Daily Chaos

Empathy

2012-01-27T07:54:00.001-06:00

Is being able to see someone else's point of view such a difficult task? Will you ever take time to listen and ponder to someone ? why someone is saying the same thing over and over again? How do we judge if the other person is talking for our own good ?Is honesty, truthfulness, being mindful and suggestion to do good to another could be construed as a hidden motive? I don't know. I very much like to believe in the inherent goodness in each of us. It's just that we may not be aware of that. But what if someone tells us and show the way. Can we still choose to remain ignorant? Frankly speaking I am astounded by my sister's conduct and her habit of blaming everyone else. It's one thing when you are ignorant and it's totally no no when you have been held hand and shown the path. There are few other people like her I have met. We like to think that may be we can help them but they remain stubborn refusing to take responsibility , refusing to forgive and continually going in the downward spiral with ever increasing speed. Not realizing they have a choice. How fortunate they are to have blessed with so many things. They get too busy counting what they don't have instead of what they have.

Ephemeral existence

2012-01-27T07:03:00.001-06:00

We live our lives as if we will never grow old as if we will be able to do things that we can do know with the same vigor and efficacy. Covey happens to be my favorite author and I just read that he is no more traveling because of age related illness. It's frightening how much a soul can an author put in their work. To me it seems that my most dear friend is afflicted. A poignant reminder to our ephemeral existence. Long live Mr. Covey. Metta!!

What if your kindle won't start:

2012-01-27T02:30:00.000-06:00

I had this problem and a quick search on Google led me to the link where it was suggested you hold on the power key for 50 sec. I did the same and nothing happened until I press the page turn key for another 5 sec. So I am not sure which did the trick. Holding it for 50 second or pressing the page turn key. Anyway I am glad that I looked over the internet and get back my Kindle working again.

Loi Khratong festival, 2011, Chiang Mai

2012-01-26T12:06:00.001-06:00

This was taken when I went to Chiang Mai

2012-01-26T11:58:00.001-06:00

I have learnt that giving advice is not always welcomed. Few days back I had to write this to my sister. I wish she could understand that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read it when you are calm

Suman, It breaks my heart to go over the same truth of life over and over again and not seeing yourself absorbing this fact. I don't know why I am not able to communicate these facts to you. I really really want to see you do good in life and enjoy it. Its such a beautiful thing. Time is precious so don't fritter it away. I sincerely hope that this make you think. I know its the same stuff I have been telling you for quite sometime. May be when you see this in writing it might make sense. These things have made a tectonic shift in my life. Its a gift for which I have been grateful to whole lot of people. May be you too benefit.

Metta (Loving kindness)
Sumant

Just go over the checklist.

MAKE A PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT and balance all 4 compartments of your life
( PHYSICAL,MENTAL,SOCIAL, SPIRITUAL )
ASK YOURSELF WHICH HABITS I SHOULD INCULCATE WHICH WILL MAKE ME A BETTER PERSON

SLOW DOWN (give up television for one month, meditate, give up thoughts of revenge, forgive, wake up early)
SPEND TIME ALONE (THINK)

VIPASSANA (helps you live in the moment, not get carried away with your thoughts)

READ 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE (it is the best book)
(PROACTIVE, FIRST THINGS FIRST, BEGIN WITH END IN MIND, (Private Victory)
SYNERGIZE, THINK WIN WIN, SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD,
SHARPEN YOUR SAW)

STOP BLAMING.
PLAN.
AS A MAN THINKETH (It teaches you how thoughts affects us and i think its the most inspirational book ever written)

HELLAN KELLAR'S BIOGRAPHY
WATCH YOUR HABITS
FORGIVE UNCONDITIONALLY (This is the greatest gift we give to ourselves)
KEEP A DIARY AND LOOK FOR LITTLE VICTORIES

Don't take my word, try these and see if they work for you.

Best wishes
your brother

My French class update

2012-01-26T06:43:00.001-06:00

You all know that now I am taking French lessons. It's an intensive 10 weeks course. It's different from the one I did at amity. There is lot more emphasis here on learning alphabet and how to pronounce which is good. For example I never realized why Dr. Kammler used to say poisson not as poison which I used to think.

One the school front I am doing some real basic stuff with my grade 8th and 7th. This will strengthen their basics

Tea break

2012-01-26T06:42:00.001-06:00

It's break time and I am here in the room next to staff room. I like being here because it allows me some quite time away from the chit chat of staff room. I realized that my French class is 5 days a week.
Over past few weeks I learned a number of words. Some of these are as follows
Riven: Among his more awesome memories was a mighty boulder riven by shrubs growing out of it.

Fraying: Two chairs with fraying seats.

Rickety: We went carefully up the rickety stairs.

Ruffle: You are becoming a regular here. She teased ruffling my hair with one hand as she sat down next to my chair.

I liked the way she held my eyes until the precise moment when it stopped being comfortable and then smiled softening the assail but never looked away.

I was tough which is probably the saddest thing you can say about a man.

She used to project an aura that was attractive and inviolable at the same time.

Offering one of the cigarettes with a flourish.

Deferential: He spoke with deferential amiability to the two Canadians.

Preferred words

2012-01-24T06:16:00.007-06:00

We all use some of the words all the time. When I was reading last novel I was not sure what the word Trundle means. Another was sitting on ones haunches. Another

Monday morning

2012-01-24T06:16:00.005-06:00

From today I will start my French lessons. This is going to be a two month around 50 hours of lesson. The guy who will be teaching is a local guy so I hope I will pick up some Khmer too.
I am still feeling the urge to get more sleep while I am here sitting on this hard yellow wooden bench, resting my back and pouring over the screen of my iPod where I am typing this. The fans are roaring at full speed and the air conditioner winking its fin trying their best to cocoon the dt room swathe in a comfortable chill.

Getting up early and field trip

2012-01-24T06:16:00.003-06:00

It's early morning and I am not sure what has awaken me. Is it a full night sleep ( I did go to bed before 22 hr) or the warm night ( the temperature in my room is around 30 degrees). Yesterday was my first day of the French lesson and the teacher there was a gentleman. I like him and I am excited to learn French with him.
Today we are going on a field trip to the surrounding areas. The little excursion is part of the curriculum of geography and science. I am going because I am class teacher for grade 7

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

2012-01-24T06:16:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite all time book by Richard Bach.
The apologue uses gull as a protagonist who tries to find the meaning of life. It has three sections the first is when he is by himself and trying to push the speed limit and things he can do with flying instead using flying only as a mean to getting from one place to another in search of food. He just wants to know how far one can go. He discovers that he need not be at the mercy of trawlers for food. He can relish sumptuous delicacies swimming meters below the sea. He can travel at speeds which would make birds like eagle fill with envy. He can fly and almost stall over water. The rewards are tremendous. He gets ostracized from the gull society for doing this.
The second part is when he meets other gulls who are in pursuit of similar goals of improving their flight. The metaphor is apposite. Here also he excels while other gulls get satisfied, Jonathan remains curious he wants to know how elder can move from any place to another.
The third part is when he moves back to the community which ostracized him. To give back what he learned. He starts with one guy fletcher who is like him trying to find out about this flying business by himself.

