Number theory.

I'm incredibly enamoured by certain arguments put forward in Richard Dawkins' book-'The God Delusion'. Richard Dawkins is a British atheist and his reasons to be, is spelled out very vividly in the afore mentioned book. Most of his arguments in the former part of the book, are counter thoughts to the frequently encountered conventional notions for the existence of God, many of which you would've heard or read before. However there was one which was very engaging and startling for the area it comes from- Mathematics!

This mathematical notion mentioned in the book was borrowed from an English writer Aldous Huxley's notable work 'Point Counter Point' which goes like this:

'You know the formula, m over nought equals infinity , m being any positive number? Well, why not reduce the equation to a simpler form by multiplying both sides by nought. In which case you have m equals infinity times nought. This is to say that a positive number is the product of zero and infinity. Doesn't that demonstrate the creation of the universe by an infinite power out of nothing? Doesn't it?'

Now whether a mathematical flaw exisits in this equation, can be overlooked for the sheer brilliance in deducing such a result. By this I don't mean, for all theists there is a safe haven to defend their stand, but it can be contibuted for numerical prestidigitation to those agnostics who'll buy it. It is indeed tricky and yet appears very daft for those who'd question the logic of the method involved. Whatever be the case it gives an insight into the fact that a question as God's existence can perhaps be answered in the most sought after ways such as the revelation of scriptures, the inexplicable design of the Universe, miraculous happenings in our personal lives OR through the absurdity of a relationship in mathematics!

Losers aren't subject to an eternal loss.

Roger Federer, indisputably the heir to Peter Sampras suffered a devastating blow in the Austarlian Open Finale. I personally ain't a Fedex fan, in fact I'm always on the side of Rafael Nadal, whether winning or losing. But having to see Federer move to tears after losing the match lead to a somewhat sympathetic inclination towards him. I can't be accused of defection, Nadal himself felt empathetic for Federer.

Well the fact is I didn't watch the match, the media was too engrossed reporting about Hesh-Mirza making it to the Mixed Doubles Final and consequently winning, that I managed to overlook the mortal combat that lay ahead. Nevertheless the morning news is no less dramatic than the match itself. Federer is one short of equalling Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles and as he claims it must be killing him every moment for losing the bus to make it there. The next Grand Slam is at Roland Garros, which happens to be a clay court and even God can't choose to vanquish Rafa on that court.

The attitude towards winning a match or winning anything else in life, is vital. I'm not giving lessons to Federer or anyone else who wasn't the winner at this match, but what I see as the greatest threat to anyone's failure is their fear of failure itself. When one is so engrossed with the thought that he/she is incapable to overcome his/her opponent, the task loses its purpose. Sometimes I wonder why do we let ourselves be intimidated by people who were on that same ladder, also that same rung, where we now stand. Tommorrow can always be better day for a struggler or perhaps an unlucky day for a winner. There always will be a successor to the current ruler however that successor also sees the last day of his reign.

Honour is your name, Fame can be your friend, Love your backdoor vendor but Eternity, never your guest!

Surely not the first!

My attempts at writing a blog have stretched too long. Now that I remember I must have written scores of maiden articles to get a jump-start. Well I can't say if anything that follows is a jump-start but indeed it is something that can bring me back smiling every time I read it.

I'd been on a long trip to Karwar about a week ago. It is much on the West Coast and temperatures here are dramatically high. Statistically it is covered by forests by a good 75% and there are many beaches adjoining the Arabian Sea. I had been to one such beach named the Rabindranath Tagore beach. Its beautiful in the evenings when the rays of the sun bear a subtle resemblance to the patterns of the sand. Its very serene and surprisingly clean, seldom do you find such a soothing combination.

But what stands out as the most enthralling gift was my visit to two very intriguing places. One of which , called the Sea Bird Project, houses Naval warships - INS Shardul and INS Jalashwa. I was lucky enough to get on INS Shardul which is of indigenous make and can hold 16 tanks. I believe it was launched in 2004. The other warship, the INS Jalashwa formerly called USS Trenton is apparently the second largest ship of the Navy. It also has a flight deck wherefrom aircrafts can be operated which is why its also called an amphibious ship. The Naval Base in Karwar is looking to become really huge, perhaps the biggest in Asia in the years to come. I was certainly more than lucky to be able to stand in the midst of uniformed men on the INS Shardul and click photographs of Jalashwa.

The other interesting story is about my visit to the Kaiga nuclear power station. Kaiga is about 60 kms from Karwar towards the east and is surrounded by forests all over. I could barely believe of my presence there, while just a few days ago I was a particpant in a Debate competition on the Indo-U.S nuclear deal. I was certainly against the deal rooting for the fact that it involves exorbitant expenditure, little did i need to go there to reaffirm my belief.

Setting aside my opinions, what was indisputable was the dedication of the officers towards setting up state-of-the-art nuclear reactors. Indeed we have nuclear fuel constraints, therefore at the moment there are only 2 reactors which are operational, capable of producing 220 MW each, while the other two are completely built and awaiting fuel. In fact the injecting of fuel through pressure tubes into what is called Calandria, the interior of the PHWR, is a very meticulous process done with great care. The steam that results after the fission process and cooling is made to run on turbines which subsequently results in generation of electricity. Needless to say I couldn't take any photographs but the one you see above nearly covers two of the nuclear reactors at Kaiga.

Well those were the two big stories, besides I had also been to the GMR Sugar factory in Haliyal, which is about 90 kms from Karwar. GMR, I discovered was also into Agri Business and their sugar factory was impressive. It provides local employment to a lot workers as the only other industries around are the West Coast Paper Mills and Shreya Paper Mills in Dandeli. In fact I was vying to go for river rafting in Jungle lodges, but I guess I was out of luck by then. The Kali river flows downstream into many dams including one of the biggest in Karnataka, the Supa Dam which has a height of about 100 metres. I made a trip to the Kadra Dam which has 10 gates and is a peak-hour station. It's for hydro-electric power genertion and has 3 units producing 50 MW of power each. Sadly, I was there at an odd timing when the gates were closed, so strolled around the place looking at electric poles connecting electric lines to the city.

I'm actually hard-pressed to think that despite having so many dams, thermal power stations and nuclear power stations all over Karnataka how are we subject to an electricity drought?

All in all, I think it was a great trip, I stayed very close to the sea so I was constantly savouring the sea smell. I also managed to visit an aquarium and concluded that it was funny for people to eat lobsters, what really are those things sticking out of them? But I guess what topped it all was, when I was returning, i made a bus pal who happened to be a student from NIFT. She sounded so full of her travelling activities that I almost conciously dodged the idea of when i shall make such an enthusiastic travel again.