stream-of-consciousness

It happens only in India!

2010-12-28T07:13:00.000-08:00

In an unbelievably hilarious case of 'It happens only in India!', the bus conductor had stepped down from the bus, and the bus driver drove off before he got back on. Then the conductor ended up having to take an auto and chase the bus! He caught up a few stops later and let's just say the driver and his family were delivered the choicest epithets for a good 10 minutes so loudly that the driver just froze at the bus stop and didn't even drive for that time! I laughed my guts out.

Came up with this pun today

2010-11-17T23:37:00.001-08:00

Bureaucracy exists in every nation. It's just in different forms.

84, Charing Cross Road (abridged?)

2010-11-14T08:48:00.001-08:00

84, Charing Cross Road is an epistolary correspondence of nearly two decades between Helene Hanff and the employees of Marks & Co., in particular Frank Doel. The books begins with Helen Hanff (HH) contacting Marks & Co. with a request for some arcane literature. The request is answered with a formal letter and the relevant books by Frank Doel, as a representative of the book company. But Helene quickly slips into a more informal tone, rambling on the aesthetic appeal of the book, and ending with the puzzling postscript, "I hope "madam" doesn't mean over there what it does here.". When she figures out that its the same representative, viz Frank, answering all her letters to Marks & Co., she starts peppering her letters with humour ("M. de Tocqueville's compliments and he announces his safe arrival in America") and the kind of impudence, especially in salutations, that only a woman might get away with. In one correspondence, she opens by addressing Frank as 'SLOTH'! It made me wonder if a man might've been able to begin a letter to another man thus.

Helene succeeds in denting Frank's reserve not only with her deliberate impudence but also by showering affection on him and the fellow inmates of the bookstore in the form of gifts on festive occasions, or simply as presents when UK was suffering from post-war rationing, especially of meat, linen and other such "luxuries". Naturally, this made the employees and Frank's family extremely fond of this strange foreign girl who kept sending them such expensive gifts for no obvious reason. There is something to be said for this kind of wanton kindness. It makes a lasting impression. I still remember this lady who gave us free syringes at a hospital for some injection that someone we knew had to be administered. We'd always paid for them, and I believe it was Rs. 10 a syringe. Yet for no obvious reason, this lady said, "Take it. There's plenty around anyway" (in telugu) and gave it to us. It left me dumbstruck at that time so I still remember the frail lady who did that. Then there is this mexican woman at the campus dining cafeteria, who always remembers my face and bills me $6, the breakfast rate, for the $8 lunch, if no one else is watching. The first time she did it, my eyes widened in disbelief and she quickly raised her finger to her lips as if to suggest 'hush!' and smiled quietly, making it clear it wasn't an accident. Thereafter, she did it whenever it was safe, and I still smile in incredible gratitude. Then there's the plastic flower roadside vendor in my neighbourhood, who one devilish monsoon day, when the rain suddenly crashed down from the skies, rushed to slip an umbrella out from under his plastic sheet not to protect the source of his livelihood, but to hold it up to my mom while she waited for dad to come pick her up. Then there's Izudina. She spent 30 minutes of unpaid overtime to guide me by hand through the purchase of my first suit, for my first interview, which eventually turned into my first job. And above all, there's a woman, a friend, who's forgiven me for imbecilic adolescent past behaviour that no woman might reasonably forgive. It must be the same inexplicable gratitude that I feel for these people that the employees of Marks and Co. must've felt for the large-hearted and generous HH. Out of that gratitude they invite HH to come over to England and stay with them, and HH promises a trip to England as soon as she's saved enough. As the book progresses, correspondences are omitted, possibly to avoid repetition, possibly because the letters have been lost, and before you know it, a decade has gone by with HH still having made no trip to England. Although, if letters were omitted to avoid repetition, I would like to express my delayed disapproval to the publishers, for how can the correspondences be dull when the woman is as funny as this: "Are you a grandfather yet?", she asks Frank. And then suggests that he tell his daughters, "their children are entitled to presentation copies of my Collected Juvenile Works, THAT should make them rush off and reproduce. "(Underline and block font in original) By now, Frank, Nora (Frank's wife), and their daughters, Sheila and Mary, are spatially removed family to Helene.

Age does not wither Helene's humour, which is often nothing more than the vexed desire for the end of the many people she might momentarily disapprove of. Such phrases as "All must die.", " Death the leveler.", "h.hfffffff.", and "FRANKIE, you'll die when I tell you." only make one smile. On one occasion, her mom leaves behind a dozen knives. She resourcefully uses one for her page cutting, and in the email to Frank says, "May be I go with the wrong kind of people but I'm just not likely to have twelve guests all sitting around simultaneously eating fruit." I laughed at that.

Towards the end of the book, you come to love Frank as this simple yet knowledgeable and happy family man, whose proper British reserve Helene arduously breaks down with an endearing mix of impudence, good humour, and overwhelming affection over nearly two decades. So it left me sad to learn that he died without Helene and him ever meeting. As Nora jealously confesses in the end, perhaps Helene and Frank had more in common.

Finally, I wondered how these letters came to be compiled into a book. Was the same woman who confessed to being incapable of converting pounds to dollars a shrewd businesswoman at heart? Or were the letters simply meant to be a tribute to Frank and the employees of Marks & Co.? Whatever her motivation, I'm only happy to have been privy to their correspondence.

Addendum: The upcoming review will be either 'The rise of India' by Niranjan Rajadakshya or 'Reintegrating India with the World Economy' by T.N. Srinivasan and Suresh Tendulkar. I have an India trip lined up and I realised I know too little about my own country. I also hope to finish Ramachandra Guha's India after Gandhi before I set foot on home soil. Wish me luck folks!

post-Addendum: I just realised that the library copy was an abridged version of the book after buying myself a copy from abebooks.com. I will read the full version later. Till then, please consider this only an incomplete review.

Do customer care representatives appreciate humour?

2010-11-11T13:34:00.000-08:00

I recently made a purchase from a major online shopping site only to realise soon after that the product didn't have a feature that I needed. I placed a request for canceling the order within an hour of my original purchase. But apparently the store had forwarded the info. to their warehouse by then and so they'd in turn have to contact the warehouse. Here's that response:

Hello Karthik,

Thank you for visiting ***********, I appreciate your patience while we attempt to cancel your order # 94628027. I do apologize that we are not able to guarantee this being done.

I have sent a request to the warehouse to attempt to cancel your order. I should receive a response from them within the next 2 business days. I will contact you once I receive a response from them.

If there is anything else that I can assist you with please reply directly to this email and I will be more than happy to help. I would like to thank you for your time and your patience.

Sincerely,

******
Customer Care
*********

Two business days to elicit a response from within the same company? What kind of a warehouse is this anyway? Is it some underground nuclear explosion safe location built so that the store can continue to do sales to the vestiges of civilization after the holocaust? Peeved that their internal process should be so bureaucratic, I decided to give them a tongue-in-cheek response:

Hi *****,

Thank you for the prompt response. In the event that the warehouse is unable to cancel the order, the only thing I would do would be to return the package unopened via mail back to ******* so that I can avail the 30 day return period. Thinking along those lines, I was wondering if I might go online now and change the shipping address to the warehouse address? That way, they can ship it to themselves and I won't have to trudge along to the post-office. Then I can just place a request to file the package as a return in stead of a cancel. I am hoping the warehouse can cancel, but if not, let me know if I might work this little trick to save myself a walk to the post-offfice. If its possible, then please let me know the warehouse address. Thank you,

Karthik

I've always wondered if these cloyingly polite customer care representatives have a sense of humour. Perhaps I'll know now?

Columnist pay - an idea

2010-11-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

I was thinking today about the utter lack of brevity in most online news and magazine sites. I understand that companies do this to maximize ad space, and thus ad revenue, the same reason that a single page articles is often broken into multiple pages. I was wondering if there was a way around this menace of verbosity and it occurred to me that companies might use the hit counting tools to everyone's advantage. Since it should be possible for them to track how many hits each article generates, and since ultimately advertisers want more viewers (and therefrom more suckers) it makes sense for news sites to have a fraction of columnist pay determined by a hits/word ratio. This way, columnists are rewarded for brevity, while advertisers still pay more only for pages which generate more hits, and we as consumers get to see news and information whittled down to the essentials rather than come packaged in an armor of verbiage. What say?

Uncommon Genius (How Great Ideas Are Born) - Denise Shekerjian

2010-11-07T09:27:00.001-08:00

As I had said in my previous post, I was uncertain if a book on genius or creativity would be worth reviewing. I had come to this conclusion after reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book 'Creativity'. In 'Creativity', a number of eminent people were interviewied, including two-time physics Nobel laureate John Bardeen, whereas in 'Uncommon Genius' Denise interviews 40 MacArthur fellows. The problem with both books is that there's too much pattern-seeking going on. Creativity requires such and such conditions or so and so methodology. The funny thing however was that in the course of the books, both Mihaly and Denise ended up mentioning a particular trait and its opposite as necessary. For instance, they would realise after speaking to some of those creative people that its important to be aggressive in one's ambition, so that one dreams big and achieves at least a fraction of what one dreams, but elsewhere come to the conclusion it is important to hold one's calm and be patient in the face of obstacles or resilient in the face of failure. They find that its important to be connected/socially networked with one's peers so that one is up-to-date on the field, but at the same time declare elsewhere its important to have isolation so that ideas can incubate. I could go on and on, but the bottomline is that there's no clear pattern or formula that can be worked out for creativity or 'genius'. If not, everyone would be 'creative' or a 'genius'. However, that being said, Denise does a better job than Mihaly and rightly points out that at least the right sort of conditions can be created to foster creativity. She says it beautifully thus: "Its the defeatist who seeks to explain away creative achievement solely in terms of luck, a perspective that would have us believe the role of luck in creativity is something akin to a fortuitous flash of lightning. A more accurate assessment would be if a person went into the hardware store, bought the best lightning rod he could find, climbed to the highest point of his roof, bolted the contraption in place, and then waited patiently for a storm." This really sums up what creativity and genius are all about. And that is what you really learn from all the people interviewed as well. It is not a miracle process and there's no clear-cut pattern. The so-called 'geniuses' themselves can find no pattern, although the authors desperately try to. When one dwells on ideas in a field for a sufficiently long time, the conditions are created for new ideas of one's own to congeal from the soup of ideas one is exposed to. As one reviewer pithily summarised on the very essential goodreads.com, Genius is always interesting. This is the primary reason I managed to finish both books. I will also add that Denise has a more flowing narrative non-fiction tone to the book. That makes for easier reading. However, it can also lead to character misrepresentation. There is much hero-worship of the geniuses and Denise, a former trial attorney, looks at them with the awe of one who doesn't understand their work. Her focus is excessively on character portrayal and less on accurate representation of their work. For instance, while mentioning Robert Axelrod's work on the iterated prisoner's dilemma, not once did she clearly mention that it was the iterated version of the prisoner's dilemma that she was referring to when she said Axelrod had organized a tournament on the game. One can skim over the overarching pattern-seeking by both Denise in this book and Mihaly in Creativity and just focus on the interesting, and oftentimes insightful words of the interviewees themselves. So I'll just end this brief review with words from the Fellows that I thought interesting:

'I'm not afraid of risk because risk is a part of change, and change is what new ideas are all about." - Debbie Meier

Peter Sellars - "...the first two hundred years of American culture were made by Europeans coming to New York...If something happened elsewhere in the land, it had to go to New York and get the seal of American culture stamped across its forehead...I think the next two hundred years of American culture are going to be shaped by another set of immigrants - Asians and Hispanics - who are going to create another set of vocabulary with its own sense of moral values, and the distribution center will be Los Angeles."

"Purpose is what dictates the entire range of the enterprise. Through intention, goals are shaped and ideas are generated to fulfill them. Through relentlessness come the cultivation of skills and the perfection of technique. Through motive come the decisions as to which projects to pursue and in what order. Through resolve, resources are marshaled and the necessary strength mustered to overcome obstacles rather than be overcome by them. Through tenacity, friends and collaborators are selected. And through will comes the wisdom to know when to part paths with influences one has outgrown." - Denise (author)

Thanks to (Howard) Gardner's work, the old question: How smart is he? is giving way to the more meaningful inquiry: How is he smart?

"Chance favours the prepared mind" - Louis Pasteur

...encourage our luck. There are three ways, at least, of doing this: being attentive, so you notice the nuances in daily life; being curious and inquisitive enough to follow your curiosity around a blind corner; and being able to relax and have a good time.

He took an interest in their stories and told them his, which was in keeping with his belief that only through an exchange of stories can one person know and trust another. - Denise on Robert Coles

Goosebumps

2010-10-29T00:14:00.000-07:00

Did I independently share a dream with Hayek (See from 2:30)?

Awesome.

p.s: Sorry for this distraction from the reviews, but this is way too cool :D

Economics in one lesson by Henry Hazlitt

2010-10-06T01:15:00.001-07:00

This book is just what the title suggests. It is perhaps the single most important lesson in economics for every human being. It is the lesson that most of the time, a government does not create value. Instead, it merely redistributes wealth, and forcibly, through taxes, invariably from the more efficient producers of value to the less efficient ones. Although this lesson may seem obvious if stated in this manner, the author rightly points out that most nations, shockingly, still haven't imbibed Adam Smith's lessons on the benefits of free-trade and capitalism, let alone the ideologies of the 20th century Austrian school of economic thought. It is the single most important lesson of the classical economists. FA Hayek, one of the stalwarts of the classical liberal movement of the 20th century, vouches for this book. He says, "It is a brilliant performance. It says precisely the things which need most saying and says them with a rare courage and integrity. I know of no other modern book from which the intelligent layman can learn so much about the basic truths of economics in so short a time." Its greatest virtue is the simplicity of language and layman friendly explanations, along with illustrative examples even a high school student can grasp. Hayek's Road to Serfdom is the work of a philosopher more than an economist, and it has that vague philosopher's gobbledygooky tone to it. But Hazlitt, who has served as editor on the board's of many big news sources in his time, has that crispness of language which makes the book an easy read. As Hazlitt says in the conclusion, the main aim of the book is to make the reader understand the effects of government interference in markets on the Forgotten Man, in other words, what are the effects of a special interest petition, whether it be parity prices, export subsidies, tariffs, or price-fixing, on the parties not making the petition. Each individual plays the role of consumer, producer, and taxpayer in an economy, and all too often we compartmentalise ourselves into these modes, without considering the three interrelate. He also stresses the importance of understanding the long run consequences of economic policy, without exultation at the short term result of a distortion in markets. It explains clearly the functioning of free-markets, the role of supply and demand in setting the price level, and the effect of arbitrary perturbations on the market equilibrium either through government interference or popular coercion. He elaborates on how supply and demand are two sides of the same coin. The one cannot arbitrarily exceed the other for any sustained period of time. The author states it beautifully as 'There is no limit to the amount of work to be done. Work creates work. What A produces constitutes the demand for what B produces.' Let us take a simple example of this kind of perturbation on the free market: Minimum wage laws and union rates. As the author says, in an exchange economy everybody's income is somebody else's cost. Every increase in hourly wages, unless or until compensated by an equal increase in hourly productivity, is an increase in costs of production. This in turn would reflect in a change in the price level, or what we call the consumer price index, thus ultimately making nobody making nobody wealthier in the best case, but in a more realistic scenario it only increases unemployment. The elasticity of demand for labour is between -3 and -4 in most low-skilled wages and mimimum wage laws are the surest way to increase unemployment. So in stead of allowing a man to earn a mimimum wage and support his family, you put him on the streets, and then give him unemployment benefits through taxing the same producer, but giving him nothing in return, whereas he would've got some returns in stead if he could hire the worker on a minimum wage. It is important to understand that wages are merely labour prices. Just as price levels must be determined by supply and demand, so must wage levels. To take another example, fixing prices above the market level (as is still being demanded in India today. See this and this.) would either reduce demand (depending upon the elasticity) and thus lead to wastage of produce or operation of production at non-optimal efficiency, or if the demand for the price-fixed product is inelastic (as with rice in the hyperlinks above), it would lead to reduced demand elsewhere, throwing other producers out of jobs or reducing profits. Similarly, fixing prices below the market equilibrium would lead to a falling off of profits. And profits are nothing but the capital necessary to meet demand requirements. So reduced profits would scale down production, and possibly create unemployment along the way. Therefore, as the author concludes, any attempt to force prices either above or below their equilibrium levels (which are the levels toward which a free market constantly tends to bring them) will act to reduce the volume of employment and production below what it would otherwise have been. He also highlights a more important role of profits. Not only are profits the necessary capital to meet demand, they are the filter that determines what is demanded and what is not in a free economy. That is, the prospect of profits decides what articles will be made, and in what quantities - and what articles will not be made at all. If there is no profit in making an article, it is a sign that the labor and capital devoted to its production are misdirected: the values of the resources that must be used up in making the article is greater than the value of the article itself. I think this is what Randall Munroe tried to illustrate in this comic. He started the book with a good example on the silliness of the notion of a subsidy which is often demand by the 'dying industry'. He says imagine what would've happened if in the early 20th century they decided to tax the car industry and subsidize the horse-driven carriages in order to save the dying carriage industry. Although this example may seem funny on hindsight, this is precisely what is being done in all nations today as governments subsidize one powerful vote bank industry or the other, distorting the markets and hampering industrial progress. Before the close of the book, he tackles perhaps the biggest devil of 'em all - inflation! He says, 'Inflation is the opium of the people', and there is really no better way to put it. (For instance, how much is India's real GDP growth, minus the staggering 9% overall inflation? Is it a negative -0.5% in the recent 8.5% GDP growth period? Or have they accounted for it when reporting on news sites? There is bound to be inflation in any developing economy, but I wonder how much the growth numbers are fudged by inflation?) This is all of course done to create the money illusion.