Lunch

2012-01-22T05:58:00.003-06:00

Had Dosa and utthapam at "The Indian".

Dinner at el camino

2012-01-22T05:58:00.001-06:00

I tried iced tea lemonade and the Mexican food

A fine balance

2012-01-21T14:08:00.005-06:00

It was a good read. It's a story which takes place during emergency times in India and how it affected the life of four people brought together by date. Dina dayal, Manek, Om and Ishwar.
It's a roller coaster ride and over 40 percent of the books is just to flesh out these characters. The book is engaging and might be to more someone who is not familiar with the caste, religious differences. I read this book after one of my Norwegian friend's recommendation. The book is a roller coaster ride when the moment you think that the character you are reading is finally turning a new leaf a
N unfortunate tragedy Attucks and is far more wretched than you would imagine.

Spoiler warning:
Dina is a beautiful women whose husband died after 3 years of marriage on one fine day when her brother was visiting her. Her brother is a kind of characters who is over controlling, inconsiderate and sometime nauseating as when he treats her when she gets her haircut.

Ishwar story begins with the story of his father. The graphic portrayal of village caste politics is stomach churning. His father's quest to give him and his brother a better life by sending him to his Muslim friend as apprentice. How the two brother work hard in their circle of influence to win the soft corner of his wife and their proactive step of changing the sign of the shop just in time to help them escape the marauding rioters during communal violence. After his brother and his whole family is massacred because his brother decides to vote in the election and demand his rights from the upper cast infuriating them

Siesta dreaming

2012-01-21T14:08:00.003-06:00

It's late afternoon (15:05). I watched myself in a house there was a woman and her daughter. I was a paying guest at their house and I was eating naan type chapatti. The vegetable was a gravy with lots and lots of onions and I was on last part of the chapatti and telling myself that I should ask her to make one more . The modest meal was good. I think it was particularly strange because it's today only I finished the novel "A fine balance" where Dina Dayal had a paying guest. The amusing thing is that in my dream I was appreciating the food and was wondering how come it's so delicious.

Operating system preference

2012-01-21T14:08:00.001-06:00

I am thinking of getting an Android phone so I can have a built in camera and access to the Android library. I went to Nokia showroom today and was disappointed that they don't have a single android based phone. I wonder if the movers and shakers at the helm of affairs realize that how important is software to customers than just hardware. Nokia had only symbian operating system phones. They better get their acts together or otherwise they could be going like Blackberry and Microsoft which at one point enjoyed inviolable position and are now languishing.

Incircle problem

2012-01-18T12:20:00.001-06:00

I was thinking about this problem today. There is a square and there are two circles and from the opposite veirtex we have tangents to the circle. To prove that the in-circle has the same radius.

Thai Curry at peace

2012-01-17T23:57:00.001-06:00

It's Wednesday and I have a 2 he lunch break. I decided to come here at Peace cafe to enjoy Thai Curry. It's not too hot today. The temperature must be around 28 degree.There is a light breeze and I can smell the spices and coconut from the curry. The rustling of leaves and a constant sound of tuk tuk is all I am hearing.

2012-01-17T09:58:00.001-06:00

I am here at triangle mart. I came here to get some drinking water and to find out if I can get the google voice client. I have Skype and it works great on iPod and so it's handy. But I prefer google talk client because it's voice quality is good, calls to landline or cellphones to many places is more competitive and I have a paid account with google. My progress on novel by Mistry is not bad, I have finished 30 percent of it so far. I don't know why it has so many stars it seems to me like 70s Hindi movie with all the vilians. Any way I will write a more detailed review when I am done

New books and reading

2012-01-16T05:22:00.001-06:00

I have started reading the other novel ( a fine balance) and it's good. I have finished 5 % of it so far and I think I can finish it this week. I also want to take a good look at the book "naive set theory". Considering how thin that it is. It doesn't justify that I haven't completed it so far.

Salad dinner at peace cafe

2012-01-16T05:16:00.001-06:00

I am here a trying their signature salad.

Problem of smallest distance

2012-01-16T05:03:00.003-06:00

There is this fun problem about finding the maximum number of towns to which a particular town can be connected if it can only be connected to the nearest town and no two towns are at the same distance.
To solve this one should observe the word nearest town.

Take away lunch

2012-01-16T05:03:00.001-06:00

I am here at India Gate restaurant to pick up my "take away" lunch. It's Channa Masala and Garlic Naan. I have got one more book lined up to read and it's by Rohinton Mistry. Judging by the number of stars on amazon it surely looks an excellent read.

App future

2012-01-16T05:02:00.001-06:00

I watched a show about apps. I think it was recorded a long time before google's android was in the market. It basically talked about how apps are changing the easy we interact with are cellphone. An average user they found out uses 6 apps. So I decided to count my own. I use the email, iTunes, blogger, battery charger, iBook

Surely you must be joking

2012-01-15T02:06:00.007-06:00

It's an autobiography

Childhood
Borrowing the books on Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus at the age of 12 and having to lie about it to the librarian. Learning about taking derivative under Integrals and impressing friends.
Setting up laboratory to do experiments. Fixing radios and becoming known as a boy who fixes by thinking.
Puzzle solver and his date with a girl where he answers all her puzzle before she could even complete the sentence.

MIT and Princeton
Learning about etiquette (the hideous gown to eat meal, attending parties), dating(social vs nerds). His date with waiter that got cancelled by his buddies. Joining jewish fraternities and he ditching those guys. Hazing being left near lake in pitch dark
How he took lot of classes in other department , especially biology. His research, talk(in front of Einstein, Neumann and Pauli)
Playing with cyclotron at Princeton

Math department vs Physics department
Learning group theory. Challenging mathematicians to explain their theory with yes no contest.

Being Curious
Experiential with Ants. Why they walk straight. Leaf cutters are different
Patriotism
Working as a Physicist

Relaxing at Peace cafe

2012-01-15T02:06:00.005-06:00

I am trying to get some reading done and would like to meditate for an hour. I ordered a ice coffee and a mango salad.
I like the palace it is quite and relaxed. I had Masala Dosa for the
lunch at the Indian restaurant. In the morning I saw an app on Click about a new predictive text typing app. I think I will try that one. I am encouraged by the app on iPod and it's pretty decent

Shantaram

2012-01-15T02:06:00.003-06:00

I just finished reading Shantaram. Today I finished the remaining 30 percent of the novel.
Spoiler warning
The story begins of a fugitive Australian as he arrives in Bombay. In a nutshell the story is about how a mafia don Kader Khan recruits the author for his holy war in Afghanistan using Karla. From author's perspective It's a love story about his infatuation to this girl Karla and his experiences in India. He seems to have been obsessed with her and they become good friends, have sex but still one way. Karla doesn't have same feeling for Greg. There are lots of character we get to know and lot of them die and few resurface. In spite of his unrequited love the story stops at a happy note but is written definitely for the sequel.

