An imagery of chess !!

Mikhail Tal - Mad Maverick
Piercing Gaze - Used to set the board on fire
Always felt " perplexed & stunned" while analyzing his masterpieces !!

The legendary Polgar sisters !!!
Now and then :)
I have only studied Judit Polgar's games.. the others are good but i never felt inspired by any lady GM's games ....... always felt unsure of the standards

A Chess Float at the Women's World Chp currently underway
Great idea !! Never even thought of it before !



The opening ceremony continues - so spectacular !!

The picture says it all !!
GM Wang Yue (China, 21 years) coming out of the tournament hall after hanging on to a draw in a lost position against legendary 87 year old Viktor Kortchnoi !!
Tournament - Rising Stars v/s Experienced event in amsterdam, 20-30 aug 2008

The last time i saw Wang Yue was in 2003 in Malaysia. He is a very energetic player and his mouth chewing a gum moves faster than his hand during time pressure. He is a product of the chinese dragon sports culture initiative which uses military like discipline to bring up players.



Would love to have such a chess set :) Saw one such set in a store opposite Petronas towers, Malaysia ... it was around 2000 ringitts which converts to around Rs. 25000



The real way to enjoy a game of chess
Be in one !!!

No No - Why So ?

U r a real no-nonsense woman
sitting in ur no-where land
making all ur no no plans for nobody

Don't u have a heart to cheer
know u not what u r missing dear
aren't u too a bit like me?

Food for Thought !!

I had read this article in Mahindra & Mahindra office during my summers....pasted on a wall :)

Saw this circulating in mails too....nice article to share :)

It's been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish... all before making a human. He made and provided what we'd need before we were born. These are best & more powerful when eaten raw.

God left us a great clue as to what foods help what part of our body!

God's Pharmacy! Amazing!
A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... and YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.
A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.
Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.
A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.
Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.
Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.
Avocados, Eggplants and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (mo dern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).
Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.
Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actual ly bal ance the glycemic index of diabetics.
Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries
Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just l ike the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.
Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

Summer stint at M&M

Craving for the summers to start

Restlessly i waited so long

In line was a stint at Mahindra

The will to perform so strong

Nothing was sure or structured

Every challenge though a treat

The freedom to have a free hand

Freely flowed thoughts upbeat

Our whole lives we long for moments

When people will herald our thought

The fight is always to put across

The essence of the idea never sought

But Ideas & suggestions were valued

Passionately pursued in earnest

Always on my toes did i feel

Getting ready to tackle the next test

Good things, they say, come to an end

Can they really? Do i ask

Memories so sweet, learning’s to cherish

Craving again for a new task

Which side of your brain is dominant?

Which side of your brain is dominant?
Left or Right?
Find out here with this simple test !!!





If u see it moving
Clockwise – u r right brained
Anti-clockwise – u r left brained

Since we use both sides of the brain, if we concentrate & use the other side of the brain, we will be able to see the figure moving in the opposite direction

I am right brained :) When i tried to think of the solution to some logic puzzle, the figure started moving anti-clockwise....but after that again clock-wise. It is said that more number of people see the figure anti-clockwise.

Left Brain Functions	Right Brain Functions
Uses Logic	Uses feeling
Detail Oriented	"big picture" oriented
Facts Rule	imagination rules
Words & Language	symbols and images
Present & Past	present and future
Math & science	philosophy & religion
Can comprehend	can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
Knowing	believes
acknowledges	appreciates
Order/pattern perception	spatial perception
Knows object name	knows object function
Reality based	fantasy based
Forms strategies	presents possibilities
practical	impetuous
safe	risk taking

Prisoner's dilemma , iterations and analogies

The basic Prisoner's dilemma model:

Two prisoner's are lodged in different cells.They can't communicate with each other. They were partners in some crime. The police interrogates. The situation is like this....

IF both say they aren't guilty, both will get 3 years imprisonment due to non-cooperation.

If one says he is not guilty, but if the other accepts that he is guilty then the second person will get a lighter sentence due to cooperation with the police and the first person who pleaded not guilty would get a longer sentence.

So the thinking process of any prisoner will be that if i say i am not guilty but the other prisoner doesn't support then i will get a heavier sentence. And the other person will definitely not say guilty for fear of the first pleading guilty."Trust" is not trustworthy. So ultimately it boils down to the fact that both will say that they are guilty and both will get a longer term than had they both pleaded that they aren't guilty.


