Nature at its best - Birth

The more I see around myself, the more I am amazed at the beauty of Mother Nature. This blog comes about due to an incident which occured today. One of my friend`s cousin gave birth to a girl yesterday night. We had gone today to see the baby. I was amazed by the sight of it.

First to start off, how could an individual, a baby develop from just a single cell (the zygote, after fertilization of a sperm and an egg). We are all products of this development which occurs from a zygote, a single cell, to the formation of a small baby (with all organs and many different kinds of cells). It is Nature at its best. Mother Nature does this amazing thing again and again to every individual, but never boasts of it.

The next thing is the baby itself. After 9 months of being in the womb, it decides to come out and meet the world face on. Who tells it that its time is up inside the womb. The baby`s bones are still not as hard as it should be. It is pink and its skin is very soft. After coming out, it starts to breathe. And slowly all the sensory actions develop, seeing, smell and touch.

The other important aspect if this wonder is of the mother. The mother carries the baby in the womb. After carrying a weight of 1 kg for a couple of hours we struggle with it, the mother carries the baby for 9 months. Man this is tough. She provides baby with nourishment and everything that is needed for it. Also, the pains they bear to deliver, well no words can describe it. I salute you, O Lady.

The baby when born is very cute and wonderful, but as it grows up it does not remain the same. Mother Nature provides us with an wonderful platform for everything. Enjoy the small beauties, not the monetary part of it alone.

A Tribute to a legend - Michael Schumaker

Yesterday we saw one of the greats in F1 racing retiring, Michael Schumaker. The way he raced, proved that he still has it in him to compete with the highest. He started the race at 10th position after failing to set a time during the final qualifying section. Right from the start he was sensational. In the first couple of laps he overtook both the BMW Saubers, and was upto to 7th position and in the 9th lap when he tried overtaking Fisichella, his tyre got punctured (the reason for which is still not completely evident). He had to complete the whole lap before coming back to the pits. Coming out of it, he was the last one in the field. The manner in which he then ran the race was a treat to every F1 fan. He had a fast car no doubt, but many would have given up in this adverse situation, Michael was not one of them. He reeled in lap after lap at a very fast pace and slowly but steadily climbed his way up the ladder. And in the final couple of labs, we could see vintage Schumaker with some of classic overtaking moves (that of Raikonnen was too good). Man he did whatever he could. But, with Alonso showing real consistent weekend and finishing the race second, all the championship hopes vanished. Michael finished 2nd in the championship.

Coming back to Michael, he took a lot of risks during his stint in F1. Started of with joining Ferrari, who had won only 2 races in the last five seasons, in 1996. Who would leave a championship winning car and join a struggling team. And with an underperforming car, he really fought tooth and nail for a couple of seasons with many of his rivals, Damon Hill, Villeneuve and finally with Hakkinen for a couple of seasons. And finally when he got a wonderful car to drive, he was unstoppable winning 5 consecutive championships from 2000 - 2004. The way he dominated in some of the seasons were awesome.

He was the rain master, some of his races during the rain was an awesome sight, the way he could consistently drive faster than others says something about his talent.

Another aspect of his driving was his approach to the races. Many feathers were ruffled, people didnt think he was sportive. Perceptions are divided in that regards.

But, the way he came back during this season, where he started of with 3 consecutive DNFs but came back roaring during the last part of the championship with 5 wins in 6 races make him a great racer. But the 8th championship was not to be his, after 6 yrs of reliability a Ferrari engine blew up (would you believe it) in Suzuka. With this all hopes of an 8th was lost. And in Interlagos, his last race, he again had problems, but came roaring back from the last in the field to 4th. In the 16 seasons he competed, there were many races (too many during his early years) in which facing adversity he has come out on top of it, his final race was no different.

Schumaker has given back to F1 a lot, like he was the GPDA chairman for many years, helping in the improvement of safety in car as well as in the GP venues. As a person too, he has also been involved a lot in charity, he is to have donated 10M for the Tsunami relief fund. The hard nosed driver is what people see, not the other side of his personality.

Comparisons are inevitable as to who was the greatest, how much Schumaker would have dominated if Aryton Senna (arguably one of the greatest ever), had not died in a horrific accident, but lived on to fight with Michael. Michael was one of the greatest, it is very difficult to compare drivers of different generations, but his skills and talent are unmatched.

Finally, "many sportspersons want to go out on a high. The way Schumaker raced on Sunday was a fitting farewell to a guy who made F1 as popular as it is now. The legend left the stage in a manner only he could. Some people have talent, but some are destined for greatness. Schumaker was a very great racer, if not the greatest one."

Scholarship Hike for PhD`s

I am writing this blog after hearing the glad news that the scholarship for phd students is goin to increase from Rs. 9,000 to Rs. 12,000. This is a very glad news indeed. But take a moment and think about it.

We always take the comparison of software professionals who seem to earn more than anybody else. They start of with Rs. 15,000 - 20,000 depending on the company they join. Whereas for other companies, mainly manufacturing and industrial related work, the starting salary is not that high. The workers there, also engineers (some of them who didnt opt for software and wanted to continue in their own education field) earn a meagre sum (Rs. 5,000 -7,500) only. This has resulted that not only the best brains opt for software, but also engineers from other streams (even students who complete their degree in Mechanical and Civil for eg) join the software bandwagon. So, there has become a dearth of quality engineers in other fields. Now, comes the question of what these software people do? Recently, a person had gone to onsite (Germany) to do some work. His job was to debug the software which their company had installed. What was the job of the software- to automatically open and close the door (bathroom door) when a person comes near it. He was one of the toppers in his field, but joined the software company for money. What a state it has become.

Coming back to the main point. The scholarship has been hiked in the name that because of more money more and more people shall take up phd`s. But, will the system work in this way. The better way is to promote science in schools and colleges, other than just increasing the scholarship. Many students (11th and 12th), actually dont know that there exists a career in science, which mainly helps in the betterment of the future of mankind. They are more concentrated mainly in either doing engineering or medicine. The better way is to make scientists interact with more of school students and encourage them about taking science, so that students like doing science. This, as for I am concerned is the way you promote science, not just making it a more lucarative career option.

Finally, quoting myself as an example. : I joined phd after coming to know about its merits not for the monetary aspect of it. This is the case with most of my colleagues too. "Money is not everything in life, there are other things to it too."

Chennai Culture

Recently, there was an issue regarding the moral policing happening in chennai. Young people, mainly couples, were harrassed by some thugs and other people in the name of destroying the morality of the city and its people. These people took to themselves to teach the youngsters the city`s culture. They enforced strict code of conduct in public places, saying that couples must not hold hands and be spotted together. They were given some sort of punishment if caught doing such acts.

This had been doing rounds before election. Some parties were using this in their election manifesto to gain some political mileage before polls. But after the elections, the moral policing reduced and I guess now its officially occuring (in indian terms.. so no problem for the public).

With the harassment reducing youngsters have again gone back to the old ways, such as holding hands and walking in the evening sun. The vested interests have now been reduced to mere speaking. And the exhuberant youth have taken this also into the stride and progressing.

This goes on to show that merely "spirit cant be broken down and western influence is increasing even the conservative parts of the country". All this is for good or bad only time will tell.