TO Friends and Family Acknowledgements

insights and guidance throughout my stay at IISc. I would also like to thank all my friends and fellow researchers from whose machines I have recorded the data that is important for my work. Further, I have had many stimulating conversations with Suparna, Piyush, Aarthi, Arvind, Gupta, Amar, Bharath, Raghu, Priyanka and Poorna that I will look back on with pleasure. Last, but not the least, I thank my family for standing by me during my many moments of frustration. Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind