APJ and Anirudh Sharma

Intelligent Systems is what I will be going ahead with. Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Data Mining.

It is extremely empowering for an assembly of processor, memory, hard disk, I/O devices to now have 'thoughts' and to understand and act on its own. You doing it makes you play the Creator.

APJ's demise came to me as a message on a WhatsApp group absurdly just below the least important thing I was saying about that girl.

I was shocked. Read it twice or thrice. Called home to confirm that with TV news channels. And then almost immediately left what I was doing (if at all) and left the room going most likely to some place I could see the news to know the details.

Very strangely, last clicked photo in my phone is

 which I clicked just yesterday. And I was very sad. Was I?

I am not sure should I be ashamed of it but I wasn't feeling that sad.

Maybe I shouldn't. That Prof. said the other day in this universe of millions of galaxies having millions of stars whether you live or die it doesn't matter.

I am fortunate I saw APJ in March this year at NIT Kurukshetra. He awarded us degrees in the convocation. He was very motivating and charismatic. He said next big things to go for are- Internet of Things, Nanoscience and Biotechnology. And then he also conducted an oath for all of us. I took the oath and now don't remember even a word. I am certainly ashamed of that.

I was out of my room going probably to some TV room but spent next 3 hours playing TT and then came back and still thinking about APJ's death I slept.

Today morning again and I am ashamed of myself.

To make an AI thing would be great. Call it 'Jarvis'. To have the Cray 40 analysing deeply the sample data I give, the way I say would be great.

Exhausting departmental orientation talks ended-up to an exhausted evening. Half the time I was half-slept and the other half the time parallel upgrading my phone to Android 5.1. But at 5 PM was scheduled a talk by Mr. Anirudh Sharma, an entrepreneur who made smart shoe soles to help blind people.

The speaker was late by more then 30 minutes. He came but was evidently totally unprepared not even knowing how long he is expected to present. Still it turned out very worthwhile for me to attend the talk. The guy talked plain and simple and had a real and strong story to tell.

He described and demoed couple of things-

• guiding soles for the blind. Vibrator motors (the ones we have in phones) embedded within shoe soles and integrated to GPS; the corresponding foot gives a haptic feedback telling you to take a turn. 

Very innovative and impressive. Also it was very connecting to know he came across this idea while in Koramangla Bangalore where he would see many blind people on streets seeking help with directions.

• Next was printing ink made from pollutants. He showed how unburnt soot collected on a burning flame (which otherwise is used as kajal) when mixed with some oil acts as a good ink and can be fed into inkjet cartridges.

He showed getting ideas is very easy. "Just look around and think how the thing would be in future". "Knowing the latest technologies, look for simple objects where that can be integrated". "Look for problems to solve. Luckily India has many of them".

He doesn't use WhatsApp.

I am myself considering to follow him on that.

OK done.

31st July being the cut-off I will get rid of this WhatsApp. DEAL.

• Next was a ruler which sees the drawings it drew and can display physics simulations on a transparent display (the scale itself) augmented with your line drawing. Amazing. 

• A small magnifying glass. You point it to a fruit and it gives its biological name. Reminds me of the pocket device Ash Ketchum used to have in which you pose a pokemon and it would pull out characteristic details of that.

He said don't think too much. Think and then make a prototype, show it to people and collect opinions.

A good team is very beneficial.

And don't hold-on to your ideas for too long. If you hold in your hand, the flower you like, for long it will die in your hand.

• Next was the coin size circuit chip with embedded sensors. It goes into the audio jack of your phone and your phone can now measure pH, test soil, check blood pressure and a lot more. 

This guy dropped out of his B. Tech at some local college in Bikaner and went around making smart displays and interfaces- the ones like we have in "Minority Reports". Then he luckily got employed (despite being unqualified) to HP Labs in Bangalore. From there he worked on those smart soles, gave it a good shape and then went to MIT Media Labs. He is now back and has setup a workplace in Indiranagar Bangalore.

- A good one to chase.

After the talk, I participated in a gathering and we paid homage and lit candles in memory of APJ at the Faculty Hall, IISc.

Next, I will get some food now and then TT and then grab a newspaper to know whats up with Yakub Memon.

20:00 28th July 2015

First 2 weeks

10th July was my last day at amazon Hyderabad. And was also for 2 two-months interns in my team.  They were kids with a lot of unfinished task so I stayed back at office and helped them finish stuff, working through the night between 9th and 10th. On my last day, I was walking stead-fast here and there completing formalities. Then the HR told relieving letter cannot be given the same day but in a week. I was almost in tears worried because it might be a requirement to show it on Monday 13th July at document verification in IISc. I was that late completing formalities, biding good byes and releasing  my laptop and stuff that I had to call my friend who rushed me to my flat and in 13  minutes I put a few clothes and my original DMCs in a bag and boarded the train to Bangalore.

I am finding IISc very nice. It’s very green and calm. The buildings and pathways seem to sprout-out amid a thick cover made of old 'real' trees (I a bit dislike the genetically-mutated nursery-made plants we find everywhere else). Insects, birds and bats are everywhere and there are also some squirrels and monkeys. Every evening it rains.

