My 'Gene' is selfish ?

It happens to be that phase of my life when this little thing called ‘mind’ has been constantly searching for reasons and answers to almost everything around! In the quest for these answers, I have continuously been fooled by many things – be it randomness, be it luck, be it the Nash Equilibrium, be it the Laws of attraction or be it simply, a gene!

I lately concluded reading 'The Selfish Gene', by Richard Dawkins, which in many ways cleared the junk out of my brain!  The skill of Dawkins, as a writer, is that he has managed to convey the role that genes have had in our (and all life's) evolution. We know that genes determine the color of our eyes, our bodily features, certain physical traits and our susceptibility to certain diseases. However, what Dawkins shows is rather more fundamental and remarkable than that!

As a man of extreme intellect and analytical mastery, his logic throughout the book is very clear, vivid and easy to follow. All of us know how natural selection (i.e survival of the fittest) has played a role in the way species have evolved. It has previously been accepted that natural selection happens at the individual level or according to many, at the Group Level. However completely diametric to this, Dawkins proposes that natural selection (and evolution) happens at the level of the gene, thereby flourishing the 'Gene-centered view of evolution' or 'gene selection theory', and consequently surpassing the 'Organism-centered view of evolution'.

Dawkins even term 'Organisms' as 'Vehicles' or 'Survival Machines' of the genes. From the gene's point of view, evolutionary success ultimately depends on leaving behind the maximum number of copies of itself in the population. Since close relatives of an organism share some identical genes, a gene can also increase its evolutionary success by promoting the reproduction and survival of these related or otherwise similar individuals. Hence "selfish actions" of the gene are the "unselfish actions" of the organisms.

The best part of the book for me was when Dawkins highlights how and why Nice guys always Finish First? His exemplary view on the 'Prisoner’s dilemma' combined with the Tit-for-tat strategy, and how being nice, forgiving, and not envious help in winning in gross situations where nasty strategies fail completely. Moreover, he even admits that 'Tit-for-tat Strategy' is still not the 'Evolutionary Stable Strategy(ESS)', which according to Dawkins is a strategy that does well against copies of itself. The rationale for this is as follows. A successful strategy is one that dominates the population. Therefore it will tend to encounter copies of itself. Therefore it won't stay successful unless it does well against copies of itself.

"The Selfish Gene" did change my way of thinking and acting, apart from answering many weird questions  which my mind was burdened with. I can now look out at a crowd of people and imagine all of the trillions of little genes going about in these lumbering robots searching for ways to survive and replicate themselves. If life is a game, then this book definitely gives us a better understanding of that game and even gives us some potential strategies to help us and our genes excel in that game.

Thinking ? ... is just a waste of time!

Recently I got hold of an isolated-lying newspaper  amid the wee hours of a lecture class. While glancing over the pages, an article suddenly caught my attention.  On further reading this wonderful piece of writing I almost got  transmogrified. The manner in which I interpreted that article could be completely diametric to what the author wanted to convey  as the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgement solely depends on circumstantial evidence and prior conclusion rather than on the basis of direct observation.

My way of thinking, imagining, opining, reckoning and believing   has been continuously undergoing a change owing to some outstanding theories, work and philosophies of Taleb,  Carnegie, Dawkins and Darwin.  Fusing  my illation of the above-mentioned article and some little random philosophies I know, I put forth the following viewpoint.

Each day zillion of thoughts strike our neural cells hoping to grow bigger and turgid. This eventually blocks the space which the brain could have used for some other real time practical purposes. Each of these tiny thoughts has the potential and capability to develop into a massive bubble, whose size is directly dependent on our attachment with that particular thought process. More the attachment, more gets the thought-size, more striver we become by following, arguing, rationalizing, imploring, hoping, wishing, suggesting and agonizing on everything our mind tells us. Every single of these umpteen thoughts can fill the brain with such huge amount of junk that it would become impossible to cleanse it later when one senesce. On the contrary, if lesser heed is paid to these enormous thought bubbles, they conk out in their generative stage sparing  tremendous  amount of time and space to concentrate on our environs and ourselves. Self-discovery is what we usually work out  this way.

