Counseling for Rapists

It is said that 1 in every 3 women in USA is sexually assaulted. One woman in every 1 minute is getting raped in India. The figures could be little off in other countries. I get disturbed when I hear about death penalty awarded to rapists and murderers. Incidently, after 2004 when Dhananjay Chatterjee was convicted of raping 14 years and killing Hetal Parekh, there were protests against capital punishment. Recently I read about death penalty awarded to Santosh Singh who was convicted of raping and murdering Pridarshini Matto (10 years back when she was 23 and was studying law). My post is not about debating on whether death penalty is right or wrong. Rather I want to understand the psychology of rapists and situations they go through in life. I will tell a guy is lying if he has never in life wowed at a beautiful woman or wanted to get intimate with her. Almost every man has this fantasy to ravish someone he desire(d). Talking about rapists, I think they have less control on their thoughts and emotions. There are rapists of different kinds -- some rape minor girls and then murden them; some are spoilt brat (having influential parents) who think they can get away by assaulting any girl; some are gang rapists (Phulon Devi was gang raped by many); some are so violent to plan with cold heart to rape and murder a girl (taking revenge and pacify ego). Assuming that men have animal instint and given that some men are genetically pervert as far controlling oneself is concerned, rapes will continued t be committed for long time to come. I don't understand why a rapist murders his victim. He can come wearing mask and make sure not to leave any evidence. Why take so much risk ? He can simply go and give her that indecent proposal and offer say Rs 20,000 in return. Who knows it might work since people always need money.

I agree grieving family of rape victim would not like to forgive the rapists, but think how a rapist feels when he hears his death sentence. Dhananjay Chatterjee spent more than decade (may be more 20 years) in prison and was hanged later. Aperson who spends more than 20 years in prison, what can remain left in him ? I understand, on the heat of the moment he might have done a gruesome crime, but hasn't he already suffered for 20 years in prison (recall the movie, The Shwashanka's Redemption). He might have contemplated and repented every day of his life in prison.

Santosh Singh is a lawyer by himself. I wonder how he spent those 10 years after raping and murdering his junior student. How he managed to marry someone later and become a father of daughter ? How could he have spent every day thinking "Oh God, why did I do that ?" How does it feel to think, "After a few months, I will not live on this planet. Why am I studying these law books ? What should I do in the remaining days of my life ? What is going through my parents heart and minds ? I am 35 years old guy, was it really worth to rape her ? My friends who I went to school with must be enjoying life in freedom outside, making their parents proud, and what have I done in life, Oh My God ? Is there any remote possibility that I may survive and see my own daughter grow ? Can I get clemency ? Why didn't I hire Jethmalani as my lawyer ? Oh God, can you not forgive me ?"

I don't know if there are other ways to prevent girls from being raped other than making strict laws. I think it is also important on the part of parents to imbibe in their kids, respect towards girls and their vulnerability. Rape is not only a physical crime, it is a rape on the mind and psychology of the victim. Someone rightly said "ladkiwalon ke lafde mein kabhi mat pado" or "Smart are those who find something more interesting than girls and sex". I remember, seniors in engg college ragged us asking -- assume your mom, wife and sister are about to be raped, and you can save only one. Who will you save ? I was surprised to know from many girls that a guy should try to save his sister. Personally I feel, death penalty should be replaced by 200 years of life imprisonment -- let the rapists get raped by homosexual gays in a prison for 200 years.

Tabloid of the Day

There are often these useless tabloids which are near the cashiers' counters in supermarker. I am wondering about the quality and joblessness of the readers who go through these tabloids (of course then there are bloggers like me). Here is what I read the last night on a tabloid - "Kate [Hudson] leaving the country for two months, can Owen [Wilson] stay True...". Come on, there is a limit to something...First of all, do we care if Kate Hudson is leaving the country for two months. Given that it is true, what is the point of speculating if Owen is going to be infidel then. Even if you are going to be infidel, dude, look at me, I left my home country several years ago, forget about having a celebrity girlfriend. Are you that helpless that you cannot stand nights alone for two months ?

