Lession learned..."IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING"

I was wondering from where should I start...in this short span of time that I have lived till now, i have gone through meny ups and downs...and belive me, the downs were not only downs...but they there as down as anyone can go. But lets leave all of these aside for the time being now and here I am sharing with you something that I am really really very happy and proud of....

It was June 2007, the results of WEST BENGAL HIGHER SECONDARY EXAMS were scheduled to be declared on 1st week of June'07. Now, before delving into the details of my result and what happened following that,I would like to take to back a few more years...


Uttarpara Govt. High School...the best bengali medium school in our area. Every parent want their wards to go that school. In class I, i was not lucky enough to be admitted in the school and in class III, i did not pass the entrance test. So I went to study in the second best school in our area...Uttarpara Amarendra Vidyapith. Maybe at the back of the mind there was still a hidden desire to be able to go to the Govt School. In the year 2001, suddenly an oportunity cropped up. 3 students has lesft UGHS due to personal reasons and there was a vacancy that need to be filled. I already had a very good group of friends settled in at Amarendra Vidyapith, so I didnt wanna leave my school. But due to my fathers persuation, I appeared in the admission test. Nearly thousand students appeared for the 3 vacant seats. Somewhat I gave an invariant admission test and told my father very less chance of me getting through. The very next day I got the news of my selection through one of the UGHS teachers who lives in our housing. My parents were like ecstatic...and my world almost shattered!!! Our dominant friends group is going to break and i will be the one who is going out of the group. I did make some futile efforts to me parents to let me study in the same school as I was doing...but I knew they wont pay a heed. I mean, quite frankly, and I realize it now, you gotta be complete out of your minds to let such a chance for your child to go unattended..& now I am glad my parents didn't listen to me and unknowingly I took a life-changing decision and got admitted in UGHS. 


I still remember the day when I first went to school. The classes have already been started. Bonding between group of friends already started to get stronger. I knew that amidst of all this, they will not like this new guy, who was from an unknown school, did not take tuition to any of the private teachers to which they did...to mingle with them so easily. And you wont believe me, I literally faced a boycott in the first week. No one cared to talk with me, no one liked to sit beside me...but more than that boycott, what really hurt me then was my roll number....yes, you read correctly...my class roll number in VI-A..47...out of 49 students. AT that time roll numbers changed every year depending on the result and prior to that my roll number have never been more than 3. All this seems childish now but at that time the feeling of your name being called at the last was just like how VIRUS insulted RAJU n FARHAN in front of the whole auditorium in 3 IDIOTS. The egotistic smiles of the so called front runners of the class made my life living hell. But, being a fighter within, my "never back down" attitude prevailed. Gradually I made friends with some of the not so elitist students in the class. They may be the lagers, but they were what you call TRUE FRIEND...days passed..and all of a sudden half yearly exam came. Unlike 90% of my fellow classmates who had at least 2 private tutions per subject, I had only one teacher who help me study all the subject and he was not from any school either, he was a part time tutor. So, you can understand, I was at a disadvantage because when most of the others almost knew which of the questions will be coming, I was not fully aware of the syllabus either. The result was I fared pretty badly in almost all the subjects. Got 57 in Life Sc, 44 in geography and hell 65 in my favorite mathematics!!!! But there was some silver lining...being fond of reading stories, unknowingly I have grown a likelyness for history. That not only showed at that time but also announced the arrival of a fierce competitor!!!! I remember, I got 85 out of 90 in history. the next highest was 72!!! I was away by a long margin!!! even the history teacher called me and asked me where did I take private tuition for history..and trust me his face was like seeing an ALIEN from MARS when he heard that I didn't take tuition from any specialized teacher..:D. But still some people(and i am talking about those who had the habit of scoring highest marks in the class) were trying to term that as a fluke. I just smiled at them and silently went ahead with my work with the sole objective of seeing my name higher up in the attendance list.


But I was not able to do justice to my talent. Ranked 9th in class VI annual, 7th in class VII...all in all my class rank went up and down several times from class VI to class X but it never went beyond 10, with that being said, I was not able to break into the top 4-5 position either. maybe I got distracted...maybe something(..or someone) else got more priority in my life....but will talk about that later in an another post. (this post is about the positive things of my life..will talk about the other part of me in a separate post... :-)...)


So, as I was saying....when I was in class VII, one day we heard a rumor that a news channel is coming to our school. The reason was a student of class XII of our school stood 7th in the state in HS examination. At that time, the only well known news program was KHAS KHOBOR...which was a must see in the evening at 6pm and it featured our beloved MIR in his pre-MIRAKKEL and early RJ days..so khas khobor came around 11 am. we ran all along their camera so that the camera catches us at least for a second and we can proudly boast to our parents that look..your son has come to TV!!! We even got punished for disturbing the live interview of our topper with khas khobor, some of us were made to kneel-down in the front gate of the school (how humiliating!!!!)...but the joy of being seen in the camera overpowered all other feelings of humiliation. Now you may be wondering why I am so ecstatic about a day that marks success of someone else whom I hardly knew...the answer is what my mother told me that day evening which turned my life head on and changed they way I used to look at things!!! On returning home that day, before anything else, I told my mother - "Maa aaj khas khobor dekho...amader topper-er interview ache, pechone hoyto amakeo dekhte pabe ektur jonno...!!!". Maa, in reply, said - "ami to tomake karur pechone dekhbo na, jodi tumi konodin samne theke interview site paro, sedin dekhbo..."


I cant remember now what was my reaction was after hearing this. maybe I didn't take it seriously..maybe paased that off as a joke that time. But unknowingly it crated a repelling effect in my mind. Somehow it planted a seed deep into my mind that always force me to dream big , achieve bigger things till now.


