Finished

Finally finished Pride and prejudice. First bought at Dariyaganj at Delhi in 2005. Latest was the fifth, bought on kindle. Glad to record I have finished my first Jane Austen 8 years after I first bought it.

Link: Technical Article

In a recent editorial (read here), George Whiteside discusses some issues in wide scale adoption of Lab on Chip systems. While the editorial focuses on a particular class of products, some issues can be generally applied. Parking it here for future reference. 

Science and Engineering

Blog post on Farnam Street with some excerpts from a book comparing Science and Engineering. This is the link.

Cattles Online

Cattles being sold online in India, reports Indian Express here. In my 3 year long stay in US Midwest, I am yet to see something similar. In an inter hostel debate I participated with Alok, we were given the topic of globalization and its effect on India. One of the examples we used to support our idea was that of Indian flavors included in McDonalds and Dominos menu. With selling of the cattle online, we see one more of such example. From weekly haats, where one would see colored cattle (to distinguish cattle from one owner to other), to online selling space is not natural. At least not now. Not to me. But then I guess I have very high opinion of me of knowing what goes on in India. I am surprised, in a happy way, to read this. I shall be returning to India next month, for good, with the hope that it will provide me with interesting problems. It will be very different from the textbook world I am used to and therefore solving problem will require something more than discretizing a grid and numerically solving a differential equation at grid points. With news like this, I am more hopeful to encounter new scenarios which are yet to be covered in textbooks from Wiley etc. 

Bas baatein karwa lo

बस बातों की  जमा पूँजी है
सपनो की तिजोरी की यही एक कुंजी है
कभी मीठी तो कभी कडवी
थोडा चना ज्यादा चिरौंजी है
बस बातों की  जमा पूँजी है
आँखों से मेरे कही गयी
कानों में तेरे गूंजी है
बस बातों की  जमा पूँजी है
चेहरे से खिलखिलाई है
गले में अटकी रूंधी है
बस बातों की जमा पूँजी है