A World of Unbounded Irrationality

Late Carnegie Mellon economist Herbert Simon once remarked that most people are only partly rational, and are in fact emotional/irrational in the remaining part of their actions. Prof. Simon continued that rational agents experience limits in formulating and solving complex problems and in processing (receiving, storing, retrieving, transmitting) information. This is the concept of Bounded Rationality in Behavioral Economics, which I consider as a subset of the larger, more important, Mechanism Design, for which 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Leo Hurwicz, Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson. In simple terms, to be considered rational , a human/agent must be able to differentiate 2 choices, and decide why one choice is better than the other. If one can decide over 2 choices, then by induction, one can decide over finitely many choices. In reality, we hardly come across situations with infinitely many choices, an embarrassment of riches !!! By aforementioned statements, I am steering away from circular ambiguities like Condorcet paradox in elections, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_paradox .

For instance, if one is trying to find an integer approximation to 103.13, he/she can enumerate infinitely many approximate values, such as 103,104,101,1001 etc. Each number is an approximation of 103.13. But we know that 103 is the best integer approximation to 103.13, as per the Euclidean metric on real line. Hence we have the notion of utility functions, that maps the set of choices to real valued line, and utility maximization, a notion that agents look for choices that maximizes their utility functions. Different people have different capabilities in coming up with the functional form of utility functions, which is important in the quest for optimal solution(s) for a given problem. Hence society coins words like idiot, stupid etc, for those whose utility functions are incompatible with the larger society.

This post is not about Bounded Rationality, but its complement Unbounded Irrationality, a term that most of us will agree exists to a great extent all over the world. But to understand Unbounded Irrationality, one has to understand what constitutes Bounded Rationality. I hope the above paragraphs are clear in that sense. If not, it is maybe because I belong to the collection of Unbounded Irrationality :-)

The reason for my sudden angst is http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7165255.stm
OMG, I can't fathom how on earth Bilawal and a notoriously corrupt Asif Zardari can succeed Benazir in guiding a rogue nation, full of angry misguided mullahs and nefarious intelligence agencies/military, to sanity. It pains me to note that feudalism exists even in this information/knowledge driven century. To see feudalism in its ugly form, look no further than politics and Bollywood. In these 2 fields, one can come up with numerous instances where incompetent filthy people have consolidated their stranglehold for ages. It is this form of feudalism, that led me to this post. In late 1980s, when I started developing active interest in politics, netas including Rajiv Gandhi, VP Singh etc. consistently proclaimed that India will be a developed nation by 2010 or 2015. As we approach 2008, I view these feudal politicians with disgust for failing to walk the talk. All those talks of being a developed country and eradicating poverty is whole load of !@#$. The sad part is our netas continue to make fools out of us with new deadline to achieve the noble goals is 2050!!! Despite these filthy pigs, we have made some progress over the years, and credit for the last decade of modest successes should go to Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Narasimha Rao, to some extent.

In cricket, a certain Rohan Gavaskar was not a regular in Team India despite being the son of an illustrious cricketer. He still had to fight his way through, and got chopped when found inadequate. Gone were the days when an incompetent Maharaja of Vizianagaram could be the skipper of a national team by default. A certain Srinivas Venkatraghavan had to clear exams to be selected for ICC elite panel of umpires, despite leading a national team and having a stellar sporting career. Similar exams are conducted to select referees and to receive coaching badges in soccer. When one is tested for competency in such mundane aspects of life, why on earth do we tolerate feudalism in politics? Lets forget an equally filthy Bollywood for now... Why not have an exam to select national leaders based on their IQ level? One doesn't have to be a Nobel laureate to be a national leader. One can be an illiterate and still be a leader as long as he has the IQ to ask the right questions, and galvanize the country by his/her vision. An example of an illiterate and great leader would be Kamaraj. An example of an illiterate and incompetent leader would be H.D. Deve Gowda. Not content with having screwed national politics, Deve Gowda is now screwing Karnataka with his son H.D. Kumaraswamy. As long as we don't have a well-defined set of guidelines to elect national leaders, we will be mired in this world of unbounded irrationality electing people like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Bilawal Bhutto etc. The fact that these netas are educated in Harvard/Oxford is not going to fool me. Do you honestly believe that it is difficult for such people to get into Harvard or any other big school? Do they have the capacity to formulate a given problem?

The only dynastic leader who deserved to be a leader is the late Indira Gandhi. Despite her mishaps with emergency in mid 1970s, it is undeniable that she was a born leader, unlike the self-anointed netas of current politics. Even Benazir, whom the western media and world considers a martyr, is over-rated in my view. Yes, her loss of life is tragic. But is her death more tragic than many innocent lives that are being lost in many countries as I write this post? In my view, Benazir was as incompetent as any other politician of Pakistan. It was during her reign, militancy in Punjab reached its peak. It was during her reign, ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits started. It was with her blessings that militant camps were built to disintegrate India. Except for a few issues, she largely continued Islamization of Pakistan and Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies that were started by Zia-ul-Haq. During her 2nd term in power, Benazir played a significant role in the creation of Taliban. When Taliban assumed control of Afghanistan, Benazir's Pakistan was one of the 3 countries to recognize it in the spineless United Nations. Ironically, it is these people, whom Benazir cultivated, who are largely responsible for her death. The current state of Pakistan, menace of Taliban, Al Qaeda and other forms of Islamic fundamentalism, could be attributed to Zia-ul-Haq, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf and other world leaders who have supported these incometent people over the years. It is important to note that Zia and Musharraf were not democratically elected, and yet were strong allies of western leaders !!!