Now, lets cut back to where we started. june 1 2007..the date of declaration of our HS results.the effect of past few weeks left me almost shattered. I couldn't get through my dream B.Stat, haven't cleared IITJEE due to lack of marks in chemistry(I scored well above cut-off in Physics & Maths.. :-(...) and got a meagure rank of 3606 (another no. 6 mind you... :P...) in WBJEE. So it goes without saying that I was tensed like hell that day. The result was scheduled to be declared around 10 am. but arund 8.30 am, ETV news first showed that Uttarpara Govt High School has student in STATE top 10. Still nobody of us thought in our wildest of dreams that the student would be me.!!!! Got the news around 9.30 am. A teacher of our school called our neighbor flat and said that I have topped from school and among the top 10 in the state and I was asked to report at school as soon as possible as news channels are going to come to my school for interview. The feeling was like out-of-the world. I still couldn't belive the guy they were talking about was actually me, I thought they are wrongly mistaken someone else for myself!!! What followed afterwards is literally a dream for me. First time in my life faced TV camera, gave interview to Star Ananda, Kolkata TV, 24 ghonta. AAkash Bangla  came to our home and took byte. Newspapers like aajkal, protidin, ganashakti published the report with my photo (with a weird looking spectacles then.. :D...). Gave telephonic interview with the telegraph which got published next day. Although I admit most of the things I told in the TV or to the papers were gibberish!!! I laughed my heart out when i saw my interviews on TV. the way I spoke seemed like a mixture of Munnabhai and Manmohan Sing.!!! My father still has the collection of newspapers with my pictures. I wish I had those clippings of my interview so that I could have shared that with all of you. That day was probably the longest day of my life...o many things done, so many people gathered around...so many good wishes, flowers, token gifts...I am indebted to all for making me feel like the king of the world that day.


So this kind of ends whatever I have for all of you in this post. This post was all about of the journey of just a PRITAM KUMAR PAUL to "THE" PRITAM KUMAR PAUL. From being NoOne to Someone....from down to the hell to "back with a bang.."....Although the fighter within me gradually losing its killer instinct...but that doesn't mean I am ready to take defeats on my strides... however down I feel, however lost I may be...the NEVER BACK DOWN-RISE ABOVE HATE attitude of my inner within keeps me fighting and moving forward and fills my heart and mind with one phrase - IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING... 

A New Begining....

So...finaly decided to take up serious blogging from today. Its not that this decision has come up all of a sudden. Thought about this for sometimes. Finally decided that I need to share my feelings to somebody...and who is better than this BLOG...my silent accompanion.

Yes..i have many friends...good friends I should say, but in spite of that I feel lonely and left behind sometimes, you just want to scream out loud and release all the burden of unspoken emotions in the unbounded sphere of fresh air. And that is precisely the reason I am here, I feel that there is an utter need to release the inner demons for me to move forward in life. Some of the more optimistic may tell me that all these feelings or emotions inside me are just a kind of infatuation...but let me tell you, whatever I am gonna write in here will come completely from the bottom of my heart and each single word will be related to some truth in my life.

Now you may be thinking that - 'what am I going to write in here??'...I will be sharing with you incidents straight from my life...some good...some may be bad or painful...but all of it will be real. I'd also like to share my experiences at Indian Statistical Institute, kolkata...where I am currently studying my postgraduate course in COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING....

I don't know how many people will read my blog and to speak the truth I am not really bothered about it a bit. To me, my blog will be just a silent listener to all my exuberent emotions...it will listen to all my bla bla and will never get angry or bored...

So, without further to do..lets start this journey together. And if, by any chance, you happen to be reading my blog...then you better be prepared for a daily dose of written torture... :-)

Happy reading.

P.S. : Please forgive me for my amateurish English...I will try to get better and better I promise... :-)

Why the World considers him the God of Cricket!

Andrew Flintoff:

When you bowl at him you are not just trying to get him out, you are trying to impress him. "I want him to walk off thinking 'that Flintoff, he's all right isn't he? I feel privileged to have played against him.



Shane Warne:

"Sachin Tendulkar is, in my time, the best player without doubt - daylight second, Brian Lara third."





Viv Richards:

He is 99.5% Perfect.. I'll pay to watch him play. I think he is marvellous. I think he will fit in whatever category of Cricket that has been played or will be played, from the first ball that has ever been bowled to the last ball that's going to be. He can play in any era and at any level.





Sir Don Bradman:

I saw him playing on television and was struck by his technique, so I asked my wife to come look at him. Now I never saw myself play, but I feel that this player is playing much the same as I used to play, and she looked at him on Television and said yes, there is a similarity between the two...hi compactness, technique, stroke production... it all seemed to gel! in reference to Sachin Tendulkar.





Barry Richards:

Consensus is that Sir Donald Bradman was the best batsman ever to play Cricket. Sir Don did not play One-Day Cricket but if he did, he could easily be Sachin Tendulkar.



Allan Donald:

"In my several years of international cricket, Tendulkar remains the best batsman I have ever bowled to. It's been a pleasure to bowl at the master batsman even though one hasn't always emerged with credit from the engagements."



"During our team meetings, we often speak about the importance of the first 12 balls to Tendulkar. If you get him then you can thank your stars, otherwise it could mean that tough times lie ahead."





Harsha Bhogle:

In the recently concluded IPL when Sachin drove Ishant Sharma to a straight drive, he said- "Open the text book..turn to page no. 32"



Andrew Symonds:

wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin. " To Sachin, the man we all want to be "





A.R.Rhaman

Well, I’m no Sachin Tendulkar you know, whenever he takes the field, people expect him to score a century before he loses his wicket. I can only give in my best and I always strive to live up to fans expectations, but it’s not possible to get an Oscar every time.