Thinking takes our mind into the past or future where life seems full of commotions, emotions, drama, happenings but with no reality at all. For reality, one needs  to be in the present, think of present, and that is only possible if one gives no way to thought-processes which chokes the mind’s capacity to focus on present. Hence,

                              “Stop Thinking! Know thyself! Live the Present!”

Luck - by chance!

Firstly this post has nothing to do with the movie ”Luck” starring Shruti Haasan in one of her most aphrodisiac performance, though the movie was nothing more than a total clunker. Having merely read one-fourth of “Fooled by Randomness” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, I do not find myself in any comfortable position to comment or write a post about it, as it would present me nothing more than a naïve subject. The following post might or might not be linked to the gist of the above mentioned book, but not a single sentence of it has been plagiarized from the book or from anywhere else. This post is about ‘luck’ as I construe it.

Luck for me is ‘random’, i.e it lacks any order or plan or occurrence. Luck can be on your side in the morning for a particular task and can evade you in the evening for any other equivalent task. You wake up on time for your morning class is by sheer luck. Supposedly the alarm clock fails or you are floating in your world of surreal dreams so peacefully that you do not hear it ringing, you will surely miss the class owing  your misfortune to luck (or I’d define it as ill-luck). You are walking through a lane with your friend who suddenly slips and falls on a banana peel. This marks your friend’s ill-luck and your good luck because it could have happened the other way around. Luck favored you this time! Similarly if your girlfriend ditches you for some other person means luck disfavored you and favored the 'other person'. You can be the richest person in your town but ill-luck can make you a hapless victim in a matter of seconds. You can be on the zenith today but ill-luck can bring you down in a flip of seconds. Luck can make you win thousands of bucks in a Casino, Gambling or a Blackjack, but the same luck can disfavor you anytime. If you are the most lucky guy in your college you could be walking hand-in-hand with the hottest chick in town, but if you are oh-not-so-lucky kind of a guy you would be doing nothing more than driveling! Luck, undoubtedly is omnipotent and omnipresent but it lacks the orderliness.

People underestimate luck and perceive it as Non-luck (i.e Skills). Skills do define ourselves, our traits and our attributes, but without luck it has value equal to ZERO! Skills + Luck = Success, where "Luck >> Skills", thereby narrating the grandness of Luck! With Skills but without Luck, you can somehow manage to be on the top at the cost of your precious life. However with luck but without skills, you can manage to be on the top but will never have the fear of dying because of that factor called ‘Luck’! Thus, Luck is indeed a potent toxin, but yes it doubtlessly happen by mere chance if you happen to be 'lucky' enough!

Me, Environs and the Nature

The recent bargain which fetched me a 500 rupees gain turned out to be the best deal I ever had. I bought a much needed Hawk bicycle in exchange for my old never-exploited Razorback! This has not only demolished my exponentially rising Rickshaw bill but has also started saving my Time (by making me punctual at all the classes and labs), which I have been utilizing for some work or the other.

The initial week at college went as expected. ‘Department of Chemical Engineering’ yet seems to perplex me in many regards (details later). Even though many things have certainly changed. Our class room has been shifted from CH-102 to CH-201. So has the Professors, excepting the one who blessed me with a B the last Semester in a 4 credit course. The only good thing which seems to have happened to me so far is the Institute Elective  ‘IHS03-Group Dynamics’  I have gotten.

Amidst all this newness, I have bought some good Novels which includes “Fooled by Randomness” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and “A biography of Benito Mussolini”, which will surely keep me busy for the next few weeks or so. I am also planning to get from somewhere “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins. I also planned to join Career Launcher, situated at a walking distance from the campus for attending CAT ’11 coaching classes. 