Kaderbhai he is the main character who doesn't gets introduced till the author returns back from village in Maharastra. He is the mafia don who impresses author with his wit and pithy sayings. Only later do we find out that he has a physics tutor who taught him the law of Entropy and other people. I didn't understand why author was so enamored by him.

Karla: She is the object of his fascination and until the end of the novel we are not sure about her true feelings and why she lives in India? who does she work for ?why she left United States ? who ruins Madam Zhou ?and was she aware of his incarceration at Arthur road prison ?

Prabhakar and his family: he is a petty tourist guide whom the author trust. His pearly white grin, street smartness, innocence and shocking death leave an indelible impression on your mind and the fickle nature of life on the streets.

Major events :
Arriving in Bombay.

6 months in a village with no amenities

Living in Jhopadpatti for almost 2 yrs and operating a free clinic.

Incarceration in Arthur road prision.

Starting anew as right hand of Kaderbhai and getting into fake passport business.

Traveling to Afghanistan for The war and getting wounded.

Becoming the official gangster and taking revenge on Sapna gang

I liked the way Greg uses the words. You pretty much see what he is describing. You pretty much see the action in your mind. He is compassionate, strong and ever ready to have a fist fight reminded me of new Sherlock Holmes movies where he gives you a step by step a detailed account of the injury he is going to inflict on his opponent and his reaction to it.

Life in Jhopadpatti. You can almost feel the smell the filth, open garbage and feces laden road. The hustle bustle of the place and if that was overpowering wait till he paints the picture of the prison. They brutal savage beatings, the key hole toilet busting with the dump of 200 inmates in a place fit for 100 people. The watery soup, khadmal bites and the filthy water with germs overflowing for bathing.

Abdullah: He is like a superman and he is portrayed as a dashing, fearsome and a loyal friend. His reappearance in Bombay after we have mourned over his death is fuels new energy in to the story.

Kaderbhai
If I have to summarize the whole story then it's nothing but Kaderbhai's quest to return to his roots and helping them fight against Russians. Everybody else is a pawn in his grand scheme.
The author is in total awe of him , he is impressed by his erudite ness, the kind of respect he commands among his followers. Though in reality he has hired wise man and uses their ideas to impress everyone.

Karla: We get to know about who Karla really is in the very end only. She was working for Kaderbhai and was involved in recruiting European backpackers for him and that was one reason she treated author as just a client and nothing more. That was the reason she didn't rescue him when he was at Arthur road prison

Maurizio the Spanish guy
One of the most taciturn character in the novel and perhaps the only winner in this novel. After severe disfigurement to his face by the Italian he survives. But his reemergence in novel at first seems scary and his demeanor stupid. He wins back his love of life and goes back to Germany with her.

Sapna
The brainchild of Karla and unleashed by his goons went on to rampage. Only towards the end do we find out that it was created as a distraction.

Afghani teacher and the pyscho killer. There are two characters in this novel Abdullah and this psycho killer who strike with impunity and every time they are mentioned, you know they will get better of the other. While you like Abdullah, there is no amount of disgust you have for this kindergarten teacher who has lost his bearings and is now living only to derive sadistic pleasures from siphoning out life from anything breathing be they Russians, his own friends or horses.

There are lots of pithy sayings attributed to Didier, Karla, Author and Kaderbhai.
Civilization, after all, is defined by what we forbid, more than what we permit.

Justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong. It is also the way we try to save them

If you make your heart into a weapon, you always end up using it on yourself.

Sooner or later, fate puts us together with all the people, one by one, who show us what we could and shouldn't, let ourselves become.

I don't mean to be insulting, but I think most believers have too much of a vested interest in their own God-Heaven franchises, if you know what I mean, to ever agree on anything.

If we all learned what we should learn the first time, we wouldn't need love at all.

I also liked the way he carves out his sentences

His usual smile was preternaturally wide and his dark eyes were happy.

Madame Zhou had become kind of a portmanteau figure: people packed the details of their own obsessions into her life.

Weaving a pump hand in effete little circles with each little couplet.

He was especially, irreverently, affectionate with Kaserbhai.

Upcoming trend in smart phones

2012-01-15T02:06:00.001-06:00

I was watching an episode of click and it featured an upcoming phone which can plug into a screen to become a tablet or a computer. I can say with some pride that I anticipated this a couple of years ago. Which brings us to my prediction for the next two years that these devices will become mainstream as more and more people would like there smart phones to be one and all devices. A latest statistics on Flicker revealed about the tectonic shift in number of uploads through the iPhone after they come up with the latest 8mp camera. So people are opting more and more for their inbuilt camera than carrying a standalone bulky camera. One notice that increasingly the size of smart phone is impinging into the territory of tablet devices and that division is blurring rapidly. Standalone devices like kindle could see their price taking a nosedive the moment someone comes up with a bluetooth communication between a screen and device. Also after having used Kindle the e ink tech which gives a non glare screen will need to be incorporated with the LCD technology to obviate the need for two separate devices.

Lebanese food

2012-01-13T09:45:00.001-06:00

Today I tried the restaurant above the falafel place and we tried quite a few different things other than. I am still not finished with Shantaram and on friend's recommendation I downloaded "the fine balance" by Rohinton Mistry

Winning quiz

2012-01-12T09:55:00.001-06:00

Just a quick update about the Thursday night quiz. This was the 2nd time I was part of the winning team. I had really good teammates. So if it sounds like bragging than you know now it was because of them. First time it was Ben and Oliver and this time it was Brad and Chip's team.

Free Internet access in Siem Reap

2012-01-11T09:33:00.001-06:00

One thing I like about Siem Reap is the number of wifi hotspots. One of them is triangle Mart. I was going back home and thought of updating thereforeI stopped here. I asked these gentleman if they knew the password. They smilingly said that they too wanted the password but one should buy something from the mart as a courtesy. So I bought myself this litchi soda.

Daily update

2012-01-11T09:24:00.001-06:00

I am sitting here at Indian restaurant and about to try Chana Chat. I went to the French cultural center and met kon there. He knew that I was coming. The place is on Wat Bo road and I will be starting my classes from Jan 23. I had the urge to take the morning session but then sanity prevailed and I realized that it's better to take it after school and then I won't be rushing in the morning. I am hoping this is going to be fun.

Dinner time

2012-01-10T07:39:00.001-06:00

I am sitting here at Maharaja Resturant waiting for vegetarian thali. Of all the thalis in Siem Reap. I think theirs is the best. I was reflecting about today when I went back home. I realized that I left my Kindle at school so I couldn't continue with Shantaram which I have finished 42% now. I flipped through the Russian mathematical Olympiad book and it seems very enticing. I don't know if I will be able to curb my enthusiasm for it.

Out at lunch break

2012-01-10T07:27:00.001-06:00

Here I am at the Cambodian national bank that my school does banking. I am here to deposit the last months salary which was handed to us in cash. Well it gives me time to go out and buy myself a lunch. I have been reading Shantaram and so far has managed to finish 36% of the book. It's an interesting read and I don't mind the leisurely pace. I can pick of the thread where I last left. I am rereading few other books and I am happy that I am doing that. I will be formally enrolling myself today at the local alliance franchise for 3 months of French lesson and I am excited about that.