Cliches of Cricketers

Indian cricketers are so used to making such useless statements that we are better off not reading those. After losing to Aussies in Champions Trophy, Dravid tried to justify "Our bowlers didn't perform well in the first 15 overs...250 is a good score....There are several areas we have to work at...". Duh...you were playing against Australia...today even 400 may not be sufficient in One-Day matches, and you think 250 was a good score ? Dude, thanks for telling us when the top-order batsmen fail and when the bowlers. If bowlers were inexperienced, were you dreaming when team was getting selected ? Are you are there to report that much ? What are you doing to avoid the inconsistent performance ? This is the vision team of India and Chappell for World Cup 2007. I am wondering when India will be done working at all areas of the game (probably when cricketers are banned from making ads) ? Our hero, Dhoni sahab, is busy making statements "I like blondes". We don't care even if you had liked brunettes. I guess, advertisers have endorsed you enough to relax and unleash your romantic desires. Man, learn from Adam Gilchrist who is 8-9 years older than you. Sachin ! we forgot when you played a decisive innings for the team India. You already have enough bank balance, probably its high time for you to retire gracefully and take up a different job -- of commentary or running hotel business. You go around saying, "People have to understand my role in team has changed, I am not longer 19 years old Sachin....even we don't like losing games...". I am wondering what other main role does a batsman have in a team except for scoring runs. Boss, why you don't admit you are now too old for the game and you are scared of McGrath, Lee,etc. Sehwag, you don't have to follow Sachin so closely in scoring style -- you scored nothing in the last dozen of innings. This 60+ score is nothing given your previous inconsistent performance. Guys, bottomline is we want consistent performance, we don't want to see you on Ads. Unlike we graduate students, you are not juggling between jobs -- writing papers, meeting deadlines, doing courses, teaching labs and licking boots of bosses...you are carrying national flag, earning stardom and money...can't you do your only job right ? Let other players be there to gain experience. Is BCCI paying Rs~75 lakhs per month to Greg Chappell to experiment and gain experience by losing games ? I was sitting next to Roger Binny (who was on his way to Bhutan) in Dum Dum on my way back and I was wondering why couldn't we hire 2-3 ex-Indian players as coaches spending the same amount of money if losing does not matter to us.

Why Diwali ?

I grew up celebrating different festivals. Sometimes, I wonder why there are so many festivals in Hindu calendar, more specifically among Bengalies. Diwali has more of a nationalistic flavor, but is often associated with other Pujas such as Kali Puja, Laxmi Puja etc in different regions.

"...Once upon a time, there was this god called Rama who had to go to forest for more than 10 years with his wife and bro, Lax because of his step-mom. Then there was this scary gangster named Ravana who kidnapped his wife and messed up the situation. Eventually Rama fought with Ravana along with his bro and an army of monkeys, and returned home after 12 years with his wife. Since there was hardly any means of entertainment those days, people lit the lamps and all to welcome them, and thats how Diwali got started..."

Kali Puja usually takes place late night before Diwali night and is mostly done by Bengalies. Goddess Kali has always been very fascinating. She has very dark complexion, wears a garland of skulls, stands on the chest of Lord Shiva and is accompanied by two demi-gods. She is a killer god ! Even Ramkrishna Paramhansa was a dedicated worshipper of Kali and probably Swami Vivekananda too. Her blessings are supposed to imbibe strength and power. I have heard that earlier the robbers used to worship Kali before going to do robbery.

Diwali symbolizes victory of righteousness and light over darkness. Is it not a general message behind most of the festivals ? But, what bugs me little, does Diwali really serve any purpose ? It feels nice that friends send Diwali wishes asking how I spent Diwali. I used to like the holiday part. Now I don't do anything different. It wonder why people in India spend money, time and energy in celebrating Diwali. People spend thousands of Rupees in buying and having fun with fire-crackers and lights. I am sure not most of the same people would bother to donate even Rs 100 to any charity, orphanage or old home. The fireworks industry, for example in Shivakasi is responsible for child-labor at large scale. Now people burn diet fire-crackers which don't make sounds and are pollution friendly.

