02.28.09
De-tag!
Rehab, tag me again and you’re dead. Anyway, here goes. Ten totally irrelevant, random things about me.
1. Simulating antennas is fun. That’s how my first laptop burnt out. In my final year of bachelor of technology, i left one huge simulation on overnight. when i woke up in the morning and tapped my keyboard, my laptop gasped it’s last – literally. There was a puff of smoke out of the cooling vent and some crackling noises and electric sparks. Then she died – my poor baby.
2. I had an imaginary brother till i was 19 years old.
3. I’ve been held up by, um, let’s say, “anti-social elements” in India. And had life threatened.
4. I’ve been known to fall in love with cartoon characters. Aladdin, Huey, (Huey of Disney Hour, zee tv), Woody (Toy Story), so many.
5. I love the arts - music, dance, theatre, painting. These are my best stress busters. I love going to museums and acting in plays. When I’m really stressed, I just put on music and start dancing – often at 2 am in the morning. No, I’m not psycho 
I just love dancing.
6. The best way to see a city, if you ask me, is by foot. I walked all over Brussels. I swear. Over two days, we covered almost the whole city. We did the chocolate trail, the comic trail and parts of every other trail. It was serious fun! I love exploring cities and mixing with the locals. We met the most fascinating old man at a breakfast bar. And when he left he told us that I’ve the most speaking eyes. Whatever that means. You’ll never catch me in shorts and a straw hat, unless I’m in Bali or something.
7. I’m a tambrahm who wont drink coffee. Or eat coconut.
8. I’d give up all my life savings for one ride on a time machine. To go and live in the Victorian era. Just for one season though. Not forever. I couldn’t handle the insane women back then. I’d go nuts. And they’d be shocked to find a girl who lives in jeans, does math and hopes to have only one boyfriend.
9. My favorite way to read a book is to lounge on a couch at home in the darkness of a hot summer afternoon during agni-nakshatra with cold milo.
I do hereby pass this curse on to
Muhahahaha.
Cheers y’all
02.27.09
Madras! Nalla Madras!
Today was a cloudy, balmy day in Delft.
The sun put in an appearance before lunchtime and kept coming back to peek cheekily every now and then ever since. This is so exactly like the weather in Madras just before the monsoons!
That was always holiday time and it’s invariably connected to pictures in my mind, of sitting in maruti cars (later of corsas) and driving through long long highways, with the crazy wind screaming through the car, a wonderful lovely book that’s just been begun in my hand, mom and dad in the front seat, beautiful prospect of rains, tall tall palm trees bending in the wind, emerald green fields glittering away around the modest brown huts nestled snugly among them, of goats being driven across said highway and dad cursing at the goatherd, little brown kids with huge huge grins waving from the roads, zillion engineering colleges along the way, and the feeling of HOLIDAY in the air!
Knowing where my next indulgence was going to come from, knowing we were going to play all evening and all night and then tell ghost stories, knowing I’d see my mom’s face first thing in the morning and someone’s got my back – I can’t believe I took these things for granted. Okay, maybe I sound cliched. You only appreciate something when you lose it and all that. I just can’t believe how hard this realization is hitting me. Oh, I so NOT pampered at home. Believe you me. I guess I just took some of our social norms for granted.
It’s like some gentle nudge to remind of my blessings. I have such a fantastic family, and such fantastic friends. I got what I’d dreamt and worked for. What’s more, it now looks like I’m going to be able to combine many of my dreams into one single career. Being a writer, a linguist, an innovator and an entrepreneur. There’s nothing more that I could possibly ask for.
This is just so fantastic. Today’s weather has made me SO Happy! It’s good to be easy to please isn’t it? Doesn’t take too much to make you happy!
pictures courtesy: visithra.blogspot.com
02.25.09
Sex in Robot City.
It’s funny what a crazy society we live in. Don’t ask me why but I started watching Sex and the City last night. A single, slightly harassed space box-er, starts watching sex and the city in the middle of the night – NOT the most sane thing to do. Especially after covering a lecture on Love, Marriage and Sex with Robots by 2050, an article I had to write for my job.
I’m not so sure how realistic the Sex and the City series is. Maybe it’s accurate about Manhattan, but the rest of the world, I’m not so sure.
