IRON MAN

"When will the IRON MAN inside the comman man rise to the occasion. When will we realize our responsibilities. When will we (the common man) realize our powers. Vote for the right people and get rid of the CHALTA HAI attitude?" This is the first thought which comes to my mind when I think about the heinous acts of terrorism which took place at Mumbai recently (continues as I write this post). The IRON MAN of India, Late Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel would be rather ashamed of the situation India is in these days. This situation is not because of the politicians but because of the people of India and the Indian society.

We talk about racism, regionalism, castism and all kinds of CRAP dividing the society. And yes, we follow it bindfolded. Isn't it true. Yes it is. At all levels of society, we follow the dividing policy which somehow has crept into our society. I wonder should we blame Britishers for our current pathetic condition? Not at all. In the last so many years, we still are trying to bind and divide ourselves at the same time. Ironical and disturbing?

How is it that a small group of people can disturb the peace and harmony of a huge country like India? How is it that the element of fear keeps overcoming the feeling of integrity and values of the nation? How is it that time and again we fall on our knees and start begging at false shadows of Satan aka terrorists? How is it that we come under the impression of some cynic politicians and start dividing the country on the basis of the part of the country we have come from? The North Indians, the South Indians, the West Indians, the East Indians and what not? Aren't we weak? Yes we are.

I appreciate the resilience of Mumbai at this moment. The spirit of Mumbai has always been of the highest level. But still I want to ask a question? Those people who say that Mumbai is only for Maharashtrians, where are they now in these difficult times? Are those dying solely natives of Mumbai? Are those brave rescuers only Mumbaikars? They are human beings first and then Indians and then anything else.

One of my friends Sameer messaged me, "We are a bunch of castrated males!", Aren't we?, "We are in a matrix the same one.. situation controlling us rather than we controlling the situation."
Another actor friend, Manish, who has worked in the movie, "A Wednesday", messaged, "I think 'A WEDNESDAY' should release twice or thrice every year to make people understand their responsibilities and to avoid terrorism. As the reason for terrorism is nothing but the reflection of the fear within the population."

These are comments which have come out of fear, hatred, anger and sympathy. This is just the reflection of what is going on inside the mind and heart of an average Indian. This common man should realize his misdoings and start afresh. He is responsible for all that has been done and will be in the future. Any country is built by the common man and the unfortunate part is that when such incidents happen, the common man has to bear the brunt of it. This is ridiculous as well as saddening.

How is it that any religion allows killing of innocent human beings? If it does, then it is the most unfortunate thing I've ever heard. The religion of humanity is the greatest religion and will continue to do so until the apocalypse. It is just that realization which is stopping the common man to take actions. When he does so, things will start to change. We will change. Our world will change.

I hope, the IRON MAN inside every human being ascends to counter these barbaric acts and people for establishing a civilized society and a better world to live.

Please read KK's view here. He has written an outstanding post on the situation.

Inevitability

This is the translation of the chorus part of a famous Bollywood song.

Death - It is required for living
Death - What kind of dependency has it become?
Death - Time stops when it comes
Death - Takes the breath away in her arms
Death - Only the path changes
Death - A new era begins
Death - Thats when you understand the give and take
Death - You get a fountain of earnings

3D Ambigram - Inspired by GEB

(C) Anand Bora

I longed to make this one. At last, I did it.
Isn't it beautiful? (Find my name "AnanD" in the shadows)
(Inspired by GEB. Author: Douglas Hofstadter)

I have made it on Google Sketchup using a Rendering tool IRender.
I have not purchased the software and am using a trial version, hence there are watermarks of the company.

Note: I have taken around 6 hours to make this one.

Niladri Kumar - Priority

This is fantastic!

Just came across this on FROGBLOG on my Google reader.

"In an historic partnership between frog design, Pop!tech, iTeach, Praekelt, Aricent, Nokia Siemens and a number of other collaborators, Project Masiluleke (which means "lend a helping hand" in Zulu) is using mobile technology to tackle the worst HIV epidemic in the world in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, where infection rates are over 40%."

Take a look at the video on FROGBLOG here.

Hey! My company is part of the program too. ;)
Kudos!