I write with deep pain, that despite numerous instances of obvious failures, incompetency is richly rewarded in this world of unbounded irrationality. It is heartening to note that someone in Pakistan thinks along these lines, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7165619.stm

I salute this brilliant lady Aila Hameed who is as old as me. Sadly, her voice will never be heard. Strange are the ways Democracy works !!!

Everybody Says I am Greedy !!!

No thats not the title of the next nation captivating sitcom on TBS or in any other telly. Thats probably what A-Rod might be thinking now. And I think A-Rod is indeed greedy. The way he and Scott Boras announced his filing for free-agency in the midst of game 4 of world series, and the obnoxious paycheck ( 30 million USD ) he is demanding for the next ten years, come to my mind readily. Thankfully, A-Rod is NOT asking to be paid in Canadian Dollars, taking advantage of current USD weakening against Canadian dollar !!! Its good that A-Rod and Scott Boras are not economists, and that he is not too greedy to be that greedy. :-)

Come to think of it, anyone would be out of their minds to pay what he is asking. Yes, he has piled on home runs. But he has never delivered in October, when it matters, and so has never won a ring. To compound his problems, he is rumored to have been a disruptive influence in locker rooms in the past. The way he handled himself from Seattle to Texas to Bronx has been nothing but a media circus. All his (potential) suitors should take into account that the Yankees couldn't even reach world series during his three years with them. Therein lies an important lesson. And that is, by coughing up huge packet for A-Rod, a team will NOT be able to afford other superstars that you need to win world series. Even a team like the Yankees, renowned for their bottomless bank accounts, couldn't achieve that.

The Yankees ( Brian Cashman and the Steinbrenners ) might think A-Rod is greedy too. Voila !!! Finally, the Yanks and I are on the same wave-length on atleast one topic of interest. Truly a remarkable event, thanks to A-Rod. But its very funny when the Yankees crib about A-Rod, afterall they are the epitome of greed. Nevertheless, these are good times to be a Bostonian !

Quite a few in the media have expressed their anguish and anger about this whole thing unfolding during world series. Some have used their wit to express their views. The following link is one of the funniest I had come across. I, especially, like the one connecting A-Rod, Boston Red Sox and that silly Drew Barrymore movie Fever Pitch. If you know the media circus and the sitcoms that is aka A-Rod, you will enjoy this link.

Oh btw, it also has David Letterman's 10 funny excuses for Rockies' loss to Red Sox... :-)

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/071031&sportCat=mlb

Make Hay While the Sun Shines... So Loot The Loot when You Can !!!

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has collected tons of items at security check points since 9/11, from passengers who obviously hadn't bothered to check the list of permissible items. And guess what, they are available online or through retail stores at knockdown prices. This definitely qualifies as Looting The Loot, if only you have interest for these items. Some items include the usual stuff, viz. kitchen knives, cork screws, golf clubs, Swiss army knives etc. A few exotic stuff includes ninja swords, canes with knives inside (can be found at Austin and Dallas) and, hold your breath, a round Eskimo chopping blade called ulus !!!

Some weird stuff include machetes, chain saw, deer-hunting kit, and yesss lots of fuzzy handcuffs and errr, lets say other paraphernalia to spice up your nightlife if you are kinky enough to be Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas in The Basic Instinct !!!

For more details, check out
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-20727057;_ylc=X3oDMTFrZXJjazY1BF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEX3MDMjcxOTQ4MQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDZnAtdG9kYXltb2QEc2xrA2xvb3Q

An Innovative/Geeky way to Propose !!!

Since my high school days, for about a decade now, I had been thinking about innovative ways to propose to a girl. Being an old-fashioned macho romantic, I totally detest SRK's stuttering, Salman et al. 's silly style of romance. Unfortunately, it works with most desi women of modern times. Can life be any more sad??? Some girl once told me that I can't be both macho and a die-hard romantic at the same time, as according to her, one conflicts the other. Thats one of the dumbest things I have ever heard, and I had to give her a load of my infamous lip service/trash talking. Whatever happened to the old-fashioned raw and primal romance???

My earliest impressions of classy romance goes back to my days as a kid, through various Hindu mythologies. I could name Kambar's Ramayana and Lord Krishna-Sathyabama episode as two of them that impressed me the most. While Lord Krishna seizing Sathyabama, from her swayamvara, was cool, very romantic and macho, all at the same time, Kambar's poetic version of Valmiki Ramayana is simply a lyrical beauty. Kambar, one of the greatest Tamizh poets of all time, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambar%2C_Tamil , also left an indelible impression in the Tamizh film industry, as many 50s, 60s, 70s, and even 80s movies believed in such classy romance and used to invoke many lines from Kambar's poetry. Much later, quite a few movies in both Tamizh and English had interesting characterizatons of romance that appealed to me. Some of the Tamizh movies include Indru Poyi Naalai Vaa, Kaadhalika Neramillai, Mouna Raagam and Alaipayuthey, and the most notable among the Hollywood are North By North West and Natural Born Killers.