This might be child's play for everyone to understand.....but this can be made more exciting.

Say for instance that there are several iterations where in both the people are allowed to remember each other's responses. Then how will the game proceed. Say for instance, in the above example both Dave and Henry have pleaded guilty according to our explained thought process. It was too early for them to trust each other in the first round itself.

In the second or some later round, say Dave starts thinking. He thinks that we both know that pleading not guilty together is best for us. Is there any chance of cooperation from the other prisoner? I am a logical person and so is he. Both want our terms to be reduced. So if i plead not guilty, will he say not guilty too. Lemme take the chance since it seems we are starting to understand each other.

But all human beings are different. Trusting someone might be easier for someone and not so easy for others. So say DAVE says not guilty. Henry has still not gained so much trust of Dave. He pleads guilty. Dave is the loser in this case

In the next round, both again start thinking. Dave is smarting from the non-cooperation. Henry feels a bit guilty for letting down his partner in crime. He wishes that he had shown more faith. Henry pleads not guilty. Dave has two options. He might plead not guilty and both achieve the best outcome. This is very much possible since people think in many ways. For our case let's say he doesn't trust Henry so much now. He is unsure. He says guilty. So now Henry is the loser.


In the next round Henry thinks that Ok .. Dave didnt support me. Maybe it is my own fault. I had let him down. So he was not sure whether to trust me. Also he knows that now i have had a change of heart. So there is a possibility that he too pleads not guilty. So Henry says "not guilty". Dave thinks so too...that there is a change of heart of Henry and there is a possibility of a best outcome. So he will say "not guilty"

And the best outcome is achieved.

We can see that at some point in time, trust starts building. And in the long run, both achieve the best outcome due to cooperation with each other.


This is what happens in real life too. Consider our formative years. Children are referred to as gifts of GOD. Maybe it is true....but definitely not in the sense of virtues. Truth is that they are the most selfish of all human beings. Just look into ur childhood. Most of us will have so many images which we know shouldn't have been so. In a multiple environment, we see and observe...and learn to trust more people than our near ones. We start cooperating. And we start growing literally and figuratively. In the long run, the selfishness may remain in some part of our heart...but the awareness of need for behaving in a particular way in situations to benefit the society is cemented in our minds. Some sort of balance is reached. And the society functions in harmony.

This is not to say that selfishness is bad. Selfishness has its own virtues. Take a family for example. The mother is said to be the bonding locus of control. She is the one who binds the whole family together and makes it a proper home. She has a natural nurturing nature. She thinks these are my children. And this feeling is so strong that she wants to protect them from all possible harm. Think a bit earlier. She is part of a new family. Her husband is the most important for her in that family. She has left her home of years to come and stay with this person. Everything is strange and new. Her husband is the main comforting factor. Secondly, her old house is no longer her house. This is her house for ever now.

These feelings ..... my husband....my house....my children....all these "my's" contribute to the selfishness. Care is a natural corollary. This selfishness creates the happy home we are talking about. Here selfishness is not bad because we are not trying to gain anything by snatching from others. Life is not a zero sum game.

Adam Smith had said that the best result will come when everyone in the group thinks what is best for himself and acts so. He says that individual efforts contributes to the growth of the whole. Might be so in the short term. But in the long run, best result will come only when all individuals think what is best for themselves and for the group.

Short Story

This is the tale of a 5 year old girl and her dad. One day the girl was waiting at the door for her dad to return from work. He returned very tired and saw the girl at the door. As soon as she saw him, she asked him how much he earned per hour. He was irritated by this. And quite angry. Yet somehow he regained his composure and replied that he earned Rs. 300 per hour.

She asked him whether he could give her 250 rupees. This really irritated him. He had not even set foot in the house and his daughter was pestering him. He shouted at her and told her to go back to her room. After some time, when he had calmed down, he went to see his daughter. She was awake.He gave her the 250 rupees she had asked for earlier.

Then, reaching under her pillow she pulled some crumpled notes. Dad, seeing that the girl already had money, started to get angry again.


The little girl slowly counted her money, then looked up at her father. "Why do you want money if you already had some?" the father grumbled.


"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little girl replied.


"Daddy I have Rs. 300 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you"