My way of Thinking

I had this conversation with a friend, that has set me thinking, and I am still searching for answers.
You see, we have this class, were we learn how to solve question that we would be asked in the aptitude tests, in the various placement interviews. These questions are the usual CAT type Quantitative questions, which are concerned with using some basic concept of Maths, like SI, percentage or GCD/LCM ect. Now you all know that I would not be having any problems with this, and you are right. I treat the whole lecture like a long and drawn out Puzzle session, and try to solve the questions in as many ways as possible. Very often it happens that I solve it much before anyone else, and sometimes even before others have started working on it.
It was regarding this that we were talking. She asked me, "Are you studying for these problems?" I said "no". She then asked me how I could come up with solutions so fast. Before I could answer that, she said, "Everyone requires time to think with logic"

This is when I realised, how differently I think when compared to most people. I tried to answer her question, but I could not articulate myself properly, so she was rather unsatisfied. So let me try to say here what I wanted to say.

I do not think with logic, I just think. Very often, my thinking is not logical; it is a series of random unconnected thoughts. But that is besides the point.
I do not need to think to solve these elementary problems. I can see the solution. It is after I see the solution, that I have to convince myself, which I do by thinking. There could be many reasons why my brain works like this.

Firstly, I have been solving puzzles for a long time. And compared to them, these problems are very simple. Hence I can quite easily abstract the mathematics out of it, and form an equation.
My experience also helps me out here. It tells me the best way of solving the equation, and shows me any short-cut, if any exists.

Further, more, I have always played around with numbers and am not scared of them. This might seem trivial, but I know so many people who do not realise what numbers are, and are more caught up in their properties and characteristics. Let me illustrate with an example. For me, 0.7, 70% and 7/10 are the different aspects of the same thing. I can use them interchangeably, because I am manipulating the Number underlying these representations, not the symbols. I am surprised when people say, "Why are you using 0.7? The question says 70%." This point is an important point, which many people like us, fail to grasp.

Further, more, once we have converted the problem into the language of maths, it can only proceed logically; there is no other way. I realise that I have so internalised this language, that I do not have to work at it, it works through me.

However, is this just a result of familiarity, where I have internalised so many things, that they seem natural (like we have memorised tables, and have no problems believing 3 times 17 is 51). I think not. I think there is something deeper. This is where I am having problems with articulation, and will be quite helpful, if you help me out.

As I see it, my thinking, is different from my expression of thinking. So When I say that I see the solution, I mean that my brain-processes are unconscious. I do not need these symbols, laws, and rules. They are followed implicitly. It is when I convey my thoughts to others, that I need these symbols and rules.
That is where the 'Think logically' comes in. That is where one is in control of thoughts (I'll prefer to say that one can choose which thought to focus on).But for greater part of my conscious time, I do not think consciously.

I'll illustrate this with an example. When I am on the bike, and taking a turn, I have to bend inwards. This I do without thinking. Even the amount of leaning is unconscious. A similar thing happens while walking and jumping. If you just try to think of what you are doing when you do these things, you will be surprised by the number of decisions you are taking, and how fast you take them.

I guess my rational processes also are performed at the same baser level, and by training and experience, I am capable of expressing them in a verbal way.

Yeah Baby! I'm back

This Tuesday, I came from pune on my bike. I took 3 hrs and 50 mins for the 178 km ride. I didn't want to rush, given that the monsoon is on. The weather was so wonderful, with cool air, but no rain. When we go thru the Ghats, I felt like I was going thru the clouds...

I was Thinking of this ad as I was riding



I began to think, that who are the people that I am still angry at, and I need to forgive...As I rattled my brains, I came to the conclusion, that I had forgiven everybody. It seems, that I forgive people who hurt me quite easily. But, I know there was one person I was quite mad at; Myself. I had forgiven others, for hurting me, but not myself, for trusting them. Until I forgive myself, the healing won't be complete. With this realisation, I think I the job is half done.

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Did you read about the Road China is going to build till the Everest Base camp? It's indeed an sad day. I think we are loosing far too much in this race to be the best in the world. Hitler and Germany in 1930's had gone through the same phase, where they built the largest ships, the largest airliner, the best engines, believing that having material things makes you the best. It's sad to see a Wise civilisation like china, following the same path.

