An Experiment: posting chess game in blogger

One task I am totally comfortable at is experimenting. The failure does not disappoint me, success takes me to a new level. Posting text, images, videos, links, other embedded objects were easy in my blogging experience. Lately, I have been playing chess actively. Not just playing but learning with a goal to reach at least 2000+ rating in near future. So I play games on chess software, like Arena Chess GUI and Stockfish or Delfi Chess engines. I love doing the post-game analysis on my own. And now its posting games I played (some lost, some won) on blogger!

The game I played was on 21.10.2012 and had real fun in getting demolished slowly. ( I play against my rating + 150 elo points rated players) The game below is one such game I played against Weak Delfi.

Do check if you can go thru the game by clicking " > " green button to go forward and " < " to go back.

my first chess game on blogpost

Enjoy!

--
O.A.K.

Dandam Dashagunam

I am not writing the review of Kannada Movie named Dandam Dashagunam here. This post is about a sanskrit shloka which has actually lost its meaning and people use only the last one fourth of the sentence with an invented meaning. Especially after the launch of the movie.

Now how did I come across this piece of shloka? Well, my branch manager where I work is quite a stout short muscular guy. Moreover due to pressures from the higher executives, he has developed high Blood pressure problems and frequently has bouts of anger. I recently witnessed a situation where one of the bank's customers' tried to con the bank's staff in to doing something unethical. It was promptly brought to the notice of the BM and he lightly warned the customer from refraining from such activity. In stead of admitting his own immoral conduct, the customer himself started aiming false accusations on the BM. Then the BM almost took the Narasimha Avatar and saw to it that the fraudster scampered with his tail between his legs. After few hours during the lunch time, BM was having a hearty laugh and mentioned the phrase "दण्डं  दशगुणं "
(Dandam dashagunam) The literal modern meaning of this is that you get ten times the result by beating than by talking harshly. However, what intrigued me was that the sanskrit shlokas are never incomplete without a proper meaning. So, I knew that Dandam Dashagunam is a piece of a larger jig-saw puzzle. All I had to do was to find the other pieces.

On scouting the internet, I found the complete shloka

 विश्वामित्रेच  वार्धक्ये  रात्रौ अप्सु कर्दमे  |  अन्धे सर्पेच क्रीडेच दण्डं दशगुणं भवेत्

On the first glance I thought that the sage Vishvamitra had to do something with this sentence. But later after breaking every word the sentence, I knew that the sentence did not mean sage vishvamitra here. Now this was another puzzle altogether!

Sometimes the sanskrit shlokas are like the puzzles in the movie Da Vinci Code. It has a deeper meaning wrapped within a superficial meaning. Lets take the word Danda for example. It has various meaning. One meaning is Fine or Penalty. Another meaning is a stick or a stout stick, another meaning is arms of human body, as in Danda Baithak ( Push ups and Squats). See! one word can have so many meanings. Even English words have it; the word "set" has 26 meaning in an Oxford Dictionary!!!

In our shloka, the word dashagunam does not mean ten times effective but it means ten uses of danda i.e. stick. Vishwamitra, here, is a composite of three words. Vi, Shwa and Amitra. "Vi" is a short word for Vihaga meaning a bird. "Shwa" is an abbreviation for Shwaana meaning a dog. Amitra means un-friendly or an enemy, in simple terms. And so on....

Here the shloka means that the Stick can be used
1) to drive away the birds "Vihaga",
2) to drive away a dog "Shwaana"
3) to fight with an enemy "Amitra"
4) for support in Old Age "Vardhakye" (Similar to "Vruddha")
5) for support in the dark or night time "Ratrou"
6) for support while treading a river, boat men use stick to cross the river in a boat which has a shallow bed "Apsu"
7) for saving a person from a quagmire or quicksand "Kardame"
8) undoubtedly, for a blind person "Andhe"
9) to drive away or save oneself from a snake "Sarpe"
10) for use in sports "Kride"

It simply means that the stick in the hands of a fool would be used to beat somebody but in the hands of the wise it is a tool and can be used for ten various purpose.

