NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATION

On 9 August, 2007 Singapore celebrated its 42nd National Day and I had the pleasure of watching the celebrations very closely. We started at around 2 from NUS. We had earlier tried to have lunch inside NUS, but the canteens were closed (National Day!! obviously it was a holiday). So we went to City Hall and hoped we could get something there. Alighting at City Hall I was surprised to find a big mall there. We searched for an Indian/Vegetarian food stall. Having found one, we had our late lunch there. The roti prata (they spelt it this way) we were given was bathed in oil. Even mess food seems much tastier in front of all this. Well, we got out and I got the first view of 'Durian' or 'The Esplanade'. It is similar to the Sydney Opera House in functionality. It is shaped like a microphone (mic). This one building that the Singaporeans are proud of.

After roaming about for a while, we reached the place where the celebrations were to be held. There was a sea of people lining up for the event. Actually there are tickets sold for the event, but as it is done 2-3 weeks prior to the day, we and many others had none. We lined up on the bridge and the area surrounding the platform. As the usual stadium was under renovation, this year it was held on a floating platform. At 4pm the bikers provided entertainment for the crowd by performing stunts. At around 5pm the paratroopers started their bit. They jumped off a helicopter and sprinkled red color all over the place. They land accurately on the platform though they jump from far off place. As the natural lights grew dimmer, the natural lights took over. The crowd grew excited and the major part of the show began. There were performances (songs and dances) for the people who bought the tickets, we had nothing to do. So we snacked. There were many helicopters flying above our heads at regular intervals so as to keep us awake for the fireworks. If that was not enough they brought a copter at a very low level on the river and this copter splashed water on us. The air from the copter was so fast that the river water flew everywhere and it felt like a shower when it dropped on us. Then the big balls of light (they are called mermaid or something) tied on the motor boats moved from one corner of the river to the other. They looked like floating balls of light. There was laser lights and fountains too. Will see more of them in Sentosa. Then after the singers had sung their lungs out, the dancers had danced their strength out and the crowd swore their tongues out - it started.

The most awaited fireworks. It lasted for just 10 minutes. After having seen Diwali celebrations year after year, I didn't feel that it was worth the wait, but yes it was awesome. Everybody ran for the MRT station as soon as the fireworks went out. The crowd in the train was too much. Policemen had been stationed to guide us along the way and to maintain proper order. We had dinner at the same place we had lunch, only this time we barely managed to get vegetarian food. We had salad with rice, no dal or sambar. It was okay and as I was hungry I liked it. We took the MRT to Buona Vista and then the bus 95. At 11pm on a national holiday we didn't expect the internal shuttle bus to function. So we walked our way back to PGPR. I was too tired to do anything and fell asleep the time I hit the bed.

PRINCE GEORGE'S PARK RESIDENCIES

PGPR is a big big place. With around 3000 rooms it is the place where you can find many people. There are some 30 blocks with each block having around 100 rooms. Each of the blocks has 7 floors. Each floor has 15 rooms.This is called as a cluster. I am in the 15th block on level 3 room 'N'. A word about the locks to the door. The locking system is good for security but if you want to make new friends or even contact others this security system is a big hindrance. We have a transponder which when used can take us only to our floor. You cannot go to other floors. If you want to go to another floor or block, you need to go with a friend who has access to that block or floor. Each floor has a kitchen which is shared by 15 people. With Chinese, Malays, Singaporeans, my kitchen smells like a slaughter house. Anyways the kitchen has a microwave, refrigerator, toaster, electric stove, oven, dining table.

