Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Questions I had when I was a Kid

In physics calculations, they use sin(x) = x for small x. Even if x is 1 degree, sin(1) is significantly less than 1. If x is very less than one degree, then it will not be of any significance. For example, for any calculations on a road which has some slope, my lecturer used this formula. If this formula does not hold good even for 1 degree, what is the use of that? The road having slope less than 1 degree is itself of no significance.

In sports, why most of the time, the first and second rankers face only in finals? If both face in the first round itself, that would give opportunity to others to reach finals.

When the father is more intelligent and knowledgable than child, why Grahm Bell's father did not invent the telephone?

In telugu/sanskrit, there is a comparison of a king and poet. It says that, when a king dies, one star fells. When a poet dies, one star appears in the sky. It claims that appearing in the sky has more significance. When a star fells after the death of the king, it signifies the impact that was created by the King. How can that be of less significance?

What I understood later on

x is not in degrees, but, it is in radians. If it is in radians, then it has some significance, and sin(x) = x can be used in practical problems for small x. I never had enough dare to ask my lecturer about this.

Generally the tournaments are conducted in such a way that, the winner is the one who can defeat everyone, and the runner-up is the one who can defeat everyone except the winner. Similarly the second runner-up is the one who can defeat everyone except the first two. If the tournament is not conducted that way, then there is no use of conducting that tournament. Because, except the first place, one can "fix" all other places. I understood this, when I got second prize in one tournament. If they had followed the real tournament rules, I would have been in 17th position out of 32 people.

"Father is intelligent than child" is applicable only for the first few years of the child, and the no.of years varies from child to child. After that, everything would change. Many people stop acquiring knowledge after reaching a certain stage. Depending on when they stop acquiring knowledge, there will be difference in the knowledge of the father and the child.

Eventhough a star falling down seems a major incident, it means, after that day, nobody would be aware of that star. When the star goes on to the sky, it means, from that day onwards, people would know about the star, and it will live eternal. In this case, nobody will remember the King after his death, where as everyone will remember the poet forever.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Law of Karma for Animals

In few philosophies, it says karma is applicable only to humans and not to animals. Since, the animals do not have thinking capacity.

In any place, if there are many dogs, and if a new dog comes to that locality, then all the dogs shout and send the new dog away, as if their government has registered that street to them. If they behave like this, is there any reason why the dogs have to be excluded from the law of Karma? If the dogs are included in the law of Karma, is there any reason why the other animals should be excluded?

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Indian Independence - British Circumstances

During the world war - 2, Britain had spent lot of money. After the world war - 2, it became expensive for them to rule India. So, they gave Independence to India. For the same reason, they gave independence to Jordan in 1946, Palestine in 1947, Sri Lanka and Myanmar in 1948, and Egypt in 1952. For the same reason, France also had to grant independence to Laos in 1949, Cambodia in 1953, and Vietnam in 1954.

If there had been no world war - 2, and if Britain had not lost money, it would not have given independence to India for decades.

Even if Gandhi and other leaders of Congress had not done anything for Independence, still, Britain would have left India, purely because of financial reasons.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Taking Employer's Product Unofficially and Selling Outside

Long back, When I was working in a product based company, which sells products to big organizations mainly in US, I had discussion with my colleague on taking Company's products unofficially and selling outside.

My colleague started talking in such a way that, you cannot take any code outside. I told him that, everything is open here. You can take the code out in so many ways. But, the company trusts us. That's why, they had given full access to everything.

Then, he said something like below,

They don't need to have trust. If you can take our product and sell it to anyone yourself, then our company will appreciate it, and will make you as the official sales partner. They will give you good percentage in the sales by taking all the headache of new feature development, support, maintenance, bug fixing, legal and many other things.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Bhagavadgita and Vishnu Sahasranama in Thikkana Mahabharath

Mahabharath was first translated to Telugu by Nannaya, Thikkana and Errapragada. Thikkana translated from Virata Parvam till the end. Bhagavadgita, the most important part of the Mahabharath, is a part of Bheeshma Parvam, translated by Thikkana. But, in the telugu version, He finished Gita in 1/10th of the verses in Sanskrit. Telugu Bhagavadgita by Thikkana contains less than 70 verses, where as the original Bhagavadgita contains 700 verses. Similarly, he did not touch Vishnu Sahasranama also. Few people give commentary saying that, since, they are not important, he just summarized them.

The following is the explanation on the same, given by Sri Malladi Chandrasekhara Sastry, Asthana Pandit of Tirumala Thirupathi Devasthanam.

The three most important parts of Mahabharath are Bhagavadgita, Vishnu Sahasranama and the stories of Sanatsujatha. Thikkana wanted everyone to read the original version rather than the translated version. That's why, he did not translate them completely. Thikkana had met Veda Vyasa, and Veda Vyasa asked him, what did he do with the most important parts of Mahabharath. Thikkana told him that, he did not touch those. [i.e., he did not translate those.]

If one wants to get any credit of reading Bhagavadgita or Vishnu Sahasranama, they must read with the original sanskrit verse. They cannot read just the translated version and get the credit of that.