प्रेयसी अपने प्रेमी के इंतज़ार में
जैसे जल के थाल में अठखेलिया कर रही है
उसकी सखियाँ उसे देखो छेदे जा रही है
और हर बूँद में  लगता है जैसे
वो अपना गुस्सा दिखा रही  है |

ठंडी हवा लगता है उसके दुपट्टे से आ रही है
उसकी खुसबू भी साथ ला रही है
इस हवा में कुछ तो है
जो मन को मदहोश किये जा रही है |

This is a petition created by the Indian Institute of Management, Billekhaly (IIMB) students(ref to as the VICTIMS) against the higher forces(ref to as the perpetrators), to bring to light , the human rights violation happening in the IIMB campus.

The ways of the Perpetrators are so subtle that sometimes even the VICTIMS are not aware of these violations. What makes the matter more worse is that these Perpetrators have made an unholy nexus with the Higher forces, which control the weather.

Any interrogation should provide victim with all the alternatives. The basic right is the option of not to answer. But the conduction of a torturous activity is in direct violation of this right. That the activity is termed Quiz just adds salt to injury. Where is the Quizmaster, the VICTIMS ask? Where are my lifelines, the VICTIMS demand? Where is my right to refuse to answer wihout causing harm to myself, is the wailing cry. But who listens? The Perpetrators to avoid answering these questions would be casually chatting around over cups of coffee in the heavenly Can-torture Clubbing Den (CCD).

This is not all.

Enjoying a cool, breezy day on a Saturday is a Fundamental Right enshrined upon all of us, particularly the student community(1). The Perpetrators collude with the Higher Weather controlling Gods to even take away this right. Is this too much to ask? For all of you in cushiony jobs, enjoying the comfort of a late Friday night movie,  deciding to get up late on Saturday morning and even then not doing anything: Imagine how you would feel when not one but all of these are not allowed to you.

The Victims have had enough and they are raising their voics thru this petition. We make the following demands:

1. During Quizes, the option of not answering should be given same weightage as the correct option
2. No Quiz to be conducted on Saturday morning
3. No Quiz to be conducted when the weather is so-damn-good

We implore to anyone and everyone out there, please listen. Someone, PLEASE HELP

(1) – This Fundamental Right is not present in the Constitution which is shown normally. But as you all know that  thats a fraud consitution, The real constitution has been passed in the student commnunity from one batch to the next, and for which the standard reference is OOPS.

कुछ रणबाँकुरे स्टेज पर थे
कुछ महायोधा पीछे
न थी कमी जोश की
न कला का अभाव था
हीरो की तलाश का ये अंत न था
ये तो बस आरम्भ की रात है |

दोस्त बने, दीवारे टूटी
दीपू की खूब टांग भी खीची
विनीत की करतूतों पर
दिल खोल के सबका अट्टहास है
ये एक नयी दोस्ती के आरम्भ का एहसास है |

याद रखना इस रात  को
न भूलना किसी जज़्बात को
सफ़र की ये है बस शुरुआत,
हर दोस्ती को और बढ़ाना है
नए रिश्तो को बनाना है
न भूलना इन स्वरों को
ये आरम्भ का नाद है |

[Aarambh-> the cultural event organised and conducted by the incoming batch of IIMB ]

bata sake jo
vyratha hai kya aur kya hai anmol
aisi budhi ko dhudta hoon
jab ho samajh satya ki
aise samay ke intezaar me jeeta hoon

26 nikal gaye
Kanha hi jaante hi kitne bache hain
kabhi kabhi jeevan vyartha karne pe
apne ko kosta hoon
phir se ye gadit na karna ho
aise samay ke intezaar me jeeta hoon

is baar Prabhu ne diya hai sang
kuch mahapurushon ka
Unki sikhayi baate ho jaye samahit
aise samay ke intezaar me jeeta hoon

Har bhor ko Prabhu ka manan ho
Har ratri me unka smaran ho
Sab karte hue bhi unki yaad rahe
aise samay ke intezaar me jeeta hoon
aise samay ke intezaar me jeeta hoon

On New Year 2K9, I had gone to Isckon temple in Seoul. There, I saw a child grimacing in discomfort when it saw another child in pain. Something which all of us would have seen: A child is much more compassionate than us, older , more mature people.He grimaced on seeing her cry.