Nelson and Tala's visit to Siem Reap

2012-01-08T04:37:00.001-06:00

I am sitting here in front of Triangle Mart and updating this blog from there. Yesterday Tala and Nelson showed up in Siem Reap and they were staying at Ponloue hotel. It took me a while to find the place. The best way to describe its location would be to say it is at the end of the sivutha road and if you are at lucky mall and go toeards del a pait it will be on your right side. It's actually at the junction where sivutha road meets the road which runs along the river. Today they are gone for the temple visit and should be back anytime soon.

Haven

2012-01-06T06:45:00.001-06:00

Perhaps the newest restaurant in town here in Siem Reap. I decided to check that place with my mom. We tried several dishes I had a vegetarian tofu sandwich. She had lok lak. For starter we had vegetable tempura and fried spring rolls and sweetened lemonade with soda.

A divisibility problem

2012-01-06T06:16:00.001-06:00

Prove that any number which is NOT divisible by 2 and 3. Then square of the number -1 will be divisible by 24
This innocent looking problem is indeed quite easy. First thing is to observe is that the number is odd because it's not divisible by 2. Let us assume that the number is x and according to the given conditions 2 and 3 do not divide x^2-1. Which means. Now x^2-1 can also be written as (x-1)(x+1) and since x is odd it means both x-1 and x+1 are even and since both of these happen to be consecutive even that means one of them has to be a factor of 4 and obviously the other is a factor of 2 and together their product has a factor 8. Since we have to prove that 24 is the factor and so far we already proved that 8 is the factor. How to prove that 3 is also one of the factor. Well it's pretty simple too both the number x-1 and x+1 are even and according to the problem x is not divinely by 3 therefore the other two remainders are 1 and 2. Suppose x is 1 bigger than x-1 will be the factor and if x is 2 bigger than x-2 will be the factor. Thus we have a guaranteed 3 as a factor between the product x-1 and x-2 when x is not divisible by 3. Hence the whole thing is divisible by 24.

Eating at Thai Resturant

2012-01-05T08:54:00.001-06:00

One of the place we frequent to have lunch these days is Thai Tai . My mummy likes Thai food and there is always something interesting and to her liking. After coming to Siem Reap I have incorporated coconut more and more as a substitute to water and cold drink as a mean to hydrate myself

Chinese government's decision to curb television programming

2012-01-04T07:34:00.000-06:00

I am fascinated by the way Chinese leaders think to control everything be it the number of child their people can bear to the way to steam roll the economy. A couple of days ago I watched on You tube the story of ghost cities in China. To keep the growth rate hovering above 8 percent they have been building city after city but cannot find enough people to buy it. The reason is it provides work to the people. Its kind of a similar thing United States did to keep their economy surging. You artificially create jobs so people can get work and are able to spend the money and pay taxes. In an economy the faster the money circulates more money people seem to have. Well United States is paying a dear price for that. They created college courses and lower the standard of education so more people can get degrees. Provided soft loans so its easy to go to college and now they have abundance of unemployable graduates heavily in debt and whose education cannot provide them with the job they aspire. Now Chinese think tanks at the top are notorious for taking tough decisions no matter how unpopular they become. There are quite a few which might be unthinkable in the west but have provided fodder for the Chinese juggernaut. Like building world class universities to produce top Mathematicians, Engineers, Musicians, Athletes etc. Creating world class highway to transport goods. Investing in greener economy and the decision to keep the stupid television programming under check. Anyone who has watched enough television would agree that there is too much mind numbing programming on air and the worst thing is it sucks up your time and eviscerates your thinking. The reason so many civilizations go down after reaching a pinnacle is because their later generations get caught up in hedonistic lifestyle and I think Chinese leader realize that. Only the future will tell how successful this experiment is going to be.

Dinner at Maharajah in Siem Reap

2012-01-04T06:48:00.001-06:00

There are few places we go regularly in Siem Reap. The Thai Tai restaurant, The Indian restaurant and maharajah. Here we are enjoying Matar Paneer.

Interesting take on problem

2012-01-04T06:38:00.001-06:00

There is this nice problem of a cloth of 25 m long 0.2mm thick being wound around a cylinder and the diameter of the resulting cylinder cum cloth is 10 cm. Find the diameter of the cylinder? My approach was to consider the diameter of the cylinder to be d mm and each successive wrap to increase the diameter by .2 mm and you obtain a series with n and d as unknowns. A second equation can be had by realizing that 50 = d/2+n* .02. Now you have two equations and two unknowns and it's easy to solve with a compute.
The second method which was author's was quite ingenious. It was something finding the difference between the area of the cloth plus cylinder - the area of the cylinder = area of the cloth. This at first instance didn't seem like a viable option to me. But when you give it a little thought it seems totally plausible and this is much quicker. Given the numbers in this question we have
Pi*10^2/4-Pi*D^2/4=2500*.01
Pi*25-Pi*D^2/4=25
25(Pi-1)/=Pi*D^2/4
100(Pi-1)/Pi=D^2
D=8.6

The Indian restaurant in Siem Reap

2012-01-04T06:30:00.001-06:00

Of you are a fan of Indian food and happen to be in Siem Reap and looking for authentic Indian food then a visit to "The Indian" is must. The owner Sajish is very friendly and the food is not greasy and over spicy. The place is clean and the service is prompt.

Appreciating even and odd primes

2012-01-02T06:13:00.001-06:00

One of the nice problem which makes you appreciate is I like to call Farm
House problem, it goes something like this, There is a farm where there are different prime numbers of cows, goats and rabbits and if we add the number of cows and goats and multiply that by the number of cows we get 120 plus the number of rabbits. Determine the number of ech of these animals.
To work this out start with the smallest prime number 2 as the number of rabbit and the right side becomes 122 and it can be factorize as 2*(2+59), which is a contradiction as this will imply that there are same number of cows and rabbits. Then you might want to check if cows could be 2 and that would imply that
2*(2+g)=120+r, however this imply that the right side is even and the left side is odd (why ?), therefore cows cannot be 2. Let's check if the goat could be 2 and this time our equation takes the form c*(c+2)=120+g. The left side is odd as we are multiplying 2 odd numbers and the right side is also odd as we are adding a odd and a even number. Which means the number of goats could be 2. The question arises is that really true or it could be some other number prime number too? Let's assume that its some other prime then the left side of equation becomes even as the sum of two odd numbers is even and the right side of the equation is odd as sun of odd and even is odd and we get the parity contradiction. This we are now absolutely sure that the number of goats is 2 and then it's only s matter of plug and chug to discover that number if cows will be 11 and number of goats is 23.

Checking Angkor Palm Restaurant

2012-01-02T05:40:00.001-06:00

Today was a good day. I got up early morning at 4 and set the recurring alarm to 4:20 then remain awake till 6 am before I went to bed again and woke up at 7:21 and at 7:32 I was in school. I came back home in the afternoon to see my mom had lots of fruits and went back at 13:30. For dinner we were vacillating between Mexican, Indian and then in the middle was this Angkor Palm. I guess the impression does count and the place looks inviting. The food looks sumptuous too.

