Saturday, November 15, 2008

Continous exhibition of ignorance

Gnanai is one writer who continues to amuse me. Reading Gnani makes me wonder how one part of the world can be so ignorant, churn out well structured articles in popular media and have people like me read and comment about them.

To get to the context - in Gnani's own words - "குறைந்தபட்சம் தமிழ்நாட்டில் ஒரு தலித் முதலமைச்சர் ; டெல்லியில் ஒரு முஸ்லிம் பிரதமர். (நிச்சயம் ராசா, கலாம் போன்ற பொம்மைப் பிரதிநிதிகள் அல்ல.) அதை நோக்கி நம் அரசியலை நம் மன நிலையை வளர்ப்பதுதான் நாம் செய்ய வேண்டியது."

What he fails to understand is - the Indian society is a 100 times diverse than the American society. Its diversity helps in local priorities, local leaderships and local centers of power - that can have an impact on their day-to-day life. The Indian political leadership doesn't come in the way of the common man's lifestyle, jobs etc. Indians do not believe that their PM or President is responsible for state of the society. At a local level, a Chief Minister may have some influence on the common man's lifestyle.

Indians do not see their Prime Minister as Americans feel about their President. In the US, a good economy or a bad economy is usually attributed to a President's administrative capabilities. In India, a good economy is when the rains are timely and enough. A bad economy is when there is drought - PM or President can do nothing about it.

So, Indians and Americans differ on their perception about their political leaders at a national level. But India has its share of leaders, though not political leaders in the true sense of the term - leaders who can instill optimism and pride. Abdul Kalaam definitely is one such leader, though not a politcal leader. The last political leader who could offer that kind of optimism was Rajiv Gandhi - not because of his color or pedigree. People believed in his sincerity in the 1985 elections, he was more like the Obama of today - a leader who can get the nation out of the problems of separatism and terrorism. To be fair to him, he sincerely addressed the problems and also had a vision for the nation.

I do not think Indians are confused about caste or religion when it comes to recognising leadership. BJP chose to field Abdul Kalaam not because he would be their puppet, instead it believed that Kalaam is apolitical and is a leader well respected by the people and the office of the President. BJP also had the important portfolio of defence ministry handled by George Fernandes - a popular trade union leader!

Event at a local level, where leadership has influence on people's lives, caste or religion does not come in the way of electing their leaders. There are other factors in the Indian Polical dynamics that matter - definitely caste and religion are not. A big Hindu majority state like Maharashtra did have a Muslim Chief Minister - A.R. Antuley.


Sunday, August 31, 2008

What is to experience?

This is an often repeated topic by the Nityanandas, Jaggi Vasudevs and JKs. Still, there is nothing wrong in I, being a common man like you, repeat it.

The context of this topic came up during a once-a-year meeting I have with my brother. The meetings usually span about three days when we cover topics ranging from music (his favorite subject) to films and literature. He being a fan of www.itwofs.com, had problems in appreciating music that he knows is copied. To him, good music is one that is original (as far as his knowledge goes).

I see this as two different activities - one is the listener's experience of the song, two being the problem of plagiarism. By knowing that a certain music is copied shouldn't come in the way of experiencing the music. Rahman's rendering of "What are you waiting for (Album: Vandemataram)" and "போறாளே பொன்னுத்தாயீ" (Album: Karuththamma), were expressive of the respective moods. I happen to hear a fast paced party song in the same tune. I don't care to know the source of the song. Should you not experience the melancholy of the Tamil rendering because Rahman is not the original "creator" of the music? The problem is, the mind comes in the way and passes judgement on the work, preventing a real experience.

As a small exercise, when you hear a song, watch for your thoughts. Are they about the instrumentation, lyrics, the visuals or the people associated with it? If it is none of them, you are probably experiencing the music.

The second part is about plagiarism. I'm not getting into the details of music plagiarism. It is known problem, but does't deserve the kind of attention it gets from music lovers. I do not believe that anyone can claim ownership of an intellectual property - be it a creative idea in science or arts. To give shape to an idea, there is human effort involved and that deserves a reward. That is, a musician gets to be paid well for a good rendering of a song. He doesn't have the right to prevent or restrict the rendering of the same music by others.

More on my views on Rights, Copy Rights, Open Source later...