To the guys who are trying to figure women out, here are some revelations.
Revelation #1 – Skin is not a switch. Just by touching a girl you can NOT simply turn her on. What’s with all the women getting turned on as soon as the men touch them on this freakin series? I’m sorry, that’s SO not true. I saw five episodes and I’m yet to see a guy who is has serious sex appeal. Looks to me like a bunch of gay guys and desperate women got together and unable to find both acting jobs and blow jobs, just got together to have simulated sex on tv.
Revelation #2 – Not all women are looking for sensitive, caring, romantic, rich guys with potential. We’re sane, okay. We like the occasional normalcy. But it’s probably true that the older they get, women get pickier and pickier. And then it’s tougher and tougher to get a guy who fits everything.
I recently went to this lecture by a famous robotics scientist called David Levy. He predicts that by the year 2050, love, sex and marriage with robots will be common and, in fact, a social norm. Just like how having random sex is a ‘norm’ today. Yeah right.
Imagine, a socially conscious, little-finger-sticking-out tea drinking, napkin dabbing, boring suited western european talking to you about having sex with robots and why it’s inevitable in the ‘near’ future. You can? Try imagining sitting straight-faced through it. It was a freak show. I’m sorry, with all due to respect to Mr. Levy’s PhD in the subject, the failed to put forth any case at all, let alone a convincing one.
He claims that soon robots with feelings and emotion can be made. Okay, he actually said this – ‘on the company’s website you can specify the looks of the partner you want, specify the body size, the hair colour, eye colour, and face structure, etc and they can make them for you’. Okay, accepted. Then he goes on to say this – “We can use Artificial Emotion Technology’ to simulate feelings and emotions in robots. They can be programmed to like what you like and to change themselves immediately if you don’t like something in them.” Okay, that’s simply light years away from today’s state of the art in AI. So, Levy thinks that if you like Beethoven, the robot can be programmed to like it too and to have a conversation with you about Beethoven – maybe even play snippets of the music. I swear he said that. Imagine you’re on a date. Suddenly your date opens his mouth and you can hear beethoven’s music from his freakin speakers. How romantic. Even real life will have background music from now on in.
He’s addressing people from the technical university. We know what’s happening in robotics and artificial intelligence R&D. Making a statement like ‘It is straightforward to accurately predict the mood of a person with sensor information’ is just bullshit. The state of the art today is very advanced. But not that far advanced. You cannot accurately predict human emotion with a bunch of sensors now. And definitely not accurately. From the answers he gave our questions about the technical feasibility of these robots, it was obvious that it was very badly researched. So we moved on and people asked about the legal issues. Will these near-human robots have robotic rights? What about law and order? What about the social impact of something drastic like this? All these questions were left unanswered but Levy says he’s dead sure that we’ll be marrying robots by 2050.
P.S – as if you men din’t already have enough to live upto, now you’re gonna have to live up to the standards of a robot. i wish you all the luck in the world 
02.07.09
tracked in, tracked out
This year, Manglore’s going to have a verrrrrry interesting Valentine’s day! I was led to this link today. Apparently on V-Day the Ram sena is going to haunt the place with a priest in tow. And marry off couples displaying affection in public. Apparently at the nearessht temple. Muhahaha – where oh where do I begin? This is some priceless sh*t.
So if I go to Archies or someplace with a guy friend, they’ll pounce on me with a priest? What happens if I just give him a sane, normal hug? Will they marry us off? What if I go with two friends? Can I take my pick? Be an interesting evening for my parents, wouldn’t it? Hi mom. Hi dad. Meet my new husband. Courtesy the Wanar Sena, woooops sorry (not).
Anyway, do they really, truly, honestly, honor bright, think marriage is the solution? Do they TRUUULY believe we are as limited in mind as they are? That we wont get divorces? What if the boy is abusive? Or what if I’m abusive? What if I can’t stand the sight of his mug in a week? What if he’s a cross dresser and raids my cupboard (I’d kill him)? Will the sena also come to court to stop my divorce?
I cannot BELIEVE the short sightedness of these people. God! Where is sanity when you need it?
Dear Ramji, please grant this prayer of a devout. Let the Ram Sena meet lots and lots of gay couples displaying affection on V-Day. Muhahahaha.
P.S – while you’re at it, check this out!!
