gift idea

I forget birthdays. It always happens that I remember the birthday either a week earlier or a week later. The other day was my colleague's birthday. He turned 26. Other co-workers reminded me and were discussing what kind of gift would be good for him. Ah! Finally, One birthday I can make a difference. One of them was making a joke, "He is the kind of guy, who would drink Phenoyl for free! You can just gift him anything".

Well, technically there is no such thing as Phenoyl. Its an Indian spelling of this strong and pungent liquid with phenolic odor, typically used as a sanitizer and deodorant for toilets, drains, grease traps, septic run-off areas, kennels, poultry and animal pens. Some websites spell it as phenyle, but I am not so sure. If you know what it is exactly, Please let me know. Whatever it is, it is not edible, and this link[pdf] says it is "Irritating. Ingestion may cause nausea and abdominal pains. Severely irritating to eyes."

I said, "Why don't we gift him that ? A bottle of phenyle ?". She said, "No!!! I was just joking. He always said he wanted a photo album. We can buy a good photo album." She might have told it as a joke, but I can't get rid of the idea of buying a bottle of pungent, irritating liquid as a birthday gift. So, I bought them both - a photo album and a a bottle of pheyle (Its really cheap! Only Rs. 10/bottle). I gift wrapped the bottle of phenyle with this note stuck on the bottle.

Talk is that you would drink a bottle of phenyle, when its free.
I would say,
    There's no better day to clean your toilet, than your birthday.
Happy Birthday.

At the party, the un-wrapping of the photo album was un-eventful. I told him I have a special gift, that he should open. I gave him the bottle, wrapped with a really nice, light brown gift wrapper. He felt it was a bottle, and asked if it was some kind of champagne or wine. I said, "Not exactly. But, you are on the right track. Its something you would drink!"

He was surprised, of course. I encouraged him to open and smell it, so he could be sure. And, what you know, he did smell. He said this gift would be most unforgettable one in his life. Yeah! Sure. I can't forget giving it either. Well, it takes just 13 rupees(bottle+gift wrap) to make one of those moments of life, that you can laugh about. Now he has a story, that he can tell his grand children, later in his life. So do I.

contemplating glory

I was reading the blog Happiness Project today. I was reading this long quotation from Victor Frankl's book - "Man's Search For Meaning.". The quote is a great read. This line at the end of the post was thought provoking. I had read that book long ago, but didn't contemplate this much about these lines, then.

For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory."

Perpetual Contemplation of an Infinite Glory - Moments of glory can be infinite in the dimension of space, but it can not be perpetual. They can't perpetuate, can't last forever. Only thing that is left then is the contemplation about such moments. I think, that just means that memories of the past and hope for the future makes us happier than the moments themselves.

Happiness is what happens between. Because when those moments happen, we know very little about how good or bad they really are.

the rajini experience

There is a festival in India, predominantly celebrated in the north, called Holi. Well, the idea of the festival is to spend a whole day throwing color powder and water on each other. I don't know what that sounds like to you, but personally, I think that festival is a conspiracy by the laundry owners association of India. I don't buy this holi-thing at all. Making my clothes colorfully dirty isn't something I would be really happy about. They may be colorful, but Come on! It's still dirt. I think it has no logic to it. It seems bizarre that people fall for such a trick by those laundry owners. But people celebrate it anyway - and celebrate it in loud, muddy, mucky, and may be even in unhygienic ways. Funny how, they seem to be genuinely happy about it. So are hundreds of festivals around the world, that have absolutely no logic.

That is the only way to approach Rajinikanth's movie release. It is a film festival. No, not those film festivals, where these big shots of movie business get together and watch painfully sad movies, that are purported to be the exemplars of modern cinema. This is a celebration about an addition of this unclassified genre of colorful, stylish and enjoyable movies, and only way to call them, ah well,is Rajini's movies. (This is a post, that assumes a little knowledge about Tamil movies, especially Rajinikanth. Some information available here, here, and here. You can skip this post anytime, you don't like.)

So, a new Rajini's movie - Sivaji - was released on Friday. Anyone who hasn't been brushed by the Rajini's phenomena before, would ask, "I don't understand this kind of fan frenzy. Whats so great about this guy or this movie ?". You don't understand a Rajini's movie, you celebrate it. You are just happy that there is another Rajini's movie released today, you can go watch, and live the Rajini experience. If you still say,"I don't get it". Yeah, I don't get that holi-thing either. But, hey, it is a part of the culture, anyway.

