Thoughts And Trivia

Living By The Ganges

2007-10-20T19:37:00.000+05:30

Its an honour to be living on the banks of the holy river Ganges. Ganges is full of life - nee its life itself .....
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Ganga is life, Life is like Ganga
Its sometimes clear and often muddy like life
Its mostly calm but sometimes in furious spate like workedup emotions
Its mighty but also humble in face of obdurate obstacles like us
It can take you across safely or drown you despite all your resouces
It has a new face new geometry everyday
Ganga is life, Life is like Ganga

Floods In Bihar Stay Mainly In The Plains

2007-10-19T22:23:00.000+05:30

Floods in Bihar are seen to be believed. North Bihar has so many rivers criss-crossing it - all coming down from Himalaya.
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This year rains were particularly furious. From July onwards, till even today only embankments of Roads and Rail can only be seen, rest is under water. Imagine how beneficial it will be if we could harness all this water. How? Linking all the rivers? Storing this water some-place-else undergroung or otherwise.

A Rough Guide To Life

2006-12-26T22:11:00.000+05:30

In physics most of the equations have a large number of terms. For ease of computations we ignoring less significant terms. Moreover in a phenomenon we ignore minor effects of weaker forces - for example when we study mechanics of two moving stones, we ignore the insignificant gravitational attraction between the stones.
If this is not done it would be impossible to learn or teach physics - at all. These approximations do not take away the validity of the conclusions arrived at.
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Similar is the model of life that we as a child, are handed down.
Its only a rough guide to life.
As we grow we learn the many nuances which do not jell with what we had been taught. Like:-

Honesty is not the least cost alternative.
The meek do not inherit the earth.
Cheating may be profitable many times.
Truth does not always triumph.

But as a rough guide to living - what we are handed down is superb and the nuanced exceptions discovered by us do not negate the essence of rough guide.

Birth Before Conception

2006-12-17T07:51:00.000+05:30

During screening of a Film on Chengiz Khan in our college's (IIT Delhi) open Air Theatre in 1969, the scene of the heroine giving birth to child was shown before the scene of her rape that resulted in the pregnancy - due to erroneous shuffling of film cartridge by a sozzled projectionist.
But film making is like that. First scene may actually be shot in the end. Or the scene in Vienna may actually be shot in a studio in Mumbai. Even the Hero fighting the villain may not actually be the Hero - but only his substitute. Thus film breaks down boundaries of time, geography and personalities.
So does Information Technology (IT).
Read Further on ...Apart from the mere increased efficiency, the sociological effects of IT on an organization are also similar (in a subtle way). It breaks down the debilitating departmental and geographical divisions in the organization. Its tones down the hierarchical rigidities. It makes a mockery of office-hours and allows 24X7 support to the customer. It de-individualises the personality behind a job - your call may be answered by a Bangalorean with a false accent!
It shifts the power balance away from megalith organizations towards the customer. It thus makes the organization more cohesively oriented towards its customers.
All these effects are sorely required in government to shift focus to citizens. Hence thorough implementation of IT in all Govt processes are a must.
Perhaps some more research on this may be needed.
Bertrand Russel also discussed the impact of Science on Society - in particular shift of power balance between the individual and the society.
Please do come back again, I will blog about that later!!