As is the case in this ape-ian mind of ours, which correlates concepts which seem totally unrelated, having no thread of connectivity to each other and tries to project a thought pattern which appears very convincing, the grimace started a chain.

A bit abt Elva, for the uninitiated. Elva is a child who is blessed by Eragon (the Dragon-Rider). There is one small hitch , though. Instead of blessing her by saying:

“May luck and happiness follow you and may you be  shielded from misfortune”

He says:

“May luck and happiness follow you and may you be a shield from misfortune”

I am quoting from Wiki here :

“She was doomed to suffer from the hurts of others to “shield” them. She could foresee when a person was about to be damaged, and tried to do anything in her power to help the person. If she resists, there were “consequences.” The “consequences” are possibly her ravenous appetite and her suffering the pain the person has but worse for her.”

(http://inheritance.wikia.com/wiki/Elva)

Shorn of the extra adjectives, it simply means that her own compassion becomes a great burden for her. She can not help but feel sympathetic for people around her, and the magic of the words force her to take actions to guard others.

Is this the reason why we become less sympathetic as we grow up. If we start feeling sympathetic for all around us, without our will having a say in it, won’t this virtue become too big a burden to carry.

When we are a kid , we dont have the means for translating our compassion into meaningful actions. Growing up gives us this power, and consequently, if left unchannelised , all our energy will go into yielding to this side of ours.

Thought from this view point, lessening of compassion doensn’t seem such a bad thing after all. It doent mean that we dont feel sympathetic for others, just that we can focus and choose.

That, we dont suffer from “The Elvan Syndrome”.

P.S: What happens when everyone becomes like Elva? When compassion is not lessened by a teeny tiny bit, even as we grow up, will “The Elvan Syndrome” still be a burden. Thats for another ape-ing session

“What is fun? You have to do what is needed. Duty is duty, done by any means”: said the white coated one.

The arbiter shouted: “Enough is enough. Since we are human, we have to do our works, by whatever means. If my fate is being a thief, so be it. I am at peace with it. That’s what is”.

He shrugged and continued doing what he needed to do.

When he turned back, the colors of the coat reversed.

