred is over and this generation must be a total transformation series, a global unity and a struggle for peace.I saw more than the media seeking discretion, I felt more than the spectators could swallow, I realized that lord was not really on vacation, but was in need of good souls in heaven. The new generation dictates a need for breaking of disparity in thoughts, feelings and love. Let there be love everywhere.....



"Angels sail through our lives like ships of light visiting us through the portals of our hearts."

An angel is like an arrow of light cutting through the dark.

The light in children's eyes is the reflection of Heaven peeking through."

PHOTO: Two young brothers, seated for a family photograph in the Kovno ghetto. One month later, they were deported to the Majdanek camp and killed. Kovno, Lithuania, February 1944."

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A long hauling war of Wit and Wisdom  

Created by Rakesh Prabhakara

After posting my last article, I've been stagnant in the sense that I am resettling: I catapulted myself from India to Sacramento through a turbulence at least for 8 hours before approaching San Francisco. Well, all I gotta say is, It was an awesome experience traveling through time to see a highly civilized world just a hemisphere apart viz-a-viz the final destination for gen-Y |..|

It's been a month since I breathed the first air of the Hollywood Nation and I haven't yet felt the taste of fresh wine off Napa valley which I shall some day. I will not explain anything about life here because I would become a spoilsport messing up the whole movie scene: you must come and watch it for yourself.

umm... well, I shall kick-start building my blog as usual, with more innovations and excitements of course. I would however like to post a poem of mine which shall convey the fact that "No matter how good you are in solving Schrodinger wave equation, You gotta be good in solving common problems that you face around you to make a better person out of you. You are, what you are.

Justify Full"In the midst of having loads of work leading to concussion,
In the midst of having so many problems to raze,
I believe that a moment of time spent on discussion
would lead to what i call "breaking of espionage".

Had the Penicillin been kept as a secret elixir,
we would all be sulking on motorized wheel-chairs,
So come out with your ideas, dear friends,
for tomorrow lies in the hands of the youth, we embrace.

A Tree that caters you with shades and hopes,
was a sapling, remember, that our Forefathers catered love for.
So let us cater our ideas into this world,
for it shall overturn the , god forbid, very blurry future our heirs would crave for.

let us all hold hands and sing the scolion of "A New Generation",
let us break the anomaly with an utter denegation,
let us show the world the power of communication,
with dignity, pride, courage and determination".

I would like to say one thing before I turn on the conveyor laid beneath my feet, that progress is a vernacular term and I am a vernacular blogger but Life that we live each and every moment depends on how we look at it and what we make out of it. In my next posting, I shall unveil the beauty of Virtual ground, the Operational Amplifier and the Importance of negative feedback, just like in life.......

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Kudremukh: A bizarre Repercussion of an infant in me  

Created by Rakesh Prabhakara



Coagulated with reminiscence, archived with colorful pictures of my childhood memories, and having been desperate to unleash the kind of attachments I have had with this stunningly beautiful, serene and enchanting place called Kudremukh, I have decided to discharge some of the electrifying moments I have had over there. Nonetheless, My verbatim shall not be able to exceed the limitless beauty of her, yet I shall try my best to emulate her.

A snapshot from the Google Earth showing the complete Kudremukh range:






Overlooking the Arabian sea, situated near a mountainous range of Chikamagalur district lies, yet, a secluded town that most of you people aren’t aware of. Kudremukh, being the largest reserve of tropical wet evergreen forest in Karnataka and also my birth place, is situated right in the middle of a relatively dense and wild basin (10th standard Geography :), famously known for its wildlife reserve. I spent most of my summer holidays during my school days with my cousins over there and It has always been a pleasant trip whatsoever.







