The determination with which she went about pursuing her goal for setting up an abode for these people, taking care of them, bringing their plight to notice of others, and tirelessly working for their betterment was something that has to be learnt.

Dr. Sulatana is not the only one doing this, there are thousands like her all over India who have pursued their goals of helping people in need. Some of the goals pursued are old-age homes, adult education, schools, women welfare and vocational training.

One has to be determined enough to pursue what one is convinced about and have understanding of what one is about to do. Just the joy of seeing one’s work helping others is a very fulfilling experience.

This tribute to Sehwag makes a grand statement about his abilities, including redefining batting for years to come, and the notion of “bad ball”.

Kudos to Sehwag!

This year showcased Plastic  Logic’s flexible digital book reader that is flexible and very thin (compared to Kindle).

I expect the digital book Readers to become eNotebooks (registers). Most people will just carry such thin sheet of plastic and electronic pen  to do their day-to-day work and share it with others. Students in classroom will take notes, do projects, submit assignments and write exams using such eNotebooks.

I expect this to happen within next five years. And I look forward to that day!

BTW - Best consumer product in the show was Panasonic 3d Plasma TV as judged by CNET.

How does one overcome the feeling of deprivation?

One has to increase one’s own understanding on what we need (not what others need) and why.  One can do this through introspection and carefully evaluating one’s requirements. Once we are able to overcome this sense of deprivation, one can lead  a much happier life.

Check

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_synthesizer for electronic music instruments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_music for larger scope of computer music.

I have not seen much work in synthesizing Indian musical instruments like Santoor, Sitar, Veena, Ghatam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghatam), Tabla, etc. Much of this work is doable.

How do you test whether your synthesized ‘Ghatam’ program is as good as real ghatam? Send  it to Carnatic music experts and ask them to evaluate the performance. If human experts cannot differentiate synthesized ghatam from real ghatam, you have achieved the basic solution. After that one can look at improvising the instrument further.

There is an annual Computer Music Conference. Check

http://www.computermusic.org/

for latest work in this area.

Many sports have this, especially when scoring in basket ball, or heading the ball in football/soccer, but there is typically a recovery factor. May be someone will do a study to determine, that in T20 matches luck matters more than in any other sports.

What is amazing about his story was his sheer dedication to his desire to provide quality eye care to poor and  needy. Even though he was handicapped (fingers crippled) he performed over hundred thousand extremely delicate successful eye surgeries.

In 23 years his eye care system with hospitals are world class and a leading authority in eye care research with systems to deliver quality service.

Many a times we feel that we do not have time to do something we desire and are afraid to start on a new path. Dr. Venkataswamy essentially showed that it can be done at any time of our life.

Out of the blue comes a 17 year old Boris Becker who goes on to win the cup as first unseeded player,  and bring glory to himself and his country.

I was 22 years then, and had absolutely no impact. It got me thinking – how amazing is a  human being. Boris would have worked really hard, must have had terrific willpower, tremendous skill set to courageously perform. He had  an extreme desire and achieved it. Just at the age of 17 years.

There are many more people like Boris, before and after 1985! but Boris I will never forget, for putting my life in perspective then and there.

They can become proficient enough to make a decent living by doing what they are most proficient about, and in many cases reach world-class in their fields.

As Malcolm Galdwell says in his book Outliers, it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to become world class in any field.  About 1,250 days (~ four years) of 8 hours/day of concentrated effort.

This is also true for academicians and scientists – most of the Nobel prize (or equivalent) winning scientists have toiled for long hours, spent lot of think time to make breakthroughs that brought in new understanding for human kind.

Can everyone do it – yes! but there is a big mountain to cross -

you need to work hard to work harder,

the harder you work the easier it gets!

Most people lose out on “working hard to work harder”, and cannot reach the next step!

But once you reach the next step -

Your field becomes your life!