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The Journey - A Score to Settle - Part III

Posted by Vikramsinh at Wednesday, October 12, 2011

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The most extreme conditions require the most extreme response, and for some individuals, the call to that response is vitality itself. . . .The integrity and self-esteem gained from winning the battle against extremity are the richest treasures in my life.
- Diana Nyad ( U.S. long–distance swimmer)

We started our journey to dream destination – Paris. All official woes were over. Gradual realization of dream, that was waiting for long time in the hearts of all randonneurs.

Paris, Riding Delights and N12

Carrying bike box was challenge
It was Thursday (16th Aug) morning when we landed in Paris. Airport to hotel distance – 50 kms. RER Train was best (and cheapest) option. It took 9 hours and 17 Euros to reach the destination. We had to change 3 trains and finally boarded bus. Carrying the bike box all along the way was great challenge. We were so irritated that we opened boxes and started assembling bikes on the bus stop while waiting for bus. Travelling expense (17 Euros approx Rs. 1100) was quite at higher end compared to usual fares in India but that was just trailer, later on the last day while returning, we hired taxi to get to airport from the hotel. With 2 bike boxes inside the taxi, we paid the amount beyond our imagination. The bloody 150 Euros (approx Rs. 10000). Lesson learned – never hire taxi in Paris for travelling unless you are in dire need or super rich. 
Assembling bike
Once we settled in the hotel. Plenty of free time, theme of the day – explore, explore, explore. Paris - city rich of culture and beauty. Though we knew very little about routes and language; roaming around was joyful. Next four days were full of wandering to all the places mostly on bike. We were exploring surrounding area, beautiful countryside....and modern Paris.  Experience was blissful...
Riding on roads was joyride, smooth, clean roads without any bumps. Very different feeling from India, bikers were getting high priority over the cars and other vehicles. Cars were stopping to give way to bikers. They never tried to overtake in hurry, without having enough space available on the road. The only thing to adjust was left hand driving, total reverse condition from India. Riding on the right side of the road, in the right most lane, took more time for mental adjustment. Many times we went on the wrong side of the road.
I missed Indian food
Food - difficult to survive. I missed Indian food very much throughout the tour. As a vegetarian I faced much problem to cope up with the new food. Bread, pizza and fruits were the main food items for whole stay. That didn’t provide the required nourishment. 

Our hotel was in Plaisir, town on outskirts of Paris, near the starting point of the PBP. Other group of Indian riders stayed at another hotel in Maurepas. That became the meeting point for all Indian riders and many other randonneurs from other countries, who created good friendship bonds. Dinner meetings were full of fun and laughter, sharing of experiences. During one of such meetings, some one asked to Chen, a randonneur form Canada who came for PBP 3rd time, “what are your suggestions? Any tips for the PBP as we are the first timers” he replied “PBP 2011 is already over. I can give you tips for 2015 (the next PBP)” that became amusing joke for quite some time.

Chen as a Translator at gymnasium, with volunteer 
Some other day some one asked him “what is your first name?” he replied “you can call me as Chen, I don’t like people to call me by my first name, by the way, it’s Patrick or sometimes I say Idiot”. These kind of light conversations created good memories to treasure rest of the life.

One thing that could have turned disastrous was riding on the national highway - N12. PBP was ending on 25th and my flying date back to India was 27th so I was desperate to go to Paris before PBP, especially for Eiffel tower. Consequently On Thursday (19th Aug), four of us who stayed at Plaisir, planned to go to Paris on bike. Unknown to routes to Paris we followed the arrows on the sign posts along the way, which landed us on the N12 which is national highway connecting Paris and Brest through Dreux and Rennes. Cycling on the national highway is strictly prohibited; which we know vaguely, we started riding straight to Paris.
N-12
Heavy traffic on the highway was moving fast, vehicles were flying at high speed, and people were staring at us with strange looks. We wondered what was wrong. After riding more than 20kms, suddenly yellow van slowed down and stopped in front of us, at the road side. Doors opened, two officials out.
What the hell.. !!! Mind was buzzing with so many questions, whether we have to pay for the mistake, are they police or just another authority, how serious it is, how much fine we have to pay, in worst case scenario could this end up into the jail, how to get out of this shit ..
Officials confronted us and asked the obvious question, why were we riding on the N12 despite it was prohibited. Enquired other details. All conversation in French, we pretended to unaware of the rules, after brief discussion they asked us to put our bikes inside the van. Gradually all the questions disappeared from the buzzing mind. Officials turned very helpful. They took us to the place nearby Paris and left us on the road where cycling was permitted. Relaxed, out of trouble, we thanked them and finally to God. Chen said “hey, you are lucky guys, someone didn’t hit you” when later we described the whole episode to him.