On 11th I reached Bangalore railway station at 7 AM and found an IISc van waiting there to receive the new admits. It took me to 'New Mens Hostel' within the campus where I parked my luggage. In NIT there used to be boys' hostel. So it was a promotion. The foundation stone of this  hostel proudly proclaimed "inaugurated by APJ". I wished if I could get to stay there. Also on the same day was hostel allocation-  in which I picked for myself, from a bucket of folded chits, a room in the most  undesirable of all hostels. Undesirable because it is at the  other end of the 400 acres campus while the dept and mess are on this side, so a stay here demands multiple long walks every day. If I go from CSA (Computer Science and Automation) dept to this PD Hostel (Post-Doctrate's Block) I symbolically cross a number of  villages, some dense forests, a highway and then an open field.

It was reheartening to see that this hostel was inaugurated by my-very-own Prof. Yash Pal  (He is a scientist who had a weekly Q&A science column in The Tribune which I never missed during  my childhood). At the very entrance is a Jamun tree. Crossing it every time I pick a few Jamuns fallen there half-eaten by crows, maybe bats. My room is half-way underground.  That plus the thick gray concrete-stone walls and iron bed and iron door makes me call it a bunker not a room. Pakistan can do any amount of shellings or bombarding on our hostel but it is meant to safeguard every single post-doctoral guy.

Mohit Jindal works in Grabhouse a startup in Bangalore, he and Ashish and Gaurav  (both Bluestacks Gurgaon) were here during this time and we had a whole trip planned. Amrinder amazon Bangalore also joined in. On 12th we went to a water park and 13th was sunrise at Nandi hills. Mists at Nandi hills feel almost like the top compartment of a frost-free refrigerator. UNO and bluff at my hostel room took the most part of the following night. 

13th I got the documents verified and a temporary Id card issued and off we went for Coorg.

250 km of drive and we were there. Serene beauty. Nice rooms (at Hotel Caveri) were already booked by me with my goCash maneuvers. Hotel wifi gave breath, as IISc hostels have no internet. No Internet in IISc hostels, thats right. Even telephone network disappears when you go half-underground. The wifi password was aptly abbifalls. Abby falls is what we went next day- 5 km uphill and then a nice waterfall on river Kaveri. Driving back we clicked numerous happy photos. Gaurav and Ashish taking turns for driving and each of the two busy pointing out faults in the way the other one drives and Jindal competing with everyone else for the co-pilot's seat. Google Maps took us by the hard path which for sure wasn't the Mysore highway we wanted. We reached back to the raining Bangalore's traffic, overshooting the plan by an hour. Amrinder was dropped. Zoomcar returned and we four were pushing an Ola to overspeed so as to catch Rajdhani.

17th early morning we reached Hyderabad. Reaching my flat was homecoming with a chorus of notification bells even before I opened the door, as my phone auto-connects to its familiar home wifi. Swimming pool, TT and my cook's food saved the day as roaming in Hyderabad was turning a bit uncomfortable without a zoomcar. Still we managed via Uber/Ola to go for laser-tag and a mall and a park. But finally rented a car for 19th morning and went for Palm-exotica, an adventures resort 35km out of the city. ValleyCrossing, GoKart,  DirtBiking and Human catapult sling-shot. 19th evening was return flight to Delhi for Gaurav and Ashish and the trip was to end with every day precisely documented on SplitWise. I swept the flat clean of all my belonging and force packed most of them in fat bags. There was enormous amount of things to be packed in a bound space-and-time. As Border shows that at time of war even the army cook picked up a rifle. Seeing the pressing need of the moment my laundry bag took the charge of a luggage bag. Yes, He got badly severed in the brave attempt. This shattered yet resistant laundry bag, together with all the other bag comrades and with Mohit and me boarded a Red-bus for Bangalore. The relieving letter among other super important stuff lying safe in there somewhere.

20th I was now back at IISc and Mohit continued his way to office.

This whole week were orientation presentations. 2.5 hours before lunch and 2.5 hours  after lunch.

They told how Swami Vivekanand motivated J N Tata to make this institute and the King of Mysore sets aside this land for them.

They introduced India’s fastest super computer :) Cray 40 that is housed in IISc. btw 79th  fastest in the world :(

They described the hostel facilities Old New Men's hostel and the New New Men's Hostel (which came up 10 years back)

They listed the Gymkhana and HealthCentre facilities almost all of which are for free.

They told how Govt. of India came to IISc when they wanted to establish IITs, for DRDO,  when they wanted to have a Nuclear program and also when they wanted to have the  space program.

They said grades don't matter.

They said IISc students need not be serious about the future (being sincere suffices).

They said whats expected from us is contribution to Science.

They told how people fall in love with the campus and deny to submit their thesis fearing the consequences of getting the degree awarded.

Director's wife told she was bitten by a dog in the campus. She asked Physics dept to make some gadgets which emits ultrasound waves annoying away all the dogs but then the ecological dept came in and thrashed their plans.

One presenter showed a photo of a space with millions of galaxies having millions of stars and told that whether you live or die it doesn't matter.

Another presenter was a very old prof from Ecological dept. He gave a phone number to call in case you encounter a snake. Ecology guys will jump-in and catch the snake (and leave it at some other part of the campus).

All of them are very nice people. Profound and Content.

Next week I would go to the CSA department. Dept level orientations next. Classes to begin in August.

Plan for weekend is to read "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawkings on my Kindle in the bunker sitting peacefully beside my valiant laundry bag.

15:00 25th July 2015