P.S: Typos and errors in Kannadasan's work I referred in my previous post have been fixed. My apologies for the copy paste errors from an unauthenticated source. Please feel free to add a comment if it is still incorrect.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

More on freedom

Friend Nag responded to my earlier blog on being free. His comments were:

1. Brain will never give up its superiority (functioning) until it cease to exist or the functioning is stopped. Let us assume, the brain evolves to attain freedom, by then it would've realised to stop procreation to ensure freedom. I'm unable to foresee such a evolution process. Well, if it turns out to be true, that will be the end of man kind, as procreation will stop.

As for any creature, expanding itself, is so primal, I really doubt that can happen. If it were to happen, then freedom comes with human extinction.

2. The way I see freedom is, when everything becomes an abstract and you don't see the cause and relationship and not affected by what is happening around. That could be the state of bliss. This state of bliss, could be attained by a few percentage of the human race and not by all.

Still freedom will be achieved by all, in their own definition and not in a common parlance.


Nag has got it right in relating the identity or the mind to the procreation. But what I see as freedom is, a state in which the mind is not the master, but a part with equal priority as the other senses. Just like the other organs, the brain will take part in the process of procreation, but the primary motive in the process will not be lust (arising out insecurity).

The state of bliss is a great one, but we are not born just for bliss. It is good in small doses. In a state of bliss, it is very likely that the body is passive. As we are born with sensory organs, I see the purpose of life is to experience and not to stay in a blissful state for extended periods of time.

Here is a quote from Kannadasan in support.

பிறப்பில் வருவது யாதென கேட்டேன்
பிறந்து பார் என இறைவன் பணித்தான்

இறப்பில் வருவது யாதென கேட்டேன்
இறந்து பார் என இறைவன் பணித்தான்

மனையாள் சுகமெனில் யாதெனக் கேட்டேன்
மணந்து பாரென இறைவன் பணித்தான்

அனுபவித்தே தான் வாழ்வது வாழ்வெனில்
ஆண்டவனே நீ ஏன்? என கேட்டேன்

ஆண்டவன் சற்றே அருகினில் வந்து
அனுபவம் என்பதே நான்தான் என்றான்.

Unlike a blissful passive state, there is a great active state where the mind (rather the influence the abstract identity) doesn't influence the action. This is a state where your actions are not influenced by who you are, but what the situation demands. Since there is no bias towards an identity, the actions are for a greater good.

I plan to write more on some ways of engaging your "mind" and be free for a moment or two. More on that, later.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Real Freedom

On India's Independence day, here is my attempt write about real freedom and to demystify the philosophy on Maya, self etc.


Imagine the brain as a computer (crude, but simple to explain) with all its CPU and buses; the sensory organs being the peripherals. One important difference is, there is an experiencer - that is you. When inputs come from the senses, the brain processes the inputs and there is an experience.


Now add the complexity of memory. Memory evolved with humans and it has been a pretty useful one, just like the computer's memory. It is able to remember more, information gathered over generations is stored better resulting in more complex ideas and innovations. With its evolution, the memory managed to get a higher priority over the inputs from the senses. In computer terminology, we can say that the bus between the memory and the CPU has higher capacity than the other buses.


The experiencer explained in the first paragraph is more and more dependent on the memory. In fact, the experiencer identifies himself / herself with the memory acquired. So, people have macro identities with their nationality, religion, caste and micro identities like name, education and profession. These are nothing more than assertions in the memory. This is what we mean when we say "I". My understanding is - the eastern philosophy refers this as "Maya" - a bunch of abstract thoughts and the lack of real experience. Almost all our thoughts and actions are influenced by these identities. There is definitely better life if we have lesser influence of these identities. Imagine a world without so many divisions!


What does it mean to be free?

When a child looks at a thing, there is just an experience of seeing. The mind doesn't intervene in the interpretation of what is being seen. To understand this better, listen to Bharathi's "காக்கைச் சிறகினிலே".


Can you be really Free?


From ancient times, people have been attempting to get rid of the influence of this identity and be free. The interesting part is, the mind gets stronger with every serious attempt to reduce its importance. For example, if a prophet or a saint finds a way and disseminates his experience, it soon adds to the assertions and forms a cult or a religion with rituals. It is impossible to create a student as enlightened as the master for the simple reason that their physical brains are different.