Nature As An Architect

2006-11-26T09:32:00.000+05:30

During a whirlwind tour of Bhopal (the capital of State of Madhya Pradesh), I came to know of ancient cave art site called “Bhimbetka” – some 45 KMs away. Being interested in evolution of Man, I immediately decided to visit it. I had not known that such sites were there in India (despite its ancient civilization), although I had heard that these were discovered in Europe and USA.
Bhimbetka means the place where Bhim (A revered mythological figure) used to sit.
It was mind-boggling.
Read Further on ...BTW – ancient cave art is called “Petroglyphs”. The word comes from the Greek words petros meaning "stone" and glyphein meaning "to carve". These are left by Neolithic men from about 10,000 yrs BC onwards.
What I learned about the petroglyphs, you can find a description also at Wikipedia.
But the point that has been missed in all its descriptions are the Geographic - Architectural beauty of the rocks in which these caves are.
These rocks are said to have been under water in a river or a lake much before Neolithic men came on earth. This site was part of “Gondwana” continent which moved away from Africa and later abutted Asian plate and became Indian peninsula. The action of water has sculpted the rocks. These look like a multistoried skyscraper, with caves at various levels. There is a marked appearance of windows (holes) carved in rock. Many caves have natural ventilating openings in the rear. Stones lie atop other rocks, perfectly balanced on a point. You see Nature as an Architect. You feel the emrging balance between malleable flow of stone imparted by the power of hydraulics - in opposition to hardiness of rocks. The whole area has a playful architecture - A narrow opening leads you to a sudden vast open area. In fact this fairy-tale site is fit to excite the artist in you. No wonder that world’s best petroglyphs were created here.
I have decided to return to it with my painting material later – although I haven’t painted for last 10-12 years. I will post the pictures of the rocks later.
The petroglyphs at Bhimbetka are a continuous series of paintings by generations of Humans dating from 10,000 BC to about 400 AD. The initial ones are in white chalk and the latest ones in red mineral - still used in India for religious ceremonies – it’s called “Geru”. Intermediate ones are in vegetable dyes of yellow and green colour. My surmise is that some others may have been lost since they might have experimented with dyes which are not so permanent.

Themes also show differences. Those in white from 10,000 BC only show hunting of animals by co-operating gangs of men. While the ones in red – the latest ones – also show two men fighting each other with spears (photo above). Progress of civilization!

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

2006-11-07T07:44:00.000+05:30

Its a common but ancient adage - "A stitch in time saves nine". I applied it to some of the photos taken while on a visit to New York, USA.
A panorama of Manhattan Bridge as viewed from Brooklyn Bridge is a stitching of 3 photos.

Click for more stitches ...

A panorama of New York Skyline as seen from the Ferry from coastline near Bowling Green is stitched from two photos.

At the Liberty Island, 5 statutes of its contributors cannot be captured in one shot. Here are two photos stitched together.

Making Capitalism and Socialism Meet

2006-09-23T17:26:00.000+05:30

Capitalism is the dominant dogma today. Socialism or communism have proved to be no match. Capitalism is not without weaknesses - cyclic stagnation-inflation and economic-meltdowns. But is there a better alternative?
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At least in poor countries capitalism exploits the full potential of a minority elite class. Even in rich countries, upper and middle class are the only enthusiastic participants in the capitalistic and democratic game. This leaves out a very large poor populace which is indifferent to the polity.

If this large poor populace enthusiastically participates in capitalism - its weaknesses can be overcome. This can come about if we ensure that these people stand to gain in the economy. Can this be done by bringing prices down by playing on larger volumes?

Lets take an example. If price of an electronic equipment (TV or Digital Camera or a digicam) is kept at one-fourth of present day price, the volume would perhaps go up by 8 times. Can profit still be made at this price-volume combine. Perhaps it may also need toning down the astronomical levels of expenses on Salaries, Advertisements or celebrity endorsements. Perhaps standardization of sub-assemblies across the industry may be required. Perhaps the whole industry would have to integrate its supply-chain-management.

If this theory could be worked successfully, economy will be more stable because of large consumer base. It will have higher velocity of money (i.e. same Dollar will change large number (say 1,000,00) of hands productively = as good as one dollar doing the job of 1,000,000 dollars).

Imagine this getting applied to air-travel.

It can be done! This was proved in recent turn-around of Indian Railways. Where instead of increasing the prices in tandem with increasing input costs - a strategy of higher volumes at same price (or even discounts) was tried out successfully. Today Indian railways is poised for an exponential growth - although Economist had earlier written off the organization.

The spirit behind it was empathising with and focusing on large numbered poorer customers.

This is how capitalism was made to to stretch and meet socialism.

Its would be missing the point if this is viewed merely as a turn-around story. I think it is a seminal and paradigm shift.

A new "ism" has been created bridging the socialism and capitalism.

The Four Eternal Quests

2006-02-16T14:06:00.000+05:30

Humans are driven by four basic quests - which determine our whole behaviour. I have alluded to these earlier also but here are they in nut-shell!!!!
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What am I?
Where am I? How do I fit in here?
Why am I here, what am I supposed to do here?
How can I ensure survival of my genes over the generations?

