New Horizons

Note: I wrote this for the AICVS Blog in 2018. They have since then moved to a different website. Publishing this here incase the old one is deactivated (Weebly site) Old website:  https://aicvscummins.weebly.com/home/a-brief-introduction-to-solid-state-storage

 Just some bad poetry: --- On Covid: eyes burning  and not from crying is this covid help I'm dying --- For my friends: Ghana Is a place Meghana  Has a face --- Shellfish and cakes Michelle fishes And bakes --- An incomplete poem: (I'll treat anyone who comes up with the last two lines to a coffee) My head is filled with stuff Words are all just fluff And they garble in my mouth Yet I repeatedly spit them out They go back into my brain Through my ears and cause a drain Now my mind is full of crap And has thoughts my head can't wrap  So this poem's come about  On my fourth late night out --- Sad I never thought of a day  When you'd be so far away  I thought we connected  So foolishly, I expected  For you to be there  Waiting for me Read more: https://ruchipendse.blogspot.com/2019/10/sad.html

I like to read. I try to diversify the subject matter to fully utilize my time on Earth by reading the good work of my fellow Earthlings, and accruing knowledge to better understand how the world works.  This is a list of the books I highly recommend: Nonfiction - Simply Einstein: Relativity Demystified, Richard Wolfson - The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, Jonathan Haidt - Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, Matthew Walker - The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance, Nessa Carey - The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood, James Gleick - What is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics, Adam Becker - Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman - The Little Book of Talent, Daniel Coyle - The Demon-Haunted World, Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan - Business Adventures, John Brooks - When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi - Gut: The Inside Story

Blogger's support isn't great.  It took me a while to figure out how to create pages (and have them show up). It turns out that 'Pages' isn't the right place to go (☺☺☺).  How to make pages on Blogger and have them show up Don't go to 'Pages' Make a label you'll use to link the posts to the page Copy the link Go to 'Layout' Click on 'Add Gadget' Decide where you want your pages/subsections of the blog to show up Edit the gadget Click on 'Add External Link' Name the page and add the label's link (that you should've copied) Move pages around according to order preference Click on 'Show Pages' -> Save Et voila! You have pages now. 

Blarb (blurb + blab) There comes a time (usually the middle of the year) when a TBR (to-be-read) starts looking dull and uninteresting. To-be-reads or yearly reading lists tend to suffer from the current bias of being chosen for having great publicity, for being trendy due to societal disruptions, or for being a much-awaited addition to a series. Something of the sort happened to me mid-July [yeah, so not exactly the middle of the year, get over it]. Back in March, when I decided to add books to my 2020 reading list concretely , I thought I'd picked a fair assortment of non-fiction and fiction, of politics and climate change, of politics of climate change, of some core science books related to my domain of interest, and what would hopefully make for interesting reads by writers having a very different perspective than I. However, I soon got disenchanted with the fictional tales I'd chosen to read. I got annoyed at non-fiction authors for not coming to the point. I got deep int

As a continuation of the last post ( Newer Horizons Indeed ), this post will serve as a list of resources that are useful to study the basics of Quantum Computing, a few events that I personally enjoy tuning in to, and a general update about the Qiskit Summer School and the Qiskit Advocate Program. Resources for Learning These articles are a cornucopia of wonderful resources (such as  John Preskill's lecture notes ) on how to get started with Quantum Computing, developing a better understanding of Quantum Mechanics, as well as some resources for pre-undergrad (so mainly highschool-level) material for students to follow. Learning Quantum Computing Entry Points for Learning Quantum Computing The following resources are ones that I have used (before I'd come across the aforementioned articles, thanks to my mentor): Quantum Computing for the Very Curious  by Andy Matuschak and Michael Nielsen It's perhaps the most unconventional "textbook" I've ever used. It aims

I’ve been reading literature that keeps taking me back to narrow Parisian lanes and Shakespeare and Co.  In ‘The Paris Hours’, I had the pleasure of meeting Proust himself, and walking around a lush green garden that I imagined would be swarming with families and children enjoying a weekend together. In ‘A Moveable Feast’, I spoke to Beach, remembering her kindness in ‘The Paris Hours’. In that other book about artists’ habits, I connected with Gertrude Stein’s obnoxious coffee habits.  And now, in ‘Time was soft…’ I live in the bookstore itself, marveling at cheap Parisian dinners and at interesting conversations with fellow inhabitants.   The iridescent bubble bursts and sputters and I am left ashamed at the liberties I have taken with reality. Good writing may engross you, but you can never leave the physical realities of your being.  As for me, I’m bound to my chair, its cushion and plush backrest giving no comfort to the increasing despondence of my knowledge that I have missed an