However, I used to like some other festivals though, for example Makar Sankranti which is related to new year and new harvest from the fields. Lots of delicious food and desserts would be made at home. Then there used to be Saraswati Puja (The Goddess of Knowledge and Learning) when we would not study books. There are others too such as Laxmi Puja, Rakhsha Bandhan....

I am not sure if these festivals and rituals will remain part of Indian culture for centuries to come, but all of these festivals certainly bring joy and hope in the minds and hearts of many Indians.

Be Politically Correct to Women

Came across a few of the following statements on the web sometime back. Can't resist reading the humor. How important it is to be politically correct in our conversation, particularly when interacting with women. I have added and modified some. Let me know if you know of something more interesting.

She is not fat, she achieves Maximum Density.
She is not too skinny, she is Sketelly Prominent.
She is not a bad cook, she has become Microwave Compatible.
She does not love jewellery, she is Metallurgically Overburdened.
She does not love shopping, she is Mall Fluent.
She is not quarrelsome, she is Verbally Confrontational.
She is not talkative, she is Verbally Fluent and Complete.
She does not wear too much makeup, she becomes Cosmetically Saturated.
She is not stupid, she becomes Detour off the Information Highway.
She is not ready for marriage, she wants to incarcerate you domestically.
She is not a stripper, she serves at Gentlemens' Club.
She is not superstitious, she has become Reality Impaired.
She does not have a flat chest, she is Challenged with Mammary Adipose Tissue.
She is not a liar, she is Factually Misinformed.

Things I am anxiously waiting for

Novels: "The Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Deshai who won the Man Booker Prize in 2006. Other two books namely "My Name is Red" and "Istambul: Memories and The City" by Orhun Pamuk, a Turkish writer, the winner of 2006 Literature Noble Prize. I am somehow losing interests in reading fictions, its high time I read some certified real stuffs. Wanted to read Musharraf's biography, In the Line of Fire but reviews discouraged me.

Sixth Season of 24: Can't wait for Jack to be Back. It starts in Jan and waiting anxiously to see how Jack Bauer escapes from Chinese captivity.

YouTube: I am further waiting to see YouTube incorporated in google video. Didn't know YouTube had such good collection of Indian music albums, songs from movies, etc. Waiting for it to grow further with more intelligent search options of Google.

Why do babies cry so much in plane ?

As I was traveling back from India, I was assigned an aisle basinate seat in British Airways. These seats are idle for moms carrying babies since there is a place infront of the seats where on can put the cart of the baby. But for me it was difficult. There was a lady who was carrying a few months old baby and was sitting next to me. The baby would cry intermittendly. I was feeling helpless seeing the mother who would try to pacify her by all means. I was happy to help her by getting the stuffs from overhead cabin, moving stuffs around etc. Holding the baby in her arms on her lap, she would reach out to her bag, take out milk powder and prepare baby milk while the baby was crying. I don't know how babies can express their pain, discomfort, probably by crying. May be the babies communicate by crying, as I could hear some other babies started crying at other corner of the plane . I don't understand how such young babies get strength to scream and cry at such shrill pitch. But as the mother fed the milk bottle in the baby's mouth, she gradually stopped crying. I was wondering the difficulties that mothers face to go through these situations -- she needed help, she was embarrassed and she was also in pain seeing her baby in discomfort. I was wondering what was going on in the mind of the baby. After feeding milk, the mother put her to sleep. Then she had her own meal. Then she put the baby in the cart. After sleeping for several hours, the baby was awake and then she was playful. I was observing the pinkish small toes and fingers of the baby. I was looking at the small watery eyes, her small lips which were soaked with milk and her tongue. It was so innocent to see how the baby would throw her limbs in the air. I was wondering how that baby would grow up to a full-grown woman some day.

Trip

Will be visiting India for around 3 weeks, so won't be writing until Oct first week. While it is exciting but it also worries that work will get stalled. Hope to catch up reading some papers, books while traveling.

