Craftspeople and Seers

Craftspeople are highly skilled experts in the practice of one's craft. Master craftspeople are best students when they were in the school. They are excellent problem solvers. In the normal period of work, you need crafts people to run the business smooth. Lot of people fall into this category.

Seers are creative rebels with rare talent. Seers are capable of ferreting out wrong assumptions or ask the right questions. Seers are highly trained, but need not be technically as proficient as craftspeople. Seers are dreamers. During revolutionary periods, you need seers, who can peer ahead into the darkness.

The prime example of a Seer is Einstein. He couldn't get a decent job as a scientist when he was young, slow in argument, easily confused; others were much better at mathematics. Einstein said to have remarked, "It's not that I am so smart. It's just that I stay with the problems longer."

Like anything, there are exceptions to this categorization. Isaac Newton is both an extraordinary visionary and the best mathematician of his day. Almost everything about Newton is singular and inexplicable.

- Derived from the book "The Trouble with Physics" by Lee Smolin

Capitalistic vision Vs "Too big to fail" policy

The following is a powerful visionary statement of the CEO Arthur Jenson to the mad television anchor Mr. Beale in the movie 'Network' (yr 1976 - great movie to watch!).

(In a loud dramatic voice!) "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, Yen, Rubles, Pounds, and Shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

(Soft voice) Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?

(Loud again) You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state — Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality — one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused"

- From the movie Network (1976)


Is this capitalistic vision doomed by the current worldwide economic crisis? We are certainly bitten by the "Too big to fail" policy. "Governments" had to bail out big banks and corporations all over the world.

The notion of separation of State and Business (Wall Street) is not working, is it?! Ayn Rand's school of thought subscribed to by such stalwarts as Alan Greenspan that "unregulated market will take care of itself" has caused this "moral hazard" where in tax payers ended up paying for the mistakes of big businesses.

When religion was mixed with the State, it caused havoc in the earlier centuries. Separation of State and Religion policy eliminated the influence of religious leaders in the Government. Right now, there is a revolving door arrangement between Wall Street and Washington. Ex-Wall Street CEOs go into policy making to work as part of the government and retired politicians work for Wall Street as lobbyists for businesses. This arrangement has badly hurt the people all over the world but benefited Wall Street and the politicians handsomely.

Where do we go from here? Is this a passing phase? Is closing the revolving door possible? Is Government oversight a permanent requirement for big businesses? As of now, it looks like that grand capitalistic vision of establishing one big corporation for the entire world will never work. There is too much at stake for such a company to fail. As long as sovereign nations exist to protect the citizens within the physical boundaries of a country, the global vision will be limited and strictly regulated. Currency values, exports, imports, tariffs, subsidies will be determined by the government policies rather than by the business interests.

In short, politics will trump economics always. Although economics is global all politics is local!
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Physical frontiers of nature

Do you know that we can explain everything in the known world with only 12 particles and 4 forces!?

Six kinds of quarks (up, down, charm, strange, top, bottom) and six kinds of leptons (Electron, Mu, Tau, Electron neutrino, Mu neutrino, Tau neutrino) interact with each other through four forces, namely: gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces.

Physicists are trying to find a single, fundamental entity to these particles and unify the forces for many years with no solid result beyond this standard model of elementary particles. String theory with all the extra dimensions still remains inadequate.

For now we understand and can explain the world through the 12 fundamental particles and 4 kind of forces.

Deepavali surprise!

The benefit of being disorganized is that you are constantly surprising yourself!

Well. Back in 2007 during the India trip I bought a couple of dhotis for me. Of course it is not practical to wear a dhoti during winter months. Besides the opportunities to wear it outdoor is slim to none. But it serves as a nice at home dress in addition to pjs during summer months. I left one of those dhotis unopened behind my dresser and totally forgot about it until this morning. It is a tradition to celebrate Diwali with new dress. I had a shirt that I had picked up earlier for formal use. But didn't bother with buying new pants since I had one too many of them. But hooray... it was a great surprise to spot a new dhoti on Deepavali morning!

Happy Deepavali greetings to all.

LCROSS ready for impact on the south pole of moon

Oct 9th is the impact. Learn more from the live NASA feed.

On the Journey of Self Invention

Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson divides life into eight developmental stages.

Stages of Life	Conflicts	Choices
Infancy	Basic Trust Vs Basic Mistrust	Hope or Withdrawal
Early Childhood	Autonomy Vs Shame, Doubt	Will or Compulsion
Play Age	Initiative Vs Guilt	Purpose or Inhibition
School Age	Industry Vs Inferiority	Competence or Inertia
Adolescence	Identity Vs Identity Confusion	Fidelity or Repudiation
Young Adulthood	Intimacy Vs Isolation	Love or Exclusivity
Adulthood	Generativity Vs Stagnation	Care or Rejectivity
Old Age	Integrity Vs Despair	Wisdom or Disdain

Erikson believed that we do not proceed to the next stage until each stages crisis has been satisfactorily resolved. Dr. Roger Gould states that in order to overcome the adaptational warp of the early life, one has to continually re-examine the defenses and assumptions. Feelings are memories of past behavior. When you sort them out and see what's current and what's left over, you can begin to use your thinking process to change your behavior. Withdrawal can be turned to hope, compulsion to will, inhibition to purpose and inertia to competence through exercise of memory and understanding. Becoming the kind of person you want to be is the ultimate act of free will !

-derived from the book "On Becoming a Leader" by Warren Bennis

All the way to Madurai

For sometime lately I have been toying with the idea of a adventurous journey to Madurai, my hometown in India from New York City and back. Sure, going to JFK by using public transportation could be adventurous but I am talking about a different kind of adventure - Riding a motorcycle.......all the way(Yeah, right...).

I came with this idea through several avenues - First I figured out that journeys have the capability of completely transforming people - we find examples throughout history. Only a journey changed Siddhartha into Buddha and Ernesto Guevara into Che Guevara. Even Mahatma Gandhi took a train journey to discover India. Hopefully a motorcycle journey will change me in similar ways. While this is on one hand, I also wanted to travel through whole of Europe stopping at historically important places - by 'historically' I mean WWII, of course. That travel could be on anything - But the freedom a motorcycle offers, particularly if it is off-road capable like the one I have, is unmatched by any other. Pack a couple of bags + tent + sleeping bag and you are ready to discover the world!!

With that said, let me speak about the places I want to see, the route I want to take etc. I have so far only planned the Europe part properly. Imagine I head out east from NYC to London on a plane and start my journey to Madurai from there. I would first ride to the beaches of Normandy where thousands of allied soldiers died on D-Day. Then I would go to Belgium tracing back the routes Guderian and Rommel took during the invasion of France. I definitely want to spend some time in Ardennes, particularly Bastogne where the 'Easy company' from 'Band of Brothers' and others fought so bravely in the winter of 1944. Then I would proceed to the Ludendorff bridge at Remagen, the only bridge intact that Patton's army managed to capture while trying to cross the Rhine. In Germany I would trace through the rise of Nazi party, and, of course, see the "Eagle's nest" at Berchtesgaden. Then I would proceed on to the eastern front, where lies the most important place of the entire European section - Stalingrad, now called Volgagrad. I would spend at least a week in this place where the bloodiest battle in history took place. It would be a privilege to keep a bottle of dirt collected from there. Along with a piece of metal I collected from a restored C-47 that actually dropped 101st Airborne (Band of brothers) on D-Day as well as Operation MarketGarden and also participated in Berlin airlift, I will keep this bottle on a showcase.

