Square root of 3

Yesterday I watched the sequel to the hit comedy Harold and Kumar. I would like to share this interesting poem from the movie on irrational number-root three (√3). The poem, actually, weaves a crucial scene during the end of the movie. Internet sources claim that the poem was written by director’s high school classmate Dave Feinberg, who also happens to be an MIT alumnus. Anyway, you enjoy the poem!

I’m sure that I will always be

A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,

Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,

I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,

With just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun,

As one point seven three two one (1.7321)

Such is my reality,

A sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,

Another square root of a three
As quietly co-waltzing by,

Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,

Rejoicing as an integer
We break free from our mortal bonds

With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued

Your love for me has been renewed

The follower

This is the strangest way
Of your departure
I can not see
But sense you everywhere

Nothing can transform me
To match your prominence
In submission I destroyed
My own existence

Believing in you
I traveled so far
Moon is my abode now
And companion is a star

To become a preacher
Is not so wise
I became a follower and
This is my only choice

A blissful destruction

Today is the day
Of my destruction
I am thinking about you
In my recollection

The sky has been
Celebrating for so long
It must have known
About my impending death-song

I am burning my house
For the light I can not see
I must be the most blissful soul
In the whole galactic sea

My new abode is
Just few steps away
But, I know, the distance
Will take an eternity of delay

Reality of a dream

Last night I had a dream in my sleep
Or was it a thought, when I was awake?
Whatever it was, it was quite profound
Or was it again, one of my ideas fake?

Wondering about the reality of my thoughts
Questioning about the existence of my dream
I found myself in a state of trance
Or was it again, an intentional scheme?

The question I ask over and again
The doubts I cast in all my themes
Is there any control of self and will?
Or is it again, the being supreme?

An enigma

The one that is in front
Is said to be the biggest odd
The one they never saw
Is said to be the greatest God

Life is said to be means
To a mysterious end
Some people call it an enigma
None can comprehend

Distance between hearts have moved
Beyond reconciliation
Why do they call men
Universe's greatest creation?

Few innocent flowers are still bleeding
In the holy garden
But then blood is necessary to restore
The earth and the heaven

What are POEMS, technically?

This one is a bit technical, but not difficult. I posted this piece to create some awareness about MEMS and related fields, as I have been referring to them in my earlier posts. This is also a reason for my love for POEMS. How? You will see once you read this paragraph:

“Miniaturization of optical components and their integration with the existing micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) has emerged as a new discipline in the last 2 decades, and is progressively making its way towards commercialization in a number of fields. It offers significant possibilities for achieving the micro-opto-electro-mechanical system (MOEMS) functionality necessary to meet the performance needs of a number of emerging applications, such as, imaging, sensing, communications, and control. Realization of these applications requires the development of a set of microoptical components and processes suitable for integration with MEMS and supporting microelectronics. The resulting MEMS “optical toolbox” will provide the standard building blocks with which photonic functions can be achieved within MOEMS. However, the traditional materials used for MEMS fabrication (silicon and derived compounds) can not provide high quality optical components. Apparently much better results can be obtained by using polymers, which have shown promising results for the fabrication of converging lenses, creating a whole new field of polymer based miniaturised optical systems as polymer-opto-electro-mechnical systems or POEMS.”

The big question?

I saw my own soul

Disappear in air thin
Suddenly I realized

Everyone is related to him

In an atmosphere

Of such honest purity
How do I measure

My own morality?

Who will decide

If I am the sinner?
There is no discrimination

Between failure and winner?

If that was the case

Then why did it all start?
That is the question

Raised by my curious heart

Still I love my school

The poem is written in remembrance of my school. It has been almost 10 years of my parting, but I still feel nostalgic thinking about the fun we used to have throughout the school life. This one is for you my lovely school…

Nothing has changed

Nothing is lost
Everything is the same

As I would have thought

Bell still rings

Chapel still sings
Teacher still shouts

Students still have doubts

Buildings with the yellow-brown stripes

Are still found
Ever scolding gardener

Is still around

There is still that physics examination

Students most fear
There is still that playground

Students find most dear

Eating food before interval

Is still an unwritten pact
“Teacher, can I come in”

Is still considered inapt

Still there is punishment

For homework not done
Still we cherish

When teacher says well-done

The sweetest of sound

Is still the last period bell
Even after ten years

My heart prays for my school doing well

Kangaroo on the table

Having seen Ankur’s adventure slash misadventure in my last post, I felt like sharing a misadventure of my own. Infact, I feel happy and a little stupid to share this incident with you. This is about my visit to an SPIE conference in Australia last December. As we all know that main attraction of an oversees conference is NOT THE CONFERENCE…but the word “OVERSEES” associated with it. Same applied to me.