The author does not tackle the effects of elasticities of demand and the classical economic theories that take it into account. I'd be interested in understanding the perturbations in classical theory created by demand elasticity so if any of you can suggest good books on the same, please do so in the comments. Thanks.

Finally, as I have stated several times already, this is an excellent introduction to the classical view of economics, and not the only and absolute view. There is a whole other school of economic thought, the Keynesian school, and there are several tomes on how fiscal policy might step in to positively aid free-markets(For instance). As I am only beginning to take a serious interest in economics, I have no opinion on which is the right way of approaching the problems in economics, but I do think the classical economists provide a better starting point than the Marxists :)

As I said folks, this is a busy time academically so the next review may only come after a month or so. It'll be more frequent thereafter for the next two months :)

Upcoming review: Either Uncommon Genius by Denise Shekerjian (If I think it is worth reviewing) or 84 Charing Cross Road (which I'll definitely review)

Huckleberry Finn

2010-10-03T23:23:00.000-07:00

SPOILER WARNING

Well, I k'n stend it no mo' peeps.

It was a good book, and Mark Twain has shown his capacity to bring out the different accents along the Mississippi very well, and I daresay that's a nation (hat tip: Twain) tough job. The story starts off kind of interesting with Huck's brilliantly hatched plan to escape from pap, his dad, including a red-herring in the scheme. His discovery of Jim, the nigger, and their times together are fun to read. The first half of the story is mostly Huck's thoughts with the story itself lying in the background. It all sort of acts as a forerunner to the main debate in Huck's head over whether or not to blow a whistle on the escaped nigger. Through Huck, Twain deals with the issue of slavery with the simplicity of a 14 year old. Huck figures he'd feel just as bad if he told on Jim as if he didn't and so he saw no point in telling on him. In another instance, Huck had been 'sivilized' by Miss Watson who had made him pray and said he'd get the things he wanted if only he prayed. And so he prayed for some downright essential things like a fishing rod or two, and seeing he didn't get that upon praying, he figured it wasn't worth taking all that trouble to pray. The latter half of the story however moves out of the realm of Huck's thoughts and his fight with his own conscience and into a bunch of farcical episodes with two fraudsters. Their get-rich-quick schemes are fantastic, the folks they hoodwink are made out to be complete dunces, and you sort of feel like you are reading the script of a bollywood comedy movie. After the fraudsters, Twain creates an opportunity to bring Tom into this novel. At first, I was thrilled at the prospect of Huck and Tom re-uniting but Tom, in this book, just turns out to be maniacally obsessed with making a Rube Goldberg machine out of the plan to free Jim from his latest captors. That line of narration gets tedious after a point, and Huck completely loses character. Initially you are treated to this delightful child who learns life lessons through his voyages on the Mississippi and battles with his own conscience. But in the end he is just reduced to Tom's nodding sidekick, much as he was in the earlier novel Tom Sawyer. So I was left with the impression Twain started of well but then ran out of ideas so that the novel kinda devolved into a farce. Nevertheless, the first half makes it worth a read. However, just like Tom Sawyer, the novel is loaded to the brim with belief in the supernatural and the occult and after a point, you are almost sure that in any situation that gets too complicated for the author to wiggle his way out of, someone's going to come up with some supernatural belief as a way to disentangle the mess. I rate the book better than Tom Sawyer as it had some depth to it in parts whereas Tom Sawyer was almost entirely just a collection of superstitions. Also, there is good humour in both books although you figure out the patterns soon enough. For instance, a lot of jokes hinge on replacing the word stealing with the word borrowing. Twain also manages to highlight the seamless transition that kids can make from the real world to the imaginary as contained in their ability to let on. For a wonderful illustration of child's seamless transition in emotional states, see this picture:

Finally, both books have a very slow pace of events, and lots of conversations of an obscure and arbitrary nature thanks to all the superstitions, so that makes it a little difficult to read in long stretches. I think I will give a rest to fiction for a while.

I think I was irrational to say I'd review one book a week as there's too many variables involved in determining when I finish a book. The blog, however, will continue with reviews. Things may be slow for the next month and a half as there are some major shifts occurring on my educational/career front. But I will keep at reading, and reviewing.

Upcoming review: Economics in one lesson by Henry Hazlitt

Commitment issues

2010-09-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

An experienced serial entrepreneur had written in an article I once read that it'll always come in handy to be good and fast at skills you may use regularly. Good common sense advice, no? In that basket of skills features reading, for me. Also, to an extent, writing. Thinking does too, and I do try to practice that as much as I can. Because if I don't make it a point to think, it turns out, I don't think. I act on automaton mode prompted by immediate reward cues, just like animals. In any case, I realized I am not practicing these skills as much as I'd like. This space, this blog, has been lying fallow for quite some time now. So I've decided to be resourceful and use it to my advantage. I hope to turn this in to a book review blog of sorts. Nothing formal. Nothing orderly. Just write reviews of books, when I finish them. I hope to finish about one leisure reading book a week. By my present reading standards, that's ambitious. But then, there are two schools of thought on making your goals public. In the one case, the fact that you've signaled intent and impressed your audience thus implies you lose initiative to fulfill those goals. For instance, if I am a school kid and I say I wish to become a lawyer to the auntie and uncle that come to visit my parents and they go "very good, child" , I am less likely to work towards becoming a lawyer than otherwise as I've already increased status from the declaration. The other school of thought says, declaring definite goals publicly, especially when most of the status comes after the fact of realising that goal, enhances likelihood of goal achievement. For instance, if I hope to lose a 100 pounds, I am more likely to lose it if I put it on my twitter and facebook status messages than if I keep it a secret vow. I am hoping my book reading and reviewing goals fall in the latter category. I've never reviewed books. So I will mostly begin with whatever little I can recall from the book and my thoughts on it. I hope not to actually open the book at the time of reviewing it. I am hoping this will help with increasing my operating memory on leisure literature, which is quite sparse at the moment. I just finished Tom Sawyer and I don't remember any more the name of Tom's last love. There's also a theory about writing helping to organize things in one's memory better. So I'd like to test that out. I expect the reviews to be haphazard and disorganized for now. But perhaps in a year or two, they will have acquired some form. The other reasons for doing this are that I am too under-read and under-knowledgeable(?) to write meaningful posts otherwise. I may occasionally write-up an article on issues I care about, but I wouldn't be comfortable doing so without a tonne of reference literature to back up my claims, so that would take time and articles of that sort may not be frequent. Also, I think I've screwed up my 'work-life balance'. More my 'life' than my 'work'. Without definite leisure related goals, work and online leisure sprawls matted over the length of the day and I'm hoping this will help me organize my leisure better. I expect most of the book reviews to go up on weekends. I also hope to be able to mention what book I'll be reviewing the subsequent week. Wish me luck friends!

Upcoming review: Huckleberry Finn (for I'd have completely forgotten Tom Sawyer by then, although I thoroughly enjoyed the book!)

Memories

2010-09-20T09:43:00.001-07:00

The leaves of memory seemed to rustle
The mind's reprieve from the daily bustle

Flitting images real or fake
Leaving much joy in their wake

Dawn

2010-09-17T06:19:00.000-07:00

There is a hint of irony in human nature. Greed throws us into quarrels over bits of printed paper. It has us fighting furiously for bits of earth to plant concrete on, when Earth herself would be bountiful enough in accommodating and feeding the warring parties if she were left alone. Yet this same greed nudges us to try to accumulate and preserve ephemeral joys, to photograph a snow-capped mountain range, to record a child's unbridled laughter, to pen verdant words at the start of monsoon. This greed can thus lead us to boundless sorrow but also boundless joy. And so it is this powerful beast has galvanized me into writing about my favourite time of the day, the precious minutes of dawn. Dawn is a time of such perfect calm that one is hesitant to move lest one trample on its fragile beauty. It is a time of restfulness for life. The air itself breathes in silence at this hour. The trees are bowed in quiet humility to the serenity of the hour. The hardships of the previous day are fleetingly forgotten by humans, and the animals have a sojourn from the struggle for survival. Even the alert owls, those sentries of the night, relax their eyelids a little, as if trusting themselves in the safe arms of dawn. Blades of grass are bathed in dew, and flowers can be seen adorned in water droplets. The unobtrusive lighting of twilight renders nature in its pristine shades. The moist earth is teasing with its intoxicating smells. One can sit in a state of such blissful communion with one's surroundings that its almost impossible not to smile the whole time. Then one sees the red hues on the horizon, the carpet for sunrise. And one begins to sense the first stirrings of life. The chirping of the bird in celebration of the hour. The confused stray dog rummaging a refuse heap for food. The distant whistle of an early morning train. The sound of water gushing out of someone's tap. One is suddenly made conscious of all the humans that are stealthily opening an eye to glean meaning from their alarm clocks, those ticking time bombs that jolt them out of rest. In a few hours from this time we will all have hurled ourselves headlong in to the tumult and turbulence of daily life. It seems almost understandable that we don't allow ourselves to witness dawn very often. It would be well nigh impossible to soak in such perfection, to dilute one's grit, to wash away one's worries, to dissolve one's fears, and then to pull oneself together to carry on with the banalities of daily existence. Dawn can thus paralyze. Yet, if one is ever longing leave from loneliness, or escape from boredom, or freedom from depression, or even faced with an existential crisis, to live through the hours of dawn is enough to give a new lease of life itself.

Made my day

2010-08-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

Thank you Izudina. Your service made the 300 dollars I spent worth it.

Charade

2010-08-02T12:06:00.001-07:00

"Oh!", said the woman
I daily ply my trade
lest i turn housemaid

"Ah!", said the man
I daily ply my trade
only because I'm paid

"Ha!", said the monkey
who was free and flayed
this sad human charade

p.s: I had originally posted this as a comment here but then I really liked it because I have a thing for rhymes, which is the only kind of poetry I understand so I've decided to honour it here :|

Unprintably hilarious Hemingway

2010-06-06T18:02:00.000-07:00

So the dude (Hemingway) decides to use 'unprintable' and 'obscenity' in stead of the actual obscenities in 'For whom the bell tolls'. (an old-fashioned way of going 'beeep' I suppose) But he could've been more clever about it like we are and used the first and last letters and inserted asterisks, the b*****d, but he wasn't clever enough to think of that. So the book, which is otherwise serious, now has funny bits like this:

"I know what it is for and so will you in time," Robert Jordan said. "But now we go to the camp."
"Go to the unprintable," Agustin said. "And unprint thyself. But do you want me to tell you something of service to you?"
"Yes," said Robert Jordan. "If it is not unprintable," naming the principal obscenity that had larded the conversation.

Another one:

"...But I would say one thing. Guard well thy explosive."
"Thank you," Robert Jordan said. "From thee?"
"No," Agustin said. "From people less unprintably equipped than I."
"So?" asked Robert Jordan.
"You understand Spanish," Agustin said seriously now. "Care well for thy unprintable explosive."
"Thank you."

Ancient roman saying:

2010-05-20T11:09:00.001-07:00

libri aut liberi

(books or children)

Gmail play of words

2010-05-17T14:40:00.001-07:00

I sent out a common email to my dissertation committee members titled 'Scheduling my comprehensive exam' asking them for times of availability in a particular week. They replied with their times of convenience and I found no time in common. Google had appropriately titled the emails 'Re: Scheduling my comprehensive exam'.

Can a democracy be made more efficient?

2010-05-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

I was thinking of how a democracy might be made a more efficient system. While there are problems in constructing a fair voting system , what I was thinking was: irrespective of the approach (from the various approaches mentioned in link) used to elect the representatives, why not apply free market economics to voting systems. Meaning: Voters elect representatives at a local level (may be district level, or some other small unit of measure). Then, after some definite period (say annually), the nearest neighbour localities can choose to either continue with their current representative or pick one of the more efficient neighbouring representatives. In this way, some representatives, the ones which people deem more efficient, now control greater areas, and iterate over time until you have representatives/parties governing people in proportion to the extent to which people deem them efficient. (Someone I know was wondering what this would do to states as we know it? The answer is: States are a convenient fiction. The only thing this does is make those rigid boundary lines fluid.) I think this would substantially improve the powers of democracy. But perhaps there are bottlenecks in implementation? Any other problems you guys can think of?

My stance on global warming

2010-04-21T23:24:00.001-07:00

Beautifully written: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/29/AR2008052903266.html

I echo his opinion and analysis.

Broken window theory and cleanliness/hygeine in India

2010-04-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

Does the broken window theory explain the lack of cleanliness and hygiene in public spaces in India?

The theory:
Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. This is as true in nice neighborhoods as in rundown ones. Window-breaking does not necessarily occur on a large scale because some areas are inhabited by determined window-breakers whereas others are populated by window-lovers; rather, one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.

Also, is there a positive correlation between population density and the feeling of anonymity/neglect needed to trigger the broken window phenomenon? This hasn't been addressed in the link above, but they provide the following example:

Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford psychologist, reported in 1969 on some experiments testing the broken-window theory. He arranged to have an automobile without license plates parked with its hood up on a street in the Bronx and a comparable automobile on a street in Palo Alto, California. The car in the Bronx was attacked by "vandals" within ten minutes of its "abandonment." The first to arrive were a family--father, mother, and young son--who removed the radiator and battery. Within twenty-four hours, virtually everything of value had been removed. Then random destruction began--windows were smashed, parts torn off, upholstery ripped. Children began to use the car as a playground. Most of the adult "vandals" were well-dressed, apparently clean-cut whites. The car in Palo Alto sat untouched for more than a week. Then Zimbardo smashed part of it with a sledgehammer. Soon, passersby were joining in. Within a few hours, the car had been turned upside down and utterly destroyed. Again, the "vandals" appeared to be primarily respectable whites.

A little wikiing reveals that Bronx has a population density of 33,116/sq. mi. while Palo Alto has a population density of 2,475.3/sq. mi. In effect the population of Bronx is about 1300% the population of Palo Alto. My hunch is that a higher population density can trigger the "no one cares" attitude more easily thus spurring the broken window phenomenon w.r.t cleanliness in public spaces. This same phenomenon is strongly witnessed in cities in India and other density populated places (like Mexico city). Of course, there can be local variations due to law enforcement or the success of some local cleanliness/hygiene programs.

I like your...

2010-03-26T10:34:00.001-07:00

The pick-up line that I'll use on my future gf: I like your learning curves.

The Gandhi of materials science?

2010-03-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

I never knew materials science would turn out to be such a jolly subject!

Engrish FAIL!

2010-02-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

This is from a paper published in the 'Journal of the Physical Society of Japan'!

Paper title FAIL! :p

2010-02-05T13:29:00.000-08:00

Please donate (Haiti is a very poor nation)

2010-01-21T08:59:00.000-08:00

https://www.imcworldwide.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=878

Witty pun?

2010-01-09T11:29:00.000-08:00

Wit - I love it!

Recycled wisdom

2010-01-08T22:13:00.000-08:00

This video from TED seems to be doing many rounds on the internet. After you waste 20 minutes of your life watching these yuppie researchers, you may read this excerpt from Daniel Yergin's 'The Prize':

Meanwhile, Rockefeller, relieved of day-to-day responsibility, regained his health under his new regimen. In 1909, his doctor predicted that he would live to he a hundred because he followed three simple rules: "First, he avoids all worry. Second, he takes plenty of exercise in the open air. Third, he gets up from the table a little hungry."

Two points:
1) Rockefeller lived to 98.
2) The three points mentioned above are all that the video conveys after you spend 20 minutes watching it. And apparently to discover this they spent several years on research too.

Caveat fail!

2009-12-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

I was renting a car for some christmas travel when I learnt that my new Visa credit card obtained through bank of america covers collision damage waiver, that is, if you hit some vehicle with the rental car, it covers all the cost of damage to the rental car. I was reading through the fine print of 'what is not covered' on the Visa website to make sure I didn't leave any loopholes that they might later exploit in order to not pay the damage costs. That is when I noticed there was one cleverly inserted caveat in the terms and conditions which was sure to heavily tilt the odds in favour of their not having to cover the costs. Please see that caveat in image below:

Divided we stand, united we fall?

2009-12-11T19:38:00.001-08:00

http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/12/stories/2009121258940100.htm

Thought for the day

2009-12-02T14:05:00.000-08:00

Success is the stepping stone to failure - By yours truly.

John Locke and Swiss minarets.

2009-12-01T10:02:00.000-08:00

This article is worth a read, primarily for John Locke's powerfully worded message.

Notes from 'Feet of Clay' by Anthony Storr

2009-11-30T21:11:00.000-08:00

Since this book is concerned with some gurus who were less than admirable, I want to affirm at the outset that I recognize that morally superior individuals exist whose integrity, virtue, and goodness are far beyond the reach of most of us. Such people, unlike gurus, usually influence other by their examples in daily life rather than by swaying crowds with rhetoric, surrounding themselves with adoring disciples or claiming access to esoteric wisdom which the ordinary person cannot reach unaided.

Many gurus appear to have been rather isolated as children, and to have remained so. They seldom have close friends. They are more interested in what goes on in their own minds than in personal relationships, perhaps because they do not believe that anyone else really cares for them. In other words, they tend to be introverted and narcissistic.

Gurus tend to be intolerant of any kin of criticism, believing that anything less than total agreement is equivalent to hostility. This may be because they have been so isolated that they have never experienced the interchange of ideas and positive criticism which only friends can provide. It is also because revelations are in a different category from works of art, in that they cannot be criticized, only accepted or rejected.