PS:Inspired by GOD of IITG

angadiyo ke bandhan se apne sharir ko baandh 

nidra ko humne dur subah bhagaya

kya bataye dost, subah uthne me kya maja aaya

nikal ke jab hum apne balcony pe aaye 

to dekha

suraj ko athkeli karte hue

laga ki jaise haule se wo kuhase ko hata

tharthi ki taraf raha tha haath badha

kya bataye dost, subah uthne me kya maja aaya

jab pahli kiran ne dharti ko chua

to uthi ek sihran 

ek ful khila kahi

kahi ek papeeha bola

bhool gaye the ki subah bhi itni rumaani hoti hai 

kya bataye dost, subah uthne me kya maja aaya

socha ki 

ab jab aalas ki chaadar di hai phenk

to kyun na chal kar ke aaye apna matha hum tek

bhaye taiyar hum sampurna samay le ke

apne haath me ho sakta hai itna samay

ye na tha pata hume

kya bataye dost, subah uthne me kya maja aaya

nikale hum saj ke Prabhu ke dar ki ore

Bhanu bhi mano dikha raha tha rashta

stabdh kyun hote the kavi aur chitrakaar

is drishya ko dekh ke 

aaj bahut din baad iska ehsaas hua

kaun na hoga stabdh

jab aapke pairo ko Ravi pavitra kar jaye

kya bataye dost, subah uthne me kya maja aaya

Mandir ke dwar pe hum pahunche

to ek chad ko ruk gaye

socha na tha ki itne log subah Prabhu ke paas hai aate

2 chad ko hui glani 

phir man hua abhimaani

ki aur din ka koi nahi

aaj to Prabhu ne yaad kiya na hume

apni taakat to tamas se ladne ki hai nahi

hamare uthane me bhi Prabhu ki icha hai 

is khyal se man ot-prot jaise hi hua

apne aap matha jhuk gaya

kya bataye dost, subah uthne me kya maja aaya

Andar jaa ke

Prabhu ki wo nyari murti nihaar ke

shabd kho gaye 

dil bhar gaya

iske aage ye kavi likh nahi sakta

jo atulinya hai , uska varran kar nahi sakta

itna sun lo bas mere dost

ki wo jhanki abhi tak hai hriday me qaid

aaj subah se hum duniya me ghum to rahe hain

par dekh kewal Prabhu ko rahe hain

dekh kewal Prabhu ko rahe hain

kya bataye dost, subah uthne se kya maja aaya

So, what do we do with a stack of papers?Assuming we are neatness freaks,we would not pick off papers from middle. We would pick them from the top and also add new sheets on the top. 

So, when computer geeks wanted a mechanism to do this, they named that concept as , luckily, Stack.

That is all there is to stacks. Neat arrangement of nodes one after another in which you have access to the top most node only. You add (PUSH), get the top most node (POP) from the top.

I could try and give more examples, but thats all there is . 

Simplest way to implement stacks: Singly Linked Lists with a head pointer.

When we deal with stacks, the following considerations need to be considered:

1) When PUSHing , you can optionally check whether you have exceeded the maximum stack size that you want. To do this you will need an extra variable which stores the value of the current number of elements (called STACK DEPTH)

2) When POPping, check if you are not trying to POP the last element . This is a special case and needs to be considered separately.

From this point on, I will write the simple explanation and code snippets in diff posts. Both posts will contain the url of each other for easy access.

Before you start screaming on me, understand this “You have just told the condition of existence and operation of a linked list” This is all there to linked lists(more specifically Singly Linked Lists). Just ensure that at any point of time , the link is traversable from one end to another and u can use the list. Now, you would have understood why it is called linked list too. Coz  each kid (called a node) is linked to the next kid. And what do you need to modify the lists, change the links.

In Coding paradigm, each kid is called a node. Going thru the list is called Traversal. Adding a kid to the list is called, well, Adding. Removing the kid is called Deletion. There are few new terms though: Head Pointer, Tail Pointer.

If  u imagine the chain as a dragon, the the begining of the chain (Dragon’s head), thats the Head Pointer. The end the Tail Pointer. The Head Pointer is a very imp pointer , because  it lets you access the linked list. The Tail Pointer is the end pointer, so that you know that there are no more nodes to traverse.

In some cases, head node and tail nodes contain valid data, In some cases, they dont . Generally, tail node is set as NULL.

(Q: whats the benefit/disadvantage of storing data in the head and tail nodes?  Hint: For any node,how will you know that it is tail Node. Think maan )

To put the operations in more geeky language,  here is the pseudo-code for basic operations

In the foll pseudo codes, Head Pointer means the first node containing valid data.

Traversal

Start from Head Pointer

Get_next:

Get the Pointer of next node

Is the value of next node pointer equal to the Tail Pointer

If yes, Then Stop Traversing(Goto Exit)

Else, Continue Traversing (Goto Get_next)

Exit: Done

Search for a entry

Start from Head Pointer

Get_next:

Get the data of the node

Is the data of the node is the search value

If yes: return the pointer of current node

Else continue,

Get the Pointer of next node

Is the value of next node pointer equal to the Tail Pointer

If yes, Then Stop Traversing(Goto Exit)

Else, Continue Traversing (Goto Get_next)

Exit: Done

Lets take the complex case now, addition after a particular entry .(Lets assume it is in middle)(A node containing data NEW to be added after a node containing OLD)

Addition :

Search and get the pointer of the node containing OLD (Lets call it OLD_NODE)

In a temp node pointer, save  the next node pointer of the node containing OLD (OLD_NEXT)

set the next pointer of OLD_NODE to the new node’s pointer

Make the next pointer of the new node to OLD_NEXT

Now, think what we have done.We have ensured that the link’s order is maintained.

Q: What change will be needed to above for handling adding at the beginning and adding at the end?

Hint: Those two are special pointers. The head and Tail pointer I mean. So, their integrity should be preserved.

Big HW: Write deletion pseudo code. Would have written but this keyboard is killing me.

Before signing off, where are linked lists used: Ans: practically for everywhere, be it Stacks, Queues, Trees, all use some form of the Linked List .