I am in Hyderabad now, and so I would have to settle with a telugu-dubbed version of Sivaji. This makes it very difficult to imagine the equivalent dialogues in Tamil.(I am native of Tamil Nadu) But, Rajini could have spoken Japanese on screen, and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Its impossible for the language to get in the way of Rajini's ultimate screen presence. The first scene in the flashback, where Rajini returns from USA, is just AWSUM. I remember, how I felt after a 17 hour flight back from the US. I could describe myself feeling like human feces, and probably smelling like that too.(Can I use the word SH*T?) But when Rajini arrives on flight from US, on screen with a white suit and an orange tie, I couldn't help looking him at awe. What shall I say ? I am a fan and was exited like a little girl with her pink new shoes.

Story line is a successful merge of the stereotypical Rajni's movie with stereotypical Shankar's plot. Rajini returns from the US, very rich, builds a university in India (and get a girl in the mean time), but loses everything building the university, thanks to a corrupt system. The rest of story is all about how he gets back at the system, by recruiting local rowdies(for his own law-enforcement) and then by money laundering. And thus, Rajini gets his revenge-of-a-wronged-man story line, inter wined with Shankar's usual screw-corrupt-system-literally plot.

Well, the story may be typical and dubious, but Rajini is no stereotype. It is impossible to look anyone but Rajini, when he is on the screen. Every frame, when Rajini is on, has been enhanced and worked upon meticulously with such a finesse, that, it is just magical. Ground breaking work on stunts, camera, special effects, art and direction. Flipping coins, swinging the coin back and forth with sleight of hands, catching the gum on the rebound - Rajni is so conscious on what he does on screen, he sure is super star. Man, I want to see the movie again (again, language doesn't matter!). And after a long time, I watched a movie with pieces of paper flying all over in every song! (It is customary to throw bits and pieces of paper overhead especially for movies with super stars, such that it glitters on the light from the projector and gives an illusion that Rajini is dancing in paper rain. It might actually annoy you, if you aren't used to it. But, its a lot of fun, if you are part of it!!!)

I don't think any actor is as frame-aware and fan-aware as Rajini. Kamalhassan is sure a better actor than Rajinikanth, but there is a difference. Kamal not only acts, but becomes the character, and doesn't give a damn about who is going to watch his movie. Rajini, on the other hand, talks to the camera and the fan, as the character/as himself, in way that doesn't insult the intelligence of the fan. (Many who try to emulate Rajini - Simbu, Danush etc. - end up offending the viewers, making them feeling stupid for paying for the ticket.)

Overall, Sivaji yet another Rajini experience. But if you aren't a fan of Rajini and still wonder how seemingly smart people would fall for cheap tricks for a man who, according to you, is just over-hyped crap, I would just say this - with a wink -

Coool!!! (You have to watch the movie to get this ;))

bengaluru

Last weekend, I was at Bangalore - my first trip. A few thoughts on the way back.

• I was very afraid to ask directions in Tamil, even by accident. Nothing happened really. But, very afraid - yes!


• Every person not earning their livelihood by IT thinks, that, the reason Bangalore "has gone bad" is the IT industry.(Unless, you are talking to a non-IT person with a sound investment in Real Estate). Every IT person either thinks that Bangalore has become better because of IT -or- blames the politicians for lack of better infrastructure. Every politician, by virtue of not being an IT person, blames of-course, the IT industry. So, there it goes - a full circle.


• I found the houses relatively smaller. Probably, because I live in a relatively bigger house in Hyderabad. Are the houses smaller in Bangalore, relatively ? -or- Are the houses relatively bigger in Hyderabad ? My friend thinks they live in smaller houses in Bangalore. Probably, they are inspired by the Japanese. Or They just have the problems of Japan - Too little space with Too much development.


• There is a stark contrast between the citizen classes in the City. For example, the Shopping crowd at MG Road/Brigade Road, consists of the affluent and the pretend-to-be-affluent crowd, where as, shopping crowd around the Majestic Bus station is made of the penny-wise, pound-wiser gang. The contrast jumps on your eyes like power-point slides - so quick and ugly. The difference is right at your face(at least my face), and it questioned my urban livelihood and existence.... again!.