Conviction of a special revelation must imply that the gruru is a superior person who is not as other men are. Gurus attract disciples without acquiring friends.

Gurus must possess charisma...Charisma is closely linked with intensity of conviction. The ability to speak fluently in public and good looks are helpful additional assets. Some of the gurus discussed in this book were so fluent that, without reference to notes, they could hold an audience entranced for hours at a time.

Almost by definition, charismatic leaders are unpredictable for they are bound by neither tradition nor rules; they are not answerable to other human beings. If a leader is accepted as having charismatic authority, he is often accorded the right to direct every aspect of his followers' lives. For example, he may dictate where they live, with whom they form sexual relationships, and what should be done with their money or other possessions.
(Self-note: Same working principle for Astrology.)

A guru's conviction of his own worth depends upon impressing peole rather than upon being loved.

Moreover, it is those who are high in the dictator's hierarchy who are most likely to be seen as threatening. Paradoxically, the 'friends' and allies on whom a normal leader might depend for advice and support during crises, often constitute the greatest threat to the paranoid dictator. Hitler's purge of Ernst Rohm and his Stormtrooper lieutenants in 1934 is a typical example.
(Self-note: Reminiscent of Saddam's approach of keeping 'dumb relatives' in important senior positions for the same reason as above)

As we shall see, some gurus are dictators on a small scale. Although their message is ostensibly religious rather than political, they behave like dictators, thrive on adulation, have no true friends, attempt to exercise absolute power, and are afflicated by the same kind of paranoid suspicions. Let us look at two gurus who fit this description:

On Nov. 18, 1978, over nine hundred people, including two hundred and sixty children, drank or were injected with cyanide in Jonestown, Guyana. This self-annihilation of the members of the People's Temple was ordered by its founder, Jim Jones,...On April 19, 1993, eighty-six people, including twenty-two children, perished in the flames of Ranch Apocalypse, Waco, Texas. This self-immolation was at the instigation of the cult leader David Koresh...Their aim was absolute power, and the ultimate expression of power over others is to bring about their death.

JIM JONES:
As a youth, he invited an acquaintance for dinner. When the lad said that he must leave before Jones wished him to do so, Jones fired a gun at him, narrowly missing him.

Jones claimed divinely inspired clairvoyance, which he invoked as explaining his knowledge of the personal histories and secrets of those whome he called up. In reality, he employed spies who discovered these secrets by passing on information gleaned from personal enquiries, unauthorized entries to homes, and even from combing through dustbins.

Jones specialized in services of healing, for which he claimed he had a divine gift. Many of his so-called cures were faked. People brought in in wheelchairs would be told they were healed and could walk. In fact, these were disguised members of the People's temple who had been trained for the role. Jones had no hesitation in claiming to cure cancer. An individual would be told that he had cancer of the bowel and instructed to go to the lavatory. Then, a bloody mass of animal intestine would be produced as evidence that the cancer had been miraculously evacuated. Complicity in his deceptions as healer was one way in which Jones gained control over the members of his cult. Sexual confessions were another. Some were compelled to sign confessions to crimes which they had not committed. Members of the Temple had to abrogate anything which ministered to their sense of individuality: possessions, children, spouses, and ownership of their own bodies. Everything was to be held in common. Jones, like many other gurus was good at raising money. By 1975, the Temple's assets were rated at $10 million.

Eugene Chaikin, a Californian attorney who became a member of the Temple, described him as the most loving, Christ-like human being he had ever met. Another law graduate, Tim Stoen, called Jones 'the most compassionate, honest and courageous human being the world contains'. in 1972, Stoen signed a paper requesting that Jones sire a child by his wife, since he himself was unable to do so. Jones acceded to Stoen's request.

In 1977, Jones moved to Guyana, and established a settlement in Jonestown, so remote from the capital Georgetown, that it took thirty-six hours to reach it by steamer and river boat. Guyana was chosen because it had a history of offering sanctuary to a variety of fugitives, including a number of criminals and the black leader Michael X. (A convert to Islam and Black Power, he was expelled from Britain for dope-dealing, fled back to Trinidad, and, after committing murder, fled to Guyana.)

About 70% of those who followed Jones to Guyana were black; about two-thirds were female.

Jones' need to bring everyone and everything under his own cotrol came near to fulfillment in this remote place.

According to Deborah Blakey, a former financial secretary of the Temple, who managed to get out in April 1978, the commune lived under a reign of terror. Most people were required to work in the field for eleven hours a day on grossly inadequate rations. As a result, extreme weight loss, chronic diarrhoea, and recurrent fever affected half. The settlement was constantly patrolled by armed guards. Jones threatened that anyone who tried to escape would be killed, forbade telephone calls to the outside world, ensured that mail was censored and confiscated passports and money. He also told them that the settlement was surrounded by mercenaries of by the Guyanese Army, who would capture and torture and defectors and castrate any males who attempted to escape.

Jones affirmed that heas the only truly heterosexual male in the settlement and alleged that many of the other males had not come to terms with their homosexual feelings. To demonstrate this, he found it advisable to bugger some of them. One such victim is reported as saying: 'Your fucking me in the ass, was, as I see it now, necessary to get me to deal with my deep-seated repression against my homosexuality'. 'Father' could do no wrong, and sex with Father was generally reported as an incomparable experience.

Punishments were generally carried out in public on the stage of the church. Beatings were inflicted with a three-foot paddle, and some beatings lasted half-an-hour. Grace Stoen saw her son John Victor beaten in public, but when she finally escaped from the settlement in July 1976, she had to leave the child behind. Victims of beatings had their cries amplified by microphones held to their lips. A child who soiled his pants was forced to wear them on his head, forbidden food, and made to watch others eating. Children were sometimes tossed into a well near Jones' bungalow and pulled down into the water by aides already swimming there. Other offenders had a hot pepper stuffed up the rectum. Another punishment was to be confined in a crate too small to permit standing for days at a time. Some offenders were given electric shocks from a machine known as Big Foot.

Yet, as Shiva Naipaul indicates in his book 'Journey to nowhere' there was another side to Jonestown. Dr. James S. Gordon, a psychiatrist who interviewed a number of survivors over a period of ten years, was impressed with the fact that none regretted their stay in Jonestown. It is evident that some people who had been alienated from conventional society felt themselves part of a new community in which they were for the first time accepted and valued.

His sexual behaviour indicates that he used sex as a way to dominate others rather than as an expression of love.

Although the People's Temple accumulated considerable funds, he does not seem to have been attracted by conventional trappings of wealth in the shape of Rolls-Royces, yachts, or gold trinkets. What fascinated him was the exercise of power over people.

Jones was a confidence trickster. He once broke a window and claimed that a brick on the floor had been thrown at him. Unfortunately for him, the absence of broken glass within the room...In Jonestown, he claimed that enemies had fired at him, and produces bullets in evidence. In fact, his adopted son Jimmy had fired the shots, and was seen to do so by Vincent Lopez.

Jones began to announce himself as God around 1974. Drugs made him more inclined to claim divine status but how he believed in his own divinity is an open question.

The inhabitants of Jonestown were prepared well in advance for their eventual death. Jones kept on telling them that he expected the settlement to be attacked by a variety of foes, and that if this happened, the only way out might be suicide. Reports by survivors, and examination of the site of injection in the corpses suggest that more were murdered than was originally supposed.

Let us turn from Jonestown to Ranch Apocalypse. Born to a 14 year old girl, who placed him in her mother's care, reclaimed him when she married a merchant, who thrashed him frequently. Did poorly at school, called retard, knew the whole of New Testament by 12. Impregnated a 16 yr old who refused to live with him on the grounds that hewas unfit to bring up a child. This shattered his confidence. Mood swings of pathological intensity, sometimes believing himself to be uniquely evil, sometimes thinking he was especially favoured by God. Soon infatuated with a Pastor's daughter, behaviour became so outrageious that the pastor and his congregation expelled him. His intial periods of depression were succeeded by an ever mounting confidence that he had been specially selected by God; a conviction which may have been reinforced by LSD, which he started using in his late teens.

DAVID KORESH:
Koresh started a similar cult similar to Jones' Guyana, but in Waco, Texas.His annual income amounted to $500,000 (financed by a number of rich businessmen who were persuaded) He taught that God would return to earth with fire and lightning and establish a new kingdom in Israel with Koresh on the throne. He persuaded his followers that death was only a prelude to a better life to come, in which they would be among the army of elite immortals who were destined to slaughter all the wicked on earth.

Similar starvation practices as Jones.

Punishments also as savage as Jones'. He taught that children as young as eight months old should receive corporal punishment for misbehaviour. Another punishment was to immerse offenders in sewage and not allow him or her to bathe.

Derek Lovelock, and English survivor of the terminal siege insisted that Koresh was 'a very caring compassionate man'. "We were one big family,"

Koresh was as sexually rapacious as Jones, but his tastes were different. In 1983, Koresh married Rachel, the daughter of an official of the Branch Davidian Church. She was only fourteen years old, but no one objected. She bore him three children. In 1986, Koresh began sleeping with her younger sister, then twelve years old. When Koresh took command of Ranch Apocalypse, he split up families by ensuring that the men slept on one floor, the women on another. Severing family ties was one way of reinforcing allegiance to himself, and also made it easier for him to seduce the women he wanted. Koresh considered himself entitled to have sexual relations with any of the females in the compound, including girls of twelve and thirteen. One child who was too small for penetration was urged to use large tampons in order that her vagina might become able to accommodate him.

He was less obviously a confidence trickster than Jones; "Vernon (Koresh) gets a craving. Then he finds the theology to justify that craving. When others buy into his doctrine, he starts believing it himself.

When Ranch Apocalypse finally went up in flames, seventeen of the twenty-two children who perished has been fathered by Koresh, who claimed that only he was allowed to procreate, and that part of his mission was to fill the world with righteous children.

The final holocaust was initated by members of the cult, who used kerosene lamps to start the blaze. Not everyone who died was burned alive. Twenty-seven cult members, including Koresh, were shot.

SUMMARY OF THE TWO:

There were very few defectors from either camp. It appears that once a guru has convinced a follower of his Messianic status, his actual behaviour, as judged by ordinary human standards, becomes largely irrelevant. Belief in a guru, whilte it persists, entirely overrules rational judgement. Dedicated disciples are as impervious to reason as are infatuated lovers.

There is a well-known psychiatric phenomenon called 'folie a deux.' If two people live together and one is mad, the other may become convinced by at least some of the delusions expressed by the psychotic partner. If the psychotic partner is removed to hospital, the other partner usually recovers his or her sanity. Shared delusions are mutually reinforcing, and membership of a sect led by a psychotic leader reassures both the leader and the disciple who has fallen under his spell of the truth of their beliefs.

GEORGEI IVANOVITCH GURDJIEFF:

Gurdjieff claims our interest because he, or his doctrines as propounded by his disciple Ouspensky, bewitched so many interesting and intelligent people, including the writer Katherine Mansfield, A. R. Orage, Margaret Anderson, Jane Heap, Kenneth Walker, Olgivanna, John Godolphin Bennett, James Young, Maurice Nicoll, David Eder, T.S. Eliot, David Garnett, and Herbert Read.

Gurdjieff claimed to have learned much from a three months' stay in 'the chief sarmoung monastery'...The Sarmoung monastery cannot be identified. His own autobiographical account, in 'Meetings with remarkable men' is contradictory and chronologically unreliable.

Gurdjieff was a dictator. He had the capacity so completely to humiliate his disciples that grown men would burst into tears.

Eugen Bleuler, the famous director of the Burgholzli mental hospital in Zurich and the originatoor of the term 'schizophrenia', quotes a patient who wrote:
'At Apell plain church-state, the people have customs and habits partly taken from glos-faith because the father wanted to enter new f. situation, since they believed the father had a Babeli comediation only with music. Therefore they went to the high Osetion and on the cabbage earth and all sorts of malice, and against everything good. On their inverted Osetion valley will come and within thus is the father righteousness.

Gurdjieff is said to have believed in God, to whom he referred as 'Our Almighty Omni-Loving Common Father Uni-Being Creator Endlessness'.

His theories: "Man, like every other living being, cannot, in the ordinary conditions of life, tear himself free from the moon. All his movements and consequently all his actions are controlled by the moon. If he kills another man, the moon does it; if he sacrifices himself for others, the moon does that also. All evil deeds, all crimes, all self-sacrificing actions, all heroic expoloits, as well as all the actions of oridnary ilfe are controlled by the moon."

Perhaps I have extracted enough to give the reader some idea of Gurdjieff's picture of the cosmos, and to demonstrate that Gurdjieffe's own writings are both voluminous and obscure.

His own account of how he survived his early wanderings reveals how expert he was at deception. Gurdjieff wrote that he coloured sparrows with aniline dyes and sold them as 'American canaries' in Samarkand. He also wrote that he found out in advance which villages and towns the new railway would pass through, and then informed the local authoriteis that he had the power to arrange the course of the railway. He boasted that he obtained large sums for his pretended services, and said that he had no pangs of conscience about doing so.

He became skilled at extracting money from Americans to support his enterprises at the Chateau du Prieure, and he referred to this activity as 'shearing sheep'.

When he and his followers were in danger from the conflict between the Cossacks and the Bolsheviks, Gurdjieff managed to get transport from the Provincial Government by spreading rumour that he knew of enormously rich deposits of gold and platinum in the Caucasus mountains which would fill the Government's coffers.

Fritz Peters recounts an elaborate hoax in which Gurdjieff diluted a bottle of vin ordinaire with water, and the covered it with sand and cobwebs. Two disgintuished women visitors were tricked into believing that Gurdjieff was serving them with wine of a rare vintage, and dutifully pronounced it the most delicious they had ever tasted.

In 1933, he went to New York where he gave a dinner for some fifteen New Yorkers. When the diners had drunk a certain amount, Gurdjieff began to tell them that it was a pity that most people - especially Americans - were motivated only by genital urges. He picked out a particularly elegant woman and told her in crude terms that she took so much trouble with her appearance because she wanted to fuck. The guests were soon behaving in an uninhibited fashion and becoming physically entangled with each other. Gurdjieff then announced that he had proved his point that Americans were decadent and demanded that he be paid for his lesson. According to Peters, he collected several thousand dollars.

Yet confidence trickery cannot be the whole explanation of Gurdjieff's teaching. If Gurdjieff could support himself so easily by deception, why should he bother to invent a cosmogony? All and Everything is enormouly long...it must have demanded considerable dedication to complete. Gurdjieff began his dicatation of the first part of the book in Dec. 1924 and finished only in Nov. 1927. Could anyone devote so much time and energy to something he did not believe himself, with the deliberate intention to deceive? We hover on the borderline between confidence trickery and psychosis.

But he did, at times, show considerable interest in people, and compassion for those who were suffering. He sometimes exhibited a capacity for intense concentration upon individuals, which was certainly one component of his undoubted charisma.

Fritz Peters wrote: "Whenever I saw him, whenever he gave me an order, he was fully aware of me, completely concentrated on whatever words he said to me; his attentoin never wandered when I spoke to him. He always knew exactly what I was doing, what I had done. I think we must all have felt, certainly I did, when he was with any one of us, that we received his total attention. I can think of nothing more complimentary in human relations."...When in the late summer of 1945 Peters suffered from severe depression with insomnia and anorexia, he sought Gurdjieff in Paris. Gurdjieff realized that he was ill, forbade him to talk and at once offered him a bedroom for as long as he needed it. He made Peteres drink strong, hot coffee, and concentrated upon him intesely.

However, not everything about Gurdjieff was so impressive. His personal habits could be disgusting. Peters wrote:
"What he could do to his dressing room and bathroom is something that cannot be described without invading his privacy; I will say that, physicall, Mr. Gurdjieff, at least so I gathered, lived like an animal...There were times when I would have to use a ladder to clean the walls."

Gurdjieff, like many other gurus, was unashamedly elitist and authoritarian.

Gurdjieff's sexual behaviour was unscrupulous, in that he coupled with any female disciple whom he found attractive, and not infrequently made her pregnant. When Peteres went to Paris to visit him, there were about ten children there.

Similar work load on disciples as Jones and Koresh.

However, he did not bring pressure upon followers to stay with him.

BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH(Osho):
Rajneesh is best known to the general public as the guru who owned 93 Rolls-Royces and who celebrated sex as a path to enlightenment. Any guru who promotes technology, capitalism, and free love is likely to win support, and Rajneesh was hugely successful in attracting followers, especially from the white middle class.

Rajneesh, like Gurdjieff, was personally extremely impressive. Many of those who visited him for the first time felt taht their most intimate feelings were instantly understood; that they were accepted and unequivocally welcomed rather than judged.
Hugh Milne said "I had the overwhelming sensation that I had come home. He was my spiritual father, a man who understood everything, someone who would be able to convey sense and meaning into my life.' Ma Yoga Anurag wrote: 'Only a Master to whom you can entrust your very being - physical, mental and spiritual - is capable of taking you on such a journey. Listening to Bhagwan, I gradually came to realise that he knows, he has the power, that if I can only say, "Yes, I leave everything to you," everything will be taken care of'.

He was finally imprisoned in, and then expelled from, the United States. After being refused entry by various countries, he eventually returned to India.

Grandfather terminally ill when Rajneesh 7. Refused to eat or leave bed for 3 days after death.

As a boy, isolated, self-absorbed, and clever.
Suffered from asthma and came close to death on several occasions. He played with death, taking risks in order to come to terms with his fear of it. For example, he would dive into whirlpools in the river Shakkar and let himself be sucked down until, at the bottom of the whirl, he was thrown free.

