I am going crazy

An appeal

2007-01-28T10:35:00.000+05:30

Padma Bhushan is "awarded to recognize distinguished service of a high order to the nation, in any field" (from wikipedia).
I was searching for what Indra Nooyi's (president and chief executive officer of PepsiCo) service to the nation was to merit this prestigious award. Apart from the fact that she has made India proud, I couldnt find anything else worth mentioning. If anyone could pass information on this, please do so.

PS: Given the number of visitors to the blog, it seems by the time I get the facts the next Padma awards would be announced(Or will it take long?). Methinks an article on Shilpa Shetty might be able to save the blog.

Can we believe in everything we see?

2006-11-04T00:46:00.000+05:30

Born in a well-to-do family, taught in a private school with exhorbitant fees, learned the language of the educated, took central syllabus, unlearned the language of the people, got extra coaching in 'chemistry', 'physics', went to an engineering college heavily subsidized by govt., did not learn anything, yet took part in strikes to boycott classes.
Was officially declared an engineer, worked for richer people recognized by voice alone, along with a community criticizing US action in middle east, but looking for the slightest opportunity to board a flight.
Joined a 1000 crore institution, again paid subsidized fees, accepts the meagre monthly allowance for an almost invisible work, doing a project which no one really will ever use, planning to work in a company built probably in a tax free zone.
Vehementally criticized the govt. for ordering power, water cuts in the 21st century, did not vote because all leaders are the same.
Recently heard India is poor, but surely I dont believe it.

The One Man Army

2006-09-17T15:34:00.000+05:30

This is a true story. Not mine. Of someone else I hope you know.

The general could smell war, but what can he do with an army which was incredibly small. An army of 55,001 pitted against the millions. The war would burst from two places. It was just a matter of time. Fast. He has to do something to stop it.Finally the war-plan was laid out. Two battalions were made, one having 55,000 men going west, the other a single man (really it had just one man) going east. Each battalion pitted against millions.

When war finally broke, it was worse than what the general had anticipated. The western-army tried everything they knew but they just did not have enough men. Yet to their east the “One Man Army” was doing a miracle. He had stopped the war in his territory. There were people wielding swords, bombs waiting to pounce on, but they dare not attack. Days went by. The army in the west looked on the misery in their midst. For the general the only solace was that the miracle of east was still enduring. The “One Man Army” was still holding his ground. The miracle ultimately lasted 16 days before he too fell wounded but not dead. War broke out in the east too. The “One Man Army” was going to try something special for his last time.

The general was Louis Mountbatten, India’s Last Viceroy; the “One Man Army” was Mahatma Gandhi; the war the Hindu-Muslim riots during partition; west was Punjab and east was Bengal;

Mountbatten knew that his army of 55,000 could in no way control the riots in Bengal, with Calcutta alone having 3 million people living in slums. Poverty existed along with communal passions. An year before, during Direct Action Day, Bengal was a witness to unprecedented murder and rioting. The poor and the desolate, for the past one year were fed with religious fanaticism, separating out its Hindu and Muslim community. Mountbatten’s army could be of no use there and hence sent the entire army to Punjab and for Bengal he called for help, not to God, but to the one Saint who was treading earth. Gandhi hence set forth Bengal.

How was he going to do this? No one knew. No one had an answer. No one else in the world could do this. For years the "Half Naked Fakir" somehow made people toe his line. 83%^* of Indians could not read or write. But somehow they came to know of their savior’s words. They came out in millions to do what the leader asked. Time and again he came up with ideas beyond the rationale of any science, yet almost all his methods won. When he spun cloth, millions spun along with him. He knew something which no one else knew. He knew the 'soul of the masses', the 'soul of India'.

Gandhi went to Bengal preached Truth, God, Non-Violence. In front of the Saint people forgot their enmity, forgot their hatred, exchanged greetings, celebrated Id-ul-Fitr, and together they thronged in millions to see the old man, hear the fragile man speak. Virtually moved Mountbatten said, “In Punjab we have 55,000 soldiers and large-scale rioting on our hands. In Bengal our force consists of one man and there is no rioting” and as a tribute to the old man called him “my One Man Boundary Force”. But the ‘miracle of Calcutta' was not to last forever. Gandhi’s mesmerizing effect on the people lasted only 16 days.

Once the war broke out in the east, Mountbatten knew that it was all over. He can but be a blind spectator to the flames going to engulf Bengal. The Viceroy governing India had no other option but hope, hope that the ageing leader would perform another miracle. The “One Man Army” was not going to fall so fast. He was going to use his most potent weapon. The weapon which until now was used against the British was going to be used for the last time against his own countrymen. Gandhi proclaimed a fast on to death until the whole of Bengal stop this madness. At the age of 78 fasting wouldn’t last long.

