Cannot think of a good subject =(

Today, 18th Aug'10, we complete 2 years at Morgan Stanley. We had joined on 18th Aug'08 as grads, not knowing each other, and today, we sit at Gari's place, celebrating 2 years at Morgan Stanley, and of our friendship.

But this post is not to describe our celebrations, but to appreciate the efforts of my friend, who made this celebration more memorable, at least for me. Today, I learnt a good lesson of life, a few people have to give up their enjoyment, and put in hard work (read "a lot" of hard work), just to make sure other people enjoy. Today, I was standing on the non-enjoying part (well, for today, the non-enjoying part was preparing food for 10 people) looking at the other enjoying side (this part being listening to songs and singing them aloud =)), and I wondered, I am usually on the other side, enjoying, oblivious of the efforts and hard work taken, so that we can enjoy =). Some people would have argued that it was needless to take such efforts, that we could have just ordered in, but it is so not true (Well, there is hardly any substitute to our Gari's cooking =D)

So Gari, this post is dedicated to you, for all your efforts you have taken today and in the past for feeding us with good edible food =). I really appreciate your efforts, and I am sure there is hardly anyone else who would not. And finally, I do appreciate Sweta and Anchal for helping in food preparations (well, this for Anchal is with a heavy heart, because there is this concept of inertia associated with her, which will need a altogether separate blog to explain =P)

P.S. @Others: The purpose of this blog was just to appreciate Gari, and not to offend anyone. If anyone is hurt, please comment here, and Gari will take care of you =P (on a serious note, it was unintential)

London Dreams...

It all started about a month ago, when my manager called me and Aasim in a meeting room, and told us that I am supposed to visit London for the new project. I had a rough idea about the project, and I was not sure why a visit to London was needed. Few days after the announcement, I went to visa office and applied for visa. (I am so glad I did not procrastinate and applied on Friday itself). It seemed that I would get my visa in 4 days, but alas, it was not the case. My visa was going to take 15 days to process. We booked and cancelled tickets twice, and third time was a do or die situation (not really, but my manager wanted to make sure I left no stone unturned to get my visa as soon as possible).

Well, it was 7th May, and perhaps not really the tea, but I will always consider that tea to be the luckiest tea of my life (courtesy, Shraddha). Well, it is because, my visa got processed, I got my foreign exchange and my visa card arrived. Awesome. Almost set to fly on Sunday night. I knew I was not at all prepared, and I made sure that Akshay stayed behind to help me with all the shopping and preparation, and after that I knew I didn’t really have to worry much. On Friday, we did some normal shopping. On Saturday, we got up early in the morning and went to drink tea at Amruta’s place. We returned and cleaned our homes and bought 2 almirahs. Later, we left our place at 5:30, only to return late night at 11 p.m. We bought few clothes, valet, belt and a bag. A lot of shopping in short. Then, at night, we started packing, but we were too tired and gave up.

Next morning, we woke up late, went to Amruta’s place again (well, it was supposed to be my last tea ), and had tea and some breakfast. Later, we came back home and started packing. Akshay helped with most of the packing. Around 2, Prasad and Girish joined us. It was unbelievable. Never thought they would come just to drop me =D. Anyways, for rest of the day, they both were cursing me why did I call them, because I was just going for 2 weeks. But it did not matter, as long as they were with me . Garima joined us around 3, and I knew I was not going to airport without tea =D. She was kind enough to bring ice cream for me, but Akshay devoured most of it =P. Later, we talked for a while, I completely forgot about packing. But then later, we again started packing, Akshay and Gari checking meticulously whether I had taken everything or not. I was not sure why, but they both always felt I would miss something, while I always thought, there could be nothing that these two can ever miss ;). Later, Akshay booked a Meru cab. Me, Akshay, Girish and Prasad left for the airport. On the way, I called up my family and friends, all wishing me happy journey and asking me take care. Later, at the airport, Rujuta joined us, it was a very pleasant surprise. Looking at all my friends and fun part of preparation, I knew that now it did not matter even if they send me back. I really felt nostalgic and missed Rahul, for back then, Rahul was in my shoes, but he was going for 9 months. Eagerly awaiting for his return. I am not sure if I will enjoy my stay at London over here, but one thing is certain, it will never be as fun as the preparations we made for this trip. Thanks for making this trip happen, friends, for without you, I would have never made it to airport so prepared and confident =D.