Originality and improvisations always appealed to me wrt romance. So when I came across this news article, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070924/ap_on_fe_st/odd_crossword_proposal , I can't help appreciating this creative guy, for being so original and for making the occasion quite memorable. Romance before marriage could be a great time for all the parties concerned, and I hope men come up with more stylish and innovative ways to propose... My best wishes to this couple from Boston/Cambridge.

Beli-genius and Beli-hating morons

In my previous post, I had referred players of Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers as sore losers, for questioning Patriots' superbowl victories. Their views can be found at http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-eagles-nflspying&prov=ap&type=lgns

To some extent players' comments are understandable given the amount of pain they go through trying to win a super-bowl ring. I don't know if footballers' IQ levels drop as a result of constant pounding and battering they are subjected to as part of the game, due to which they make extravagant extrapolations. But it is disgusting when people in the media try to drumbeat along those lines. Aren't journalists supposed to have higher IQ than players? As the above link shows, Philadelphia Daily News ran a headline on Thursday that reads as, "Counterfeit RING: Spy Scandal Helps Explain Birds' Super Bowl Loss." WTF !!! Seriously, WTF !!! Hows the f@#k does this spy scandal explain Eagles' loss ??? The purported crime under scanner is that Patriots had a member of their staff, dressed in Patriots' jersey, videotaping opposing team's signals from the sidelines. I mean this guy was physically present videotaping. If Patriots' did videotape Eagles at some point in time in the past, someone would have obviously seen it, as I guess it is impossible to miss a 20 something man wearing your opponents jersey and viedotaping you from the sidelines. If they did actually see someone, they would have caught him, and lodged a complaint with the NFL. To my knowledge, no case was ever registered against Patriots or Belichick by Eagles. So in all fairness, if there is no complaint or any evidence, then its highly probable that the crime didn't happen. So Patriots simply outplayed and out-thought Eagles. It is unbelievable that a newspaper will hire a moron journalist to write such articles.

Looks like there are a lot of jealous and stupid people in the media. Check this out http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AtVpX37gZp5OGsxtSLOrKgFDubYF?slug=belichickslackofarespons&prov=tsn&type=lgns

For starters, Belichick is not media savvy. He literally states the obvious in the most boring fashion possible in all his press conferences. He is known to be a man of few words, a very professor like. Obviously, he does his job of coaching Patriots extremely well, and thats what he gets paid for. So when Mike Nahrstedt is spitting venom on Belichick, he conveniently forgets that Patriots are having an extremely important game against fellow title contenders from San Diego, and that Belichich wants to focus on the game in front of him and not get distracted. Belichick admitted in the press conference that he made a mistake, and accepted punishment imposed by the NFL. He didn't cry like a petulant kid. So, I don't see anything wrong when he wants to focus his energy and attention on LT, Merriman, Gates and Co. instead.

Even more funny is this article, http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AlDYfimbKINS0pvVPSjXvElDubYF?slug=belichickscheatingtarnis&prov=tsn&type=lgns

Patriots are one of the three teams that is heavly favored to win this year's super bowl. The author claims that "Belichick has sullied his team's season. Even if the Patriots hoist the Lombardi Trophy after Super Bowl 42 in Glendale, Ariz., the trophy should feel tarnished in Belichick's hands." Lets take a step back, and look at this statement assuming Patriots do win this year's superbowl. Patriots were caught videotaping in the 1st game against Jets. NFL commissioner agrees with the view that the tape didn't play any role in Patriot's resounding win over New York Jets. Since Patriots, now, don't have the tape, it is not going to help them beat Jets if they meet again this year. And its unlikely that Patriots have tapes of other teams' signals, as I said before, it is impossible to miss a stranger from opposing team videotaping on the sidelines. Someone is going to catch him for sure in a stadium that houses 100,000 people. And Patriots are unlikely to repeat this viedotaping stunt again. So if Patriots do win super bowl this year, it is unlikely that this "spy-gate" scandal would have played any role in it. Patriots would have won due to their well-documented teamwork, mental toughness and meticulous planning. Its as simple as that. So to all those morons trying to come up various theories to discredit Patriots, stop whining and assess situations objectively, and not subjectively.

Beli-genius, San Diego, and a bunch of sore losers

A day earlier Bill Belichick and my beloved New England Patriots were fined by NFL for the "spy-gate" scandal. Belichick is widely considered as one of the greatest defensive coaches over the last 30 years, and has made New England the dynasty as it stands right now. He made a mistake, got caught ( its appropriate to remember that Patriots were caught last year against Green Bay too) and paid for it, and now its time to move on and focus on the mouthwatering clash between New England Patriots and San Diego Chargers on Sunday. When current and former players of Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers start questioning about Patriots' super bowl victories, they are just being sore losers. Its disgraceful when they attempt to discredit Belichick for his hours and hours of hardwork and Tom Brady for all his brilliant screening passes in the faces of multiple blitzes. Patriots' were never caught videotaping Eagles nor Steelers, and in the absence of any evidence, it is jealousy that is driving them to besmirch lofty reputations of Belichick, Brady and Patriots.