Read enormously. Eastern and western philosophies. Turbulent, aggressive and arrogant. Habitual liar. Was so argumentative and difficult that he was asked to leave his first college. Got admitted into a second but decided to stay at home. Went into a depression mixed with poor health. Ran up to 16 miles a day in order to try and feel himself again, and started to mediate. His parents, believing that he was mentally ill, took him to see a number of different doctors;

On March 21, 1953, when he was 21 years old, Rajneesh's illness terminated with what he called 'enlightenment'. This was the end-point of 7 days during which he ceased to strive, seek, or struggle, but passively let go and waited. He entered an ecstatic state in which 'everything became luminous, alive, and beautiful,' and he himself felt 'mad with blissfulness'.....This series of events sounds like a psychotic episode.

It appears probably that Rajneesh suffered from a fairly severe depressive illness between the ages of nineteen and twenty-one which came to an end with a hypomanic state in the form of an ecstatic experience.

There are strong hints that he suffered from further depression after he had become established as a guru. In 1974, he withdrew from all activities and went into complete silence for a few weeks. In 1981, he also went through some months in which he failed to respond to those caring for him, and apparently did not even read.

I think it reasonable to conclude that, as in the cases of many other leaders, his personality was both narcissistic and manic-depressive, manifesting itself in actual illness from time to time.

B.A, M.A philosophy. 1960 asst. prof. philosophy at U. Jabalpur.

When the centenary of Gandhi's birth was celebrated throughout India in 1969, Rajneesh seized the opportunity to outrage conventional wisdom by alleging that Gandhi's fasting was masochism, and his abstinence from sex a form of perversion.

His remarkable range of reading ensure that his teaching was a pot-pourri of all the great religious leaders of the past, including Lao Tzu, the Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad. He could quote - not always accurately - from every well-known western thinker from Plato to Freud. When Bernard Levin visited his ashram, he reported that Rajneesh talk for an hour and three-quarters with no pause.

Rajneesh wrote nothing himself; but devoted disciples recorded his discourses and commentaries and made books out of them. Assuming that the edited discourses are accurate, one can understand that Rajneesh must have been a riveting and fluent speaker.

I could understand that his vision could bring new meaning to life for those who were in search of it. The main thrust of his teaching was what he called a 'religionless religiousness'; by which he meant a religious attitude to life without commitment to any particular creed or church.

Rajneesh always hated and despised poverty, and unashamedly claimed to be the rich man's guru.

Live in the moment philosophy. Same as Gurdjieff.

Rajneesh affirmed that sex was a way to enlightenment.

All inhibitions and possessiveness must be discarded and sexual experimentation and free love with different partners should be encouraged. The sexual act should be prolonged as long as possible in order to reach what he called 'valley orgasm' as opposed to 'peak orgasm'.

Too much in the book worth taking down. Others analysed in the book:

RUDOLF STEINER
CARL GUSTAV JUNG
SIGMUND FREUD
IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA
PAUL BRUNTON
MOTHER MEERA

I am buying this book along with 'Kluge' so that I get free shipping from amazon (above $25).

Recommendation: High

Notes from 'Kluge: The haphazard construction of the human mind'

2009-11-29T14:35:00.001-08:00

I make notes from most books I read, fiction, and non-fiction. Most of it is stored in some chaotic manner in my hard drive and I have often found it cumbersome when I wished to trace a particular quotation, dialogue or trivia I know I've recorded in one of several word files titled 'Random notes 1/2/3/...n.doc' Also, usually my notes are not thorough because somewhere along the way I either lose continuity in my reading and forget to take notes when I resume after several days, or I get too involved in the book and say to hell with notes. Sometimes also, the books are too big and there's too much to write down (non-fiction) so I just give up. This book, the one mentioned in the title, is not too big and I have been very systematic in taking down notes, so I thought I'd store it online on my blog, from where I find it is easier to retrieve information compared to my hard drive. Also, I wished to share it with my blog readers to get feedback. I hope it is sufficiently well-documented that a blog reader can follow the tid bits and, hopefully, appreciate them like I did. Please let me know if the notes make for very chaotic reading for someone who hasn't read the book. In that case, I'll just create another blog to store these notes. (Note: The book isn't esoteric in the least bit so if its still not clear, then it must only be due to the fragmented nature of my notes than the contents of the book.)

RECOMMENDATION: VERY HIGH

NOTES BEGIN:

If people had good source memory, they would have spotted the ruse. Instead, most subjects knew they had seen a particular name before, but they had no idea where. Recognizing a name like Sebastian Weisdorf for the name of a bona fide celebrity whom they just couldn't place. The same thing happens, with bigger stakes, when voters forget whether they heard some political rumor on Letterman or read it in the New York Times.

Take, for exapmle, the truly sad study in which people were shown pictures of one of two children, the child, let's call him Junior, had just thrown a snowball, with a rock inside it, at another child; the test subjects were then asked to interpret the boy's behavior. People who saw the unattractive picture characterized Junior as a thug, perhaps headed to reform school; those whon the more attractive picture delivered judgments that were rather more mild, suggesting, for example, that Junior was merely "having a bad day." Study after study has shown that attractive people get better breaks in job interviews, promotions, admissions interviews, and so on, each one an illustration of how aesthetics creates noise in the channel of belief....And, in a particularly shocking recent study, children of ages 3 to 5 gave higher ratings to foods like carrots, milk, and apple juice if they came in McDonald's packaging.

Studies show that in virtually any collaborative enterprise, from taking care of a household to writing academic papers with colleagues, the sum of each individual's perceived contribution exceeds the total amount of work done....Realizing the limits of our own data sampling might make us all a lot more generous.

As a rough guide, our thinking can be divided into two streams, one that is fast, automatic and largely unconscious, and another that is slow, deliberate, and judicious.

Although many emotions (such as fear) are arguably reflexive, emotions like schadenfreude - the delight one can take in a rival's pain - are not.

When we are stressed, tired, or distracted, our deliberative system tends to be the first thing to go, leaving us at the mercy of our lower-tech reflexive system - just when we might need our deliberative system the most.

While all normal human beings acquire language, the ability to use formal logic to acquire and reason about beliefs may be more of a cultural product than an evolutionary one, something made possible by evolution but not guaranteed by it.
Formal reason seems to be present, if at all, primarily in literate cultures but difficult to discern in preliterate ones.
The russian psychologist alexander luria went to the mountains of central asia in the late 1930s and asked the indigenous people to consider the logic of syllogisms like this one: "In a certain town in Siberia all bears are white. Your neighbor went to that town and he saw a bear. What color was that bear?"
His respondents just didn't get it; a typical response would be, in essence, "how should i know? Why doesn't the professor go ask the neighbor himself?" Further studies later in the twentieth century confirmed this pattern...This does not mean people in those societies cannot learn formal logic - in general, at least the children can - but it does show that acquiring an abstract logic is not a natural, automatic phenomenon in the way that acquiring language is.

'Prisoner's dilemma....the catch in this particular study was that before people began to play the game, they sat in a waiting room where an ostensibly unrelated news broadcast was playing in the background. Some subjects hear prosocial news (about a clergyman donating a kidney to a needy patient); others, by contrast, heard a broadcast about a clergyman committing murder. What happened? You guessed it: people who heard about the good clergyman were a lot more cooperative than those who heard about the bad clergyman.'

..."the attraction of the visceral." It is one thing to turn down chocolate cheesecake in the abstract, another when the waiter brings in the desert cart. College students who are asked whether they'd risk wasting 30 minutes in exchange for a chance to win all the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies they could eat are more likely to say yes if they actually see (and smell) the cookies than if they are merely told about them.
Hunger, however, is nothing compared to lust. A follow-up study exposed young men to either a written or a (more visceral) filmed scenario depicting a couple who had met earlier in the evening and are now discussing the possibility of (imminently) having sex. Both are in favor, but neither party has a condom, and there is no store nearby. The woman reports that she is taking a contraceptive pill and is disease-free; she leaves it up to the man to decide whether to proceed, unprotected. Subjects were then asked to rate their own probability of having unprotected sex if the were in the male character's shoes. Guess which group of men - reader or video watchers - was more likely to throw caution to the wind? (Undergraduate men are also apparently able to persuade themselves that the their risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease goes down precisely as the attractiveness of their potential partner goes up.)

Kill one save 5 by hitting a switch, kill one save 5 by pushing one person off the trolley. Most people say yes to former, no to latter, even though in both cases, 5 lives saved to one lost. Possible reason: Something more visceral about latter.

One historical example of how visceral feelings affect moral choice is the unofficial truce called by British and German soldiers during Christmas 1914, early in World War I. The original intention was to resume battle afterward, but the soldiers got to know one another during the truce; some even shared a Christmas meal. In so doing, they shifted from conceptualizing one another as enemies to seeing each other as flesh-and-blood individuals. The consequence was that after the Christmas truce, the soldiers were no longer able to kill one another. As the former president Jimmy Carter put it in his Nobel Peace Prize lecture (2002), "In order for us human beings to commit ourselves personally to the inhumanity of war, we find it necessary to dehumanize our opponents."

fabrique de Nimes (originally made in Nimes, France) -> denim -> now in France as les blue jeans

According to legend, the first machine translation program was given the sentence "The flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing." The translation(into Russian) was then translated back into English yielding, "The meat is spoiled, but the vodka is good."

Similar findings...apply even in our attitudes toward other people: the more we need them, the more we like them.

To be sure, evolutionary psychologists have tried to find adaptive value in at least one of these variations (homosexuality), but none of the explanation are particularly compelling. (There is, for example, the "gay uncle" hypothesis, according to which homosexuality persists in the population because gay people often invest considerable resources in the offspring of their siblings. The trouble is there's no evidence that all that good uncle-ing (for relatives that are only one-eighth genetically related) offsets the direct cost of failing to reproduces. Other popular adaptationist accounts of homosexuality include the Sneaky Male theory (favored by Richard Dawkins) and the Spare Uncle theory, by which an uncle who stays home from hunt can fill in for a dad who doesn't make it home) A more reasonable accounting, in my view, is that homosexuality is just like any other variation on sexuality, an instance of a pleasure systme that was only broadly tuned (toward intimacy and contact) rather than narrowly focused (on procreation) by evolution, co-opted for a function other than the one to which it was strictly adapted. Through a mixture of genetics and experience, people can come to associate all manner of different things with pleasure, and proceed on that basis.

My note: A little web research suggests "Explanations buried in Pleistocene history are always less convincing where reproduction, rather than survival, is at stake."

Something similar happens in our eternal quest for control. Study after study has shown that a sense of control makes people feel happy. One classic study, for example, put people in a position of listening to a series of sudden and unpredictable noises, played at excruciatingly random intervals. Some subjects were led to believe that they could do something about it - press a button to stop the noise - but others were told that they were powerless. The empowered subjects were less stressed and more happy - even though they hardly even actually pressed the button. (Elevator "door close" buttons work on a similar principle.)

Gilbert(Daniel Todd) has another favorite example: children. Although most people anticipate that having children will increase their net happiness, studies show that people with children are actually less happy on average than those without. Although the highs ("Daddy I wuv you") may be spectacular, on a moment-by-moment basis, most of the time spent taking care of children is just plain work. "Objective" studies that ask people to rate how happy they are at random moments rank raising children - a task with clear adaptive advantage - somewhere between housework and television, well below sex and movies. Luckily, from the perspective of perpetuating the species, people tend to remember the intermittent high points better than the daily grind of diapers and chauffeur duty.

...to paraphrase Mark Twain, dissecting our own happiness may be like dissecting frogs: both tend to die in the process.

The psychologist Melvyn Lerner, for example, identified what he called a "Belief in a Just World"; it feels better to live in a world that seems just than one that seems unjust. Taken to its extreme, that belief can lead people to do things that are downright deplorable, such as blaming innocent victims. Rape victims, for example, are sometimes perceived as if they are to blame, or "had it coming."...Blaming victims may allow us to cling to the happy notion that the world is just, but its moral costs are often considerable.

People committed to eating in a healthful way are, for example, more likely to turn to junk if something else is on their mind. Laboratory studies show that as the demands on the brain, so-called cognitive load, increase, the ancestral system continues business as usual - while the more modern deliberative system gets left behind...When mentally (or emotionally) taxed, we become more prone to stereotyping, more egocentric, and more vulnerable to the pernicious effects of anchoring.

Procrastination is, in short, the bastard child of future discounting (that tendency to devalue the future in relation to the present) and the use of pleasure as a quick-and-dirty compass.

DSM-III (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, third edition) listed homosexuality as a mental disorder. Has been changed in DSM-IV.

The classic example of a physical disorder with a clear corresponding benefit is sickle cell anaemia. Having two copies of the gene is harmful, but having a single copy of he gene alongside a normal copy can significantly reduce one's chance of contracting malaria. In environments where malaria has been widespread (such as sub-Saharan Africa), the benefits outweigh the potential costs. And, accordingly, copies of such genes are fare more widespread among people whose ancestors lived in parts of the world where malaria was prevalent.
But while some physical disorder do demonstrably bring about offsetting benefits, most probably don't...There are few, if any, concrete illustrations of offsetting advantages in mental illness...
It's true that many disorders have at least some compensation, but the reasoning is often backward. The fact that some disorders have some redeeming features doesn't mean that those features offset the costs, nor does it necessarily explain why those disorders evolved in the first place...
At the very least, it seems plausible that some disorders (or symptoms) may appear not as direct adaptations, but simply from inadequate "design" or outright failure....especially those that are extremely rare extremely rare, may result from little more than "genetic noise", random mutations that convey no advantage whatsoever.
Even if we set aside possibilities like sheer genetic noise, it is a fallacy to assume that if a mental illness persists in a population, it must convey an advantage. The bitter reality is that evolution doesn't "care" about our inner lives, only results. So long as people with disorders reproduce at reasonably high rates, deleterious genetic variants can and do persist in the species, without regard to the fact that they leave their bearers in considerable emotional pain.

Addiction can arise when short-term benefits appear subjectively enormous (as with heroin, often described as being better than sex), when long-term benefits appear subjectively small (to people otherwise depressed, who see themselves as having little to live for), or when the brain fails to properly compute the ration between the two.

Depressives...often distort their perception of reality by fixating on the negative aspects of their lives - losses, mistakes, missed opportunities, and so forth - leading to what I call a "ruminative cycle", one of the most common symptoms of depression. An early, well-publicized set of reports suggested that depressives are more realistic than happy people, but today a more considered view is that depressives are disordered in part because they place undue focus on negative things, often creating a downward spiral that is difficult to escape.

Man a schizophrenic, for example, has come to belive that he is Jesus and has then constructed a whole world around that notion, presumably "enabled" in part by the twin forces of confirmation bias and motivated reasoning. The psychiatrist Milton Rokeach once brought together three such patients, each of whom believed himself to be the Son of the HOly Father. Rokeach's initial hope was that the three would recognize the inconsistency in their beliefs and each in turn would be dissuaded from his own delusions. Instead, the three patients simply became agitated. Each worked harder to preserve his own delusions; each developed a different set of rationalizations.

I don't mean to say that depression (or any disorder) is mpurely a byproduct of limitations in our abilities to objectively evaluate data...Most common mental disorders seem to depend on a genetic component, shaped by evolution - but also on environmental causes that are not well understood. If one identical twin has, say, schizophrenia, the other one is considerably more likely than average to also have it, but the concordance percentage is only about 50%.

...Darwin, who started his legendary work 'The Descent of Man' with a list of a dozen "useless, or nearly useless" features - body hair, wisdom teeth, the vestigial tail bone known as the coccyx. Such quirks of nature were essential to Darwin's argument.

Few theories are as well supported by evidence as the theory of evolution, yet a large portion of the general public refuses to accept it. To any scientist familiar with the facts - ranging from those garnered through the painstaking day-to-day studies of evolution in the contemporary Galapagos Islands (described in Jonathan Weiner's wonderful book 'The beak of the Finch') to the details of molecular change emerging from the raft of recently completed genomes - this coninued resistance to evolution seems absurd. Since so much of it seems to come from people who have trouble accepting the notion that well-organized structure could have emerged without forethought, scientists often feel compelled to emphasize evolution's high points - the cases of well-organized structure that emerged through sheer chance.
Such emphasis has led to a great understanding of how a blind process like evolution can produce systems of tremendous beauty - but at the expense of an equally impassioned exploration of the illuminating power of imperfection. While there is nothing inherently wrong in examining nature's greatest hits, one can't possibly get a balanced and complete picture by looking only at the highlights.
The value of imperfections extends far beyond simple balance, however. Scientifically, every kluge contains a clue to our past...it is no exaggeration to say that the history of evolution is a history of overlaid technologies, and kluges help expose the seams.
Every kluge also underscores what is fundamentally wrong-headed about creationsim: the presumption that we are the product of an all-seeing entity. Creationsists may hold on tto the bitter end, but imperfection (unlike perfection) beggars the imagination. It's one thing to imagine an all-knowing engineer designing a perfect eyeball, another to imagine that engineer slacking off and building a half-baked spine.

naturalistic fallacy - confusing what is natural with what is good.

Scientific reasoning is not something most people pick up naturally or automatically.
And, for that matter, we are not born knowing much about the inner operation of our brain and mind, least of all about our cognitive vulnerabilities. Scientists didn't even determine with certainty that the brain was the source of htinking until the seventeenth century. (Aristotle, for one, thought the purpose of the brain was to cool the blood, inferring this backward from the fact that large-brain humans were less "hot-blooded" than other creatures.)

