What motivates us?

What motivates us? It is not just the money but also purpose. Somehow big corporations separate the two for small fishes like me and that is the part I don't like!





One more interesting video on Family values.

Google wave APIs

You can paste a google wave to your site so that users can collaborate. Pretty cool, as you customize the wave and make it specific to your use case.

Thoughts on life

At times I wonder about what is this life. Probably everybody wonders about this paradigm and has his/her own thoughts about it. This is my blog and so I get the honor to put my thoughts. They may sound weird to few but actually I don't think anyone will have an all logical and straight forward reply to "What is life?"

I at times imagine world to be a simulation being run by superior beings (may be we call that existence as God). We are their puppets running around or living as we are designed to and they are watching us and getting amused on how we react to various situations and so on. God gave us a canvas consisting of land, water, air, vegetation, etc. He also gave us senses to know the world around and also "mind" to think and interpret. I am not sure what we think, is actually what we wanted to think. I believe Matrix movie depicted this very artistically. It showed that the way humans understand is by the process of neurons interaction in brain. Neurons being electric signals can be very well altered (by God, machines, super beings) and humans can be made to think what they were supposed or designed to think. Matrix movie had this concept of matrix world where humans live in a virtual state and consider it as reality. What if that is somehow true? What if we are really being controlled by God in our thinking process? We live in a world created by nature, we think by the mind designed by nature, etc etc. What if the mind is itself biased in a way that it keeps humans busy / engaged with non relevant tasks (such as making money, fighting each other). What is nature? Is it just another name of that super existence?

This is somewhat similar to ecosystem in which we are playing Mario, where we provide Mario the environment and canvas to run around, earn coins, fight his enemies and win his girl in the end. But in reality he is doing nothing but just consuming some electricity in CPU. Mario can never cross his boundaries of his virtual world and he is doomed to stay within that canvas/ unit. Now can we escape this world? Don't you think the idea of infinite space around is just so fictitious, unrealistic? Can infinite space exist? Yes it does as per our current science and we are just a small small small small part of this infinite space. Well this may be just be a limitation of science, after all couple of centuries back we considered earth to be flat and that we would fall if we cross the edge :)

I do not believe completely with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. According to it, we evolved to what we currently are on the basis of constant development and adjustment to the nature, and also on the basis of survival of the fittest. Instead, I feel that we were designed to evolve this way. It is hard to believe that all our senses viz. eyes, nose, ears, touch and smell, developed just on the basis of adjustment to the nature. I mean how come a complex organ such as nose developed from zilch just on the basis of survival of the fittest. Even if we assume that we developed as per the support / canvas available to us in the form of nature, why is it that other planets have no life? Life could had also developed on those planets as per the resources available there. Why it is that only earth among billions of planets and astronomical bodies, supports life?

I also believe that our mind and other body organs are just highly sophisticated machines. Humans have already gained technology to replicate memory storage (hard disk), mind (processor), eyes (camera), etc etc. There is a long long way to reach when we can actually create mind, eyes and other organs. However there is something more than just working organs in a life form. That is the "existence". Think about it, if someone's heart stops beating and after couple of minutes you start his/her heart beats with some mechanical machines, will he/she come back to life? No! But what really changed? He has his organs, probably they didnt die as we started artificial heart beats soon enough. But he is still not in conscience and that means there is something more than just your body, your thoughts, that define you. Is this what we call our soul?

Further there are a lot of fantastic phenomenon that are interlinked to sustain the life. I do not think they just got created automatically without any divine intervention. Think about some of these beautiful and complex systems:

• Underground fresh water to sustain thirsty cities, regular rains to replenish the underground water, monsoon seasonal winds to create water logged clouds, and seas and vast oceans that act as a source of water
• Ecosystem, where a huge mass of fire i.e. Sun is the source of energy. Grass and plants absorb sunlight and water to produce vegetation, herbivores eat that to sustain themselves and in turn provide themselves as food for omnivores and carnivores. Not only that, each species has a vital role in the ecosystem without which everything will just fail. A subtle example is earthworm, which makes land porous and helps vegetation to grow.
• Astronomical bodies revolving and rotating to give us various seasons and different flavors of life. Creating day and night to provide us with sleeping and working hours. Both day and night are necessary to sustain our life. These astronomical bodies are also responsible for creating tides, monsoon winds and so many other necessary phenomenon for our existence.

It is hard for me to to believe that all this is happening on its own and we just got evolved in a perfect way to suit it the best. What sounds more convincing to me is that it was designed to be what it is and also our mind has been designed to think in a manipulative way.