Thankfully Belichick is an extremely driven and focussed guy, and we Bostonians love him every bit for his intensity. Hope we have a wonderful game against San Diego tomorrow. Meanwhile, Belichick press conference is as humorous as it can get...He quotes "San Diego" 11 times, "Chargers" 12 times, and "moving on" or "moving forward" 12 times, and refuses stubbornly to be flustered by the intense grilling by the media...Only Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy in the movie Anchorman would have said "San Diego" more number of times...:-)

Way to go Bill, and good luck...

Bill's transcript, for funny reading, could be found at
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=ArUg7JhnNrv2Rl8v0NZCUZIdsLYF?slug=ap-nflspying-belichicktranscript&prov=ap&type=lgns

After 147 games this year, Boston Red Sox is in that familiar final stretch of the marathon, towards playoffs, facing arch-rival Newyork Yankees for the last time in the regular season. This three game series, one of the most awaited clashes all year long, kicking off at Boston's Fenway Park on Friday, has everything that embodies bitter rivalry between Boston and New York in sports. Starting pitchers indulging in war of words, relief pitchers intentionally harming opposing team's batters, key Boston players joining the evil empire ( read J. Damon and R. Clemens), Alex Rodriguez and a lot of bad blood from decades and decades of rivalry. It also features one of the most outstanding pitching lineups ever in the history between the two teams, atleast on paper, with Boston's Dice K starting against New York's Andy Pettitte on Friday night.

Even though Dice K's dream start has turned sour over the last few weeks, his high ERA against Yankees is not exactly a great stat, there is a strong belief that he is about to turn that corner sooner. With Manny returning to the lineup friday night, this could be the extra confidence that Dice K needs to outperform Pettitte. This series closes with two marquee pitching matchups as 18-game winners Chien-Ming Wang and Josh Beckett meet Saturday, and Roger Clemens will return from elbow problems to face Curt Schilling on Sunday night.

This series will also be eagerly watched in Detroit. A Yankee series loss will certainly help Detroit in its playoff chances. A sweep will help Boston gain that extra mental advantage if Yankees do manage to stave off challenge from Detroit for the playoffs. Nevertheless, there is a lot at stake for both Boston and New York, and this series is as exciting as one can hope for.

Whitewashes, bloody excuses and funny quotes !!!

A collection of funny quotes over the week or so, except for one that was quoted earlier this year by Wayne Bridge of Chelsea FC. Starting of with a pseudo-funny but actually a sombre one by the one and the only Ozzie.

1) Ozzie Guillen is one of the most colorful characters in sports today. Manager of Chicago White Sox baseball team had this to say afterbeing battered in the doubleheader by Boston Red Sox on Friday,"(Today) was 12 hours of my life wasted, and I am never going to get it back". Boston outscored Chicago 21-4 in the doubleheader, and swept the four game series with a combined score of 46-7, taking all the momentum ahead of their much-hyped three game series against NY Yankees. Somehow you can't help feeling sorry for Ozzie. Good luck to you next year.

2) Atleast once in our life we have given silly excuses to support our case when we were kids, and even when were adults. This is the funniest one I have heard in a while. Majid Haq happens to play for Scotland cricket team, and was supposed to represent their team against Ireland in the Intercontinental cup, an ICC sponsored tournament, I guess. But he backed off citing work commitments, and this is what he said. "My dad runs a takeaway in Paisley and I have to help out this weekend because my mum and brother are both away in Pakistan, one of our chefs is unavailable and our delivery driver has gone to jail for three weeks."

3) Chelsea FC and England left-back Wayne Bridge had this to say, earlier this year, after Chelsea struggled to beat some lowly team in English FA cup, "A win is a win, and I am glad we took three points out of this game." FA cup is a knockout tournament, you win you stay, you lose and you go home. Wayne was so confused about the tournament he was playing that he probably thought that was at a champions League game or a Premiership match.

4) "I've got four women in my house - my wife and my three daughters - and I tell you what, it's pretty scary. I keep my head down and if we're out shopping I try and look in a man's shop while they make their minds up." - Ian Holloway gives his verdict on who wears the trousers, probably after Roy Keane's rant against soccer stars' WAGs (wives and girlfriends).

5) "I love the big man, absolutely brilliant. Some of the films were a bit dodgy. That one where he was diving off a cliff, climbed back up to the top, his hair was immaculate and he wasn't even wet... and for me that's why he's the King." - Ian Holloway's Elvis tribute in his BBC column. Looks like our Rajini is not far behind in style stakes.

6) "Drogba will finish top scorer by a long stretch and Tevez won't be too far behind." - Someone at one of the online forums about the weekend Premiership games on BBC.

7) "Nothing surprises me any more in the Premiership, but that surprises me." - Alan Curbishley on the delay in the move for Kieron Dyer to West Ham.

8) "He is different from our other strikers... he can score goals." - Liverpool FC manager Rafael Benitez on Ukrainian Andrei Voronin. Err...isn't that what strikers are supposed to do anyways ???

