The Chronicles of Naraina!!!

Three months since the last (and my 1^st) blog entry! It goes to show what a busy last sem MBA life gives you (don’t just freak out, studies/presentations/project reports/lectures are not the only things that can keep you busy). But all that is past me now, and a promise to my best friend brings me back to the world of blogging!

I just realized what a wonderful place Delhi is! When you are just chewing your thinking hat off regarding what to write, it senses your agony and just spews something at you. While returning from South Ex yesterday (which by the way is inevitably a painful journey and seems to last till eternity, and often makes me rue the fact of having my home in North Delhi), I donned the hat of an avid (aspiring actually) blogger.

Once upon a time there used to be a magical place called Naraina. For my friends who have no idea of this journey, let me just tell you that Naraina’s magical powers are different but no less than the legendary Narnia’s (pun intended). It blocks the way of any commuter making (read: trying) that journey. In the initial years, if there was a poll done in Delhi, I bet 90% of the respondents would have preferred a toll at Naraina rather than facing the 25 minutes traffic blockage. But, over the years when people realized that there is no escaping, they sort of adjusted their lives- ‘Husbands who had to leave early because of Naraina and would miss the morning talks with their wives would stop the car, call home and make up for it! Students who could never hit the morning lecture on time would always make the puppy face and tell their teacher- “Sir! You know naaa….Naraina!!!” I always used to fathom that soon would come a time when some morning/evening office meetings would take place within those 25 minutes, over a cup of honking cars….

Anyways, so I was quite confident that I will get sufficient time to observe fellow commuters to string through some story for my blog, when I actually saw the heaven’s gates open…..Yesssss, FINALLY, the Naraina flyover was ready and in full swing. Though I got to know that it was inaugurated 3 days back, but I could still see the glee on many first time Naraina flyover users. Their world had suddenly changed- no more stoppages, no more missing their wives, no more missing 1^st 5 overs of IPL matches, no more traffic excuses by overloaded students (genuine or whatever)! And 92.7 played a befitting song… “Tumhe kaise main bataaoon, kya main paa gaya hoon……” My head took 360s, and everywhere there was the same sight. You know, when you realize you are in love, and the heart beats really fast…it was a similar feeling, and some people really went overboard! While doing the jive, you may ‘accidentally’ put the wrong foot forward, and before you know, the car accelerates above 60Ks….you suddenly feel you are bazooking your way through in F1, and are the star performer of the show with the bikini clad gals chanting “go dude go…” The adrenaline gets the better of you, but long before you get the chance to open the Champagne bottle, evil strikes you……The Delhi Traffic Police!!! Well, if you are from Delhi (or for that matter from the remotest nook of India), an intriguing question always puzzles you- “Yaar ye Indian police humesha crime hone ke baad hi kyon aati hai?” Well, the traffic police story is somewhat different. They shall deprive you of their company when you are feeling sick amidst a traffic jam because some Blueline (read: The Beast) is trying to take a wrong turn….but if you are trying to play Michael Schumacher’s maniacal younger 2^nd cousin (driving at 70), you will see a whole flock of ‘em! Another ironic difference is that while you would wonder whether the Indian Policeman’s gun would work or not, the Indian Traffic Policeman’s Speed Gun always seems to work! What a pity for the aspiring Schumiz! Hats off to the traffic police (the same hat I was earlier donning and chewing)! The land of Naraina had changed forever. I witnessed a dozen cars doing the parade (i.e. slowing from 70 to 10 Ks and in 1 line) before stopping, pretty much like the lion in the circus meekly obeying at the hands of the ringmaster…the dreaded challan playing the cruel whip. So lucky I was not one of them….

P.S. I did manage to reach my home in 30 minutes, quite a miracle as compared to the arduous 1 hour minimum that it used to take me before. And those were my Chronicles of Naraina!!!

Quest for the Numero Uno

Neural Networks draw inspiration from the world of biological neurons. But let me draw a reverse analogy from the world of artificial intelligence and try applying the business intelligence model of neural networks to the way a human brain works.

Putting a threshold value to the output node invariably results to a unique and precise answer in the case of neural networks. The answer would be correct or not is not what I am trying to contest, what seeks appreciation is the sheer lucidity. It is an established fact that AI tries to encapsulate only an iota of the biological neural network complexity. Artificial models can still not match the functionality of tens of googols of neurons of the human brain. But then, is it not only fair to assume that given the fact that a human brain network is more complex, the clarity of the output should simply be lot more than the artificial networks! But is it?

Human nature is inherently indecisive, more often than not. Going by the above argument, it probably should not be so. Then why is that we are left with so many choices in the end? After all, is it not the brain who is supposed to take these decisions for us and make our lives simpler? Let me leave this argument here and shift focus to another argument that would form the antecedent to this one.

They say that life is a rat race, and we are daily fighting to achieve, to supersede, and to win! 23 years of going through the same, I have to say I have hit saturation levels. There are two types of creatures in this world: there are people who always strive to excel, and to achieve better than the others. Then there are those who actually excel, who attain the pinnacle of success and are the leaders in their domains: the highest levels of performance! Does it mean that they have won the rat race…..not quite! Both types of creatures have one element in common…the need to improve…the fight with the alter ego. I hope the majority of readers would agree to my statement that often they are faced with a situation wherein they see two facets, two solutions, two apt choices for the same problem. At the entrance of the business world, it is imperative we are accustomed to such situations. To simplify what I am trying to say, imagine what our very own Bollywood hero goes through while in his “Dharamasankat,” remember the two surreal images that pop out of his head- the angel and the devil who offer contrasting advice to our Mr. Hero. Mr. Hero in the end goes with the wiser advice of the angel. But in real world, how often do we know which one is the angel and which one is the devil? This is a different definition of the rat race, common to all. What essentially I am trying to say is that there is a constant tussle between man and his second self, or the inner self, whatever you want to name it. This is the real contest, as it would determine who wins in the end. A soul at peace with itself could only be declared the top dog.

Let us try to string the two seemingly disparate arguments together. Traditionally, our model of biological neural network is trained with the data that we get as our culture, through family values and all. For example, if I talk about supervised learning, we train our neural network with data like: ‘A Punjabi is likely to be spendthrift, or an IIM grad would be super intelligent.’ But when faced with real time problems, our model many a times goes for a toss….it is so because our alter ego trains itself differently. Maybe it trains itself on the practical realities that we face ourselves. Heraclitus had coined the famous saying-‘The only thing constant is change.’ Generation Y is testimony to this very fact. What we are groomed on is the knowledge we attain as a legacy, from our family and the traditional educational system. But then there is the other world, the real world, which is not quite as bright. Our alter ego trains itself on the real data. Because of differences on the training set in both these cases, the weights for the synaptic links come out to be different, hence giving different outputs at the output node, leading to the ever so confusing word…..CHOICE. Our achievements in the longer run are a function of these choices that we make. In a nutshell, it is a regular struggle that we go through not against the world, but against ourselves.

In the fight of me v/s me, do you think it is possible to hit the numero uno???