Cryptanalyst at 851rt...

Vishwanathan Anand versus Vladimir Kramnik

2008-10-12T23:00:00.003+05:30

This is the match-up that most chess aficionados have been waiting for. The stage is set on October the 14th for the two ambassadors of chess to put their Queen's Gambit, Caro Kann, King's Indian, Ruy Lopez and most importantly Petrov's defence to test as they face off in the much awaited World chess Championship. The contest takes place in the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn. All the chess connoisseurs would agree that the level of the match up would live up to the hype and match the grade set by the battles between Capablanca - Alekhine, Fischer - Spassky and Kasparov - Karpov.

A brief look at the profiles of Vishy and Kramnik...

Vishwanathan Anand

Anand shot into limelight on the world stage by winning the Reggio Emilia Chess Tournament (Category 18) ahead of Kasparov and Karpov in the strongest tournament ever held until this time i.e 1991-92. Anand is considered the most complete player of all time as his haul of 4 chess oscars(a record he shares with Bobby Fischer) testifies. He is a master in tournament play which he has shown time to time by winning the prestigious Corus event 5 times (1989,1998,2003,2004 & 2006), Linares Super Tournament 3 times (1998 , 2007 and 2008), Dortmund Sparkassen 3 times (1996,2000 & 2004) and other important events like, Madrid Masters, Biel etc.

Vladimir Kramnik

Yet another case in point of the soviet monopoly, this 33 year old super grand masters excels in match play. Vladimir Kramnik was born in Tuapse, on June 25, 1975. In 1991 he won The World Under 18 Championship, and began a string of international success. At the Manila Olympiad 1992, he achieved a gold medal for best result on reserve board. Major tournament triumphs were soon to follow, such as Dortmund 1995, Tilburg 1997, and Wijk aan Zee 1998. Dortmund became a favorite stop, as Kramnik would go on to win seven more times, either as shared champion, or clear first. In 2000 Kramnik won his first Linares tournament, completing his set of victories in all three of chess’s “triple crown” events: Corus, Linares, and Dortmund. In 2000 Kramnik reached the pinnacle by defeating long-time champion Garry Kasparov for the World Championship in London by the score of 8 1/2 to 6 1/2. Kasparov was reported as saying, “He is the hardest player to beat in the world.”
The $1 million Kramnik-Topalov World Championship Match (2006), was played in Elista from September 21 to October 13, and drew record numbers of online followers on most major chess sites. After much controversy surrounding a forfeit in round 5, Kramnik won in the tiebreak phase, thereby becoming the first unified World Chess Champion since the schism of 1993.

Considering their head to head records one is struck by the clear pattern emerging which shows Anand leading 19 to 13, with 82 games ending in draw. A closer look reveals that 15 of Anand's 19 wins came in the rapid format. Kramnik on the other hand leads Anand 6 games to 4 on classical front giving himself a slight edge as the championship goes underway. Assisting Anand is his mate Surya Sekhar Ganguly and the 16 year old Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen. The Kramnik Camp boasts of Peter Leko- the Hungarian GM who is beleived to have worked with Anand before his final match against Karpov in 1998.

The stakes are much higher for Anand this time as he gets set to prove his detractors wrong and thus showcase his killer instinct and mental strength in match play format. Although he has a bevy a records and tournaments under his belt a win against Kramnik this time while would rank ahead of them. Also is an elusive chance to put Soviet rule to an end and thus become the undisputed champion of the world.

Champions Of The World

2008-08-22T21:28:00.006+05:30

So...now that yet another dream of mine has been fulfilled by the Almighty, I hereby present to you "Champions of the World" featuring Kishan(me) and Sahil(my teammate) representing our very own NSIT...

ROUND 1- POWER PLAY

ROUND 2- MIDDLE OVERS

ROUND 3- SLOG OVERS

au revoir...