9) "Don't hoover up while Chelsea are playing because if you knock the telly, Robben will fall over." - Former Dutch international Ruud Gullit quotes chaos theory scientists to give his verdict on Chelsea!

10) "And the two strikers exchange hands..." - During the Radio Scotland commentary of the last Rangers game, as Nacho Novo replaced Kris Boyd...Must have been quite a scary one to watch !!!

Darjeeling Limited and No Country for Old Men

2007 is going to be the year in which two of the four finest film directors of our generation (the next generation according to me) will be releasing their long awaited creations. The directors are Wes Anderson (The Darjeeling Limited), and Coen Brothers (no Country for Old Men). For those of you who had been following my orkut profile would have come across these movie names, for some time now.

I saw trailer of Darjeeling Limited when I went for a stylish film by an unconventional but brilliant film director Danny Boyle (Sunshine), earlier today. Sheer joy of seeing a Wes Anderson trailer after so long a time on big screen is indescribable. This movie, partly shot in India, is about three estranged brothers Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman, who try to revive their blood relationships as brothers while on a spiritual journey across India, after their dad's death. Wes Anderson's simple and precise handling of complex subjects through intelligent narration has given him a cult status across the world. This movie seems to be no different. Even though Wes is once again blessed with fine actors in his production, strangely no Bill Murray and Kumar Pallana, Wes seems to have hit bull's eye in screenwriting mastery, once again, from his trailer. I hope movie turns out as good as it seems. Check out the trailer at http://imdb.com/title/tt0838221/trailers

Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan) have given us so many memorable movies. Even though I had seen many Hollywood action and comedy movies by the time I entered 5th grade, my first film-noir type movie was Coen bros' Rising Arizona in my 5th or 6th grade. It was one of the movies that had a positive influence on me on screenwriting, and was the start of what has turned out to be a very fine sequence Coen bros' movies at the hallowed Sathyam and Devi cinemas in Chennai. The list goes like Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing and Fargo, interspersed with The Hudsucker Proxy and the Big Lebowski (the ultimate dude movie), and even a O Brother, Where Art Thou? His latest offering is, based on a very popular book by Cormac McCarthy by the same name, set in Texas-Mexican border, about a sequence of events related to a drug deal gone bad. A story set in deserted-eery Texas, about the role of chance in life, stash of cash, blood, revenge and madness is always a great recipe for cult success. I wish November come sooner, atleast for the premiere of this latest Coen' bros' baby.

Remdawg, Don and Red Sox nation

One of the reasons why its worth watching Boston Red Sox play baseball day-in and day-out on NESN (New England Sports Network) is for the commentators Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo, and ofcourse the pretty ladies Tina Cervasio and Hazel Mae. Don and Remy are really an oddball combination. With their witty remarks and inane discussions they really liven up the mood, especially when Red Sox is floundering, as they have been offlate.

Not long back, Boston was ahead of New York Yankees by nearly 15 games in the AL East division of MLB!!! And then the Yankees literally crushed all the weak teams down the divisions, while Boston weren't that ruthless. After a couple of shocking away series for the team as a whole, one to Seattle and one to Detroit, and shocking performances of Eric Gagne against Baltimore and more recently against LA Angels, the lead was down to a mere 5 games. There was genuine fear in the air about the impending series in Bronx...Is this a reprise of last year's Boston Massacre??? Red Sox were ahead by 3 games this time last year when Yankees visited Boston for a 5 game series in 4 days. Its more apt to say, they came, they saw, and they battered us to submission. Those 4 days were too much for any Bostonian to handle. In a flash, the miracle of 2004 series was forgotten, and then perennial pessimistic side of Boston started to surface. After all New York is the evil empire, and Boston is the perennial underdog fighting the oppressors !!! When you see buses in Boston screaming with "Go Sox" logos this time of the year, when series' against Yankees are on the horizon, you can almost sense the panic in the air. A couple of elderly ladies from Dallas and Austin were amused to see the passion that is associated with Boston-New York rivalry in sports, especially in baseball.

Anyways, as I write this post, Boston's Curt Schilling was having a rough time handling LA's batters. In 5 innings he had already conceded 4 runs, and the Angels were consistenly threatening to score more. You could see that Angels were more relaxed and Boston's shoulders were drooping. Schilling was having lots of problems in locating his fast ball. And then he pitches a lovely split-finger fast ball only to see it disappear above the Green Monster. Unfortunately for Schilling, the batter he faced was Vladimir Gurrerro. And then came the news that Yankees had defeated Detroit with Roger clemens improving his record. Boston was trailing by 5 runs, and had to win to preserve 5 game lead over New York. Everything seemed to go down, and the crowd at Fenway were quiet, and the crowd at the bar I was watching was staring in disbelief. Its at this moment Remdawg and Don changed the topic of discussion from baseball to dating women, that changed the entire mood in the bar. It goes like this.