So far this is the plan - have to plan the rest of the route. Any suggestions? You may also write about any similar journey you always wanted to take.

Rare alignment - U.S. and Venezuela

In June, I wrote about the unraveling constitutional crisis in Honduras. Well, it has just got messier!

Strangely enough, U.S. and Venezuela find themselves on the same side, albeit for completely different reasons. U.S. wants to restore order and considers removing and extraditing a sitting President as a bad precedence and refuses to accept it as a legitimate move by the Honduran Congress, Supreme court and the Military. There is definitely a point in that view. Military reports to the President and cannot take orders from the Supreme Court or the Congress. President may need to be impeached by the Congress and removed from office. Not under the military gun based on a Supreme Court order in the middle of the night. The swift removal of the President from Power and the escorted expulsion from the Presidential palace and the country is chilling misuse of power.

Venezuela president on the other hand wants his buddy Mr. Zelaya to remain in power without any term limit just as himself is in his country. Mr. Zelaya earlier attempted to amend the constitution to eliminate the presidential term limit through a public referendum. That is disturbing in itself. Countries that are Republic allow Constitutional amendments only after discussion and debate of the elected representatives and through a ballot typically requiring two thirds majority to support any amendment. Honduras is a republic. Public Referendums only lead to tyranny of the masses. A country's Constitution cannot be changed based on a popularity contest or fickle public opinions.

In any case, Mr. Zelaya's move initiated all of what is unraveling now. He has returned back into the country and has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy. From this diplomatic den he is inciting his supporters to agitate in the streets on his behalf. The sitting President for his part has promulgated curfews and other rules to restrain the public. It is never going to be easy to come out of this stalemate.

In June 1975, India went through similar crisis. On a bold judgment, Allahabad High Court ruled that the election of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as null and void. The rightful move by the Prime Minister should have been to step down and let the President conduct re-election on the constituency. Instead, Indira Gandhi used a rare provision in the Indian Constitution, Article 352 to declare National Emergency. Through this declaration the Executive branch instantly got overwhelming power. Power to detain and arrest anyone without any due process. Media was heavily censored and the Court system was severely undermined. The crisis came to an end after nearly two years in March 1977 when the general elections was conducted. The Congress Party led by Indira Gandhi lost the elections for the first time in Independent India.

Anytime the Executive branch grabs power, it is the first step to establishing martial law and dictatorial regimes. We have seen this many times over in Pakistan. Myanmar is a living example of a country ruled by military junta. Equatorial Guinea in the Central Africa has been ruled by two ruthless men from the same family since 1968. The ruling oligarchy of the Middle East is no stranger to the world.

In the U.S. wartime provision of the Constitution lend shift in power to the President. President Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus during civil war and President FDR curtailed civil liberties of the citizens of Japanese origin by moving them into the internment camps during WWII. Both these regrettable events were turned over after the war. If every country goes through stages of evolution to establish its norms as a sovereign nation, it is Honduras turn now.

Better explained!

Ever wondered what the natural logarithm, exponents (e), complex numbers, etc mean really?

Here is a fantastic site that explains it.

Eye of God

If the lengths of sides of a rectangle are in the golden ratio, then the rectangle is a golden rectangle. It is possible to divide a golden rectangle into a square and a golden rectangle. We could continue this process indefinitely, producing smaller and smaller golden rectangles. The point at which all the golden rectangles converge is referred to as the "Eye of God". We can magnify the figure but can never get to the 'Eye' using finite magnifications. If we connect all the vertices's, we form a logarithmic spiral that envelops the "Eye of God".

For the mathematically inclined...

An impressive turn around

My mom got the passport yesterday. That is within two weeks of application! I got to admit it is a very impressive turn around for passport re-issue. It takes about the same time in US. But the demand in India is more than 3 times that here. They must be doing something right in the back room. Kudos to that. Friendlier service would reduce the stress of the applicants. There are real problems with the public interface that needs to get addressed. Let's hope we get there sooner than later.

A -ve turned funny and +ve

Artist

If you use your hand, you are labor;
if you use your hand and mind, you are crafts person;
if you use your hand, mind and heart, you are an artist.

Cycle of Market Emotions

Imagination at work

Four principles of decision making

1. Only certainty is that there is no certainty.
2. Every decision is a matter of weighing probabilities.
3. Despite uncertainty we must decide and we must act.
4. We need to judge decisions not only on the results, but on how they were made.

"Reject absolute answers and recognize uncertainty. Weigh the probabilities. Don't let uncertainty paralyze you."

- 70th Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin. May 1999.

How to improve public service?

I have complained about the public service in India in my previous post. Now I want to propose some ideas and possible solutions to the problem. So here goes.

Understanding the problem is half the solution. Here are some questions for anyone who can make a difference in improving the interaction with public offices in India, if such individuals ever stumble upon this blog.

Goals
- Avoid/Reduce queuing
- Reduce turn around time for every customer to less than half hour in all public offices such as banks, electric/telephone utilities, train (reservation) stations, passport offices, etc.
- Help people who really need help.
- Handle elders, disabled, pregnant women, women with children as a priority.
- Empower people who can handle themselves.
- Behave courteously to all customers. Must have service with a smile. Indian public servants are notoriously uptight individuals.

Let's think in terms of some basic parameters to achieve these goals.

Understand Demand
Approximately how many people need to be serviced every day? If we can't estimate it based on the demographics, we should at least have a statistical number on the quantity. If that data doesn't exist yet, every regional office should start collecting that information. Count every single person who walks into the public office for service. It is important for every regional office to know the usual demand. Student interns such as NSS cadets can be used for such exercises.

Estimate the Cycle Time
The average time it takes for a customer to get in and out of the office. The goal is to reduce this time. Again, start recording the times. What is not measured cannot be improved.

Know the Capacity
Cycle time * number of work hours * number of office staff servicing the customers. This gives the maximum number of customers that can be serviced with the current staff level. If a single customer has to deal with multiple stations/staff to get the job done, individual station capacity should be estimated. Again, volunteers can help.

Know and control Utilisation
With a nominal 80% utilisation, how many customers can be served per day by the total number of staff in the office? This gives a more practical estimate of the capacity accounting for staff leave, late arrivals, lunch breaks, personal business time, etc.

Identify and eliminate Bottlenecks
Where do the incoming customers spend most of the time? Is it in getting the paper work filled up? Is it in deciding between the available choices? Is it in excessive internal handling time? Is it in the payment step? How can that be alleviated?

Conclusion
Once the above parameters are understood, I believe one of the common findings will be that our offices are generally under staffed. If most customers in the region (urban?) are educated and can handle themselves, automate the processes to delegate work to the customers. If most customers need a lot of help, invite volunteers, educated retirees like school teachers to help out the people in need. I am sure a lot of such people will come forward to help others. I see an opportunity for non-profit outfits to organize such efforts. Basically get help from the elements of the society to make life better for everyone.

