This unreal world

Om Sai Ram


We perceive the world around us through our senses. The senses are capable of identifying objects around us. If a sense organ is faulty or weak then accordingly the world perceived through such a sense organ would definitely be different. For instance if a person is deaf then there is no music in this world for him. Similarly, for a person who can't see green colour, all trees would be colourless. On the contrary, with a strong sixth sense, one can see the spirits, ghosts and similar objects dangling in the surrounding space.

I find that the world is not absolute rather it is unreal. (मिथ्या)

Baba says that it is because of delusion of "Body identification with the self". (देहा भ्रांती ) This delusion is the basic cause of the serpent called ego। It is this serpent that surfaces time and again to delude you to believe the material objects around you to be real. The shame and fame inflicted upon your body is taken by this serpent to your inner self and brings about momentary grief or joy.

Whereas the body is only a vehicle to take you across this sea of life. Therefore baba gave the following simple advice:

मानस भज रे गुरु चरणं. दुस्तर भव सागर तरणं

Thought to ponder….

Whoever the individual, however scholarly, he cannot escape delusion and so he is subject to grief, which acts upon as a break upon activity. Arjuna, the great hero, capable of great renunciation and great wisdom, is deluded by the awful needs of war, and his grief handicaps his activity too. He confuses the body and the self; he starts identifying the two. He imposes on the real self (the Atma - ever untouched by the characteristics of the moving, changing world) the unreal and ephemeral nature of the world and takes this delusion to be true. This is the tragedy not only of Arjuna alone but of all humanity.

(Bhagwan Sri Sataya Sai Baba)

Positive forces are far more stronger than negative

Today reminds us about the bloody, horrific, suicidal attack, by foreigners on simple, unarmed people. It took place on this day exactly an year back. I kept glued to the TV screen for almost a week till the media found some other scintillating news to divert the attention of the people.

Generally, the memory of an ordinary person is very short and with time the pain goes, the wounds heel and the civic society goes back to work. Somehow this incidence refuses to go. In fact it haunts me.

This gory incident has persisted; it has stayed rather every time it comes back to me with newer questions.

Have you forgotten the cowardly act of those faceless, brainwashed jihadis who mercilessly killed hundreds of Indian citizens and guests from abroad?.
Have you forgotten the sacrifice of men in uniform who gave their lives for your safety?.
Or have you absolved "the responsible" of their callousness towards giving befitting reply to our nasty neighbor.

The negative forces always look to be dangerous but in reality they are weak. The drakula, the vampires, ghosts, demons, pishachs like creatures scare those who are weak otherwise they exist in text only. Had they been strong they would have been ruling the world instead of us.


We must wake up to the call of KAAL (The eternal time). Leave the hypocrisy. Call a spade a spade. It is war against us and only we will have to fight and win at whatever level and from whichever side it comes. All Indians from all quarters, casts, religions, have to unite to fight this menace.

This time do not let this incidence of Mumbai whither away in the dust and become a part of history. This time do not leave this unfinished task for your children. Read the following poem every week, if not everyday:

A. K. Sharma

इस बार नहीं

इस बार जब वोह छोटी सी बच्ची मेरे पास अपनी खरोंच ले कर आएगी
मैं उसे फू फू कर नहीं बहलाऊँगा
पनपने दूँगा उसकी टीस को
इस बार नहीं

इस बार जब मैं चेहरों पर दर्द लेखा देखूँगा
नहीं गाऊंगा गीत पीड़ा भुला देने वाले
दर्द को रसने दूँगा,उतरने दूँगा अंदर गहरे
इस बार नहीं

इस बार मैं न मरहम लगाऊँगा
न ही उठाऊँगा रुई के फाहे
और न ही कहूँगा की तुम आँखें बंद करलो,गर्दन उधर कर लो मैं दवा लगता हूँ
देखने दूँगा सबको हम सबको खुले नंगे घाव
इस बार नहीं