Being calculative of number of days of stays over there, I would pack my clothes accordingly. My bus journey would be scheduled during nights wherein the departure time would be around 9:30 pm. Seated near the window, I would stare outside and see chaos, a chaos of mumbling passengers, distinctive voice of a lady announcing the bus schedules which no one could understand, and a faint smell of freshly loaded Diesel. With two 50 paisa coins in my hand, in the mean time of departure, I would get off the bus and run towards the weighing machine, a machine with colorful LEDs blinking with kaleidoscopic patters. As I stand on this machine, I would be asked to insert a 50 paisa coin and out comes a cardboard slip apparently showing wrong weight, but with a phrase quoted by some famous personality which is worth Crores of rupees. The diesel streaming towards the preheated engine, mixed with the air of busy Bangalore Bus stand, ignited by auspicious prayers of the passengers sitting beside me, including me, compressed by the force of mother Nature, and a sustaining torque ensured by a familiar Driver and a conductor, shall voyage me towards my destination for the next 9 hours, during which I shall do anything but be awake.



The dim light of a typical 6’o’clock in the morning occluded by the aromatic spell of the eucalyptus trees, making fringes on my covered eyelid, would wake me up to present herself in the form of a cool perennial breeze and hair pin curves impeding the throttle totter, the driver, wearing a scarf covering his ears and neck from the chilling cold aboard the altitude 1894 meters above the seal level. People of familiar attires of Uttar Kannada walking besides the road, with tethered cows and calves in their hands, smoking tobacco buds and greeting one another, is more than that meets the eye.





My uncle, Aunt, Grandma with a stick in her hand trying to scare away the oxens and cows from the garden full of blooming flowers and unusual herbs, and my three Cousin sisters would wait outside with anticipation and exhilaration. Hard water, derived mainly from the surrounding mountain lakes, rich of Calcium and Magnesium with depressed traces of Iron, Aluminum and manganese, may sound like a mineral booster but having a bath would be a disappointment due to the hydrophobic dispute between the soap lather and the skin. Leeches, crabs and red ants have been my acquaintances during my course of stay.

My cousins house:


The day life would be spent with Cartoon network with yogi bear, Scooby doo, and Laff-A-Lympics followed by Star TV, Sony TV and Zee TV soaps. The fun would begin after the sunset when we would head towards the Sports club. A bedazing group of Adults with their young ones trying to flap their tiny little arms in the swimming pool located just besides an expatriate, a group of old ladies with their glasses on their nose, pen in their hands and anticipation in their thoughts, playing the game of Lotto in the ballroom and we would either head towards the indoor badminton court or the downstairs Table Tennis court, the place where I saw the demise of one of my maxillary Lateral Incisors when a gentleman pounded his Table tennis racket onto my mouth while giving a smash to the opponent. After a ho-hum evening, we would have a chatty walk-n-talk either to a tacit Krishna Temple with a bonny pair of Marble sculpted Radha and Krisha floored at an altitude, or head back to the pavilion. The night is playacted in the nearby Nehru Circle where we, along with the neighbors, would play the I-Spy. An erected statue of Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru in the middle of the circle is the counting spot where I, being the youngest one, would be victimized all the time, for making the first count to ten. A whistle from the watchman (we also call him Goorkah) and we would run back home without making even a bit of noise.

The Nehru Circle:


The expatriate amalgamated with the club:


A bridge taking us to the circle below: The river below is dried up most of the times except in monsoon.


The main circle:


A view from the expatriate:


A fruits n vegetables market nearby:


Just a few steps from the house and we are closer to the Kendria Vidyalaya Kudremukh (KVK) and a few Kilometers into the cross roads and we have waterfalls, caves, Sanctuary, Bridges and importantly Lakhya Dam and Kudremukh Children park. Most of the times, with paltry inhabitants around, we rule the spot. Whatever it be, these noisome tourists are ironically the ones who mess up the places with polythene bags, empty whiskey bottles and cigarette buds; they are the perfect killjoys.





The same waterfall as above,but with me in it: Believe me, the mountain water was so chilly and pure that I spent an hour there: I found colorful and weathered stones, I saw eggs of Hornets on the wet rock. Placing my feet in the flowing water, I felt something that I can't really explain.



Kudremukh Park:



Soft stones weathered by aeonic mountain water carbureted with magic spells of coniferous ambiance, I cannot put more words than this for it shall remain by itself without my expressions. They are Mother Nature’s formula and I have no rights to interpose into describing her. You have to give her a visit and you shall know the density of my words. I am proud to be born here. Thank you.