My friend asked, if I would be interested to move to Bangalore. Well, I really don't have any reasons to move there. Also beyond any logical reasons, I neither do have the desire to do any living there. So, it goes.

quotes from elsewhere

A quote a came across while reading the article An American in Chennai over at Rediff - a story about an American, who came to Chennai.

The appalling poverty rattles Paul. The sight of people living, eating and defecating on the streets they call home was gut-wrenching. "I saw a mom, dad and 2 kids sleeping on the street. No one should have to live this way," he muttered sadly.
...
Paul drifts back to thoughts of the streets of Chennai and shakes his head. "How is it that such smart people can allow this to happen?"

I have thought about this question. I think it is easier for smarter people to be indifferent. Smart people just devise a philosophy on convoluted logic and believe thats how things work. On the other hand, not so smart people stop thinking and do something about it.
Another quote from BBC on an article about India and globalization.

...ask 25-year-old Devika, who works at a call centre in Mumbai, whether her life has been changed for the better because of the free market and she will give you a resounding yes.
...
"I don't need to depend on my parents for money, I don't need to depend on a husband for money. I can choose to get married later if I want to. I may not even need to get married. The opportunities that have opened up for me are mind-boggling."

I wonder if India could become like Japan, where the population is shrinking (or Europe, for that matter). I guess, we will soon have the problems of a developed country.

two percent

I don’t know how far I would get with this line of thought. I have just started writing this without any idea of how is it going to go. It started with a light bulb. I had to replace the light bulb, the one thats right in front of my house. Well, it was the kid who had been the guest for or neighbors. The switch was right by our door, and He was just playing with it - switching on and off, again and again, and When he switched the bulb on for the 378th time, it blew the filament off. The last time I had to buy a bulb, as I could remember, the price was the same as that of petrol (gasoline). No, not at today’s price tag of 49 rupees/liter. I don’t remember the date or year, but the price of both the bulb and a liter of petrol costing somewhere around 15 rupees. I also guess, at that time the exchange rate for a dollar was just around 18 rupees. I may be wrong about exchange rate, but I am sure about the price of bulb and a liter of petrol.

Today a bulb a the ‘Lakshmi hardware store’, here on the Madhapur main road, just costs just 10 rupees. What ever the inflation is doing to everything else, it ain’t doing nothing to the bulb. I had a conversation with my room mate. Both of us work for IT companies. Here I go…

“Do you know, the bulb costs only 10 rupees ? Now a days, you don’t even get a kilo of rice for that price” (Unless, of course, there is a government’s subsidy. You can get a kilo of rice for two rupees. Or thats just part of our politicians rhetoric. My point is - You don’t get that price in a “free” market)

“You sound quite positive about the trend. But I don’t think its really positive”

“Uh, Ohh. A lot of times, my modulation deceives my intention. No. No, its not your ears. I am just bad ‘punching’ my dialogues at the proper moment. I was, in fact, trying to sound negative. I mean, look at this irony. Our GDP has grown to 9%, primarily because of growth in Industry and Services. But our agricultural growth in just around 2%, driving prices of agricultural commodities. Both, you and me work in services industries actually driving growth in services, which is already growing at 11%. Hence, If you really want to contribute to our economy, I advice you this - Get some land and start farming.” (OK. The actual number is 2.7%)

My intention was to sound sarcastic about the role of our jobs in our economy, and probably sound it as a pun. But my room mate, whose father is a farmer, took my words seriously, and replied “You are right”. I wasn’t surprised. He often wonders about the future of their farm and their farming, after his father is done with it. He belongs to that generation in his family, that departed from farming, and chose an option for the only reason that is economically sexier to be some executive in an IT company, than be one of the few farmers in his village. He reflects about it a lot. Accidentally, I had found the serious audience for my satire.

But I wonder, what is that I can really do, other than just paying taxes, to improve that 2.7%. In a sense, it is true that just by working in a services industry, and learning, discussing about the 2.7%, I am indirectly contributing for the paltry growth of agriculture. Looking beyond this observer-observed philosophical dilemma, What can I really do ? I thought I would get some ideas if I look further in this year’s Economic Survey of India. Hey, look at that !! Services account to 55% of our GDP! When we were studying at school, we were told that India is an agriculture based economy. If some one is still telling you that, they are lying. We have already become a services based economy. I wonder, what they are teaching in Schools, now a days. Probably that a student should learn Java/C++ and make himself/herself “employable” by Infosys/TCS/Wipro ? (Yeah, I learnt the same thing at college.)