A Difficult Man To Live With

2006-01-27T13:50:00.000+05:30

We all think ourselves to be very simple beings, while others are complex, difficult and devious. The whole world is at fault, not me - is the normal assumption. Am I an easy person to live with?
Read Further on ...I do realise that I am perhaps quite a difficult and irritating person up close. Main reason is that I am perhaps out of synch with the world and people around me. Firstly, physically, I am too short, wispy thin, bald with a dome-like head - nothing, but nothing worth a second glance. I like clowning acts, before children in particular. My physical presentation is like one of these clowning acts - meant to amuse or tease others. I take an impish delight in it.
I occupy myself most of the time with solitary pursuits - that leaves others out. Who will be interested in Quantum Mechanics, Particle Physics, Computers etc.
Entertainment like Movies, Shows, Eating out etc I do not do often - I get bored too soon.
But then there must be some good in me - that my wife has borne with me for last 30 years!!!
That does not dilute the fact that I am a difficult person to be up-close. Do I take a wry delight in this also?? HA! HA! gotcha.

A Mind Full Of Tunes

2006-01-24T21:51:00.000+05:30

Lately I am cataloguing my Music Collection - old Himdi Film Songs. I am amazed at the number of tunes that mind is full of.
Read Further on ...Hindi Film Songs have been an important part of my childhood and youth. I am amazed at the number of tunes that whistle in my mind. At present my collection includes only 1600 songs. But I can recall all the tunes, lyrics and artists in most cases. Some of the songs ante-date my birth in 1950, but are part of my growth-lore. Say 1945 to 1990 - after which I lost touch. My admiration for the artists who created these songs has grown tremendously during this project. What intoxication they must have felt about their creativity and Art? Bless them Lord!!
Of the singer, composer and lyricist - whom do I admire more? I admire the lyricist most - the creativity and imagination is his only his. Then comes the composer and in the end the singer.
What do you think?

O' God, Take Me From Light Towards Darkness

2005-11-12T19:53:00.000+05:30

Slogan written under India's Official Symbol of three Lions, is in Sanskrit Language:
"Tamso Maa Jyotirgamya". This is a prayer to God to "Take (guide) me from Darkness (ignorance)towards Light (enlightenment). But I find the reverse journey very exhilarating."
Read Further on ...I go for a walk every morning to a botanical park by the sea-side. The pathway is shielded by dense trees. This seclusion gives a sense of being shielded from daily humdrum life. But, of course you are in the company of scores of familiar faces of regulars.
Recent floods in Mumbai, left the electrical cables damaged in the park. Now it has no lights in the evening. They still allow you to take walk up to 7:30 pm. By 6:45 pm its already dark.
I find walk in evening from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm as almost a spiritual experience. There is only faint stray light. One walks aided by the habitual knowledge of the twists and turns of the pathway. The feeling of seclusion from everyday life is now total, since one can't even see the familiar faces of regulars. Dark shilhouette and faint patterns of lights on the ground create a heightened sense of surrealism.
One is all to oneself - in a totally unreal, weird, unfamiliar setting - this is the key to reach an uncommon mental state.(please see my post on gaining consciousness after being put under anesthesia)
One savours the present moment cocooned in the darkness. Its almost like meditating. Its now easier to defocus the past. What has happened in past is not by any hidden design. All that happens is just a random happening - to be accepted as such, not part of any trend or design. With these thoughts one gets magnanimous towards people around you - and not be anxious of what may happen in future. The more you are with such thoughts the more one clings to the present moment. Its a exhilarating spiral descent into self.
Its the journey back from garden through bright city-lights that is physically "Tamso Maa Jyotirgamya". But it is in the darkness of the park, that I am guided from ignorance to enlightenment. I wait until dark to get it!

