Friday, April 29, 2005

A Statistical approach to estimate the “value” of LIFE.

Owing to the limitation in the English language I refer 'LIFE '(in capitals) to uyir / sans and 'life' (in small) to vAzhkkai / jeevan.
The task in hand is to estimate the “value” of LIFE. A simple but profound and most commonly used statistical tool to estimation is Simple Linear Regression Analysis. So to every regression analysis there exist a dependent variable and set of independent variables. It is governed by the principle equation
Y = [beta]n * [X]n + e
In the above equation the dependent variable is Y and the independent variables are represented in matrix notation [X], which means a set of variables X1, X2 …. Xn. So the idea is to estimate the value of the variable Y using already known values of [X]. [beta] is the slope of fit, which implies the dependency of Y over [X]. Finally the factor called ‘e’ which is the error value.
Here, the “unknown” variable LIFE adorns the hat of the dependent variable. To estimate this quantity we perform a regression analysis called life, with lot of hypothesis testing considering all the variables that helps us determine the value of LIFE.
To begin with let us first try and list all the independent variables;Parents, Spouse, Friends, Teacher, Colleagues, Children, Siblings, Nationality,Relatives, education, name, fame, wealth, occupation, Gender, language etc.
Mathematcally;
LIFE = B1*Parents+ B2*Spouse+ B3*Friends+ B4*Teacher+ B5*Colleagues+ B6* Children+ B7*Siblings+ B8*Nationality+ B9*Relatives+ B10*Education+ B11* Name+ B12* B13*Fame+ B14*Wealth+ B15*Occupation+ B16*Gender + B17* Language +e
(hint1) A very important scope of error to any statistical analysis technique is the Assumption of NORMALITY of variables. So beware and do test for normality before performing the Regression Analysis. But most often we assume them to be NORMAL considering the insufficiency of DATA to test.
The next step is to perform hypothesis testing with all the variables and figure out which ones are really SIGNIFICANT variables in estimating the value of LIFE. As a conservative statistician let us consider a 95% significance level. At this level with the available limited DATASET (my experience) the test resulted in the following.
LIFE = B1*Parents+ B2*Spouse+ B3*Friends+ B4*Teacher+ e.
The [beta] matrix or the slope we derive out of the test is what is called as knowledge. That is the virtue of the dependency we have on these significant variables. This measure is used to estimate the future values of the dependent variable.
In any statistical estimation methodology we have an important term called ‘e’ to make the equation sensible and realistic. This measure accounts for all that is unaccounted for n the estimation. This entity can neither be measured nor defined. This, I term it as DIVINITY or GOD.
Am I missing something…….
Oh my god yet another common blunder. Test for independence!!!!!
Oh Jeez! I now realize that I should have performed a multivariate analysis considering the dependency of the variables.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

peN pAkkum padalam

This is the topic that is most discussed amongst the people I relate to the most. The common place that every eligible (?) bachelor visits before marriage.
For whatever reasons, I still feel that our Indian society works the patriarchic way. So when does the Boy’s family really venture into the formality itself.?Does it not happen after all the screening, matching, compromising (parihAram) have been made? Somebody out there, please explain to me the necessity for this formality? Assuming there is some sanity to the explanations provided, why is it that the Guy’s family takes the first step in mouthing out the cliché poi solli anupparom, why is it the Girl’s family never ever heard of coming out with something like, ootanda solli anupparen.
Biologically, it is a proven fact that men are indecisive when it comes to choosing their soul-mate. So why the $@#!% the custom?
Will they ever realize how painful it is to be portrayed as unfit to live with in front of the whole contingent of friends and relatives? Though they are much more intelligent in choosing their life partner? I think in the whole of animal kingdom, Humans, that too the Indian community is the only species, where the parents court to aid their younglings progeny.

Ain’t it funny and degrading?

Ps: (?) in line 2 was to mark the pun on the word eligible.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

ilakkiya nAyagan

en iniya thamizh makkaLe,
Read the title again. Now close your eyes, think about it for a minute!Was it "nadigar thilagam"? I can bet the hit rate would at least be close to 90%.I just finished reading "pArthibhan kaNavu", second one I am reading written by Kalki Krishnamurthy. Believe me, every single character that adores the "rAjpAt", as it is famously referred to in the "thamizh" theatrical circles, the picture that comes to my mind is this man. There have been many an actor who have taken up the princely act, from MKT to Kamal Hassan, but to me "ara neRi" (note the chinna ra) in its picturesque form only reminds me of Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan. How I wish he was orn a little later. The Indian movie makers, with the modern way of movie making, could have made a better use of this actor with more support from other departments of film making.

"mahAnubavarkku en vandhanangal"