Bike Check – The Day Before D Day

Recumbent
Bike check – the first flavor of PBP. It is an integral part of PBP, where officials check bikes for minimum standards. Head and tail lights, reflective vest, no loose parts. The day when one can realize the true spirit of PBP first time. PBP is such a legendary fantasy, by entering this mythical ride, participants will test their cycling agility and their human endurance. They will strive to obtain their Personal Best or they will try simply to rally the arrival… but they will always do their best to live this adventure while supporting each other and building friendships with those who participate in this endurance monument, which is much more than a simple hike.
Tandem

Saturday (Aug 20), the day before actual race, was reserved for bike check at the Guyancourt. As we moved towards the gymnasium in "Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines” which was the gathering point for all cyclists, we met many other riders along the way. Variety of bikes, recumbent, tandem, it was amazing. We had conversation with riders from other parts of the world.
At the gymnasium, in Guyancourt, it was like fair, the sea of 5000 riders, at one place with their bikes. It was enormous. I had never seen that kind of pool of people at one place in my life. Many amazing people gathered from all over the world. The whole place was full of riders and many volunteers, who were making best efforts to address every problem of participants. We got our brevet card, cue sheet, water bottle with PBP logo and jersey. The Super Randonneur medal, for completing super series 200,300,400 and 600 kms brevets within a year.
With Samim
Once official bike check was over, we had plenty of time in the afternoon so we spent quite some time there. Met the whole Indian team, including Samim Rizvi (First and only Indian to complete Race Across America, grueling 5000 kms race within 12 days, just monumental) who is in my list of inspirational people and the other Indian origin Seattle randonneur, it was very happy and joyful time. All riders were full of energy, Showing super enthusiasm and camaraderie with the other randonneurs from around the world. Intense passion and sheer beauty of the moment can only be experienced by being there at that moment. 

 
Discussions about the weather forecast were dreadful. Expected rain on Sunday and Monday. One Indian randonneur warned about bad weather, he said in alarming voice, “the worst case scenario – temperatures below 10 degrees and rain in the night near Normandy and Brittany” (this exactly turned true on the second night). Not good news, but it was not rained in last 5 days. I thought, rather hoped for wrong weather predictions. Finally we were back to the hotel in the evening thinking about the next day. While sleeping, mind was full of thoughts about the D day, the day for which we were waiting for long time, the day for which we absorbed so many sufferings, the dream day.

For more photos Click Here 

...To Be Continued

 

The Journey - A Score to Settle - Part II

Posted by Vikramsinh at Sunday, October 9, 2011

1 Comments


One of the most difficult things everyone has to learn is that for your entire life you must keep fighting and adjusting if you hope to survive. No matter who you are or what your position is you must keep fighting for whatever it is you desire to achieve. 
- Allen George (American Football Coach)


June was over and so was the horror of “B Cubed”. Wounds healed, bruises diminished, swelling vanished, deep purple patch of hematoma (a localized collection of blood outside the blood vessels) on the left side of the abdomen was almost gone. Now I was ready for training rides again. Second weekend of July, Saturday 9th July, 300 kms brevet, to some place ahead of Ahmednagar. Riding in the day light was comfortable journey though rain was making its appearance frequently. The ride was almost all alone, returning in the night with heavy and vicious traffic was appalling. Only single lane road, many times trucks and other heavy vehicles forced me to move out of the road, terrifying. Rain produced low visibility in the dark. Few times I stopped to make the way for trucks trying to overtake at high speed, no road lights. Finally at home - time 12.30 AM in the night, reading in the speedometer - 350 kms in 19 hours. Quite comfortable comeback after “B Cubed”  

July15, 1 month remaining for the planned flying date. I had to prepare for so many things along with my regular (rather irregular) training. I started to look for any help I can get from my employer, umpteen of mails exchanged. No positive outcome. Next step, contacted more than couple dozens of people who were located in Paris or nearby cities and asked them if they can help in any way. After long search I found a friend who was located in Paris. Who is long distance runner, invited me to stay at his place during the tour (Later circumstances turned in such way that I didn’t get any chance to meet him in Paris).
During the whole PBP phase, I was lucky to get as many leaves as I needed, thanks to the manager. The immense support given by my team at workplace and especially by the manager made it all possible. I was out for almost one month, though that was not the actual plan but unforeseen circumstances caused extended vacations. Extra one and half week. 