Like Dogs do it - Conduct Business Openly

2005-11-06T11:39:00.000+05:30

Volker committee report, instituted by UN has reported financial-scam of astronomical scale in UN sponsored Oil-For-Food program in Iraq. Is it not another example that our primordial-evolutionary ingrained programme makes human cheats, dishonest and hypocrites at heart.
Read Further on ...So sad! This is nothing but snatching of food morsels from the hands of hungry Iraqis by a few influence wielders.
In general what are sure-shot ingredients which facilitate such large-scale corruption : -

1) When there is a large, artificial gap between the market-rate and the transaction-price. This gap is called "Rent" creation by Economist.

2) When such "Rents" are assigned, allocated or awarded in non-equitable, non-transparent and non-competitive manner, for reasons other than commercial.

3) When access to facts of such transaction is not made public for sake of commercial secrecy.

4) Even if 2) and 3) above are followed but when the group capable of such transactions is small and forms a cartel.

Why could such shenanigans escape the notice of press and public? What should be done?
Firstly UN should be reformed to conduct its business in competitive, transparent, equitable manner and in Public. It should also have an Ombudsman to look into such misdemeanors. There should also be external audit by independent experts.
Secondly, press and public has to be vigilant.
I also think UN should setup a mechanism to monitor large flows of moneys in the world economy and make these public. Drug trafficking, Terrorist funding, corruption and such scams would get detected. Violation of privacy of individuals and corporates is no arguments against it. After all commercial transactions are in public domain.

Business should be conducted like dogs do it - openly!

Mother Of All Tourism

2005-10-31T18:32:00.000+05:30

Discovery Channel had made a DVD regarding the "Out Of Africa" theory of Human migration based on mitochondria Genes. What is new in this?
Read Further on ...I have written earlier also on this theory of there being only one original Woman {Lucy) from which all of us are descendants, based on the Mitochondria. (By the way: I should make a subject wise archive on this blog, instead of monthwise. I would do it ASAP).
Still what was intriguing was how could large number of humans crossed the sea at various points. The fact is that at that time, there was a sever ice-age and as a result the sea level was about 160 Ft. lower than today. Therefore, what appear to be islands today, actually were connected through shelves of land(which are now submerged).
But still there was about 100 miles of sea from Malaysia to Australia. This the Humans did cross by reed boats. Why and how did they navigate is not clear.
All this is based on mitochondria evidence and real archeological evidence is still weak.

Vi R U S(ick)

2005-10-23T14:15:00.000+05:30

Virus! Vi r u s(ick)! Bird-Flu pandemic scare scares us all. Sometime back it was SARS. I wonder what the viruses are upto?
Read Further on ...Virus in dormant form are not living things but large protein molecules. Still the tendency to perpetuate their genes is much more virulent than in larger living things. The animal-human viruses like bird-flu, mad-cow disease and SARS create a pandemic. Even AIDS is rumoured to have passed on from monkeys to humans. I suspect a purely human (or purely animal) virus is not virulent since its not programmed genetically to totally wipe-out its parasite-host. In animal-human virus this restraint is not seen. Does my hunch make sense?
Virus spreads from one living parasite-host to another, but not from vegetable and fruit. Why are vegetable kingdom immune to cross vegetable-human virus? If we all revert to vegetarian diet and stop keeping pets except in Zoo, can we avoid at least animal-human viruses - that are a real danger?

Economic Tsunami

2005-10-10T14:03:00.000+05:30

As mentioned in one of my earlier post, commonly held belief that if we don’t meddle with nature, Nature would ensure survival of human race – is not correct. Our universe is a violent and unstable place born in violent Big-Bang and brought up in equally violent events like supernova bursts etc. It’s not natural for life to develop and survive in such a universe.  Life is too fragile and too freak a phenomenon to be infinitely sustainable.
World economy is also a similarly unstable and ruthless phenomenon.
Read Further on ...Our understanding of it is rather sketchy. What makes it tick and what makes it go into cycles of depression is hardly understood.  There are theories in this regard but none has predicted the next disaster – which is the real test for any theory to be true.
Globalisation of world economy (The flat world) is forcing the fault lines of world economy to realign, without our knowing it.  The changing political balance of power in post cold-war period is another unsettling force.
Earlier in segregated economies a meltdown in one country did not affect others.  Thus the world as a whole could climb back out of the abyss.
Globalisation and overheating of economy and fast pace of its growth in China etc. could lead to a world-wide economic meltdown. It will be difficult to climb out of such a global economic tsunami.
We should concentrate on understanding the forces shaping the global economy with as great urgency as possible.
What do you think? Please leave a comment