Useless Humor ;-)

Came across this "USELESS" comic on xkcd. Enjoy it!
:-)

Mathologue - 1

I'll start with a story. There is a legend related to Hanuman in Mahabharata. It is said that due to his mischiefs in his childhood, Hanuman was cursed by a saint that he would forget all his supernatural powers. As Hanuman was an incarnation of Lord Shiva and his existence on earth was for some purpose, this curse would have nullified the purpose. So, Shiva foretold that Hanuman's supernatural powers would reinstate at proper times when somebody reminds him of his powers.
In Ramayan, most of the times, Jamvanth reminded Hanuman of his powers and his capabilities.

The aforesaid analogy came to my mind when I was reading GEB. The author talks about Achilles and the Tortoise who are contemplating on the relations of Math and artistic elements of life. On the same lines, I want to write about the dialogues of Hanuman and Jamvanth. Jamvanth is an aged fellow who has done enough reseach in applied Mathematics. Hanuman is a young graduate from Surya University (as Hanuman studied under the SUN god). Hanuman comes out as an outstanding student who has done pathbreaking innovations in mathematical research. He talks about his research and his future plans in the conversation.

Hanuman meets Jamvanth for the first time. So it began...
[Please note that I want to make this a comic dialogue.]

Hanuman: Jai Shree Ram!
Jamvanth: Jai Shree Ram!
Hanuman: Hi, how are you?
Jamvanth: I am doing great, what about you?
Hanuman: I am fine too.

So the conversation started after a brief round of introduction.

Jamvanth: Hanuman, do you ever notice mathematics in nature?
Hanuman: Yes, I have noticed it.
Jamvanth: Give me an example.
Hanuman: Did you ever see the shell of a nautilus?
Jamvanth: Yup.
Hanuman: You know, the shell grows by a factor of golden ratio in one turn in the nautilus.
Jamvanth: That's incredible. But for your kind information, I studied that one during my childhood. ;o)
Hanuman: Hmm.. do you know, many plants show fibonacci series in the arrangement of leaves around the stem. Flowers like daisies and sunflowers also show the same. Isn't it fabulous?
Jamvanth: Yes it is. Yet again, you said something which I knew.
Hanuman: Argghh!! You asked me to give examples. Obviously, I would tell you the ones you already know. I am yet to do my research and create somethings based on Mathematics.
Jamvanth: Ok.. Ok.. But I expected somethings more out of you. Anyways, I know you'll learn with time.
Hanuman: Thanks. I should take a leave now. I'll explain my thesis some other time. Is it fine with you?
Jamvanth: Before you leave, a thought for you.
"Remember, the circle is the best example of symmetry."

Contd..

[Please note that I have taken the liberty of using the word Mathologue which is created by combining Math and dialogue. I don't know whether this word exists in the dictionary.]

A subtle comedy

I was chatting to a friend recently who reminded me of a comic incident that took place long time back during my childhood.
I was a very good student and came 1st in some class (I don't remember).
The teacher congratulated me, gave me the report card and said, "Well Done! Keep it up!"
I didn't understand back then what she meant. I started searching for a place to keep the report card.
The teacher asked, "What are you doing?"
I said, "I am searching for a place to keep the report card."
The whole class started laughing at my statement.
:D

My first dubbing

Lots of my friends have been persuading me since long time to make dubbings. This is my first attempt. I know this one is hilarious and it is done just for FUN!
:)



Script Translations and Dubbing done by me
;)

Something unique!

I'm going to post something very unique in my next post. I'm going to try it for the first time.
Wait for some time.
:-)

[Hint: It is related to animation.]

Thanks nithya!

Thanks Nithya for such a nice award. I dunno whether I deserve it or not but it is worth the take. I think that I am not matured enough to give awards but this time, as a blog friend, I would like to forward this award to some of the blogs which I follow.
(I won't give any introduction about the person. I want you to visit their blogs and know them) :-)

Mathematical Poetry by Kaz Masalanka
Laketrees - Kim Barker
Digital Neurons
Awmyth
KK
Which main? What cross? - Gopal

Google - Ambigram

It is beautiful. Isn't it?

Another Award in my bag

Kim gave me another award. Thanks Kim!
I think I still have a long way to go to prove myself uniquely creative. Isn't it?