Anyway, I was very excited about my maiden visit to Australia…Adelaide to be very precise…mostly because I wanted to see Kangaroos...LIVE... It was a 4 days event, and I wasn’t able to see a single Kangaroo for the first 3 days. On the last day we had a banquet …the most important activity of the conference….And I was about to see a Kangaroo…although I didn’t really realize it till the very last moment…Infact it was sitting (maybe lying) on my dinner table……You don’t believe me ?? Do you?

The dinner started with soup and …hold your breath… roasted KANGAROO…I didn’t eat it is another story. But it took me a while to understand that my first sight of a Kangaoroo was on my dinner table in the form of starters…However, I did manage to see a live one later.

So here is an advice to all those guys who are visiting Australia for the first time…please be ready to see a Kangaroo on your dinner table and otherwise.

And by the way the CONFERENCE WAS AWESOME!!!

A journey to remember

This one is from one of my friend Ankur's dairy

A Cold night at Delhi in the end of November. Without any warm clothes and heart beat touching 100 so as the speed of the auto also. If it misses what else can I do..on the day it was the last one and none other for the day. I had to catch it if I plan to avoid the cold and reach in time to attend the marriage.

It was a train...at 10.30 pm I had to catch , my friend Ashraf waiting at the railway station near the train. Not for me...but for the train to leave...Thats what he was waiting for. May be even hoping that I never reach there. At least he will have some sleep. After all my resrvation was in the waiting list.What's there in MEMS and MAMS? Can't that be discussed any other time?

An hour back I was on a flight. My flight to Delhi was scheduled to land at 8.15 pm, but thanks to some wonderful planning by our Indian governments in giving licenses to so many private airlines and not constructing any airports, my poor plane was hovering over the Delhi airport for one hour for the lack of parking space.

Damn I could have pressed a space bar and created many spaces on my PC but on airport...things were not beneath my fingers...

"Hope it lands in time for me to catch the train". I prayed
Seeing my praying hands asked nearby passenger."Which train are u supposed to catch and from which station ?"
I ignored the first question and flatly answered the second as nizammuddin. "
Oh Nizaamuddin. ..that's 40 min from the airport terminal..max 1hr." bang came the reply.
Nervous enough to talk further and his replies not making things easier." thanks "I said...I thought that would close the matter.
But I was wrong he came again..." Had it been New Delhi it would take u about an hr and a half but Nizammuddin that's pretty near ".

What non sense...Can't you keep quiet I thought. Now I was looking for a delete button on my keyboard which could have deleted him from my adjoining seat. But as always I dint get any. My boss used to get them whenever he was going through my draft copies. I landed at 8.45pm. Another Hr and a half to go. I thought that was easy now..but then luggage came after a lifetime ….15 min ... looked a lifetime to me then....Well anyways I still had an hr and 15 min and if the adjoining irritating person in my flight is to be believed then I still had a lot of time.

Well Ashraf took on 50 min to cover the distance I had 75 min...So decided to go for a PRE-PAID taxi counter...paid some 120 bugs...but for another lifetime…15 min…could not catch any of the taxis...They were all very busy to run off strategically avoiding me...either taking the passenger next to me or before me...but always avoiding me as if they knew I m not going to pay them a penny more than I have already paid at the counter.

But at 9.30 I managed to outsmart one of them and entered and asked him to drive like anything to enable me to reach Nizammuddin. I considered to tell my driver what John Abraham told Nana patekar about the horse powers and speed's relation to the money and all but then decided against it.

Meanwhile I came to know from Ashraf that the train is on Platform No 11 the last one. I reached at 10.20 on the station...haah...Thank god…I made it ten minutes early...gave a tip to the taxi driver for driving fast...confident enough and thanking god for listening to my prayers... Climbed up and enquired about the platform no 11 and lo... there were only 7 platforms. How come? Called Ashraf again

"Which platform did u tell...?"
"11 yaar..Last one ...and the last bogie for that matter..so make it fast" Again some one's reply not making life easier for me..