THE SOPHOMORE YEAR

2008-07-27T23:23:00.000+05:30

After a long hiatus I am back to where "The Khan's" and "The Bachchan's" thrive- Blogging.

I am extremely contrite to my(blog's) dear readers(if there are any) and especially to my Blog, which bore the brunt of my indifference to it. Next, I would like extend my thanks to Saurav who inspired me to write about self and experiences and also to my very dear cronies- Neerav, Nitin and Siddharth(in alphabetical order) who in due course would occupy some length of the post. After all those apologies and gratitudes I would like to move on to the main text...

My second year began amidst a great deal of confusion which was due to a motley of reasons. Shifting of our dwelling to Faridabad and subsequent worries about getting a hostel accommodation ate up a majority of time in August. Finally, lady luck and a timely application(to the hostel warden) landed me to my 'second home'- A home which I went on to share with my dearest friends and spent some of the most memorable moments of my existence. A brief character sketch of my room-mates...

NEERAV - A person with a huge repertoire of gags. Can befriend anybody with his bewitching smile and baby-ish diction. An Individual with a great sense of music. Overall, a great 'CHARACTER'.

SIDDHARTH - A person who is 'politically correct'. A guy who believes that he preserves a non-sentimental facet. Another distinct feature is the crimson hue which spreads across his cheeks when he is happy. Overall, a no-nonsense human being.

NITIN - Although he was not alloted the room with the triumvirate of us, he completes our Quartet. The 'Creative mind' of our group.

So, the third semester(The toughest semester as conceived by some ICE souls) commenced. With it started new resolutions and ambitions. Resolutions- to do well, to study hard, be punctual, plan my studies out and other cliches which never seem to desert you. And, also started my tryst with the hostel and a sojourn with neighbors( constituted of professors and M.Tech 'Uncles' besides my batch mates).

Third sem teachers were a complete aberration. The courses thus suffered as a result of their incompetence. The subjects on the other hand sparked some sort of interest as they were a bit practical in nature and a deviation from the run of the mill stuff we did so far.

Hostel life to describe in a word was-fun. A far cry from the comforts of the home though, where your mother wakes you up every morning and all the morning chores are done in complete privacy without anyone hurrying you out, where your father is there to take complete care of you, where you are the center of attraction. But yes, hostel has its share of advantages too- one doesn't need to wake up at 5 in the morning and brave the roads to reach the college. Hostel life makes you a wiser person, a more mature human being as one gets to deal with a plethora of experiences and different kinds of mindsets and thus helps you to prepare for the vagaries of life.

Flat-Mates

PUPPETS...

Sleeping me...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Gus Van Santana???

A normal day at the hostel consisted of waking up at about 7:30, perform all the chores(Sid and Neerav are asleep all this while oblivious of everything) and a quiet prayer before a miniature Lord Krishna statue. At about 9:30 the terzetto of us proceed towards our classes. Classes usually used to be dozing sessions for me. All that was left after a hour of class were pages of badly scribed notes and blurred memories of the teacher 'boring' the class. If not for the classes we had mass-bunks which was yet another session of 'vellapanti' and gossips. All of this along with the missed lunch hour(primarily due to the terrible mess(y) food and the pathetic canteen food) constituted a day spent during the college hours. Not to miss the occasional IEEE meetings and the peer-to-peer-help workshops which was yet another feature of the third semester. Evening was usually spent playing cricket or watching a movie besides tittle-tattles.

The Class

NSIT- In various Hues

Dwelling onto MD- (Machine Drawing for laymen). Most of our third-sem was wasted under the weight of the Drawing board and piles of sheets which we got as homework. How could I forget those hours and hours of labor put into replicating and scaling all those machine joints, bearings, couplings onto the 841*580 mm drawing sheets? Those were really the most painful and boring sessions we had in the hostel, made easier by the intermittent walks I took with Neerav discussing all those worldly issues.