Experience of a lifetime - Finale

Picture of one of the works by Yvonne Kracht

I forgot to mention one of the best moments for me. I met Carlo Sequin who is the main juror of the conference. I gave him my introduction. To my surprise, he knew me. Oh! My god. I'll never ever forget that moment. A person of his stature knew me. He is a gem of a person and anything is less to write about him.

Anyways, the next day, the conference started. Carlo gave the introductory speech which triggered a thumping start to one of the best events of my life. The next five days involved phenomenal talks by Rinus Roelfs, Chaim Goodman Strauss, George Hart, Dick Termes, Paul Prudence, Javier Barrallo, John Sullivan, Benjamin Storch, Akio Hizume, Erik and many others. Of course, it is needless to say that all the talks were extraordinary. Also, I happened to see original works by M.C. Escher. The Escher foundation had organised the exhibit in the university.

On one of the days, we went for an excursion to 7 churches. Exhibits of 7 mathematical artists were organized in these churches. I was dumbfounded as I realized that people had done so much work in this field and I never knew about it. Those works were not only logic driven but also remarkably beautiful.

The time for departure had come. I learnt so many things in those few days which cannot be explained just by writing. You have to be at the place to feel it and learn from it.

I'll write about Amsterdam and the museums some other time.

Experience of a lifetime - Contd.

After meeting Benj, I met other mathematical artists (mostly mathematicians) who had come. Elaine, who is a retired professor, makes mathematical quilts. Honestly speaking, they are wonderful. You must have a look at her site. She told that she took 382 hours to make one of the quilts. It had Leonardo's claws in it.
Umphh.. there is so much to write. I would suggest you guys should go to the sites of the respective mathematical artists and check out their works. Some time I'll try to put up all the links of the artists.

Benj, Edmund and his girl friend and David Bailey had come from UK on a car. It was evening and I had met most of the people by now. I was feeling hungry. Benj and others were going out. I accompanied them. We went to Dutch restaurant SPINOZA (It seems that Spinoza was some famous person of the Renaissance period). I, being vegetarian had to bear a lot in the foreign country. :-(
So, I had the Italian Lasagna. We tried the Rosa Beer.

We headed for the boat hotel. On the boat, we met Robert McDermott and Nate. And also not to forget, Erik Kurvenbau. Robert is quite old but a lovable personality. He is the head of the Visualization Department at the University of Utah. Robert shared a lot of his experiences with us through out our stay on the boat hotel for 5 days. Nate is an undergraduate student at the UCB.
Erik - I would like to mention the style of his introduction. "My name is Erik with a K not C." Erik is a Scottish who is the owner of a company which owns the Tess3D software. He has a fantastic sense of humor and his Scottish accent of English speaking is clumsy but nice.

Soon, Eva Knoll and Simon Morgan arrived. Both are mathematicians and teach at universities in US.

We sat on the dining and started chatting after an informal introduction.

Contd..
I'll try to finish in next post. :D

BTW, I met Matt in Amsterdam who just forwarded me a link. I strongly recommend to see the link. It is just marvelous.

Experience of a lifetime - Arrival

I would like to share my experience at Bridges 2008. Oh! I must say it was an experience of a lifetime. So here it goes...

I reached at Stenden University on the morning of 23rd July. I was just wondering how would it feel to be with people from so many countries. How would they behave? Would they appreciate what I have done? Lots of questions hovering my mind.
Nevertheless, I was there. The first persons I met were Eliane and Robert Fathauer. They saw my work and appreciated the use of pencil. I was the only person with a mathematical art done in pencil out there. Robert said, "There are lots of computer works." Good to know that I brought something different with me. I never felt that I was in a different country with different people (I mean non Indians). Then I met Nathan Selikoff and his wife Amy. Nathan has done enough work as an artist which you can make out from his site.

Now more and more people were coming. Hans Dehlinger is a German Artist who seemed to be a fantastic person. It was really nice talking to him.

Then we started to put up all our works on the panels. We started to arrange the panels so that they were in the proper order. So, people kept coming and the round of introductions never ended. :)

Soon, most of the artworks were on their right places.

I was awaiting a guy named Benjamin Storch with whom I had  done lots of correspondence recently. We were to stay in the same boat hotel which we booked ourself. Then, I met Benj(as I use to call him). A very light hearted and phenomenal person. His work "Manifold" was an exquisite piece of art which was built on Lorentz equation. Most of the people loved it.