Marriage

God made fire, Man made marriage. Recently several of my friends got engaged or married. Some got married after years of courtship while others after one or two conversations with bride in an arranged fashion. I still cannot see the point how readily one can commit to someone and get married. Here are excerpts from the conversations I had with some of those friends:

DB: Hey, why did you get married ? Are you happy ? What made you think that you wouldn't have gotten a better wife had you waited a little longer ?

Friend1: What kind of stupid question is that ! You should be happy with what you get. At least I am that kind of person. If you get older, you won't find a wife.

Friend2: There will be always be someone better and if you keep searching for one, it may take for ever.What are your priorities in life ? You should judge a girl what kind of person she is. Education, job etc can be acquired whereas nature and attitude of a person cannot be changed. So, try to see if a girl has the right kind of attitude in life. I think you should talk to your dad about this and don't take too much opinions from a girl on this since their views will be skewed on marriage issues.

I am not sure if they are practical or I am doubtful about marriage....

Summer is Over

Can't believe that summer is over and haven't done much. Arrival of summer makes me both excited and gloomy.

During school days, I used to remain eager for summer when I could stay at home and read variety of novels and comics. Summer was also the time when I would buy books for the next class and go through those by myself. Summer vacation would also spare mom from getting up early in the morning to prepare us for school. I used to like summer for it was season of different fruits -- mango, jackfruit, leechis. It was an occasion for me to visit grandparents, uncles and aunts.

Summer now means differently. Summer means no more classes, and teaching, its time for only research. Summer means less and light clothes. It means no more buzz of teen aged pretty girls in the campus, although I have never been in my university campus during any summer. Summer means opportunity to go to different research labs or companies and work full time like an employee. It also means planning new things and get charged for new academic calendar.

Snakes on a Plane

What does this title tell you about a movie ? Well, it tells you exactly what to expect from the movie. I haven't watched the movie, but I hear discussions about it everywhere these days. Supposedly this movie also hit the box office as #1 last weekend (??). So, what is the deal ? It seems a bunch of internet users got crazy over the title and hyped the movie. They even wanted it to be rated R. The title was supposed to something like Pacific Flight 121 but even Samuel Jackson preferred Snakes on a Plane. I guess, its a fun horror movie with Snakes terrorizing the passengers. There should be some high-mile-club steamy love making scenes. I would just love to hear Samuel Jackson yelling, "Waste those mother f***er Snakes". Kids of one of my colleagues were saying, "Is it for real ? What is the point of the movie ?" Should we consider such movie-makers to be creative, funny or dumbass ?

How to get back saved time ?

Sometimes I wonder how the Presidents, the PMs, CEO prioritize their time and activities. These days, I am under severe time crunch, I cannot account for the time I spent. I am having hard time finishing work by deadlines; multiple programmes demand my simultaneous attention. Earlier I used be satirical on busy people thinking - how come busy people have time to say they are busy.

Last night I was again sleeping on the common office-cum-lab couch, then woke up before the early-birds came in. It is convenient we have showers in the basement. All this was mainly to save travel time between apt and office. Hope such experiments will help me figure out which is the most productive strategy. To manage time, I did wierd things in life -- reading notes while I was taking shower (when I was applying soap on my body); I carried papers when I went to watch Kill Bill in theatre and baseball game in Fenway Stadium. Such wierdness cannot be justified since I know I wasted time equally crazily by watching movies back-to-back. The intention was always full utilization of time. I always wonder, what prevents me from thinking that tomorrow is a project deadline and then plan accordingly, or tomorrow is the last day of my life.

The motivation of the above question arose after I got in touch with one of the best students I have been ever known. She has been consistent since childhood in following her daily schedule. She goes to bed at 11pm and gets up at 4am and then does yoga, jogging and studies. No doubt she has always been topper in school and now in a university. Early birds really catch worms !

Incidentally I also worked with one of the researchers in a well-known company who had unusual schedule: He would come to office at 6am, and leave by 4pm. According to him, beginning work at early morning enables one to get more work done. He used to think printers, coffee machine and other accessories remain free early morning.