With the current knowledge and technology, it is almost impossible to permanently set aside the dominance of the memory, for this is a physiological condition. Some have the physiological condition where they are able to see memory as just another source of information and are able to dissociate the experiencer from the memory.


I see the modern Gurus having this condition. Please see this as no more a specialty than what an athlete has - an extraordinary physiological condition. Good poets are another group who go through the experience without the disturbance of the mind. At times, when this is not possible, alcohol or narcotics help.


Powerful inputs from other senses sometimes can help in reducing the importance of the memory and in turn the identity - like the vision of a favorite deity, smell of a few flowers, sound of conch, bells and chanting. Another crude parallel - as the aroma of your favorite food triggers the secretion of saliva, bile juice etc.


As the brain and in turn the mind evolved to its current state, it is also possible that the brain evolves further to be free. With improved understanding of the functioning of the brain, more interaction between the scientists and leaders and coming together of the various cultures, I think it will be possible for normal humans to be free. The process would be more of a physiological evolution than a religious one.



Saturday, April 12, 2008

I knew psychology without knowing that it's psychology

I asked my 11 year old son on where he lost his geography notebook. He was clueless. It wasn't new for him to lose things and look lost in front of me. Last month it was geography book, another day it was another book and so on. In the first year of school, he used to lose pencils and erasers so frequently that we always bought boxes of them.

Like most dumb parents I too tried telling him on how I used to take care of my possessions. It just struck me that I didn't have too many things to care for. Until 3rd grade, all I need to carry was one notebook for Mathematics, 3 or 4 books and a slate. That's all. The number increased gradually, but some kind of laziness prevented me from carrying more than 10 items to school until the 12th grade.

And now, I stumbled upon the 50 year old psychology theory on the limited capacity of memory.

And how did I arrive at this information to blog about? I was reading on a technology blog, that talked about interviews, linked to Microsoft interview, remembered a riddle I got to hear in an interview with i2 technology guys (that I didn't answer and didn't get a job at i2), checked up on what i2 is upto, and eventually landed at the psychology page linked above.

It is an interesting exercise to see how the mind links information. But "seeing" your mind working is a gift.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Remembering Sujatha - belatedly

முத்துக்குமரனை கப்பலின் மேல் தளத்தில், ஒரு பலகையில் நிறுத்தி சுட்டு விட்டார்கள். சனிக்கிழமை வந்த குமுதத்தில் வந்தது செய்தி. செவ்வாய்க்கிழமை, சுஜாதா தில்லைநகர் மகளிர் மன்றத்தில் பேசப்போகிறார். ஒன்பதாம் வகுப்பு படித்துக்கொண்டிருந்த எங்களுக்கு ஆர்வம் தாங்கவில்லை. ஆனந்த குமார், ஸ்ரீகாந்த், பரத்வாஜ், சுஜாதாவை சந்திக்க முடிவு செய்து விட்டார்கள். Agenda: முத்துக்குமரனுக்கு என்ன ஆயிற்று என்று தெரிந்துகொள்வது. முதலில் எனக்கு போக ஆசையாகத்தான் இருந்தது. ஐந்து நிமிட சந்திப்பு சுவாரஸ்யத்தை விட மிக அதிகமான சுவாரஸ்யம் படிக்கும் போது இருப்பதாலோ என்னவோ நான் அவரை சந்திக்கப் போகவில்லை. குறையொன்றுமில்லை. ஆனால் இப்போது, சுஜாதா இல்லை என்று நினைக்கும்போது, மிகப்பெரிதாக என்னவோ குறைகிறது.

எத்தனை பேருக்கு inspiration? அறிவியலுக்கும் உணர்வுக்கும் இடையே நடுவில் வாழ்ந்தவர். உணர்வுகளை சரியாகப்புரிந்துகொண்டு ஒரு பார்முலாவைக்கண்டுபிடித்து கதைகளும், திரைக்கதையும் வசனமும் எழுதியவர். தான் special என்று உணர்ந்தும், எல்லோரும் சமம் என்று நடந்து கொண்டவர்.