Introduce some basic periodic training for the staff. They work to serve the people. Public servants should drop the feudal attitude. One effective way is to tie the customer feedback to the staff incentives and perks program. Institute such programs to encourage staff to change their behavior towards the public. Once people see benefit in checking their attitude, they will change quickly. The incentive need not be in terms of money. Invite sponsors from local businesses for discount coupons, cinema tickets, free meals, etc. It serves as an advertisement vehicle for local businesses and an enormous moral boost for the employees to win such awards by serving people with a smile.

So without requiring any increase in funding or staff level, things can be improved dramatically. Public offices should come forth to work closely with the NGOs to benefit from them and serve people better.

Of course, the first step is to recognize that wasting time unproductively waiting for mundane services is a problem. We should all expect, rather demand, better service from the public servants who are paid for by the tax payers. Refusing to understand that there is problem, asking for tolerance of inefficiencies, making excuses for the status quo, coloring the intentions of the messenger are only detrimental to improving the situation.

The insensitivity of the Indian bureaucracy

Yesterday, my mother had to go to the local passport office to have her passport renewed. She has had her current passport for 10 years and now needs a new passport to travel. I looked up the web site of the passport office, entered all her data to register for the visit and printed out application neatly. The prep went for a week to collect the supporting documents such as the voter's card, photos, copies of old passport, etc. My wife and kids accompanied her when the day came a little ahead of the appointment time at 9:30 AM.

There was a long line of people, a closed door with a rogue gate keeper peeking out to open the door for the appointment holders. This guy has no training whatsoever. He strictly insisted that only the applicant can go in. My wife tried to explain that my mom needs help with the application process and cannot handle it herself, only to fall in deaf ears. Once inside, my mother was made to wait in a queue, promptly ambushed by the impatient staff at the passport office and sent out after a couple of hours. Their reason was that she needed to show in the application the US address where she stayed a few months in the last year. Not only that they want address proof of that US address! How insane is that? My mom had no clue of what they were asking. There was no explanation or any courteous to a senior citizen. She had to leave the office in anguish after two hours of waiting in the madness of the passport office. My wife meanwhile argues with the gate keeper and finally makes her way in when mom was fed up and coming out. My wife goes in and finds out what they want. But because we filed the application online, there is no way to edit the application! There are "paid volunteers" inside the passport office sitting with a bunch of computers to register the application online right there. However, they cannot edit an existing application, because the website does not support it. So this will be a completely new registration. All that I did for a week is now thrown out and the guy takes the money to register a new application. Of course, there is a queue at every stage and long waiting in grueling hot sun. Most people don't even know that there is a wait counter where you have to take a ticket for your turn. People stand in the queue only to find out that they don't have a ticket when they are in the counter and promptly sent to the back of the line.

Meanwhile my kids are outside with the auto guy in the heat of the mid day. During the wait, my mom comes out and after another fight with the gate keeper gets the kids inside. You can see how duty bound the gate keeper is in his work not allowing a 6 yr old and a 3 yr old inside the passport office when their mom and grandma are inside. Anyway the ordeal comes to climax when they approach the counter to "file" the application, only to be told that their registration takes an hour to update before they can pay the fee. The time is now 1:30 PM; kids go bonkers in the heat and the hunger. Meanwhile a lot more applicants are kicked out the same way as my mom was without proper explanation, guidance or courtesy. Those who can afford go through the "volunteers" to get the job done. Others are clueless and wander talking to anyone who can point them in a direction. It is complete chaos. My wife decides at this time there is no point in waiting for the 'system to update' and decides to leave home. They all come home, have late lunch, get the kids to nap and go back around 3:00 PM. Apparently it was much better at that time after most of those poor applicants were rejected and sent home to continue with their ordeal for another day. My mom was able to pay the fee and get out of their. Will the passport come in the next month? Hope so. There is "police verification" even for renewals. So that could be interesting.

Genius Vs Team

No organization can depend on genius; the supply is always scarce and unreliable. It is the test of an organization to make ordinary human beings perform better than they seem capable of, to bring out whatever strength there is in its members, and to use each man's strength to help all the others perform. The purpose of an organization is to enable common men to do uncommon things.
- Peter Drucker

Globalization Vs. Socialism - Part2

True, the first few instances of a state attempting to implement socialism ended up in disasters. Yeah I am talking about the erstwhile U.S.S.R and the "Rather Something republic of China". They both set off to implement the "dictatorship of the proletariat" but were only partially successful - they could only implement upto the "dictatorship" part! But elsewhere when implemented within the confines of a democratic system, with the state continuously tweaking it's socialist principles based on realities of the day, it did pay off. In India, the state owned railways system, subsidized for the poor, ran at loss for several decades, the loss compensated by tax money from people who could pay taxes. In general state owned public transportation system helped poor Indians a lot (by taxing rich Indians). Another good example would be the ban on exports of essential commodities, that the GOI enforces once in a while. This is about Govt. protecting poor people from unfair market dynamics. When the supply of essential commodities doesn't meet the combined demands of internal/external markets, there will be a tendency among suppliers to court external markets. This is when external markets are willing to pay a premium to get those commodities while poor locals can't compete with them. After all the essential commodities like rice and lentil weren't produced just by man-hours put in by farmers. They also used up some of nation's resources such as water and soil, all of which belong to the citizens. So it makes sense to give poor Indians the first chance to buy these essential commodities.

But imagine a hypothetical scenario where farmers in Vietnam are able to produce better qualitily rice and wheat, in higher quantities and export it to India at a price cheaper than the local suppliers can give at. If GOI moves to block this import then the local buyers are going to suffer due to higher prices. Furthermore the skills of local farmers won't grow, thanks to the absence of competition. This is certainly not good. A country should allow it's people to compete with other people in skills though it protects it's people from unfair trade conditions. In other words a country should distinguish between a fair compertition (of skills) and an unfair competition (of prices) while applying socialism. I am going to save the rest of my babble for Part3.

Funny bit

Truth is seldom kind

Jaswant’s incomplete truth

...The British had decided on Partition to serve their own strategic ends. On 29 March, 1945, after Viceroy Lord Wavell met Prime Minister Churchill in London he recorded: “He (Churchill) seems to favour partition of India into Pakistan, Hindustan and Princestan.” ...

...Jinnah’s key decisions between 1940 and 1946, including the demand for Pakistan in 1940, were taken after getting the nod from Churchill or Lord Linlithgow and Wavell, both Churchill’s admirers...

...Pandit Nehru was...thoroughly programmed by the British since his school days. His proximity to Lord Mountbatten has been recorded by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and historian Shashi Joshi among others...

Excerpts from the editorial of The Statesman.

Power of thought!

Circle of no life!

Do you have adversaries?

To govern is to choose,
To choose is to offend
To offend is to make adversaries.

Rethinking computing technology

Artificial brain in 10 years?

Cult Math

Here is an interesting math that I came across recently on one of the blogs. There are many religious, "scientific" gurus, yogics and cult leaders mostly from India and some from other parts of the world. The basic instrument they all use to spread and capture their audience is the same. The following algebra explains that.

If X = Those who have not tried the cult,
And Y = Those who have tried cult and BUY it,
And Z = Those who have tried cult and DON'T BUY it,
And Q = (Y+Z)*#yrs practiced = Those who tried the cult, bought it, practiced it for years, became dis-illusioned and dispensed of it....