New year and time to reflect

2012-01-01T09:10:00.001-06:00

Its Sunday and the last day of the break and time for some reflection. I think this was a productive break especially I get to spend some good time with my Mom and traveling with her was the icing. From tomorrow we continue with the 2nd semester and I am pumped up about it because for most of the classes we will be just going over the syllabus and making sure the students become more and more proficient with the concepts and are exam ready that means a whole lot of revision and practice. I have got hold of some German language podcast and these are really good so one of the big thing I will aim during the first quarter of this year is to finish at least 100 of those podcasts to develop some facility with the language. I do have aim to learn more French and Chinese,so in a way I can look forward to an exciting new year with lot of learning.

Having Coffee with mummy at Lucky Mall

2012-01-01T00:53:00.001-06:00

We are back in good ole Siem Reap and it's great to be back. We had lunch at Thai tai, their mouth watering green curry and then we went to see the dentist on highway 6 but the clinic was closed today so we decided to go to lucky mall and enjoy a latte and a chocolate cake.

Offline blogging

2012-01-01T00:47:00.003-06:00

I am writing this to find out if I can blog offline. I am aware of the feature which allows one to send email to the registered email account which in turn forwards it to the blog however now I have blog applet and I am interested in posting multiple blogs and see how they appear on the web site. This thought took genesis today when I was posting another post and an old post showed up which yet hadn't been plaster and when I published it, it appeared before an already published post.

Returning to Siem Reap

2012-01-01T00:47:00.001-06:00

Right now we are in a sleeper bus and are on our way back home. We booked our ticket from Kep to Siem Reap and the only viable choice I had was to take a bus leaving at 14 hr which goes through Sinhoukville, Punum Penh and then to Siem Reap. The entire journey is around 14 hrs though a direct service can do it probably in 9 hrs plus the ticket cost twice at $ 30. I thought it was a bargain for two reasons. First we couldn't fit Sinhoukville in our regular trip so this was our chance to at least cursorily see the place and the 2nd good thing is we reach Siem Reap early morning, which allows me to catch up on my sleep. The bus trip between Kep and Sinhoukville allowed me to catch up on my reading while enjoying one of the most picturesque road anywhere in the world.

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T00:35:00.003-06:00

Wish you all a very happy, prosperous and fun filled holiday. I think we are passing through Phnum Phenh right now and yes no brownie point if you guessed that we are still in bus. I think this will go down as one of the more memorable birthday when you are traveling in a sleeper bus. There aren't many people on the street now, may be because it half an hour past mid night. Maybe I am wrong because we just passed by a huge water tank paninted ANZ and still lots of traffic. Once againa very happy new year 2012.

Phnom Penh

2012-01-01T00:35:00.001-06:00

Over last 20 posts I must have used all different permutation of the spelling of this wonderful city. I am confident that this one is correct as i am seeing this one written on the shop in front of me and i am attaching the picture as a reference. Right now we are at the river front halting for the new passengers to board the bus to Siem Reap. We should be at home by 6 am.

This is what I am seeing right now

2011-12-30T21:58:00.001-06:00

The view from the hotel and reading the book street fighting mathematics. Life is great and I couldn't wish for a better way to celebrate my birthday!

Breakfast in Kep

2011-12-30T19:51:00.001-06:00

It's 9 am and we went for an early walk around the beach. The view is spectacular and I was fortunate to see some crabs too. I met Jacque and his boyfriend. Isn't it a small world otherwise what's the probability of meeting someone from SiemReap here in Kep

Good tidings!!

2011-12-30T09:03:00.001-06:00

In another 2 hrs I am approaching my 36th birthday and I am glad that I am at this wonderful place by the sea. In this trip we criss crossed the whole of. Cambodia. Few days ago we were in Preah Vihear then Phnom Penh and now in Kep. I must thank my Mom for making this happen in spite of being in swivet about managing on her own to come over here to see me. Thank you mom. I love you and looking forward to tomorrow morning's ethereal sunrise here!

In Kep

2011-12-30T06:36:00.001-06:00

We reached Kep like 30 minutes ago. I am grateful that we found a nice place to stay and it's like a minute away from the beach. Right now we are having dinner in the restaurant downstairs. It took us almost 7 hours to reach here. The bus ride to Kampot was not bad and from there we took a tuk tuk. Now it's time to check out the beach. Yay !!

Lunch at Indian restaurant

2011-12-29T07:20:00.001-06:00

This is what mummy had for lunch. Hobo parantha and aloo puri. Usually I try to eat st different places but in Pnom Penh we are eating all our meals at this place. It's owned by Mr. Lal ji and he is awesome. He arranged for the tuk tuk which took us to the infamous S21 camp and later to theKing palace. Both of these places are must see if you are visiting this wonderful city.

Strength for Alok and his family

2011-12-28T19:13:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I got an instant message from my dear friend Alok Verma about passing away of his Dad. I met Alok at Ashoka hall and developed an instant liking and we became good friends. Alok is an excellent teacher and kids totally adore him. I wanted to console him but couldn't say much. Last year I had the same experience of passing away of my Dad even though publicly i expressed a calm demeanor, I was unsettled. The next whole year i had never ending epic dreams of me and my father in various situation. I have always been in awe of my father and his accomplishments. From very humble beginnings he excelled and carved his own space. It's to this day amazes me how he managed to do all that. My father did so much for me and without his faith in me, I would be nowhere. It's that unconditional love that your parents give you that has no equal. Alok had the same feeling about his father. I realized that he needed a quite time to pay his tribute and reminiscence the good memories. I am happy that he saw that his father didn't suffer and died peacefully. Peace my friend, I am praying for you and want you to know that I am with you in this moment of grief and liberation. Metta.

Talking to my good friend Ray Simpson

2011-12-28T18:51:00.001-06:00

I just had a face to face conversation with my really good friend Ray on Skype. He is a wonderful wonderful guy. I was trying to convince him to travel and spend some time outside his comfort zone. I got invited to his mom's house several time over thanks giving and Christmas and she is absolutely adorable. She just turned 91 and she is one of those people you feel totally at ease because of the warmth and love they radiate. I think this is the effect of living a life lived on true principles. I want to be like her calm and serene as I grow up.