Mock Ride …Mud on the Face


July 22nd, Friday, Only 3 weeks remaining, I seriously thought for 1000 kms ride, which was due for long time. I thought about Dharwad, good place considering its location on NH4, about 410 kms away from Pune. Getting someone to ride with me was difficult; I asked to friend to come with me on motorbike. Plan was to leave on 3 PM on Friday and ride 900+ kms by Sunday night. Bike problems shifted time lines, speedo stopped working. Hand gloves and bottle cage was in need of replacement. Finally we left at 7.30 PM. till morning we covered 170 kms smoothly.


Saturday morning, it started raining, troubled fate as roads were wet with mud. Each passing vehicle was sprinkling some more muddy water, reduced functionality of brakes cut down the speed. Shoes wet, bike without mud guard gradually created thin layer of mud on backpack.

The route was scenic full of natural beauty, green lush fields in every direction. We reached 250 kms mark at 11 am had our lunch and started again. Continuous rain made it very difficult to ride at high speed, bike was crawling steadily.


Till evening we made it to Belgaum 330 kms. rain was not stopped yet, around 7.30 rain and thunderstorms were became so worse that we couldn't see anything. After one good decent bike rested on the roadside, small shop was the only shelter. Speedo was showing 355 kms. We had some spicy dishes to alleviate the hunger. The shopkeeper was very surprised to know about us. “ you should not ride in the dark and rainy night”  He insisted (rather forcefully asked) to return to Belgaum and get to some hotel for that night. Friend was also reluctant to go further, heavy traffic was scary, better option was return back to Belgaum rather than risking life.

Rain was not mitigating, we returned to Belgaum in heavy rain, stayed at hotel and had good sleep for 10 hours. Wet shoes, socks, gloves were irritating. Changing to dry cloths was big relief. When I awoke in the morning, I was refreshed and ready for ride. Sunday morning we left Belgaum at 6 AM and rain was gone, the rest of the ride was peaceful though I was feeling exhausted. We reached Pune at Sunday night 3 AM. Total of 734 kms of riding over the weekend, that was good training ride. This ride took its toll on my weight, 3 kgs gone and eventually I spent sleepy Monday at workplace.

Official Woes…


Now training ride was over and I was working on formalities. The first thing was getting visa. The process was extremely painful and frustrating. First of all collecting the documents provided in the list of required documents was big task.  A travelling agency filed my visa application on 25th July, arranged an interview on 27th.  Interview was in Mumbai, officials asked too many questions (which were completely irritating and showed poor knowledge of authorities about this great event). The situation turned totally different from what was expected. French consulate held the decision for 6 days. Meanwhile I changed my flying dates -16th to 27th Aug, and booked hotel room for the same period. Getting official documents about the residential proof in original from friend in France was next to impossible. So I sent changed dates and proof of lodging for whole stay to consulate. It was of no use. When only 12 days were remaining to leave for the event, the decision was out; your visa has been rejected (by this time 3 other riders got their visa rejected)

Reasons for the rejection..
1.The information submitted regarding the justification for the purpose and condition of the intended stay was not reliable.
2.Your intention to leave the territory of the member state before the expiry of the visa could not be ascertained.

It was quite disastrous and very unfortunate. Each day was testing patience. Following days, passed in contacting many people for help and thinking of all options available. It was like unimaginable vicious circle, again applying for visa, going through the same process. Indian coordinator for organizing brevets and other riders contacted the vice president of the cycling event. At that time he was on vacation. But he was kind enough to write to the French consulate. Indian coordinator from Pune wrote the guarantee for us. With all these efforts we reapplied, this time consulate became bit lenient and issued visa to couple of participants.

My next interview was arranged on 10th Aug Wednesday, last interview among the unfortunate 4 who applied for second time. Travelling toMumbai, despite of engagements at workplace was repulsive. I tried to trade off this by visiting workplace location in Mumbai. On Wednesday, I was waiting at consulate and got the news that embassy denied visa for 3rd participant (whose visa got rejected earlier). My turn to try luck. Interview was same; once again consulate held the decision for one day, same as they did for 3rd participant so I was almost sure about rejection. This was going intensely painful and disappointing. I contacted all known high profile connections who might have helped..