According to those in the Y group
Y > X ( cult-ies are better than X and must find and SAVE them)
Y > Z ( cult-ies are better and more enlightened than Z)
Y > Q ( cult-ies that stay the course and not question the cult are more advanced than ex-cult-ies)

Therefore:
Y = Know it all - pseudo-enlightened
X = Ignorant
Z = Ego with wall around them
Q = X*Z (Ego times ignorance)

Y will always win the argument, will win the most toys and achieve the highest bliss. Everyone else is X, Z or Q.

And that is the definition of being brain washed!

Anything to Declare?

Yeah, don't go to England!!* Just kidding. It was one of the most memorable trips. Here is what I did in UK.

London:
I spent the first two days in London. As far as the city is concerned it is as good as Chennai and in some aspects Chennai looks better - I am not joking. If you take the tower bridge out of London, there is nothing much to tell you it is London. Buckingham palace was disappointingly plain. I wasn't expecting a mysore palace but still... Then there is the Tower of London which has some nice history attached to it. But beyond this facade there are two good museums - the British museum, which is the best museum I have ever seen and the maritime museum in Greenwich (pronounced Grenitch for some reason). British museum is simply a display of loots from Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, India and China during the "glorious past" of Britain. They have literally hundreds of relics and artifacts from the pyramids of Egypt and sometimes even entire temples brought piecemeal from Greece. For us it is one place where you can see a lot of archealogical stuff from all known civilizations. The maritime museum explores the history of human exploration of far away places in high seas. If you are interested in history these are the places to see.

Bath:
The moment you are out of London though, you are in a completely different place. The English countryside deserves to be praised. Miles after miles of rolling meadows and farmlands make for a splendid drive. I think 90% of UKs population lives in London! - Except for the occasional fences there is little evidence that people live in these places. Bath is an ancient city that still contains remains of Britain's Roman past. They call it Bath because that is where Roman's took bath. In the rest of the places they simply used perfumes!..... I am just joking. Bath is called so because it has natural hot springs. The pagan romans made a pond out of it and constructed a temple next to it for the Goddess "Minerva", who is the healing God. The idea was that if you took bath in that pond your disease will go away. After Romans turned to christianity they constructed churches, remains of which still exist. Thus it is a 2000 year old city which contains both churches and pagan temples. Feels good to just walk around and absorb the history. I vowed to come back and spend a week there. No wonder "Lonely planet" asserts that if there is only one city you would see in UK, it should be Bath. So go there.

Blenheim palace:

This is the birthplace of Winston Churchill, the great and only leader from UK! His great great grand daddy, John Churchill was awarded by the Queen this 300 acre odd place along with 240,000 pounds as a generous gift for defeating the French in one of those perpetual battles between them. People's tax money well spent. Someone said the residents today live on the earnings that visitor's offer to see the place. Apparently Indians do not work for free any more.

Warwick Castle:

One of Britain's better maintained castles. Climb 500 narrow steps to the top of one of the towers and you can see a staggering view of the rest of the castle and the landscape of Warwickshire. Or you could simply look at the photograph here. I relished on the strategy with which the castle was built. Every tower, every room had a certain functionality. It would take an entirely different post to discuss about them all. But I would like to mention something I heard from the guide about laying siege to a castle. Apparently the besiegers would use big sling shots to throw chemicals that would create eye irritating fumes and dead animals/ human refuse to spread disease among other things in an attempt to obtain a surrender without have to break through the mighty walls of the castle. Hmm...so chemical and biological warfare aren't new after all.

Chatsworth house:
And then an 'out of this world', beautiful stately house - this time it belongs to the Duck of Derbyshire....or rather the Duke of Derbyshire (if you have seen Clint Eastwood's 'Unforgiven'). A walk along the brook will make anyone want to write a poem. It would be very hard to describe the beauty of this place. So, I am simply posting a picture of it.

Edinburgh, Scotland:

Edinburgh was the most historic looking city in UK that I visited. Edinburgh castle was the best. Built on top of a hill it offers a view of the north sea along with the entire city of Edinburgh. This castle played a main part in the Scottish battle of independence. If any one of you remember Robert, the Bruce (No one can beat me seven times in a row), one of the greatest Scottish generals, he wrestled this castle back from the English.

Lake District:

This is the most beautiful national park I have ever seen. It has a lot of hills of different shades of green with large lakes littered among them. I was going to spend only one day there and move on to Cambridge. But the moment I saw it on the first light of the day (I reached there when it was dark as hell), I said, "Screw Cambridge". It was that beautiful. You could easily spend a week there. And I will, sometime in the future. It is a perfect place for honeymooners for sure.

Roads:

Yep, the roads of UK need a special mentioning. I wont be doing them Justice if I simply said they were narrow. If you drove a small car like VW Golf or Maruti 800, you would feel like you were driving a lorry. You could smell the paint of the car that crosses you on the opposite direction. As for the shoulder there is none whatsoever. Right were the side of the road ends they have stacked sharp shapeless black stones to remind you were the road ends! If you go to your left a little more than you should, you will not only puncture your tires, but you will also get a nice design on the otherwise plain looking side of your car. So then this is the British version of a rumble strip. If this isn't enough, there is another dimension to these roads. The British haven't heard of a simple geometrical instrument called "the ruler". Roads, even in desolate open lands, looked like they had a strand of spaghetti for inspiration. In US, car manuals say that after a certain thousand miles you have to change the tires or the brakes or the timing belt. I was going through my car manual to see if there was any mentioning of changing the steering wheel! There wasn't, but there should have been. Remember the ridiculous car driving scenes from old movies where the driver is constantly turning the steering either way? That is exactly how you will drive on a UK road.

P.S. That dialog is from "Snatch". You can't miss that movie.

Term limit - Honduras, India

Honduras is going through rough times. The president tried to extend the term limit of his presidency indefinitely through a referendum and a got into trouble with the constitutional entities such as Congress and the Supreme court. Military stepped in, on directions from the Supreme court, and removed the elected President and handed over power to Congress. The validity of the action is questioned by many States including the US. The events are still unfolding at this time.

It raises an interesting question for India. There are no term limits for the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister. We have a 80+ year old man on the wheel chair running a state for the 5th time. Although our Presidents have two term limit, we don't have term limits for our PMs and CMs.

In US, the first president George Washington set a precedence by stepping down after two terms. That was followed for a long time until FDR stayed in power for 4 times during WWII. The US constitution was amended in 1951 that set the term limit to two times for a President.

Is it time to set such limit for elected officials in India? I understand we need the wisdom of the experienced to govern. But should they be at the helm of the demanding executive branch or serve as consultants to the young and able as needed?

Here is an interesting discussion thread on the topic.

Using Other People's Money (OPM)

This is the continuation of the "borrowing money" blog. You may want to review it first to get the flow.

When you want to maximize your return on investments, the math shows that one way to do is to maximize your leverage. i.e. In the previous example, if you invest 25% of your dough ($25) and borrow 75% to invest($75), you return on investment ($12.5) is at least 50%. Very attractive, indeed.

In theory, if you borrow 100% and make a wise investment, your return on investment is infinite! You are just taking advantage of the difference in low fixed interest rate on your loan and potentially high return gained from your investment choice.