Evening in Pnom Penh

2011-12-28T09:46:00.001-06:00

I went around the Pnom Penh and I think I have a fair idea of the town. I think I am fascinated by the river side here. So I spent a good part of my time today in front of the river, enjoying the lovely breeze. On my way back I saw the two main monuments here. Therefore plan for tomorrow will be to leave early and cover these places with mummy and leave for Kampot and Kep

Pnom Penh River Side View and the train problem

2011-12-28T06:44:00.004-06:00

Technically this is my 1st day in Pnom Penh. We arrived here yesterday evening. I slept a lot and infact was even late for shower. At 16:30 I decided its enough and I should go and explore the town. I am living on 63rd street and Raj showed me on the map its location with respect to the river side. Its not too far so I decided to amble my way to the river side. So the pictures are mainly from the river front, I had a delicious spiced up corn and spent some time going over review of things I wanted to do. Today I did find the solution to a trivial problem about a train passing two guys in 10 sec and 9 sec respectively. If the train takes 20 minutes to pass by the 2nd guy after it has completely passed the first guy. How long will it take for the first guy to overtake the 2nd one. I have the solution though its not the most elegant as I have relied on algebra. Mine solution goes like this
Let the speed of train be v m/s
speed of first person be x m/s
speed of 2nd person be y m/s
let L be the length of the train in meters so we have the following two equations
L = (v-x) 10
L = (v-y) 9
which gives
10v -10x = 9v-9y
v = 10x-9y
Since it takes 20 minutes for the train to reach the second guy, let the distance between the front of the train and the person be M meters
Let after t sec they meet, during that t seconds
v (20*60) = M+x (20x60)

M = (v-x)(20x60) meters

The first person travels L+M+yT distance to catch y in time T, therefore
xT = L+M+yT
substituting for M and L we have
xT = (v-x)10+(v-x)(20x60)+yT
(x-y)T=(v-x)(10+20x60)
(x-y)T=(v-x)(10+1200)
Substituting for v we have
(x-y)T = (10x-9y-x)(1210)
(x-y)T =(9x-9y)(1210)
(x-y)T =9(x-y)(1210)
or T = 9(1210) seconds
which means T = 9x1210/3600 hrs

Charging your phone by digital television

2011-12-27T10:00:00.001-06:00

These days when most of us own phones which can be charged by USB. On this trip I decided not to carry my laptop because of ubiquitous cyber cafe here. My iPod lost all the charge after continuous use today. I read books on this device, update my blog and is becoming my primary device to access internet and learning new things. It's the convenience of carrying something so handy that makes your net book now seem like a mammoth. So when I came here with some trepidation I decided to charge my iPod using the television at my hotel. The thing which gave me confidence was the USB standard itself. Hopefully you too may find this useful next time when you are traveling.

Update from Pnom Penh

2011-12-27T08:48:00.001-06:00

So we reached here at around 18 hrs. The journey was pretty good. The Mekong express is a good bus service. It costs only $11 and they give you snacks, wet towel and show you two movies. It's a comfortable bus ride comparing the cost and comfort.
Raj was here and was very helpful I am so glad I know somebody like him We had lunch at the local Indian restaurant. I had Gobi parantha with eggplant and lemon juice. Mummy had . We are staying here at PPC hotel and it's pretty reasonable and good thing is I can update my blog through my iPod

Converting ePub to mobi or kindle format

2011-12-26T22:13:00.001-06:00

On of the easiest way to manage your kindle is to use Calibre. It's a free software that will sink all your ebooks. The best part is it recognizes the native format of your reading device and will automatically convert it to the requisite format. Last week I found a plethora of ebooks in ePub format and Caliber came to my rescue as I still prefer to read on a kindle because of its non glare screen and bigger screen size.

Tangram restaurant in Siem Reap

2011-12-26T22:04:00.001-06:00

If you are planing to try Khmer food with a little exotic touch then a visit to Tangram is a must. It's very close to the end of Wat Bo road if you are coming from highway 6. The atmosphere is cozy, the staff is super nice and the meal is sumptuous.

Leaving for Pnom Penh

2011-12-26T21:58:00.001-06:00

Today we are leaving for Pnom Penh. I book the tickets through Mekong Express they are right in front of central market. The ticket was only $11 per person. I am glad they also pick you up from your place

iPod : application launcher not working

2011-12-26T21:55:00.001-06:00

This was the second time that my iPod behaved this way. A quick search on google revealed that it's quite a common problem. I tried hard rebooting several times to no avail. Last time when that had happen I Watson the midst of downloading an app and it hadn't completed. So my hunch was to let it complete, however this still didn't do the job. So what worked for me was to install another app. So just to repeat if you are having a problem launching apps(perhaps most of the apps, you might still be able to launch safari browser and access to app store) . The cure is to install another app.

2011-12-24T10:43:00.001-06:00

I have started reading "What is the name of this book" by Raymond Smullyan. There are lots of the puzzles which have become classic and appear in this book. Seems really good. The other one that I have got is "Liar's paradox and the tower of Hanoi". This is more of an introduction and I am loving it. I had seen riddle of sphinx mentioned at many places and it was in this book that I finally read the whole story. It's written in pretty laid back manner.

Preah Vihear in Cambodia

2011-12-24T10:28:00.001-06:00

Today we went to Preah Vihear. It is situated around 240 kms from Siem Reap not about 140 km as claimed on the wikipedia website. The temple is on the hill top and is listed under UNESCO world heritage.

Tonle Sap lake

2011-12-22T10:11:00.001-06:00

Today I took my mom to tonle sap lake and it was definitely a pleasant surprise. I got to drive the motor boat, see the crocodiles and the vicious fishes who devoured the small fishes in no time but the crowning achievement would have to be giving a math lesson to the orphan kids at the floating river school. I revealed the fast multiplication trick when one is squaring the numbers ending on 5 and I think i was able to connect with the kids during that short lesson. My boat driver was a lovely and convivial lad who made that trip such a memorable one!!

Land mine museum and butterfly center

2011-12-21T12:59:00.000-06:00

Today we went to Land Mine Museum and the Butterfly center of Bantey serey. Land mine museum is an impressive showcase of one man's incessant pursuit to get rid of these pernicious devices. There are not many museums where you go and you encounter a pin drop silence. Considering my limited exposure to Cambodian history it was a crash course on the sanguinary regime that uprooted millions of Cambodians and resulted in massacre of over 6 millions. Its a somber reminder of how things can go wrong, so fast under a lunatic dictator.

The butterfly museum was very interesting. They claim to have over 35 different species of butterfly. I learned the significant differences between moth and butterfly in terms of their antennas and the way they sit and their nocturnal and diurnal way of lives.

My favorite pictures of Angkor Watt

2011-12-19T08:35:00.001-06:00

Some of my favorite shots (640 x 480)

My trip to Angkor watt

2011-12-19T08:30:00.001-06:00

There are two types of people in the world. One who have visited Angkor Watt and one who hasn't. I can now proudly claim that I am in the former category.yay!

2011-12-19T07:12:00.002-06:00

The way my class VI decorated the board for my farewell at Ashok Hall. Sweet memories I still cherish.

Sumant's Ashok Hall farewell pictures

2011-12-19T07:10:00.001-06:00

ttClick here to view these pictures larger

Night market with mummy

2011-12-18T02:33:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we went to the night market across the river. It was my first time out there and I guess it's perhaps the best night market in Siem Reap. The most organized and ofcorse the free Apsaras dance show.

Updating from lucky mall

2011-12-18T02:29:00.001-06:00

So I am having here a pastry and a litchi frappe

Thinking about the upcoming break

2011-12-16T11:27:00.001-06:00

I was reading an article by Timothy Gowers about the tension between problem solving community and the research community and the importance of the two groups. I love problem solving because it's so much fun and combinatorics is a branch which to an outsider appears more as a course in techniques of solving specific esoteric problem than a subject with a coherent theory and Gower's defense was disabusing people of that notion. It's a really nices article. He talks about his own experience in cohomology which gave him insight in to his own work.

