ಕ್ಷಣಪ್ರಭಾ - Kshanaprabhaa

As an 8 year old, my initiation to any form of music was listening to a vinyl cassette, on top of whose cover was a young kid holding an instrument. As the music played in the newly arrived cassette player at our home, it brought out a magical sound, which was attributed to that instrument by my grandfather. He also told me that it was a mandolin being played and that the kid in the picture had been playing it with great mastery right from a very young age.  I remember only keeping two things in mind from that listening experience and from that interaction with my grandfather. That the sound of a mandolin was great and a little kid like me plays it. I thought anyone could play music if a kid my age had already mastered it. I thought music was simple, although I never tried any instrument myself. I remember begging my uncle every time he was coming home from Bangalore or Mysore for cassettes of mandolin played by this kid. If he had brought some cassettes and if none ...

Here is an amateurish attempt to write  shleshartha  shlokas   (carrying multiple meanings) in praise of the Cricketing God, newly crowned Bharat Ratna and freshly retired Sachin Tendulkar. There would be incorrectness here and there in these verses as this is one of my early attempts to write in Sanskrit, but want to share it on my blog nonetheless, as a tribute to arguably the best cricketer the country has seen. So here are the verses: वन्देऽहम् जगदाधारम् वल्लभारोहितम् सुरम् । सौरवादिप्रवक्तारम् राहुलाञ्छनविक्रमम् ॥ शतानिलम् पिङ्गलाद्यम् लक्ष्मणार्ककुलाश्रयम् । सञ्चिताघापनेतारम् सचिन्तम् प्रणमाम्यहम् ॥ Meaning: Version 1: These verses carry two meanings, one version obviously praises Sachin, so, here's what I have tried bringing in. Every line below corresponds to the English translation of the corresponding line in the Shlokas: I bow to him, the "God" ( जगदाधार: ) The idol who likes a heavy ( भारः ) bat ( वल्ल ), The one who t...

"Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity. The activity of the intuition consists in making spontaneous judgements which are not the result of conscious trains of reasoning... The exercise of ingenuity in mathematics consists in aiding the intuition through suitable arrangements of propositions, and perhaps geometrical figures or drawings." ~ Alan Mathison Turing in "Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals," section 11: The purpose of ordinal logics (1938), published in Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, series 2, vol. 45 (1939) "We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done." Alan Turing Tribute from hmvprasanna on Vimeo .

"Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple. [...] Impart the same principle or show the same machine to an American or to one of our Colonists, and you will observe that the whole effort of his mind is to find some new application of the principle, some new use for the instrument".  ~ Charles Babbage quoted in Richard H. Babbage (1948), "The Work of Charles Babbage", Annals of the Computation Laboratory of Harvard University, vol. 16. TEDx Talk: "John Graham-Cumming: The greatest machine that never was"

"You could see the flesh. There are 11 stitches. The doctor said I had to undergo the procedure under general anesthesia. I told him, 'If you give me general anesthesia I'll lose time, I'd like to go there and bowl.' He said 'Look, it's a medical decision, not a cricketing decision." This statement above is enough to define Anil Radhakrishna Kumble, the great warrior of Indian cricket. The latest injury he sustained while trying a near-impossible catch against Australia at his favorite hunting ground, Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi, made him think about bringing curtains to a two decade long illustrious career. As a 38 year old, he even tried a catch of such difficulty speaks volumes of his commitment towards the team and the game, and the fact that he almost pulled it off, makes it even better. But, as luck would have it, that was not to be, and in the process, he injured his left hand, and had to recieve 11 stitches. Playing in the most unplayable ...

Let me admit, I am a fan of his, and a very proud one at that. And I am sure, he would have millions and millions of admirers like me, who would, not only admire his cricketing achievements, but also his gentlemanly behavior, and the way he carries himself, both on and off the cricketing field. He is a role model, and an inspiration to one and all. Yes, I am talking about the current Indian test cricket team captain, Anil Kumble. I was planning to post an entry about Kumble in my blog, but kept postponing it for one reason or the other. But now, here it is. A couple of weeks ago, as India's ODI captain MS Dhoni got the Rajeev Gandhi Khel Ratna award for the year, many observers felt that the legendary servants of the game, like Dravid and Kumble, deserved it more. Indeed they did. But as always, I feel some legends grow beyond the need for any such recognitions, and Kumble, for sure, is one of them. Post Indian Independence, the "Iron Man", Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, ...