It can't be that easy, right? Well it isn't. It is a slippery slope math that can trip anyone. When you over leverage(borrow), your commitment to your lender is higher and fixed, irrespective of the payback from your investment. So anytime you don't get your expected $20 back from the $100 investment, you are in trouble. When the lenders don't get their fixed payments, the result is the insolvency or the bankruptcy of the borrower. That is, the lender has the right to replace the owner and take over the investment and perhaps resell or liquidate it. A terrible result for investors because all their investment is totally lost in that situation.

So not borrowing at all neither gives you good returns on your savings (and investments) nor does it increase economic activity of the country. On the other hand, borrowing too much can be disastrous. The trick is to maximize your savings and yet reduce your risk by not over leveraging.

The benefits of failure

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

Please go full screen to see the video continuously.

The fate of "Market Fundamentalism" abroad

Every crisis comes to an end—and, bleak as things seem now, the current economic crisis too shall pass.
When the current crisis is over, the reputation of American-style capitalism will have taken a beating...

...The American economy will eventually recover, and so, too, up to a point, will our standing abroad. America was for a long time the most admired country in the world, and we are still the richest. Like it or not, our actions are subject to minute examination. Our successes are emulated. But our failures are looked upon with scorn...

Fantastic article by Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz

Globalization Vs. Socialism - Part1

"Globalization" may be a recently coined term. But visionaries saw its arrival 50-60 years ago. Eisenhower, in a book written righ t after the end of WWII, wrote, " The democracies must learn that the world is now too small for the rigid concepts of national sovereignity that developed in a time when the nations were self-sufficient and self-dependent for their own well being and safety. None of them today can stand alone". About the same time, Jawaharlal Nehru, in his "Tryst with Destiny speech, said, "....Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart. Peace has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments". True, we may be far from that One World governed by one govt. But in the path of human evolution, trade came before nation states. So it is safe to assume that Golablization of markets is but one step towards Golbalization of peoples. In other words, "Globalization", even it a broader sense is inevitable. This means that eventually markets will be global, so will be the companies and so will be the people working in them. Hence, by induction, people (read Americans) who do not train today to compete with other people (read Indians, Chinese) will end up receiving unemployment benefits. There are several countries trying to avoid this pitiable situation to their population by using trade restrictions - for instance, by giving tax benefits to companies employing people from Buffalo while giving tax punishements to those employing people from Bangalore (assume disclaimers) - all in the name of Socialism. Is this good or bad? Am I saying Socialism is an outdated concept? Nope - for the simple fact that we still don't have a One govt. So what the hell are you saying? - Hang on mate, why else do I have a "Part 1" in the title.

Atlantic horseshoe crab

A few days back we saw a crab like creature with a long sharp tail on the New Jersey shore. It was lying on its back on the sand struggling to turn back. Our friend, Dinesh helped it with a stick to topple it back on its feet and it went away into the ocean. We didn't know what it was at that time and wondered if it was a stingray fish. Today at the local library there was a sea animals show and the horseshoe crab was the guest of honour.

Do you know that, horseshoe crab species is pre-dinasour age? 250 million years back it existed on this earth and survived whatever happened here that destroyed the dinasours! It has blue blood, no teeth, no claws and its tail is only useful to help it turn itself back on feet. It is completely harmless to humans!

Is borrowing money good for you?

If you have $100 to invest in one of three different ways that gives back three different returns, say 12%, 15% and 20%, all on identical terms, which one would you choose? Obviously the investment that gives back 20%, right? Of course! Individually we want the most out of our money.

The counter intuitive concept in an investment is the fact that leverage helps to maximize the returns. In India, we are always told not to take loans ever. Even Kambar says, "Kadan-pattar nenjambol kalankinaan Ilankai vendan" when he refers to Raavanan. However, the fact is that borrowing funds to invest yields higher returns and is actually encouraged by Governments around the world including in India. Let's look at some math.

You invest $100 on a business that generates, say $120. i.e. 20% return on your investment. Clean and Simple.

Now suppose you borrow $50 from your bank at 10% interest and invest $50 of your money on the same business. You owe bank $5 in interest. So your returns is $15 on $50. i.e. 30% But wait it gets better.

All governments give incentives to people to borrow money because that increases economic activity of the country. That is, you get tax incentive on your interest payment. Suppose the tax incentive is 20% on the interest payment. You end up getting back $1 from Govt. for paying $5 interest to your bank.

That makes your returns to be $16 on an investment of $50. i.e. 32% return on your investment.

All you did was borrowed half the money from bank and played by the rules. You are subjected to the same risk in both cases of the business failing to generate the target revenue. But simply by leveraging your investments, you have increased your returns!

Before you rush to bank to borrow and invest, make sure your investment is guaranteed to generate the revenue. Don't borrow and invest in stocks!

Next, let's see how this math can lead to disaster if not handled carefully.

Jeans banned in Indian colleges!

This is a controversial topic that has raised lot of discussion in the news thread. Thought one particular comment on the thread was interesting.

"When I entered high school, it was the first year when girls were allowed to wear pants. Since then of course, clothing standards have dropped to the point where girls are wearing next to nothing on top of low cut, tight jeans or short-shorts. I would have screamed my head off in high school that it was unfair to tell us what to wear. Now that we've had 30 years of 1/2 dressed high fashion and I've become older and wiser, I understand why modesty makes sense. Our schools, especially here in CA area a complete disaster. There are many reasons for it but requiring that the girsl dress modestly and that boys dress respectfully is a good start. considering that harmones are bubbling like volcanoes, particularly in teenage boys, simple steps like this would make a difference. I remember the days when people dressed up nice just to go to the movies! I'm not advocating this but I would even be for school kids wearing uniforms. It puts them in a different frame of mind. Trying to get kids to sit still, pay attention and get an education is not only difficult but as we see from our dismal failure in the last 20 to 30 years, imperative for the future of this country. Looking back, it does amaze me how much my opinion has changed. It is said that the devil is in the details and I must concur. The small things that I thought didn't matter at all turn out to be very important not only in themselves, but are the blocks on which other decisions / behavior are built. It's really hard to see this when your're 15 or even 25 but as I have accumulated experience in life, it has become very clear."

Of course, ton of other views are expressed in the thread. Worth checking it out.

Incredible performance and excellent analysis

Elu swarangalukkul ethanai paadal
by Roopa Revathi

Analysis and Comments
Don't miss the expert analysis!

Manathaalum Ninaivaalum...

Kannadaasan wrote those lyrics for a popular song in Tamil movie "Paalum Pazhamum". A friend of mine recently asked what is the differece between Manathaalum and Ninaivaalum? Why did Kannadaasan mention the two separately? Aren't they the same? I wanted to tell him "azhagana song ellam anubavikkanum, aaraya koodathu"! :-) But see some merit to his question. So here goes my understanding.

I think Kannadaasan refers to the heart and mind respectively in those words. I guess we can imagine those two as separate logical partitions of the single physical structure, the brain. It should not be confused with the left and right hemispheres of the brain which are physical partitions. Somehow, we have come to associate the "logical heart" (manam), with the physical heart when we refer to it.