Virendra Sehwag:

Both of us have come a long away and it is a great honour that Tendulkar thinks I come close to resembling him as a batsman. It is a great honour, like a dream come true. If I die tomorrow I'll be the happiest man because I played this game because of Tendulkar, and Tendulkar himself saying that I resemble him - there is no bigger compliment than that.





Mathew Hayden:

I have seen GOD , he bats at no.4 for india in Tests.



Ravi Shashtri:

He is someone sent from up there to play cricket and go back.



Mark Taylor:

We did not lose to a team called india...we lost to a man called Sachin.



Brain Lara:

Sachin is a genius , i am a mere mortal!



Barry Richards:

Sachin is crickets GOD



Martin Crowe:

The shot played on this ball is only possible for the GOD of cricket.



Paul Strang:

What we [zimbabwe] need is 10 tendulkars.



Steve Waugh:

There is no shame losing to such a great player(sachin).



Shane Warne:

I would go to bed having nightmares of sachin dancing down the ground and hitting me for sixes.



Mathew Hayden:

His life seems to be a stillness in a frantic world... [When he goes out to bat], it is beyond chaos - it is a frantic appeal by a nation to one man. The people see him as a God...



Dennis Lillie:

If I had to bowl to Sachin I would bowl with a halmet on. He hits the ball so hard.



Steve Waugh:

After being defeated in the Coca-Cola Cup finals in Sharjah) "It was one of the greatest innings I have ever seen. There is no shame being beaten by such a great player, Sachin is perhaps only next to the Don''





Michael Kasprowicz:

Don't bowl him bad balls, he hits the good ones for fours."



Shane Warne:

I'll be going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for six. He was unstoppable. I don't think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar. He is just an amazing player."



Wasim Akram:

Today, he showed the world why he is considered the best batsman around. Some of the shots he played were simply amazing. Earlier, opposing teams used to feel that Sachin's dismissal meant they could win the game. Today, I feel that the Indian players, too, feel this way.

Wasim Akram, after game at Hobart, CUB series, 1999



Brett Lee:

You might pitch a ball on the off stump and think you have bowled a good ball and he walks across and hits it for two behind midwicket. His bat looks so heavy but he just waves it around like it's a toothpick. Brett Lee, on Sachin Tendulkar's batting, 1999



BBC Sports:

Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their television sets and switch off their lives.



Wasim Akram:

"I dont know what to bowl at him. i bowled an inswinger n he drove me through covers of d front foot. then i bld an outswinger n he again punched thr covers of d backfoot(for tamil fans-dai avan eppadi pottalum adikaranda). he is d toughest batsmen i 've bowled to.



He shold live long n score lots of runs, but not against pakistan(smiling) "- on 24th april 2004 on espn Sachin's 30th B day program.



Sunil Gavaskar:

India's fortune will depend on how many runs the little champion scores. There is no doubt Tendulkar is the real thing.



Richie Benaud:

He has defined cricket in his fabulous, impeccable manner. He is to batting what Shane Warne is to bowling.



Geoffrey Boycott:

Technically, you can't fault Sachin. Seam or spin, fast or slow nothing is a problem.



Eddie Barlow:

He is Sachin Tendulkar. I hope he stays Sachin Tendulkar. We need a new player, a player in his own way. He has a technique which is the hallmark of a great player. Everything indicates that he will be a great player and I am sure he will prove me right. Reminds me of Barry Richards.



Greg Chappell:

He is a perfectly balanced batsman and knows perfectly well when to attack and when to play defensive cricket. He has developed the ability to treat bowlers all over the world with contempt and can destroy any attack with utmost ease.



Abdul Qadir:

I Was fielding in the covers Tendulkar came out to bat in his debut Test at Karachi. I still remember Waqar Younis was at his peak form at that time. Tendulkar tried to drive Waqar through the covers off his very first ball in Test cricket but was beaten all ends up. But I walked to captain Imran Khan and told him 'this kid looks very good' and Imran agree with me.



Sir Garfield Sobers:

I have watched a lot of Tendulkar and we have spoken to each other a lot. He has it in him to be among the very best.



Peter Roebuck:

Sometime back I had written a piece that said that Sachin's the master and Lara a genius with his head high up somewhere. That's it!



Jeff Thompson:

Sachin is an attacker. He has much more power than Sunny. He wants to be the one to set the pace. He has to be on top. That's the buzz about him.



Ian Healy:

Tendulkar is the most comouncy pitch with Hughes, McDermott and Whitney gunning for him he only had 60-odd when No 11 came in. I've seen him against Warne too.



Mike Coward:

Sachin's the best. I've had this view since I saw him score that hundred in Sydney in 1992. He's the most composed batsman I've ever seen.



Hashim Amla:

Nothing bad can happen to us if we're on a plane in India with Sachin Tendulkar on it. Hashim Amla, the South African batsman, reassures himself as he boards a flight.



Shahrukh Khan:

"Maybe the country doesn't pray for me like they do for Sachin Tendulkar, but I know I'm on a good wicket as well. "



Martina Navratilova:

"Sachin was so focused. He never looked like getting out. He was batting with single-minded devotion. It was truly remarkable. It was a lesson." Tennis legend joins the Sachin Tendulkar fan club after watching him bat at Sydney.



