The Arch

It all began with a journey...now, now please don't wonder too much...nothing much really happened, I just have a flair for drama.... prolly Bollywood effect....can't really say.
So, anyway, the arch....
It was basically a monument built to honor the pioneers responsible for westward expansion and in fact, a competition was held to design a monument at St Louis and the architect Eero Saarinen won it. The structure is an inverted catenary which used the hyperbolic cosine function: y = k cosh(x/k) where cosh(x) = (e^x + e^-x)/2.
So, we had basically planned on just going to the airport to pick up my cousin from the airport but the flight was delayed and so my uncle and I decided to make a detour and have a glimpse of this magnificent structure. All of 630 feet, this monument is imposing at its worst and gazing at it in the starlit nights at 10 pm was really unbelievable. Situated on the banks of the Mississippi, it bids a welcome to everyone at St Louis and the intriguing lighting makes it awe inspiring and makes you remember the times when this region was a mere channel from the east to the west and how much progress has been made by the people over several generations to make the mid west region a place to reckon and having an entity of its own.
The last glimpse of the enormous structure had me craning my neck and looking backwards to keep gazing at it and i plan to go again and have more than a fleeting view but one thing is a fact: St louis without the arch is not remotely complete.

PS: It actually looks like the photo I put up, even though I did not take this one!

The White Tiger

A book of pun and dark humor.
Quoting macbeth "not all the waters of the ocean, nor all the perfumes of arabia can wash the blood off my hands"..... quoting arvind adiga "All the skin whitening creams sold in the markets of India won't clean my hands again ..."
His style of dramatic writing and his insightful comments on the facade of India and its mannerisms as a whole left me spell bound and waiting for more. The biggest compliment a book can get, I think, is the fact that you can't put it down till you finish it. The White Tiger is such a book. It is the story of how Munna, aka Balram moved his way up from a tortured driver in Dhanbad and Delhi to an entrepreneur in Bangalore and how he became a murderer and what were his sentiments all this while, particularly about the Rooster Coop; the system which keeps India subservient after all these years under the British rule, what makes a man remain a slave all his life. His character, with all its complexities and gray shades, still makes us relate to him at some point and his comments and feelings are extremely entertaining and empathy-generating at the same time.
After books like The Kite Runner and Omar Pahmuk's stuff, this was a breath of fresh air for me. A totally different style, a completely different way of putting things and a completely out-of-the-blue topic. For a person who doesn't really appreciate melodramas and hyperboles in books, this was a novel experience which made me feel...this guy is something. Story of a murderer, story of indian politics in all its hideousness, story of the rise of a man from rags to riches, story of caustic humor mixed with amazing similes......this book is certainly a keep.
Rock on, Adiga!!!

The sea bass and the salmon

Its funny how complex (or so i thought) concepts can be so easily explained using simple real life examples.
To explain this, I will need to cite the example to the sea bass and salmon which was so aptly utilized to explain the Bayes classification to us. Consider that we need to create an automated process which can differentiate between salmon and sea bass. For this, we may need to consider features such as size, color, texture maybe. Of course, certain assumptions need to be in place such as the camera position: we don't want one half of the salmon coming and the other half of a sea bass coming....features may get indistinguishable. So, if we consider their probability distributions to be gaussian (the simplest case) then for minimum error in identification, the decision boundary needs to lie at the point of intersection between the two distributions. (As shown in figure)
However, here we introduce a new concept: minimum risk. Many times, it happens that the cost of identifying a salmon as a sea bass is not the same as identifying a sea bass as a salmon.
The salmon is a costlier fish and if a customer gets a sea bass instead, he can very likely sue and create trouble. So, it is better to create error in identifying a salmon as a sea bass (a customer ending up with a costlier fish instead of a cheaper one would most likely be happy) than vice versa.
This leads to the minimum risk which will shift the decision boundary to either direction depending on the cost of error.
Hence, tougher concepts can be explained in a layman manner ....and thanks to Dr S, it was an excellent and highly enjoyable lecture.....

PS: By probability distribution, I mean the probability of salmon/ sea bass occuring with respect to a particular feature i.e a plot of the feature (x) Vs the probability (y)...hope it makes things clearer.

Studies.....

