Being In the Valley

Hi, I am a student of Electrical Engineering at IIT Delhi, which I was eager to tell anyone whom I met in the 'valley' because we were appreciated and recognised by almost everyone there. I spent last summers at San Jose, California which is better known as the Silicon Valley working as an intern at Qualcomm MEMS Technologies (QMT).

First, a disclaimer - The place where I worked was ranked as one of the best places to work at in the Valley. So, my descriptions might seem to be a bit exaggerated for some people (that's the excuse I can give for exaggerating :) )..

California Dream
Well, now that I think of the place (it's been 1 month since I came back) I think first of how AWESOME the people are in the tech hub of the world. I feel that the spirit of the valley is just a reflection of the spirit of the bear-flagged state it is situated in. Before going to the states, I used to be of the opinion that the songs about 'California' and 'California girls' might just be some stretching the things a bit too far. But soon, I realized that just an American dream resides in a corner of the mind of majority of the people, Americans (outside CA) have a 'California dream'. Well, what's the struggle worth if there is nothing to work for!!

But what do Californians dream of? When I think of this, the answer (perhaps wrong) to why so many rich people in LA end up in rehabs. They simply have nothing to work for. But Again, I was in Northern CA which has some really smart guys who are using their position (as in geographically and of course, intellectually) to lead a change.



Indians as Immigrants

I had been to France in the later part of last year. Now, In France there are lots of Chinese and Arabs (apart from French ;)). I did not find many Indians (my theory - Indians already know a lot of English compared to the Chinese people so, why take pain to learn a new language? ). But the Indians whom I did find there were so nice that I was beginning to think that the Indians whom I found in the valley (and there were a lot of them!!) are 'good' and there to help me out (partially because I am from IIT and Indians in valley respect me). But within 15 days I was approached by a gujju and tried to get me into some 'Amway' cult by offering me food (as if I am a dog) and so called 'networking'. I realized that I need to be careful of the people and do not rely on generalizations (read 'stereotyping'). This is one thing France did not teach me. I feel that there is some size of immigrant community beyond which they are no longer nice to each other - but I am working on that theory.

The Successful Ones
Now, the description about Indians in the valley is really incomplete without mentioning how successful and hard-working they are. My director at the company was from IIT Madras and he was smart and rich. He truly appreciated him (mainly due to the IIT Pride thing). But Anyways, I met a lot of people (at company and otherwise) who had done their masters from US. Sadly, I could not meet many IIT alumni (I think they were busy working at the best consultancy firms in Bangalore or too busy/rich/famous to be in my radar).

On several occasions, thanks to my uncle, I had chance to meet the Indian families settled out there. The kids, who had never been to India were really amazed to find out that I had 'just' come from India. But later, I felt they were really happy for me as I was rescued to US. Sadly, their parents had the socialist view of India they grew up in 1980s. And it was really funny to see their Bollywood style angry young man which had turned into angry middle-aged man in isolation. Though, some talked about how many Indians are going back to India nowadays for tapping the newly open opportunities. Now, what do you say to this? You just market the country you came from as if you are responsible (or a big part of the change). It feels good to be a messenger from home.

I can't really put everything about the trip on here right now. More to come (hopefully) on the place I worked, the project I worked on and the people with whom I worked and lived and spent the most time with and enjoyed!!

On Language Acquisition..

I have been reading about language acquisition and Chomsky's opinion based on Poverty of Linguistic Stimulus and how purely inductive generalisation about sentence structures can lead is NOT present in children.

For example, in case of children, while they are learning 'Wh-' questions, there are some structres which can be concluded as acceptable if the child merely relies on generalisation of whatever linguistic data he hears. So, Chomsky says that the child has some innate knowledge about which structures are acceptable and which are not. Or, his Hypothesis space of potentials grammars is already constrained when he starts learning. But Why? and How?

Well, if we assume that the child is a blank slate when he is born (though many would not accept that) then , this Hypothesis space is constrained only due to the experiences which he has since birth. This experiences can have as basic origin as physical force of 'gravity'. Hence, the physical world pre-conditions the mind of a child before it's language acquisition kicks in and hence, Constricting it's Grammar Hypothesis space.

How does that sound??

Many things yet nothing to do

Hi,
This is a post just to remind me how dreadful are the days when you have many things to do but are not able to do anything.. Today was a very frustrating day for me as I was not able to do anything useful or NEW ..

I have, say 10 works to do and I am stuck somewhere or other in all of them .. And I try to convince my heart that this is just a pause and not a dead end..

Well, I just can't understand my situation right now .. Upon thinking closely, I am like losing the FEEL of the thing which I am already doing..

I feel I have been doing badly this sem and just want my fate to improve..

And over that, I am stuck in the same old trap of sitcoms and TV series ..and it's not at all fulfilling..

Shit!!

I am writing to express my guilt for what I have been doing (or not doing) lately and people, please pay for me..

PS : Sorry to see my insecure side..

Reading Lies..

I happened to see this wonderful TV series - 'Lie To Me' in which a British , Haward educated scientist reads lies using micro-expressions and body language and what not..
So, I read up the stuff on net and thought to try at some of the Friends. Apart from lies I was able to understand their feelings (or So I thought).

But the thing is, whatever I understood about them, it was all very hard to digest - you know, emotionally.

I felt that it is hard (and great if you can) to understand other person's true feelings. But it is even harder (and a greater challenge) to live with and bear seeing those true feelings in our friends and family.

So, the people who work in understanding people like psychologists and interrogators have a very bad occupational hazard!!

Why only WE are intelligent monkeys

Well, this thought came to me in my Humanities class when we are questioning intelligence of animals other than humans.

Let's assume we have gone past the philosophical discussion (which like other philosophical things boils down to DEFINING intelligence) and accept the view that only we are intelligent animals on land ( supported by the fact that we can talk and write blogs to express our ideas :) )

So, the question is, why are other animals not intelligent??

I believe the answer lies with DARWIN.. Due to competition, we killed off other animals which competed with us due to their intelligence.. This is supported with the fact that 'we' defeated the nenderthal man.. But it might not just be restricted to them..This could have happened before in the path of evolution of the man too..

So, we killed all the other animals which were NEAR to us (in terms of intelligence) in the ENTIRE course of evolution leaving just us as the SUPERIOR!! ..

How to verify: Take a group of species which interact (have common ecosystem) and measure the intelligence of each species.. The minimum difference between the intelligence of ANY (??) two species is greater than some minimum..

Remark: As dolphins don't share the same environment as us, they were allowed to get intelligent. So, If you want to find an intelligent animal, go search a place devoid of humans and Dolphins...

Another Blog

Hi,

This is a blog which I dedicate to some small thoughts which I might have 'suddenly' but which I might forget even faster. But not now!!

So, I don't care to keep it sweet , but only Short (Often Sweetness comes with shortness..:))