I have always wondered why I can't think straight. Believe me I have tried for many years to think straight but failed. Now I guess I am too old to even try.
There is a great debate going on in country at least it was on sometime back, between the secularists and religious fellows; between rationalists and those who believed in the power of the myths, between the north and the south, between those who belived in the power of cement and those in power of scriptures. These debates are nothing new in our vast country. In fact they are very common. This is what inspired Amartya Sen to write a tome called the The Argumentative Indian to much acclaim and which also I guess signalled the end of his career as an economist [nothing much is left in that discipline post Nobel prize and one needs to move on in life]
Be that as it may, what is important in India is the topic of the debate not the two sides [the two sides remain the same whatever the topic] And what is more important that the topic is the fact that there is a humongous effort the reduce any debate to two sides only by simplyfying, recalssifying the many other sides.
The current debate was on the benefits of dredging a piece of sea which was either built by Lord Rama [the pious kind who always doubted his wife] or by a stroke of nature; depending on which side of the debate you are on. Obviously, by common agreement, it was accepted that for the country it was more important to debate how the bridge [Google can help you locate the bridge or the sea depending on whether you are an optimist or a pessimist] came to be, rather than whether it was economically, socially and politically beneficial to dredge the piece of sea and make it navigable.
Was the bridge built by Lord Rama while on his way to Sri Lanka to kill the demon king Ravana? Or was it built at some geological time when the continent of India separated from the Island of Sri Lakna? The debate continues.
However, in spite of having an opinion on things I know and also things I do not know, I am unable to offer an opinion on this. Not because I want to sit onthe fence, nor because my head is somewhere and my heart somewhere else, not even because I am scared of being beaten up by either side. None of these.
But for the fact that the debators have got it all wrong once again. The debate should ideally have been on whether the bridge was built by nature or by hanumana [the monkey god much revered or as much revered as Lord Rama in certain parts of India]. If you go throught the Ramayana, it is clear that Rama caused the bridge to be built, he did not build the bridge. The bridge was built by Hanumana and his cousins. having reached the sea in hot pursuits, Rama simply took the decision to build the bridge [as anyone else in his place would have]. The full credit of building the Bridge must go to hanuman and his "associates". if you realign the debate thus, it would be interesting to see how many of the Ram supporters are ready to take up the cause of his trusted lieutenant Hanumana. My guess would be not many. Is that a better way to take the winds out of a good debate? Shall we wait for some hanuman fans [we would have all the kids on our side] to raise a hue and cry against Rama for getting all the credit?
While of course, the nature continues to do its work quietly on the far margins of this debate. One more tsunami, well targetted, we may have a six lane sand highway to Sri Lanka or a Palk Strait which can take the largest Oil Taker.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Hutch's Dog, Vodafone's Pain
Once upon a time there was this cute little doggy who was a great pal of this cute little boy and they followed each other everywhere. They became famous as Hutch boys [I am assuming that the dog too was a "boy", I have not really watched the ad so closely to be able to arrive at a definite conclusion]. Together they made a great ad for Hutch "The networks follow whereever you go".... The Dog symbolising the network and the boy symbolising you, presumably.
They came a big red giant across the seas with a logo like one side of an qoute (') it had a nordic name although it was British, perhaps reminding the Brits of the vikings and their exploits in British soil. They bought the prince and his dog and wanted to change everything, tell everybody that they had arrived. But by then the little prince and the little dog were too firmly and warmly entrentched in the people's memory. So what did the red giant with half quote marks do?
It dropped the prince altogether and put the dog in the dog house and ran huge ads all over the country announcing its arrival in the land of milk and honey.
What do the citizens of the land of milk and honey understand from this?
Is it that their favourite prince is gone - sent to exile by a big red giant? And the the network no longer follows you anywhere since the dog is safely confined to the dog house? Or does it mean that the two red giants in the land of milk and honey are going to raise a toast to their success having and plan a great future together?
Who knows?