...Studies in teaching so-called critical thinking show increasingly promising results, with lasting effects that can make a difference. Among the most impressive is a recent study founded on a curriculum known as "Philosophy for Children", which, as its name suggsts, revolves around getting children to think about - and discuss -- philosophy. Not Plato and Aristotle, mind you, but stories wirtten for children that are explicitly aimed at engaging children in philosophical issues. The central book in the curriculum, Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery, begins with a section in which the eponymous Harry is asked to write an essay called "the most interesting thin in the world." Harry...chooses to write on his thinking: "To me, the most interesting thing in the whole world is thinking. I know that lots of other things are also very important and wonderful, like electricity, and magnetism, and gravitation. But although we understand them, they can't understand us. So thinking must be something must be something very special."
Kids of agest 10-12 who were exposed to a version of this curriculum for 16 months, for just an hour a week, showed significant gains in verbal intelligence, nonverbal intelligence, self-confidence, and independence.
Harry Stottlemeier's essay - and the "Philosophy for Children" curriculum- is really an example of what psychologist call metacognition, or knowing about knowing. Bu asking children to reflect on how they know what they know, we may significantly enhance their understanding of the world.

Why I didn't get the swine flu shot

2009-11-18T14:33:00.000-08:00

Chat transcript from earlier in the day:
me: hey they are giving swine flu shots in student health services
just fyi
until 4 apparently
Heather: thanks for the info
3:30 PM I'm not going to get the shot
me: why not? :) just curious
3:31 PM Heather: I've never had a flu shot, so I'm not going to start now. And I remain fairly isolated from people....don't figure there's such a high risk... don't have kids who can catch it at school and bring it home, take two classes but otherwise barely see people during the day....take the bus, but wash hands afterwards and take it at hours where it is not crowded and have minimal contact...
3:32 PM me: :)
fair enough
Heather: did you get it?
me: of course, i'm not getting it either :p
lol
Heather: lol
why not?
me: well, i'm already a swine, so for me it would just be a regular flu

Poignant irony

2009-11-02T21:25:00.000-08:00

Contemplating the strange irony of the doctor's profession: The better he is at his job, the lesser people will pay a second visit.

Why I've never believed in 'To each his/her own'

2009-10-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

It is an irrational statement to say 'to each is own' and the religious folks use it all the time as an excuse for their false beliefs. I would like to recommend Eliezer Yudkowsky's brilliant piece 'what is evidence' from the fine blog lesswrong.com.

p.s: I love the way this guy elucidates things: http://lesswrong.com/lw/kg/expecting_short_inferential_distances/

Don't you get it stupid?

2009-10-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

Thought for the day: A majority of humans think that a majority of humans are stupid.

Pondering the psychology of holding hands in romantic love

2009-10-06T22:02:00.000-07:00

Why do couples in love hold hands? Is there a non-"imitation of society" (a.k.a environmental) based argument to it? Assuming that not all couples in romantic love that hold hands have acquired the practice from TV and neighbours, how then does this form of affection originate? I'm fascinated because unlike the more primitive forms of affection that have a basis in instinct, hand holding seems a touch more sophisticated. But only a touch. I am well aware that the fingers have a very high nerve density and since the underlying principle of almost all forms of physical affection is stimulation of regions with high nerve density, I am not entirely surprised. Nonetheless, I would put it a tad above the more explicit forms of love. I wonder if hand holding has been studied to be a means of affection among primates? And to what extent? Especially in the great apes? Anyway, leaving the apes and nerve density factors aside for a moment, I see a psychological angle to this too. Could it be that we recall the practice because we held hands as young kids? But then, how do we suddenly recall a practice we never held in our conscious for 20 odd years? Is the subconscious playing such a powerful role? Besides, if it has an origin in our holding hands as young kids, then it is essentially a reminder of maternal/paternal love, implying that couples who hold hands might be seeking a substitute for that love. I wish I had test groups of people to work with. A group of people who are made to fall in love away from home and another who are made to fall in love while staying at home. It would be interesting to see what fraction of couples end up holding hands after falling in love, in both groups. But since I have limited powers in this world, I am resigned to contemplation for now. If any of you have any interesting journal papers to recommend on this subject, please leave the url in the comments section. (I tried a few key words on google scholar but found nothing noteworthy) Thank you.

Kids :)

2009-09-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

My advisor's now 5 year old son was until recently under the impression you can't see him when his eyes are closed. So if he is sneaking up from behind you and you turn around, he freezes, clenches his eyes and covers them with his hands just to make doubly sure you can't see him :)

Aaaaaaaaaaaah, these F***ing Chinese!!

2009-09-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry, decorum goes out the door in this post. I hate these f***ing Chinese who don't brush their f***ing teeth, and if my experience is anything to go by, that is pretty much ALL OF THEM! Argh! In my first year, I was a teaching assistant and I shared space with a Chinese dude in the common teaching assistant's room. This dude neither brushed his teeth nor bathed regularly. He was a walking garbage can. But he was a really nice guy and I didn't know how to keep him away from me. So every time he came into office he'd walk up to me and socialise. I don't remember the details of any conversation because during most of them I would be asphyxiating. The only thing that I could think in that debilitated condition was how does he have a girlfriend? (Now he even has a child but today I have come to understand how and you'll see soon too!)

Since this fall, there's a new phd student in my group, a chinese female. This female, too, never brushes her teeth! Now another thing common to most of these chinese who don't brush their teeth is they come godawfully close to you. Like they'd rather kiss you than have a conversation with you. Only problem is I'd rather send them to the dentist than do either. Early this morning when I was all happy and jolly for no reason at all( like I usually am) this female comes up to me in her usual kissing conversation style and opens her mouth to ask me something letting out a putrid rat's ass kind of stench that has now spoilt my whole morning! Hence the post.

As for those who are still curious as to how the chinese dude has a child, this female has a child too. So the funda is that it is the norm among them to have putrid breath, and perhaps even socially expected. And perhaps the more putrid the more of a turn on? So while you and I might chew gum before meeting the opposite sex, they eat rotting fish and wash it off with old curdling milk before their date.

p.s: My rant isn't entirely arbitrary apparently:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1943420.stm

1 as in Hullo?!

2009-09-25T08:27:00.000-07:00

I just called Lenovo customer support to cancel the order of a wireless keyboard and mouse for my bro(who is also in amrica now) that has now been pending for a month. Not surprisingly, it went to an Indian call centre. Now this Indian lady I'm sure had practiced and perfected her profession, which meant her eyes merely read off from the instruction sheet in front of her while her head remains in cold storage:

Call centre lady(CCL): How may I help you sir?
Me: I'd like to cancel my order.
CCL: Now if I understand you correctly sir, you'd like to cancel your order, is that correct sir?
Me: :|
CCL: May I ask Sir, why you'd like to cancel your order?
Me: I am extremely annoyed that it has been more than a month and the product is still pending shipping.
CCL: Now if I understand you correctly sir, you are extremely annoyed sir that it has been more than a month sir and the product is still pending shipping, is that correct sir?
Me: @#$@#%(#!
CCL: Sir, it seems this product is being delayed because it is an old model that is not in stock sir. If you give me a minute I can transfer you to our sales...
Me(interjecting): I'll tell you what, you cancel this order for me now, and I'll go online myself and get a better and newer one from lenovo, ok?
CCL: Ok sir. Sir may I have your order number sir?
Me: Its 2DRTEK
CCL: Let me verify that sir. So its 2 as in Delta, D as in... I'm sorry sir....

Human tendencies

2009-09-18T01:00:00.000-07:00

I list below as points a short paragraph in the introduction of a paper[1] that highlights some common human tendencies:

Individuals have self-control and time inconsistency problems.
They can give into short-run temptations and later regret it.
They can have strong feelings about others that drive them to commit both generous and spiteful acts.
They often passively accept defaults rather than make active choices.
They let the institutions around them make choices for them.
And they may misread new data in ways that fit their beliefs.

These may be obvious. But I thought it is a tidy summary, and one well worth remembering by each individual. An awareness of one's propensities is a useful tool in preventing oneself from injuring oneself and others with one's fallibilities.

[1]DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS THROUGH THE LENS OF PSYCHOLOGY, Sendhil Mullainathan

Why I oppose gay marriage rights

2009-09-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

1) I do not oppose gay marriage rights to genetic gays, if they exist.

2) But a significant fraction of today's gays are acquired gays. It may be a conscious choice. OR, as is more often the case, it may be due to disturbing environmental circumstances that change them into gays.This statement is supported by this wiki page in the following text:
Overall, the environment shared by twins (including familial and societal attitudes) explained 0-17% of the choice of sexual partner, genetic factors 18-39% and the unique environment 61-66%. The individual's unique environment includes, for example, circumstances during pregnancy and childbirth, physical and psychological trauma (e.g., accidents, violence, and disease), peer groups, and sexual experiences. [...] In men, genetic effects explained .34–.39 of the variance, the shared environment .00, and the individual-specific environment .61–.66 of the variance. Corresponding estimates among women were .18–.19 for genetic factors, .16–.17 for shared environmental, and 64–.66 for unique environmental factors.

(Journal references are also available if you still suspect the claim)

This much having been made clear at the outset, I make my case for why I oppose legalisation of gay marraiges when it is not genetic (as is the case with a majority):
No matter how sophisticated and evolved we may be, there are the natural/inherent traits in us and the acquired. When gayness is an acquired trait, it is a mental imbalance, arising from disturbing environmental circumstances. Like with a person wishing to commit suicide or a person who turns a serial killer. In the latter two cases, what we do as concerned citizens is to try and counsel them and get to the root of what factors are causing them to behave in this unnatural way. While serial killers are punished first, to immediately restrained them, they are also later counseled and studied. Yet in the case of gays, some people are arguing to let them suffer the imbalanced state and not trying to address the problem. (If you say gays are happy doing gay acts, and it is not a disease, serial killers are also in a similar perverse state of mind where they are happy after they commit that particular crime which their disordered mental state thinks pleasurable. But neither is behaving in keeping with the natural order of things. That is why they are both forms of mental imbalance). So the right thing to do would be to counsel gays and try to get to the root of what environmental factors are causing them to behave this way, rather than encourage them to continue in their disordered state by sanctioning marriage and other demands they may eventually make. As for the liberty argument, which states that serial killers cause societal harm whereas gays do not and hence must be allowed to do what they please, it is just that the former is obvious physical harm whereas the latter is pernicious mental harm, to themselves and to those around them. For instance, it is not the natural state for a child to be reared by two males. And at the level of infant psychology, instinct dominates over the liberal reasoning and tolerance capacity that adults have. This would thus result in unhealthy children. A similar example to gayness would be why drugs are made illegal in many countries. Although the physical harm might only be to the individual, there is pernicious mental suffering caused to those around him. Or for that matter, why sodomy is illegal in many countries. Sodomy is a good example. It may be a private and consensual act but sanctioning sodomy is sanctioning that disorderly state of mind that the concerned individuals might acquire that could eventually lead to an unhealthy set of moral values which can lead to instability in society if the practice becomes widespread.

I encourage rational discussion.

Barbed

2009-09-16T10:38:00.001-07:00

One of the biggest conundrums in life is whether or not to vent anger at a bad barber when he inadvertently but repeatedly slashes your skin.

The art of giving bad news

2009-09-09T13:22:00.000-07:00

This is a mail sent out by the technician in charge of the Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM). I find the grandiose style juxtaposed with the depressing news hilarious!

Greetings:

The Agilent 5500 SPM is down until further notice. Sorry for any inconvenience this causes and I will let you know as soon as I have any information on when it will be back up and running. Have a good day.

Fish fry ya bheja fry

2009-08-30T00:10:00.000-07:00

Today at the grocery store, my friend picks up the advertisement sheet containing items on sale, stares at a thumb nail image of a plate containing some unskinned fish, turns to me and says earnestly, "Abey ye dekh, ye fish kitne fresh hai nahin?" ("Look here, these fish look fresh, don't they?"

Origin of cash for clunkers :p

2009-08-28T10:42:00.001-07:00

Really admire their marketing spirit though! :) If not for this hilarious ad there's no way I would have read a boring ad for vacuum leak detectors! :|

Ajmer Sharif ke Karim Baba changed my life.

2009-08-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

Home sick

2009-08-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

The recreation complex was closed at 6 pm today so my Russian racquetball partner and I couldn't play. So we decided to play table tennis at a community centre he thought would be open. We stopped at my home on the way there as I had to pick up my racket. When we entered my home, he politely stood at the entrance while I searched for my racket in my bedroom. I thought he might get bored waiting so I said he could come in and wait. He walked up to my room and had a horror-stricken expression on his face. I quite well knew it was because of how dirty and unkempt it was with everything including bedding(sleeping bag), clothes, books, cereal boxes, fruits, and sporting equipment strewn on the same floor. What I wasn't prepared for however was when I said, "So now you know how I live!", he promptly replied, "I don't."

Balanced life

2009-08-13T15:28:00.000-07:00

I,too, was laughing all the way to the bank. I couldn't believe I was walking that far to see my balance.

Statement for the day

2009-08-11T16:21:00.001-07:00

I am religiously atheist.

Random thoughts

2009-08-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

1) Why do american undergrads make strange faces while taking photographs?

2) Why is it catching on to Indian grad socially active men and women?

3) I love the fact that Indian clothing still comes with a spare button attached. For someone like me, that's a few years added to the piece of clothing.

Thought and PJ for the day

2009-08-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

Thought for the day - Some people need to roll the newspaper to get high, I need to unfold it.

PJ for the day (copyright Sriram, my bro):
Sriram: Why is it rational to have to stand in a line to take a leak?
me: :-?
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see below for answer
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Sriram: pee by queue is rational.

You too can make your cities pollution free

2009-08-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

This is a fantastic show by the government and citizens of Calcutta! Wish our cities could do this too!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8187174.stm

Amusement in the most odd places

2009-08-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

So usually the business of going to various journals and scouring them for interesting papers (which usually translates to useful papers(which usually translates to comprehensible papers)) is a rather grim affair and I don't expect to be smiling first and then positively laughing out loud in the lab! But that is just what happened today and the sequence of images below will illustrate why.

p.s: I'm not sure if you will find the twitter feed for Applied Physics Letters funny. I thought twitter was some random thing where people sign up and put status messages. But a couple of friends to whom I sent this said it is sort of expected since twitter is a very big thing. So please excuse. I still find it very funny!

Air Turbulence (Part II of my journey home)

2009-07-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

The second leg of my flight from Phoenix to Hyderabad on board British Airways was from London to Hyderabad. Going by the first leg's boarding calls I knew leech uncle and I would be called at different times again. Also, looking at the number of Indians crowding at the boarding entrance(unlike the last flight, this flight was almost entirely Indians so it was the natural thing for everyone to crowd at the boarding line) I was more hopeful that all the seats would be full. So I had a less anxious wait for boarding. In fact, once leech uncle was called for boarding and disappeared down the passageway, I just stepped back and sat on the benches seeing how terribly anxious everyone else was to board. I hate the notion of standing in a line to board a flight when I have a reserved and confirmed seat. So I usually tend to wait for the line to clear out before boarding. So that meant I was the very last passenger to get on board.

When I climbed on board the aircraft and went to take my seat(window), I found that some uncle was already sitting there! I said it was my seat to which he replied that he was with family(the usual!) and wanted to be with them. He did have his wife and mum/mum-in-law beside him. But I insisted that I wanted my seat. At this point, he continued to sit and asked his wife to get up and go take their 'actual' seat which was the middle seat in the row in front of where they were presently sitting. At this point, the old grandmum on the aisle seat started to make an effort to get up. Just seeing that effort I realised it would be a nightmare for both her and me if I wanted to go to the loo! So I said I would take their seat in stead. Two unfortunate things happened as a consequence of this change of seat: 1) I had requested vegetarian meals on the BA website beforehand and he ended up taking one of them. (I had informed him of this but for some reason he just dug into the food in stead of passing it on to me). 2) The reading light on his seat wasn't working! This was painful. I was actually reading furiously in the US-London leg and wished desperately to continue. In stead, I ended up watching some shitty movie (rab ne bana di jodi). Anyway, while the aircraft was still at the aerobridge waiting for the check in baggage to finish loading, there was an old grandma who started clamouring urgently for headphones the moment she sat on her seat, while the stewards and stewardesses were still assisting other passengers and tucking in the carry on baggage. She made fuss in spite of each stewardess taking the trouble to explain "The headphones haven't arrived yet!" I think she was under the impression the headphones were for radio communication and that she was the pilot! :| Then a lady immediately beside her opened up some pudina biryani or similar variant and the entire flight was now smelling like Hyderabad House(the famous Biryani store). With most of the Indians failing to understand the proper british accent, every steward/stewardess had to repeat each request 10 times. When the lady beside me was asked 'tea or coffee?' She nodded her head in approval. And when I went to the loo I discovered the entire rear half of the aircraft was smelling like a Sulabh complex. So much so that when the stewardess was going in to the aircraft's rear kitchen, I actually overheard her tell her colleague 'Oh god! It stinks SO BAD in there!' Then there was one uncle(very well-dressed) who got up when the captain had the seat belt sign on when there was perceptible turbulence! A steward had to come rushing in from where he was seated and warned the uncle to sit down. The uncle shows his little finger(the Indian male's notation for wanting to urinate) to the steward. The steward says, "Sir, please sit down now!!" and the uncle still lingers around. Then the steward says, "Sir, you are going to sit down right now! We cannot permit you to risk your life and so I am going to have to force you to sit down if you don't!!" And then he sits down! :| And, in general, when the seat belt sign was not on, people were just ambling about and socialising like they were at some get-together! I noticed one uncle pair standing in the aisle and conversing for a whole half-hour!! And as if all this wasn't enough, during landing there were two young couples with infants who happily fastened themselves to their seatbelts while the kids were on their highly protective torsos! :| When the steward came by checking if everyone had fastened their belts he requested both couples to fasten their infants also under the belt. While returning from the inspection he found they still hadn't done it. This time he gave them an annoyed warning. Then when he came by for a final collection of trash, he found they still hadn't fastened the infant to the belt! By the time the steward gave his third warning, he was just nodding his head in disbelief and disgust at our whole race I think. He was just constantly nodding with this "I can't believe you people!" expression because the poor fellow said multiple times, "Sir, this is for your own safety and the safety of your child. In case of a rough landing your child's life is in severe risk. Please try to understand!" I saw him nodding vehemently in incredulity as he forcibly strapped the child and dad onto the seat! What had me nodding in horror was that the dad removed the child from under the belt as soon as the steward left.