The first day of the fast had its impact on one person. Gandhi has already started missing one beat in four. By the start of the second day the magic was slowly starting to unfold. “Calcutta’s rioters paused to ponder Gandhi’s blood pressure, his heart rate, the amount of albumen in his urine.”^* Mixed processions of Hindus and Muslims started pouring into the riot torn areas to maintain calm. The sun rose again for the third day. Something was troubling the rioters. “A wave of fraternity and love”^* swept through the city. The most dramatic proof of change of heart happened when at noon a group of 27 goondas appeared at the door of the leader’s house and begged him to stop the fast and asked him for punishment. Gandhi murmured “My only punishment is to ask you to go into the neighborhoods of the Muslims you have victimized and pledge yourself to their protection.” In the evening an entire truck-load of grenades, pistols, and knives given voluntarily by the goondas, arrived at Gandhi’s house. Finally after 73 hours Gandhi ended his fast. And this time the 'Miracle of Calcutta' was going to endure forever. As for Punjab the worst was yet to unfold. Finished with his work in Bengal, Gandhi left for Punjab⁺.

C Rajagopalachari(first Indian Governor general, close associate of Gandhi) paid tribute to the Mahatma saying thus - “Gandhi has achieved many things but there has been nothing, not even independence which is so truly wonderful as his victory over evil in Calcutta”.

[The article was written while I was reading Freedom at midnight by Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre. The book is all about facts during Indian Independence but has dramatized it to make it an entertaining read. I feel anyone except a learned historian would enjoy it.]
* - Taken from Freedom at midnight
⁺ - Read the book to know what happened next.

Tom Cruise Vs Rajnikanth

2006-07-07T15:51:00.000+05:30

Recently I watched MI-3 starring Tom Cruise. The first thing I noticed about the movie was its similarity with Rajnikanth’s (Indian superstar) movies. I haven’t seen any of Tom Cruise’s other movies (including the preludes to the latest in MI series),so to compare the actor to the desi superstar may not be correct. But the title seems to me more catchy than a suitable title like “Ethan Hunt Vs characters played by Rajnikanth recently”. Did I hear, who is Ethan Hunt? He is the name of the character played by Tom Cruise in MI-3. I hope those who are reading this, will forgive me for misguiding you with the title.

The similarities which I have noticed are listed one by one.

Primarily both of them are action heroes transgressing the laws of physics – but then who damn cares physics.
Both of them are ready to sacrifice their own life to rescue ordinary mortals, but coincidences and luck combines to deny the inevitable. Maybe, “fortune still favours the brave”.
In certain scenes we see the protagonist discussing with his fellow mates the strategy which could rescue them out of the helpless situation. The strategy always require the hero risk his life and we could hear others surrounding him trying to stop him from the adventure. But the brave hero still goes for it and of course success doesn’t elude him. And the next scene: zooming in on the co-workers face while they utter words like, “he is great”, “he is superb”, “he is incredible”.
And yes, there is no one else in their films who are stronger, wiser, bolder…..

Even in the differences, the similarities are hard to go unnoticed.

While Tom is shown displaying his dexterity in using electronic gadgets (eg: using the pistols), Rajnikanth shows his style in wearing sunglasses, lighting cigarettes in ways only he can.
While Tom is a master of disguises, Rajnikanth is mastered in the laws of dharma*.
Whereas Tom is a mathematical genius (equations are solved in seconds), Rajnikanth is blessed with Philosophical thoughts.
While special effects are brilliantly handled in Tom’s films, Rajnikanth’s films have superbly choreographed song and dance sequences.

The same friends who mock at my fascination for Rajnikanth, never lets an opportunity slip by to show their fervor for Tom. I point to them my comparison and questions their difference in attitude. They answer Tom Cruise is for ‘elite’ audience while Rajnikanth is for ‘pit’ audience, making me wonder what exactly is ‘eliteness’.

And then I ask myself why I enjoy superstar more than Tom and find myself mum. Maybe, it is because I can relate more with the culture, or I am interested in Rajni's comedy or I am attracted towards the song and dance sequence or maybe I haven’t seen enough films of Tom. (Only after seing a few films I got attracted towards Rajni's film and then there was no turning back). Anyway being ‘elite’ I have decided to inhibit my likeness for Rajni.

*dharma – Don’t know an English word which could be used as substitute. The word means – “the act or speech or attitude or anything for that matter which is true (appropriate)”.