Remdawg: Do you remember the pick up line I gave you 2 years back? That was a good one.
Don: yes it is. How can I forget that? You were in great mood then...
Remdawg: Yes I was. But I wasn't trying to pick up girls. I was only helping you guys. I think we were in New York for the game. And we saw this unbelievably beautiful woman at the restaurant, eating all alone.
Don: And you walked upto her and made a conversation...
Remdawg: Thats right. I walked up to her, and asked her if she is eating alone??? And she said "yes". I then said " You shouldn't be !!!".
Don: and then you walked away !!!! leaving her openmouthed !!!
Remdawg: Yes I did. Its one of those days, I was in the mood, and I was only helping out the other guys who were very stiff...

This and the ensuing conversation really lightened the mood at the bar, and we were all smiling even though another Boston defeat was looming large. All of a sudden Boston's offense started firing. They loaded the bases, and were harassing LA's starter Weaver. Then Big Papi hits a grandslam, and in a flash Boston was ahead by 1 run. A shellshocked Weaver had to be taken off the game, and Red Sox toyed with LA's relief pitchers, and in the end scored 10 unanswered runs !!!

Atlast there is some hope of a fight, and we eagerly await our showdown with New York, first in Bronx and later at Fenway Park. It has been a pleasure listening to Remdawg and Don over the games. Their silly conversations liven up the mood when Red Sox are down, and its agreat feeling when Boston claws back the lead, and the game !!! Go Sox.

I Saved 50 cents !!! A Simple Joy of Life :-)

Ofcourse not the rapper, which if I had did I would be now shaking my ass with bootilicious women instead of writing this post, but 2 quarters. Thats right, I saved 2 quarters coins !!! Eureka !!!

First I need to give my axiomatic definition of "Simple Joys of Life", as its highly subjective. The two simple rules that go into the definition are

1) It has to be simple...:-) I mean it should not involve expensive things or it should not be expensive, ie., it should be insignificant in monetary value...

2) Occurrence of that event has to be an extreme event...I mean the event shuld lie in the fat tails of the distribution of the random variable called Simple Joys...or in other words, probability of the occurrence of that event is very small...Some examples of extreme events, include occurrence of a nuclear explosion or that of an earthquake or tsunami...Assuming you live in an area that is not prone to above accidents, otherwise it would be repeating incidents and not accidents...

Last night when I went to do my laundry, I was half asleep. Thats because I did my laundry at near midnight..whatever...Now I dump my clothes in the washer that I normally I don't use. I normally use the first washer at the door. But last night I don't know why I chose the last washer from the door...whatever...So I dump my clothes in this washer, add detergent, and when I am about to add coins, I notice that it needs only 75 cents. Normally it requires a bribe of $ 1.25 to make it work. Blimey, someone added 50 cents and left the laundry !!!

Now this qualifies as "A Simple Joy of Life", as per my axiomatic definition outlined above. Lets look at the purchasing power of 50 cents. I mean what can one possibly buy with 50 cents? You can neither get a bottle of water nor a can of beer...:-( Even if you want to take advantage of economies of scale, and buy a pack of beer cans, to achieve your objective of getting a can of beer for 50 cents, you still need to generate money in an exogenous manner. So that doesn't really count. Even if you convert into Indian Rupees, that turns out to be roughly Rs.20, you could get a couple of keera vadais, one potato bonda or mysore pak, and one coconut poli, or one good pani puri and masala chai...well there are actually quite a lot of great combinations when you convert 50 cents to smiling Gandhis...But the cost of going to India to spend 50 cents is ridiculous...So it satisfies the 1st condition...

Now this event is also an extreme event...I mean what are the odds of coming across someone who would add 50 cents to the washer and decide to leave abruptly? Even if he doesn't want to use washer, he could have easily pressed the toggle next to the coin slot which would return his coins...So it satisfies the 2nd rule too !!!

So saving 50 cents in my fast dwindling bank balance qualifies as "A Simple Joy of Life" !!!:-)

In Pursuit of Happiness ( a mean-reverting property of life? )

Mind is the forerunner of states of existence. Mind is chief, and (those states) are caused by the mind. If one speaks and acts with a pure mind, surely happiness will follow like one's own shadow! - Gautama Buddha and also The Bhagavad Gita

Happiness is an emotional or affective state that is characterized by feelings of enjoyment and satisfaction. As a state and a subject, it has been pursued and commented on extensively throughout world history. This reflects the universal importance that humans place on happiness, courtesy Wikipedia.

I can't figure out my sudden surge in the philosophies of Happiness. I guess I just woke this Sunday morning and had a trailer of some pleasant flashbacks. An abstract business cycle alternates between contraction (recession) and expansion of the economy, saddled by peaks and troughs, as shown in the figure, reverting to an imaginary mean. Many other things in life imitates mean-reverting properties, for instance prices of financial instruments (stocks, bonds etc.)...How about happiness in life? Hmmm...it appears so.

After the mundane things this morning, I placed my mug with Bru instant coffee in microwave to heat it, and decided to clean up my closet. I set my eyes on a blue baggage that had a huge plastic bag inside. I couldn't recollect what it contained, as its been a while since I touched it. On opening it, I felt like the old man in the movie Amelie who is overjoyed on seeing his long lost trinkets. In the bag were audiocassettes/tapes of GNR, Nirvana, scorpions, AC/DC, Van Halen and David Lee Roth, Black Sabbath ( gosh, did I listen to these crap one point of time in my life?), great collections of the legendary M.S., and a whole lot of assorted collections MLTR, Michael Bolton (what the hell?), Cranberries (remember the popular song "Animal Instincts"?), Cardigans (remember "Love Fool" from the movie "Romeo and Juliet"?), Richard Marx, to name a few.