We associate 'feeling' to the heart and 'thinking' to the mind although both originate from brain. The feelings such as love, empathy, emotions such as joy, jealousy, etc are deemed "heart felt". On the other hand caring for others, thoughts, imagination, plans, etc are conceived to originate from our minds. Going back to the Reason and Passion post, passion emerges from the heart while the mind reasons out.

"Manathaalum ninaivaalum thaayaga vendum" is a fantastic phrase that expresses the wish of a wife who wants to "love" and "care" for her husband like a mother. Lucky guy I say :-) Perhaps there is a better explanation to those beautiful lines. I have to go listen to that song now. Love to hear your thoughts.

Just who are these "elders"?

They say that one gets knowledge from one's father. By "knowledge", I think, they meant morals and values of life (My father taught me chemistry which I didn't understand a bit). Accordingly, my father, my senior 'values' advisor,  always told me to "pay respect to elders", "Listen to what elders say" and a lot of other phrases that involve this elusive species called "elders". Elusive because this category could be applied to anyone all the way from my grand father to my elder brother, who is actually a half wit (and I am brilliant :)) - which begs the question - "Just who is this bloody "elder"?  Def1. Most people seem to be equating this philosophical "elder" with the literal meaning of that word - that older people are "elders". But then wouldn't we call them, say, "Olders"? After all it seems ' not dying' for some more years than you is their greatest achievement! /So Rejected/. Def2. Some say that you become an "elder" when you get married. Apparently that is why in western civilizations, a bride is asked, "Do you consent to take this 'man' as your husband" (or something to that effect), because a boy becomes a 'man' when he marries. But in India saints and sadhus are revered as "elders" - and they are all bachelors..(at least used to be). /So Rejected/. Def3. A scientific definition would be to equate people who have attained sexual maturity to elders and those who haven't to "youngers", if I may. But all these qualities - age, marital status, sexual maturity - aren't exactly qualities that makes one "respected", "listened to" etc. After giving it much thought I have a come up with a definition of "Elders"- Def 4. - "Elders" are those who actually take responsibilities, solve younger people's problems, shield them from evil and who work hard to create a better society for the younger generations. Think about it - Elders of a family take care of the kids - from helping them put on their shoes, making their bed, taking them to school to protecting them from harm's way - all because the kids themselves cannot. Thus, in a society, "elders" should be those who take care of people who are not capable of helping themselves. Educated people should educate the illiterate. Wealthy should fend for the poor. And strong people should protect the weak. When an "elder" sees a hapless child not fortunate enough to get an education, that "elder" must put that child in a school. When an "elder" sees someone in dire poverty, that "elder" should feed him, teach him skills, so he or she can get out of poverty. When politicians use the caste card or the religion card to get votes from poor  unsuspecting mass, the "elders" should enlighten the mass and encounter the politicians. Otherwise they cannot be called "elders".

I am becoming 26 this month and given the fact that India's median age is 25 - I belong to the upper half of the age group! But I realize that so far I haven't really taken any responsibility towards my society - towards those younger half of the population. There is so much evil in my society. Am I going to turn a blind eye towards the negative consequences they have on the younger people? Or am I going to start changing my society, my country, so my younger brothers and sisters can have a better India? I should get cracking because I don't think gen Y and gen Z will "pay respect to", "listen to", "get advise from" someone just because that someone is old - Hell, even I don't.

Receipe of life

“Take twelve months and wash them clean of bitterness, greed, pedantry, and fear. Divide each month into thirty or thirty-one parts so that each part suffices for exactly one day. Fashion each day out of one part of work and two parts of joy and tranquility. Add three heaped tablespoons of optimism, a teaspoonful of tolerance, a grain of irony, and a pinch of tact. Pour over the whole a generous portion of love, garnish with a bouquet of small courtesies and serve daily with humor and a refreshing cup of tea.”

-Mrs.von Goethe, NewYear’s wish for her son

The myth of the Third World

The Man in the arena

"...It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat..."

- Theodore Roosevelt, Citizenship in a Republic
Speech at the Sorbonne - Paris, France April 23, 1910

You can't predict who will change the world

"...discoveries we claim come from research are themselves highly accidental. They are the result of undirected tinkering narrated after the fact, when it is dressed up as controlled research...

...America's primary export, it appears, is trial-and-error, and the innovative knowledge attained in such a way...

...American undirected free-enterprise works because it aggressively allows us to capture the randomness of the environment...

...Random tinkering is the path to success..."

- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.

Reason and Passion

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.
If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore, let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

-Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Five components of Obituary

1. What is the cause of death?
- Did the individual have an exciting, vibrant life that ended gracefully or lived life of a dead man/woman, in vain, counting days or something in between?
2. What did the individual do while alive?
- Being aspects - What roles/positions/recognitions held? and
- Doing aspects - What lasting contributions did the individual make? Built a lasting organization, built a dam, built schools, etc.
3. What impact did the individual have on the world while alive?
- Helped the world in anyway, hurt fewer than those helped or hurt the world mostly?
4. What legacy did the individual leave behind for the future?
- An example/message to follow/imitate/look upon/be inspired by or a mistake to avoid?
5. Who will mourn the death?
- No one or just the family, kith and kin, or a state or a country or an ethnicity or the entire world?

The totality of every life is viewed from these five angles. Heros, rebels, leaders, followers, peasants and everyone including you and I are weighted by this scale in the end.

Adversity and "Alchemists"

Adversity is one of the most potent forces in life. It shapes your character, clarifies your priorities, and defines your path. It can also fuel your greatness.


- Erik Weihenmayer, the only blind person to have climbed the "Seven Summits," the tallest peak on every continent.

The Dilemma

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose your feelings is to risk rejection.
To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds is to risk failure.

-Source unknown


“This above all else: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as night follows day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
–William Shakespeare, Hamlet


“Be Who You Are and Say What You Feel Because Those Who Mind Don't Matter and Those Who Matter Don't Mind.”
-Dr. Seuss

Love, Attachment and Duty

This scene brings tears in my eyes everytime I watch it.

Is money the root of all evil...?

"Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?"

The Money speech

from Atlast Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Sensory explosion...Nirvana!

A brain scientist experiences a stroke.

Subjection and Election

"Subjection in minor affairs breaks out every day, and is felt by the whole community indiscriminately. It does not drive them to resistance, but it crosses them at every turn, till they are led to surrender the exercise of their will. Thus their spirit is gradually broken and their character enervated; whereas that obedience, which is exacted on a few important but rare occasions, only exhibits servitude at certain intervals and throws the burden of it upon a small number of men.

It is vain to summon a people, which has been so dependant on the central power, to choose from time to time the representatives of that power; this rare and brief exercise of their free choice, however, important it may be, will not prevent them from gradually losing the faculties of thinking, feeling and acting for themselves, and thus gradually falling below the level of humanity"

- Alexis de Tocquivelle, Democracy in America

Speed of Progress/Change

I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.

- Marie Curie

I agree with that assertion in general and believe that progress is slow and requires focused, intense work by an individual or a team of people.

In the Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about change that is quick, dramatic and of epidemic proportions. That is completely contrary to the "slow theory"! Granted not all change is progress. But it is true that some of the changes do happen pretty quick, especially those which involve large number of people.

