Happy Birthday June 12-thers

June 12 is a very special day in our immediate family. 5 people share their birthday.

The first is my mother's brother, Rony Uncle. Then comes my brother Donald. Then comes my cousin Vanitha. And then unbelievably comes Anitha, Rony uncle's daughter. This itself was huge. 4 people all born on the same day. But for my brother Frank, huge is not enough. It has to be unbelievable. So he got married to Dana. And yes, you got it right. She celebrates her birthday on June 12.

What's even more interesting is, how rare an event is this actually ? To calculate that, we will first need to calculate the total number of people who would fit into the pool of people that form the June 12thers.

That would be Rony uncle and his 7 siblings. And their spouses. And the children of each of the siblings. And their spouses. The total works out to 52. So 5 out of 52 share their birthday on the same day.

You'll be surprised to know that the probability of this happening is much greater than you think. Its over 0.2%. And therefore not really that rare an occurrence. But interesting nevertheless. What's even more interesting is the probability of having 2 birthdays is over 97%. 3 over 12%. And 4 over 1.6%.

As of today they haven't all been in the same place on June 12. Rony uncle lives in Mangalore. Don in San Francisco. Vanitha in New Jersey. Anitha in Bangalore. And Dana in Connecticut. But Mabel, my sister plans to change that. She has taken upon herself the task of getting them all together in the same place. And since most are either in India or in the US, Europe is her choice for the venue.

Here's wishing Rony uncle, Don, Vanitha, Dana and Anitha a very happy birthday and a great year ahead. And here's wishing Mabel all the luck in making this come true. And wishing that she invites me.

p.s.: I may be wrong about the probabilities. So do let me know if you have a different set of probabilities.

Build a School in the Cloud

Recently Reia sent me a link to a TED talk. Yes Reia. I was as surprised as you probably are.

She felt that the talk was relevant to the HOPE device we had designed and developed.

HOPE is a powerful small device and is an acronym for Highspeed Outernet Powered Education. You can read more about the HOPE device here
http://lobodecoded.blogspot.in/2015/07/h-o-p-e.html



The TED Talk was by Sugata Mitra entitled "Build a School in the Cloud". The talk was extremely interesting and impressive. Gives some amazing insights and a must watch. Thanks Reia.

2 years of Modi

Today marked 2 years of the NDA government led by Mr. Modi. The jury is still out on whether Mr. Modi has delivered on the expectations. One thing that is universal is that no one is indifferent to Mr Modi or his achievements. There's a large group of people who are extremely happy. And there's an equally large group of people who are extremely unhappy.

The interesting aspect of the Modi Government is its ability to highlight its achievements as well as publicizing the same and usage of all kinds of media, new and old. Here's a video that was created for the occasion and widely circulated, 'Mera Desh Badal Raha Hai, Aage Badh Raha Hai'. Translated it means, 'My country is changing. Its moving forward". Its an extremely well made 3 minute ad.

That's not all. The government created several infographics that highlighted all areas of the initiatives and achievements on the last 2 years. Here's an example.

There are several infographics for several programs, achievements and sectors. You can check out the same at:
http://pib.nic.in/nda2/infographics.aspx

And in case you would like to know even more, you can hear it from the man himself. Hear Mr. Modi's speech on the 2 years achievements of his government and you can decide for yourself. Good, Bad or Ugly.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm one of the few in the middle. I'm extremely happy with what Mr. Modi has managed to achieve in a short period of time. And I'm a little disappointed in him not having strongly taken up or condemned factions of the right wing whose actions and words are not acceptable in any society, let alone a secular democracy.

Isha Kriya

During the Upa Yoga exercises, the Yoga Guru recommended that the exercises end with meditation. He used a You Tube of his Guru during this meditations called Isha Kriya.

It's a 15 minute mediation and quite simple to do. I've been practicing it for the last 3 weeks and find that its effective in allowing one to focus during the day.

You should definitely view the video and try it. Who knows. You too might like it and even practice it.

The Man who knew infinity

This week I saw the film, "The Man who knew Infinity" based on the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. His was an extremely interesting story.

He is credited with several mathematical discoveries, including some that were only proven to be true, in this century. That is, almost a 100 years after he first made the claims. In his very short existence, he compiled close to 3,900 results, most of which were identities and equations.

Unfortunately the movie itself was super disappointing. It was slow, did not capture the viewers imagination and did not really give any major insights into either Ramanujan or his mentor Cambridge Professor G. H. Hardy.

Nevertheless I was once again impressed by the open mindedness of the English academic system and especially Prof. Hardy, without whom, the genius of Ramanujan and his discoveries would never have come to light.

While I don't recommend watching the film, I definitely recommend reading up on the genius called Ramanujan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan

Upa Yoga

A couple of weeks ago, I went with my friend Salil to learn Yoga exercises from a Yoga Guru (Teacher). There are several schools of Yoga. It turned out that our Guru followed the Isha foundation school. The Isha foundation is led by Sadhguru, a popular Guru who also happens to have an amazing sense of humor.

He taught us basic yoga exercises, also called Upa Yoga. These exercises were meant to loosen the various parts of the body, provide good exercise and was the recommended as daily practice for beginners.

I've been doing them for 2 weeks now and have found that it does help in remaining active through the day. You can check out Upa Yoga and the exercises here.

I guess the biggest challenge is in continuity and how long you;re able to pursue the same. I'm hoping to make it a lifetime habit.

Happy Birthday Mabel

Today is Mabel, my sister's golden birthday. And last night we had an overnight holiday at Matheran, a hill station near Mumbai. After dinner at the resort we were staying in, we had a cake cutting, singing and finally the most important part the gifts.

Her husband Prem and kids, Siddhant and Simran got her a beautiful Rolex watch. Mabel was moved and in tears. Not sure of it was because of the thought or because of her thinking how much it must have cost.

And then her siblings, gave her the iPhone. It was the recently released iPhone 6 in a brand new and apt color, Rose Gold.

And then finally Ruby, her cousin sister-in-law, gave a small wrapped gift. She opened it. And out came a calendar. A calendar full of memories. They say a picture's worth a thousand words. These were worth a million. And the Rolex and iPhone paled away in comparison. See for yourself.