इस बार जब उलझने देखूँगा, छ्त्पताहत देखूँगा
नहीं दौडूंगा उलझी डूर लपेटने
उलझाने दूँगा जब तक उलझ सके
इस बार नहीं

इस बार कर्म का हवाला दे कर नहीं उठाऊँगा औज़ार
नहीं करूंगा फिर से एक नयी शुरुआत
नहीं बनूँगा मिसाल एक कर्मयोगी की
नहीं आने दूँगा ज़िंदगी को आसानी से पटरी पर
उतारने दूँगा उसे कीचड मैं,टेडी मेदे रास्तों पे
नहीं सूखने दूँगा दीवारों पर लगा खून
हल्का नहीं पड़ने दूँगा उसका रंग
इस बार नहीं बनने दूँगा उसे इतना लाचार
की पान की पीक और खून का फर्क ही ख़त्म हो जाए
इस बार नहीं

इस बार घावों को देखना है
गौर से
थोड़ा लंबे वक्त तक
कुछ फैसले
और उसके बाद हौसले
कहीं तोह शुरुआत करनी ही होगी
इस बार यही तय कीया है

... प्रसून जोशी

The Confusion about multitasking

Om Sai Ram

I find that there is lot of confusion among students and teachers as well, about the difference between the terms : Multiprogramming and Multitasking. I attempt to clear the prevalent haze through the discussion given below:

Owing to the high computational speed of the processor, somewhere in 60s, the designers took a decision to allow multiple users to connect to the computer system so that maximum utilization could be obtained. Having decided to build a multi-user system, it became mandatory to bring one program of each user into the main memory of the system. This act of bringing multiple programs into the main memory was called as multiprogramming. The precise definition is given below:

Multiprogramming: concurrent residency of multiple programs, belonging to different users, in main memory is called as multiprogramming.

It may be noted that multiprogramming has nothing to do with as how the programs are executed and in what order. In fact, it is the OS that schedules them for execution. However, Multiprogramming required the designers to answer the following two fundamentals questions:

1. Which program will get the main memory.
2. Out of the resident programs, which program will get the Processor.

Additionally, a program belonging to one user was needed to be protected from programs of other users.

Note: a multiprogramming system has to be necessarily multi-user.

The designers found that even after multiprogramming, the processor was sitting idle. Many times the I/O bound program of a user was repeatedly thrown out of processor for want of completion of I/O and the user had to wait. As the user was allowed to submit only one program at a time, the wait became even more significant.

In the light of the above problem, the designers extended the operating system to allow user to submit more than one jobs. A job was considered as a task and hence the term: multitasking. The precise definition is given below:

Multitasking : the ability of a system to allow a user to submit more than one task, is called as multitasking.

Since the various tasks belong to the same user, They need not be protected from each other as vigorously as in the case of multiprogramming.

When the OS is single User, it is called as - single user multitasking.
Example : Windows OS

When the Os is multi-user(and hence multiprogramming also), the Os is called Multi-user, multiprogramming, and multitasking.
Example : Unix.

A. K. Sharma


Thought to Ponder:

God is Love and can be won only through the cultivation and exercise of Love. He cannot be trapped by any trick. He yields grace only when his commands are followed - commands to love all, to serve all.

(Bhagwan Sri Satya Sai Baba)

In response to Manjit's Query

Om Sai Ram

1.As per Von Neumann convention, the default storage/memory is the online memory, referred to as main memory. This architecture consists of a processor, a store (memory) and a communication channel between the two.
2. The books I am referring to do not show any memory outside the CPU and hence the error.

A. K. Sharma

Just a thought

Om Sai Ram

Just now I was reading about the incidence that happened at FORT HOOD. The act itself poses many questions:

Why there is so much of violence in this world?
Is it because of avivek, agayan (lack of discrimination, ignorance)that a person does this act of sacrilege?
Is it because of misinterpretation of our scriptures?
Or is it because of self assumed role of an individual, with a misconception, to correct the world around him, without bothering about the innocent, unarmed individuals who get swallowed by this fire of hate and revenge.