I feel I am a freak of biological evolution. Night makes me creative. No matter when I go to bed, I can never get up early. According to me, every shop, every market should be open 24 hrs. I have somehow made this habit of going to grocery at 12-1am when workers would shelve different articles. I feel irritated when I don't find cell phone customer service, etc after 7pm. I dislike it that the buses don't run all night (that's why I like Mumbai, Paris and New York train/subway systems). I tried being morning person too. It seems I am still trying hard to find the right way of scheduling things. Where do I lose the time that I save ?

Today's Fortune Cookie

Panda Express also serves a fortune cookie in lunch and today I received a cookie which had, "You will receive an importance advice from a child". So, only child I can consider was my sister with who I had a discussion today. She conjectured that people should not reveal everything in a relationship until they get married. One should supposedly get to know virtues of his or her spouse gradually and it can add excitement and charm to a married life. Hmm...didn't realize she had really grown up :)

How Peer-to-Peer Applications can affect Society ?

After the success of Napster, p2p or online file sharing application has become the single most killer application (besides WWW) in the Internet. Not biased by the fact that the growth of the application provides ample research opportunities for the researchers, I have additional reasons to get excited about p2p. I am wondering how p2p applications will affect the world economy, how the growth of p2p applications will re-shape human beings or distribute resources in the society. So, this post is mainly about effects of p2p on society.

P2P applications such as Bittorrent, KaZaa, Gnutella, eDonkey are mainly used to download media files both audio (mp3 songs) and video (mostly movies). These media files are usually stripped off from the media records or are recorded and uploaded for other users to download for free. Therefore, media industry is a direct and major stakeholder in this process at the losing end. For example, legal entity in US, RIAA has been waging battle to illegalize such media content distribution. But as we know, everything desirable in this world is either banned, illegal, married or fattening; so I guess inspite of all rules and regulations, the usage of p2p will keep growing. What could be the consequences ?

Hollywood/Bollywood movies are available online no later than they are released in the theatres. As a result p2p users will not spend money in watching movies at the theatres. Considering that this fraction will be significant soon, the profit of the movie producers will keep decreasing and soon they will stop making quality movies or at least that will prevent them from making more movies. Consequently the money that actors/actresses make will get diminishingly less. I think celebrities are hyped and they earn undue money (compare it with the fact that I spend more than 14 hrs or more at work doing more important work for humanity and still get paid less than 1% of what they earn. In addition they get glamor, publicity, money, multiple sexual partners).

Due to the poor quality of the movies, people will start watching less movies and therefore, young generation will be less affected by social vices such as violation, rape, smoking, romance. Actors/actresses will no longer find this business lucrative and will insist their kids to opt for other professions such as engineering, medical etc. Gradually the income distribution in the society will be less skewed. To attract the viewers the producers will try hard to be creative and will produce good quality movies but they will not earn as much as they now.

Growth of p2p applications will however make some economic sectors prosperous. Would ipod have been successful had there been no abundance of mp3 files through p2p applications ? More people will get hired by software and media industry to pollute the p2p network with garbage movie files, to distribute legal copies of software/media files over the p2p network.

Some social problems will reduce but some will increase. Gamers will get more games/xbox for free and therefore more people will get addicted. There will be more cases of divorces, crime due to gaming addiction. There might be more cases of dropouts.

Someone said, talking is not free in the world and I realized that is true when I got my phone bill. Skype has become popular worldwide since it is a free VoIP phone if both the caller and callee use Skype. Skype is again a p2p application where hosts relay traffic for other users. If Skype continues to grow and assuming that soon most of the people will have computer with Internet connection, it will put Telecom industry under heavy competition. I feel the telecom service providers charge a lot; its monopoly for no good reason. As a result of Skype prevalence, many telecom industries will be out of business, many high-paying CEOs will get fired and there will be less skewed income distribution. I wish I could talk to my family everyday. Therefore, with Skype in place, we will be able to feel much closer to people, family, lovemates. As a result, those who are involved in distant romance will be able to sustain their relationship comfortably (specially when girls tend to find new lovemates in absence of physical presence of their counterparts).

