Back to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

May 2009, Re-visit



September 2005, My first visit to Gatlinburg.


The spell of the mountains still overcome me. We drove from Gatlinburg to the Ocanauluftee Indian Village through the mountains, stopping several times to capture the breathtaking views of the clouds nesting among the mountains. Four years ago, I wrote "Gatlinburg, Tennessee is a wonderful place. I remember Ruskin Bond saying that mountains have a magical effect on humans. Standing on one of the rocks in this mountain stream and listening earnestly to its sounds, i felt my spirits lifted, a cloud of calm settled on my otherwise turbulent mind. True, mountains have an inimitable charm, an overpowering presence that can blow away all perturbations of the mind and humble any inflated ego."... Still feel the same !



More details in another post.

Kudos to my Country.

Today, the Congress party swept to a resounding victory in India's national elections, defying expectations as it brushed aside the hindu nationalists, the communists and a legion of small regional parties. I would like to set aside my opinion on what this could mean to the future of India and express my appreciation of how effectively and successfully we have been able to conduct this phased election and choose a government that would now steer the fate of a nation of over a billion people. Those who are aware of the political geography of the subcontinent would be aware of the fact that this nation of a billion people, the largest democracy in the world, has in its neighborhood countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, China, Burma, North Korea and also the Arab world. Preserving and sustaining a vibrant democracy in such a negative environment is an admirable achievement.

Long live democracy, Long live freedom !

The Congress candidate, Shashi Tharoor trumped his nearest rival by close to 100,000 votes in my home constituency. Here are a couple of brilliant speeches by Mr. Tharoor,

CPD Distinguished Speaker Series: Shashi Tharoor - INDIA


Shashi Tharoor: Restoring America's Image in the World

Currently reading,

Excursions in Number Theory

Dan Brown needs a tonne of wax!

I read the book "Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown, the famed author of "Da Vinci Code". Unlike DVC, DF appears to be poorly researched and leaves the reader flabbergasted by some of the events depicted in the novel. Does Mr. Brown really expect his readers to believe that someone can write a worm that overheats a giant super computer, which then runs on end till all the sillicon it carries explodes, leading to the destruction of the building that houses it ? ....then when all the hackers of the world are at the doorstep of NSA, to lay their hands on US Intelligence secrets, Susan Fletcher- the beautiful and talented NSA cryptologist and her lover saves the country (and what the pass key finally turned out to be had me roll on the floor and laugh)!! That is Bollywood masala. Mr. Brown has the potential to be a great script writer in one of India's *ollywoods.

The story is certainly not without wax ! ;-)

Currently reading,

Digital Fortress


Data Modelling Essentials

Mathematically Analyzing a War !!

This video from Ted Talks presents a wonderful idea. It shows how a team filtered the noise and commotion out of an event as turbulent as a protracted war, derived a mathematical equation from their observations, analyzed it and attempted to arrive at conclusions which could then be used to predict outcomes or help manipulate the variables involved, to generate desired outcomes.
It reminds me of Steven Levit's book "Freakonomics" where the author investigates several topics both intractable and trivial by analyzing huge chunks of data to identify patterns.

There is probably no noise in the world we live in. The right minds equipped with the right tools could probably identify patterns or clues to an underlying grand design in almost everything that we see or hear but consider unworthy of our attention.

Certified Project Management Professional (PMP)

I passed the PMP examination a couple of weeks ago. My strategy was pretty straight forward,

1. Read the PMBOK and the PMP Exam Prep guide by Rita Mulcahy and

2. Took a few mock tests.

If you have good Project Management experience and follow a strategy similar to mine, you ought to be able to sail through the exam without any trouble. Try these mock exams for free - This, , This, and This.

Both Sides of any story

Phil Collins sang,

"White man turns the corner, finds himself within a different world
Ghetto kid grabs his shoulder, throws him up against the wall
He says would you respect me if I didnt have this gun
cos without it, I dont get it, and thats why I carry one
We always need to hear both sides of the story"

Here are two videos that deal with the flip side of two very famous events - The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi .
Here is the Transcript for you to follow this Gujarati play.



and the American Civil War.