More than all this, I have been tweeting and blogging lately, rather than buzzing and updating my statuses on Facebook (details later).  I have started socializing less with the people, and on the contrary have started giving more importance to the tiny and little things of Nature happening around me, which is sometimes a weird buzz coming out of a bee or a cool breeze hushing past me. All such things have started giving me wonderful sane moments of glory and happiness, rather than the gibes and scoffs of humans. Only this way life seems marvelous to me! No, I am not on the path of becoming a recluse.

Two Doors Down, Third it is ..

The inception of Junior year was neither exciting nor commoving. The Registration bugger was turned Online from this year thereby reducing the workload from filling six colored cards to just two printouts thereby fooling us in regard to "Ragging affidavit-cum-Oath Commisioner dang"! However the nub of these printouts lied in the fact that details had to be filled Online to which the R-Server balked as usual. Somehow by hook or by crook this situation was bumped off, and there all Sophomores were legally set to enter into their Pre-Final year. *Glee*

This time my journey to R was accompanied by Ma, Pa and Sis. Consequently the trip, as expected, was full of advices, emotions, counseling. It all eventually turned into some thoughtful lessons on “How to keep your room clean?”, “How to maintain a balanced and healthy diet in R?” ,”How to excel abiding by the statement, ‘Early to bed and early to rise’?” , and a lot more. The room FT-18 was then blessed by their soulful ingress which soon followed by laying a wonderful calligraphic encryption on the room wall by my sis 'wishing me luck'. A walk through the Civil Lines and delicious lunch at Hotel Prakash with some little shopping followed next which concluded with hugs and kisses and then the Indigo racing away from Jawahar leaving me depondent all alone.

Dilemma, quandary and options ... ?

15 odd days left , followed by the lethal End-Term Examinations to conclude my awesome rattling Sophomore year, and commence my Junior year anew. Though I am still afraid of using any replacement for the term “rattling” above, because All’s well that ends well or Nothing is well, until it ends well! Thus, I wish 2-2 ends well too, to make that bountiful replacement.

At this particular juncture of time, an year ago, I remember I had a long-lived crush on Cobie. I mentioned the same in a post with reference to the “Green-Black Chemical Romance” thing. This time around, things have changed drastically. Anyways, I gave a glimpse of the Sem so far in my previous post, where I adverted at one place, “ I did not receive any mail from few big names where I was expecting my immersion during the Summer holidays for training purposes. However, I am happy training at my Dad’s workplace at DRDO forsaking those big names, finally. “. However within a fortnight, when I was certain of going with DRDO, I got copious mails and calls, all captivating! Thus, I am in a big fix at the moment. The options available for me as of now are as follows:

Option No. 1:  DRDO – and my passion for developing the algo:    I will be with my family, in my beloved city and at my Dad’s workplace with all needful facilities, ranging from Hi-Speed Broadband connectivity, Air-Conditioned Rooms, refreshments (Real Juice, Samosas, Sweets, etc available any time), a world class library, Dad’s counterparts well versed with C++ who could help me out any time regarding my project and make me learn a lot, and people who can tell me a lot about Defence mechanism, accessories and structure. All this without any charge or fees.

Option No. 2:  IIT Kanpur – and the value of this Intern: There was a Notice put up on our Channel-I long time back regarding some Internship at IIT Kanpur  under the aegis of Dr. Priya Ranjan (Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT K). It said,  ‘Stipend and Lodging would be made available at IIT Kanpur only, where the trainees would be undergoing training of one month and some Project work thereafter’. Yours truly applied for it without any vacillation, and these are the two replies I got from them :

First reply: 

 " Dear all, We will shortly announce the results of those who have qualified for the second round .Soon after we shall interview the people on the telephone and finally select the students. Students would be asked a few technical questions on the basis of what do they have filled in the form."

Followed by this later:  

 “Dear all, Firstly, we would like to apologize for being so late in announcing the results.About 953 students  from all 7 IIT's Competed for the Internship program.Our team had a very tough time in selecting the students. 