Isn't this amazing ?? Do comment if you like it.

--
O.A.K.

1. e4

Quite odd Subject line for a layman, but for a chess player 1. e4... means a  lot. It kick starts the encyclopedia of chess openings inside the chess players mind, what move should I play next?

In my case, I have just started playing chess. After playing on the board with friends and against computer, and losing 90% of the time, I decided to buy a chess software with whom I can comfortably play, study, learn, improve, enjoy chess. I have always been fascinated by the way people play chess! I hardly remember a game I won. Also I hardly remember the moves I made in the game(I never recorded any moves/notations ever while playing with friends). But I do like the mind numbing challenge it posed every time I played chess.

Recently I came across a web-site that gave nice advice to the beginners. It said that chess stands on basic four pillars.
1) Inspiration
2) Experience
3) Analysis
4) Memory

The website did not give any order to the pillars, I have just arranged them in the logical order, I felt right.

The first step to be a good chess player is the right inspiration. One should not feel disheartened after the very first game of chess ever played in life. The inspiration keeps the engine running and it makes you keep playing chess irrespective of the outcome of the game.

From playing a few game of chess with stronger opponents, you gain some experience. Good or bad is not the question. Here, you also come to know about the theory of chess openings from various resources like internet, books, DVDs, etc. This experience helps you in gaining correct analysis in future game plays.

Sound experience from playing hundreds of games, gives you a fair Idea of your own style of the game. You start analysing each move before playing. You start playing more tactical or positional moves and your analysis keeps on improving and you keep gaining more experience. Also you start getting familiar with the positions and piece layout of the board and it gets memorised.

Memorised games/positions are more like a weapon which a person starts using whenever they find a familiar pattern on the board.

With all the four pillars one can remarkably improve ones chess. So lets see now that the journey has begun, I'd like to see where the road leads to!

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

The Question posed in the Subject line really grabbed my body, mind and soul by "its collars".

Last week from 10th to 13th May I participated in the most mind blowing course called DSN. This 4-full-day course is conducted by Art of Living Foundation. This course has the potential to transform the meek heart-ed mouse in us into a mighty heart lion. The course has array of practical teachings which can be done only if you switch off your questioning mind and "Just Do It" (All TM, copyrights of Nike respected!!)

The DSN Teacher asked all the participants one question. "When was the last time you did something for the first time in your life?" This question took some time to percolate through my senses. Although, I got the prima facie meaning of it, I was still amazed by the series of thoughts it triggered in me. Later, I was asked if I could fly an air-plane. I was sure I could not. Then the teacher asked me that if I never had attempted flying a plane, how could I know that I cannot fly a plane? It was like if I do not jump in the water, I will not know how to swim. But unless I jump in the water, I will never know my capability to swim. I will understand my capabilities only when I "DO IT"

One paradox that struck me hard was that "You will never be given any responsibility of a task that you are not be capable to handle. But you just do not know what your capabilities are !!!"


Isn't this beautiful??

I have decided to do something new as frequently as possible. The main challenge is the way mind behaves.
There are two things; First, the mind resists any change initially from the mundane grind and Second; it behaves just like a parachute. Both,mind and parachute, work when they are open!! So the challenge is to open up the mind to limitless possibilities.

This is where DSN actually helps. First, it prepares the mind to accept all the changes in life and later when you are open to all the possibilities, your mind actually starts functioning.

"But why do DSN in first place? I am quite happy with the way of my life?" is one question that a stupid mind may ask! Well the answer is very simple.

The mind needs no reason to be happy, but requires at least one reason to be unhappy. You can smile effortlessly but requires an effort to get angry! And the effort consumes energy and your peace of mind !!

If you observe your life pattern closely, you will notice that what all activities you do over a period of a week is same, every week. It is actually repeated every week for most of us. It starts with a dreadful monday blues, you wait for the "eagerly-awaited weekends" and ends with "sundays lazing around".