They came a big red giant across the seas with a logo like one side of an qoute (') it had a nordic name although it was British, perhaps reminding the Brits of the vikings and their exploits in British soil. They bought the prince and his dog and wanted to change everything, tell everybody that they had arrived. But by then the little prince and the little dog were too firmly and warmly entrentched in the people's memory. So what did the red giant with half quote marks do?
It dropped the prince altogether and put the dog in the dog house and ran huge ads all over the country announcing its arrival in the land of milk and honey.
What do the citizens of the land of milk and honey understand from this?
Is it that their favourite prince is gone - sent to exile by a big red giant? And the the network no longer follows you anywhere since the dog is safely confined to the dog house? Or does it mean that the two red giants in the land of milk and honey are going to raise a toast to their success having and plan a great future together?
Who knows?
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Stake Over-Done
Rare to well-done seem be the normal range of stake choices. But in the case of India, the stake now seem overdone.
As if it was not enough to flout $11 billion FDI last year, we dementedly voted to get Taj Mahal among the wonders of the world, a bunch of rookies won us the World Cup in a cricket format that is designed to make quick bucks for greedy cricketing associations than any thing else; it was not enough that increasingly faced with years of haranguing; women too have become cricket fans. Nor was it enough that India's sixty years of independence is being celebrated more in the US with motley of Resident Non-Indians and Non Resident Indias than in India itself or that we are made to believe by an otherwise educated Minister that the 123 Agreement will take care of our power needs. Nor was it enough to send millions of emails across thousands of networks listing the achievements of Indians from Aryabhatt to Sachin Tendulkar. It was not enought to talk about the lakhs of engineers and doctors, and nurses that our system spawns every year. Nor was it enough to say India is the most youthful nation in the world.
The constantly churning publicity machine has really gone overboard now and been taken over by non-Indians, strangely, people and groups who even a few years back did not know where India was on the world map are carrying out extensive surveys on Indians and coming up with ridiculous and quite supefluous conclusions:
One of these recent surveys mentions that India youths are the happiest in the whole world. All the major newspapers picked on this and give it such prominence as if it was the biggest truth. I wonder what kind of Indian youth they met for the survey?
The second survey was even more ridiculous, Indians known to be almost as prude as their former masters, now seem to be the most satisfied nation so far as sex is concerned. This bit of research too made headlines in all the major dailies. Each Indian man on an average has had 6 partners [I guess all female] and each Indian female on an average 2. I would certainly like to take some tips from these men:)
A word of advice, its time we rewrote the Kamasutra empahsizing that Kam in Hindi actually means an honest day's work not what your dirty mind thinks it to be.
As if it was not enough to flout $11 billion FDI last year, we dementedly voted to get Taj Mahal among the wonders of the world, a bunch of rookies won us the World Cup in a cricket format that is designed to make quick bucks for greedy cricketing associations than any thing else; it was not enough that increasingly faced with years of haranguing; women too have become cricket fans. Nor was it enough that India's sixty years of independence is being celebrated more in the US with motley of Resident Non-Indians and Non Resident Indias than in India itself or that we are made to believe by an otherwise educated Minister that the 123 Agreement will take care of our power needs. Nor was it enough to send millions of emails across thousands of networks listing the achievements of Indians from Aryabhatt to Sachin Tendulkar. It was not enought to talk about the lakhs of engineers and doctors, and nurses that our system spawns every year. Nor was it enough to say India is the most youthful nation in the world.
The constantly churning publicity machine has really gone overboard now and been taken over by non-Indians, strangely, people and groups who even a few years back did not know where India was on the world map are carrying out extensive surveys on Indians and coming up with ridiculous and quite supefluous conclusions:
One of these recent surveys mentions that India youths are the happiest in the whole world. All the major newspapers picked on this and give it such prominence as if it was the biggest truth. I wonder what kind of Indian youth they met for the survey?
The second survey was even more ridiculous, Indians known to be almost as prude as their former masters, now seem to be the most satisfied nation so far as sex is concerned. This bit of research too made headlines in all the major dailies. Each Indian man on an average has had 6 partners [I guess all female] and each Indian female on an average 2. I would certainly like to take some tips from these men:)
A word of advice, its time we rewrote the Kamasutra empahsizing that Kam in Hindi actually means an honest day's work not what your dirty mind thinks it to be.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Abacus: What's That?