. . . August gone, came September and thus brought mid-sems along. Uneventfully, giving us a few jitters they passed away promising a return the very next semester. Also that went by was my birthday which was spent guzzling away the facts from the books to glory.

We had our Annual Technical fest- Innovision in October. Apart from taking part in one of the events namely 'carnage' in which we had to 'design and fabricate' a miniature ATV( The event was a complete farce), I along with 3 of my batch mates organized a Corporate quiz which was well received and appreciated by the quizzing fraternities. Other competitions included Robowars, technical paper presentation, micro mouse, line-follower along with non-technical events like Business plan presentation which had the budding 'Ogilvy's' and 'Murdoch's' presenting their business and marketing ideas. Rest of October was spent attending college and mentally preparing for the exams in November. In came our fourth room-mate Abhishek whom we called 'IEEE' because of his affinity to that society.

The long awaited winter(but the not-so-long-awaited November) descended. I shifted my base to Hostel for a longish period of 20 days to prepare for the exams. The ordeal thus begun. Day after day the pressure mounted and the tension gripped us. We acquainted ourselves with the melancholy truth. The truth that was, of 'the toughest exams of the toughest semester'. Thanks to Neerav's gags and Hanuman Chalisa( All four of us used to perceive it via the auditory sense daily) the truth was finally over. The 'toughest' semester was over(or was it too early to predict that it was over till the results spare us?).

Yes...We had to read them all...

so are we...

We had our well deserved holidays. The Time when we could afford to rest our encephalon set in. Time had come when we could leave our assiduous ways and just laze around in pursuit of a good, long and a proverbial Kumbhkarna's sopor.

After catching some Z's(actually a lot of them) I then had to start with yet another semester which I successfully did. So, here's a brief account of my fourth sem put in a lucid point format to keep the interest of my readers intact...

Tried to be more systematic with my studies without any success.

Tried to involve myself in IEEE activities, even attended a bi-annual meet at BVP, only to see my interest wane thereon.

QUIZINES: A brainchild of ABx, started by SID G under IEEE-NSIT's entrepreneurship SIG(Special Interest Group). QUIZINES is basically a venture which was started with an aim to provide quizzing solutions to schools, colleges and other institutions. We struck a chord immediately by starting a website and hosting a series of quizzes during MOKSHA- The cultural festival of NSIT. I worked on the quiz questions and they came of really well. What also contibuted to the success of our debut event was some sound marketting strategies adopted by SID G and others in the group. An ample testimony to these very facts would be the 50,000 odd hits our website has received since the inception of our inaugural event. But, the blunder we committed was that we laid low after our initial success due to some inadvertent reasons which has now resulted in extreme dormancy of the venture. what must now be done is to try and revive Quizines by hiring a few interested quizzing brains from the new stock of freshers who descent on the lands of NSIT this August and also hope for the best.

Intra college Cricket tournament: After the initial high of two victories in which I played my due part, our victory campaign laid low by an unexpected loss to the ECE class of our own batch. Nothing went well for us on that fateful day. We were shot out for just 87 runs and the rest they say is history.

MOKSHA-2008: The Quizzing events at this year's MOKSHA bore the brunt of some petty politics and mindsets which I would not like to get into all over again. So will stop at this. For the rest click here.

NSIT Motorsports: After rocking their first show at South Africa they invited for new recruitments. Thanks to lady luck I got through and now am part of our next endeavor of rocking the 'Baja-spectacle' this time at Indore too.

Results of Third Semester: They came, we saw, some cried, some rejoiced. I, exulted!!!

Exams: As always we withered and dithered but finally, endured.

There is much more to my Second year which I want to share but which may not see the light of the day owing to my dysfunctional memory and deficient writing skills(I am trying my best to improve). I would like to request all the readers of this particular entry to drop in a comment or two and share your thoughts with me. I promise to be more punctual with my blog and my classes now that they are about to dawn.

All the very best to one and all who are stepping into yet another academic session, full of new journeys, full of tales and full of adventures...