Alistair Campbell:

After loosing to India in the Coca Cola Cup final at Sharjah in November '98

"He has everything a top batsman needs. Tendulkar is a classic example of a player being so good that his age is an irrelevance"







David Boon:

"Technically he stands out as the best because of his ability to increase the pace at will"



Cricket Historian Vasant Raiji:

"I have always felt C. K. Nayadu was the best. I now think sachin has the honour of being the most outstanding batsman of all time."



Steve Waugh:

"You take Don Bradman away and he is next up I reckon."



Adam Hollioke:

"In an over I can bowl six different balls. But then Sachin looks at me with a sort of gentle arrogance down the pitch as if to say 'Can you bowl me another one?'"



Tony Greig:

He is cool, has magnificent temperament, and is so mature you tend to forget his age. I can't think of any other example of a player who has so dominated the world before the age of 25.



Allan Border: (after India won the Coca-Cola cup )

"Hell, if he stayed, even at 11 an over he would have got it."



Ajay Jadeja:

"I can't dream of an innings like that. He exists where we can't."



David Gower:

"In the last session in Nagpur, when the Indian chase was still on, Tendulkar hit a reverse sweep, an orthodox sweep and a lofted cover drive to (Ian) Blackwell. They were all exquisite cricket shots. To play those shots deliberately in such quick succession, off almost similar deliveries, was genius. That was a little jewel, just those 3-4 minutes.

"It reminds you how very few people are special. It was a case of great thinking and good technique."



Gavaskar..back in 1988 to tom alter:

I sat in the office of Sportsweek magazine with that same Sunil Gavaskar. Ayaz Memon and I were listening to Gavaskar in one of his rare, priceless moods. The ?Little Master? was delving deep into his own experience, his own genius, and bringing forth pearls of wisdom as sudden, and as effective, as his straight- drives back past the bowler. Then Gavaskar came up with the following statement (remember, this was in 1988, when Dilip Vengsarkar was about to become captain of India): "The two best batsmen in Bombay today are Vengsarkar and Sachin Tendulkar." Full stop. End of statement. The ball crosses the boundary-line underneath the sight- screen.



Desmond Haynes:

In terms of technique and compactness, Tendulkar is the best: Desmond Haynes.



Mark Taylor:

He's a phenomenon. We have to be switched on when he plays allow him no boundries, for then he doesn't stop.



Wasim:

"Cricketers like Sachin come once in a lifetime and I am privileged he played in my time"



"Tuzhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?" Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin's catch.



Allan Donald:

His shot selection is superb, he just lines you up and can make you look very silly. Everything is right in his technique and judgement. There isn't a fault there. He is also a lovely guy, and over the years I've enjoyed some interesting chats with him… Sachin is in a different class to Lara as a professional cricketer. He is a model cricketer, and despite the intolerable pressures he faces back home, he remains a really nice guy… Sachin is also the best batsman in the world, pulling away from Brain Lara every year.



Anil Kumble:

he's shy little gentleman.

I am very privileged to have played with him and seen most of the runs that he has scored. I am also extremely happy to have shared the same dressing room... He is a very reserved person and generally keeps to himself. He is very determined, committed and doesn't show too many emotions. He just goes about doing his job.



The thing I admire most about this man is his poise. The way he moves, elegantly without ever looking out of place in any condition or company, suggests his pedigree. I remember he had once come to New Delhi in the 1990s to collect his Arjuna Award (India's highest award to its top sportspersons) and he asked me if I would attend the function. He is a very sensitive human being….



Sometimes you feel he really hasn't felt the kind of competition in the world his talent deserves. I would have loved to see him perform against top quality cricketers of the previous generation. It would really have brought out the best in him.



Greame Pollock:

Tendulkar is the best in the world at the moment. Why I've always liked him is that batsmen tend to be negative at times and I think batting is not about not getting out - it is to play positively. I think you got to take it to the bowlers and Sachin is one such player. When you do so, you change the game, you change bowlers because they suddenly start bowling badly because they are under pressure.





Ian Chappell:

Whenever I see Sachin play I am reminded of the Graeme Pollock quote of Cricket being a 'see the ball, hit the ball game.' He hits the ball as if it's there to be hit.



Ravi Shastri:

"We always knew that Sachin Tendulkar is a great cricketer, but after the Coca-Cola Cup here, we have seen the birth of a legend. I can't think of anybody who has batted more authoritatively in one day cricket for India, or even in the world except for Vivian Richards."



Navjot Sidhu:

"His mind is like a computer. He stores data on bowlers and knows where they are going to pitch the ball."





Mark Taylor:

"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin" - Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)



Dravid:

Playing in the same team as Sachin is a huge honour. His balance of mind, shrewd judgement, modesty and, above all, his technical brilliance make him my all-time hero... You can't get a more complete cricketer than Sachin. He has everything that a cricketer needs to have.



As a batsman, he has the technique, the hunger and the desire for runs. He always contributes with the bat as well as on the field. He also is a good fielder and bowls when needs. You really can't ask for a better cricketer than Sachin... He is a terrific person and has handled pressure brilliantly. He has handled his success very well and doesn't have any airs about him. He is a great guy and very good team man. In his heart of hearts, he is a very simple and down to earth person.





Azhar:

The more I see him, the more I want to see him.





Sunil Gavaskar:

India's fortune will depend on how many runs the little champion scores. There is no doubt Tendulkar is the real thing.



Harsha bhogle:

if sachin plays well... India sleeps well.



Saurav Ganguly:

The thing I like most about Sachin is his intensity. After being in the game for so long, he still has the same desire to do well for India in any international match.I tell you what, this man is a legend.





Kris Srikkanth:

"He is the only match-winning batsman we have"





Ranatunga:

"You get him out and half the battle is won"





Andy Flower:

There are 2 kind of batsmen in the world. One Sachin Tendulkar. Two all the others.