P.S. This does not mean I am bringing anything special for you =P. The best gift for you will be me coming back, nay? ;)

Fermat's Last theorem

When I first read about this theorem, I thought I had an solution to prove it wrong. For all numbers (n, -n, 0) satisfy the eqtuation. But after reading on Wikipedia, I got a clear picture of what the theorem exactly is. :). Here is the definition from Wikipedia link:

In number theory, Fermat's theorem states that no three positive integers a,b, and c can satisfy the equation a^n + b^n = c^n for any integer value of n greater than 2.

So, 0 is out of question. From Wikipedia, it seems Fermat proved the theorem indirectly through technique of infinite descent for n=4. I have no clue what this technique is. (maybe I should read this one soon) I tried solving Fermat theorem, using my crude basic mathematical methods for n=3. Here is my proof (?) ;)

Let the 3 numbers be a,b,c such that a less than b less than c
It is trivial to prove for cases a + b less than c and a + b = c

Let us assume a, b and c do not have any common prime factors. (Proof in next post)

For third case, a + b > c, let us assume a + b = cx.
c > x > 1
This leads that a^2 - ab + b^2 = cy.
c = xy
a + b and a^2 - ab + b^2 must be integers, which are product of factors of c.
So, x may not be an integer, but must be an rational number, which can be given in form m / n, where m > n and m and n are product of some of the factors of c.
a + b = cx, x greater than 1

a^2 + 2ab + b^2 = c^2*x^2
a^2 -ab + b^2 = cy
3ab = c^2 (x^2 - 1/x)
Since, 3, a, b and c are integers, x^2 - 1/x should be an integer (Well, original proof was based on equality, but it can be only applied if x > 2, and too tired to think about it now, maybe some time later...). Since x^2 - 1/x can never be an integer for any rational number x, greater than 1, it follows that a^3 + b^3 can never be equal to c^3.


Phew! Comments welcome :)

1 Rupee = 1 Paise???

Here is the calculation...
Trying to find the error in it.
1 Rupee = 100 paise
= 10 paise * 10 paise
= 0.1 Rs * 0.1 Rs
= 0.01 Rs
= 1 paisa

Still wondering... Only flaw I can think of is unit conversion not allowed.

There and back again...

The title is inspired by JRR Tolkien's book. We recently went to Rajasthan (Jaisalmer and Jodhpur), where we spent most of the time travelling and had quite a lot of adventures. (The best one being at the end of the journey ;))

Frankly speaking, even when I am writing this blog, there are many others writing (or thinking of writing) a blog about this trip. Unfortunately, I do not have a good memory (I actually forgot where we had spent a night and a morning during the trip =P), but do have good friends with sharp memories. So, I leave to them to elaborate the trip adventures and fun, while I modestly try to put in some bits and pieces here.

Let me begin with listing down people for the trip. There were 14 people for the trip. Akshay, Amruta, Anchal, Dhawal, Garima, Kanwaljeet, Lalita, Nikhil, Nimesh, Madhur, Me (Suhas), Mihir, Pooja, Vaibhav. We started off on the journey on 22nd January night. After some time, my throat started aching and fell off to sleep. (Don't worry, my friends will fill in the details about the night ;)). Actually, I am going to skip the travelling part, since my memory fails me here. The best part of the trip were the buildings and architectures. Their architecture and construction was simply superb. (So superb that Nimesh and I signed a deal to construct 60 such more =P). Some of them worthy of mention are Jaisalmer fort, Mehrangarh, Umaid Bhavan palace. We visited some famous temple too at Jaisalmer (could not find the name on Wikipedia :(.). We also spent a night at the tents, and again, I was the first one to hit the bed. So, cannot provide with more details.

In short, the trip was awesome, enjoyed a lot. The bad part (at least I thought so) was that we usually had to split in two parts (while roaming Jaisalmer and return journey), but it could not be helped :(. Personally, I feel it was not the place, but the group that has made this trip much more memorable. We have come to know each other better, have shared secrets (no comments here ;)), and have become better friends :).

Last but not the least, three cheers for Akshay, Garima, Madhur and Vaibhav for arranging and managing such splendid trip. Three cheers for others for not letting their efforts go waste =D. Three cheers for the photographers, Vaibhav, Madhur, Akshay (will fill in other names later, short term memory loss ;)) for capturing the memorable moments.And most important one, three cheers for Indian Railways. (All the trains were on right time. We travelled by at least 5 trains, none of them disappointed us :))

Well, its gonna be a Herculean task trying to fit all the details of the trip in one blog, and I am in no way gonna try this feat. But just for more curious readers of my blog, I will update this blog and post links to more elaborate details :). So, till some one does not complete his/her blog, be content with this one :). Sayonara...