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Me and IISC: A Farewell  

Created by Rakesh Prabhakara



Like said, you fetch Apples only from the orchards, Grapes from the vineyards and Honey from the hives, you sure fetch Excellency from the Indian Institute of Science (IISC). The aroma of sophistication surely influences your genes unless you wish to grow strawberries out of pine trees. Brewed with the rainwater splashing over my raincoat during my Kindergarten and school days, with the tears of joy of having my first video game and with sweet memories of finches tweeting and singing the spring songs during the Aprils, My 24 years of stay here has injected in me an everlasting aura of benignity, honesty and formidability: Being an IISCian is a legacy, a class, a certification.

Before you deploy yourself off to an alien world outside, just a compound aside or an outsider beside, you still have soil of ages stuck in your roots and this soil shall last till you perish into the abysmal complicacy of the modernization which is an axiomatic proposition: an entrapment of unavoidability. This is due to the variation in the cognition spectrum of the clusters of people living within and outside the campus and your relatives are no exceptions. Besides, you are weaponed with tough shields of intricate Sentiency that only you can feel and never fall for falsely jetted professionalisms and IISC shall assure you of that: you feel like an Iron Man.

IISC is nature in its purest form: Exigency is not the schema of progress here. Of course external world has subsetized certain parts of the campus but if you take Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology, you will see bright yellow amber gums glued to the old British walls of the respective Departments with the DNA of pureness trapped within them, with absolutely no external influences. In fact when you go near these Departments, you get Goosebumps for sure. Do visit it as it is a temple of perpetual mightiness.



Few IISCians that I would like to mention have been highly influential in my life:

1. Mr. Nagendra who was working on genetic coding of groundnuts in the Department of Molecular Biology and who also thought me Vedas after my thread ceremony. I was influenced to music, violin and mrudhangam during this time.

2. Prof. Bhat, the then chairman of Physics Department, who educated me of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and Nanotechnology when I approached him to do my 12th standard Physics Investigatory project on Superconductivity. I had burnt my index finger with Liquid Nitrogen there.

3. Prof. Sharma of Ecological Science department who explicated to me the importance of Bio-diversity with stunning images of his research work on Elephants in the Bandipur National Park. I was the head scout, I guess during my 7th standard.

4. Mr. Ravi Kumar Nair, My Mathematics teacher who bestowed me confidence and courage during my school days; The days of Half-Life 2.

5. Prof. S. Mohan of Instrumentation Department, who enlightened me of the six sigma rules of life, ways to deal with administrative bureaucracy, and ways to focus on the subjects of one’s passion in life.

6. Prof. Ananthasuresh of Mechanical engineering, an M.I.T PostDoc who influenced me when I used to attend his seminars and casual talks. I learnt the following “The four quadrants of life”, “Viswamitra - Nakshatrika system”, “compliant mechanics in autonomous robots” and of course the “Pipe crawler” for which I did some Microcontroller coding.

7. Prof. Patnaik of CEDT who offered me an 8085 board which looked like a jewel box. I tasted the misti-doi (sweet curd) during Durga Pooja with him besides me after I completed my 4th semester summer project under him. I learned a lot about digital electronics under him. He is long retired.

8. Prof. Rudra Pratap, the MATLAB guru of IISC. I met him during the Minnesota bridge collapse incident and he told me that the collapse was due to failed sensor telemetry. He explained the Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN) and importance of Analog Integrated Circuits integration with sensors. I happened to watch a firsthand video of astounding Microfab facility, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland that he captured when he was on Sabbatical to EPFL.

My last month of stay in the campus and only I know the pain. A very sacred relationship that we had needs to be terminated on the judgment day being 8th of August on which I shall be leaving to Sacramento. These are some of the things that can’t be explained. Recently when I attended the IISC centenary conference, I saw alumnus who stayed here for more than 50 years and I could hear faint white noise jetting out of them and spreading all over the auditorium of their inexplicable attachments with the IISC. The nostalgia of her beauty, serenity and attire of nihilistic delusion where lectures from great minds would sound like vedic chants of ages, shall haunt me for eternity.

“Bless me oh Mother IISC ! for I shalt bow in front of thee, with hopes and faith".

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I am the legend! am I?  

