The Abundance Principle

Once a man got lost in a desert. The water in his flask had run out two days ago, and he was on his last legs. He knew that if he didn’t get some water soon, he would surely die. The man saw a small hut ahead of him. He thought it would be a mirage or maybe a hallucination, but having no other option, he moved toward it. As he got closer, he realized it was quite real. So he dragged his tired body to the door with the last of his strength. The hut was not occupied and …

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Jayalalitha – The Iron Woman of Politics

[This was originally published in Bangalore Mirror on 6th Dec, written by AR Venkatachalapathy] In 1981, a Tamil film titled Aaniver was released. A lowercaste girl from a village clears the UPSC examination and becomes a collector. But her childhood sweetheart and husband is illiterate, creating considerable difficulties as the girl tries to perform her social and official roles. Unable the resolve this tension, in melodramatic fashion, she resigns from the civil services to play a dutiful role as the conventional wife. A nondescript film by any standards, I remember it for a review published in the now-defunct weekly Idhayam Pesigirathu. Feminism …

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படித்ததில் பிடித்தது

1. உங்கள் வாழ்க்கையில் நீங்கள் சந்திக்கும் ஒவ்வொரு நபரும் உங்களுக்கு ஏதோ ஒன்றை சொல்லி தருகின்றார். எனவே நீங்கள் சந்திக்கும் எல்லோரிடமும் கருணையுடன் இருங்கள். 2. உங்களுக்கு எந்த விஷயத்தில் திறமை உள்ளதோ அதிலேயே கவனத்தையும், நேரத்தையும் அதிகம் செலுத்துங்கள். மற்ற விஷயங்களுக்காக அதிக நேரம் செலவழிக்காதீர்கள். 3. அடிக்கடி கவலை படாதீர்கள். தேவை எனில் கவலை படுவதற்கென ஒவ்வொரு நாளும் மாலை நேரம் முப்பது நிமிடம் ஒதுக்குங்கள். அந்த நேரம் அனைத்து கவலையும் குறித்து சிந்தியுங்கள். 4. அதிகாலையில் எழ பழகுங்கள். வாழ்வில் வென்ற பலரும் அதிகாலையில் எழுபவர்களே. 5. தினமும் நிறைய சிரிக்க பழகுங்கள். அது நல்ல ஆரோக்கியத்தையும் நண்பர்களையும் பெற்று தரும். 6. நிறைய நல்ல புத்தகம் படியுங்கள். எங்கு சென்றாலும், பிரயாணத்தின் போதும் ஒரு புத்தகத்துடன் செல்லுங்கள். காத்திருக்கும் நேரத்தில் வாசியுங்கள். 7. உங்கள் பிரச்சனைகளை ஒரு தாளில் பட்டியலிடுங்கள். இவ்வாறு பட்டியலிடும்போதே உங்கள் மன …

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A Lost Friend

A ‘poem’ by ‘Charles Hanson Towne’ that is close to my heart Around the corner I have a friend,In this great city that has no end,Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,And before I know it, a year is gone. And I never see my old friends face,For life is a swift and terrible race,He knows I like him just as well,As in the days when I rang his bell. And he rang mine but we were younger then,And now we are busy, tired men.Tired of playing a foolish game,Tired of trying to make a name. “Tomorrow” I …

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Jumbo Circus

Going to a circus has become a rare event. The last time a Circus team came to bangalore was in 2008 and prior to that in 1999. Even I haven’t been to one since I was a child. So when the chance came for us to visit it close to our home, I wanted to make sure that we didn’t miss it. My daughter was also very interested and so were her cousins on vacation visit. The tickets were priced at 100, 200 and 300. I wanted to encourage the team by buing the 300 Rs tickets but didn’t know …

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P, NP, NP Complete, NP Hard – OMG

OK, so you want to learn about this no matter the price you have to pay 🙂 Then have some patience and read through the text. It could take some time to understand but it will happen. Let’s say this field is a marriage between classic mathematics and theoritical computer science. What is it and Why is it requried? While trying to find solutions for problems using algorithms (steps) we often encounter problems that are seemingly very difficult to solve. We often end up racking our brain for some time to try and find out a simple solution. Now what if …

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What do we teach our kids 

Today morning near BTM, there was this school bus full of children. It was behind me and near the A2B stop the signal turned red. I stopped but was almost hit from behind by this bus. Not only that, the driver started honking trying to push me to skip the signal. I didn’t budge and also took the pic of the bus   Funny thing is that the moto written in the bus “Life’s lessons start at Treamis”

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