Probably a little bit of history would make me wise! If I knew the growth rates of agriculture, and overall GDP, probably I could know where we went wrong. Well, there are too many resources on the internet to analyze Virendar Sehwag’s past batting averages and make suggestions, but are very little resources when it comes to analyze our country’s economic indicators. Irony is that - I think I can make a real and direct contribution to the Indian Economy, than to Virendar Sehwag. So lets go for the official web site of Indian Economic Survey to learn some numbers.

Year	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
Growth in GDP %	8.5	7.5	9.0
Growth in Agri %	9.3	0.6	5.8

I got that numbers from Table 16,but I am not sure if it is right table. But one thing is sure that compare to our agricultural growth, Sehwag’s batting average seems consistent. I would love to dig deeper to really understand this numbers, but I am short of time.

And so, I went looking for ideas in our national budget. All over the forums, there has been insane amount of whining about 3% educational cess. Actually, that explains nothing but the demographic of bloggers and internet users in India. I just searched for the words “agri” in the highlights.

• Rs 100 crore for recognising excellence in the field of agricultural research.
• Manufacturing sector grows at 10.7 per cent, agriculture at 1.5 per cent during October-December 2006-07.
• A number of proposals to perk up agriculture to be announced.

100 crores seems to be real good money, some money the Ocean’s Thirteen would love to have their hands on. Of course, I do not have any credentials to receive even a rupee of that research fund. But neither does our country’s babu-dom has any credibility to deliver it where its due. Well, to know about other proposals, I would have to read the whole Budget, for which, I am short of time.

The only idea that really makes sense for now, even though it was intended as a joke, is to get some land and do agriculture. But my education is of no use to do that now, anything useful . But, a really big but here… BUT, hey, what if some one decides to build a car factory, to satisfy the nonexistent need for a car costing Rs. 100,000 ? They, then, probably would grab my land. Uh,Oh! That isn’t so encouraging. If not me, what about others, especially children, who might still be able to choose their profession. What should I answer if those people ask me ‘What would it take it do agriculture in India ?’ ? I guess I should answer them that they should be ready to give their life to protect their land, and their profession.

commerce, liberty and education

A few weeks ago there was an article in Outlook by P.M Bhargava titled Harvard @ Dhenkanal about foreign educational institutions setting up centers in India. Bhargava has made wonderful arguments against the move and is of opinion that they would harm the Indian Educational System. I was almost convinced that Harvard is the new “East India Company”, so much so that I would probably stop traffic for a “Dharna” against them all. But, two points of Bhargava’s argument made me wonder about some of the deeper problems of our educational system. One of them is commercialization. In his own words,

Their presence here could lead to a collapse of the entire educational system in the public sector, as happened with our excellent governmental school system when school education was commercialized.

And the second one is about “indoctrination of our young”.

..they get to ‘convert’ us to their country’s way of life and thinking—make us believe, for example, that US intervention in Iraq was absolutely right. We would, of course, have a regulatory system. But the endemic corruption means the FEPS will work around it.[…] […]no amount of regulation would prevent subtle indoctrination of our young.

Another article in NY Times about the state of education in India titled A College Education Without Job Prospects. Though I found this article too bent about the lack of talent development, rather than about problems of the system, some arguments were interesting.

India is that rare country where it seems to get harder to find a job the more educated you are.[…]
A deeper problem, specialists say, is a classroom environment that treats students like children even if they are in their mid-20’s. Teaching emphasizes silent note-taking and discipline at the expense of analysis and debate.

I think, there is a relation between the problem “classroom environment that treats students like children” observed by NY Times article and, Bhargava’s prediction of FEPS’s “subtle indoctrination of our young”. I think, the basic premise of Bhargava’s prognosis is the prevailing classroom environment that emphasis discipline and compliance, rather than, analysis and debate. Bhargava assumes that the role of educational systems is to indoctrinate and inculcate, rather than, counsel and guide. Education in India assumes the role of being a third parent. Of course, this thought stems from the Indian view that duty of our education systems to be another parent as in the maxim - “Matha, Pitha, Guru, Dev”.

