about.html

---
layout: default
title: "Nishant Uzir"
description: "A brief description about the blog"
---
<div class="about {% if site.scrollappear_enabled %}scrollappear{% endif %}">
  <center>
  <h1>Hello there! Let me tell you a story...</h1>
  <p class = "breakAfter">
    <span class="first-letter">L</span>egend has it that a long time ago, a concerned king put up a reward for anyone in his kingdom who could impart wisdom to his unruly and dense sons, so that eventually they could overlook the administration of the kingdom.
  </p>

  <p class = "breakAfter">
    A scholar named Vishnu Sharma rose up to the challenge. He realised that the princes could never be educated using the conventional methods; he needed something that was entertaining and enlightening at the same time.
  </p>

  <p class = "breakAfter">

    So, adapting the anecdotal stories that had been told for thousands of years, he composed a series of five books named <i><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchatantra" target="_blank">Panchatantra</a></b></i>.
    It consisted of a succession of enthralling animal fables to communicate the principles required to live life wisely.

  </p>
  <p class = "breakAfter">
    Not much is known about the fate of the princes... anyways, that's irrelevant.
    The point is, since time immemorial, humanity has been fascinated by stories.
    In fact, it would not be incorrect to say that stories played an integral part in forming and shaping cultures over time, establishing the moral values of society as we know today.
  </p>
  <p class = "breakAfter">
    From cave paintings to religious scriptures, mythologies to modern novels, speeches to songs, advertisements to political campaigns; all of them tell a story, simply because a story seems to make it easier to convey meaningful information.
    And with every story that we come across, we start making emotional and intellectual connections which in turn shape the way we interpret the world around us.
  </p>
  <h1>Well, here's another story, a technical one...</h1>
  <p class = "breakAfter">
    The year was 2005. With Web 2.0 taking flight, so much data was being generated due to user interactions online,
    that too on a daily basis, that it led to an event called <i><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_explosion" target="_blank">Data Explosion</a></b></i> which
    eventually rendered traditional data management systems inefficient!
    And a new term called <i><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data" target="_blank">Big Data</a></b></i> had to be coined.
  </p>

  <p class = "breakAfter">
    Eventually, the adoption of Internet of Things caught pace and the rate of growth of data skyrocketed.
    As the expression goes, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" - so, this led to the development of new tools capable of handling this "Big Data".
    With these tools, mosaics of data from multiple sources began to be processed to discover trends and correlations and gain insights that ultimately led to better decision making.
  </p>

  <p class = "breakAfter">
    All of a sudden, data became the most useful resource of the 21st century!
  </p>
  <p>
    <i><b>Tensor To Tale</b></i> is an attempt to bring out plausible and amusing stories from data, especially ones that are not immediately apparent.
  </p>
  <h1>Little bit of my own story...</h1>
  <img src="{% asset 'about.jpg' @path %}" alt="About Nishant Uzir header image" title = "That's me"/>
  <p class = "breakAfter">
    My name is Nishant Uzir, last name pronounced like the submachine gun <b><a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/uzi" target="_blank">'Uzi'</a></b> with an <b>'r'</b> added to it, creator and content developer of Tensor To Tale.
  </p>

  <p class = "breakAfter">


      As a kid, I was awestruck by the deductive methods of Arthur Conan Doyle's <i><b><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=sherlock+holmes" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes</a></b></i>.
      So much so, that every now and then I would get lost in deep thoughts wondering how such methods could be used in real life.


      </p>

      <p class = "breakAfter">
      As years rolled by, priorities changed and the urge to animate the sleuth's unique methodologies seemed like some childhood fantasy.
      Then, one evening, I stumbled across this talk <i><b><a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/ben_wellington_how_we_found_the_worst_place_to_park_in_new_york_city_using_big_data?language=en" target="_blank">"How we found the worst place to park in New York City - Using Big Data"</a></b></i>  by Ben Wellington.
      After mapping the most ticketed hydrants in the city, Wellington noticed that one hydrant in particular grossed an extremely high amount of tickets.
      On-site inspection of the hydrant revealed that some misleading markings around the hydrant led the drivers to mistake it for a legitimate parking space.
      </p>

      <p class = "breakAfter">
      What went on for five straight years was resolved withing few weeks after the matter was brought to the notice of the authorities.
      The analysis involved was fairly simple but the benefit was immense!
      </p>
    <p class = "breakAfter">
      This rekindled my ambition of combining observations from data with the right perspective to reach elusive insights and set the stage to create this blog.
      With this blog, I hope to foster an interest among the readers in combining data with narative to convey meaningful information.

  </p>

  <!--<p>
    All opinions and views published in this blog are my own and do not represent that of my employer.
  </p> -->
  </center>
</div>