What more?
There are so many things to write. Through the whole next week, I'll try to write all I can and share my experiences with you all.

My experience at Bridges 2008

AWESOME!!

I'll write about my experience sometime later.
For now, you guys can take a look at the pics from the conference.
They are here. Also pics of Amsterdam and Leeuwarden.
:-)

Sand Castle

After long time, I thought of posting a poem from my archives.

Sand Castle

In this jaded night,
when the sky has been smeared with pale clouds.
And I stand under,
infront of the white tides,
Which are struggling to reach my feet.
Dying at the shores; they are so weak.
The silent sea says 'watery' words,
Much like the tearful eyes of a hungry child.
The phlegmatic wind also has something to say,
But it's on its course.
Still! I sit on the sands,
Building my castle.
A gush comes and retreats after demolition;
O nature! The world is so fickle.

Anand Bora

Sketchcrawl covered in the Deccan Herald

Fabulous isn't it?
The last sketchcrawl was covered in the Deccan Herald.
Yamini took our interview before we started our crawl.
Read more here.

SketchCrawl 2 in Bangalore

Rohit, Prashant Acharya and I went for Sketchcrawl again last Saturday. We roamed on the streets of Bangalore and had great fun sketching.

Bridges 2008

Atlast, I can share the link with my readers.
2008 Bridges Exhibition of Mathematical Art
You can see my work here.

It feels great that I would be part of an event I would not have even dreamt of.
Thanks MAA, Thanks to my parents, Thanks to my relatives, Thanks ABI, Thanks to all my supporters and friends, Thanks to all the Jurors of the Exhibit.

It's been a tough life for me and to come out from the abyss and reach a height of such magnitude has been a dream come true. I have not been able to find a sponsor though. :(

Anyways, thanks once again.
:)

First Time

Hmm.. I was pondering that when was the first time I did my first complete artwork. Hah! I was an interesting incident which I would like to share with my readers.
The first complete work was the painting of Lord Krishna done by sketch pens. I may be 10 years old. So why did I do it? That is an important point. At that time, I had never taken a training or learnt any form of art.
It so happened that one of my aunts had come all the way from Nepal to adopt a child at my native, Ranchi. There were lots of complications in the adoption process but somehow she could manage to do that. Moreover, her child fell seriously ill. The doctors said that there were very little chances of his survival. But I think the belief of my Grandma saved him. My mother took very good care of the child like her own son. After a week of serious illness, the child was outta danger. We all were so happy. My aunt was about to leave the city. That day, I thought of gifting her the Krishna.
So I sat down and started making the portrait of the Lord. It turned out to be beautiful.
Finally, she took both the Krishnas home. May be that Krishna is still helping me hone my skills.
I should tell my readers that I have never taken any formal training in ART but for some short courses in my childhood. It's very innate.I just feel happy doing these things, so I do it.
:-)

101

I am happy!
My mathematical artwork FUSION has been selected for the most prestigious Bridges Maths Arts Conference 2008.
Thanks all for encouraging me.

Centum - A tribute to Da Vinci

Hurray! This is my 100th Post.

Never knew I would write these many posts when I started blogging. Blogging has been a medium to show my artworks and my literary works. It feels good though that I reached this landmark. On this occasion, I felt like showing the MONALISA which I am recreating at my room. The background is Mathematical whose concepts I won't make public until the painting is complete. Sorry for the blurred picture.

I want to write more, but what should I?
Hmm.. I'll think over and let you know.
:-D

For now, enjoy the Monalisa.

Life! What a riddle?

My name is Anand and I am a very big fan of the movie ANAND.
I have written about the movie earlier also. You can find it here.
So, I wrote translation of another song of this movie. Though the translation
is not so good still it conveys what it is supposed to.

Life! What a riddle?
She makes you laugh sometimes, and sometimes you cry.

Sometimes you see - your heart remains numb.
It keeps following the dreams;
But one day this traveler of dreams,
Goes beyond the dreams somewhere.
Life! What a riddle?

People have adorned familial ties;
They bore the highs and lows of the life together,
One day they choose silence,
And head towards some place all alone.

Life! What a riddle?

SketchCrawl

Sketches done by me.

