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The Human Behind the Leather Jacket

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Jensen Huang. AI-generated illustration based on a photograph. When I first saw the news about Jensen Huang, I almost scrolled past it. Another achievement for Nvidia, I thought. Another statement about AI. His name has become so closely associated with both that I expected little else. When my wife asked whether I had seen the reports, I dismissed them. “You know, everything is fake news these days. Don’t believe everything you read.” It was an easy response. Perhaps too easy. Was I questioning the reports, or was I reluctant to believe something troubling about someone I admired? Then, over the weekend, came his letter to Nvidia employees , acknowledging that he had been unfaithful to his wife and apologizing to his family and colleagues. That was difficult to read. His resignation followed a few days later. I have followed Nvidia since the late nineties, when desktop computers ...

Miracle at Perth post Sydney fiasco

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A series in Australia is the ultimate conundrum to solve for the visiting teams; more often than not, the riddle remains unsolved and the overseas teams are always found wanting. This can be due to a myriad of factors, apart from the usual cricketing skill of the players. It's not just the question of playing to your potential, but the resilience and tenacity of the players are tested beyond limits. A tour down under is considered difficult simply because it is so difficult to imagine the prospect of beating the Aussies just about anywhere, let alone at home. So, when a four match test series is scheduled with the big "bad" boys of world cricket, it is not difficult to see the itinerary and point out that India are already one down, at least mentally. Obviously, you are scheduled to play on the fastest pitch in the world at the WACA, Perth. Teams with a terrific bowling attack have failed to tame the Aussies at Perth, and India , traditionally weak at the pace bo...

The grandpa

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Grandpa, is it true that there were snakes in this house? I asked innocently. Yes, when your father was very young, there were many. What happened to them? Oh! I bought a mongoose; the snakes got scared and they ran out of the house. Ran? I thought snakes did not have legs. Why are you cutting down the tamarind tree from the backyard? Oh! We need m ore space. I plan to construct an outhouse for you. You know what my friends are saying; they say tha t ghosts stick to tamarind trees and so the tree is getting chopped. Is it true? Grandpa, wil l you take me to the pond at the outskirts of the village? I want to se e the crocodiles there. Who said so? Gopal went there last week, and he told me that summer is getting warmer by the day; the crocodiles may vanish any day. So, I want to see the crocodiles before they disappear. Never a person to flinch, my grandfather was ready with his answers for all those unanswerable questions that I posed to him. He spent a lot of time w...

Happy New Year 2008

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As the clock chimes 12 on Monday night to set off a frenzy of global celebrations, and as the New Year hype reaches a crescendo, we would have passed off yet another year having touched the " usual " landmarks on the way. Happy New Year mails and phone calls are exchanged to enliven the moment. It's not a moment of a lifetime, but there's a feeling of new found hope and excitement, as you look forward to life with gusto, albeit for those few moments. Though the general lifestyle of people has changed considerably over the last few years, and as technology has shaped our lives dramatically, the sameness in me has ensured that life has moved on at a steady pace in the year 2007. Personally, there is nothing much as far as I am concerned to unravel the timeline of events in the year 2007. December 2006 The last week of December 2006 was spent with undergraduate classmates at Washington, DC , and we got back to our respective places just a day before the onset of New Yea...

Rolla; Graduation walk and Nostalgia

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Pic: Graduation ceremony at Recreation Center Life is rife with little expectations; the little things that can spruce and spice up your life in equal measure. In today's highly global world, it is not unusual to find friends in even the remotest part of the world. United States may be the largest country in the world with vast space, but every state in the US is filled with a known face. It is truly heartening to know that there is nothing to worry when you land up in a new place, because you just can't be devoid of friends. The flip side is that, with so many people in different areas, it has become increasingly difficult to find a common meet-up place. So, when you get a chance to meet up for the right occasion, we just have to make use of it totally. These little expectations may not change your life, but this fleeting passage of a quick time out together leaves you lingering for more. Pic: Graduates seated! So, last weekend was a great way to break the norms of life...

Kannada movie; an afterthought

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My knowledge of Kannada movies was strictly limited to the single source of entertainment channel in the mid-nineties. I used to wait for the Saturday evening show (later moved to Sunday evening) eagerly, hoping I could see Annavaru Dr. Rajkumar , "rebel star" Ambareesh, "Kottigobba" Vishnuvardhan, or the Nag brothers in action. Movies were plain and simple, and it always ended in a feel good factor. I was never into watching Kannada movies in cinema halls. But as the years went by, as different channels came into existence, I could not keep up with the pace of Kannada movies; not that it was way ahead, but sadly, it had fallen way behind the standards set by its regional peers. So, I moved away from the solitary source to keep track of other things, but I still made it a point to watch the movies played on DD9, the regional equivalent of DD1, as and when I caught the Kannada movie watching mindset. Though I am not a big fan of Upendra , he brought some enterta...

Staying in vogue

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There are some things which you can live without; there are some things which you just cannot live without after having lived with it for some time. This blog post is coming to you at 12:27 AM (to be absolutely precise) EST, and you can imagine, at this wee hour in the morning, how my mind is clouded with random thoughts. Life has taken a fast track in the last twenty years, and I just can't imagine how quickly our lives have got adapted to it. It is strange, but in the process of making things simpler, how we have lost out on some of the simple aspects of life. In the last many years, I have always fought for simplicity, trying to steer my life away from the norms, since norms are no longer associated with simplicity. Yet, the more I try to get away from it, the more I am interested in the development of today's world. I clearly remember the day we got the land line phone back in Bangalore. I was in my fifth standard and was getting all excited about the new device at ho...

Staying (dis)connected

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One of the greatest wonders of life, according to me, is the ability to communicate with a wide set of people, identify a select few with whom you think will share an unknown closeness, back your instincts and give it all you can to be in touch with them. Many a time, I have pondered how much a new face means to us after some point of time. How many of us really keep in touch with our old friends? All of us have met so many people since childhood that the number keeps increasing by the day. We lose track of some of them just due to the sheer number of new faces that we meet everyday. Obviously, you give it your best shot to stay in touch with all, but the inevitable slowly seeps in. The good old days of yesteryears is slowly forgotten. The hourly phone calls are replaced by daily phone calls, which soon turns weekly and before your realize, it has already become bi-monthly, until one fine day it dawns on you that you haven't spoken to your friend in a year. You think, by then, it i...