The next day, Thursday, same visa office, again same interview, same questions ... and finally the officer agreed to provide the visa on the condition that I will report to the visa office once back in India. Thank god, somehow it was over..

By this time flying date was very close, only 3 days to go and I had to prepare so many things. Stressful days ahead...

Keeping all the stuff in place.. packing bike.. all in rainy weather .. complying to the airlines rules for maximum weight, dismantled bike dimensions and baggage specifications.. getting bike box.. all official documents, hundreds of small things and I was almost all alone .. finally somehow I placed all things in place, on Monday (15th Aug) morning left for Mumbai with one other cyclist friend... there we met to other 2 friends. Flight departure was at 2 AM in the night.

Once at the airport, first thing we did is to check weight of bike box, everyone was checking if it was not over 23 kgs. Now we had a problem, one bike box was over the specified weight, we cut the packing of bike boxes and distributed few things in our other bike boxes. The next thing was to get currency exchanged which turned out to be very expensive  for me (75 Rs/Euro instead of standard exchange rate 65 Rs/Euro). As we moved in the queue for check in baggage, subsequent barrier was waiting. “What’s in the bike box?” officials asked skeptically. Again we had to open our bike boxes for inspection and repacked. Next was migration and custom duty form. Here we lost much time convincing officials about bikes and getting different forms from them for each one of us. Finally all formalities were over and we were ready to fly. And so the journey started to dream destination..



...To Be Continued.

 

The Journey - A Score to Settle - Part I

Posted by Vikramsinh at Friday, October 7, 2011

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What makes a great endurance athlete is the ability to absorb potential embarrassment, and to suffer without complaint. I was discovering that if it was a matter of gritting my teeth, not caring how it looked, and outlasting everybody else, I won. It didn't seem to matter what sport it was--in a straight-ahead, long-distant race, I could beat anybody. If it was a suffer-fest, I was good at it.
-Lance Armstrong (My Journey back to Life)

It’s a story about long journey, the quest for passion. My experience to participate in one of the oldest and most famous cycling events, Paris- Brest-Paris (PBP). Where the challenge is to ride 1230 kms in maximum of 90 hours. Total 10800 m of height gain which is equivalent to the height more than the height of Mount Everest. Burning approximately 35000 Kcal, spending sleepless nights. Though I could not complete it, the whole journey was amazing, full of ups and downs, extremely wonderful and rich experience. Kids, coffee, and cookies. What's really heart warming about PBP is the support the locals give the riders, whether it be coffee and cookies at 2 AM or an "allez! allez! allez! bonne route! bonne courage!" for all the time, we riders feel like sport stars.


And how it all started...


Around the mid of May 2011.
I was in serious confusion, the question that was giving me sleepless nights was go or not to go (to Paris for PBP 2011). I had already completed 200,300,400,600 kms brevets series within last 5 months, which was the qualifying criteria to participate in PBP, and now opportunity was knocking on the door, Mind full of thoughts - whether I should go to France for participating in Paris-Brest-Paris 2011 ..the prestigious and very famous long distance cycling endurance event which comes after every 4 years and has history of 120 years. The ride starts from suburban Paris, though Normandy and Brittany, out to the coast of Brest and back to Paris.

Few cyclist friends who were planning to go, contacted and asked me about my plans. The decision was not tough if I want to go by my heart but the expenses were also weighing too high. Calculations were showing the figure which was crossing 1 followed by five big zeros, that was lots of money. After few days of restless thinking, I decided to go by my heart. Booked my flight tickets on 17th May with other friends. Countdown began, this was the first time in the history that Indian riders were participating in the event. My plan was 3 weeks tour, 16 Aug- 4 Sep.Mind was clear now, no more confusions, I thought and started to work out on immediate next plan that was another adventure, trekking in Himalayas for 11 days in summer 19th to 30th May.


Horror of “B cubed”…

Coming back from the Himalaya trekking, fully refreshed, I started my preparations. I had two and half months for preparations. Next 2 weeks vanished quickly with regular practice on weekends. But that was not sufficient; the longest distance I covered was 600 kms in 38 hours during my brevet ride. I wanted to do at least one brevet 1000+ kms as a preparation for PBP. As a preparation one should give 110 % while training to face unfamiliar conditions in actual race. It was difficult to get such a long holidays for planning more than 1200 kms, so I was settled for 1000, the opportunity knocked, "B cubed" a 1000kms brevet to be completed in 75 hours in Bangalore. Bangalor-Belgaum-Bangalor (B Cubed) the straight route following the NH4. The plan was to start on 23rd june (Thursday) 4 PM from banglore go to belgaum and come back to banglor by 26th June (Sunday) 7 PM.