Martin Crowe:

A flighted full toss on Leg stump by spinner. any other will play this shot on leg side by pull shot or glance or flick. but sachin made a space and played a perfect cover drive for four runs.



Shane Warne:

You have to decide for yourself whether you're bowling well or not. He's going to hit you for fours and sixes anyway. Kasprowicz has a superior story. During the Bangalore Test, frustrated, he went to Dennis Lillee and asked, "Mate, do you see any weaknesses?" Lillee replied, "No Michael, as long as you walk off with your pride that's all you can do".





Rudy Kortzen:

"I never get tired during umpiring whenever sachin is on crease"





sunny gavaskar:

This was after a wonderful century by sachin(in england i guess in a test match..not sure)

Sunny: The other day i was just trying to think of a bowler who can go through sachin's defenses when sachin is in total defense. I am sorry but i could not think of even one name who could do that. If sachin decides he doesnt want to give away his wicket, he wont. be it any bowler in the world. Cheers to Sachin...



Ponting:

Ponting make comparisons btn sachin,Lara& jayasuriya.

Sachin is the best ever batsman in the world. He is brilliant in his technique. He is always hungry for runs.Sachin is better than Lara in his techniques & thats why he is No.1 among others.On his day,Lara wiil be more destructive. He is the only man 2 fight for west indies. Jayasuriya also played gr8 knocks 4 his team. But compared 2 them Sachin is the BEST





Pradeep Mandhani -a Photographer:

“Barely two hours after landing in Johannesburg on the 1992-93 tour to South Africa, the team was to visit Tolstoy Farm, Mahatma Gandhi's first Satyagrahi Commune founded in 1910. It was situated 35 kms from Jo'burg and most of the Indian players showed little interest, longing to rest in the hotel after the long flight. But Tendulkar, still a teenager, looked keen and hungry to learn more about Gandhi. His volley of questions to the guide reflected his national pride.” NKP Salve, former Union Minister.





Saurav Ganguly:

SACHIN MADE 9 CENTURIES IN ONE YEAR BUT MANY CRICKETER DIDNOT MAKE 9 CENTURIES IN THEIR WHOLE CARRIER.



Ricky Ponting:

“Sachin is the most complete batsman I have seen. His technique is so good and he has played well in all conditions. To have 41 one-day international tons shows what an appetite he has for scoring runs.”



Harsha Bhogle:

There's no better sight on the cricket field than watch Tendulkar bat.

Russell's paradox

Let me tell you a famous story:

There was once a barber. Some say that he lived in Seville. Wherever he lived, all of the men in this town either shaved themselves or were shaved by the barber. And the barber only shaved the men who did not shave themselves.

That is a nice story. But it raises the question: Did the barber shave himself? 

Let's say that he did shave himself. But we see from the story that he shaved only the men in town who did not shave themselves. Therefore, he did not shave himself. But we again see in the story that every man in town either shaved himself or was shaved by the barber. So he did shave himself. We have a contradiction. 

What does that mean?

Maybe it means that the barber lived outside of town. That would be a loophole, except that the story says that he did live in the town, maybe in Seville. Maybe it means that the barber was a woman. Another loophole, except that the story calls the barber "he." So that doesn't work. Maybe there were men who neither shaved themselves nor were shaved by the barber. Nope, the story says, "All of the men in this town either shaved themselves or were shaved by the barber." Maybe there were men who shaved themselves AND were shaved by the barber. After all, "either ... or" is a little ambiguous. But the story goes on to say, "The barber only shaved the men who did not shave themselves." So that doesn't work either. Often, when the above story is told, one of these last two loopholes is left open. So I had to be careful, when I wrote down the story.

Now we come to a really serious attempt to solve the above puzzle: Maybe there was no barber like the one described in the story. But the story said, "There was once a barber..." So there really was a barber like that, unless the story is a lie! That is the answer, isn't it? The story is a lie. Sorry about that. I told the story of a barber who could not possibly exist. I had good motives. But I guess I told a lie.

Well, our story of the barber is inconsistent. In logic, we don't say that it is a lie. We say that it is inconsistent. "Inconsistent" is much more descriptive, and it is not a sin.

A more Formal form of Barbers Paradox :

Suppose there is a town with just one male barber. In this town, every man keeps himself clean-shaven by doing one of two things:

1. Shaving himself, or
2. going to the barber.

Another way to state this is:

The barber shaves all and only those men in town who do not shave themselves.

All this seems perfectly logical, until we pose the paradoxical question:

Who shaves the barber?

This question results in a paradox because, according to the statement above, he can either be shaven by:

1. himself, or
2. the barber (which happens to be himself).

However, none of these possibilities are valid! This is because:

• If the barber does shave himself, then the barber (himself) must not shave himself.
• If the barber does not shave himself, then the barber (himself) must shave himself.

The above story about the barber is the popular version of Russell's Paradox. The story was originally told by Bertrand Russell. And of course it has a simple solution. It is inconsistent. But the story is not really that simple. The story is a retelling of a problem in set theory.

In set theory, we have sets, collections of objects. These objects may be real physical objects (marbles) or not (cartoon characters, thoughts, or numbers). When we deal with a set, we normally write it down with brackets: {A, B, C}. That set contains three letters, A, B, and C. The set {B,C} is a subset of {A, B, C}. There is a special set with no elements, the empty set {} or ø, as the set of humans bigger than the earth, or the set of odd numbers divisible by two. Some sets contain infinitely many elements, as the set of all even numbers.