பல நாயகர்களைப்போல இவரையும் சமூகம் மறந்து விடக்கூடும். மறந்து விடுவோமோ? சந்தேகம் தான். புதுமைப்பித்தனையும், ஜானகிராமனையும் மறந்து விட்டோமா என்ன? மறந்தாலும் மறக்கவிட்டாலும் அவர் இல்லாதது குறை தான், குறை தான்.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Taare Zameen Par

Yesterday I watched the movie 'Taare Zameen Par'. A good movie, very different from the 95% run-of-the-mill movies churned out by ?ollywood. A good attempt to bring to light some of the ignorance on learning. So, it would be unfair to focus details on where are the storyline slumped.

I have observed a lot of kids go through the state of lack of fine motor skill at various points in time. Adults also go through this problem temporarily due to lack of sleep or some medication.

I have seen a cousin, a very smart kid, often misspelling words when she was about 7-8 years old. Her parents and teachers were intelligent enough to see the actual problem and didn't fret over the "silly mistakes". Over a period of time, she was fine.

My son wasn't comfortable buttoning his shirt or tying the shoe-lace until he was about 9 years old. I tried teaching him to button his shirt when he was five and both left the training frustrated. He would always prefer shirts with no buttons and trousers with elastic. He started writing late and developed a very bad handwriting too. A correction program had to done when he was 10 years old. We also introduced him to games like pallankuzhi to help in fine motor skills and math.

A lot of these are hereditary. The problems can be traced back to the changes we have had in our education system.
  • The motor skills begin to develop at around 5 years of age. But most kids in India are in schools from age 3, trying to write.
  • Learning to write often started with writing it big - using a stick or fingers and write on sand or grains. In India, we don't have enough space to write on sand or grains.
  • Kids do not learn to write in mother tongue, but start with English - where the spelling doesn't always correspond to the pronunciation. This adds to the learning difficulties.
  • Rhymes and recitation help in learning more than reasoning and prose. Primary education system in India, doesn't given enough stress on this. (Remember the days when you would sing addition and multiplication tables in your mother tongue. They also helped to some extent!)
  • Games like pallankuzhi (பல்லாங்குழி) help in fine motor skills. Nondi (நொண்டி) is an outdoor game that helps in mind-body coordination. Do kids play these nowadays?
I hope I'll do something to improve the learning process at various levels .... planned for next year.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Purpose

I have been waiting at La Guardia for the same amount of time, it took my travel from Detroit to La Guardia. I approached the ground transportation help desk to see if I have any options if the shuttle I booked doesn't show up.

The previous day, it took me a few hours to research on the transportation options from New York La Guardia Airport to Raritan in New Jersey. I won't have much time as the flight's scheduled arrival is at 8:15 AM and I am supposed to meet my business contact by 10 AM. I have less than two hours to cover some 65 miles that includes New York traffic. Considering how bad a driver I am and my difficulty in switching near vision to far vision to keep track of maps and road signs, I chose to take a taxi or a shuttle. I searched for limo services, taxi rates etc and finally booked a shuttle. I wouldn't say my decision to go with that shuttle service can be backed up by good research, but at some point I just booked it without delaying further.

Back to La Guardia. I called the shuttle service for the fourth time to check whether I can cancel the booking as they are so delayed. The meeting that was going to be delayed was important one for me and my company. I'm surprised that I wasn't angry or anxious but was just following up. The operator apologized that the shuttle is stuck in traffic and the delay was inevitable. I promptly emailed my contact at Raritan that I'd be delayed - one of the nice things we learn in client interaction, called "setting expectation".

The van finally showed up at about 9:15, the driver apologizing repeatedly. Shuttle drivers are usually friendly and they tried to get into a conversation. He talked about New York traffic and accidents and gave a glimpse of his knowledge about New York geography to get onto less traffic route to get to my destination on time. One street in Brooklyn had a lot of camera wielding people moving on all directions.

"News guys!" - I said.
"Oh here is the place where the actor who died yesterday used to live...", said the driver. He continued, "Don't you think the news feeding on someone's sorrow is a bad thing?"
"Yes, but it is the same all over the world. There are people who are disgusted by such attitude and there are people who want to make a news out of every event."
"Sir, the dress, food and lifestyle can be different across nations, but the values of people are the same across the world. By the way, my name is Arnie, as in the Governer of California, so that you can relate the name."
I introduced myself.