It seems I have left the foremost topic unsaid (unwritten lets say). With all the good intentions at heart, I and many other folks like me set out from the known to the unknown trying to learn the unknown ....with confidence unknown....did i make any sense here?
So, anyway, I arrived on campus and embarked on the perilous journey through the courses. Having taken two highly rigorous courses, it would be no surprise to know that even a non slogger like me has to rack her gray cells if she has any intention of completing her assignments on time. The assignments are not the (Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V) tuple that we are so familiar with. In fact, each small exercise has a catch which has you wondering if what you finally wrote as the answer has anything plausible or accurate written in it. The lectures last for about an hour and are for about 3 hours in a week but if you think you are being let off easy, think again. I doubt if any indian professor could squeeze in so much matter in a month as these guys here do in lecture. A hyperbole i admit but just trying to make a point here.
However, if whatever i said sounded negative here, then probably you should overlook it coz, everything said and done, i am simply loving the courses here. The profs are terribly passionate about their work and are so dedicated that you end up getting equally enthusiastic about the subject and the assignments leave so many ambiguous points that you end up figuring a lot of things which i wouldn't have bothered about had i not been mandatorily given such a task.
The system here is simply fantastic and I am enjoying every single moment of it!!!!!

Cooking...

The kitchen is perhaps today's most neglected section of the house. (a very personal view, no judgments intended) so i am sure its not surprising that i was not found there very often back at my place. However, i did know a spoon from a knife and yes, had tried my hand at several items at home. My brother and khapak bear testimony to that fact...(apart from my parents that is ), being the guinea pigs for the various experiments. However, cooking every single day is really a total different ball game. Cooking from the scratch (yup, we don't really enjoy tv dinners)is a novel experience with something new to learn everyday. Firstly, i would like to mention here that we don't use cooking gas out here. There are heating coils which makes cooking subtly different; we do not require lighters and stuff nor match boxes but yes, vegetables still get burnt and yes, milk still boils over. Secondly, cooking in a group has some other things to take care of: the quantity needs to be correct and (more importantly) proportion needs to be accurate. Adding extra rice to a meal involves a careful addition of water. I have already realized that since rice turned out to be a very runny substance with a gravylike appearance.
Similarly, chicken cooked in the oven (not microwave) is totally different from chicken cooked in the frying pan...it not only tastes better but also takes way more time to cook.
Then, thanks to the weather here, i can add ginger to the tea at any time and not worry about the milk (which is rather thinner here than back at home).
I still have to try my hands at sweet dishes and i am sure we (my roomie and i) can make really "fundoo" dishes when we feel like it. Right from making sambar to brinjal/eggplant to egg fried rice to tandoori chicken, it all adds up to my culinary skills and so far I haven't yet made something inedible which propels me to try my hand at making some slightly more ambitious dishes. At this point i remember a wonderful quote by Asha Bhonsle "gawaiye khawaiye hote hai"...so i think i'll conclude this post with her words....

Moods.... and Weather

It is time for me to venture to a more exciting theme so here goes.
I though i will mention about the .... weather at Mizzou.
First reaction? Stereotypical topic? Typical beginner's conversation?
A shy and hesitant broach at a very comfortable and speakable topic?
No, no my friend, it would take a really confident person to talk about Mizzou weather.
If I were to try and describe a drunken man's walking pattern (it is supposed to be one tough curve) or perhaps describe shapes of clouds (not the fluffy bubble gum things we used to draw as kids!) or perhaps describe a woman's moods as quoted by Lord Byron and the like, well then I WOULD be able to define the weather here.
It is amazing how it is possible to look out of the window in the morning and exclaim at the bright sunny morn only to find yourself drenched as soon as you get out of your flat a wee while later.
Often, the chilly breeze can bite you while at the same time the sun shines brightly at you.
What can I say? This amazing multitude of weather conditions makes each day tougher to classify than features. A walk to the library can be hot and sweaty one way and cold and chilly the other. The beautiful trees change color as the season progresses and makes me awestruck at nature's beauty.
To sum it up, it is better to leave some things unsolved and simply enjoy the games played by nature.
It makes each day a different one and keeps me amazed.
So, here's to the Mizzou weather!!!!

The trail....