CHEERS!!!

SPIC MACAY Overnight Concert

2008-02-17T01:02:00.000+05:30

Last night holds my claim of being the most magical, sacrosanct and melodious one in my short life time. Multitudinous tunes were generated by those revered ‘Ustads’ and “Pandits”, not to miss out on ‘Smt”, which etched permanent marks in the memories of those present in the then music lit auditorium.

Although the night was suppose to reveal its true colors at 7.30pm, due to some reasons (known to organizers and Smt. Shovana Narayan) the concert began at around 8.30pm in perfect accordance to ‘Indian Standard Times’. But, few in the auditorium could have anticipated the sheer largesse of the occasion.

The first performer: Smt. Shovana Narayan, one of the foremost disciple of the maestro himself : Pt Birju Maharaj. She has imparted ‘Kathak’, a deep canvas of expression and dimension. As she began her performance it was no less than a magical illusion.

If not for her I would have never understood the intricacies linked with classical dance form. What she dealt with was a myriad of emotions, subjects, legends through her bhavs (acts) and left the audience asking for more. The whole act brought out yet another aspect, her oratory. Her explaining of acts before and after the performance was a true representation of her mastery over the subject. She truly took the entire audience on her sojourn.

The next performer: Ustad Fahimuddin Dagar with accompanist Pt. Dalchand Sharma on Pakhawaj. Incidentally, Ustadji was conferred with Padma Bhushan by the Government of India this very year, thus paying a tribute to his contribution to Dhrupad style of singing. We were told that the Dagar family has been dedicated to the cause of Dhrupad Sangeet. Now coming to his performance: he began with a hour long alaap in some raga. Although, the classical music deficiency of the audience came to the fore, I personally was appreciative of his consecrated recital. The second half of his performance saw him constantly chiding his accompanist Pt. Dalchand Sharma at his apparent ‘mis taal’. Overall, it must be said that it was truly a masterful execution by a veteran musician.

After light snacks, Ustad Asad Ali Khan Saheb began his Rudraveena recital. He started with a short talk on the time bound nature of classical music. What followed, left the entire congregation mesmerized. Sitting in a taxing posture with his gigantesque Rudraveena, he belted out some melodious ragas. The virtuosity on displayed by the virtuoso left the tired audience with a new lease of breath and purpose.

The next performer: Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. I knew what was going to strike me. A sense of déjà vu. Earlier, I got to hear the live recital by Pt. Vishwa Mohan during the Virasat series in 2007. That performance was still fresh in my mind as I geared up for more.

First of all about his brain child- the instrument itself. Mohan Veena, a transformation of a Hawaiian guitar was a spectacle in itself.

Next, the performance: …
As expected, Panditji as always was at his very best. He enchanted the entire audience with the grandeur in his personality and his adept handling of the instrument. His innovative style and his incredible speed created a joyous atmosphere. Every single person in the audience got involved as the Panditji churned out one master piece after another. But, the best was yet to come: As he began playing his opus magnum, the Grammy winning master piece, ’A meeting by the river‘, echoing through the auditorium, every one was visibility on their feet, thundering the auditorium with applause. It was truly a beatific experience marked by utter benignity. I am still in search for appropriate adjectives to describe my once in life time experience.

The final performance by Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan was our tryst with a mystic and a real test of endurance. Khan Saheb, a centenarian, crippled by time displayed his master class maintaining the magnanimity of occasion with his mellifluous rendition of ‘Khayal’ form of Hindustani Classical. To quote my friend Sharat- “ A hundred year old outclassed all the twenty year olds with his stamina and dedication” was an understatement. This was a fitting grand finale.

What I feel after last night is a transformation and purification of my heart . This was well and truly a liberating and joyous experience of my life time.

I was reminded of a Victor Hugo Quote-

'Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.'