I registered for the same and left Pune on Wednesday night. There was fuss to place my bike inside luggage space, as bus driver was not ready. Somehow I succeeded in convincing him. Rest of the journey was peaceful sleep. Next morning, landed in Banglore. Spent whole day at friend’s place. Left for the brevet at 2 PM, before starting I wanted to get spare tube and cyclo computer (speedometer), locating the shop was pain, wasted too much time. I reached the starting point with 15 minutes left for all formalities.

It was raining heavily when we started in the evening on that day. I didn’t have raingear as I was confident about my inner power to fight with rain or cold conditions (which was overly optimistic). At the beginning riding with few other cyclists was joyful, rain was not looking fearful. Moving ahead while chatting with them, discussing the weather for next 2 days. As we moved rain became worse, after covering 50 kms I was all alone, it was dark and visibility was quite low due to rain. Around 7 PM while I thought it was too difficult to ride due to heavy rain, I stopped for 20 minutes and ate some food from backpack. Then next stop was at 9 PM, I stopped at one hotel for getting new water bottle, then started again ....

…and next thing I remember is ....I was seated in the small shop on the roadside, traffic was moving along the highway as usual. Two people were sleeping inside the shop. I looked at my watch, It was 1 AM in the night. My bike (cycle) was leaned against wall. Speedometer was showing 95 kms and I was feeling pain. I saw bruises on left side on my knee, elbow and abdomen, which was clearly indicating that I had crash which I couldn’t understand. I fell down on the left side but no serious injuries except swelling in the abdomen. Gradually I started gaining my consciousness back and tried to correlate the things. Then my cell phone rang, I got calls from my friend in bangalor and organizers, and from my mother, everyone was telling the same thing, something weird, that I called them and asked for help. But I didn’t remember calling to anyone of them, I heard from them that I was asking same questions repeatedly, I was not in the state to get any sudden shock.. 
I slowly understood, it was short term memory loss ..as I was not able to recall any event after I bought water bottle from that hotel at 9 pm, how I crashed and landed in that shop which was on the opposite side of the road.

I was hungry so ate some food from my backpack. I was waiting for friends and organizers to come and it was 1 AM in the night. Bad news, My cell phone battery was dying, what to do now? If I lost the contact to friends then there was no other option but wait till morning also they were going to be worried much more about me. fortunately I remember about the spare battery in my backpack,thank god, I changed it immediately. It would have much difficult to locate me without my cell phone switched on. At last, after 3 hours, at 4 AM in the morning they succeeded in locating me. Car stopped, 3 people came out, to shop and 2 friends on motorbike. I was still not fully recovered and trying to figure out what was going on. They first inspected me for serious injuries , they found minor bruises and swelling, nothing major, they put my bike on the cycle stand attached to the backside of the car and started travelling towards banglore. Now I was feeling quite comfortable and tried to sleep. At 7 AM we were in banglore. It took 2 weeks for full recovery. 

...To Be Continued

 

The Man Who Declined Fields Medal and the Millennium Prize.

Posted by Vikramsinh at Monday, March 28, 2011

2 Comments


"We could use up two Eternities in learning all that is to be learned about our own world and the thousands of nations that have arisen and flourished and vanished from it. Mathematics alone would occupy me eight million years. " ~Mark Twain (1835- 1910).

Human beings are always intrigued with the idea of Mathematics. There is no such thing in this world which in untouched by mathematics. Sometimes we could fail to understand the nature, the laws of nature are specifically intertwined to balance the entire universe. Each and everything has rationale behind it, and understanding that logic always challenges us.

Here is the man who solved one of the most complex, difficult and intrigued problems in mathematics and also denied its recognition prizes. The man is none other than the Math genius Grigory Perelman, who has made landmark contributions to Riemannian geometry and geometric topology. A reclusive Russian topologist seemed to be playing eccentric mathematician as the saying goes "there is no genius without a touch of madness".

In 2006, He refused to accept the highest honor in mathematics, the Fields Medal, Which is also known as "Nobel Prize of Mathematics" for the prestige it carries, “For his contributions to geometry and his revolutionary insights into the analytical and geometric structure of the Ricci flow". In 2010, He also declined a $1 million prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for resolution of Poincaré’s conjecture, which remained unsolved for more than a 100 years. The hypothesis involving the deep structure of three-dimensional objects.