It gives me Immense pleasure to inform you that you have been selected in the Young Engineers Team as "Internees-W" for the Summer Session-2010.The terms and Conditions of the Internship are as follows :

1)Rs.2500 as stipend for the full program.

2) Accommodation arrangements by YEINDIA in a Hostel."

NOTE :Pre Placement Offer shall be provided to those who are found to be extraordinary”.

All this also seems to be an eye-candy. Confusion seems to be creeping up!

Option No. 3: iDubba –and the platform it would provide me: There is an EDC Society at IIT Roorkee  which started an “Startup Internship fair” for the students of IIT Roorkee this time. I applied for it long time back by submitting my resume. The team EDC forwarded my Resume to some notable startups, one of them being iDubba, which was “started with an intention to revolutionize the way Television is watched in today’s hi-tech, technology driven World. It’s an online and mobile platform to help users get instant information about what’s happening on TV based on their profile, geography and behaviour. Our aim is to become one stop platform to satisfy all TV related needs of today’s modern man. We are working to build a new generation TV guidance system, recommendation platform and information source specifically targeting Indian users, media, broadcasters and advertisers.”

This is the reply I received from them:  

"Hi Abhishek, Thanks for showing interest in our organization. We are glad to inform you that we have shortlisted your resume for internship program at our organization. We would like to have a one to one session either on phone or in person to give you an idea of our project and tasks involved. Let me know when we can have this session." 

I gave the concerned person some time slot at which he called me up, and told me about the work which I was supposed to do. The incentives which would be provided included the stipend, accommodation and the certificate of appreciation, plus the perfect work-environment in their Main Center at Noida.

Option No. 4: ClipWeave – the most faint choice: Here are the two mails which depict my tryst with ClipWeave.

a) Mail 1 from Team EDC: 

“Your resumes have been sent to ClipWeave. The internship profile of the start-up is available at xyz.com . Please go through the profile. You may get interview calls from the company if your resume gets shortlisted.”

b) Followed by the mail from ClipWeave later:  

“Hi Abhishek,
This has reference to your application for summer internship to ClipWeave. We have shortlisted you for the next round. Now, we'd like you to take a small programming test to help us evaluate your skills. Please complete the test by tomorrow evening so that we can proceed with our process.”

I didn’t give any of the above-mentioned Test to which they did send me a reminder twice each after extending the date. I still have ample of time to complete it. 

P.S: All the above options are equally good, captivating and confusing. Next few days, I seriously need to ponder over it to decide the best out of the rest! I hope I do take decision wisely.

P.P.S:  My Sleeping disorder is yet not in order. All hail Jay Sean, Anya Marina, Papa Roach, T.I, and some random hindi songs.

Cheers! Ciao …

 

The Sem so far ...

It has been a dozy, dopy, jerky month. Few more days to go and yours truly move into the last month of this Semester, which would conclude 2-2 (un)happily.

The Semester so far has been pretty hunky-dory as far as my academics and other activities are concerned.  Here is a synopsis of all the things I did and the things which I did not do.

What all I did so far … ?

1.       I slept a lot, much to the disgust of my parents.

2.       I became “the first one in the history of IIT Roorkee to become the “Opera Campus Crew Initiator” at my College”, as Opera people put it. I feel elated.

3.       I have finally planned to do an Intern. Though it would be a travesty to do it when one is in his Sophomore years. Still there are many other reasons which are forcing me to do an Intern. I have applied for it at a couple of places. The result is awaited. Though, my love for my family and my dwelling place at Dehradun is persuading me to stick with my Dad’s Workplace at DRDO. DRDO is not bad either. If it gets finalized with DRDO, the topic which I am going to work on is, “Developing and implementing an efficient algorithm in C++ and using Star CCM+ for computation of thermodynamics and geometrical properties of Polyelectrolytes by incorporating different system conditions.”

4.       I successfully managed and organized an Online cryptic hunt named, LOGIX 2.0 during Cognizance 2010, the annual tech fest of IIT Roorkee. The appreciations which I received from people all around makes me feel cock-a-hoop. It was a indeed a big success.