Most people on the flight were either people taking the second leg after a flight in from US or people who were in UK! That nothing can seem to civilise us is so heart-breaking. Almost all of them were educated too! That grandma clamouring for headphones was speaking English the whole time! The best part was, one stewardess had such a good humour in spite of all this. When she got the headphones to the clamouring grandma, she said, "Here you go my love, we haven't forgotten your headphones!! :)" She was the same one who complained about the stink. But she tried to keep up her spirits. When she was serving water and orange juice. Some lady looked at the glass of water and said, "Is this water?" to which she took on the exact same accent that the lady had for 'wat' in water and said "This is wat-ka!" It was fun to see the lady's eyes bulge up in horror. Then she immediately corrected and said, "I was joking. This is water sweetheart!" :)

Acknowledgement: Encouragement courtesy Silverine.

Flight . ( Part I of my journey home)

2009-07-14T06:53:00.000-07:00

My flight on board British Airways from Phoenix to Hyderabad was an odd mix of amusement, bemusement and despair.

After clearing security at phoenix, I reached my gate from where I was to board for the first leg of my journey, from Phoenix to London. Since I had a good 50 minutes to kill before boarding, I tried to find myself a place to sit and read. Unfortunately, all the seats directly under lights were taken except for one spot quite far away from the gate. So I took that lone spot. As I was pulling out my book from my bag I heard someone say, "Meeru kooda Hyderabad ki pothunaara andi?" ("Are you going to Hyderabad as well sir?") I looked up to see an old Indian uncle in a safari suit.(In my dad's generation, the typical telugu's notion of being well-dressed is the safari suit and a bright gold painted watch. Anyone who has any intention of showing status in this community dresses in it.) I was filled with shock and despair. Shock because I couldn't believe that the uncle could make the assumption that I must be a Telugu just because I might be flying to Hyderabad(the US-London and London-Hyd legs were different flights and hence independent of each other - to the extent that we had to go through security again at London). Despair because I was well aware of the average Indian's oblivion to the notion of individual privacy. I was certain he would initiate conversation that would kill my precious 1 hour's reading time. And so he did! :) In response to his question I replied in English that I was going to Hyderabad. (I know telugu very well though I'm not one myself. However, I was making an attempt at keeping some distance to see if he might get the hint.)He started with a very frank declaration, "I have been desperately looking for one of our people. I am so glad I found you." (From this point on, I will report all conversation with this uncle in English for convenience though it actually alternated between the two languages when I found out that it made no difference whatsoever which language I spoke!) I felt sorry for the old man. But I felt sorry for myself too. He felt alone. I wished to be alone :)

During the next 50 minutes I made occasional attempts to give myself some reading time by quickly peering deep into my book whenever there was a lull in conversation. But I found that made no difference either because he would ask his questions anyway. I even made a desperate phone call to my US cousin and tried to kill time in talking mundane stuff but I am not a very good phone conversationalist and the call lasted all of 5 minutes(and that because I spent 2 and a half minutes laughing at my own joke). Anyway, early in the conversation I learnt that his green card holding doctor son had dropped him off at the airport at 2 pm for a 7 pm departure flight because he was off to buy a new benz car :). On learning this I felt really sorry for the old man. So I gave in to his desire to leech on to me. During the course of the conversation I learnt that his daughter and son were both married and settled in the US and fairly well-to-do. He is a retired professor and his loneliness back home was obvious. Somehow, he kept up the conversation, mostly by making enquiries into my personal life, my educational qualifications, my family, their educational qualifications, etc: Later, he asked me my seat number and said we should find adjacent seats. This really scared me because I wasn't really prepared for 9 hours of conversation although I was willing to humour him for 50 minutes. Somehow, he didn't really seem to care what I thought. He never asked me if I desire it. He must have thought it was the natural thing that two people going to Hyderabad must want to be together? (There weren't many other Indians in this leg because, like I said, this was an independent Phoenix-London flight). I didn't know how to say "NO!" to the old man. So I remained silent on the issue. A good 20 minutes before the start of boarding the anxious old uncle dragged me to the boarding line with him. At that point, there was no line. Just an empty pathway with hand rails on either side, and a board at the end of it reading 'entrance for boarding gate A23'. I was terribly embarrassed. People all around were looking at the curious pair(presumably father son?) who were guarding the boarding entrance so furiously. Besides, most flights nowadays are very systematic and board in 'zones', i.e., they call a small set of numbers at a time, so that people don't have to form long haphazard queues. I tried hinting that it was still early and that we should probably go sit. He said that we needed to be at the front of the line so that we can make our seat change request. I failed to see the correlation but I didn't know how to argue. So I tried to amble around a few feet away from him and the entrance as if I wasn't really waiting to board. Then when it did come to boarding time, something curious happened. As he and I were standing in the line, someone came up from behind and gave a huge slap on my back! I turned around in tremendous surprise, and so did a lot of the other people in line. "Aapko finally ticket mil gaya??" ("So you finally got a ticket??") a middle-aged bearded north indian with mehndi dyed hair said loudly as the curious americans watched on. . "Ji?" ("Sorry?") I responded, completely baffled. "Oh, I"m sorry. Were you not the one who was still looking to get a confirmed ticket?" "NO!?!?" I said, still feeling the pinch of the slap. Meantime, the old uncle beside me interjects "He is over there(pointing in the direction of some Indian standing near the boarding counter)". Then, as if that slap on the back was a stamp of friendship the northie uncle comes uncomfortably close to me and asks, "Aap faisalabad jaa rahe hai kya?" ("Are you going to Faisalabad?") "Ji nahin, mein Hyderabad jaa raha hoon." ("No sir, I'm going to Hyderabad"). Hearing this he suddenly decides my existence on this planet doesn't matter and quietly turns around and walks off to join his family.

During boarding, the old uncle and I were in different zones so he got called off first and I was happy to be relieved of him for a bit. I was fiercely praying that I wouldn't see him sitting beside my seat when I got in to the aircraft! As luck would have it, both seats beside my window seat were occupied. I was glad to take my seat! A funny thing happened then. The uncle seems to have got up from his seat and come looking for me. I spotted him a few seats ahead searching anxiously for my seat number. I was dead scared that he had an empty seat beside him so I actually ducked down the moment I saw him, and stayed that way. As luck would have it, he came all the way to my seat when I was still ducking! I quickly put my hand to my shoe as if to suggest I was redoing my shoe lace. "Hello Karthik!" he said. "Hello Uncle?" I said, a little worried. "So you are seated here." "Yes." "I am in front." I smiled. I knew the seats beside him were full too. I was safe. For the moment. I still had that dreaded second leg.

But at that time, I was glad to regain my private space, and to read quietly, after two people had tread precariously on the thin line between friendliness and harassment :)

To be contd...

Acknowledgement: Encouragement courtesy Silverine.

The unchanging life

2009-06-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

Last time I went to India(Dec. 07), I was a bit more naive. I gathered from the grapevine that India was growing at a tremendous rate, and rather innocently I assumed that would translate to things looking very different at home. However, nothing had changed in my immediate life. If anything, it was worse. The power cuts were longer, the water supply more restricted, the traffic worse and the pollution worse still. Of course, a few more malls dotted the city landscape but they made so little difference to my daily life and I felt let down on the whole.

This time, I am more informed. I am aware that there has been little or no infrastructural development. The monsoons have been bad. I expect the power cuts to be worse still. The water supply as restricted as ever. The apartment management as lousy as always, so that my dad and grandmother will still have to climb 8 flights of stairs to get to our fourth floor apartment. The traffic and pollution as suffocating as usual. This time, I have no expectations of change. This time, I think I will be happy.

MJ - Musician, Juvenile

2009-06-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

So today the whole english-knowing world mourns the death of michael jackson; led from the front by musicians, followed closely by plastic surgeons, with the end of the line comprising confused confounded children.

Howlarious cousin - Part II

2009-06-24T17:10:00.001-07:00

So the he/him in the chat below is a reference to my overambitious 17 year old cousin. I understand his desire to stamp his name on the world of science and all but this is downright hilarious!! =))

me: i'll fwd the chat
worth a read
Sriram: :D
me: max trippy da
secretly married an american it seems
==================)))))))))))
Sriram: :)
vivid imagination
me: ya, totally awesome consideration of possibilities
Sriram: when i met him this summer, he kept describing some physics contraption arrangment for a perpetual motion machine, and said he would become rich etc
me: LOL
====================)))))))))))))
trippy_max
what da
total trippy fellow he is
god
:))
Sriram: apparently he had suggested that idea to his teacher there and he/she had sent a mail to HC Verma about it
me: :-|
Sriram: and HC verma mailed him back saying nice try
me: ROFL
ob
dei, total wtf prof. also
=))
did u hear his idea?
Sriram: ya, he gen puts reel also
me: what was it?
i'm curious
Sriram: ya, don't remember now.
it was something about starting a motor in space
me: hehe
Sriram: basically some zuk frictional loss set up for relative motion between some coil and magnetic field
me: he didn't learn carnot's cycle-a?
:p
Sriram: I don't think we did it in 12th.
me: oh :-/
don't remember
anyway

Thanmathra

2009-06-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

So today I spent 5 minutes holding my key bunch in my hand and searching for it everywhere. I even cursed my carelessness.

Whatay quote!

2009-06-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

"I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma." - Eartha Kitt

Too good.

Howlarious cousin!

2009-06-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

So there is this cousin of mine who has recently grown into a big boy and is now joining college and all. He and I haven't been in touch all that often these past three years of my stay in the US. Suddenly, he decided to add me on skype and pinged me on gchat asking me for my skype id. So I gave him what I thought was my skype id and this ensued(cast: Srinivas - cousin; Sriram - Bro):
Srinivas: something ridiculous happened
i added someone else in skype thinking its u
i rang him
me: lol
Srinivas: and a lady took
i asked her who she is
and she told she was karthik's wife
and i said WHAT
me: LOL
Srinivas: and she asked me whu i was
and i told i was his cuzz
and i didnt know
wether any of yur frnd were playing prank on me
and sriram came in
and finally confirmed about the mixup
we all had a good laugh
me: ROFL!
Srinivas: for a moment i thought u married an american
me: ROFL!
=))
Srinivas: secretly
me: lol
my id is ....

p.s: This dude is funny!

Google ads fail

2009-06-15T23:28:00.000-07:00

Not for kids, prudes and Hindus

2009-06-15T13:34:00.001-07:00

I am a devout Hindu too. I worship my dick everyday. Its more respectable than worshiping someone else's AND it leads to more miracles.

Conspiracy theory

2009-06-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

What if the biggest conspiracy of the 21st century is not 9/11? What if it is not even a conspiracy of evil? Perhaps the greatest conspiracy of the 21st century is the conspiring of reputed economists the world over to spread the myth of recession and recovery in stead of depression and doom. Because they realise that in that falsehood lies the solution to changing the course of the world for real.

p.s: There is more truth to this theory than a lay reader may assume. In real world economics, psychology matters.

One of a kind

2009-06-04T21:31:00.000-07:00

I was on the volleyball court at lunch time. A player on the opposition team stalled play to tie his shoelaces. At that time I glanced at my laces to make sure they were in place too. That is when I discovered to my utter horror and morbid embarrassment that today I went to work wearing two shoes from two different pairs. One was made of strips of grey and purple with little patches of orange. The other of strips of white and blue with patches of red. They were also two different brands. It was a long day but fortunately nobody seemed to have spotted it(I was in shorts too, not trousers!), or may be they spotted it and thought it nothing unusual coming from me. Either way, I am glad not to have faced someone in this awkward situation, trying to explain my abstractedness during the whole morning shoe picking up and tying routine!

It did make a very comic sight though and I was most amused by it!

p.s: Socks, I can tell you from personal experience, are even tougher to hide :(

Lighter side

2009-06-02T16:47:00.001-07:00

On my way back to the US from India in Dec '07, the customs check was at rush hour thanks to some delayed incoming flights to Los Angeles. Yet the customs officer saw me pulling in my lone suitcase for the check and asked, "You have only one bag? Really?? You are the first such Indian I have seen all day!"

:)

Spending its way out of poverty - a solution or stagnation?

2009-05-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

In today's news from the Press Trust of India is this article:

Govt to rely on market borrowings to raise public spending: FM

New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the government would continue to rely on market borrowings to spur economic growth and restore the growth momentum witnessed earlier.
"This (increased spending by incremental borrowing) would need to be further continued in 2009-10, the current year," the minister told the reporters saying fiscal consolidation could take two to three years.

"Let me say unambiguously that we are committed to restoring growth and employment and that would not have been possible without increased spending funded by incremental borrowing," Mukherjee said.

The government during the current fiscal aims to borrow Rs 3,08,647 crore, about 17 per cent more than the last fiscal.

As regards fiscal consolidation, he added, "We are equally committed to the process of fiscal consolidation over a period of say two to three years." The government since December has been trying to arrest the impact of financial consolidation on the country by raising public expenditure and reducing taxes which led to increase in fiscal deficit.

Once you take into account off budget government expenditures, fiscal deficit is already more than 10 percent of the GDP. India's debt is over 80 percent of the GDP. This move by the government will only further crowd out private investment(by eating into the chunk of private savings available for investment) while simultaneously raising the deficit. Ultimately then the growth rate won't be able to offset the debt burden. There is no rationale behind this decision by the Finance Ministry. The minister is pretending that government spending is what produced growth in India whereas it had everything to do with the economic reforms first under Narasimha Rao and then under Vajpayee. The government is taking a false step by thinking it can just spend its way out of poverty. Unless serious efforts are taken to control the deficit, our nation is going to take a severe hit in the future.

p.s: In keeping with this overspending, the Centre has already breached the deficit targets stipulated under the FRBM Act and the Fin. Min. is asking the new government to amend it to its convenience!

An excellent follow up article that clearly and elaborately explains India's situation

My thoughts on the oft-raised 'India does not invent because we are taught to memorise, not think' argument

2009-05-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

It is a topic that has come up a few times now in my interactions with various people. Since I made an effort at documenting my thoughts for a blog comment this time, I decided to modify it quickly and put it as a post here so that I may get valuable feedback and so that I may store it for posterity, when I'm sure I'll hear this argument several times more.

First let us look at India as an inventor nation without temporal constraint. Let us also not narrow down to the special case of scientific and technological inventions. Without these two contraints, India has invented much. Every outfit of every culture in India is an invention that is uniquely Indian. The zillion varieties of clothes, the shoes, the bangles, the nose ring, the toe ring, the numerous other jewelry, the 'lota' (a type of tumbler), the 'shoulder pai' (shoulder bag), the earthern pot and many such inventions. What more do you expect to be invented from a land of farmers ruled by kings?

But the issue most desire to have addressed is the lack of scientific inventions. The answer to this problem lies in education. However, it is not so much in our system of education as when we started having a formalised system of education. The most significant progress in science, discovery and inventions have happened in the West after the era of systematic and formal education began. Whatever may be the flaws of such a schooling system as was existent, it was precisely the Christian emphasis on schooling that ultimately led to the flowering of indepdendent and rational thought that eventually not only led to great scientific and engineering progress but also to questioning to a great extent the very dogma of the Christian system that led to this tradition. It is indeed that foundation of formal schooling, initiated by the Christians of the West, that has spread to the east, including to nations such as India, and ultimately led to a glut of scientific minds in the late 20th and 21st centuries even in our country! There has been much contribution by India to technological progress (If you observe, the recent past is not an era of grand individual scientific inventions. The inventions are mostly by communities of people for which the head of the group might be popular, that's all.). However, I concede that there is more contributed by Indians brought up and/or spending time outside our country than those within it(on a per capita basis). This I attribute to the fact that inventions and discoveries(discoveries more so than inventions) require a certain amount of aristocracy. Serious pursuit of scientific and technological progress cannot happen in an atmosphere of daily strife and the struggle for survival. It requires the creation of an environment that leaves the thinkers free of other daily worries and able to contemplate ideas. Hence, this progress is deeply intertwined with economic progress and you'll see our research and technological progress advance as we grow economically.

Another case in point that the education with its emphasis on rote learning isn't really the fundamental cause of anything catastrophic is that it is this very rigid schooling structure that existed in Britain for nearly 500 years and still led to a spawning of scientific minds by that tiny island nation. Whether you concede it or not, although the evaluation of merit is rote based, the process of rational thought is still inculcated during the process of teaching and imbibing. That doesn't go to say that the education system in our country needn't be reformed. There is much that needs to be changed. But the root to our changing into an inventor nation lies in economic progress that leads to aristocracy for intellectuals, not a poverty stricken nation with a reformed system of education.