With my Bru in hand I went over to my desk, put my feet on the desk, leant back on my rocking chair, and closed my eyes to savor this moment. These audiocassettes, insignificant in monetary value, brought out a deluge of diverse emotions. That obnoxious boy who used to play mridangam at 4AM and wake everyone up, customary ablutions, morning prayer and sandhis followed by that great filter coffee, daily dosage of mathematics, idli for breakfasts, school and sweet girls, pretty girls and Sruthilaya (a dance school founded by actress Shobana), dosas and adais for evening tiffin, street cricket and fights for couple of hours, shower followed by sandhis, homeworks, rasam for dinner, few games of carrom board with friends and family, late night masala tea/milk at the street corner tea shop...hmmm...life was so stress free, laid-back and pleasant...Certainly those were the peaks of my happiness cycle. And if happiness in life is mean-reverting too, I hope I have reached my trough and look forward to the upward surge in that real-valued function called Happiness...For some desserts are "The simple Joys in Life...". :-) For me, a feeling of nostalgia of that long lost world is the big kick.

Does Happiness really have cyclical properties or is it a myth? If its not a myth, is it reverting to a mean that can be estimated with reasonable levels of confidence? What are the statistical properties of that mean? Using various monetary and fiscal policies, the Fed tries to avoid/delay recession and shocks to the economy by allowing a gradual slowdown. If Happiness indeed has cyclical properties, hope GOD tries something similar, to the fed, to slow down troughs (sorrows and pain) in the cycle of Happiness...

Bangalore's IT revolution and its (supposedly) dangerous impact on TN and Kerala !!!

There is no smoke without a fire - Someone Wise

All of us would have come across samaritans who wear placards about impending apocalyse, and how GOD is the ONLY savior on this judgement day ( as shown in the above pic). Well dear readers, I am sorry to break out that they are actually true, if you were to believe The Hindu, the respected and widely read newspaper in Chennai and which every Tam would love to read with a strong filter coffee every morning !!!

As very well documented, Bangalore's IT revolution and its subsequent rise from one of the prominent cities in South India to one of the prominent cities of the world is a stuff of the legend. Many firms with Bangalore as its base have a made a name of themselves in this IT revolution. With this IT revolution comes the inevitable changes to the Bangalore fabric. Migration of people, overcrowding, increase in traffic, law and order issues, vanishing greenery, soaring real estate prices etc., to name a few.

While many in the media have highlighted these and other various issues at various lengths, I was startled to find a new trend affecting the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. According to The Hindu dated July 9th 2007, two cities/towns of TN, namely Coimbatore and Salem, and Kozhikode from Kerala have reportedly migrated to Karnataka. Please look into, http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/09/22hdline.htm

Looks like these three couldn't resist the seduction of Karnataka's ever increasing real-estate prices, and have decided to migrate so as to not rot further in their states. This is the strongest message of Apocalyse to all the lunatic polictians in Tamil nadu and Kerala. If you politicians don't come up with an IT revolution of your own in TN and Kerala, expect more cities to migrate to Karnataka !!!

Either get HIGH (in IT) or your end is NIGH !!!

Satyameva Jayate - Adi Shankara from the Mundaka Upanishad

This is in response to my last post on how GOD and media gang up against good news. Here we see their other face...after all everyone has Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in them. :-)

The above quote in Sanskrit means that "Truth Alone Triumphs.". It is also one of the main pillars of the Indian Constitution, and it appears in our national emblem and the ever impressive Ashoka Pillar.

We are used to seeing the famous quote bear fruition only in movies, as truth rarely prevails in real-life. Its only in desi movies, the disgruntled and frustrated hero takes upon himself to right the wrongs with his one-man army against a gang of corrupt politicians and ruthless mafia. But thanks to the media uproar, justice was served in two ghastly murders that I have followed in the last decade. Certainly, it was heartening to see Ms. Jessica Lall and Ms. Priyadarshini Mattoo finally get justice against powerful men. For more details on these 2 cases, refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Lal and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priyadarshini_Mattoo.

While Jessica's case is more or less settled, it is disconcerting to note that Santosh Singh, the man found guily in Priyadarshini's case, is now appealing to the Supreme Court of India raising questions about the validity of DNA evidence. Hope this poor girl gets justice...

While it appears that media uproar did make a difference to these two cases, it makes me wonder if media uproar resulted in public uproar or the vice-versa? In other words, does media really care about doing good for the public or does it feed on public's fetishes? Another way to say that would be, does media highlight only those news that capture public's imagination, to make a few more quids, or does it ever highlight injustice even when it slips out of public's thoughts?...

Hmmm, maybe this will go down for another post, another time...:-)

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe ...