Created by Rakesh Prabhakara


Heck! I Think

While I was cogitating about this issue sitting at the corner of the class room listening to the brainies bragging about their report cards, I felt low, I felt sad. Had I known that there were few people around the world slogging nights, trudging between labs trying to find a neural theory of everything, I probably would have solaced myself, giving the braggerts the finger.

I came across this article in a Science magazine and would like to share with you all. The 1.4 Kg organ, called 'the Brain', is such a jigsaw puzzle that bringing the pieces of research works together is still a pending paradoxical claim.

The brain is much messier than a physical system. It is the product of half a billion years of evolution. It performs myriad functions – reasoning, memory, perception, learning, attention and emotion to name just a few – and uses a staggering number of different types of cells, connections and receptors. So it does not lend itself to being easily described by simple mathematical laws.

Dad! Am I Analog?



A computer, in the broadest sense, is a device for storing and processing information. In an ordinary digital computer, information is represented by electronic circuits that have two stable states, often denoted 0 and 1.




In a brain, information is represented both dynamically, by trains of action potentials in neurons, and statically, by the strengths of synaptic connections between neurons In a digital computer, information is processed by a small set of "registers" that operate at speeds of billions of cycles per second. In a brain, information is processed by billions of neurons all operating simultaneously, but only at speeds around 100 cycles per second. Thus, brains and digital computers are similar in that both are devices for processing information, but the ways that they do it are very different.



Computational neuroscience encompasses two approaches: first, the use of computers to study the brain; second, the study of how brains perform computation.On one hand, it is possible to write a computer program to simulate the operation of a group of neurons by making use of systems of equations that describe their electrochemical activity; such simulations are known as biologically realistic neural networks. On the other hand, it is possible to study algorithms for neural computation by simulating, or mathematically analyzing, the operations of simplified "units" that have some of the properties of neurons but abstract out much of their biological complexity.



Most programs for digital computers rely on long sequences of operations executed in a specific order, and therefore could not be "ported" into a brain without becoming extremely slow. Computer scientists, however, have found that some types of problems lend themselves naturally to algorithms that can efficiently be executed by brain-like networks of processing elements. One important problem that falls into this group is object recognition: on a digital computer, the seemingly simple task of recognizing a face in a photo turns out to be tremendously difficult, and even the best current programs don't do it well; the human brain, however, reliably solves this problem in a fraction of a second. The process feels almost effortless, but this is only because our brains are heavily optimized for it.



Other tasks that are computationally a great deal simpler, such as adding pairs of hundred-digit numbers, feel more difficult because the human brain is not adapted to execute them efficiently. The computational functions of brain are studied both by neuroscientists and computer scientists. There have been several attempts to build electronic computers that operate on brainlike principles, including a supercomputer called the Connection Machine, but to date none of them has achieved notable success.



brains have several advantages are difficult to duplicate in an electronic including microscopic size processing dimensional arrangement of and the fact that each neuron generates its own power

Uff.... I believe programming a dog is far easier and sensible than programming a nuke scientist planning to pulverize the planet. I hope you enjoyed the article.

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Prolegomena  

Created by Rakesh Prabhakara

When it comes to education system in India, the India of 3rd Century BC to pre-Independence , Three great pillars have maneuvered her to advancements in technology and sociology, all being incomplete to some degree of their establishments; Buddhism, Islam and the British. The post-independent India is 40 years short of a centenary of autonomy of the reformations and revamping of the primitive past and the progress is seconded by the facts that about a score of start-up founders and about 60-70 CEOs and COOs in Silicon Valley, California, United States are Indians .

India has been a storehouse of talents and an eye-candy for foreign investors, nonetheless, she has been a victim of shortages in talent pool within her soil. Subsistence is a natural endowment of the Indian citizens, but, in a generation dictating new constructs and making whimsical propositions, India is in a need of a Brobdingnagian upgradation in the preexistent technology and sociology in order to be visible on the ROAD (Radar Of ADvancement) of Competence.


I have two hands as usual and I promise to discommode them in all possible ways in a metaphysical and positive sense. My intention is to not to feed Gurus with banal ideas but to feed stargazing aspirers with visions of a new world order, a new India.

Thank you for visiting my Blog.

-Rakesh Prabhakara

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