With a cupboard which has a locker, table, chair, bed, mattress, dust bin my room looks nice. The view from the window is cool. I see all this and wonder as to when will we have such infrastructure. When we told some Indians here that they were planning to increasing the number of IITs, they couldn't believe what we said. They cursed the system and remarked that we would rather improve the existing IITs. And then think of increasing the number. I approve. When I was in IITM, I was like this is the best institute one can have, but after I have seen this, I feel like a frog in a pond. Everything is so organized. The buildings are superb. The classrooms are awesome. Shuttle bus, canteens, roads, traffic everything working in harmony. The professors here do not hold even half the power IIT profs hold. A students grade depends on his work and not on his impression on the prof. I hate to admit it but yes, in IIT sometimes your grade depends on how much closer you are to the prof. If you butter him you can sail through a course. The prof takes classes and the academic section takes care of grading assignments and exams. They let the prof have time for his research, not bog him down with grading stuff.

We had a dance bash on 3 Aug here in PGPR. People from 'all over the world' came. That is to say exchange students from many countries were there. Next post - Happy 42nd Birthday Singapore

SINGAPORE

I left Madras on 1 Aug at 2 early morning. The checking and boarding was fine. The ride was not as good as one would have wanted for a first overseas trip still it was fine for me. As the plane took of I looked at the bright lights from Madras going dimmer and dimmer. The cars got smaller and smaller. And as I kept looking out of my window seat, I suddenly realized that I could no longer see the lights, i was among the clouds. It was a great feeling. To look out and see big tufts of cotton floating in air. We were cruising at high speeds but those things kept moving at snails pace. It was heavenly. We were shown some tam movie which from what I heard has been the only one they have been playing from the past 2 months. I put on the radio instead. They provided some snacks at round about 2:45 after which I moved into a delightful slumber. I was excited about every little thing that was going on. I woke up only when the sun shone directly into my eyes. It was round about 8:30 (Singapore time). I heard an announcement saying we were going to land at Changi airport in a few minutes. This was probably the first time I 'wasted' or 'lost' time without my own fault. I quickly pulled my camera out and here are a few snaps ...
I got ready for landing. I just kept clicking while we were landing and you can clearly see the jerk in the pics ...


I got down and finished my check-out. Went to the Changi MRT station and took a train to Buona Vista. Met an Indian Flight Captain in the train. He was supposed to be flying people from Singapore to Bombay that night. Captain Fleury was kind enough to guide me till Outram Park (this is where he was staying) and after a few stops I alighted. I was surprised to see so many Indian faces in the train. Some of them were tams and some bongs. As I found out later, most of the Indian are either tams or bongs. Anyway, at Buona Vista I found a couple of students from India. Went to them and inquired as to how I could reach NUS. They helped me into a cab and I was taken directly to Prince George's Park Residencies, my new hostel for this semester. At 11 or so I was in my room. More about it in the next post.

SUMMER ENDS

I came to Madras on 21 May hoping to utilize my summer effectively. I am leaving today, so I thought it would be nice to pen my activities of the last two months.

The first week was complete time pass. Did not do anything worth remembering. From the next week we (three of my classmates and me) were introduced to the team that was going to work together. There were three guys from NITs. Prashant and Hemant from NIT Trichy and Mukund from NIT Allahabad. Sree Harikrishnan, Y R Venu, Deivapalan and Kasiranjan were the MS scholars who were there to guide us. More about them later. As days passed by, I started to go to the lab and sit in front of the computer passing time. The work moved very slowly and I was running out of patience. I watched many movies, classics like 12 Angry Men and Pulp Fiction ..., old hindi movies like choti se baat ... and new releases. Two and a half men was running side by side. No work and all play.

Then I saw every one working and finishing stuff at mind-blowing rate. So I thought lets chip in too. And because of this state of mind I was able to contribute something, though a minute drop in the ocean. In the beginning it looked as if I was going to waste my time and regret doing this, but by the last week this changed completely. I realized that I was having a nice time and surely, nice it was.

Now about the people:
Hari - He is the sweetest guy you will find. You can call him any time you want and he will be ready to help you. Others might say read this or search for this or that but this guy will sit with you, tell you everything he knows about the thing and if he doesn't he will search for the answer with you. It was because of him that anything was achieved at all. He works day and night. Leaves lab after midnight and the next morning he will be there even before you are there and much fresher than you are after ten hours of sleep. I asked him if he even slept or watched movies, he said he did both. Well he kept track of Wimbledon. Though out of everyone here, I was the only one who saw the matches live on tv. He's on his way to Switzerland in the best university there for recognition and the like to do his PhD. Great guy. And thanks for the treat.