5.       I am gleeful after securing second position in an event named “Chemomania” during Cognizance 2010 (The annual tech fest of IIT Roorkee).  I hope I do get the mentioned cash award and a certificate! The event was structured on the lines of big companies like Shell, Schlumberger, BG, etc, as people told me after which I felt like participating in it. There were three rounds – first, the written quiz followed by a Group Discussion on a given Case Study, and finally the Presentation round and the cross-questioning session. The event was duly adjudicated by hon’ble Professors from Chemical Engineering Department.

6.       I also feel elated after the Company I am involved with, i.e “eBullient Info Tech” is about to complete its first task of designing an Alumni Portal for the IIT Roorkee Alumni of North America. The static version of the site is already launched with many things still under construction. Go to site: http://www.iitraana.org.  The remaining features would be completed within a fortnight or so.

7.       I did write a lot of tweets and buzz’s. I remained inactive as ever on Orkut, except writing scraps to my sweet sis. Facebook, however, still remained my first choice followed by Twitter and Buzz. Though I cannot apprehend the obviousness of finding the twitter fad so low in India.

8.       I, yet again got a brand new celebrity crush. This time yours truly has gone ga-ga over Ke$ha (Do check the pronounciation. Her wrong pronounciation narks me off.) . All day and night listening to her songs, watching her videos and publicizing her debut Album, “Animal” says it all. I love the dollar sign on her wrist, and her scrappy hairstyle. You rock, Ke$ha!

What all I did not do … ?

1.        I did not manage to get 90+ attendance in any of my scorned courses. With every subject hovering in the range 70 to 75, I managed to keep it 90 plus only in Economics. The lowest being Material Science which is getting as low as 60 (my love for Meta overpowered by my love for Chemical). Though the Prof’s attendance in it is not even 50 plus. *Grins*

2.        I did not stop drooling over the opposite gender, and stop flirting with some random people on the Internet.

3.        I did not get any position in one of the event named “Freakonomics” organized by ShARE- IITR, which was completely mismanaged, and full of politics and nepotism. The judges were completely unaware of the theories of Steven Lewitt (the author of the book, named Freakonomics). Even the audience was looking for some freaky economics innovation rather than appreciating the stuff which involved Steven Lewitt’s theories.  I with two of my friends, Siddhartha and Priyank, presented our views on IPL by incorporating all the theories and hypothesis of Steven Lewitt. Even after this, the judges and audience were not even able to make head and tail out of it, and consequently looked totally dumb. Our way of presenting was also awesome. We awoke the sleeping audience during our presentation. After all this when one doesn’t get anything, one would definitely get annoyed. In fact, ShARE-IITR is a big phony organization doing nothing and just enjoying idiotic bummer amongst themselves.

4.       I did not receive any mail from few big names where I was expecting my immersion during the Summer holidays for training purposes. However, I am happy training at my Dad’s workplace at DRDO forsaking those big names, finally.

5.       I did not go on a date with anyone. By anyone, I make it clear that I am focusing only on the female gender. Two odd years with no one whom I find *worthy* to take here at R, I think I should rather wait. May be, something “bigger” and better awaits! I am sorry, if that offends someone.

6.       Finally, the most important one.  I did not begin studying for my Second Mid Term examinations starting from next Monday. I need to begin it as soon as possible before it is too late.

P.S:  I also find immense pleasure in congratulating my Dad for winning the prestigious DRDO award for the “Most outstanding Performance”. Indeed, it is seriously a big thing to be awarded infront of famous personalities and scientists. I hope I do learn something from it, and use it for my self improvement. Congrats dad!

P.P.S:  Doing and not doing is a darn farce for the some, and not for the other. However for me it was neither of the two. I loved writing it. Moreover I am, yet again, addicted to Soft Drinks. Yes, yes the Summer has come again! Darn! I don’t like it, do I ?

Cheers! Ciao ...