C++ Array vs Object - Pass by value

You can not pass an array by "pass by value", whereas objects can be passed by value. Here is a snippet:

You can pass an array to a function in only following manner:
int arr[2] = {0,1};
void s(int arr[]){ //This statement is equivalent to: void s(int *arr)
arr[0]=2;
}

s(arr); // This passes array pointer by value and hence the complete is passed by reference. Meaning to say function s will operate on real array and not on a "copied" array of the one passed in argument.


You can pass an object to a function in two ways:
void s(Obj* o) // this statement is equivalent to: void s(Obj & o). Pass by reference
void s(Obj o) // Pass by value. The actual ojbect passed as parameter when invoking the function, gets copied and function acts on copied object and not on actual object

C++: Char vs String initialization

#include "iostream"                           // a PREPROCESSOR directive 
using namespace std;
int main()                                    // function header 
{                                             // start of function body 
using namespace std;                      // make definitions visible 
char * t1 = new char;
*t1 = 'a';
cout<< "Case 1: " << t1 << "\n";          //Output: a.    Valid output

char * t2;
//*t2 = 'a';                             //Can also lead to bus error. Incase it is out of memory assigned to t2
//cout<< "Case 2: " << t2 << "\n";       //Output: a???.   Garbled output, since you are trying to store 'a' in neverland

//char * t3;
//t3 = 'a';                              // Compile error: myfirst.cpp:15: error: invalid conversion from 'char' to 'char*'

//char * t4;
//* t4 = "a";                            // Compile error: myfirst.cpp:18: error: invalid conversion from 'const char*' to 'char'
// "a" is treated as string. 'a' is a character

char * t5;
t5 = "a";
cout<< "Case 5: " << t5 << "\n";         //Output: a.     Valid Output, understand that here "a" is a string and that get space assigned in memory. On the other hand, 'a' does not get stored in memory when getting assigned to pointer. Also "a" is of type const char *, where 'a' is of type const char

int * fellow;
*fellow = 123;                           //Garbled output, bus error.
fellow = (int *)123;                     //fellow points to some location in memory and will result in bus error while we are accessing it.
return 0;                                // terminate main() 
}   

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Jill's speech was so impressive. Setting up the mind to share Her experience during a severe hemorrhage is great..the feeling of 'nirvana' is the most inspiring though I am little confused about the experience during such trauma.
Buddha and few other persons are known to experience the rare NIRVANA during their lifetime..bt here,JBT experienced that rare happening during hemorrhage..unbelievable and inspiring.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Hans Rosling: New insights on poverty and life around the world

Hans Rosling: No more boring data: TEDTalks

How to talk to VC (Dos and Donts)

Some sample questions a mentor can ask:

• If I give you 1 crore how will u invest that in a day
• Best ans: 30 lakh for myself and my family future and comforts, rest 70 lakh for business. May be I will hire 4-5 best brains to work for me, etc etc. Or how u plan to grow your current business
• Mentor wants to judge how much are you concerned for your personal comfort, do u have a vision to invest money in your business
• Most exciting thing you did in college or life
• It can be academics but also something non academic. How passionate you are to achieve what you want. Something you really wanted to do and you went out of way, went crazy to do it
• Winning some trophy, Getting gf, some adv trek
• How ur friends describe you?
• Friends can judge you best. Some answers can be:
• visionary, Reliable, strong temperament, enthusiastic, etc
• Family background
• Mentor wants to figure out if you have future personal commitment. Most of entrepreneurs drop because of family reasons
• Why do you want to open a startup - THIS IS IMPORTANT
• Don’t say lame reasons here. It will haunt you back :)
• Something like: you know you company earns 50 lakh from you and gives you only 10 lakh of it. You think you deserve better with you skill set and ideas and want to make a place for yourself. Please note the assumption that if your company make a profit of 100 crores with 100 employees, it entitles you to get 1 crore, IS FLAWED. Company doesn’t make 100 crores only from employees but also from the idea, its brand value, etc. But then you also have a great idea WHICH ADDS VALUE to current market and hence you want to follow up your dreams.

Leh Trip

Photos: picasaweb

It was long…

It was tiring…

It was a spectacular journey…

Let’s start from Day 1: (28^th May)

All 4 of us met in Jammu. Sanchit and Naman came from Delhi via bus, while Pratyush and Neeraj came by Malwa Express from Indore. The weather was bad. A day before it had rained and now dusty sand storm prevailed. Even at 4pm sky got dark and dangerous. Took an auto and managed to get a descent hotel in jewel chowk. Next day, we had plans to leave early morning for Srinagar. But at night it rained a lot. We talked to locals and at Srinagar tourist center and got to know that in last 2 days it had rained heavily. Usually, May end is supposed to be hot and rains was a bad surprise. Travel agents said Srinagar-Kargil road will not be open and therefore there was no point in going to Srinagar. After talking at numerous places, we concluded that reaching Leh was out of reach. Therefore, we started thinking of 4-5 day treks in and around Srinagar. After discussing a lot, we planned to visit Vaishno Devi in next 2 days and see if roads get open later.