After much nagging, pleading and beseeching, the "Famous Five" of us set out to the Twin Lakes.
If you guys don't know what a trail is, well it is some kind of glorified tekdi with loads of greenery and natural beauty. The path is unending....apparently u can go to texas through the same path and i suppose many folks here might have done that too!!!
Well, back to the trail......we walked....then walked....then walked......and then guess what?????
We walked again!!!!! (Surprise,surprise!)
Anyway, the walk was not quite short, but beautiful and there were these several exercise spots on the way for the health fanatics to vent their energies on.
We reached the spot after some time....the lake was....placid and......simply beautiful. It was like one of those picturesque photos you see in calenders which seem too pretty to be true and there it was, right before "me very own eyes"!!!! There was even a place there for fishing and another spot where dog owners can let their dogs loose and let them create havoc :)
It was really a treat and even though i was worn out, the experience was nothing short of......lovely! :)

Why pink....

I have received this incredulous glance from several folks here regarding the color scheme of my blog.
Pink: Its this floral color which is considered to be a highly feminine color...(with some exceptions...no comments there) and I simply love this color. I don't know why this color appeals to me so much but it does...so there!
Of course, it wouldn't be surprising, with this piece of information, that my bed room back home is stark pink and all the accessories are the same hue. Well, what can i say? Since pink floyd is NOT my favorite band (i'm not sure how this is relevant), well everything pink does not appeal to me so I hope I am granted a slight concession in my choice of colors.
All there is to say on this is: Cheers to Pink!!!!!!!
P.S: I just remembered: Penelope Pitstop is not my favorite animated character either!!!!!

First Day....

It seems however old we get (and i'm NOT that old!!! ), there is always something happening which I have never experienced before. I suppose this is what we call life but whatever it is, it certainly makes "life" waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more exciting than earlier. Moving to my new abode was something that happened with the course of time with plenty of external circumstances making this path the most obvious thing to happen.
Yeah, yeah, im just trying to put the blame on someone else' s shoulders but then don't we all want to do that???
(Purists/ idealists please dont answer that!!!)
Well, anyway, without further deviation, it was the first day here and the first class here and the first meet here ...... and the first of everything...well, ok some things (just to make it further ambiguous :-))
The point is (was there really one????), the day was great, I felt at home and..... keep your fingers crossed!!!!

Missouri's Golden Girls

To all you guys drooling away, this was really a treat from heaven.
Quoting a bystander (an indian i might add): By Golden Girls, do you mean blondes????
Ans: No, it need not be blondes (bystander sighed!) but these are the cheerleading squad at Missouri Columbia cheering the Mizzou Tigers.
These gals were fantastic and performed their shows (do i call them items???) with full aplomb.
This was the welcome treat from the entire cheerleading squad as well as the music band to all the newcomers on campus. The band had all the instruments to make it effective and (i might add) loud.
The trumpets and drums dominated the rhythm which was fast paced and extremely catching. Add to it the cheerleaders with their pom-poms and the gals with their flags and the effect was mind blowing. They played the American National anthem and it made me proud to be a part of an organization which takes such pride in its origin and is such a perfectionist.
Proud to be a Tiger!!!

A Farewell

Imagine my surprise when I found out that folks from my yoga class had planned a surprise farewell for me!! Yeah, surprise coz I am the odd one out in the gang since the average age of my yoga mates is 60! I don't know how it happened but while all the other ladies used to do exercises to repair their damaged knee muscles or their hip joints or their scapula (read "back"), I went regularly since my 11th grade for purely fitness reasons. With ladies my gran's age, I was totally at ease and thoroughly enjoyed these 6 years. The friendly bantering, the well meant wishes was something I never imagined. The time I spent at the class (apart from the sheershasan and the sarwaangasan and the padangushthasan...) was something more than a regular class, it was a lesson of life, of people exchanging experiences of their lives and of kind ladies lending a helping hand to each other in moments of duress. During today's farewell bash, I don't know how the conversation went there but suddenly the ladies went down their respective memory lanes and reminisced how they met their spouses. I must say some of these ladies really had cards up their sleeves! We really have a hell lot to learn from them. It has been a day full of sunshine and a moment i'll carry in my heart as a new chapter will unravel in my life.
P.S: It appears that I am more sentimental than I thought!