QUIZINES

2008-02-16T19:04:00.000+05:30

MOKSHA'08

"Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here
Everybody's watching you now
Everybody waits for you now
What happens next? "

Calling all quizzer-heads to unite at the I.N.Q. ONLINE QUIZ . Win cool cash, a new quiz every alternate day starting from 15th February 2008, as a part of Moksha 2008, the annual cultural extravaganza of Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology.

Direct your browsers, or more importantly your brains to

http://www.quizines.co.in

...see you there

The TEST that could have been...(India's)

2008-01-06T18:51:00.001+05:30

India vs. Australia, 2nd Test, Sydney

Surreal Sunday saw an astonishing day unfold. Another twist in the tale as Harbhajan Singh departs- out to Michael ’Pup’ Clarke. With 2.4 overs or 16 minutes to go, the big question would be answered by the I finish writing this blog and by the time you read it i.e. the outcome of the match.

Another one has fell… Clarke on hat-trick. Anil Kumble can only watch in dismay down the other end. The crowd is exited to the hilt as 19 year old Ishant Sharma walks out take guard. But, yet another goof up. He walks out to bat with a wrong pair of gloves.

Amidst all this hustle bustle, I can safely declare that this is by far the second most intriguing test match I have witnessed, the first obviously being the ‘Very Very Special’ one at Kolkata in 2001. As I jot this down, Clarke and Australia have their final scalp. The match is finally over. Australia have won it (not) fair and square. The doors have been shut right on the face of India and its hapless captain Anil Kumble who is reduced to a meek spectator. He is clearly aghast.

Now, coming back to my point about the reason behind this test match being a real ’spectacle’. Three reasons cloud around my mind.

REASON 1: Dubious and absolutely crap umpiring.
THE CULPRITS- Mark Benson and Steve Bucknor in alphabetical order.
VICTIMS- Team India
This ’Imperfect test match’, to quote Mr.Harsha Bhogle, showcased perhaps the worst instances of umpiring. Some of the incomprehensible decisions started of with Ricky Ponting getting a reprieve from the umpire after the ball clearly nicked his bat on its way to Dhoni’s gloves to the utter dismay of Saurav Ganguly. But, the real bloopers were the ones delivered in favor of Andrew Symonds, that too three of them. Other bad decisions notwithstanding, the real KO was delivered one apiece by Steve and Mark(not the Waughs but India’s bugbears) which ultimately turned out to be the turning point of the match. This time while Rahul Dravid and Ganguly bore the brunt.
Now, jumping over to the next reason.

REASON 2: Andrew Symonds allegation to have been racially abused by Harbhajan Singh. Well, this comes out as a surprise to me.
Anyways, the Aussie team believe that they have got a strong case against Bhajji in hand. Some Oz newspapers also went to the extent of making a caste based analysis of the Indian team and even mentioned a thing or two about ’Brahmin Dominance’. All this, however to India’s delight didn’t reduce Harbhajan’s competitive edge, neither has it curbed his exuberance, which was apparent by his soccer style celebration after having scalped his ‘bunny’ Ricky Ponting for the third time in 4 innings.

Finally, the 3rd REASON: The aspect that stood out to me was the dogged determination and application shown by the Indian batsmen barring Wasim Jaffer and Yuvraj Singh (Dude! You let even Deepika down…). While the first innings showcased some sublime batting by Laxman, Tendulkar( Sydney is surely their favourite ground) and some rustic but gritty batting by the tail enders, the second innings had Anil Kumble displaying undying grit, stupendous resolve and stoic resilience in his batting. He truly played a knock which the Englishmen would describe as ‘captain’s innings’.

I would not like to comment about the Aussie win, which could well have been The ‘Indian win’, if only for the bullshit umpiring which left a bad taste and the unsportsmanlike behavior from the entire Australian team.

Whatever it may be, the bottom-line remains- The match and the series is well and truly lost for the Indians. Amen.