Del a pair art exhibition

2011-12-16T11:05:00.001-06:00

Yay Mummy is coming !!

2011-12-16T05:55:00.001-06:00

I am excited my Mom is coming to visit me in Cambodia. She is amazing and anytime I get to spend time with her is the best time. Last time she visited me in Majhkali and we could find time to visit several places in Uttarakhand including Bagheswar, Patal bhubneswar, Chokri and Dunagiri besides ofcourse Ranikhet

Ipod Photography

2011-12-09T07:40:00.001-06:00

We keep Changing. This is how I am now few about 21 days before my 36th birthday

A quick word on Pick's Theorem

2011-12-09T07:14:00.001-06:00

Pick's theorem is one fun theorem which connects the discrete concept of lattice to continuous concept of Area . If you don't know the proof it seems quite inscrutable. However the idea behind proof is very simple but first the theorem. Pick theorem says that if you have a random geometrical object of course with the conditions that it has to be enclosed. Made up of straight lines, having no holes and not two different object sharing the vertex.
The area is given by L-1/2B-1 where L is the total number of lattice vertices including boundary and inside.

The easier way to think about the proof is in terms of angles and the area of primitive triangle. The primitive triangle is any triangle where L= B = 3 i.e it is made up of only 3 vertices and its area is 1/2. If you can convince yourself that for any geometrical object it can always be triangulated by these primitive triangles then to find the area of the whole polygon all you have to do is find the number of such primitive triangles and multiply by 1/2.

How to count the number of those primitive triangles. Well its not difficult. First notice that any interior point is surrounded by triangles and sum of all the angles is 360. So if there are I interior vertices we have 360 *I. Second if B are the vertices on boundary the sum of all interior angles of a polygon with B vertices is given by (B-2)*180. Let T be the number of triangles then the sum of all the angles of Triangles is T*180. Thus
T*180 = 360*I+(B-2)*180
which simplifies to
T=2*I+(B-2)
Now area of triangle is 1/2*B, multiplying both the sides by 1/2 we get
A =1/2*T=1/2*(2I+(B-2))
A =I+1/2B-1
Now I = L-B (Interior = Total - boundary vertices)
A = L-B+1/2B-1
A = L-1/2B-1
proved

Contribution for School Magazine

2011-12-07T23:00:00.001-06:00

Bernoulli Numbers

2011-12-05T08:18:00.001-06:00

Most people learn Gauss's way of adding first n numbers in secondry school. Many are also introduced the idea of adding their squares and cubes. These formulas are (n*(n+1)/2), (n*(n+1)*(2n+1))/ 6 and (n*(n+1)/2)^2 respectively. However the higher formulas are seldom talked about unless you are really curious. What about the sum of 4th power of each number, 5th power and so on. Well its pity that the formula to derive these is not difficult and can easily be demonstrated as I do here.
Let S= 1^p+2^p+3^p+ ... +n^p
Let us expand (v+S)^P= v^P+Pv^(P-1)S+P2v^(P-2)S^2+.. eq(1)
Similarly (v+S-1)^P=v^P+Pv^(P-1)(S-1)+P2v^(P-2)(S-1)^2+.. eq(2)
Subtracting (2) from (1) we get

(v+S)^P-(v+S-1)^P= Pv^(P-1)(S-(S-1))+P2v^(P-2)(S^2-(S-1)^2)+P3v^(P-3)(S^3-(S-1)^3)+... eq(3)

To simplify the equation let S^2-(S-1)^2 = 0, S^3-(S-1)^3 =0 and so on and we end up with
(v+S)^P-(v+S-1)^P= Pv^(P-1)(S-(S-1))
(v+S)^P-(v+S-1)^P= Pv^(P-1) eq(4)
Eq (4) is important let us substitute different values of v starting from 1..n we get
(1+S)^P-(1+S-1)^P= P*1^(P-1)
(2+S)^P-(2+S-1)^P= P*2^(P-1)
(3+S)^P-(3+S-1)^P= P*3^(P-1)

(n+S)^P-(n+S-1)^P= P*n^(P-1)

Adding we get
(n+S)^P-S^P=P*(1^(P-1)+2^(P-1)+3^(P-1)+...+n^(P-1)) eq(5)
Let (P-1) =p then (5) becomes
(n+S)^P-(S)^P= P*(1^p+2^p+3^p+...+n^p)
or ((n+S)^P-(S)^P))/P = 1^p+2^p+3^p+...+n^p = S

Catching Insects (Cambodian Way)

2011-12-05T08:11:00.001-06:00

They put scotch tapes hanging close to the light bulb and the little insects which get attracted to light get pasted on the tape, pretty innovative! By the way I had a vegetarian fried rice there at this open joint and it was good !!

Kindle Images

2011-12-05T08:07:00.001-06:00

Good Morning

2011-12-01T18:48:00.001-06:00

It friday and tomorrow is suppose to be a Christmas party at school. This week I plan to finish Siddhartha. I have read this book two times before but I haven't read it after I finished Osamu Tezuka's 8 volume manga tome on Buddha. Other than that I have two versions of statistics book which I want to go over. I have already speed read the "Manga Statistics" and it is cute the other one is "Cartoon Statistics" and I also manage to get "What is P value?" I am still reading Bobby Fischer's end game and Charles Bukoswski's Women. Fischer is definitely interesting and it hammers home the point that Malcom Gladwell pointed in his book. I did start Marcus DuSutoy's book on Symmetry and read only 30 pages so I need to resume that and to finish reading my all time favorite Robinson Crusoe.

fun readings

2011-11-30T04:28:00.001-06:00

There are very few books which I have read more than couple of times. There are some books which I have read over 20 times. I just finished rereading Hardy's book "A Mathematician's Apology" probably for the 3rd or 4th time. Its not one of the most uplifting book but surely its a book which has shaped the opinion of countless of mathematicians. I also kind of finished "Calculus of Friendship" by Steven Strogatz. It goaded me to get another book by Paul Nahin called "Chases and Escapes". So I might be spending some time to finish both of Paul's book Dr Euler's formula and chases and escapes. I learned about chases and escape problems in another book by Graham but I didn't know that it has such an interesting history. I did a cursory reading of Paul's book and it seems like a lot of fun

Kindle after 1 week of usage

2011-11-28T03:52:00.001-06:00

It been over a week since I bought this Kindle. I like it. At the last count I had over 100 ebooks books and I am hoping that by December end I can brag about the number of them I manage to finish. I love the flexibility of dwelling into any book I like and the ability of the device to remember where I left off. I was concerned about the lack of keyboard on the device to take note but it hasn't bothered me much. The highlight feature is a winner. I use this all the time and the neat thing about it is that it keeps all the highlighted text in one place. So you can read the summary of all the highlights you did. Its almost as taking notes.
Before getting kindle I was overly concerned about its inability to read djvu file however djvu libre can easily export your djvu files to pdf (though size could be more than 3 times the original file). Most of my books were on djvu format which I had to convert to pdf and they read ok. Many other were on pdf and its comfortable to read pdf on kindle. Its best to read the kindle files as they appear to be darker on kindle.The kindle format is borrowed from html format. So if you have a html file its easy to convert it to kindle. Gutteberg.org has a neat collection of kindle books and they read fabulous on kindle. I downloaded Robinson Crusoe and I plan on reading few more classics. I can check my email using the browser called "Experimental".
One can change the orientation using the zoom feature and see the text in landscape or portrait mode. I once downloaded Manga statistics and that file is 135 mb but reading on kindle was not a problem. All I had to do was to switch to the darkest settings and read in landscape mode. So all in all a great device to catch up on your reading. Downloading files on kindle is easy it appears as a drive when you plug it into your computer and you shove your files into the document folder. From kindle you can organize your books into categories so they are easy to access.