Day 2 (29^th May)

Got ready by 7 and headed towards taxi stand. While bargaining for taxi, Neeraj fumbled saying what the rates for Srinagar are, and hence added to the chaos. After bargaining for half an hour and finalizing the destination, we kicked off for Srinagar. Jammu-Srinagar distance is 300kms and 8-10hr drive. Journey started with a handful of monkeys along the road till Udhampur. After that, Ghats started and began ascent till highest point on the way Patnitop(2500m). It began to rain thereafter and weather got cooler, a relief from Jammu’s hot weather. Along the way we ate lot of cherries, kubani and strawberries. After that we passed through Jawahar tunnel and finally reached Srinagar by 5. We wanted to stay close to the Dal Lake and finally bargained a house boat. It had rained a day before and weather was just awesome. After quickly occupying the house boat, we set out for 3 hr shikara ride. First went to floating garden and had hot yummy pakodas. Sight was just spectacular. On one side, you can see ice caped gulmarg with shades of sunset, on other side mountains with dark clouds hovering and in between Dal main road market. For me it was one of the most beautiful lakes ever seen. Later while shikara, we bought pashmina shawls and kesar. 3 hr boat ride felt too short for such a beautiful lake, but finally went off to sleep in our house boat.

Day 3 (30^th May)

Got ready by 6 and off the house boat. After lot of bargaining on taxis, we set out of for Kargil. It is 220kms and an 8 hr drive. Roads had just opened and we drove off on a high note. Around 11 we reached Sonamarg. Throughout the way to Sonamarg, Sindh River coursed beside us. Because of recent rains, we saw fresh glaciers. Small village settlements amidst mountains and mountain sheep along the way added to the delight. We had our lunch at Sonamarg. Road from Sonamarg to Drass is one way and opens around 12-1. We waited till 2.30 when we finally got a clearance. Just we would have travelled for half an hour, all cars had to halt again at Zojila pass. Military men told, because of rains land slide had occurred. Got stuck there for another 2 hrs and finally resumed around 6. Luckily we carried some chocolates and chips as there was nothing to eat. Sunsets around 8, so we still could see the view around. Soon we passed Amarnath base camp, and Captain Mode. Captain Mode is one of the most dangerous and breathtaking road I had ever seen. With snow on both sides, it is definitely ‘A must watch’. It got pretty cold and darker. We were passing through 10m high snow walls on both sides which reminded us of song ‘Ye ishq hai’ from Jab We Met. We wanted to stop and play with snow, but it was very late and we had to move on. Finally, reached Kargil at 12:30 in night. It turned out to be a hectic 18 hour journey. An uncle was travelling with us in our shared taxi. Luckily, he had a guesthouse already booked and helped us get a room there. Exhausted we all went to sleep without having any dinner.

Day 4 (31^st May)

Beside our guesthouse muddy Suru River flowed. We had negotiated with the same taxi for our Kargil-Leh Trip with same uncle accompanying us. He had travelled a lot in this region and briefed us throughout the way. Trip was again a distance of 230kms and an 8-10hr drive. With some local bread and tea we kicked off our journey. Soon terrain changed from green ice capped mountains to brown Rocky Mountains. Sindh River flowed along with us creating a small lush green patch on both of its side. Wheat and Sarson were the main crops of the region. It seemed like a running oasis besides us, amid a lifeless dessert. All of us couldn’t stop praising the greatest architect ‘The God’ for such a striking contrast of varied colored Rocky Mountains, river with a hint of greenery and snow atop. It seemed God had taken brown, orange, red, green and black colors in a palette and mixed it to produce all shades of mountains. I called it ‘The Barren Beauty’. We passed through Namkeen (because of salt like white deposits) and Swarana (truly golden in color) mountains and ‘Fatula Top’ (13479 FT) the highest point in Srinagar Leh road. Towards end, we entered an enormous plateaus region and roads became just fantastic. By 5 we reached Leh. We felt a sense of victory (but for me journey was still unfinished, which were still eying on Pangong Lake). We got a very nice homely guest house named Siala in old fort road. Guest house owners were really very hospitable and gave us every bit of information about the city.

Even being in remote location, Leh seemed to be highly commercialized place with almost everything available in market. In evening we had a nice dinner in hotel Lamayuru and explored the city.