Venu - He is largely interested in speech and the like. He is from Electrical so he doesn't help with coding and stuff. Any problem related to waveforms and all, he was to be contacted. Not in lab always but then he says he has to go to his own lab in Elec Department. No comments on that. Lazy and will do anything to stop work.

Kasi - He dealt with UTF-8 and all. He's going to Morgan Stanley. Easy to talk to and helpful. Clarified doubts whenever I asked him. He too practically lives in the lab. Though he said that as he's leaving now, he's spending less time in the lab. Can't imagine what he did during the semester. He accepted that he worked on Sundays too. Well if you want to patent something may be you have to work on Sundays too. Thanks for the treat.

Deiva - Perl, Python, Script and so on. I may not even have heard the names. Clear fundaes and was the one driving the Labeling Tool. But he had the most driven one amongst the seven of us, so his work was easy. When madam asked him to check our design documents, he worked like hell. Took all our codes, read them, understood them and put comments like a seasoned programmer. I had a tough time trying to do what he asked me too. But I had a victory too. He was bowled over by my design doc. Yes, yes I suck at coding but ask me to talk and write, I will put some good stuff together.

Now the visitors
Hemant - This guy watches movies, sitcoms and what not. south park, x-files, two and a half men, blackadder ... well so have I. Dunno when he finishes his work and leaves. So quick. Read some pseud papers before starting work and the outcome was great. Wants to do MS abroad. And he is very much worried about it. Will talk to anybody regarding it. Interested in dramatics. He even mails a prof in IITM (some hss prof) in this matter. I have never heard of her and I'm sure neither must have ninety nine percent of the people here.

Prashant - He was either preparing for GRE or for his placements. Put hazaar fight for aptitude part of the placement test. In one of the apti tests, he put full marks but not even half in the electrical test. All of his remaining friends did the other way round. The person who visited the lab the least. In his college he is BP 2. Nine pointer. Name any crap movie and he would have seen it. Ask him about a good movie and he is clueless. As Hemant rightly put it - 'If Prashant says a movies is good, then its bad. If he says its good, you know you would not want to watch it.'

Mukund - Mobile manic. Keeps talking and talking on his cellphone. I don't know how many times he has recharged, because I know one thing which everyone else accepts - we have gone to get a recharge for him more than we have gone for ourselves. He's in elec but a much better programmer than rest of us six put together. perl, python, java, script, seg ... I really don't even know all the names. He did more of my part of work than I did myself. And this was after he had done so much of his own part. Literally lives in the lab. If you have a look at the register in which the lab closer and lab opener puts his name, you will find his name on all the days of the two months.

These guys together really made this two months enjoyable. It was fun working with all of them and I will remember this time for a long long time.

THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2007 Wimbledon Gentlemen's Single Final is over and Roger Federer has won it again, defeating Rafael Nadal again. What a match. 7-6(9-7) 4-6 7-6(7-3) 2-6 6-2. The champion was made to work for each and every point he won. Finally there was someone who could stand in front of him and treat him as the way he does others. The only reason the result turned in his favour was that he played the big points as a seasoned campaigner.

The first set - In the beginning it looked as if Roger would run away with the title with a 3-0 lead. But Rafa had other plans. He fought and returned the favour and the set went to the tie-breaker. Roger always led in the tie-breaker and won it 9-7 not before Rafa put a decent fight.

The second set - It was Rafa's set. He outplayed Roger and this was just the beginning of Rafa's brilliant performance.

The third set - Both tried to out-do the other but to no avail. The tie-breaker settled this one too. If only Rafa could play tie-breakers better, the match would have finished in 4 sets itself.