Short commentary on Ballot Box problem

2011-11-25T20:57:00.001-06:00

One of the problem in elementary course in probability is the ballot box problem. The statement of the problem goes as something "There are two candidates A and B competing in an election, where after counting it is found that A has won the election. Now if we recount it what is the probability that we will find at least a tie". The easiest way to think about this will be to conjure some numbers. Let there were 5 votes and out of 5 A had 3 and B had 2. We know from multinomial theorem that 5 things (when 3 are of same type and 2 are of other) can be arranged in 5!/(3! 2!) =10.
Lets list all those 10 possibilities

AAABB (Bs together)
AABAB (Moving 1 B and keeping other fixed)
ABAAB (Moving 1 B and keeping other fixed)
BAAAB (Moving 1 B and keeping other fixed) (Bs on both extreme)
BAABA (Moving the other B and keeping the other fixed)
BABAA (Moving the other B and keeping the other fixed)
AABBA (Bs together)
ABBAA (Bs together)
BBAAA (Bs together)
ABBAA (As on both extreme)

You should notice that out of these 10 except the first two we always have a tie sometimes during the counting. Question: When do you think when will any tie will happen ? Answer: It will always happen when you have counted some even number of ballots. Notice one more thing when the tie has happened if we replace As by Bs and Bs by As we get another different way of tying. Also if number of Bs is smaller then we will always have some tie during the course of counting. Let a denote the number of As and b denote the number of Bs then the probability of tie when we count b first is b/(a+b) but for every sequence starting with B we saw there is a corresponding sequence starting with A which also gives a tie. Hence the total number of favorable cases is 2b and the corrected probability is 2b/(a+b)

Reading Update

2011-11-25T02:39:00.001-06:00

There is an old saying by Sir Francis Bacon that "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention." Today I downloaded few more books to go over including the annotated guide to "Alice in Wonderland" by Martin Gardner. I been wanting to read this book for quite sometime and even owned the copy but never got around reading this one. I am currently reading DuSutoy's Symmetry and its pretty appealing. There is an equally fascinating by Saunders McLane on Mathematics form and function.

Mutually Exclusive or Not

2011-11-25T02:28:00.001-06:00

I was thinking about mutually exclusive and independent events and one of the easy example one can conjure up is with two coins.
Experiment: Tossing two coins

Mutually Exclusive

E1: Head on both coins => 1/4
E2: Tails on both coins => 1/4
E3: E1 or E2
P(E3) = P(E1)+P(E2) => 1/4+1/4 = 1/2

Not Mutually Exclusive
E4: Head on one coin => 3/4
E5: Tail on one coin => 3/4
E6: E4 or E5
P(E6) = P(E4)+P(E5) = 3/4+3/4 = 3/2 which is ><
The reason is the above two are not mutually exclusive as both E4 and E5 could happen when we have a {HT, TH}

2011-11-22T23:20:00.001-06:00

Kindle

2011-11-21T00:21:00.001-06:00

Finally after months of scouting around for Kindle I managed to get one in Siem Reap. "Rogue" is selling Kindles here in Amazon. They are getting them shipped from United States via DHL. I wrote a blog about kindle when it came out in 2008 and ever since then had been fascinated by it. I am getting back to my reading and hopefully will be able to finish lot more books before this year ends.

2011-11-21T00:10:00.001-06:00

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea” Antoine De Saint-Exupery, author of The Little Prince.

This thought is one of my all time favorite and conveys my teaching philosophy. Too often the math classes become nothing more than a course in techniques of symbol manipulation. While there is no denying its an important skill unless one knows where those symbolic manipulation skills are taking you the motivation to continue is easily lost. I had some terrific instructors such as Dr. Kammler, Dr Porter, Dr. Kocik and Dr. Lane Clark who knew this truth very well who motivated me to become a better student.

Pictures from Sumant

2011-11-20T23:49:00.001-06:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

Number Mysteries (Repeated Numbers)

2011-11-18T03:45:00.001-06:00

Repeated Number trick
15873 * 7 = 111111
12345679 * 9 = 11111111
1443 * 7 = 101010

Look closely the above three results. You can ask people to pick up a number between 1 and 9 and then let them multiply by 15873 and then for magic ask them to multiply by 7. Their number will be repeated 6 times. For example let say the person decides to go with 3 then you will have 15873 *3 = 47619. Now multiply that number by 7 and you will get 333333.

If you want to repeat 8 times a number between 1 and 9 ask them to multiply by 12345679 and then multiply by 9.For example let say the person decides to go with 3 then you will have 12345679 *3 = 37037037. Now multiply that number by 9 and you will get 33333333.

The third one is for 2 digit number. Here you can ask someone to find a number between 9 and 99 and then repeat the same procedure as above and then multiply by 7. It will be repeated 3 times.

In Chiang Mai doing math

2011-11-10T02:56:00.002-06:00

My Ashok Hall Class 6, 2011-12

2011-11-02T04:55:00.001-05:00

This pic was taken in the Dining Hall of Ashok hall after my class 6 did an evening assembly. It was a flamboyant performance and the principal acknowledged that. There were many other teachers who helped who are not here. In the picture you can see Avani Kedia, Another kedia, Tanushree Agarwal, Shreya Rungta, Diksha Chabbaria,Sakshi Rungta, Khushi, Sumant, Vishaka Singh, Muskan Kapoor, Sristi Jaiswal, Muskan Chabbaria, Saasha Sanadi, Anjali Pandey, Bhavna Jalan, Shraddha Gupta, Laiba Ahmad. It was one of the best vacation I had. The whole class bonded so well. The farewell they gave me was over the top. Miss these guys. I wish them all the best and I am pretty sure they will do great in life.

Mr. Wang's Paintings

2011-10-23T08:52:00.001-05:00

My next door neighbor is affable Mr. Wang. He is also a Chinese teacher at our School and apparently a great teacher. Last flood break I discovered that he is also an accomplished artist too. I wanted to capture him while he was painting and he reciprocated by showing me more of his work. Here is for your eyes only. By the way Mr. Wang is also helping me brushing up my Chinese.

Flooding in Siem Reap

2011-10-23T08:28:00.001-05:00

Siem Reap is a small touristy town and the river which flows through the town could be mistaken for a canal. This year has been particularly bad for the economy of the town. Here are some pictures from the flash flood

Steven Covey's Thought of the day

2011-10-20T08:16:00.005-05:00