Why No Noble For Mahatma

2005-10-08T17:37:00.000+05:30

Isn't it a surprising thing, that Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi for most of us) never received a Nobel Peace Prize.
Read Further on ...The Maha(The great)-Atman(Soul) developed, preached and practiced non-violence as a potent weapon against the British Colonists. And this non-violent struggle was mainly responsible for India winning the freedom (its a lie that it was granted to us). His philosophy influenced other freedom movement leaders like Nelson Mandela; African-American rights leaders etc.
In World's fight against Terrorism, Mahatma Gandhi's non-violence can be potent answers. Those who use terrorism as a weapon could realise that much more can be gained for their causes through Mahatma's methods than by violence.
We should place him in the category of Mahatma Budha. We should be utterly grateful that Mahatma Gandhi didn't leave us his dogma in form of a religion or a family clan - which he was in position to do so. His followers would have converted his sound philosophy into an inane dogma and pushed it down the throat of others - in a non non-violent way. That is what fanatical followers of religions do to the noble principles of their religions.
Then why didn't he receive Nobel Prize? It is learnt that he was nominated for the award in 1937,1938, 1939 1and 1948. But some internal petty minded referees chose to stress on some of his eccentricities rather than to his greatness.
Nobel Prize is poorer for this faulty judgement.

Thread And Cup Telephone Exchange

2005-10-05T13:33:00.000+05:30

I cherish my invention as a kid, of a Telephone Exchange for kid’s thread and ice-cream cup toy telephones. The invention is extremely simple. I wonder why no other kid had invented it before (or after). The high that this generated still provides me a sense of achievement.
Read Further on ...I initially tried to find a solution to the problem that such thread and cup telephones can only function in straight line, but not across a bend. If there is any obstruction on the way which touches the thread, it did not function.
I made a large diaphragm of paper on a cardboard cut out. This card-board diaphragm I fixed at the corner(Bend in passage) at 45⁰. Threads from two perpendicular directions were anchored to this diaphragm. The threads could be kept taut without touching the bend. Now you could talk from two perpendicular directions.
It was a simple step further to make a cube of card board (withot top and bottom panel). Diaphragms of paper were fixed on four cardboard cutout sides of this cube. Then these diaphragms were connected from inside of cube by taut threads to the diaphragm perpendicular to it on its right, which in turn was connected to the perpendicular one on it's right thus completing a circuit of all four diaphragms For better results the opposite diaphragms were also connected by separate threads. This cube I fixed on the roof of the concourse in the house. Now threads from all directions could be connected to the four diaphragms of this cube.
This was the thread telephone exchange which allowed me to talk to any other threaded telephone. The important point was that the other telephone could even be hidden behind a wall, but I could talk to it. All my siblings played with it various spy games etc.
Great! and simple. NO!!

Brains, Brawn and Genes

2005-10-04T13:04:00.000+05:30

My recurrent theme (and a pet peeve) is that the intrinsic animal instincts of humans are in conflict with the mores of our society due to which the institution of marriage is crumbling. A newspaper report says that in UK, more and more men and women are finding marriage to be incompatible with professional and personal time-demands. Is there no way out?
Can we refashion our mores of society (or the institution of marriage)to be more in tune with our basic animal instincts?
Read Further on ...Some virus like programming in our minds makes humans(women not excepted)to be polygamous. Its as if an alien being takes hold of our psyche. Would you not expect that we should have been programmed to place our own survival as a top priority. But no, its passing forward our genes to a mate perceived to have best genes (person with brawn rather than brains), that appears to be ingrained as top priority in our psyche - even at the cost of our own survival. Unsinn (non-sense) ganz verruckt (total madness)- as the Germans would say.
On the other hand humans also want to optimise their chances of physical survival by selecting a mate with best ability to provide food (and monetary safety). In stone age these two qualities coincided, because the best mating genes was also the mate with best ability to hunt food. Not any longer in modern society, where brains (with a minimal brawn) dictate ability to provide food and monetary security - rather than brawn alone. Thus humans want to mate with brawny candidates but want to marry the brainy ones.
This is what threatens the institution of marriage.
Single parents, Live-in relationships, procreation thru in-vitro child-birth, step-parent are all off-the-cuff reactions to this dilemma.
While the animal instincts would not go away, social-contract expectations from marriage would get refashioned. We cannot predict the ultimate solution society would arrive at, by trial and errors. But the fundamental approach could be that on one-hand women would get freedom to choose father (not necessarily their husbands) of their children. On the other hand men would be freed from the life-time financial responsibilities towards their spouses and family.