A set can contain sets. The set {{A, B, C}, {x, y}} contains two sets {A, B, C} and {x, y}. It also contains the empty set, by the way. All sets contain the empty set. We can define the set of all sets. This set contains {A, B, C} and {{A, B, C}, {x, y}} and every other possible set. Some sets contain themselves. The set of all red marbles does not contain itself, because it contains no sets at all, only marbles. Let's say that S is a set which contains S and {A, B}. Then this is S: {S, {A, B}}. It contains two sets, itself and {A, B}. The set of all sets obviously contains itself. Well, let's construct a very interesting set, the set of all sets which do not contain themselves.

There is something wrong here. Does "the set of all sets which do not contain themselves" sound like "the barber who shaves all men who do not shave themselves?" The story of the barber was inconsistent. The set of all sets which do not contain themselves is inconsistent for the same reason. Does the set of all sets which do not contain themselves actually contain itself, or not? If it contains itself, then it cannot contain itself. If it does not contain itself, then it must contain itself. It is inconsistent.

Now let us come to the notion of what actually Russels Paradox is…..

In the foundation of mathematics Russell's paradox (also known as Russell's antinomy), discovered by Bertrand Russellin 1901, showed that the naive set theory created by naive set theory leads to a contradiction. The same paradox had been discovered a year before by Ernst Zermelo but he did not publish the idea, which remained known only to Hilbert, Husserl and other members of the University of Göttingen.

According to naive set theory(NST), any definable collection is a set. Let R be the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. If R qualifies as a member of itself, it would contradict its own definition as a set containing all sets that are not members of themselves. On the other hand, if such a set is not a member of itself, it would qualify as a member of itself by the same definition. This contradiction is Russell's paradox. Symbolically:

 Formal presentation

Define Naive Set Theory (NST) as the theory of predicate logicwith a binary predicate , and the following as axioms:

for all expressions P(x) with just x free

Substitute for P(x). Then by existential instantiation and universal instantiation we have

a contradiction. Therefore NST is inconsistent.

Prove that 1/1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + ............... + 1/n is not an integer when n is a positive integer and n>1.

Theorem: The nth Harmonic Number cannot be an integer for any n>1.

Proof:
Let n >1. We denote the nth partial sum by

We can write the nth partial sum as a summation of n terms in the numerator each of the form where 1≤k≤n. The denominator is

So the nth partial sum can then be written as

Now the strategy is to show that the highest power of any prime p dividing the denominator is strictly greater than that dividing the numerator.

We choose p=2 so that our proof will work for all
It is obvious that there exists a r such that

Let the highest power of 2 that divides the denominator be t th power.

Now in each of the terms in the numerator the whole product of the first n natural numbers is divided by an integer k. Note that if this k has the highest power of 2 dividing it as x then the highest power of 2 dividing that particular term will be t-x.
Note that the maximum value of x can be r and hence the minimum value of (t-x) can be (t-r).

This is attained for Note also that every other term in the numerator has the highest power of 2 dividing it , strictly greater than (t-r). This is because every other k has the highest power of 2 dividing it strictly less than r.

Thus all the terms in the numerator for have dividing them while the term corresponding to k=2^r cannot have it.

Thus the highest power of 2 dividing the numerator is equal to (t-r).

For n≥2 ...r≥1 and hence the highest power of 2 dividing the numerator is strictly less than the highest power of 2 dividing the denominator.

This implies that the nth partial sum can never be an integer for any n≥2.

DADA vs KOLKATA @ IPL-4

PRINCE OF CALCUTTA vs KING KHAN on 19th May 2011

what do you call a phoenix rising from the ashes in Bengal? Sourav Ganguly. Touche!

In a land that still stinks of illiteracy and poverty, in a country that’s more prejudiced than the security at US airports, here is a game fest that’s minting money on every single account. Added bonus: the husbands are coming home early for dinner 

A showpiece event that’s kept the janata glued to the telly for four years in the running now. And shown how cities have grown more important than countries 

A mere gap of six days after the World Cup, and we were thrown into Delhi vs Calcutta, Mumbai vs Chennai, Bangalore vs Hyderabad,et al.

Sri Lankans bonding with the Aussies, New Zealanders sharing bonhomie with the West Indians, South Africans breaking bread with the Indians. Mixed chow has always been very popular on the menu.

And so has the format. A 20-over game, over in a matter of three hours.... Watch it like a movie packed
with drama and action, bombshells strutting their stuff on the field… ummmmm… We love them all. But
not the politics behind it. 

Jaws dropped after Mission Ganguly. The Bengal Tiger was stunned as none of the franchises touched him. The media went on an overdrive and King Khan remained uncharacteristically silent. “How?!” was the only question that remained on everybody’s lips.

Bengal cried. No Dada—No KKR, No IPL. Eden witnessed empty stands for a match. But then
grudges aren’t permanent and public memory’s shorter than Mallika Sherawat’s dresses.

Haar ke jeetne waale ko Baazigar kehte hain. Eden was soon back in form. Even Dada came to watch a
game. SRK waved from afar. And people watched the tamasha in full glare.

Two days later, a mini-explosion rocked the city Headlines screamed: “Dada to play for Pune”.“How?!” was the question again on everybody’s lips.

Dada smiled, as a bleary-eyed city helped him pack his bags. Like an emotional Bollywood flick, Bengal’s most favourite son was bid farewell. And Calcutta’s greatest sporting icon was lost to the land of the Marathas.

Proving a point to Shah Rukh Khan is most certainly not on Mr Ganguly’s agenda. Having faced bigger
controversies in life, playing or not playing in IPL-4 would hardly make a difference to the Prince of
Calcutta.

But then the ruthless fact raps your knuckles hard every now and then. Calcutta’s loss is Pune’s gain.
And as a Maharaj and a Yuvraj team up to give “sahara” to a team that’s hit rock bottom, you wonder what
else would make your eyeballs pop out.