I attended SKETCHCRAWL today with two other artists, Rohit Kulkarni and Nithya Swaminathan.

It was FUN!
:-)

Google as a person

Hahaha.. :D
Imagine GOOGLE as a person. I wrote a poem on it. ;-)

In the sea of variegated information,
People hunt for relevancy.
'Google' comes as an angel;
Crisp findings with 'timely' efficiency.

He is the jack of all trades;
Mathematical reasoning is his base.
Digital parchments exposed to the world,
Crawling like Spiderman is one of his phase.

His presence - inevitable at the 'nodes',
EXTRACTS even the abyss; he is a shrewd detective.
A razzmatazz of the 'binary' dimension.
A scientific and logical philosopher - yet creative.

His guile has numerous angles;
Contributing to cognition, creation and money,
The 'clicks' wand makes him a wizard;
He has all the solutions like the 'Bugs Bunny'.

I'm stupefied by this 'Internet' revelation;
This 'sginal' guy has an 'universal' attitude.
A paean for this scientific phenomenon is not enough;
Integration of humanity - his platitude.

Anand Bora

Rat Race

Ever wondered of doing something different from what the world is doing?
Getting out of the RAT RACE?

Think BIG!

Many of the people who know me ask me to do MBA.
Hmm.. A good thought..

When I look back, I see, I have around 10 years of on field business.
When I had to study, I was involved in business.
I got trained under a person who rose from RAGS to riches.

I know all the intricacies of business in practical. But still, I don't feel like writing about it.

It's surreal that I am not using my knowledge in business.

Why?
Coz something inside me says "THINK BIG!"

Happy Holi

HAPPY HOLI!

I'm a lover of INEVITABILITY

I am a lover of the INEVITABILITY - DEATH.
Sounds weird. Isn't it? It sounds weird to me too.

But that's the truth.

I am always so pessimistic about Life as I think that life can leave you any moment. So there is no assurance of the next moment coming your way.

This ideology got a boost recently when I came to know the last sermon of the Great Ravana.

His last words were:
"Enmity gives birth to anger. Anger gives birth to EGO and EGO gives birth to Self Destruction. The person who remembers his death all time would not feel the pain at the time of his Death."
Isn't that thoughtful?

Then what is the purpose of LIFE?
That's a good question.

How many people among us know the purpose of their life? I guess, not even 10%.
People come into this world. They live their infancy, their adolescence and their youth. This is the time when they should know the PURPOSE. But most of us don't realize that purpose. We fall into the rat race. We think about doing all kinds of things we can. We study and pursue degrees like Engineering, MBA etc.

But again I ask, do we know the purpose?

I think NO. Only at the time of DEATH, a person realizes what he was supposed to do. I appreciate those people who have realized the purpose beforehand and they walk on that path irrespective of the results. Kudos to them.

Hmm.. what more should I write?
People would be asking me about the purpose of my life. To tell frankly, I know the purpose and I'm walking on that path. I know, I have responsibilities, I don't have money to make a better living, I am struggling. But the most important part is I know the purpose of my LIFE.

I thank my deity, my goddess MAA KAALI for helping me to know my path and purpose.
:-)

My encounter with Google SketchUP

Just thought of giving Google Sketchup a try. This is what I could do in an hour.
A cricket stadium but with a tennis court. :))



I have shared the sketchup file. If you want, you can modify it to your likings.
:-)

DBC together

I belong to a community called Maheshwaris which has its origin in Rajasthan in India. Rajasthan is atleast 1000 kilometres from Bangalore and my native food is too hard to be available here.
Bangalore is a small crowded and professional city ;-)

So, some techies of my community have formed a group in Bangalore and a get-together was organised yesterday. The focal point of the program was to bring together people for a lunch comprising our traditional food - Dal, Bati & Churma (which I have referred as DBC).

It was a fun filled day with loads of excitement. We were around 30 strangers who got together just to enjoy our traditional food. The day started with the introduction of the individuals. To make the introduction procedure interesting, we sat in a circle. Each individual was supposed to remember the name of the individuals before him and thereafter, introduce himself. Henceforth, we involuntarily memorized the names of all the individuals.

It was 11 o'clock by now and it was time for a late Breakfast.
We had POHA and it was really tasty.