Use It Or Loose It

2005-09-27T09:36:00.000+05:30

How and what our mind, recalls, is a great mystery. Sometimes we marvel at it, when it dredges out long forgotten things - in mint fresh condition. Other times, we rue its incapability to recall the name of a person, we seem to know quite well. How is it different from the way a Computer recalls data from its data-base.
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In computer a data-base is organised in such a way that each piece of information and its closely related data (together called a record - the thing you see in a row of data in printed form)is stores in memory that is assigned an address number. Thus basically if you know the memory address of that data, it can be retrieved. But Data-Base software shield you from this memory address problem and allows you to recall whole record if you know even one piece of data in that record.
But human mind does not function this way. It has no user accessible memory location address. It fetches data if you know the contents of that data itself (then there is no need to retrieve it) or other pieces of data which your mind thinks were linked to that data at the time of storage. Thus at the time of storing, mind forms association of that data with other data. This association is the key to retrieval. Therefore for recalling a data mind requires triggering hints or a series of them
The number and complexity of such associations is peculiar to each human.
When younger, I had phenomenal memory for faces, although I never recalled the name.
Even if I saw a person once, 20 years later, I could recall the place where we had met and other persons associated with both of us. Also what had he said to me at that time!
I was also good at weird linking of obviously un-connected data.
At the same time I was very poor in medium term memory - where had I put my reading glasses yesterday?? My mind would give seemingly weird hints. "I had placed it at secure place, where nobody can accidently step on it". "When I was helping my wife in kitchen". "What about eating an orange?" I used to tear my hair deciphering these hints - I don't want to eat an orange, I want my reading glasses. Of course I was butt of various family jokes about this memory failure. Reading glasses were finally found in the Refrigerator Freezer!!!
Things have changed a lot during last 40 years. Pressures of job and wife have made me very good at medium term memory. A picture immediately flashes, where had I put my glasses. But I have also to a large extent lost that complex connectivity of data in brain. I neither remember the name nor the face of a person I had spent hours with only last year.
Mind is a pliable tool, the way you use it, it responds to the needs of your life.
As they say - Use It Or Loose It.
Take Care!!

Father As A Human

2005-09-22T07:17:00.001+05:30

Maybe due to some psychological programming, we fail to notice the human side of authority figures like - Parents, Teachers, Police Officers and of course Bosses. As we plod towards our own grave, each new experience could help us understand, more and more the Human, that our Father was. And that would help us understand the Human inside us!
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(Substitute "Parents" for "Father", if you like).
It is when, we have the first look at our first child, in the hospital crib, that we understand the basis of the love our Father had for us. That way we can better understand our own bonding with this bundle of our own flesh.
As we go through the growth of our children, we can understand why our Father was so restraining to our activities (Don't, Don't, Don't) - his fears of us getting hurt. We can let our children out a bit more, due to this understanding of fears of our father. We can say 'yes go ahead' and wince and pray to GOD for their protection.
(On the other hand, understanding children is much easier, since we have gone through the same set of fears and emotions when we were their age.)
As we and our spouse grow up over years of marriage, we can realise the feelings of our Father as a man. We can now understand, why he many times mistreated our mother - as we saw it. It can help us to be more forbearing about the 'all-to-human' frailties, of the human, that our spouse is - as she does for ours.
It is difficult to come to terms with the realisation that Father was as much a human of flesh and blood, as we ourselves - not a mere card-board cut-out figure.
He lead a human life of his own - which to him was the main drama-stage of life. As ours is to us and our children's is to them and our spouse's to her. All feel that the rest of the characters are there to play a role in our drama-stage - only a little better than the stage props.
We feel cheated, if we realise that, role players in our lives, on the sly, also have a drama-stage of their own - in which we are only a bit-role-player - no more. Why do they have to "two-time" us in my Drama-stage and work as Hero in another Drama Stage of their own -much like a Boss learning of moon-shining by a subordinate.
We are now able to withstand the fears that made father err. Yes, now we empathise with his rights and wrongs, so much, that we need to look into mirror to separate us from him - even then sometimes the resemblance is too close.