Day 5 (1^st June)

Next day, we went for local sightseeing to Leh palace. Trying a shortcut, we went through local streets and finally managed to reach the entrance. It was 8 and palace usually opens around 10. We managed to find the person in charge and asked him to open the doors. He escorted us to the main temple room. It was beautiful and we sat there for a while. Rest of the palace was mostly dilapidated. We went till the top and had an awesome view of the Leh city. We could hear soothing Tibetan music being played in city market monastery and a cricket match played in distant small stadium. Even at 10am we could see the moon visible. Surrounded by Rocky Mountains with a tinge of snow on them, sun and moon overhead, view of the whole Leh city was a pleasure. While returning, saw some cute furry dogs and donkeys. I must say, Leh dogs are the most adorable and at the same time laziest. Few of them woke up from one side and lay down on other side of road under the sun.

Next, we hired 2 bikes Thunderbird and Avenger and did booking for Pangong Lake next day. With tanks filled, we roared off for the monasteries. First, we went to Shey. Climbing few stairs, we talked a bit about Buddhist rituals from the priest and explored around. We could see lot of beautiful stupas along the way. Next, we went to Thiksey. Presiding over a small hill, this monastery is really picturesque (looks similar to what we see in Hollywood movies or imagine Lhasa). There are lot of temples and paintings inside. We spent a quite a time relaxing there. Then we went to a restaurant nearby and had native Tibetans soups and main course. Suddenly the weather became rainy and we sped to our last destination Hemis monastery. Driving the ascent, through magical terrain was one of a lifetime experience. We went through small villages and saw mountain goats and Yak for the first time. Finally, browsing through the terrain, we got hold of Hemis monastery at a distance. It is really a beautiful tranquil settlement. Inside, we saw group of monks dancing to the hymns. There is a large museum inside, containing priceless possessions from Buddhist culture. I was flattered to see a book containing sacred text written fully in gold. Even the constitution and amendments were written in gold on silk cloth. Some of the artifacts were from 3 AD and is definitely a must watch. Finally, we returned to Leh city and explored more of Tibetan food for dinner.

Day 6 (2^nd June)

Finally, my dream was going to be true. Yes I was going to Pangong Lake.

It is 150kms and roughly a 5 hr drive. On the way, we stopped at ‘Chang LA’, the world’s third highest pass at a height of 17,586 FT. Our hopes of running and playing in snow were finally fulfilled, which we missed out in Srinagar-Kargil road. With 30kms away, Sanchit got first glimpses of the Lake - A patch of blue like snake. Finally when we reached, I could only say ‘Wow’. Different shades of peacock blue color and seagulls’ swimming around were something to die for. 40% of the 160km lake is in India and rest in China. We went up till last point ‘Spangmik’ were civilians are allowed. This is where concluding part of ‘3 Idiots’ was shot. I called it ‘Phunsuk Wangdu’ point. Finally yay, my mission became complete. I put my fingers in the lake, only to realization that my fingers went numb. We could not stay there for long as we had to return back same day. Lake is supposed to change color as the day passes. I could see the change in color from dark blue to lighter shade by the time we started off. Had a lunch by lake side, and returned to Leh by 7. While returning we saw a rare animal of this region, ‘The Himalayan Marmot Phiya’. They were damn cute and looked like bear cubs. We went to sleep early, as some of us felt symptoms of AMS and exhausted.

Day 7 - 8(3^rd – 4^th June)

We had planned to leave from Leh on 4^th to Manali. But luck was little bad and roads to Manali had not opened. Also taxis to Srinagar started at 4pm instead of morning. So, we decided to leave the same day. 3-4 hrs to leave, we explored Tibetan and main market and did some handicraft and souvenir shopping.

Journey to Srinagar is a 16hr cannon ball run. Left around 6, we first went to Magnetic hill. Got down and evaluated the optical illusion behind it. Later, we reached Drass at 2 in the morning. Drass-Sonamarg one way opens around 4 in the morning. Suddenly around 6am, we were in zojila pass near Amarnath base camp when a tragic thing happened – fuel over. Amid cloud and rain, we were freezing inside, when driver left us in agony for fuel in passing taxi. After one and half hours, he finally came back with 10 liters of petrol. At 11, finally we reached Srinagar. Weather was rainy and delightful. In the evening, we went to Lal Chowk and bought variety of dry fruits.

Day 9 (5 June)

We started off for Jammu from Lal Chowk around 9am. Tired we slept most of our way reaching Jammu around 7. We went straight to railway station and had some food. Boarded our train to Delhi around 9pm.

Day 10 (6 June)

Explored South Delhi and Noida after a long time.

Day 11 (7 June)

Flew back to Bangalore, with fantabulous memories of Leh trip.

Conclusion: Trip gives you a lifetime experience. You get a combined experience of Venice (Srinagar), Switzerland (Srinagar-Kargil),Grand Canyon (Kargil-Leh) and much more. Truly worth going!