Calcutta is currently waiting for the 19th of May. The day that would test both sides equally. The Warriors
versus The Knights. Sourav Ganguly vs Shah Rukh Khan. 

Ghoshbabu gets super-charged. “This is a scene inspired by the Mahabharata perhaps, where one son of the soil turns back and plays against his brethren, his own land.Oh almighty, I swear by Tutul’s nightie, this is blasphemous!”

As we prepare ourselves to choose a side, the game continues to enthral. Waiting for the return of
the prodigal son, let’s just hope God’s fielding on the on side.

A FEW LINES ON THE CRICKETING GOD....

Not one day, not one month, not one year,
But for 22 years, the entire World goes mad behind him,
Is this what we call -- Success?
Don't know,
But this maddening run behind "one" game,
and dedicating three decades of his life to it,
May be this is his success.

He scores a century, the whole nation pats him,
He misses a ton and the entire nation talks about it,
Is this what we call -- Success?
Don't know,
But he has got questioning people while he succeeds and,
supporting people while he fails in his life,
May be this is his Success.

Not only he but everyone envies his Golden Journey,
Is this what we call -- Success?
Don't know,
But not a single time he has acted or did something,
to bring shame to him or his country,
May be this is his Success.

Even this huge love from public, this huge accolades
and uncountable money,
and now the "World Cup" too,
All of this at just 37 years of age,
So much of capital that, not only he but his seven generations,
can easily live off without doing anything,
Is this what we call -- Success?
Don't know,
But nothing, absolutely nothing,
can keep him from achieving his goals,
May be this is his Success.

Words aren't enough to praise him,
Numbers aren't enough to count his runs,
Is this what we call -- Success?
Don't know,
But he doesn't measure his success in "too many" or "too less" runs,
but "failing to work hard" makes him feel beaten,
Such dedication even at 'this' milestone in his career,
May be this is his Success.

Cricket experts, Cricket novices,
Cricket players or just observers,
Consider him "God of Cricket",
Is this what we call -- Success?
Don't know,
But even after this Heavenly Godliness,
His roots are still deep under the ground,
May be this is his Success.
 

This big and huge a success,
Measuring his success in any parameter is difficult,
Is this what we call -- Success?
Don't know,
But one thing for sure,
"Our" eyes moistened when we saw "him" raising World Cup,
May be this is his Success.

WHY SACHIN IS BETTER THAN SIR DON....

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (born 24 April 1973 in Mumbai) is a small man at 5ft 5in but he is a cricketing colossus. Wisden rated Sachin Tendulkar as the second greatest Test Cricket and ODI batsman of all time after the legendary Sir Don Bradman and Sir Viv Richards respectively. The list was later revised to make him best ODI player of all time. I disagree, he is the best ever batsman of all time.

I have the most deepest and sincerest respects for what The Don achieved but you cannot compare those undemanding runs scored against amateurs in the 30's and 40's to Sachin's, scored against the modern era fast bowlers and real spinners.

The Don scored most of his runs against bumbling, clumsy, inept, limited, unfit, sometimes ageing upper class twits with speed on a par with today's club cricketers. There was no Marshall, Ambrose or Walsh. There was no Hadlee, McGrath or Lillee. There was no Akram or Waqar and there certainly was no Warne or Muralitharan to face so how can you measure his runs reasonably? You cannot!

Look at Graeme 'flat pitch bully' Hick's record in county cricket compared to Test cricket and you will understand what I mean. Watching videos of The Don I was struck by the amount of runs scored by the horizontal bat and Wisden noted that he never never truly mastered batting on sticky wickets. Wisden commented, "if there really is a blemish on his amazing record it is the absence of a significant innings on one of those 'sticky dogs' of old"

What you do know is that The Little Master has faced the finest bowlers ever, all over world in and all situations showing his indefinable excellence given only to geniuses. Don Bradman was in awe and confided to his wife that Tendulkar reminded him of himself, he knew who was best! Brian Lara admitted that the Indian was the greatest he had ever seen. "You know genius when you see it and let me tell you, Sachin is pure genius" he said. Shane Warne agreed. Matthew 'king of sledge' Hayden called him a God.

Sachin Tendulkar is the most worshipped cricketer in the world and the biggest cricket icon ever. His batting shows perfect and wonderful balance, economy of movement and precision in stroke-making. His batting is a delight on the eye and senses. He has all the shots in the textbook and has no weaknesses. He has made runs all over the world in all conditions. His century as a 19-year old on a lightning fast pitch at the WACA was considered the greatest innings ever to have been played in Australia.

He holds all the important batting records such as the leading Test century scorer, leading ODI century and half-century scorer, one of only three batsmen to surpass 11,000 runs in test cricket as well as being the first Indian to do so. He also has the most career ODI runs. He has scored 37 centuries and 46 fifties in Test cricket and 41 centuries and 87 fifties in ODIs (See cricinfo.com). The conversion rate of fifties to hundreds is unparalleled. All this after making his Test debut at 16 years old.

Famous for saying 'getting better never stops' has caught up with him. As with all great things there comes a time when the down slope sets in, not always steeply but down nonetheless. There is evidence of this now happening to The Little Master.

He can no longer play like the prince of his youth and it is indisputable that Father Time now has a hold on Tendulkar's genius. He has acknowledged that he is no longer the player he once was. He is playing to the limitations (a relative statement) imposed by the passage of time, the ravages of recent injuries, and nearly two decades carrying the weight of his nation. He is now adapting to new realties especially when bowlers adapt a bodyline strategy, giving him the chance to highlight his bravery. He has gone from artist to warrior whilst keeping himself reserved and modest. His fame, wealth and fortune has not affected his cricket one iota, he still hates to lose and is proudly patriotic!