Some hopes

2009-05-15T23:42:00.000-07:00

Congress is going to come to power again. It is good that they won by a near majority. At least we'll have a stable government. One also hopes coalition politics will be weaker as a consequence. For these two reasons, one hopes the government will do tolerably ok this time. A BJP victory might also have ratified the religious fundamentalists. So there are some reasons to cheer this victory. However, Congress is very populist in its policies. If its previous term is any indication then there are some serious concerns as the effect of their last set of policy measures will reflect during this term period. In spite of knowing the Congress mindset, I hope:

I hope the government takes the tough decision to raises indirect taxes to increase revenue to offset the already 8% and rising fiscal deficit. I also hope the government will slowly and subtly remove redundant subsidies and improve fiscal efficiency to reduce the deficit. In effect, I hope the government will try to fulfill the goals set by the Financial Responsibility and Budget Management Act, even though it has already failed to meet the time deadline.

I hope the deficit is controlled so that the debt-to-GDP ratio which is already at 60% does not increase further.

I hope reforms are implemented to increase the growth rate and thus offset the debt ratio. In particular: Labour law reform, privatization of banks and opening up of the retail and manufacturing sectors to FDI. Rural infrastructure must be developed too, but I don't know how the government will do that with such a high existing deficit. Using the huge RBI reserves is a contentious issue and may not go down well with the export community if the reserves are flooded into the market for infrastructure development.

Ultimately, I sincerely hope that mounting debt combined with economic slowdown do not lead to loss of public confidence, resulting in capital flight and culminating in a full-fledged macroeconomic crisis and hyperinflation! I know all this is much to hope for from the present government. But I think this is essential to continue to pull our country out of the clutches of poverty and push ahead on the path of welfare to all.

In the end, I wish our government good luck! :)

A lesson in Hyderabadi Hindi

2009-05-10T09:32:00.001-07:00

So there is this Bangalore girl who works in my building. She thinks I am a Tamizh, which I sort of am, but she also thinks I am from Chennai because she knows I did my undergraduate there. So she thinks I don't know anything except tamil and English. The other day, I was flexing my arm in the corridor, just to relieve stiffness and not because I'd hurt myself. But she looked concerned.

She: "kya uvaacha?"
Me: "What did you just say???"
She: "kya uvaacha?"
Me: "What language is that?" (politely)

I was seeking clarification. I was aware that 'uvaacha' in sanskrit means 'said' but the combination of words baffled me. She gave me a smug smile.

She: "Its Hyderabadi indi!"
Me: "Oh REALLY?"
She: "Yes, yes. It means 'what happened?'"
Me: "Well, I've never heard of such a thing."
She: "Of course you wouldn't know! They speak a different Hindi in Hyderabad. When I was in PSU(she did her masters there) I had many Hyderabadi friends!"
Me: "Perhaps you've heard them saying something along the following lines: 'aise-ich hua'?"
She: "Ah, yes!"

I just completely burst out laughing my guts out at this point. She assumed adding 'ch' at random locations was what made the 'indi' hyderabadi! :) (Little she did know that I had grown up playing gully cricket with the 'basti' kids in my neighbourhood in Hyderabad :)....)

Human blinkers

2009-05-03T19:51:00.000-07:00

I am somewhat surprised and greatly annoyed that people haven't come up with human blinkers yet. Most home-lighting in the average middle-class homes that I have had the opportunity of being in have tubelights or incandescents lamps with highly divergent light. So they are a terrible pain to the eyes while reading. There is too much directionality to the light and that produces a lot of localised glare that I find very annoying. Of course, I would prefer it if the human blinkers weren't just like horse blinkers. What I prefer is something more like a hollow viewmaster with a head strap. So entrepreneurs, pliss to lissen! (If you want a grander idea and all, try this)

Honest scrape

2009-04-28T00:29:00.000-07:00

“This award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog’s content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant.When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real. Choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have seven friends. Show the seven random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon. List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!”

So Mathew thinks the blog's content is brilliant and all (the design certainly hasn't been changed one bit from what blogger provided me). Thanks Mathew! I take a bow! Then an arrow! I aim, and shoot him with it. For he has put me in spot of bother. It is very hard for me to write about myself. I don't I have any very clear notion of what I'm like. But here's my list:

1) I think I have little fear of money today. Since I started earning, which was about 3 years ago when I started my PhD, I have made a deliberate effort to overcome fear of money. I have splurged in a number of ways to overcome all inhibition to spending money and to avoid the rut of the saving mind-set. This has liberated me considerably from over-valuing money. Now I see it completely as a means to desired ends. I find that this has been a source of much happiness and freedom to me.

2) That said, I also like to keep a minimalist lifestyle. Hence, most of my splurging has been on non-durable goods and services. I have not splurged on acquiring material possessions. To illustrate, I still wear in the US my T-shirts from my school days and shirts that my grand-dad used to wear decades ago. Even in the future, I do not see myself acquiring a big home or a big car or other such possessions off my own desire. I am not interested. In fact, I find them a burden.

3) I am atheist. I am actually an agnostic in that I can't disprove the existence of god. However, I am reluctant to say this because too many believers are ignorant of Russell's teapot, and keep trying to prove the existence of god through a gap-filling exercise in one's arguments, rather than by making a proper proof for god's existence.

4) I am a sports addict. I absolutely LOVE playing sports. With all modesty, I am reasonably good at volleyball, table tennis, basketball and cricket. I am currently actively looking to improve at raquetball.

5) I try to be objective in thought. I certainly wish to be.

6) I used to be a terribly ill-tempered kid. In particular, I have troubled my brother, and hence my mother, a lot. But I have turned out alright. I rarely lose my temper any more. And my family would agree.

7) I love my family very much. However, if you were ever to meet us, you would never get that impression because we have almost no explicit show of affection.

8) I honestly think I am happier in the present than in the past, and that conscious effort goes a long way in helping to keep one happy. I see myself only getting happier in the future.

9) I don't feel a sense of belonging with any one community in my country. I was born in Kerala, brought up in Hyderabad, and speak a vague palakkad iyer-ish tamizh at home. So although I know malayalam, tamil, telugu and Hindi, I don't ever feel a sense of belonging with any one community wholly.

10) I make acquaintances easily but I don't make friends easily. The former because of my familiarity with so many regions and languages(including English of course), and the fact that I am curious about people. The latter because most Indian boys/men, I've noticed, move in regional groups, and since I am not properly a part of any one, I get left out or feel odd. Secondly, I might be too judgemental for my own good. That makes it very hard for an individual to jump the acquaintance/friend barrier.

I don't really think there are 7 people I know who read this blog regularly. So I tag:
Gounder Brownie
Rukmani Ram
Mukta
Anant
Parikshith
Amitabha
You reading this line.

Phew!

Demo-crazy

2009-04-23T11:01:00.001-07:00

I am certain democracy isn't the best form of governance for a nation, in terms of efficacy. But pics like this make me think it IS the most lovable form of government :)

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8014949.stm

Manmohan Sick!

2009-04-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

I seriously feel like puking after reading that Manmohan Singh took Obama's autograph after the G20 summit! YUCK! The rest of the article makes for an interesting read too.

Uncular

2009-04-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

I remember that either one or both of Bush and McCain used to say 'nucular weapons'. But having little respect for either I thought it was an individual idio(cy)syncrasy. However, today I witnessed an interview of former Joint Chief of Staffs Richard Myers on the Charlie Rose show and even he said 'nucular' weapons! I was a little taken aback by this and after some thought I finally managed to convince myself that given the informal nature of American communications even at official levels, they must be very used to saying 'nuke's. So out of that habit they just say 'nukular' like tubular or granular and mean by 'nukular weapons' 'nuke-like weapons' or WMDs. Finally, things are cular!

Why not?

2009-04-06T22:29:00.000-07:00

Why is it south/north-west/east and not west/east-south/north?

******************************************************************************

In general, there is a time lag between the institution of an economic policy and its consequences being reflected in the economy. The reasons could be a combination of factors like market inertia, time for enforcing of the policy measures, time for the ensuing changes to become significant etc: If the elections happen at a spacing that is equal to the lag, the ratio of bad governments to good governments for the nation would be 2 to 1 given a voting populace whose default state is anti-incumbent and a two party system. This is because when we have a good government that implements beneficial economic policies, the changes will only be seen when the next government(the bad one) is voted in to power. Now when the bad government is in power, it will benefit in its first term from the previous government's good policies, although it would be sowing the seeds for disaster with its own economic policies. So it will be re-elected by the public, and the public will find a poor performance in its second term due to the bad policies of the first term. Now the bad government will be voted out and we have the good government back in again, but during their governance the economy will reflect the bad policies of the previous government and hence they get voted out, and this cycle repeats! So as you can see, if the spacing between elections is not calculated to be over twice the lag between the institution of an economic policy and its impact reflecting in the economy(in a theoretical world this can be quantified), we'll have a greater period of bad governance than good given a two party system and a populace that is anti-incumbent. I didn't really pull this out of a hat. What prompted all this thought was the possibilities in the present system. India, it has been observed, is invariably anti-incumbent. Also, at present, while there is no single party majority, there is essentially a two-party or to be more precise a two-coalition system(viz the UPA and the NDA). The UPA has been shining in the limelight of the average educated public's eyes largely because of brilliant and active liberalisation policies pursued by the NDA government when it was in power. So now you see what got me thinking about this whole business!

Just when I thought I couldn't decide on my vote!

2009-04-04T07:22:00.000-07:00

I see this. But I don't believe it! That seals it for me. There is no way anyone in praise of the terrible fiasco that was the attempted socialism of the Indhira Gandhi days can be trusted with my country in today's globalised world when India is finally developing thanks largely to hard fought and won efforts at liberalisation. India is still nursing the sore wounds of the Indira Gandhi regime and here we have her progeny praising that same nationalisation debacle that stalled the liberalised regime of the 1950s and even the relatively liberal regime of the early 1960s and finally dealt death blows to private and foreign investment in India! And to top it all, I don't quite understand why Sonia speaks of Indhira's move to nationalisation as if it was calculated to benefit the nation. Here is what the above article quotes her as saying:
"Every passing day bears out the wisdom of that decision. Public sector financial institutions have given our economy the stability and resilience we are now witnessing in the face of the economic slowdown,” Gandhi told a conference in New Delhi on Friday morning.

But here's the truth(Source: India - The Emerging Giant, Arvind Panagariya p.53):
In his memoir, I. G. Patel (2002, p. 135), who served as the economic secretary in the Finance Ministry at the time the banks were nationalized offers an interesting account of the decision-making process:
It was, I think, later in July 1969 that I was sent for once again. No one else was present. Without any fanfare, she asked me whether banking was under my charge. On my telling her it was, she simply said, “For political reasons, it has been decided to nationalize the banks. You have to prepare within 24 hours the bill, a not for the Cabinet and a speech for me to make to the nation on the radio tomorrow evening. Can you do it and make sure there is no leak?” There was no pretence that this was not a political decision, and the message was clear that no argument from me was required. I assured her that we will keep to the timetable and keep the secret. I summoned courage, however, to make two suggestions: to leave the foreign banks alone, and nationalize only the major ones. The former was intended to avoid a sharp reaction abroad; and the latter because the purpose would be served by taking only the major banks and leaving the scores of small banks alone. She immediately agreed and added that she could trust the details to me.

That political decision was in reference to a power struggle between I Gandhi and the Syndicate(Morarji Desai et al).

p.s: I am not sure how much influence Sonia might exert over Manmohan's decisions or the finance and commerce minsters' portfolios but it is a risk I'm unwilling to take.

Its a good thing I don't have to vote

2009-04-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

The BJP said it was also committed to building a temple to Hindu god Ram in the northern town of Ayodhya.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7980656.stm
So much for secular government! :(

I am utterly confounded as to whom to vote for! (if I were in the country that is)

A lesson before voting

2009-03-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

If history is any lesson on the relationship between academic qualification and efficient political leadership/management in India then Shashi Tharoor must definitely not be voted in at Thiruvananthapuram. An example that comes to mind on the inverse relationship that exists between academic qualification and management skills is the ridiculously well-qualified yet utterly disappointing manager of our nation, our prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. This is a good article which highlights the poor performance of the UPA government. However, it still doesn't mention the increasing budget deficit that has been a Manmohan Singh speciality since he's taken on the role of PM. This article predicts a staggering fiscal deficit that is 6.4% of GDP. I wished to highlight these facts about our performance during Manmohan Singh's leadership because I was shocked to find how ignorant some of these educated bloggers are, and how empty of facts their arguments are for bringing a party back into power(It turns out the so called arguments he has provided too are unreferenced and copy-pasted from here. Of course that Shashi Tharoor made these arguments doesn't impress me any further. It only detracts from his value) Coming back to what I intended to say, although Shashi Tharoor should not be voted in based on history, I am more inclined to leave history aside because ultimately it is common sense that educated leaders are more capable leaders than illiterate ones and I do want to encourage educated men to participate in the administration of our country. So with this end in mind I would vote for Shashi Tharoor. His intentions are sincere, but so were Manmohan's. So one must hope that if he is voted into power, he can do a better job with the implementation.Among other such cheerful developments, the charming JPN has decided that politics cannot be cleansed of corruption by sitting outside of it. Yay!

Advani advocates

2009-03-26T23:14:00.000-07:00

Today Advani challenged Manmohan to a live TV debate a la US presidential elections. While this challenge was blurted out more in fury at the criticism by Manmohan Singh of his essentially destructive presence in Indian politics, the suggestion in itself is a one I welcome and even hope will be realised this year. Based on the US TV presidential debates it is clearl to me that debates will not be any indication of a party or individual's capacity. All things popular are ultimately about the right rhetoric. If the masses are educated, then the rhetoric must come with a generous dose of teary-eyed elocution from a man with a university degree to appeal to the educated man's own sense of being intellectual. Anyhow, I still welcome live TV debate because a democracy is ultimately a popular system of governance and it is essential to keep the populace in the loop, to borrow an americanism. Although Indians will refuse to buy or be ignorant of condoms, they are all aware of and will save up to buy a TV. The reach of this device is incredible, and I think it is a powerful means for both sides to spread the rhetoric. Although there are TV ads, a 'special occasion' can attract the attention of a significantly greater audience than regular annoying ads. Take the example of the Filmfare awards in India or the Oscars. Like these events, with sufficient media propaganda, we can have the whole nation engaged in watching the event. The US media propaganda for instance has been so successful that people not just in US but all over the world watch the two noise-makers make noise in the noise-making event. And so, the live debate can form an important platform for rhetoric and get the people involved. This is critical. Besides, because it does have the title of a debate. Although the individuals contesting can say just about anything they want about the future, the past has to be cited(even if unverified) and the overall appearance has to be of a rational process of dialogue, to a reasonable extent. The benefit that this could have is to get the lesser educated masses thinking of the democractic process along rational lines instead of personal sops. Of course, it is a far fetched hope that one debate can make our uneducated masses see reason. But that is not what I expect. A human being has an instinctive capacity for reasoning, however primitive it may be. When he is bombarded for an hour or so with dialogue and debate on policies and reforms and such like instead of promises of sarees and lungis, I expect somewhere in that primitive brain a blob will shift uneasily and wake from its slumber. It will sense something wrong and wonder. That much is enough.

Thought for the day

2009-03-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

I don't know what these Americans are complaining about. They have a baby boom generation. We have a baby boom nation!

Question for the day

2009-03-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

In India, 18 is the legal age for drinking and driving. True or False?

Some thoughts for the day

2009-03-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

Chili is hot.

When I say something clever and imaginative on chat and I get a reply 'Quel artist!', do I read it as good French or bad English?

Who are those people all over India who call up various dial-in shows (like Pepsi Uma)? Do they really exist?

What do you do with half a toilet?

2009-03-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

An ad I found in the mallu ASU orkut community:
Soumya
FEMALE ROOMMATE NEEDED FROM MAY 2009
Hello Everybody,

We are four Indian girls, looking for another Indian girl to replace one of us, (preferably vegetarian, but its fine if not) from May 2009.

Our house is on the Apache and Terrace Intersection. It is a neat, well maintained townhouse, in a safe and hospitable community. It is a 2 bedroom 1.5 bathroom house, with a nice patio. It is unfurnished, but we have some furniture and appliances that are sufficient (dining table, chairs, book-shelf, rice cooker, blender etc.). The kitchen is provided with Microwave oven, Refrigerator, Burner, Dishwasher, etc.

Inertia

2009-03-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

Usually phones in the US are designed such that it is possible to dial the emergency services even if the keypad is locked(I am talking about non-flip phones). For some reason, almost any two digits pressed on my keypad followed by the dial button calls the emergency services, apart from the usual 911 dial. As a consequence, I have rung inadvertently for 911(08 dial has been the most common random combination I've achieved!) at least 20 times (counting) in the past 3 years. I've now had this T-mobile service for well over its contract period and I AM eligible to change to a new, better phone for free! Yet, I remain in this same unperturbed state out of sheer inertia to call up t-mobile and request a new phone. It is a good thing the police department is also expected to serve shepherds!

Cold reality

2009-02-27T19:51:00.000-08:00

Although I've read numerous articles on the impacts of the recession, most of those are by journalists for big newspapers. As I read the journalist's well-scripted and poignant story of suffering, I can't help but notice the ads flashing on the sides of the article making me wonder how much profit my sympathy brings into their coffers. Nothing hits me so painfully as a brutally simple and unembellished rendering of one's suffering without seeking an ounce of pity. This is a letter written by a resident of Tempe to the editor that came in today's 'The State Press', the free on-campus daily:

EFFECTS OF A RECESSION

My world came crashing down last August when my housemate lost her job at ASU I depended on her income to keep my canine family and me afloat.