I have traveled to some parts of this land, given to us by God almighty. It is amazingly beautiful. The general people are even more simple and nice. It is the so called pseudo learned and educated individuals who for their vested interests create this environment of confusion, disbelief, and hatred.

Why can't we leave this beautiful world as such for our children.

May be the answer lies in the following statement:

Thought to Ponder:

Man has passed through many animal lives before he has come to earth in human form. Strains of animal nature such as cruelty, anger, greed and hatred still persist in him. Man is many animals in one. He must cast off these traits from his compostion.

(Bhagwan Sri Satya Sai baba)

Inside a CPU

Om Sai Ram

There are many erroneous books available in the market to which many faculty/student refer to. For instance, many books give wrong internal architecture of CPU wherein main memory is shown as an integral part of the CPU.







The student learns this wrong concept in the 1st year itself and carries it with him throughout his life.


The correct internal architecture of CPU is given below:




Where ALU: Arithmetic and Logic Unit
CU : Control Unit
Registers: Temporary/ scratch pad memory locations

A. K. Sharma


Thought to ponder:

Do not sow fear in others' hearts; do not inflict pain on others; do not promote anxiety or grief. If you take pleasure in the pain of others, you only scotch the divinity in you.


(Bhagwan Sri Satya Sai Baba)

The Working of an Interpreter

When a new language is designed, generally an interpreter is built and offered to the users so that they can experiment and give comments/feedback.

The designer of the interpreter goes through the source language, makes a list of the operations/task required to implement the language. For each identified operation/task, the designer writes a function. The main function of the interpreter reads the source program line by line, checks its syntax/semantics. The parsed statement is got executed through an appropriate function.


For instance:

Consider the following program segment :

Read A
Read B
C= A + B
Print C


The above statements can be executed through the functions given below:

int Read ()
{
int val;
cin >> val;
return val;
}

int Add ( int op1, int op2)
{
return op1 + op2;
}

void Print ( int val)
{
cout << val;
}

main ()
{
Step1. open the file.
2. Read a statement
3. Parse the statement
4. get the statement executed through corresponding function
5. repeat steps 2 to 4 till the file
}

A. K. Sharma


Thought to Ponder:

How to control the worldly thoughts:

In order to control the worldly thoughts, one has to reach the level of super mind. Super mind is nothing but superior mind, that which transcends the ordinary mind
Cultivate good thoughts. Good thoughts lead to good actions. Good actions lead to Satsang.

(Bhagwan Sri Satya Sai Baba)

U & I need to Talk: as only human beings can

Om Sai Ram


I have been contemplating for long to start sharing my thoughts and experiences with like minded fellow beings and today on 26th of Oct' 2009, I have taken the first step on his journey of thousand miles. I have interest in two areas:

1.To find who I am
2. To share my knowledge about what I have learnt in Computer Engineering not only as student of this field but also as a teacher at UG and PG level for the last 25 years.

During my interaction with students and many teachers of the field, I have obseved that most of them carry a wrong concept about the difference between a Compiler and Interpreter.

The prevailing Def. about interpreter is: It converts the source program line by line into machine code and executes it.

I have about five books written by various authors that give the above definition with slight difference in words but sticking to the same concept.

In fact, the above given definition is wrong because Interpreter is not a Translator. It is a poor program, only capable of checking the syntax and semantics of the source language. It does not know the architecture of the machine and hence cannot translate. So, interpreter reads the instruction, parses it and executes it.

Therefore the precise def. of interpreter is: An interpreter is a program execution environment.

For details as to how it executes, kindly post your comments on this blog so that together we try to understand the mechanism in detail in our later discussions.


A. K. Sharma


Thought to Ponder:

Birth is consequences of Kama (desire) . Death is the consequence of Kala (Time).
Desire (Kama) was reduced to ashes by Shiva; the God Time is Kala or Yama. He was subdued by by Shiva. So one has to surrender to Shiva(God) if one has to escape the consequence of these two frightfully fatal forces.

(SSS Vol. 7, P179, Bhagwan Sri Satya sai baba).