Thou art thy master!!!

"Some inspirations/motivations/learnings come from very close while some come from too far", said Amartya Sen. To my experience some incidents, knowingly or unknowingly teach you a lot. These occurrences are usually rare but they do get registered in your memory for long. One such incidence occurred in IMEC elevators.

There is something about my job that I am always in the company of biggies and I have had no reason to be uncomfortable about it. In National Semiconductor's (NatSem) office in Leela Palace-Bangalore, I was sitting next to Managing Director's cubicle. In Natsem's brunton office, my cubicle was next to the MD again. In IMEC, my cubicle is on the 4th floor of IMEC-1, where most of the management brass along with IMEC's CEO has an office. You do have a chance to interact with some of these folks, most of the time in an elevator. Usually I take an elevator to go down and stairs to go up (quite a fitness buff these days) but on this particular day I had a box in my hand and decided to take an elevator to go up. One of the Fab serviceman (may be around 55) in a blue uniform was already inside. Seeing the my hands full he quipped, "Which floor?" "4th Floor, Thank you." I said. "Oh, You are one of those big influential staffs sitting on the 4th floor?" He responded. I started laughing and explaining him that I am one of the plentiful PhDs enjoying good times in IMEC. I have very few powers to steer the way things are done here (or anywhere) and I am very far from those who are really influential in spending big money to steer next generation technology and I have no control whatsoever on these things. After listening to all my blah blah blah....he bamboozled me with a single sentence/question, "Aren't you a master of yourself?" and walked away on the 2nd floor that links to 200mm fab...

So deep and so profound indeed. I was very much stunned and was very happy reflecting upon the incident. Sadly though, I have never been able to see him again. I hope the day comes soon....

India Blinks...

Mega cricket event Indian Premier League (IPL) has deen hijacked out of India. The mega event generated INR 91 Crore (~20Million USD) in the form of tax last year. Contribution to travel, hospitality, fashion industry etc. must have been significant as well. In addition to aiding economic growth it gave new dimension to Indian Cricket and was (is) certainly a national pride. Unwillingness to provide adequate security to host this event is appaling and citing reasons of elections in India can not be comprehended. It would be like saying foreign ambassadors/tourists/journalists not to come to India as they won't be adequately protected because of elections. Worse so, we would be playing in the hands of evil terrorist elements. This is precisely what they are looking for.

There should not be any denial that terrorists attacks are aimed not only to create Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD*) and havoc in public mindset but also to dampen the economic resurgence. Aftermath 26/11 terrorists attack in Bombay, it was perceived that Bombay and largely India is not a safe place for foreign tourists. The ongoing England ODIs were canceled casting shadow on the IPL to be taken place in Apr.-May 2009. Shifted test match in Chennai was an astounding success. This Chennai test match will always be remembered for the courage shown by touring english team to travel to Chennai than Sachin's test hundred. Successful organization of a test match with english team touring had a hope that the things will be restored sooner than later. It demonstrated the will to host upcoming commonwealth games in 2010 and Cricket World Cup in 2011. It took a message to the terrorists and to the world that "Come what may, we'll stand and we'll stand tall".

It was very important to carry this momentum, the self belief and successful organization of the IPL would have testified the same. The dynamics in the sub continent became hugely complicated because of terrorists attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore and the announcement of the impending parliamentary election schedule in India. Situation that seemed crisis was (is) a definite opportunity for India. The attack on Sri Lankan cricketers meant the entire cricket establishment is vulnerable and a successful organization of a mega event like IPL would have been a definite credit to the security forces. The successful organization of IPL along with smooth elections would have sent very strong signals to the world saying "We have the will to combat and rise and we'll never blink".

Sadly though it seems there is no willingness in the government to rise to the occasion and take tough stand. Home minister urging the postponement of IPL has to understand that although elections can't be postponed to later dates, international cricket schedule needs to be respected as well. The postponement of the IPL hence is not a viable solution. Media bits say that all the states except Maharashtra and Andhra pradesh are willing to provide security for the event. Doesn't it make sense for the center to intervene and understand the concerns of these states? Can't they contribute to bolster the system to support the event? Can't IPL be a bit more patient in their talk with the home department? Can't we stand united in this hour of crisis (a classic opportunity) and showcase the Indian might? Is it too difficult?

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* To my knowledge, the origin of the term FUD is related to business. The term was coined by IBM in the 1970s to undermine the credibility of its competitors.

Terracotta Army of Xi'an: The King and the after life...

Last Saturday we had the glimpses of the Terracotta Army (TerracottaArmyHistoricalFacts) in an exhibition in Belgium. The work accomplished in the 2nd century BC was not only impressive but also massive. Every soldier sculptured was unique endorsing their hierarchy in the Army. The adeptness of the sculptures was enormously apparent.

Different personalities: Everybody is different, so true?

Soldiers in Terracotta Army

While I don't hesitate pay Kudos to all the artists for their creation, two fundamental and one secondary question trouble me.

First question came after reading:

"It is also believed that Qin ordered that the tomb workers and supervisors involved in its design be buried alive to protect its secrets."

