AIRFARE TO CHARLOTTE

Algorithmic Algebra (Monographs in Computer Science)

Algorithmic Algebra studies some of the main algorithmic tools of computer algebra, covering such topics as Grobner bases, characteristic sets, resultants and semialgebraic sets. The main purpose of the book is to acquaint advanced undergraduate and graduate students in computer science, engineering and mathematics with the algorithmic ideas in computer algebra so that they could do research in computational algebra or understand the algorithms underlying many popular symbolic computational systems: Mathematica, Maple or Axiom, for instance. Also, researchers in robotics, solid modeling, computational geometry and automated theorem proving community may find it useful as symbolic algebraic techniques have begun to play an important role in these areas. The book, while being self-contained, is written at an advanced level and deals with the subject at an appropriate depth. The book is accessible to computer science students with no previous algebraic training. Some mathematical readers, on the other hand, may find it interesting to see how algorithmic constructions have been used to provide fresh proofs for some classical theorems. The book also contains a large number of exercises with solutions to selected exercises, thus making it ideal as a textbook or for self-study.

This is a pic taken on my way from Mumbai to Bhubaneswar. What a journey it was; SPLENDID! It was 31st December, 2007 and the flight took off a li'l before sunrise, capturing on its way, the celebration of entire metro! And for those like me who felt only humans were entitled to New yr's celebrations, this scene is surely an eye-opener. After the experience at Port Blair, I count this among the best lived moments of my life so far. The feel of the flight maneuvering through the dancing colors in the sky was an experience I'l hate to forget.

Lingaraj Temple & Bindu Sagar : BHUBANESWAR

When Orissa was constituted as the eleventh province of British India in 1936, the need for a new capital was immediately evident. In explaining the political, economic, and religious reasons for constructing the new capital of the region at Bhubaneswar, Ravi Kalia notes the often conservative attitudes of the Oriyan people, who initially opposed the transformation of this revered site into a capital city. Before it became the capital of Orissa in 1948, Bhubaneswar had been a temple town and an important Hindu cultural and religious center to followers of Buddhism, Jainism, Shaivism, and Vaishnavism. The presence of so many different religions in fact gave the city its pluralistic character, one of the factors responsible for its eventual selection as the capital city.
The German planner Otto Koenigsberger was hired to implement the design of the new capital city. As Kalia explains, Koenigsberger and the Oriyas disagreed broadly in concept, with Koenigsberger perceiving the development of New Bhubaneswar along secular lines. He saw a flourishing city with political autonomy, organized commercial relationships, and brave new architecture that could accommodate the requirements of modern life. In contrast, the Oriyas wanted the city to retain its close relationship to its religious past. As a result, the conflicting concepts of temple town and capital city struggled for dominance.
In the end, even though Koenigsberger provided a master plan, the developments in Bhubaneswar were carried out by British-trained Indians eager to find their own identity. The final shape and style of Bhubaneswar, Kalia concludes, bear the imprint of Indian religion as much as that of Western rationalism.