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When I was in Delhi, I had met Mr M.B. Lal, who asked me whether I read books. I had jokingly replied that I read far too much, probably too much for my own good.
I know that I am a geek/nerd & love reading books. But I truly realised the extent of my bilomania, when I saw the books that I have began reading in the past 2 days.

[I was going to put up a Picture of all the books I am currently reading, but I found out that I have left the camera cable at Pune. SO depressing]

I have began 6 books in all, which will add up to about 2500 pages in total. & I am sure that I will finish them all by next week

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The News coverage of the return of Sunita Williams has been disappointing, to say the least. I know that many people are interested in this story, and this could have been used as a way to teach people about the wonders of space, and teach them about Science. Instead we have News Channels here covering the Havans & the namazes that people are offering for her safe return. Now I am not saying that Prayer is bad; It does have it's benefits. What I am saying is that we have lost a wonderful opportunity to popularise Science and Space travel.

2nd Delhi Vignettes: 2 Proposals, 2 biharis, 2 movies....

As my stay in Delhi draws to a close, I think it's time for the second instalment of my observations.
Delhi is very weird city with the security apparatus being very in your face. You have traffic on large wide roads, crawling to a halt, only due to a traffic roadblock, manned by maybe one or two policemen. I wonder what they are looking for. You have two lines when you enter the metro station, one if you have no baggage & the second one, where you will be checked, if the guy is in the mood. Even at red fort, they have an X-ray machine, and you are physically frisked as you enter. The funny thing about all this is that even though there is a lot of security, nothing is secure.
The reason is not difficult to imagine. The checking is very often Perfunctionary. Like several times, I was more enthusiastic to get my bag checked then the guy was to check. Funnily enough, at Red fort, both my pant pockets were bursting forth with 2 cell phones, a camera, a water bottle & a pen Knife. The guy patted me down and let me go. I was left wondering whether he just wanted to feel me up or what...
Now we all know how I don't suffer fools gladly...You hardly need to be reminded about the fake ID scam or the incident at BARC. But I don't even want to resist here, coz it's really sad and scary. I'm having a hard time figuring out why there are not more incidents here, if the processes are so shabby.
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I have begun to realise how sad the life, of an immigrants to a city, is. You know hardly anybody, have pretty much nothing to do, and frequent the same places and meet the same people again and again. For example, two weeks back, when due to some medical emergency, we were not getting food at the guest house. So we had to go to the M-Block market to grab the grub. Naturally we frequented Subway, for its Sub of the day, which for just 56 bucks is filling, tasty, healthy and wholesome. What more does a guy want? We used to eat there everyday, except for Tuesday & Thursday, when the sub is Veg. I realised that we were visiting it, a little bit too frequently, when the guys started saying "Welcome back Sir". I used to go there with Rohan every time, and I'm sure they thought we like some gay couple or something, coz when I went there all by myself, they were quite surprised.
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I happened to meet my elderly Relatives on Friday evening, which was very depressing for me. They have known me from my birth, and it was a real pain to see them in their sorry state. Senile Dementia has set in, and they asked me the same question again and again. They didn't remember me visiting them last year, but could remember me as a 14 day old baby. These were one of the most well read and intelligent People I had known, and it was with a heavy heart that I was interacting with them. You have really grown up, when you start wondering about your mortality.
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The chicks in Delhi are weird. They come in only two varieties. Either they will be slim & come to your shoulder, or they will be hefty and you can see eye to eye with them. Another weird thing we have noticed is that it's very hard to guess the age of a female here. She can be an aunty, a college going chick, or maybe young enough to make you question whether you are a paedophile. It's really that hard. I never had this problem in Pune or Mumbai. There you can figure out her age with an accuracy of +/- 2years. Maybe the girl at matheran was a delhite. But this is not the weirdest thing yet. I am not joking when I say that I haven't seen a single chick with curly hair. No one. not one. Even the South Indians I know have Straight Hair. Rohan & I have a bet. The first one to see a curly haired chick wins. When Rohan and I were at CP, we were generally bird watching, and we must have seen at least a thousand of them, but not a single one with curly hair. The prize is as of yet unawarded.
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The project has finally come to an end. I decide to sit up for as long as it takes, and finish the work. When we showed it to our boss, he was quite impressed. He already made us a pre-placememnt offer. But the late nights and early mornings are having their effect. The Physical stress as well as the mental trauma and strain has finally caught up with me. I am having this really bad sore throat, along with a really runny nose. I think it might take a
couple of days to convalesce.
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Finally, I should be in Mumbai by mid next week. Yey!