“I do not think anything that I say can be of the slightest public interest,” he told. “I know that self-promotion happens a lot and if people want to do that, good luck to them, but I do not regard it as a positive thing."
The man is very inaccessible, Why did Perelman turn his back on the world? This question haunted Masha Gessen and to unravel the mystery of Perelman she tried to put together all pieces from all dimensions, in her book “Perfect Rigor”. Without any help from Perelman himself, she charts the mathematician’s rise from quiet super-student to prickly genius, suggesting that the very perfectionism that fueled his work may have been the cause of his alienation. Book gives ample background on his coaches and classmates, who describe him mostly as “a sort of math angel” who never made mistakes. His triumph at the 1982 International Mathematical Olympiad, when he achieved a perfect score and earned a gold medal. She tried to portray the genius including the eccentricities and antisocial traits that would become so pronounced at the pinnacle of his career. In doing so she has written an accessible book about an unreachable man.

Fields Medal
Fields Medal is conceived as top honor a mathematician can receive. The prize is awarded to mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place every four years. It comes with a monetary award, which in 2006 was $15,000. "Fields Medals" are more properly known by their official name,” International medals for outstanding discoveries in mathematics."


Millennium Prizes
In order to celebrate mathematics in the new millennium, The Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts (CMI) established seven Prize Problems. The Prizes wer
e conceived to record some of the most difficult problems with which mathematicians were grappling at the turn of the second millennium. As of March 2011, six of the problems remain unsolved. A correct solution to any of the problems results in a US$1,000,000 prize being awarded by the institute.

James Carlson, President of CMI, said, "resolution of the Poincaré conjecture by Grigoriy Perelman brings to a close the century-long quest for the solution. It is a major advance in the history of mathematics that will long be remembered."

On December 22, 2006, the journal Science honoured Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture as the scientific "Breakthrough of the Year", the first time this had been bestowed in the area of mathematics.

Poincare Conjecture
This is bit mathematical and perceived as difficult to understand. So you can probably see the video explaining the same.

The original conjecture is stated like this:

"Consider a compact 3-dimensional manifold V without boundary. Is it possible that the fundamental group of V could be trivial, even though V is not homeomorphic to the 3-dimensional sphere?"


I found interesting article where writer tried to explain this in simplified way.

The rationale behind declining the prize and fame is sending signals against the politics in Mathematics, a purist would say that no one person deserves to stake a claim on a theorem. That seemed to be what Dr. Perelman, who has said he disapproves of politics in mathematics, was implying.

I still found it hard to believe. The way great people think, Perhaps no one can.

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See Counterfeit Reality Through Your cell Phone..!!!

Posted by Vikramsinh at Saturday, January 2, 2010

3 Comments

Recently one interesting news captured my attention, A 21 year old Mysore based girl developed a cell phone application that can find out fake notes. Read full story.




Neha N., an engineering student from Mysore created this application to find out whether currency notes are real or not. Its big relief in today’s world where counterfeit notes are growing geometrically in number. Number of attempts were made in past to fight against the fake currency notes but this seems to be a good solution that common people can use. Thanks to bright engineer who won cash prize of 1 lakh at innovation challenge. Let’s hope that mobile producers add this new innovation to cell phones..!!!

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Take a Moment to Look Back....!!!

Posted by Vikramsinh at Thursday, December 24, 2009

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Another year come and gone, so many things happen sweet and bitter, happy and sad; we got reasons to smile and cry...

As we look back the year was full of so many surprises, things turn upside down and pace of life become faster. We have to keep up with changing time and find out what we want back from our lives, what exactly make us feel happy...

We have to contemplate what we gain and what we loss, mistakes we made, how to avoid them.

News papers, TV channels are flooded with series of articles/shows on this years vital incidents that impact world in a good or bad way. So I am not listing down all those things but one interesting thing I found is Google’s zeitgeist. A way to see what people search on the internet, what is the spirit of the time.

Michael Jackson is the most googled term this year worldwide and facebook comes second, but in India it's different.

Katrina kaif beat Michael in India and become most googled celebrity in India for consecutively second year. For the second year running, Katrina Kaif has also grabbed the top spot as Asia's sexiest woman - as awarded by the UK's prestigious Eastern Eye magazine. Looks like Katrina is poised to rock the world...