Buried Deep Under Horse Shit

2005-09-18T17:30:00.000+05:30

At the end of 19th century, the growing number of horse drawn carriages in London, lead one mathematicians to calculate the horse shit that will be generated 100 years hence, if the horse drawn carriages kept on increasing at the same rate. He predicted that by the year 1992, London would be under 16 feet of horse dung.
Read Further on ...These things should be taken with a pinch of salt - the forecast, I mean, not the horse shit. A change of technology to Internal Combustion Carriages (Automobiles) could not have been envisaged then.
I strongly suspect that the environmental prophets of doom are committing that same mistake. They are creating s similar picture of doom due to pollution by the cars.
In any case a single volcanic eruption or a Tsunami can cause much more environmental pollution than a decade of pollution by cars.
I am confident that humanity will be able to discover the next source of energy sooner than later - which would make internal combustion engines a museum piece.
In any case the recent spate of natural disasters has refuted our belief that nature, if left to it, is benign to Human civilization. Nothing of that sort. Nature could wipe out the Human civilization, as suddenly,as unpredictably, as quickly, as remorselessly as it had wiped the dinosaurs.
Step on the gas man, till you you have time!!!

Witness with Dirty Hands

2005-09-03T13:08:00.000+05:30

Information Technology has epochally transformed our Society. This tranformation is as seminal as the transformation of Society from Stone-age to Bronze-age. I am lucky to have been Witness to this transformation from the 2nd generation (discrete transistor circuits) Main Frames to present Web-enabled systems. I dirtied my hands with Machine Code, Assembly Level Language, FORTRAN, Cobol, RDBMS and now Web-enabled systems - paralleling India's journey from being 30 years behind to a front-line runner. What was it Like??
Read Further on ...

1969 - there were a handful of Main-Frames in India. A new one ICL-1909 came to IIT-Delhi. I learnt FORTRAN-IV and Programmed for my Graduation Project on "Simulation of Diesel Engines"

Computers consisted of Large Cabinets with panels containing blinking lights and switches . These were housed in Large air-conditioned halls with cables running underneath false floor.

Memory used be made-up of ferrite rings strung on cross wires - solid-state memory came in next generations. Being physical, these used be housed in huge cabinets. 12 KB memory was all that we had.

Tape drives were huge things, about six-feet tall. I being only 5ft 3in tall, had to stand on tip-toes to load the tapes. Being sensitive about my height, I used to make sure there is no one around, before I did that. Vacuum columns kept the tension on tape constant.

Line printer was huge and shaped like a Dodo-Bird. It made a racket while working and threw out printed paper like a demented demon.

Fresh Input was thru Cards, but in IIT we used Paper Tapes. We were taught to read the hole patterns on the tape and the cards for corrections. Wrong portions of tapes were substituted with correct portions by manually splicing the tape. Tapes were punched on a teleprinter like machine.Later IIT acquired card reader and Card Punching machines. This looked like a major improvement

We sincerely followed the steps of flowcharting, coding etc.

Computers operated on 6 bit BCD Byte. Mostly computers had fixed word length of 8 bytes, but the computer , I worked on in Railway (IBM-1401) had variable length word, end being marked by a word-mark byte. Blocks of words were marked by Group-Mark byte.
There were no Operating System or firm-ware in these computers. Only one Programme could work at a time. Multi-threading and Multi-tasking came in later generations of computers.

(To be editted)

Specter of a Holocaust

2005-08-29T07:29:00.000+05:30

Many of us have or would face depressing and unnerving situations, which arrive like a bolt from blue, without rhyme or reason. Such events normally do not come alone, but may pile up, one upon another - raising a specter of a life full of holocaust. How can one maintain one's sanity in such situations?
Read Further on ...