I decided I'll expand my blog and start writing about my other interests, including quantum computing, information theory, and telecommunications. A bit of context as to why I'm interested in quantum computing in the first place: in the last lap of my first year of undergrad, and for most of the second year of undergrad, I worked under the guidance of my physics professor on (broadly) 'The Problem of Time' (which is basically physicists trying to figure out how to harmonize the concept of time in general and special relativity). We looked at 'time as an emergent phenomenon' which was an experiment carried out by a group in INRIM. Later on, we also checked out David Bohm's interpretation of quantum mechanics and compared a few other schools of thought, which culminated in me reading  "Wholeness and the Implicate Order"  by Bohm. All of this happened because my college was teaching us Quantum Mechanics in the first year of engineering instead of clas

Our Moon has Blood Clots, by Rahul Pandita If you were shocked to find senior journalists in India justifying a series of assaults on the Kashmiri Pandit community by factoring in economic disparities and cultural differences, and want to read literature that serves both as a horrifying account of violence against the Pandit community, as well as a polemic against crass and insensitive mainstream media, this is the book for you. These first-hand accounts of atrocities against the Kashmiri Pandit community leave you shaken; you grow to further despise and distrust the mainstream jargon about Kashmir that only focuses on brutality by the Indian state and the greatness of the separatist movement.  Pandita is generous with his writing; he starts off with a detailed history of Kashmir and Kashmiri Pandits, going as far back as the fourteenth century. You learn a lot about their customs, their poetry, their tales of Kashmiri life, as well as the multitudes of times the community has been for

I read the synopsis for “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng during one of my Goodreads scans; I had been looking for something resembling a certain favorite book of mine, “The Wednesday Wars” by Gary D. Schmidt that I’d read as a child, all warm and cozy in my bed. Years later, I re-read the book to comfort me and remind me of nicer times. I wanted that feeling again, but this time, with a whole assortment of higher-reading level books to go to in times of need. True to its name, “Everything I Never Told You” is riddled with things left unsaid, thoughts buried deep in one’s head, emotions hidden neatly under masks of calm, of happiness, of normalcy.  It’s an exhausting read and I mean it in the nicest way possible. Turning each page is like pushing yourself further down a deep well filled with honey; the saccharine taste of despair suffocates you as the brilliance of Ng’s work effortlessly tugs you along through the viscous despondence into the lives of the f

There are so many things I want to write, so many unwritten, unsaid thoughts that swim haphazardly in my mind. One would hope the ritual of putting pen to paper, the mesmerizing effect of seeing wet ink glisten momentarily on a cream-write sheet and sink into it, bonding with the fibers that exist solely to capture the sighs of minds around the world as they are relieved of the burden of thoughts strung together by one idea, one experience-- one would hope that that legacy would invoke some sense of talent or creativity and stitch some words together, embroider that fabric with musical, poetic phrases and thoughts dug up from the mercurial sheen that exists, glowing seductively, at the back of one’s mind. One could say, one hopes too much. I wonder if I shall ever write anything great -- a novel or a verse of poetry. To read something well-thought-out, something well described, something expressed so entirely in essence that it leaves one wanting more, craving that inference into deepe

Veering to the dingiest, darkest corner of the cafe, I look around at the scattered patrons. All of them seem to be thoroughly engrossed in their conversations or their past, these couples: leaning forward, sometimes holding hands, sometimes playing footsie, a pair of feet dancing quietly under the table. There are only couples here, only couples come here, they only have couples here I notice. It's cute, the slightly awkward shift they do as they decide whether they want to sit side by side or across from each other. It's unmistakable, the smiles that touch the corners of their mouths as they drink from their straws; what they have in mind isn't known to just them, it's known to me too, as I sip my (non-alcoholic) Irish coffee. I keep thinking to myself about how college was supposed to be a transformative experience, how it was supposed to alter my minor self to a fleshed-out adult character, as if in a coming of age novel, as if through a smooth montage of