Graduate students cannot afford to buy expensive books all the time or sometime the books are not available even in university library. Once I needed a book (I could not obtain it even from other libraries) and I asked a friend if I could get a soft copy of the book. After a few weeks, he downloaded it from a Turkish server. I was happy to read the relevant chapter and then deleted it. Thus, p2p is also acting as a vehicle to spread education and will thus make education/knowledge accessible to deprived ones.

More and more I think about p2p applications, it makes me more optimistic about future.

Books Sought

I am looking for good books on the following topics. The books should not just describe facts like history books by NCERT. It should interprete events with an eye of anthropologist or socialogist. Your suggestions are solicited:

a) A book on the history of Jews dating back to centuries before Christ was born. It should discuss how Jews were fled away from their homeland, how they became good in money making business, how Wall St was built by the Jewish, how Jews used to fund wars, etc.

b) A book encompassing 2000 yrs old history of Japan describing why Japanese seemingly have dual personality. I feel Japanese are deligent, responsible and polite but internally they are brutal and are always ready to invade others. I may be wrong. I also want to know the hierarchy in Japanese society describing the status of normal people and that of Samurais. I want read from the perspectives of both Japanese and others.

c) A book on Nazi and Hitler which should describe why Nazi used to hate the Jews. May be Mein Kempf ??

Important Business

Today I had a complementary breakfast in the office with 3 other early birds including our HR lady. During the breakfast conversation, the HR lady asked this guy from the Netherlands, "What does your father do in your country ?". The question made the two other guys burst into instant laughter. Why ? Even I was curious.

Instead of getting embarrassed the guy took a little while to think how to answer. Probably he never had to answer this to a woman. He said, "My father provides raw materials [you know what it is] for artificial insemination of pigs". One could have easily evaded the question by answering something else. I liked his honesty. I have observed this guy during meetings. He is very precise and clear in what he speaks. I learned two additional things: First, every work is important in life; someone has to clean toilets, some one has to inseminate animals where farming and animal husbandry is important and so on. Second, articulation of speech is really a skill and can have a completely different effect on the listeners.

INDIA and World

Many of the online news articles on India seem to be catered towards pleasing online readers, NRIs by projecting a nice view of India. While this is perfectly alright but I feel our optimism should be scaled down. Sometimes I pity how media in US and Singapore keep their citizens so ignorant of reality. The articles on India say, how India might become superpower by 2015, how Mumbai springs back to life next day after serial bomb blasts, how Laxmi Mittal is soaring as Czar of Steel, etc.

I have almost completed reading a book, The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen. Having read several essays in the book which encompass ancient, medieval and modern India and almost every aspect of India, I am left to take a pessimistic note that India has a long way to go. Numerous facts about India in every chapter of the book appalled me to far extent. I cannot emphasize less how every Indian and non-Indian should read the book. Moreover, Dr. Sen has a distinctive style of writing. Hopefully the following facts will motivate some of you to read it.

If you think everything you read in history book was correct, it is time to rethink (it reminds me of my first blog). History is written by victors. BJP-led NCERT admitted that there were factual errors in the history textbooks -- for example, Madagascar was claimed to be an island in Arabian Sea (whereas it should have been in Indian Ocean). Similarly, Lanchasire was claimed to be a fast-growing Industrial town. Many books didn't mention about Nathuram Godse who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi since he was an RSS member.

India and China had a lot of exchange in trade and knowledge as far back as 8th century. Given the closed community nature of China, I used to wonder if there was ever an Indian (except Buddha) who could influence Chinese largely. Infact, many Indian scientists, mathematicians and astronomers held high positions in China's scientific establishment. An Indian scientist named Gautama Siddhartha even became the president of the official board of Astronomy in China in 8th century.

There is an essay named Tagore and India which has been my favorite so far. Dr Sen brilliantly brings out differences in the visions of Tagore and Gandhiji. I felt Dr. Sen was advocating more of Tagore. Tagore believed in Industrialization and he was not so keen on advocacy of Gandhiji's charkha..."Charkha does not require anyone to think; one simply turns the wheel of the antiquated invention endlessly, using minimum of judgment and stamina". Unlike Gandhiji Tagore was not strict about celibacy and he was claimed to have multiple relationships. Tagore believed in scientific explanations in every aspect of life -- In Jan 1934 Bihar was struck by a devastating earthquake. Gandhiji who was actively fighting against the untouchability during that time said, "A man like me cannot but believe that earthquake is a divine chastisement sent by God for our sins". Tagore objected saying, "It is all the more unfortunate because this kind of unscientific view of [natural] phenomenon is too readily accepted by large section of our countrymen".