"Sir, do you believe in rebirth?" He didn't wait for my answer and took it for granted that people from my part of the world accept rebirth as a fact of life and continued. "The west and the books of Jews, Christians and Muslims do not talk about rebirth. I think it is a natural phenomenon that answers all the question about our sufferings. The church and other central organizations want to control the beliefs and so they don't allow room for discussions on rebirth."

I just smiled, I have no on this. Arnie continued, "I think on rebirth gives us chance to improve and win over fear, anger and hatred."

Now I have a comment. "You can't win over these, because you are these. The very identity you have - that of an Anglo Saxon living in New York will create a fear of things - things that are not you. Fear of the terrorists, fear of gangs in the city will be natural as long as you hold the identity. Realizing this will free you from the perception of fear."

The conversation went on and on till we reached NJ. To me, my visit did not serve the purpose until after 3-4 months when I got a chance to work with the client I met on that day. I hope my visit served some purpose for Arnie - more than the salary he earned on that day.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Google's transliteration application for Indic languages

Compared what Microsoft offered through www.bhashaindia.com, Google's transliteration application much better. Considering the IME runs on the client, it could have been a lot better in detecting Tamil (though the IME is available for many Indic languages, Tamil happens to be a bit difficult one). For example, to get ன, you have to type the letter n followed by _ (underscore) within a second or so. With a small rule set and /or a dictionary, it could have detected the letter based on the context as Google does.

Google does even better. To differentiate between kuril and nedil, most IME expected the users to use upper case. It has been a fair expectation. But it is also the users' common practice to begin a sentence in English with upper case. On transliteration, this caused a needless error and correction. With Google, typing 'Oru' or 'oru' results in a transliteration to 'ஒரு', which is a common word. Google also shows a context menu with other possibilities like 'ஓரு' and 'ஒறு'.

More to come as I explore.

Monday, January 14, 2008

My association with associations

I haven't been associated with any association for most part of my life. I had no option but to take active role in the association of the residents of my building. Reasons: I was the first one to move in and so had more contexts and an office 5 minutes away from home. So, I became an obvious choice to be one of the office bearers. The association is more of an administrative one to handle receipts from residents and payments to service providers like water supply, security etc., It is no more than a clerical job for the office bearers. Most importantly, the association would never involve in activities like petition to various government bodies or demonstrations or some such things associations are usually known for.

I stayed away from any other associations as I do not believe in collective bargaining. We have so many caste based associations; religion based ones, political party affiliations and social networks to choose from. My strong opinion about such groups is - they are more interested in their rights than in their fulfilling their responsibilities. There is this caste based association run by businessmen of the caste I was born in. Every year they meet and demand reservations for their undeserving caste. Thankfully they haven't managed to find a political leader who would do something about this demand.

The recent association I came across was started by the residents of the area I live in. They had a news item in the local newspaper about traffic changes. I had some reservation about their plan and decided to attend the meeting on Sunday to voice my opinions. The meeting was scheduled to start at 9:30 AM but didn't start till 10:30. Until then, it was some socializing and introductions. When the meeting started it was clear to me that this is another association for collective bargaining and has nothing to do with integrity or reason.

About a month ago, more street lights started showing up near my building. It was clearly in excess of the needs. It is true that we can use some light, but sodium vapour lights at every 50 feet are a bit too much. In the pre-meeting introduction, I came to know that the area association was responsible for getting this done. I thanked the association guys, but I thought it was a bit unfair to have so many lights when the rest of the state is suffering from frequent power cuts. So, here is a clear sign of collective bargaining working to the advantage of the residents and to the disadvantage of the rest of the state.

A few months ago, Chennai traffic police decided to restrict the number of exit points from our area to the main road. The reason was, with more vehicles entering the main road from our area, it was choking one of the important junctions. The association wanted to open up more exit points to the main road. My point was - the residents are responsible for more traffic and their demand is not fair if we do nothing to reduce the traffic from within the society. My view was clearly ignored as it needed some introspection and adjustment, which are difficult.

I can live with opposing views and can understand how democracy works. But I can't be associated with groups exhibiting hypocrisy. So, yesterday's first meeting is probably the last one I attended.

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