Another example is the cellphone adaption in India as shown in the chart. Are there different kinds of progress, some quick and some fast...?

Story of LinkedIn

"I had a plan. What's the minimum amount of time I can work for companies before starting out on my own? I had a check-off list: need experience designing, need experience in product management, need experience shipping product, need experience in building a team. I wanted to make sure I learned everything I needed."

How I did it: Reid Hoffman

Differentiation and Integration

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
- Robert Heinlein

That is an interesting quote. But I find it difficult to agree that every single human being should be a generalist and be good at everything. Can really a jack of all trades be the master of all as well? That notion sort of trivialises the need for specialization and team work among specialists to accomplish tasks. It is true that more and more specialized tasks are eliminated by machines now. That only frees us to move ahead with finding new areas to specialize on rather than become generalists.

In an increasingly competitive world, individuals survive and thrive if and only if they have something unique to offer the world that others cannot. i.e. Specialization and differentiation is what makes the world grow in multiple dimensions simultaneously and allow us to exchange best value for value as individuals, as businesses in societies and across nations.

With the vastness of everything in the world and given the choice that an individual has today, even in theory it is impossible for someone to try to do more than a few things; let alone being good at them.

I think the value of integration remains in our ability to come together as specialists for the collective betterment of all of us. Not in trying to become self fullfilling individuals who can be good at everything. It is a romantic notion to imagine individuals as super heros and dismiss that specialization is for insects. It seems like an outdated view of life that has no relevance in the modern society.

"Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced."
-Swami Vivekananda

Now that is a powerful idea!

Articulation is not accomplishment - Narayana Murthy

Q Talking about higher education... even the recommendations made to the Knowledge Commission have not been implemented? Why does this happen?

A "The Indian society is a society of ideas. It is a society that has revered talk. In this society, articulation is mistaken for accomplishment. We are quite satisfied with our voice, with our writings. This is not a society that is focussed on execution.

Frankly, the problem is due to our caste system and the dominance of Brahmins in our society for long period. The Brahminical system said my job is to think of the higher worlds. My job is to think of connecting you people with God. I don't want to do anything that has a relationship with the real world.

Now that is a problem that has played havoc with the Indian culture. So, here in this culture, if you do anything with your hands, it is considered less honourable that anything to do with your brain.

Here everybody wants to be an engineer, nobody wants to be a technician. So when a society does not value implementation, execution, what happens is you create more and more reports and nothing gets done.

For example, (Reliance Industries Chairman) Mr Mukesh Ambani and I gave two reports on how to improve the higher education system: one to (then prime minister) Mr Vajpayee and one to Dr Manmohan Singh.

Second, there has been the Knowledge Commission. Nothing has happened. Third, in 1998 I was a member of the IT Task Force -- which was headed by Mr Jaswant Singh -- and that task force submitted its report somewhere in 1999 0r 2000.

Nine years and I don't think even one suggestion has been implemented. And we made 108 suggestions! So that is why I am not a big fan of ideas in India.

My brother-in-law is a famous professor of physics at Caltech and he tells me it is very easy to come out with an idea. But to validate that idea he and his doctoral students will have to work hard for six months, one year... sometimes two years. That takes 20 hours of work each day for two years. So it is important to come out with new ideas, but it is even more important to execute them.

We are not a nation of doers; we are a nation which believes that our articulation is our accomplishment."

http://specials.rediff.com/money/2009/apr/24slde8-narayana-murthy-interview-part-2.htm

The link above has invited 100s of comments on his views.

Meeting Dr. Kalam!

Today, I met Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, the former President of India at North Eastern University(NEU) in Boston. He attended the Energy Expo at NEU. This is the second time I am meeting him in person. Back in 1992, he presided over the convocation at IIT Madras. That was the first time I met him. He was then the head of DRDO-India. 17 years has brought a lot of change in life. He went on to serve as the President of India and ascended to the peak of his reputation. It was a honour and privilege to listen and talk to him. He was kind enough to sign his book "Ignited Minds" for me. He talked about the importance of having a vision and leadership ability to bring the vision to reality. He recited the following poem and made the entire audience repeat after him.

If there is righteousness in the heart,
there will be beauty in the character.
If there is beauty in the character,
there will be harmony in the home.
If there is harmony in the home,
there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
there will be peace in the world.

and asked so where does one learn to be righteous?! It was funny to watch him give marks to the audience who answered. Some got 20, 30 and one guy shouted "Father" and he got 50. Then Dr. Kalam went on to answer the question himself.

"There are only three sources to learn righteousness.
1. Mother and
2. Father."
He immediately qualifed the two with the phrase "in a spiritual environment" and added
"3. Primary school teachers!"

He insisted that the people who have profound impact on every individual are the influencial teachers of early education. I couldn't agree more.

What I found interesting was that he extended my understanding of Character and Destiny as stated in my previous posts by identifying the root cause of those qualities. That leap makes it possible to derive a set of actionable steps to influence character building and thus facilitate grass root transformation in the fabric of a nation.

Danish and Dutch...Did you know?

Danish is the language spoken in Denmark. Dutch is the language spoken in The Netherlands.

Netherlands is sometimes (falsely) referred to as Holland (which really is just a part of The Netherlands).

I am human

This is a review of the Tamil movie “Naan Kadavul” (Translation: I am God) by director Bala. This movie seems to have made significant impact on many people and the reviews have generally been in praise of the subject matter of the movie, the protagonist and the director. If you have not seen the movie you may not want to proceed further with this review since it may spoil the story line for you.

For some time I was reluctant to watch this movie since I only expected a sad and dismal movie from this director on some off beat subject. His previous movies, although were commercially successful and won several awards from Indian agencies handled odd subjects and generally portrayed a tragic view of life in an extremely violent manner, all disguised in the name of reality. I brought myself to watch this movie when a chance came by recently. It just reinforced my view of the director’s mindset.

This is a disturbing movie, to say the least, with a cannibalistic psycho sanyasi as the protagonist who comes to clash with the life of helpless, handicapped beggars forced into begging by ruthless exploiters. The beggar leader in the name of offering protection to the beggars’ savings and begging zones, in the absence of any systemic protection for such people, violently ill treats those folks. The cruelty of this exploiter who networks across state borders to buy and sell orphaned children, handicap them and force them into begging is mind boggling. It also reinforces the slum dog millionaire view of the Indian begging situation.

The hero sanyasi is an arrogant, kanja doping young man who was abandoned by his parents when he was young because few astrologers deemed him to be bad luck to his family. He grows up on the cremation grounds of Kasi and was taught that he is part of Siva, the God of destruction in the Hindu mythology. So he grows without understanding any human value or emotion or respect for life.

The movie shows the sad life style of the subjects in gory detail and climaxes with a bizarre “deliverance” of a pathetic blind beggar girl who is violated by her master. The movie doesn’t fail to glorify the psycho who thinks he can kill anyone and remains above the man made laws. The authorities who are there to protect the innocent victims are in cahoots with the beggar leader and are afraid that the sanyasi will “curse” them. So they let him go scot free.