Last week tragic demise of Britney Murphy spreads shock waves like Michael Jackson; more interesting thing is Black Hat SEO used it for spreading system infections. As news spread fast more and more people tried to search about it and that’s what is exploited by some cyber criminals. They embedded malicious codes in the links which were listed in top search results. So beware next time when you click any search result link while searching on hot topic. more about this attack




Lastly enjoy the celebration time and make maximum out of your life ...its precious and beautiful..enjoy each moment and life will become a continuous celebration..!!

Merry X-mas




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Theorem that took 357 years to prove...!!!

Posted by Vikramsinh at Sunday, December 13, 2009

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“And perhaps, posterity will thank me for having shown it that the ancients did not know everything.” -Pierre de Fermat


Man is always fascinated by complexity of mathematics. The mathematical problems, theorems, conjectures proposed are sometimes pose such a challenge that it took years of efforts of many brilliant mathematicians to solve it. People who solve it are truly obsessed with only one thought, that is solution to the given problem.

Here is world’s one of the most famous and celebrated theorem which took 357 years to prove. Statement of the theorem looks so simple that any schoolchildren can understand it, even though it poses challenge to mathematicians from all over the world. Yes...it's famous Fermat's Last Theorem...!!!



Fermat wrote, “It is impossible for any number which is a power greater than the second to be written as a sum of two like powers. I have a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.”

Mathematically a^n = b^n + c^n where a,b,c,n are integers have no solution for n > 2

Pierre de Fermat (1601 - 1665) wrote it in 1637 and it is very confusing if he had the proof. He wrote that he have proof but the margine of the paper is too narrow to contain it. It's mystery and different people have different opinions about it.

The proof was established by Andrew Wiles in 1994. Proof is not directly related to Fermat’s last theorem its proving another theorem that implies Fermat’s last theorem. As a child Andrew
was curious about the theorem and why it is not solved for so many years. He worked hard but found dead end. He then started to work on elliptic curves which was popular contemporary field of study and coincidently the very field leads to the proof.

He buried himself for 7 years, he left his job as a professor and sideline his social life. In 1993, he comes up with proof. But soon his dreams got bigger blow, he was devastated when one of the questions asked by colleague challenged the correctness of the proof. Once again he obsessed with his work. He started work to fix the problem. After several months efforts with his former student he comes up with the correct proof.


This incredible journey to get proof for 7 years of ceaseless efforts is captured in a movie called The Fermat's Last Theorem in 1996. Simon Singh and John Lynch's film tells the enthralling and emotional story of Andrew Wiles. Here is the link to watch the video.

This is one of the most interesting stories about mathematical proofs I came across. It’s really amazing struggle of man to get the ultimate truth ..!!! and I think that’s what makes our lives meaningful.

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The Three Gorges Dam ...Incredible Engineering...!!!

Posted by Vikramsinh at Saturday, December 5, 2009

2 Comments

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Man is always craving for more advanced and comfortable life. His never ending quest to improve and excel in all directions and aspects of life brings today’s extremely transformed, complex and wonderful world.

Here is the perfect example of historic engineering feat, Three Gorges Dam. Its stats will amaze you; its view will mesmerize you and changes in the environment brought by Dam will compel you to think about our material greed.

There are around 86000 dams overall on the world and around 46000 belongs to China. Energy hungry China always crave for more and more power. Chinese coal mines already taking many lives, but Chinese leaders are more concern about prosperity of nation than people's lives.

Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest electricity-generating plant of any kind. Constructed on Yangtze river. The greatest of the projects took 17 years. Started in 1994, the dam was expected to be fully operational in 2009, but due to additional projects such as the underground power plant with six additional generators, and due to the complexity of the ship lift, the dam is not expected to become fully operational until about 2011.
Dam costs total of US$40 billion. It causes the displacement of over 1.2 million people from the 60,000hectares of and which will gradually be flooded by the resulting 640-kilometre (397-mile) long reservoir. Here is the Official site.

Statistics shows Comprehensive Project Construction Scale.

