Sita - 2

I could not get over Sita Ramam movie and I wrote what could've happened after the movie ended. If you've not watched the movie but intend to, give this post a skip 

“After bearing the cross of humiliation for so long, it’s so liberating to see Ram’s name getting cleared,” Sita thought to herself. She’s sitting on a dais flanked by the who’s who in the army. They’ve arranged a commemoration for Ram and the 41 soldiers that died in the air raids that followed Ram’s capture. Last few days have been taxing on her. So many people met her. Some shared their times together with Ram at the border, some, her sorrow. Right now, all she wants is a good sleep. It’s been a while since her nights weren’t punctuated by nightmares. The meeting finally ended with the national anthem. As she was about to exit the auditorium, she felt a hand on her shoulder. There was a girl standing behind her. She looked skinny and was wearing a scarf around her neck.

  “Do you know Ram?” She asked. “My dad worked in the same unit as Ram. He died in the air raid,” she replied passively. Sita turned around. “I know how it feels, I’m sorry for your loss.” She said trying to put her arm on the girl’s shoulder. The girl moved away instinctively as if something crept over her. “Stay away from me,” she said in a firm voice. “Your husband may have been cleared by the Army. But, he has blood in his hands. If he came back like others that day instead of searching for false valour, my dad would’ve been alive.” She said and left. Sita was reeling in shock. She thought her nightmares are behind her. But, this conversation disturbed her.

  She enquired about the girl with the people she met. Finally, when she met Lt. Ajay, she learnt her story. “Her name is Asima,” Ajay recollected. “Her dad Arif, Ram and I are from the same batch. We shared a very close bond. After Arif’s death, his family got shattered, both financially and psychologically. Despite showing a great promise, Asima couldn’t finish her studies due to lack of money. Her uncle moved from pillar to post to secure some compensation for Arif. But, in this country a peace time martyr doesn’t get the same value as someone who died in war,” he retorted. Sita thanked him for the information and left home.

She kept thinking about it for several days before she finally decided to approach the government. With the help of her contacts, she met with the defence minister. The minister invited her cordially and told her how proud he’s of Ram’s sacrifice. After exchanging pleasantries, Sita explained him her proposal to setup a fund to help the families of servicemen who died during peace time while on duty. The minister thought about it for a while and said, “I like the idea. However, we’re already in a fund crunch. Our soldiers are fighting harsh weather due to lack of good winter wear. Every year hundreds of soldiers die in skirmishes with terrorists. Setting up such a fund isn’t financially viable.”

Sita has never been someone to back down from a challenge. She recollected what her mom used to tell in her childhood. “You are a princess by birth, but you can only become queen by ruling the hearts of people.” She couldn’t bear to see the suffering these families are going through. She decided to sell off her ornaments and setup a scholarship for the kids of families affected by air raids. She personally wrote to all the families. While this gesture got appreciation, it hadn’t been of use to the most because it was too late. Her only consolation was that Asima took up on her offer to continue her studies. 

An year later, Sita went back to the minister and explained her about the scholarship. The minister was very pleased. “You’ve done something that I wanted to do but couldn’t. If you need any support, I am always there with you.” Sita’s eyes lit up. “Actually, I have an idea that can make this scheme sustainable. But, I need your cooperation.” The minister got curious. He invited her to his office the following morning.

Sita worked all night and chalked a plan. The department liked her idea and supported her in refining the idea. Finally, they passed an executive order implementing the scheme. Every year government allocates some budget to insure the troops. The insured value keeps changing every year to account for inflation. Her idea is to modify the scheme such that the insured value increases as per inflation but the sum given to the family in case of death remains the same. The insurance company will use a part of its CSR fund to supplement the difference amount and it is placed as fixed deposit in the name of the family who could use it only education purposes. In case, the soldier doesn’t have kids, the money is given completely. 

Next year’s commemoration saw the princess becoming a queen

 

Qubit

 There’s a famous scene in The Big Bang Theory where Penny asks Sheldon if she should pursue relationship with Leonard. Sheldon explains Penny about the Schrodinger’s cat. It was a thought experiment proposed by Schrodinger to explain superposition in Quantum mechanics. So, what’s Schrodinger’s cat? Imagine a sealed box containing a cat and vile of poison. As long as the box is sealed, we don’t know if the cat is dead because the vile broke or alive. But, if we open the box, the vile of poison could break due to our action and kill the cat. It might not break and the cat could be still alive. So, as long as the box remains closed, the cat can be thought as being both dead and alive at the same time. This peculiar concept is called superposition. It is a key concept we need to know to understand about Qubits.

 

Wait, what’re qubits? Just as how classical computer works using bits, a quantum computer works using Qubits. Qubits are units of information which when measured can give one of the two states. For example, in the Schrodinger’s cat thought experiment, cat being alive is one state and it being dead is another. Let’s denote these states as |0> and |1>(This is Dirac’s notation to represent quantum states). Just as in the experiment, a Qubit can stay in superposition of both the states. What do I mean when I say it can stay as a superposition of two states? Imagine someone created a million copies of the same Qubit. If you measure the value of all the Qubits, some of them can become |0>, others |1>. The state of this Qubit can be represented by

 

S = a |0> + b |1>

 

Quantum mechanics states that the probability that measurement yield |0> is given by square of a and the probability of |1> is b squared. Since the measurement yields either |0> or |1> and probabilities should add up to 1, 

 

a^2 + b^2 = 1. 

 

Also, it is impossible to predict before hand if the measurement yields a |0> or |1> if neither of a nor b is 0. In the above equation, a and b are both complex numbers. So, a Qubit can technically be in infinite possible states even if the measurement always yields a |0> or |1>

 

Why should a and b be complex? Why not real numbers? The state of any entity(electron/photon/muon etc) is given by a wave function. We can imagine wave function as a function of position and time. What it means is that, the probability of finding an entity at a position depends upon the time when it is observed and position where we’re observing. In the young’s double slit experiment conducted with electrons(photons), these entities behaved as if they’re waves. Any wave is characterised by two properties, amplitude and phase. That’s the reason why a complex number is better suited to represent the coefficients of wave function rather than a real number as it represents two properties(real component and imaginary component). Alternatively, you can use two real numbers for each state(one cosine component and one sine component). We are choosing the former.

 

These Qubits are visualised using a Bloch sphere. What’s Bloch sphere and how to understand it will be discussed in the next post