The movie is probably not intended to have any message. However, if you think through the story line a bit, it expresses a half baked understanding of Hindu mythology. The title claims that the Sanyasi declares himself as God and plays the role of the Destroyer to liberate a suffering soul from her earthly life and destroys the evil that causes the suffering. So the title is justified to that extent. However, isn’t the intent of the destroyer also the renewal of life? Per Hinduism, Brahma creates and Vishu grows. Siva completes the cycle by destroying and enabling creation and growth to sustain endlessly. Destruction is never for the sake of just that; violent destruction that doesn’t end anything or enable creating anything. It is here a gap arises in the perhaps unintended message of the movie. Of course an explanation can be offered in terms of Karma of the ‘ill fated’ individuals. This has been the foundation of all problems in India historically. Everything is “understood” and felt pity about, but nothing is done since it is deemed that destiny governs the life of the suffering and some lone hero will come to rescue them. This movie goes down the same beaten path to glorify life of an outcast who in the name of “helping poor souls” kills them without any remorse.

There is no denying of the injustice and the mysticism in the world. I am not sure if it is art to express the failed life of a likely mentally disturbed and disillusioned individual who dwells on death and killing people. The sadness of the story line and the brutality depicted is unprecedented. It is as if the movie is intended to raise your feeling of disgust and make you feel depressed as an after effect. There is little entertainment value in the movie.

The context is unusual, the story is disturbing, the message whether intended or unintended is confused and there is little entertainment value. So what is it that I don’t find in this movie that people are gloating about? If you thought this is a great movie, won’t you let me know please…?!

Habits, Character and Destiny!

"Vellathanayathu malar neetham manthartham
ullatha nayathu uyarvu."
- from Thirukural by Thiru Valluvar

Loosely translated it means,
"Height of a flower (lotus) is decided by the depth of the water
People's greatness is decided by their virtuous character."

Its amazing how Valluvar did not mention talent, intelligence, hard work, courage, charity, education, wealth or any other quality as the deciding factor for one's greatness in life. He singled out the Character as the quality that determines the height of achievements.

This idea seems to have been broken down further in the West.

Watch your thoughts, for they become words
Watch your words, for they become actions
Watch your actions, for they become habits
Watch your habits, for they become character
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny
-unknown

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race"
- Calvin Coolidge

Think Big - Pipeline your dreams!

There are multiple versions of this story on the web. This is a short form.
===
There once was a small village, in a town far, far away that had one tiny little problem. They didn’t have a water supply. The only time that they could have water was when it rained. To solve this problem, two men from the village volunteered to find a way to provide water for the people.

The first man, John, immediately bought two large buckets and started going back and forth to the lake that was about a mile away. He placed the water into a huge concrete tank that the village had built. Each morning, he would get up early before anyone else so there would be a water supply for everyone. For five days a week, John worked diligently. He was having great success the first few months because the other man, Fred, seemed to have disappeared.

Where was Fred at for all of this time?

Well, Fred wrote a business plan to run a steel pipeline from the lake to the village. He hired contractors and found some investors that were willing to pay all of the initial costs. He even hired a president to run the company.

Once everything was set up, Fred charged 75% less for his water than John. He could also provide it 24/7 unlike John who always took the weekends off to rest.

To make up for this, John immediately dropped his prices to match Fred’s. He also bought two more buckets and started carrying four buckets instead of two on each trip to the lake. He then hired his two sons to work weekends so the village would be in constant supply.

John worked very hard all of his life moving buckets of water from the lake to the town. Fred, on the other hand, didn’t really need to do anything. Everything had been set up in the beginning. Fred realized that if his village needed a water supply, there were probably many other villages just like it that needed water.

He went out with the same contractors and investors and started building water pipeline to several other villages. He simply hired more people that would do all of the work. Not only did Fred build a pipeline to run water to the villages, he built a pipeline that poured money in his bank account.

Habits that make or break...

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey

Habit 1: Be Proactive: Principles of Personal Choice
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind: Principles of Personal Vision
Habit 3: Put First Things First: Principles of Integrity & Execution
Habit 4: Think Win/Win: Principles of Mutual Benefit
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood: Principles of Mutual Understanding
Habit 6: Synergize: Principles of Creative Cooperation
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw: Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal

The 7 Habits of spectacularly unsuccessful people by Sydney Finkelstein

Habit 1: They see themselves and their companies as dominating their environments.
Habit 2: They identify so completely with the company that there is no boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interest.
Habit 3: They think they have all the answers.
Habit 4: They ruthlessly eliminate anyone who is not 100 percent behind them.
Habit 5: They are consummate company spokespersons obsessed with the company image.
Habit 6: They underestimate major obstacles.
Habit 7: They stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the past.

Leo Tolstoy wrote, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." If we extend that, all successful people have something in common; every unsuccessful person has something unique that fails them.

Covey and Finkelstein have identified some habits that make the difference!

Capitalism and Socialism

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings;
the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries!
-Winston Churchill

Under capitalism man exploits man;
under socialism the reverse is true!
-Polish proverb

A young man who isn't a socialist hasn't got a heart;
an old man who is a socialist hasn't got a head!
-David Lloyd George

In US, the national median age is 36.7 yrs.
The median age of Indians is 25.1 years

Isn't that interesting!

Foundations of the next wave

DNA Folding/Programming

Paul Rothemund casts a spell with DNA

Molecular Programming project

The man himself - James Watson on the Discovery of DNA

Mesmerizing Music!

Guru Ashtakam - explained here

Suryaashtakam - Watch this early in the morning!

Suklam Baradharam Vishnum

Kurai Ondrum Illai

Suprabatham

Stephan Devassy Solo - The guy who composed it all.
Thank you Stephan!

Build on your strengths!

Did you know that Babe Ruth, a famous baseball player, was once a pitcher? At one point he made the deliberate decision to stop pitching so he could focus on batting. He took a lot of heat for his decision because he was a GOOD pitcher. He stuck with his decision though because he knew he had the motivation to be a GREAT batter.
Often the difference between being good and being great is making adjustments that allow you to spend more of your time developing your greatest strengths.Ever had an annual performance review where the first part was about the wonderful things you did that year, but then the focus quickly shifted to a discussion about shoring up your weaknesses? It’s an all-too-common scenario. And it’sprobably a waste of time.
The "fix your weaknesses" school believes that with enough discipline, determination and training, anyone can do anything.Unfortunately, it confuses weaknesses and limitations. Weaknesses reflect a lack of skill (how to do something) or knowledge (what you know).Weaknesses can be overcome by education, training,experience and practice. On the other hand, limitations reflect a lack of motivation (what you do well naturally). These really can’t be overcome, because new motivations can’t be acquired.
In fact, if a person has low motivation in a particular area,spelling for example, there is very little likelihood that he or she will ever be a great speller. The best they will be is adequate. Who wants to be adequate?It’s a much better idea to build on your strengths.If you want to move up from being good to being great, know what your talents and motivations are, and build on them.Why? Because you will develop what you do best and enjoy most. These are your strengths, and they are yours for life.You can build on them, and they won't let you down. Think about it: what would your life be like if you got paid to do what you do best and truly enjoy? Awesome, isn’t it?

Courtesy: Assessment.com

What is success in life?

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people and
the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics and
endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty;
to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch or
a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

Topics of interest

Children's Education

Online Education

Advanced University Course Materials
MIT Open Course Ware
Connexions

Informative blogs
Information Aesthetics
TED Blog