When a pattern becomes predictable, uneventful and frequent, the mind becomes dull. It starts finding a reason to be unhappy. Just like a body, which when does not get sufficient physical workout gets more prone to sicknesses, similarly the unchallenged mind becomes dull and cannot function when really required. And when the mind fails to function when required it leads to wrong decisions and thus misery follows.

So what challenges should we give to our mind. Well, another simple answer awaits... in the following blog

Till then do not wait for DSN to pass by. Just grab the chance to do it!!

-
O.A.K.

History Mystery

This is one hell of a mystery from history

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.

John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.

John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.

Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.

Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln , was born in 1808.

Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln , was born in 1839.

Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.

Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford.'

Kennedy was shot in a car called ' Lincoln ' made by 'Ford.'

Lincoln was shot in a theater and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.

Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the kicker...

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

Kongregate: Online Community Gaming

One thing I truly love in games is puzzles. It stimulates my brain and there is a unique pleasure in the mental tiredness after playing a tough puzzle game.

Now a days a variety of puzzle games are available online. I have searched game sites from a HTML5 and SWF rich contents to a plain old text and link based game sites. But there is one game site that really caught my attention. Yes! Kongregate .com

It has an array of games you might have never played. I have layed around 27 games of various categories; Action, Puzzles, Strategy, Shooting, Racing etc. The games I have played are all fresh types. The idea and the game play are superb. Out of Five games you play at least four would be new ones. This site allows you to become a member. On becoming a member you are awarded 15 points and your gaming journey starts from there. Every game has a target you have to achieve to get points. Every games has three difficulty levels; Easy medium and hard. Completing a said levels in each game gives you certain points on each difficulty levels.

This is one gaming site which hosts a large community of independent games developers. There is a programming forum for people to ask and answer questions. It also includes information on how people can get started in flash game developing. Along with the programming forum, there is an official Kongregate Developer Center that is available in English and Chinese. There are regular contests for developers to participate in. The prizes for the weekly, monthly and mobile; the weekly prizes are $250 for 1st, $150 for 2nd and 3rd. For the monthly $1500 for 1st, $1000 for 2nd, $700 for 3rd, $500 for 4th, $250 for 5th up to 9th. The prizes for the mobile are $1000 for 1st, $500 for 2nd, $250 for 3rd. The prizes are drawn from the number of votes each developer gets for his or her game.

 This is worth spending time. It is worth the entertainment!

I forgot I used to blog!

Q: How do you know you have not written a blog for a long time?
A: You are not even aware that the link/URL to your blog has changed!!

This has happened with me. No one else!!

I did not even know that my Blog URL has changed from omkarkalbag. blogspot. com to omkarkalbag. blogspot. in

When did it happen, I know not...

The only relief is that I have not forgotten the blogger Id and password! But I have forgotten the purpose why I write blogs. That I do not have time to write then is a different story!

My last post on this blog was on Aug 7, 2011. Since then writing a post never struck me! Too many things were happening all of a sudden. After shifting out from Mumbai to another city, settling here was quite unsettling at first. I was surrounded by new language, new areas to explore, new ways to get the work done and so much more!

Now, most of the work is completed. A time came when I had to think of spending the time fruitfully. That was when I was reminded of my long lost blogging hobby. I spent an hour reading what all posts I wrote since the inception of the blog and was amazed how I managed to scribble out all this. I have written 152 posts excluding this post and one unpublished post on this blog! Although my blog does not have much readership, I wrote all of them for my self.

I do love writing or at least expressing my self. This blog is one way to do it! So I need Ideas to revive blogging. I have now opened the comments page to invite new ideas. What do I write about? Till then I'll work out some ideas myself! If I do not get any ideas, it is better to close this blog. with one "Bye-Bye" post. Why waste electricity and time over things I wont do?

In the next post: Whether I'll continue blogging or end it?