The fourth set - Rafa all the way. The composure he showed was admirable. He ran up a 4-0 lead, breaking Roger twice. This was the best point of the match. One could see Roger troubled. Well he was receiving his own medicine. At that point of time it was looking as if Rafa would finally be able to stop the master on his own favourite surface. Breathtaking cross court winners. Roger's net approaches were responded with great winners. And yes Rafa would better improve his backhand. His backhanded spin is great but the backhand shot is a matter of concern.

The fifth set - Rafa pressurized Roger in the beginning with 4 breakpoints in 2 games. But this is when the champion showed why he is the best. He won the big points as he had the tie-breakers. Whenever he was in trouble he resorted to his best weapon - big serve. And those aces made his game. Once Rafa was broken, Roger never looked back.

Rafa had just 1 ace to Roger's 24. He also lacked speed. But he is getting used to grass. Only 40 odd matches on grass and he has got into the Wimbledon final twice. And the second time, nearly winning it. If he improves his serve and backhand, he can surely win the prestigious title. Hats off to both of them for an exciting match.

GIFT OF NATURAL TALENT

Continuing on with the sports page -
Sport is mostly about effort. More often than not it is about perseverance, hard work, hours of practice in search of elusive perfection, about stretching the limits of physical and mental possibilities to achieve set goals.
A Rahul Dravid, his face reflecting levels of concentration only Zen masters are capable of achieving, dodging bullets and standing tall amidts ruins. An Iranian weightlifter straining every sinew to hoist above his head the sort of weight six or seven of us will struggle to lift together. A Lleyton Hewitt digging deeper and deeper to fight his way past a more gifted opponent.
But thankfully there are times when you take effort away and sport becomes a thing of sheer beauty - outrageous, gorgeous, timeless beauty. And it is precisely on such occasions that the reason for playing sport and the reason for watching it seem to have been gloriously realised.
Each genius-propelled burst of inspiration has a stamp all its own. Like the glorious hour when Pete Sampras 'walked on water' in the 1999 Wimbledon final against Andre Agassi. Diego Maradona's impossible second goal against England in the 1986 World Cup.
At the end of the day, a Boycott might have a better batting average than a Richards and a Prost more titles than a Senna but this is not all about numbers.

SPORTS PAGE

I am a great fan of Nirmal Shekar (sports reporter the hindu). Here I would like to present a few of her great works -

A HERO GOES OUT IN HIS PATENTED STYLE
On Steve Waugh's retirement (just to remind you, his last test was against India and in his innings he played his trademark saviour innings)
...in walked the man. It was time to get into the trenches and do battle...one more time, one last time.
Waugh fights; therefore he is. Nothing better describes the Australian captain than what he does in the cauldron in an hour of crisis. The great man needed to come up with his signature tune at the death one more time.
Not another jaw-dropping work of genius, not another fantastic fairytale farewell innings of unmatchable beauty but merely a workmanlike 80 crafted with blood and sweat in the trenches by a working class boy from the Sydney suburb of Bankstown.
Man is not defined so much by success as he is by failure, by how he faces up to the possibility of failure, by how he deals with crisis, how he stretches his resources, both physical and mental, to turn failure, near-failure, into a glorious triumph.
This not only something that is character-revealing but-also, more significantly, a defining process that separates not merely boys from men but the men themselves from gladiators. And Steve Waugh is the greatest gladiator of his era in the world of cricket. No single cricketer in modern times could have faced up to failure and turned it into a triumph with quite the same gladiatorial intensity and single-mindedness, as has Steve Waugh time after time after time.
Sports is at once a fascinating laboratory for observations as well as a cruel business because the situations it creates strip a man to his essentials. There is nowhere to hide, nothing to cover yourself with.
The tighter the rope, the deeper the abyss, the colder the air, the greater the overall threat, the better it is for Waugh. Average challenges are for average people. Only the big ones inspire him.
Great warriors like nothing more than to fight equals and here, atlast, the most successful captain in Test history found a visiting team that had the skills and the determination to stand shoulder to shoulder with the champion and trade punches.