Mathematics

2006-07-06T13:29:00.000+05:30

Mathematics is a tool which can give a solution only to problems created by humans, but fortunately for natural problems it can give an approximate solution.
- SAV

For Computer Engineers to think - Computers in Desi languages

2006-07-03T14:34:00.000+05:30

How many people in India can read/write/speak English? Census results vary from as low as 3% to 15%. So almost 90% of Indians are kept in the dark as far as English is considered. To them neither does computer matter, nor does internet matter. How could we make them reap the benefits of computers as well as internet? The question has been lingering in my mind for a few months. I have come up with some suggestions which is what the article is all about. The answers even though not adequate or complete could well make a good start.

We need to bring internet, computers work with Indian languages. But how could we implement it? I have thought about two areas computers/mobile phones and internet where we could bring in other languages. Computers and mobile phones are clubbed together because I feel in 5-10 years time both will converge into a single device.

Computers/Mobile phones

The need is to bring in support for Indian languages in input as well as in output devices. The most effective input device is the keyboard. Am I talking about keyboards with Indian aksharams*. I would surely like to see that, but at present it is quite impossible to use a computer without English alphabets. So we could try to bring in Indian languages into the English keyboard. i.e each key would mean something in English and also something in a Indian language. The government could bring in a standardized keyboard layout, which could be overlapped with the current English alphabet layout (We have 26 English alphabets; using shift keys would give us an additional 26 giving us 52 aksharams. This might suffice some of the Indian languages. Languages like Malayalam require atleast an additional 20 aksharams. We need to find a place for these aksharams too.) The government could take an initiative in bringing about such keyboards. Incentives too could be provided for such keyboards (tax reduction/subsidies etc).

Another issue is related to operating systems (OS) in desi languages. Slowly such OSs have to come up. Microsoft recently released Windows in certain Indian languages. Recently a malayalam OS in linux was also released. Such initiatives are always welcome.

A similar situation exists in the case of mobile phones too. We need to have keypads with support for Indian languages. To find place of aksharams in the 10 keypads is all the more difficult. Hence a little thought need to be put in here. This would enable people to not only send messages in the language of their choice, but it will also enable people to store names/details etc in their mother tongue.

Internet

Internet is an extremely useful media for sharing of information. A repository of knowledge. A place where one could write down his/her ideas for others to see (As I am doing it know). But in India only English speaking community benefit from this (In China, Korea etc non-English speaking community use the internet in large numbers). Again there is a need to bring in desi language support. Indian language sites are an example. Applications which support such sites too should be available. For eg. Searching in Indian languages. There are so many issues related to searching which is not encountered in English language. These issues needs to be sorted out and good search engines need to be developed. If the Indian language sites increases the ubiquitous google will surely be forced to support such languages.

The next vexed issue is related to fonts in Indian languages. Fonts are not at all standardized. If value 65 stands for one aksharam in one font it stands for some other aksharam in a different font. These things need to be sorted out soon. Again the government or concerned authorities need to interfere and bring about standardization. This would enable in easier word processing.

Another important issue arises when speech based applications are to be built. Applications which need to understand what humans say and then proceed. An example would be searching for a word which a human ‘says’; or websites which could read out the contents. When such applications come up, languages like ours have a tremendous advantage over non-phonetic languages like English. See the difference in how we write ‘rendezvous’ and how we pronounce it. This is one of my main reasons why I feel support for phonetic languages is required, because these languages could reduce the human-machine gap.

Many other big issues also need to be addressed. For e.g internet addresses, mail-ids in non English languages. These issues could not be addressed in the existing scenario (mostly because of my limited knowledge), but surely these things will have to be addressed in the future.

I hope that I was able to convey the necessity of bringing in Indian languages to the realm of computers and also how we computer engineers could play a part in achieving this. These ideas may not be enough, but I hope this would at least make people think in this direction. The calls of 1 billion people should be heard by us.

*aksharam – alphabet

The Truth about God

2006-06-29T13:57:00.000+05:30

I was born a Hindu in a state ruled by democratically elected communists (Kerala, India). This state(State) of contradictions is reflected in my life too.

I, being born in a Hindu family was christened a Hindu. I didn’t rebel. I became a devout Hindu, going daily to temples and by the time I was 9 years old this infatuation started changing into madness. I started attending prayer classes. When rational thoughts started slowly finding its place in my mind the praying-infatuation started waning off. I began to think about the necessity of praying and also on what to pray for. The 11-year old mind always used to ask me to pray for myself. But with time I found something different to pray for. I thought - If I pray always for myself, God would think that I am being selfish. So to make amends for my selfish motives, I began praying for the good of all human beings - an indirect way to pray for myself. Was God fooled? I don’t know, but I was surely fooling myself. Once it became obvious to me that God, being the creator of human race was wiser than me, the question to which I had found an answer started staring at me again. What to pray for? The rational mind could not give an answer, but it finally found a way out for me. I decided never to pray again.