Thereafter, we proceeded to play a game of cricket. I haven't played cricket since last four years. But, this time round, I thought of playing as most of the guys who were playing had also not played the game since long time. I don't want to describe the manner in which the game was played but all in all, we had great fun.

It was 4 o'clock by now and the most awaited moment was round the corner. Yes!! It was time for Dal, bati and churma. Of course, we planned that we will have it in the traditional manner. First a batch of around half the people were served the delicious cuisine by the other half. During serving, the love among people was quite evident and lovely to watch. Food is so much meant to win hearts and bring people together. In the second phase, people who were serving were served. I went back to good olden days when we used to have get togethers at home.

In the evening, we played the game of Housie. It was again FUN all the way.

At the end of the day, we were strangers no more. I had mixed feelings as the day came to an end. On the whole, a full fun filled day added to my life. Of course DAL, BATI & CHURMA too.
Thanks all.

:-)

Flashback

Enlarged Pic

It's the 3rd anniversary of my blog. I wonder, how TIME goes by so swiftly. It always does so. The last year was a year of achievements for me and my blog too. I sometimes feel surreal that people rate me as an ONLINE ARTIST. May be, I am or I happened to be one. My zeal for learning never ends and the thirst keeps on increasing day in and day out.

When I first started writing my blog, it was named ENGROSS. The reason - A blog containing all the stuff I could do. I wrote the first post and asked my best friend PUNEET to review it. His comment was - "THIS IS NOTHING". Hmm.. really I think he meant right. Then, I renamed it as "Improvising Versatility" and started writing whatever I liked without even knowing that few people are reading them. And the words kept coming and I wrote lots of S*** :-D
I guess Puneet would know better. He is the best, the best guide and mentor I have had. Thanks a lot Puneet.

Last year, EV gave an award to my blog. It was soothing. As a person, I came to know myself better through the interactions I had with lots of people belonging to different walks of life. I am a member of the blogger group of Bangalore (Blogaloreans). It is another interesting concept where you get to know views of different people through their blogs.

I created two mathematical arts - Fusion and Infinitum (which I won't make public for sometime). I thank Abi from the depths of my heart. Coming from a small town in India, I could have never known about my potentials. He encouraged me to continue what I was doing. He helped me with the rightmost direction for me. I never had a guide in my life. He has shown me a path and I am trying to walk on it.

Professionally, I only enjoyed the two months when I was working as a technical researcher in a prospective project of frogdesign. Nothing more had the Services industry to offer me. Technologically, I learnt a lot but I always wonder - does it make any sense as most of the time I seem to be wasting my knowledge.

What more to write? The post would never end.
Finally, thanks Kim for another award. I would like your comments for the Monalisa I am creating. I am coloring it with water colors rather than Oil.

I would also like to thank all my friends (both online and offline) for supporting me.

BTW. It's my B'day tomorrow. After a long long time, I am going to celebrate it.
:-)

TEASER

I'm done with the sketch of Mona Lisa. This is just a glimpse of the portrait. I'll paint it and if it doesn't come right, I will make another one and the process will continue until I'm convinced. I'll post the entire picture of the portrait soon as two important landmarks are approaching for me and for my blog.

Another Award

Thanks KIM for the Award.

It means a lot to me.

Study/Knowledge/Degree/Talent/Money/Success/Happiness

These are some intertwined words which make you think every now and then.
These words keep tingling your mind and a person is driven by these factors in his life.

What is more important?
How do I parameterise success?

Does success mean - Getting into the best school, get the best education, get the best company to work for, get to work with the best people and make handsome amount of money.

What is the exact definition?

I am clueless and I am still trying to find the answer.

My friend says, Success is to achieve what you have been destined to achieve.
Is it so?
Then, what about the dreams? What about the ambitions?

I am still clueless.
May be someone would have the answer.

Some mathematical artworks

Have a look at some of the mathematical artworks on the following links.

http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/t1/20040113_cmaci_larcu.html
http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/minitext/escher/
https://www.artsy.net/artist/maurits-cornelis-escher

The Master does it again

The Master batsman, Sachin Tendulkar, in the game of Cricket has done it again.
He hit his 38th Century in Test Cricket against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
I have been a fan of this legend since long time.
LONG LIVE SACHIN!