Has any sportsman had so much of an impact on so many since Muhammad Ali?

Will he score another century on 8 December 2008 when India play Pakistan in the Third Test Match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore? I would not back against it. I will certainly check out the top batsman odds on the day. Current odds for this match show India 2.46 and Pakistan 6.2 with the draw favourite at 2.26 with Betfair.

Note: Part of the best thing about sport is that it isn't just what happens on the pitch that matters. It is the pub chat that surrounds the game that keeps the intrigue up. Some may think that Sachin is the best that has ever played and some may be in the Sir Don camp. However one thing that is for sure is that rivalries are one of the strongest aspects of the game and this summer for The Ashes, Betfair are putting together a specialfan v fan website to get the competitive juices flowing both on the pitch and off it.

My First Interview Experience @ TCS on 10.01.2011

Hello....
I am Pritam, CSE student of MCKV Institute of Engineering, 2011 passout batch...TCS came to our college 10th January 2011 for on campus recruitment.Here i am sharing my interview experiences with all of you....

First of all, u need to clear the aptitude test which consists of 35 questions..80 mins...
for that u need to prepare the questions in freshersworld very well..also if you need more such questions, u can email me at pktheking.paul@gmail.com.

I sat for the appti around 1.10 pm..the results were declared around 3 pm..i was selected for interview.

Now, as far as the interview is concerned..it was a combined TECH+HR interview. There were nearly 10 panels each consisting 1 Sir/maam...they were in different rooms and around 3:55 i was told by the co-ordinator to go to room no. 312....

Here is the questions i was asked.....

Me : May I come in Sir...

Interviewer : ya sure..

Me : Thank you sir.

Interviewer : (while watching my form)So, Pritam...how's the day going?

Me : It's a fine day sir. But I'm a bit tensed.

Interviewer : why so?

Me : It's my life's first interview sir.

Interviewer : (smiling) Do you need some water?(offering me a bottle of water)

Me : Yes sir...Thank you.

Interviewer : Feeling better now?

Me : Yes sir, thanks again.

Interviewer : Fine...now Pritam ,tell me something about yourself.

Me : Told.(plaese be prepared for this, this is your chance to impress the interviewer at the very beginning of the interview). I gave him my introduction, citing my strong points & I ended my introduction with a question : "Is there anything else you want to know about me sir??"..

Interviewer : No Pritam , That's fine. Do you know binary tree? what is it?

Me : told.

Interviewer : Good. What is binary search? whats its time complexity?

Me : Told.(I think he liked my answer)

Interviewer : Ok. Do you know about linked lists?

Me : yes sir.

Interviewer : Whats the difference between link list and array?

Me : I told about memory allocations..etc..

Interviewer : Write a code for insertion at any position in singly linked list.

Me : Sir, should i write the whole code or just the logic will do?

Interviewer : Ok, explain the logic.

Me : told.

Interviewer : Do you know DBMS? what is the difference between DBMS and RDBMS?

Me : answered.

Interviewer : What is normalization? Explain the normal forms.

Me : Sir, I cn explain upto BCNF..i dont know 4th n 5th nf very well.

Interviewer : Ok, do it.

Me : I answered with an example. The example i had given was a poor example(i gave a,b,c,d as column names) as I forgot the example i prepared, so be prepared with a real world example.

Interviewer : Fine. Do you know C?

Me : Yes sir.

Interviewer : write a program to print

height is given by the user.

Me : i quickly did it.

Interviewer : Good. Now can you print


like this?

Me : I did.

Interviewer : What's the similarity between structures and union?

Me : answered.

Interviewer : do you know java?

Me : yes sir.

Interviewer : what r the types of polymorphism in java?

Me : i told with examples i prepared from Herbert Schildt..

Interviewer : Ok. Why do you want to join TCS?

Me : I told about the stature of the company, how i can make myself & the company grow in a mutual environment...also told about various awards TCS got, great feedback from my senior who r TCS employee..also told about N Chandrashekharan, who joined TCS as trainee like us & now is the CEO.

Interviewer : (Impressed)Ok Pritam, thats all i need to know.(Smiling) Do you have any question?

Me : Yes Sir. I was going through the TCS website yesterday and the first thing that I saw was Global Network Delivery Model. I am very eager to know what is it?

Interviewer : It's a vast topic pritam. But to be precise...(then he explained the basic idea of GNDM)..

Me : Thank you sir. It's a pleasure to talk with you sir.

Interviewer : Same here Pritam. (Than he willingly brought his hand forward to shake my hand)

Me : Shook his hand with a smile in face.Then again saying thank you, i came out of the room.

My interview went for about 35 minutes.I came out around 4.30 pm. The results were declared at 8 pm...and I was selected. I was like on cloud nine....More so because almost all of my friends were selected. But, some did not get through, I was feeling bad for them. But you never know..a much bigger opportunity may be waiting for them.

So, all aspirants, prepare well, be confidant & never lose hope..
just remember one thing : You need not prepare all subjects at once. Prepare those which you are comfortable...
& then keep in mind that : "

You don't have to remember everything...because no interviewer is smart enough to ask you everything

"

So best of luck to all of you...will meet you at TCS one day....

Finally, I thank freshersworld for helping me a lot during preparation & giving me the chance to share my experience...

I would also thank testfunda.com , m4maths.com & all my friends who helped me in solving the aptitude questions.

If you face any problem regarding the solution of appti questions or interview preparation...feel free to mail me at pktheking.paul@gmail.com.