‘God’ being omnipresent and all-knowing would know what to do, even if I don’t pray. After having thought over it again, I took a vow never to pray again. I was then 13 or 14 years old. A strict abstinence from praying was very difficult to practice initially, especially during trying circumstances. Gradually the temptation to pray was resisted, which even now I follow. But it brought about another change in me. I lost the ‘fear of God’.

[My actions at that time were primarily influenced by my grandfather who used to give philosophical lectures. Secondly I was influenced by my father whom I began to notice never prayed. He used to go to the temple, but only to accompany me or my mother.]

The fearlessness grew into a bigger entity, disbelief. And I became an atheist. The decision fell as a bombshell on my mother. She felt that atheism would mean disregard for anything, fear for nothing. It was not to be like that. I feared many things. I feared death (The Hindu philosophy of re-birth was not acceptable to me). I feared dogs. The list goes on. As for my mind it slept in the bed of atheism.

I was woken up in the year I became legally entitled to vote, by the sight of one word. My belief that our mind (the way we think) is independent of the language we speak (know) was also shattered by that one word. The word read – “Agnostic”. It made me realize that, there was no convincing proof of God’s existence, as also there was no convincing proof of God’s inexistence. It is after all an “Open problem” (we engineers cherish open problems – if we can prove either yes or no, we would become renowned). So until it is proved, I would not take sides with either of the thoughts (A cunning way to make myself sure that I wont be in the losing side, in case proof emerges for either of thoughts). My mind dithered between an atheist and an agnostic, without knowing which one to choose.

The aversion to God naturally made me shun religion too. I equated God to religion. Shri Krishna to Hinduism, Jesus Christ to Christianity, Allah to Islam etc. A mistake which I now abhor.

About an year back, I came upon the book, “Wings of Fire” written by “Abdul Kalam”. It had verses taken from religious books like the Bhagavad-Gita, Koran etc. It was my first peep into the world of religion, the world of philosophy and also about the man who had influenced Kalam namely M.K.Gandhi. The year also saw me reading Gandhi’s “My Experiments with truth”. The castle I built for 22 years started falling like a pack of cards. He asked me not to decide before seeing the other side of the coin. Ok. Agreed. I will read religion. (For all those out there never read the Mahatma’s experiments. I tell you, ordinary minds don’t stand a chance against the onslaught.)

I subsequently read the Bhagavad-Gita (Malayalam version). I was bowled over by its philosophical content. Contrary to all my expectations, it was not a book on God alone; it was a book on ethics one needs to follow in life; a mirror which reflects your life and then shows the path to follow.

My belief in God remained the same. But I became a firm believer in the teachings of Bhagavad-Gita. (I disagree with certain teachings too. That can wait for another blog.) The question props up once again. Who am I? Am I an agnostic? Am I a Hindu? Perhaps I am an Agnostic Hindu. Maybe, once I finish reading the Bible and the Koran, I might also be a Christian as well as a Muslim.

Apart from the Gita, there was the Mr. Brainwasher himself who brought me near to religion. His belief in religion could be summarized in his own words -

“As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side”.

To me it meant God alone is not the basis of religion. Religion is not just about the God it asks people to worship. A belief in God is not at all necessary to have a belief in a religion. Religion exists more for its teachings; to bring about ethics in life.

If religion has a rational meaning, so should God have a rational meaning. I was wandering thus in the state(State) of confusion (a state(State) striving to make a meaning of both extremes) when the Mahatma stopped me and gave me a gift. The gift I was searching for. The gift I had lost early in my life.

I read aloud the Mahatma’s saying: “For years I believed God is Truth, but now I have come to realize - Truth is God”.

Butterfly Effect

2006-06-29T13:56:00.000+05:30

Have you heard about the butterfly effect?

A butterfly continuously flapping its wings in the coast of Indian Ocean has the effect of producing a hurricane in US. Hard to believe? Then read on.

People had long tried in vain to predict the weather only to find that no matter how much data they considered, they were no where near predicting it correctly. They finally came to the conclusion that the number of parameters they need to consider is enormously huge. The continuous flapping of the wings of the butterfly to the movement of vehicles, anything can have an effect on the weather and even if we leave one such parameter we miss our prediction. Even though hard to believe, this way of thought developed into what is now know as chaos theory.

Laws of nature are the same everywhere. The same laws which bind the environment also bind we humans. While I was thinking about this I began imaging a butterfly which was continuously flapping its wings and bingo the butterfly disappears and I find myself there. The thought made me realize. I am similar to the butterfly and so are you. The flapping of the wings is analogous to what you are good at doing. Continue flapping your wings and you might just produce a hurricane in some part of the world, or at least you might just create waves around you.