Why did the King have to assassin all the artists that were instrumental in creating such a beautiful world for him? If you look into the history, this seems to be the trend for many creations. To cite another example, Shahjahan is known to have done the same to the architects of Taj Mahal - A world wonder today. I find this trend not only atrocious but also loatheful and find no compelling reasons to bolster the deed. Hypothetically assuming that the King wanted his sponsored creation to be the best ever protecting the secrets as claimed, I believe he could be imaginative enough to think that it would be impossible as he would have no control over future generations. On the contrary, he could have sponsored the same artists to better their creation and created challenges for the artists in the future generations? Did he ever think about it?

Another thing that puzzled me is the objective of the King in this particular case. As per records, he wanted to carry the same world to his tomb in a "Life After Life". Pyramids in Egypt testify another case depicting the same objective. Didn't he (and many others) have better things to do in his (their) life than to think about his (their) Life after Life??

Secondary question came after reading this piece:
"Emperor Qin ordered the construction of his tomb when he was only 13 years old, an order that involved hundreds of thousands of workers and thirty-six years to complete."

Can you imagine a 13 year ordering such a construction....may it be a King? When I took this thing up for discussion with Ashwin, he summed it up beautifully: "As a 13 yr. old, he wanted to create some toys to play". I agree with the theory.

Harsha @ IIMC

It's always fun to listen to Harsha Bhogle, a sweet voice in TWI commentary box as voted by Australians. In this lecture, he talks about key management fundae to be successful. The fundae are supposedly based on "What they do not teach @ IIMs".

Key lessons with plenty of cricket anecdotes make it even more enjoyable. You do get to listen to some of the behind the scene stories about Indian cricket. I was personally impressed by the end part (8 & 9) when Harsha talks about the Thinking of Sachin Tendulkar and guts shown (and opportunity seized) by Ravi Shastri. It's always good to learn from these lessons. I hope you all enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?Harsha@IIMC

Hoge Venen Hike: An Icy Adventure

SO far PhD in IMEC has been like a holiday, may be picnic is a better description. The day I came back from vacation this year in 2009, Tomas sent an elaborated hike schedule for 2009 . He informs me that he already has all of them planned for 2009. I am not sure how much time he spends on planning but I guess it would be at least a tad more than he enjoys traveling during hikes. The first hike this year was planned at biggest national park: “The Hoge Venen” (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoge_Venen) @ about 700m above sea level, highest point in Belgium. Tomas had warned all of us that it's going to be swampy and be prepared for tougher conditions and be ready for challenges.

I reached the departure venue with a bit of guilt feeling as I was 10 minutes late than decided time of 8:15AM*. We (22 hikers for 21Kms) had to reach the venue by cars as the trains and buses are not that frequent to these isolated locations in Belgium. The day in Leuven was very good, clear and sunny with a bit coldness in the air was perfect and the weather forecast also suggested that we would get lucky with the weather yet again. As we reached the venue, it was mist all over with ice all around in the parking lot. Looking at the weather prediction and also not taking Tomas's mail seriously I (and many of us) were ill prepared for the trip. We did not have adequate shoes and also at the last moment I had decided that the Jacket would be an overkill and chose to carry an overcoat instead.

The chilliness at the destination meant that the faster we started walking the better it is. But, we hardly could. The icy conditions and moreover the presence of sleet than thicker Ice at many places provided frictionless surface and we had to be extra careful not to grass the ass. We could experience how difficult it is to walk on ice and why mountaineers need to train so hard escalating tougher peaks. The surrounding during this hike was an aberration from the typical Belgian landscape too. There were grassy bumps amidst Ice rather than lush green landscape we used to and it was a very nice to walk through them. The wooden planks laid provided safer path in most of the places.

Wooden Track and Hikers

Not so easy...yeah....not so easy

Still some places were very tricky, specially the path that took us above the mountain and down hill. I myself had a close shave 4-5 times but surprisingly did not grass the ass. Arul unfortunately did become a victim once and Amir was excellent capturing it in the following video:

Aaaamir... You are simply great!!!

Jeroen & Xavier# along with Ekhi & Aritz were leading the pack, setting the pace this time while Johny, as an experienced hiker, had assumed the responsibility to tightening the end so that nobody left missing. Tomas as usual was going up and down capturing photos for his post hike slide shows. Xiao, Jun, Mika and Rachel (Liqiu) were his favorite models. Koen with his pony tail was busy bantering all the way. Keskei, Peng and Linke were enjoying their first NBH Hike experience.

At some stages it felt so isolated that Christoph commented "Out of nowhere We are Out in the Nowhere". It was so true. We were so far and so aloof from traffic, town and trains....Chaos in general :) and it was simply wonderful.

Midway through the hike I thought that Jun has improved hiking skills leaps and bounds and informed her so. I had to eat my words when I saw this picture:

Jun and Daniele

An unfortunate (yet hilarious) part of the hike will have to be Sandeep damaging his shoe midway. His shoe sole came out as he was walking though the Ice and he had to follow a short cut highway to the parking lot. It seems his sole came completely out after he left us and had to essentially drag his shoe with him for around 2-3kms. YY and Sabrina accompanying him on the way must have witnessed the ordeal. A golden shoe for the public is available here:

Sandeep's Golden Shoe

At the end it was time to take a group picture. After all we had all survived a path where they say people were lost and never found....

The Group Of Survivors

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* This is the toughest challenge to join the hikes. It's very difficult to get up early on holidays, specially when you have lost a Chess game a night before.

# We did miss Marleen and Steven this time. With them around Jeroen would definitely have been able to maintain a brisk pace (~5-6 kmph) in spite of tougher conditions. Any bets??