I checked the ticket and lo...the train was scheduled to depart from New delhi and not from Nizammuddin.!!!!

I stood there on Nizammuddin speechless staring at the big board over the station which read "Welcome to Hazrat Nizammuddin Railway Station ".

The other way round

To touch somebody’s heart

Is a great virtue
To let your heart get touched

Is a greater pursuit

To feel somebody’s pain

Is extremely considerate
To have somebody feel your pain

Is what I await

To realize your dream

Is hard work and determination
To help somebody realize his dream

Is real fascination

To have a friend

Is highly valuable
To be somebody’s friend

Is absolutely invaluable

To love someone

Is fortunate enough
To get loved in return

Is exceptional luck

To die for somebody

Is a big sacrifice
To have somebody to die for you

Is the real prize

To have your way

Is no doubt tough
To have the other way round

Is legendry stuff

The overrated simplification

Few things should never be

Explained in easy words
Simplification is my

Idea of being absurd

I may try hard to be explicit

For being convenient
But explanation is not so appealing

Unless incoherent

Clarity of thoughts

Is an idea overrated
Opinions look so monotonous

Unless debated

Let there be inconspicuous thoughts

All around
Let there be corners

In a round

As they say,

“There are two facets to a coin”
I am eager to know the third side

That was never found

A global student

The first time I heard the word globalization was when I started reading newspapers… especially business section…on some friend’s recommendation during my high school days…I don’t remember the names of either of them, and YES I am old enough to remember my high school days...He or she…let there be a little confusion…had given me a worldly advice to be at least literate in commercial aspect of the global market this planet is fast becoming. From then onwards the term globalization has been bothering me in some form or other…Not that I am complaining.

Hang a bit guys...I didn’t start this piece to tell you about my high school crushes or misadventures…both literally and figuratively…Although that will make an equally boring write-up, but that’s not the point here. The motivation here is to share an interesting example about globalization in context of my life…or rather a research student’s life…Being an Indian studying in Singaporean University was not enough of unusual combination that I found a French supervisor…a very good one for that matter… with a Chinese wife…I know I am getting a bit personal …Now, what do you call me if not the great global student (not a student anymore )? …Great is for effect here, so don’t take it seriously…The question is also rhetorical so please don’t bother to answer it…You may ponder about it if you like and relate it with your own experiences as a researcher in a foreign (but friendly) land.

While this is true, the lab…the biggest lab in the department by the way…HURRAY… where I work has almost 18 researchers…there are many more who uses our wonderful facility but they don’t sit with us…Out of 18 researchers, 5 are Singaporean, 4 are Chinese, 3 are Indian, 2 are SPR, and 1 each from Thailand, Iran, Romania and Myanmar…a pretty good balance of nationalities covering regions as diverse as Asia Pacific, Indian Subcontinent, Middle East and even Europe …and for the record we have got a good camaraderie among us…Jokes apart, but the examples clearly demonstrates an important point here. The point about the inter-dependency of research globally, and that the idea of a global student is no more a local one. Doesn’t it tell us something about these catchy phrases, like, unity in diversity; cultural vibrancy; world as a global village; globalization, et al…of course in research context?

Note: Don’t confuse inter-dependency of research with multi-disciplinary research, about which I will talk later…Ever heard of MEMS? No? Nevermind!

The contradictions

Is it possible to believe in something absolutely?
And still fail to live upto it in entirety!
Is it possible to love someone with total heart?
And still the idea of unconditional love drifts you apart!

Is it possible to lead a group with courage and deed?
And still fail to make a call when it is in need!
Is it possible to win a trivial argument and an important war?
And still leave the conquered without a single scar!

Is it possible to look someone in total admiration?
And still desire to find a weakness for accusation!
Is it possible to donate your entire possessions incognito?
And still hoping for the moment when somebody would know!

Is it possible to completely submit yourself for a cause?
And still doubt the righteousness of heavenly laws!

Is it possible to believe in the ultimate reality-the death?
And still fail to consider the truth until your last breath!