Just read this morning in Hindustan Times that more and more Indians are getting drawn to Sanskrit plainly for the sake of learning and using that ancient and almost dead language. There is also a revival of interest in Ayurvedic medicines in India, Yoga has been reinvented and patented and is thriving in the galis of Kailash Colony in Delhi as much as in Hounsolow probably. Vedic Maths and Vedic Astrology are increasingly becoming popular and Management gurus of Indian origin are increasingly looking towards ancient Indian text to come up with new ideas on corporate strategy [Gita is very popular among these gents].
This phenomenon of "going back to the roots" is otherwise known as revivalism and is not always and not necessarily good for the society. Fascism was one revivalist movement in Europe on perceived roots and pasts and has since the 1930s emerged in many forms across the globe.
But the aim of this post is not to start a learned discussion on revivalism but to mention the revival of another "scientific" learning tool which is gaining grounds in India now. The most interesting thing about this learning tool is that it has its origin in ancient Greece and not ancient India.
The "thing" is the revival of abacus the crude but very effective calculator. Many of us would remember the ubiquitous slate boards from our childhood days.These were actually made of slate and not wood and had on the side rows of colourful beads strug together with thin wires embedded in the wooden frame of the slate. Although we were told that these were called abacuses, we really did not know what they were and what functions they served. I came to know much later in life that they were ancient calculators used by the Greeks.
However, recently, I got to know more about them through my daughter who attends a "abacus class" in Delhi and had recently won an interstate trophy in the under six age category. I liked my winning daughter but could not actually figure out how the bloody thing worked. What amazed me was that the thing actually worked and my daughter could do all her additions and substractions correctly using the bleeding and beady instrument [kids use a smaller, handier plastic version of it]. IN fact, she helpfully told me that since the last semester, she has discontinued the use of the actual instument and only uses it "mentally", i.e., in her mind. I have not yet learned the use of the instrument having sat with a few times. I guess I was taught maths by another school of thought, the finger line calculation school. But I must admit, Abacus works and the great art of using abacus is being taught in literally hundreds of learning centres in India. It does not matter if it is of Greek origin, it is helping us continue with our glorious tradition in mathematics. Aryabhatta would have been happy:)
This phenomenon of "going back to the roots" is otherwise known as revivalism and is not always and not necessarily good for the society. Fascism was one revivalist movement in Europe on perceived roots and pasts and has since the 1930s emerged in many forms across the globe.
But the aim of this post is not to start a learned discussion on revivalism but to mention the revival of another "scientific" learning tool which is gaining grounds in India now. The most interesting thing about this learning tool is that it has its origin in ancient Greece and not ancient India.
The "thing" is the revival of abacus the crude but very effective calculator. Many of us would remember the ubiquitous slate boards from our childhood days.These were actually made of slate and not wood and had on the side rows of colourful beads strug together with thin wires embedded in the wooden frame of the slate. Although we were told that these were called abacuses, we really did not know what they were and what functions they served. I came to know much later in life that they were ancient calculators used by the Greeks.
However, recently, I got to know more about them through my daughter who attends a "abacus class" in Delhi and had recently won an interstate trophy in the under six age category. I liked my winning daughter but could not actually figure out how the bloody thing worked. What amazed me was that the thing actually worked and my daughter could do all her additions and substractions correctly using the bleeding and beady instrument [kids use a smaller, handier plastic version of it]. IN fact, she helpfully told me that since the last semester, she has discontinued the use of the actual instument and only uses it "mentally", i.e., in her mind. I have not yet learned the use of the instrument having sat with a few times. I guess I was taught maths by another school of thought, the finger line calculation school. But I must admit, Abacus works and the great art of using abacus is being taught in literally hundreds of learning centres in India. It does not matter if it is of Greek origin, it is helping us continue with our glorious tradition in mathematics. Aryabhatta would have been happy:)
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