Delhi>Mumbai...Ha ha...Nice Joke

Over the past week, I saw that my visitor count was rather high, and on checking the logs, I came to know that quite a few people had come to my blog, by searching for Delhi Metro on Google Blogsearch. I am quite happy actually...atleast visitors will not go away disappointed, like the ones who come here searching for weird poetry...(Try it: Searching for some weird Topic+poetry & my blog is within the first few pages on Google, with a pagerank of just 4). So I decided to find out what else they were reading.

Firstly this Blog post (http://www.sprangleblog.com/?p=61). It's written by a certain Joe Harkin who appears to be from the US. His views and observations are quite interesting. And just read it for kicks.

Secondly, a Guy called Kartik Kannan has put up some pics, the first of which is rather interesting. Cleo had told me about a similar vandalised sign she had seen. I don't know whether she saw the same sign, or that he was a serial defacer, who goes around the metro leaving his mark.

Thirdly, this post by some looser who claims to be a journalist, but has no sense of judgement or ethics. He has put up pics and then writes at the end that taking pics in the metro is banned, and one should not take them. Further more the blogger writes:

This world-class transit system has upped Delhi's prestige and in my opinion has helped it replace financial hub Mumbai as India's hippest city.

It was on reading this sentence, that I was forced to blog.

This is a classic case of what is called a non sequitur.

Ok, the Delhi metro is better than the Mumbai locals by certain narrow parameters; but that's pretty much it. How does having a metro that closes down by 10:30 in the night, make your city a hip place???

I didn't want to make this a Delhi v/s Mumbai post. As Prashant Parikh says on a particular community on Facebook:

I'm SICK of ppl comparing the 2 cities, isn't the answer OBVIOUS?!?!?!
It's not that Delhi is a BAAAAAD place, it's just that Bombay is so much better!

See, when I usually say that Mumbai is better than Pune or Delhi, I usually mean that it is more convenient. I know it inside out; don't have to think at all while doing anything... So it's easier, and more convenient. I'm sure that when a delhite or any other outsider visits Mumbai, he or she too, will be confused by the system, and will prefer their home town. But one should also remember that when we talk about anything, we do that using our subjective background. So when I compare Delhi to Mumbai, I am doing it because, that is the only reference point or control I have.

Just as I understand that saying Mumbai is better than Delhi would be unjust, the converse too would be incorrect. Just having a Metro in certain parts of the city, and big wide roads and 12% canopy cover, do not make a hip city. What makes a city hip is being free to do what you want to.

• Being free to go out whenever you want to, and being confident that you will get food to eat.
• Being free to open your mouth and say what you want to.
• Going out at whatever time of the day or night, without being concerned of your personal safety.
• Knowing that, gods forbid, some calamity fell on you, people would readily help you.
• Knowing that people generally help you without exploiting you.

It's things like these that make a city hip and liveable.

Delhi Vignettes - 1

After two weeks in Delhi I have sort of settled down, and stopped being shocked by the varieties and the idiosyncrasies that this city has to offer.
As a Mumbaikar, the most striking fact is the pace of the city. In Mumbai, we are used to the fast pace, where time is very valuable, and everyone tries to do things in the most time efficient manner. Be it the shopkeeper who directs a boy toward you if you are standing idle in his shop, or the Auto driver who takes the money and gives you change in a flash, everyone is quick and nimble. P.L. Deshpande had written in one of his short sketches, that for a Mumbaikar, the watch is attached not only to his wrist, but also his destiny. When I told a co-worker that I was from Mumbai, the first thing that she said was 'Life bahut taze hota hoga, naa.' I don't know whether our life is fast, or theirs is slow, but the relative difference is striking.