The construction includes the following work:

-- Removing 102.59 million cubic meters of stone and earth and filling with 29.33 million cubic meters of stone and earthwork;
-- Mixing and pouring 27.15 million cubic meters of cement;
-- Erecting 281,000 tons of metal structure. It used 463,000 tonnes of steel, enough to build 63 Eiffel Towers;
-- Making and erecting 354,000 tons of reinforcing bars;
-- Building 231,000 square meters of leak-proof concrete walls;
-- Installing 32 power generators with a 700 MW capacity each which results in combined capacity of 18.2 million kilowatts;
-- Creating Dam of height 101 m from river level and 185 m from see level, width 115 m, length 2335 m


The project produces hydroelectricity, apart from that provides greater flood control and river navigation capacity. Up to September 2009 the dam has generated 348.4 TWh of electricity, covering more than one third of its project cost. Project management call it as social and economic success, a breakthrough in the design of large turbines, and a move toward the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The technological breakthrough is really stupefying. Here is a video animation of the generators.

There are environmental advantages such as reduction in air pollution and green house gas emission by generating electricity from hydropower instead of coal and by providing pollution free navigation. Waste water management. Afforastration. Flood control and drought relief.

But it has darker side also
Threat to Ecology - The dam will significantly decrease the river's flushing capacity, and the pollution ratings will increase.
Erosion and Sedimentation - There are two hazards uniquely identified with the dam. One is that sedimentation projections are not agreed upon, and the other is that the dam sits on a seismic fault.
Affected aesthetic values - Cultural and historical relics are being moved to higher ground as they are discovered, but the flooding will undoubtedly cover some undiscovered relics.
Security - Threat from terrorists.
Earthquakes - There is also the potential for earthquake-induced peak ground acceleration to overcome the strength of the upstream face of the dam which, coupled with the immense weight of the reservoir water, could cause breaching.

I don't know what to say..Whether it is good or bad? Better you decide and tell me ....

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Revolutionary Sixth Sense Technology..and Indian connection..!!!

Posted by Vikramsinh at Sunday, November 29, 2009

4 Comments


Imagine the world where you don’t need specific surface like flat screen or monitor to carry out your digital workouts. All the digital processes that are done on computer or your iPhone can be
done where ever you want, even on your palm you can project key board and screen and start to write email or do any other work same as you do on your computer. Isn't it thrilling ...yes its no more imaginary science fiction but very real world phenomenon. Thanks to Sixth Sense Technology discovered by Pranav Mistry at MIT Media Lab.
'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. Find more about sixth sense project.

You can feel its true thrill when you actually see the video, you will be mesmerized by technology, what a brilliant invention. It will change the whole world and the way we live. The most interesting thing is pranav wants his invention to be open source so that any one can contribute and use it for free. It’s rare in today’s world where almost everyone thinks in terms of money. He has given demonstration of this incredible technology at TEDIndia talk. TED is Technology Entertainment Design group that promotes new innovative ideas by sharing it. Watch the demonstration video.


Currently Pranav is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's Media Lab. Check out pranav's profile. Recently Venkatraman Ramakrishnan won Noble prize in Chemistry for the year 2009 which made India proud. The inventor of sixth sense technology, Pranav, also
have strong Indian connections. He has done his BE in computer science from Gujarat University, and Masters from IIT Bombay which once again shows the great Indian legacy. Hats off...!!!

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The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS

Posted by Vikramsinh at Wednesday, August 19, 2009

0 Comments



"We all use math every day; to predict weather, to tell time, to handle money. Math is more than formulas or equations; it's logic, it's rationality, it's using your mind to solve the biggest mysteries we know." - NUMB3RS



We are always curious about predicting future or solving crimes, day to day life's complex problems with some technique and science. This is very difficult task. It requires lots of efforts along with very precise logical, Rational and lateral thinking. Thats what Charlie do while solving the crimes for his FBI Agent brother Don Epps. Charlie is the protagonist of one of my most favorite TV series. NUMB3RS. Amazing TV series, which gives an insight of how Maths can be used to solve complex conundrums of life.

Many people will not agree that Maths can solve the crimes, but charlie perfectly believes in everything is numbers (and so do I). It was started way back in Jan 2005, NUMB3RS completed 5th season this year. In typical episode, Charlie helps Don to solve a crime investigation case using Maths. He is Maths professor at CalSci (California School of Science and Technology), a fictional institute but his math is much more real. Many real world mathematicians are consultants for creation of the series. The presentation of all events in which maths is used for solving crimes is really amazing. Here are some links for watching the episodes.

1. All Complete Series
2. CBS Primetime

Recently I found one fabulous book called "The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS" written by two real world mathematicians. It gives whole lot of things related to series, maths used and related real world situations. Here is the link to download the book.



All other links related to show are given in the section "Road to El Dorado" of this site. Enjoy the reading and wait for the 6th season in September...

Thanks,

Yours
MagicNumb3rs

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