In 1994, an impaired driver plowed into me as I walked my dogs. The impact sent me hurling through the air, and I landed in a ditch, bruised bloodied and battered. Lingering injuries from brain trauma, seizure disorder and other broken bones left me disabled. I'd rather work than collect disability, but that's just not possible.

A letter arrived a few days ago telling my house-mate her unemployment benefits were exhausted. In this grim economy, a doctorate from Harvard might be useful in India, but it does nothing here.

We both scrounge for aluminum cans in the garbage. It is shameful and degrading, especially when neighbours see us, but it's a source of income. I started grocery shopping in the dollar store. The bank won't refinance the house because she has no job and my income isn't enough. Unless there's a miracle soon, our home will be added to the glut of foreclosures in Arizona.

We are both in our mid-50s. At the time my house-mate was fired, she was under treatment for heart and spinal cord disease and major depression. She has no health insurance and no way to pay for medicine.

The prospect of losing our home, our dogs and everything we own is terrifying, but it's likely to happen. We could panhandle, but we are too proud to beg. The bank may take our home. ASU took her job, but no one can take away our dignity. There are thousands of people facing foreclosure, job loss, surrender of their beloved pets, and there is no end in sight to the misery.

While students at ASU may protest budget cuts, the real conern should be what happens when you graduate. You, too, may end up like me. I played by the rules my entire life. I never thought that homelessness would be right around the corner.

Debra J. White
Tempe resident

The last two lines kill me.

This is HILARIOUS!

Dear stupid Obama maniacs of India

2009-02-26T07:33:00.000-08:00

This is why it is important for you to read matters of foreign and economic policy of a party before you cry hoarse in jubilation and run around proclaiming the goodness of god with tears in your eyes over a pretty-faced glorious-sounding man. It was part of the Democrat policy all along to reduce outsourcing in order to improve local employment.

P.S: The theory that outsourcing is affecting local employment rates is a myth. But since nobody seems to care to know facts, I'll not waste my time.

P.P.S: That protectionism doesn't help the US cause is not a myth!

Alcohol abuse and trouble fingering

2009-02-18T20:48:00.000-08:00

It is not so much that I abuse alcohol to harm myself as it is that I abuse alcohol to harm alcohol itself.

It is also not so much that I am inexperienced at fingering as it is that I am having trouble of late.

Let me explain. In the India stores in my neighbourhood you get this wonderful product called 'mango pulp' in a can(Yes, that's the beginning!). If one adds yoghurt and some water to some of this pulp and blends it all together it makes a most delicious mango lassi! I bought one such can yesterday. There are two stores close by and I usually get all my desi products only from one of them because the other is reputed to have outdated stuff often. But this latter store is open longer. So at the sunset hour that I went, only the latter store was open. I searched the store and didn't find this mango pulp can. So I asked the store owner if they had any, in case I overlooked, and he pulled one lone can out of some corner. Naturally, it was terribly old, and quite rusted too. But I figured the rust must only be on the outside and was a little uncomfortable at the thought of refusing to buy it when he took all the trouble to hunt one out for me. I bought it and took it home to make my lassi. The can had a large circular base. So in order to open the can fully, one has to crank the opener several turns. Now, there are three openers at my home, but all three are rusted. So it takes quite some effort to do all that cranking. So what I did, I opened a little and then thought I'd let my muscle power do the rest for me. Accordingly, I put the tip of my index and middle finger against the edge of the cut lid of the can and exert my muscle to try and rip the can open. Instead, I nearly rip my index finger against the sharp edge of the lid that was sticking out. Oddly enough, the edge was rusted. That wasn't good news. Now all this I did at around 6:15 pm in the evening. At 6:30 I had to go play sand volleyball. I didn't want to miss my dear volleyball so I did what I usually do when I have blood oozing out of my body. I poured some of my aftershave on the wound. It has alcohol which would temporarily do something to kill all the unwanted stuff looking to have an orgy on my wound. BUT, I cannot forgo volleyball. So I poured lots of aftershave and ran to the sand courts to play. I played for a good one hour and got the cut covered in a mixture of dried blood and sand and it remained that way for a good hour or so till the germs probably formed an army large enough to concur the world. I came back and washed my hands with running water and soap, and poured more aftershave on it. But today at work, it started hurting again when I tried to lift some piece of equipment which was heavier than I expected and ended up putting the cut against the edge of that equipment while trying to lift it. There are some little luxuries of being in an experimental science lab. There is bound to be alcohol, which a good solvent and is often used for cleaning stuff. So I went to pick up the usual ethyl alcohol squeeze tube and pour some of it on the wound. It stings of course. But that's a sign, hopefully, that it is screwing those germs! Unfortunately, today the ethyl alcohol squeeze tube was empty. So I took the isopropyl alcohol squeeze tube instead and poured it on the cut. My lab mate then put a band-aid on the cut and wound it up with some tape to keep it in place because it was more at the fingertip, which has a curvature to it. So far so good. But what I didn't tell you was that yesterday's mango pulp not only looked old on the outside, but also tasted a little odd. As I wasn't prepared to risk an upset stomach, I threw the can away and bought one from the other store today. Laziness prevailed again. I cut through half the circumference of the lid, which was more than I had done yesterday, but it still proved insufficient for my muscle power act. Same story, I cut a finger? No. There's a twist. I cut two! Two new ones. So now I had three fingers with cuts on them. Two bleeding. More aftershave. Call for volleyball comes. Irresistible urge. At the courts, I found that today's cuts were starting to bleed while fingering. (We Indians call the 'setting' fingering. Actually, that is how it used to be called in the US too, until the more perverted connotations took prevalence I believe.) So what I did, I pulled the extra tape off the band-aid and wound the tape directly on top of the cuts to stanch the flow of blood. I hope that adhesive contains harmless stuff. The odd shape of the fingertip and the fact that I was still trying to spike and finger the ball meant that the tape fell of in a few shots. Some great matches today. A good three hours in the sand courts. Good fun. But all three cuts were covered in a mixture of dried blood and sand. I do hope I don't suffer from Tetanus. It is a while since I've taken my last shot but I'm reluctant to go and get a shot. We'll wait and see?

Funny americans

2009-02-16T19:38:00.000-08:00

So Obama arrived today in Arizona to show off his deceptive smile and dole out more hyperbole that the american public, and the world in general seems to be craving from this man. He is greeted by the mayor of Phoenix who gifts Shaquille O'Neal the basketball player's SHOE as a souvenir! The president proudly displays it for the cameras and then departs in his cavalcade. If all this isn't amusing enough, Shaquille O'Neal was born in New Jersey and played for the Los Angeles lakers for most of his basketball career and transferred to Phoenix only last year.

God Bless America.

Proof: http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2009/02/17/20090217obamavisit0217-ON.html

Fantastic idea

2009-02-16T01:11:00.001-08:00

http://www.rangde.org/

About
What's in a Name?
The word /rung de/ in Hindi means to give colour. Through Rang De we hope that many of us will be able to share and spread the colours of joy with other individuals. Rang De is an attempt to bring together the India that is economically progressing rapidly and the India that has been ignored and needs all our attention. Rang De is a platform for individuals to make a sustainable difference and join a mission to alleviate poverty.

Genesis of Rang De
Living in India had prepared us to accept everything. We sure did complain about things that were not right or about the system that needed a revamp but never did anything to question the status quo. It seemed as if we had built a feeling of comfort that arose from the myth that it was a difficult to change anything in India. The same comfort began to impinge on our senses when we left India. We began to realise that bridging the gap between the developed and the developing India needed concerted efforts from everyone and we as individuals had a responsibility too.

It took a little more research for us to realise that most of the issues India faced were manifestations of a deep rooted and a multidimensional situation- "Poverty".

The quest to find a sustainable solution to poverty led us to Microcredit and the different approaches to it. This helped us crystallise our core beliefs that shaped Rang De into what it is today.

The Core beliefs that shaped Rang De are:

1. That most social issues if not all, are manifestations of poverty. Unless we address poverty holistically, our attempts will remain futile.
2. That microcredit is a sustainable means of alleviating poverty if it is affordable and can be accessed by all.
3. That charity and donations are hardly sustainable means to financial independence. In fact, it hinders an individual's spirit to fight against poverty.

Rang De's mission is to make microcredit accessible to all by lowering interest rates by doing things differently. To know how you can become a part of this mission please read further.

Why Rang De?
When we look back into our own lives, most of us realise that there were times when we faced a financial crunch. Thanks to the plastic card, the crunch was overcome almost instantly. What happens to those who do not have access to credit cards or even a bank loan for that matter? This is the situation of most low income households in lndia. Thanks to microcredit, many such people are beginning to gain access to small loans and credit. And it is our firm belief at Rang De that unless opportunities to access financial credit are provided through a holistic approach, the impact will remain insignificant.

Rang De is a unique platform for individuals to become Social Investors and connect with borrowers of microcredit by lending small sums of money.

You too can make a difference today as a Social Investor - At Rang De, a social investor is someone who can lend at least Rs.500 to an individual in need and in turn earn a nominal return as well as make a positive social impact.

Unique features of Rang De are:

1. Mission to drive down interest rates and make microcredit accessible to all. Rang De will always remain non profit to ensure this happens.
2. The only online microlending platform that does not use a payment gateway and still makes payments possible. Register and see how we make this possible.
3. 30 day loan disbursal guarantee.

How Rang De works?
Step 1. Register and become a Social Investor.

Step 2. Choose borrowers to make a social investment. You can invest as little as Rs.500.

Step 3. Rang De 's field partners receive and disburse loans to their borrowers.

Step 4. Borrower repays loan according to a repayment schedule.

Step 5. You receive a return of 3.5% on your social investment at the end of the tenure.

What's in it for Rang De?
Rang De is an initiative to make low cost microcredit a reality. By enabling individuals to become online Social Investors, Rang De hopes to bring microcredit and online lending to the forefront. Rang De is a non profit entity with the sole objective of connecting individuals who need money to social investors like you. Rang De will create a sustainable alternative to charity by promoting online lending as a way of life.

Warning: At present, international credit cards are not accepted.

My valentine

2009-02-15T07:25:00.000-08:00

So the randomness of the world conspired to fetch me a valentine. Most of the day went by in a happy way, with nothing spectacular. By about 9:30 pm I was really frustrated I didn't have a valentine! Actually, I was reading a non-fiction book the facts of which were overwhelming me AND I hadn't had dinner because I was too lazy to cook. My stomach had started to mourn. So I called up a certain someone with whom I have a very ambivalent relationship and suggested that we go have some ice-cream downtown. We got to the Coldstone ice-cream shop there and ordered one large bowl of dark chocolate ice-cream(no prizes for guessing who made the order). I courteously offered to pay for the two of us, and then we happily took two spoons, went outside and sat under one of the awnings in front of their store, making conversation while enjoying the FANTASTIC weather(it was slighly windy and about 10oC). Somewhere in between, a guy selling flowers passes by. He sees the two of us, probably notices that we are eating ice-cream from one cup, walks up to us and asks if we'd like to buy flowers. Only, he looks at one, then the other, and repeats his question still unsure whom to look at.

Shakespeare in me

2009-02-14T23:36:00.001-08:00

If Shakespeare can invent words, so can I. It is another matter whether people choose to use them. These modern feminist type women tend to get offended by the use of the entirely arbitrary word 'chick', more because of the connotation attached to it. Since it is an entirely arbitrary choice of word for a woman. I hereby offer that the women may refer to a man who is looked upon as nothing but a bodily object as 'chuck'. The name has a masculine tint to it, and in order to be given a word origin for wiki entries and stuff, I propose that it originates because of the extreme popularity of the hot bod and looks of Chuck Norris which led to its initial coinage by me, and then the later use by the larger public in general!

So if you are a girl reading this, the next time someone refers to you as a 'hot chick' and you are offended, just reply, "You are a cold chuck!" and amuse yourself.

My advisor's valentine

2009-02-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

So today, Friday the 13th, I head to lab a little dull from a shortage of sleep, and not too excited at the prospect of some experiments I had to repeat. As I sit at my desk in the morning, promptly catching up on world news, I take a peek into my advisor's room to see if he's free for a meeting. I get the shock of my life when I find a big bouquet of flowers with glittering balloons sticking out of it reading 'Happy Valentine's day'. Now my advisor is married with a wife and a kid. Although I realise America is wilder than India I didn't know my advisor to be this sort of a man! So later that afternoon, when I did meet him, I stole a glance towards the label on the bouquet to find that it was from his wife and darling son of 5 years! :) They were celebrating the love of family I guess. Something less illusory than the love of teenagers, and perhaps worth celebrating.

Since I'm on the theme of love and valentines, I might as well narrate another incident. I was returning from some volleyball yesterday evening when I saw a professor from my department. Now he is this big shot PhD from Stanford whose advisor collaborated with Shockley(of transistor fame). But he's a terror to work with because he is extremely demanding, and very manipulative. He would've been a very successful businessman. And he partly is, because he is one of the best funded professors in the university. Anyhow, perhaps because of his poor character, or for other reasons, his first wife divorced him, and one of his students had informed me that he had a new girlfriend. Now mind you, this is a professor of 50 something. So I was quite mortified when I saw him coming towards me, holding hands with his girlfriend. I was also very amused at the site of this stern, shrewd, scheming and terrfiying man holding and swaying hands like a teenager with his girlfriend. Love is indeed a funny thing. But it is a good thing. It does more good than evil, on the whole.

Fat Boy and Fat Man - the Twin Bombs on the United States

2009-02-10T23:10:00.000-08:00

First a failed $700 billion stimulus package attempting to directly buy out the bad bank loans and stimulate bank lending. This when the total of bad debt is in several trillions of dollars.

Then, Obama and the Democrats' $800 billion stimulus package which happily spends on everything from discount coupons for digital TV conversion to improvement of highways and projects on climate research. For all I know a part of the money might also be allocated to financing his kids' education so that they may become future presidents. Only about 20% of the 800 billion will flow into the economy during FY '09 as a stimulus. Another 40% percent during FY '10. The rest is a clever manoeuvre to get funding for general ambitious projects for the future while the economy is still in tatters now. Does anyone even know the Republicans had an alternate bill proposing greater tax cuts' and more money allocated to 'stimulus' plans? That is why the democrat bill passed House with 0 republican votes. The poor souls were yelling their lungs out in the debate to get the point across that the package needs more programs that have effect NOW!

The pink chaddi campaign

2009-02-09T12:15:00.001-08:00

The pink chaddi campaign is awesome! Well done.

Send your chaddis to:

BANGALORE
The Pink Chaddi Campaign,
C/O Alternate Law Forum,
122/4 Infantry Road
(opposite Infantry Wedding House)
Bangalore 560001
Karnataka

Is India creating a growth bubble?

2009-02-04T09:46:00.000-08:00

The inflation is at a staggering 5.4% in spite of a drop in commodity and oil prices and a slowdown of the economy(the US inflation by contrast is 0.1%). It was as high as 13% around July 2008 last year. The main reason for the rising inflation, I gather, is the price of primary articles like food stuffs. What worries me now is that India, in the name of economic growth, is laying undue emphasis on growing the Industrial sector(that is, IT and financial services primarily) while completely neglecting the already inefficient agricultural sector! How is this economic growth? It will only lead to surging inflation and an empty growth bubble that is going to come crashing down when the corporate sectors become unable to borrow money, leading ultimately to hyperinflation followed by a recession that might slip into a depression! Isn't anyone concerned? Or am I wrong?

When an idiot writes a fortune cookie it reads...

2009-01-30T12:46:00.000-08:00

"Many of your doubts will be cleared early this month." on a fortune cookie picked up from an asian restaurant on the 30th of January! :-| The sensible thing of course would've been to replace 'this' with 'next'.

Also, I know I'm in the midst of a bunch of people growing older, and maturer, and wiser, and generally more boring when the time for a birthday party changes from 12 a.m. to 10 p.m. because they have an assignment to worry about, and then from 10 p.m. to 8 p.m. because they now sleep at 9 p.m. in order to go slave the next day! Of course I know I am not allowed to complain about birthday parties but at least I have been sensible enough to do away with a birthday altogether instead of making it this wish-wash, toned down and sober affair with cliched jokes backed by fake laughter and a general artifice of pleasantries attempting to stifle the boredom of the same humdrum birthday routine for one birthday after another. Anyways, I am quite out of touch with people so it doesn't bother me. So long as they have fun, all is well! :)

I wrote this today because I suddenly got an invitation to attend some party at 10 p.m. and feel terribly uncomfortable at the prospect of going as I haven't been speaking to any of the members of that circle that she's invited for at least a few months now and I am at a loss for what to say to the various people and the birthday girl in general, except of course, 'Happy Birthday!'. If I go too early, there's too many people to greet and talk to as they drop in one by one. If I go too late, then everyone will see me enter at the odd time and get curious to talk to me. Its best to go in just before the cake-cutting, when they switch off the lights, and quietly sneak in at the back. Then wish her at the right time, take a big slice of the cake, then some chips and coke, and keep stuffing myself in a very preoccupied manner so that nobody is really interested in coming anywhere close to me. And then make a hasty exit with some doomsday excuse(its saturday tomorrow so excuses are harder to come by and I haven't found a good one yet. Suggestions welcome.).

Short story

2009-01-22T09:06:00.000-08:00

A shriveled and shrunken old man wearing sunglasses crosses the street urgently on a dark and cloudy day as if god were calling him to heaven from across the street. The devil picks him up from the side.