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I happened to travel by the Delhi Metro, this Friday. Now the Delhi Metro is matter of prestige for most delhites. When I had told some expatriate Dilliwalaas that I would be in Delhi, the first thing most had said, 'You have to travel by Metro'. Whenever some foreign Dignitary comes-a-calling, they are shown the Delhi Metro as a symbol of India's Development. I wonder what they think about it. They must be wondering, 'These Indians call 'this' modern? Then they are behind London by almost 120 years.’ What did I think, you ask? Frankly speaking, I am not at all impressed.
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As a Mumbaikar, I am used to long distance mass transport being a challenge. The Indian Railways must have decided that since Mumbaikars do not have much time for exercise, their daily commune should involve a sufficient quantity of it. This will lead to a fitter citizen and a healthier life. The Metro people here have no such lofty aims.
When you want to go up, you have the option of an escalator. Paying the fare and buying a token involves standing in a line for hardly any time. As you wander in the station, you don't have to raise you hand either to your eyes or nose, to avoid your senses from being offended.
There are markings on the platform which tell you where the doors of the coach will stop, and how you have to stand. When the metro train comes, you gather at the sides of the doors, and wait for them to open. Once they do, then people will come out from the centre, while you enter from the sides. In about 30 seconds (30 seconds??? the local trains in Mumbai stop for barely 11 seconds) the doors close, after an audible warning. This is what disappointed me the most.
You cannot show off you simian characteristics, which survived so many million years of evolution. I am of course talking of 'Hanging out’. This is the most fun part when travelling by locals, back home. Also you cannot show-off your feline skills, by rushing off to the closest available forward facing Window seats, due to the very absence of such kind of seats. Further more, vertical distance between the platform and coach is hardly 1 cm, while horizontally it is about 4-5cm; something that will hardly be called a gap by a Mumbaikar.
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The announcements however, are as funny as in B'bay. There we have the announcers asking us to 'Pay your attention' like it some extortion money we have to dole out. Here you have a male voice in Hindi, and a female voice in affected English, talking to you while you are travelling inside the coach. They help you out by telling you which the next station is, implore you not to litter the stations, and remind you to save you limbs by staying away from the doors. The female voice at times tells you to 'Please mind the gap.' This is the aforementioned gap. Methinks they should say 'Please don't mind the gap' since it is so small. The passengers are also warned to take care of their valuables, since ‘Pickpockets have been identified in the coaches’. I wonder that if they have been identified, why they haven’t been arrested as of yet, and instead allowed to roam free.
There is however a nice egalitarian result of the Metro. There is only one class, and no ladies or handicapped or luggage compartment. Everyone travels by the same class. You will see laptop toting executives and cloth bag carrying dehatis besides each other, hanging on to the same hand support, which like always, comes at my cheek level, threatening to destroy my eyesight.
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The food is going to be a problem. I am used to blazing through the day with only a couple of Vada-pauws and a cola, in my stomach. Lunch here consists of proper Punjabi Veggies, deep fried is the most cholesterol high oil, to be eaten with Roties covered with a thick layer of butter. No wonder I feel so sleepy in the afternoons.
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I visited Rajiv Chowk at CP after ages. It is now totally changed. The Rajiv Chowk Metro Station is underground, with two lines crossing; So It happens to be the largest station, or so I am told. For this they had to dig the Chowk up completely (as seen from the Google Maps) and they totally redesigned the garden. It now has beautiful walkway, manicured lawns, Powerful fountains and a nice open Air Amphi Theatre.
I also happened to dine at Nirula's. The standards seem to have fallen. I was looking forward to pigging out like I did along with Zulfikar back in 2001, but the first dish I had, itself was disappointing. I had asked for a footlong, and I got something that resembled a Long Pizza, with the mushrooms being dry and the cheese being chewy and not at all creamy. Nirula’s seem to have lost their identity, post their takeover.

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In case you think I am being too harsh on this city, please remember that this is the Vindictive and arrogant Opinion of a pure thoroughbred Mumbaikar, on seeing a superior city. When you come to Delhi, you feel like you have come to the 'Rajdhani'. Be it the elegant curves under the flyover for U-turns, or the sparkling lines of led's on the road dividers or the uniform Urban fixtures, or traffic signage that actually makes sense, all make you feel like you are at a Special place. Infact I'll go so far as to say that if you have a place to stay, there is nothing like Mumbai, and if you have accommodation and your own vehicle, there is nothing like Delhi.
On an ending note...You feel the grandeur and the royal heritage of the city, the moment you land here, either at the railway station or the airport, when the Auto-wallas claim astronomical sums for short distances.