The world is HIS playground, and we are mere players - The Bhagavad Gita

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe is a children's counting rhyme, used to select "it" for games and similar purposes, whose desi counterpart is "inky pinky ponky...". My view on this is, that GOD gave humans the economic concept of utility theory so that they can make a decision on the choices based on their utility value. When presented with choices of identical utility value, humans use counting rhymes as above or toss a coin or any other means to break deadlocks. Another way to look at this type of decision-making is that GOD is unbiased, by default, when choices have identical utility value, and biased towards choice(s) (with higher utility values) when values are distinct. For all those atheists out there, substitute "GOD" by "Nature" as it is commonly modeled in neo-classical and evolutionary game theory.With all pun intended, ofcourse...

I first came across "Eeny, meeny,..." version in 90s in Pulp Fiction and later in Natural Born Killers. It is the latter movie that is more relevant for this post. A wonderful movie about a couple of psychopathic serial killers, Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis, followed closely by a journalist Robert Downey Jr., highlighting how paparazzi follows useless people relentlessly, and ends up making them celebrities. Ofcourse all of you could come up with numerous instances in real-life. It seems that when there are so many good news that media could focus on, they always seem to rely on not-so good happenings around the world. While it is important to report about Kosovo, Darfur, Iraq, Paris Hilton, Shilpa Shetty (I'm really not sure about Paris and Shilpa) etc., many good news seem to get marginalized.

Contributions of two Indian mathematicians were acknowledged over the last 1 year or so, by very famous international committees, and the Indian media have ignored them (I would love to be proven wrong), forget the international media. The concerned mathematicians are Prof. Ramdorai Sujatha and Prof. Srinivasa Varadhan. Prof. Sujatha of TIFR was awarded The Ramanujan Prize in 2006 for her work on the arithmetic of algebraic varieties and her substantial contributions to non-commutative Iwasawa theory. Follow http://users.ictp.it/~sci_info/awards/Ramanujan/RamanujanWinners/Ramanujan06.html and http://www.norwayemb.org.in/Press+Releases/ramanujan+prize.htm, for more details. An award in the name of one of the finest Indian mathematicians of all time, founded in Italy, went practically unnoticed. :-(

Prof. Varadhan of CIMS, NYU was awarded the 2007 Abel Prize, regarded as the Nobel equivalent in Mathematics, for his contributions to Probability Theory and for his work in the Theory of Large Deviations. Abel committee's citation in Tamil certainly makes a wonderful read with rarely heard tamil words for quantum statistics, probability theory and various technical terms for concepts in probability. His biography, known to many students, is very poignant. It outline his struggle starting from humble roots in Chennai, his work with his advisor C.R. Rao ( of the famous Cramer-Rao bounds in Statistics) at ISI, Calcutta, his chancy meeting with Russian probabilist A.N. Kolmogorov, his early days at NYU, words of appreciation from another great probabilist Prof. Daniel Stroock of MIT, and lastly tragic death of his son in 9/11 bombings. For more details, look http://www.abelprisen.no/en/prisvinnere/2007/

It is very sad that Indian media failed to honor 2 of its great mathematicians. Such news has the potential to inspire few young kids to achieve something for India. Hope media, in future, will address GOD's/Nature's bias against good news' by dedicating some space and time towards such news.

While on a recent visit to Chennai, one of my uncles casually remarked that Varadhan's family lived a few blocks from where we once lived in East Tambaram. While I was overjoyed on hearing this, I was upset to find that my cousins had no idea of either Prof. Sujatha or Prof. Varadhan and were seemingly happy in discussing about Ash-Abhishek marriage, Shilpa Shetty and likes. This was the motivation for this post.

R.I.P Jeeva

The beauty will save the world - Dostoevsky from The Idiot

Right from a very young age I was fortunate to be part of various groups that loved to engage in animated discussions over movies. Some groups used to focus on screen writing, with Jayakanthan, Balachander, Mahendran, Sujatha, Anuradha Ramanan etc. to name a few that dominated our discussions. Some others were into more technical aspects of film making, more notably cinematography, with the likes of P.C. Sriram, Balu Mahendra, Ashok Kumar, Madhu Ambat etc, featuring in them. One of the young turks in cinematography, along with Rajiv Menon, Ravi Chandran etc., to make a name for himself over the last decade was Jeeva. Despite starting out with 2 big hits in Gentleman and Kaadhalan, Jeeva stood out in his third movie Indian. The vision, the color, the angles, the lighting were so good that Jeeva made headlines and held his own. Now thats no mean feat for a youngster when you compete for headlines with heavyweights like Kamal Hasan, Shankar, A.R. Rahman, Sujatha, Thotta Tharani, Lenin and Vijayan. Sadly, Jeeva passed away few days back at a relatively young age, with expectations unfulfilled. He was only 44.

Jeeva must have been an humble person in real-life too. After 2 blockbusters with Shankar, Jeeva donned the hat of camera assistant to Rajiv Menon for Manirathnam's Bombay, while Shankar was busy working out details for his next movie with Kamal. Now thats a big climbdown from stardom to just another boy under flashlights.

If Dostoevsky was true as to what he meant, the world needs to find a new savior. Rest in Peace Jeeva.

My Home

A snapshot of a part of Boston at dusk...The tall building at extreme right is the Prudential. The building what I call as my home is sandwiched between Predential and Charles River. This picture was taken from MIT side of Cambridge with Charles River as your foreground, not by me...