Deciphering the 123 Deal

2007-12-16T23:13:00.000+05:30

"End IAEA talks by Dec or face polls, says Left"
Shouted a frontpage headlines from 9th dec. edition of "Hindustan Times". Reading further into the matter I came across a quote from Mr. Prakash Karat who reportedly stated " The issue(123 deal) must be resolved by end of December. If they still go ahead, we will have to be prepared for Lok Sabha Mid term polls."
This "misquote" further ignited the curious fire in me.
What exactly makes the nuclear deal one of the most debatable topics of recent times?
Thus I set upon a journey of sorts to unravel the truth behind the matter to satiate my hunger of about 4 months.
After two and a half days of exploits, I am now finally in position to clear the airs about the cryptic(at least to me...) deal, and thus my very first blog gets the title it has...

Of the numerous initiatives taken by the UPA Government to enhance India’s stature in the global arena and advance our development agenda, none compare with the 123 deal. This deal would present India with a chance to dismantle the ‘nuclear apartheid’ created against India.

This deal would end 3 decades of an International technology denial regime of which India has been victim. Since the US led the nuclear ban on India after its ‘peaceful nuclear experimenting’ in 1974, the US had to take initiative to restore India to international nuclear regime. To help India, the US administration first needed to change its own laws. The law to get a waiver from its own Houses of congress to begin nuclear collaboration with India was what was pursed as Henry J Hyde act in December 2006. It is a domestic US law which has no binding on India.

The 123 deal is not as ambiguous as it is made out to be: It keeps our military reactors outside the horizon of the safeguards to be signed with IAEA and does not affect our ‘unsafeguarded’ strategic nuclear facilities and our indigenous technology programme. US would work with India on the civil side. What India does on the strategic side in India’s Business.

The 123 substantially meets Indian concern on reprocessing spent fuel, assure it of nuclear fuel supplies and crucially, does not stop India’s right to test in nuclear device if required. It permits nuclear trade, transfer of nuclear material, equipments, components and related technology and co-operation in the civil nuclear fuel cycle between India and US. It allows India to create a reserve of nuclear fuel for each of its civilian reactors and provides guarantees for perpetual supply of fuel in case there is a problem. India has to place its civilian reactor under perpetual IAEA safeguards and will build a dedicated reprocessing facility.

To sustain 9-10% GDP growth to eliminate poverty requires us to expand our power capacity at nearly 20,000 MW per an annum. With this agreement, we can now look forward to generate to around 20,000 MW of nuclear power by 2020. The argument that India would be dependent on US technology is grossly misplaced as the deal allows us to access nuclear technology from anywhere in the world.

For India to be granted such a status is unprecedented in diplomatic history. This deal has raised our stature in the world. We have been recognized as being responsible nuclear nation that can be trusted not to proliferate weapons technology and illegally export any fissile material.

It is worth passing to look at how our neighborhood has reacted to this deal. An official statement issued after the meeting of NCA of Pakistan to assess the Indo-US deal said it would ‘enable India to produce significant quantities of fissile material and nuclear weapons from unsafeguarded nuclear reactors’. Pakistan has urged that a similar deal to be offered to them. Well, why would Pakistan want a deal that barters its sovereignty, kills its weapons programme and takes away its right to test? This is simple because of the fact that “the 123 deal”does nothing of this sort.
The official news agency of Chinese Communist party, Xinheria sees this dual as ‘a generous gift-that grants India the status of ‘de facto’ nuclear power. Even neutral observers in US have argued that the deal is totally in India’s favor.

We, as a sovereign nation, are only bound by what we have appended our signature to the 123 agreement.

Finally quoting Jyotiraditya Scindia:

“ India’s democracy of over a billion people is now too strong to surrender to the dictates of any power, big or small. Equally, a country cannot become strong unless it demonstrates the capacity to successfully secure its national interest through tough negotiations with leading powers of the world. And this is precisely what the present Government has achieved with great distinction”.