We envision that India is on the path to become Superpower, but even today India is worse than many sub-Saharan countries on many different measures. For example, in India there is severe bias against women as we may judge from female-male ratio of 0.93 whereas sub-Saharan countries have the ratio as high as 1.02. Moreover, the percentage of undernourished children in Africa is 20-40%, whereas in India is as high as 40-60%. India is also claimed to be the largest producer of wheat (or grains). Why is this discrepancy ?

I want to end this post with another interesting observation. We often conclude that gender inequality prevails mostly in the developing countries, say in South-East Asia. But India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh all have or had women political leaders. Bangladesh even had women leaders both in the ruling and opposition parties. On the other hand the developed western countries such as US, Germany, France and Italy never had any women Prime Minister or President nor do these countries poised to have one in near future. Through several other examples, Dr. Sen convincingly clarifies different concepts and conventional wisdom.

What I have written is only the tip of an iceberg, there are several other facts about India which will make you think what real India is.

Hierarchical Data

Finally we submitted a paper on Change Detection in Hierarchical Data. People usually talk about change in data or data streams without considering hierarchy -- for example, one is usually happy with knowing what is the percentage increase/decrease in sales volume in Walmart in California. We address the problem of detecting changes in data where attributes are hierarchical. For example, a manager in Walmart might have information about sales which is organized by hierarchy -- state/county/city/zip code in US. One can pose a question -- if the sales volume under all the zip codes in San Fransisco have doubled, what is the parsimonious way to represent the change ? We say, sales volume in SF has doubled. Our approach captures such changes with maximal generalizations and thus captures trends and counter-trends. We reduce the problem to a weight assignment problem over hierarchical tree structure under some constraints and propose efficient linear-time optimal algorithms.

Why Conference Call is so Good ?

Of late I have been attending mostly conference call meetings. I have started liking it more than physical meetings. In some cases, I find it more productive than physical meetings since I often send report and agenda before conference call meeting. Moreover, we can terminate a conference call if we don't have anything to discuss. Here are some reasons why I like conference calls.

• It gives me an impression that I am a very important person and am talking to the President of USA on secure hotline.
• The other person cannot see my facial expression. Neither do I have to be well-shaved or neatly dressed.
• I can find an excuse for being late; no one is going to notice what I was doing. I could say, phone had a problem.
• It gives me access to many other things during a conference call. I can drink coffee, I can browse. In some cases, I even did experiments on the fly as my co-author asked me questions and I could report results of those experiments to answer the questions.
  
• Its mostly Voice over IP rather than regular telephony; so it makes a case that network engineers are still of some use.
• It gives me a feeling that the world is well-connected and I can reach any corner in milliseconds.
• It sharpens by hearing skills, I tend to be more focussed since I know I have only ears in help.

Savage Omnivorous Asians

Americans think Asians are comprised of Chinese, Koreans, Japanese and not Indians. "Oh, Indians are Asians !!" was the response I got while filling up HR forms in the SDSC.

So, in the last few days I had further induction of Chinese, Korean and Japanese food culture. More and more I interact with them, more I feel they have such wierd food habits. I think now Africans have little more sanity left in what they eat. I will use the term Chinese loosely, if something strikes too odd, then it must be from the GuangDong province.

Thai food is what I like most from Asian cuisine after Indian food. Brazil lost semi-finals, we were sad. To have lunch, we went to Thai Palace. We were late by 5 mins and weren't allowed inside. Double disappointment on a fine sunny saturday in San Diego. There used to be a Thai Restaurant named NudPub (we used to call Nude Pub) near Boston Univ. The lady at the counter had a typical style, "yiieess, haou may I help you ? Pyneapple fried riiiyye, for hyere to goennn? 6 daullars pleaz".