Near the event, things look to be grossly worse than they actually are. Stick to basics and facts of the events.

Don't:-

concentrate on emotions, pain, suffering.

spout philosophy.

blame others or circumstances.

try to find your own faults which lead to it.

try to spy out the motives of your tormentors.

try to figure out cause and effect chain leading to the event.

think of revenge - this thought will pull you deeper into abyss. Forget and forgive is for saints - impractical. Just put away the person or event, for the time being.

Discard the baggage of your religion (Hinduism for me) relating to above mentioned aspects. Religion is meant to give you a guilt feeling.

Spell out (or better write down), your feelings, beliefs, opinions.

Be stubborn, do not be a party to any dis-assertiveness or disrespect to you. Standup for yourself.

Finally write down what you need or want at the present moment, to put the event behind you.

Then go ahead and have a quite inner dialogue or meditate or pray if you like.

Why has religion become a source of hatred

2005-07-27T13:12:00.000+05:30

Religion has become a source of hatred all around the world. To stop this we have to understand why Godly Religion generates so much hate and passion.
Read Further on ...As I said, strong identity with ones Religion and believing it to be the best and the "Other" religions to be Pagan, Dumb or worse, arises out of basic Human Psyche. Humans are born without an owners manual. The question that stares us in face is : "Who are we". To answer that people form identity groups. There is a matrix of overlapping groups to which one belongs. I am an Indian, A brown skinned male, Hindu, Son and sibling of a family group, husband and father of another family group, an Engineer, Alumni of IIT, A Railway Manager etc. etc. To heighten this sense of belonging I eulogise qualities of my groups and find faults with the "Other" groups.
That is why it pays me psychologically if I think that Hinduism is the best religion and think that other religions are not as good.
But if we understand the basis of this mind-set, it will be easy for me to think that other Religions are also great and Godly and righteousness isn't a prerogative of my religion alone. I can look at people of other religions and feel an empathy instead of a separation from them.
Can this be spread to reduce the present hatred all-around.
PS: Hi I am back after two months. Thanks for visiting this site.

Wages of Human Inequality

2005-05-23T14:48:00.000+05:30

Is Low labour cost in countries like, India, an advantage or disadvantage?
What are the ill-effects of low labour cost regime, on various classes in society.
Read Further on ...
Minimum quantum of Food, clothes & roof over-head, required for survival for a human, is approximately, same in poor countries and in richer countries. (I am talking of humans, not of sub-human unfortunates, who have to survive by sleeping on footpaths). But prices for food, clothes and real-estate are much lower in poor countries. Therefore its possible for the bottom layer of society, to survive on low wages, in poor countries.
But the low cost of these survival-minimums, is itself a reflection of low wages, paid to producer of these - the mason, farmer and mill-worker etc. All this is a vicious chain of human oppression. Its a medieval and unequal social contract, between various sections of society - which democracy and market forces are expected to level-up. In final analysis, the low wages are determined by low social concern for human values, than by economics.
In India, due to the caste system in olden times, the lower strata of people did not have the social might, to ask for reasonable prices for their goods and services. Because of poor returns, these classes could not even gather the commercial might, to dictate price.
Human value index of Indian society, would improve, when a shoe shine boy will get equivalent of 1US$, at least, instead of 5 cents, for a shoe polish. Similarly, significant increases in prices of goods and service, from socially and politically weaker section, would be a sure sign of increase in Human Values in the Society. The price of individual human services, should become so high, that these should pinch the buyer. This would reduce demands for such services and thus provide an equilibrium at high-price level. People can shift to more productive professions. The over all cost of labour would go up in the society. The society, will then really become a Human Society. The mediaeval social contract would get replaced by its 21st century version.
Will this push up prices of Indian goods in international market - and have backlash on Indian Economy making higher wages unsustainable.
This is not true.
Lets look at similar chain of oppression, in International Trade between poor countries and Richer ones. There is also a similar mediaeval and unequal, political and economic contracts, between the poor and rich nations.
In next post, we will see that, the economic power and the rate of exchange of foreign currencies, is determined more by military might of nations than its economic performance.