So, disappointed from Thai Palace, we went to check out Vietnamese Cuisine, Korean BBQ, Sushi Palace. We could not form a consensus -- Korean BBQ is expensive (with full of beef and pork items); I cannot eat raw fish in Sushi, Vietnamese is tasteless. Finally we decided to go to 99 Chinese Supermarket on the recommendation of chinese friend. A rotten gust of wind hit my nasal cavity as soon we entered into the market as if some dead caracus of buffalo had been rotting in the corner for days. Soon I got used to it (as you get used to smelling your own shit in the restroom) and we ended up in a cheap restaurant at the corner. They had two modes of operation, self-service and waiter-service. We opted for the latter. Thinking that I would get nice soup with rice, I ordered Chicken with Peanuts. Korean friend ordered pork curry and chinese friend ordered duck/egg/pork combination. When the soup arrived, I lost all appetite. The first remark from the chinese friend was, Dhiman it looks they just cleaned the pan with water and brought you the water as soup. The water looked so dirty and there was a leaf from a vague plant floating in it. To be more precise, have you ever mopped your floor with a rag and after cleaning for while, have you seen the water with substrate. The soup was exactly like that.

The food was bearable. My friends devored like true graduate students, enjoying every grain and fibre. We discussed what Chinese and Koreans eat. They eat, intestines of animals, anus of animals (pig for example). There is a variety of chinese wine in which they shove in mices, lizards (pi-hu in chinese), snakes. I learned that they have two yummy dishes -- monkey brain and 3 screams (which i will describe later). A general rule of thumb is, if they want development of a particular part of your body, they eat corresponding body part in animals. So, chinese guys who are looking for penile enlargement must be eating organs (and testicles) of horse, ox, buffalo. Now, it is not hard to guess what part of cows and buffaloes the Chinese girls those who are want to avoid silicon breast implants must be eating.

The Korean friend confirmed that some people in Korea play football using the testicles of Oxes (cheaper than leather football). Remember Korea reached 1998 WorldCup semi-final :)

Its not over yet. We had to do grocery in the Chinese supermarket. I always wonder why Indians don't have such comprehensive grocery store in US (actually in NY, San Diego there are). The meat section was so gross. They had intestines of animals laid out. Then, they had claws of chicken, duck (may be cats, dogs also) in display. The claws of birds/animals are roasted and fried and are served as appetizers with drinks/beers. Both Chinese and Koreans eat that (may be Bengalies should try crow-claws-chacchori; how about crow-claws-fries and Pig-Anus-Burger). I bought Tilapia fish. The Chinese in America have learned customization quite a bit:

After buying fish I had to take of the following 4-5 options:

1) cleaning,
2) cleaning and removing the scales,
3) cleaningmust be eating, removing scales and chopping off head and tail
4) cleaning, removing scales, beheading, remove tails and chopping into N pieces
5) (4) + fry in oil (in their kitchen)

I chose (4). Oh I forgot to mention, I also eat Japanese snacks (peanuts, sea weeds) in the office the week before. A guy named Brat had brought from Japan. The Korean friend brought me 3 different korean cookies. I am just eating only Asian stuffs these days.

Now, I will descibe about those two delicacies that Chinese from GuangDong province eat.

Monkey brain is considered a delicacy. To eat it, they first tie the monkey so that it cannot move. Its head is clamped with barbwire (remember Jesus Christ had one when he was crucified). Then they break the skull-shell of the monkey while it is still alive. Then they dig out Monkey's brain and devor it with spoon (of course along with soya sauce). It is supposed to nourish human brain. Yeah right, thats why I haven't met one from that province yet.

Three Scream dish is another odd item. So, they have small white mices (the ones we used in Bio practicals) on a plate. The first scream is heard when one holds a mice with chopsticks. Second scream is heard when the mice is dipped in Soya Sauce and it is drowned for a while. Final mortal scream is heard when the mice is chewed in the mouth. All so fresh and yummy!

Now who is ready for french-kiss with an Asian after he/she has a good meal with Monkey brain and 3 Scream ?