I think, Bhargava’s other question about the collapse of education due to commercialization is just a cultural apprehension of commercialization. This fear is not just for education, but for anything that is realized as a service under our cultural context. Given a choice between private establishment and public establishment, we would, no doubt, choose the civil institution. The reason is that we automatically associate evil with anything associated with commerce. For us, Profit could mean just one thing - corruption.

I think both of these problems - patronizing classroom environment, and apprehension of commercialization - spring from the same source: They are the few of many elements that our culture necessitates to sustain its identity. I think, such elements are irrelevant in the goal and purpose of educational systems. Our educational systems should be farms of free thinking, devoid of a culture’s survival rules. Our educational systems should get rid of the patronizing role: stop teaching, in the literal sense.

I would actually suggest the kind of commercialization of our schools that they schools work with an entrepreneurial spirit. Schools still should, of course, be non-profit organizations, but they should financially accountable against their societal obligations. I don’t mean that all schools should charge a heavy fee to sustain itself. I think a school try to raise its own funds, if not all, at least a part of the funds.

Schools should be held accountable for their products, and their stake holders - their students. Every process: the recruitment, the development and their results, should be transparent and be audited. Their records should be available to public scrutiny (with some sort of Ombudsman). Such a liberal and free system of commercialization could actually develop talent better than placing our schools in a vacuum of financial responsibility. We need that kind of commercialization, that would get rid of the patronizing roles of our schools.

While Bhargava calls for democratizing and secularizing education to reach the massees, but what we really need is to liberate Indian education from its percived cultural roles by running them as entrepreunrial ventrures.

spin

Last week when I was preparing my resume, I was carefully selecting only the projects, that would, er... well, look good on a resume. I wasn’t actually lying. I just was preparing a refined version of truth about my professional career to fulfill specific goals. But I didn’t have a word for this selective thing, I was doing. While I was searching the word and had almost given up after a while, Rands in Repose came to my rescue. Rands in repose is a blog on software engineering written by Rands, who - in his own words - is “an engineering manager of teams that designs stunning software”. The word I was looking for is Spin; And I found this, when I read his recent post - Truth vs. Spin. As Rands defines it,

Traditionally, the opposite of Truth is Spin. Spin is a pejorative term that comes out of Public Relations land. Spin is the deliberate selection of facts constructed to prove a specific point.

Rands gives an example for Spin - the weekly status report, the piece of literature from the cubicle-dom prepared with absolute indifference.

Go fire up your mail program and find your last status report… Does it represent everything you did in the last week? I’m not suggesting that you didn’t work, but is that all you did? Probably not, so what did you document in your status report? You document the stuff you were asked to document and you document stuff you just want to tell people about. A status report is your Spin on the last week. It demonstrates how you carefully select facts from the week to portray a specific version of the truth.

Of course, I was spinning on my resume. After reading Rands, I started to think of more examples of Spin. I thought I would just write these example all along. But, I am bitten by the Powerpoint bug… And so, Here are the bullets!

• commercials - the root of all spin. If there were ten commandments on Spin, the first one should be “Thou shall never forget the spin quotient of an advertisement” .
• profiles on social networking sites such as myspace, orkut etc. - The second layer in the hierarchy of spin is based on the simple question - “Tell us about yourself”.
• every thing else - media broadcasts, dates, interviews, mobile phones (the official device of spin), mobile phone conversations, sms, instant messaging, e-mail , snail mail, avian mails(pigeons), and telegrams
• and mysteriously in this is list is, that dinner you had with your girlfriend’s parents a few months ago. (Why did you smile so much ?)

According to a recent research conducted by Spinesian University of Spinville, the whole fabric and foundation of human communication is Spin. You just have to look around for spin, and understand the direction, that you are being spun. Understanding Spin is the only way to reach out to your soul and the glorious path to enlightenment - it is the Zen of all human interactions. After all, this blog post, you are reading right now is my flimsy spinning effort on Spin!(You saw this comming, right ? Come on, I mentioned the ultimate spin software - “the mighty Powerpoint”)

irony

Nov 7 2006 - The day did not start like any other day, but it didn’t seem any wired either. It is not every other day I wake up in a Kodambakam(Chennai) hotel room at 5:00 am in a rainy morning. It is not every other day that I catch a flight from Chennai to Hyderabad at 9:00 am. But again, it was not something unusual, or a sign of all the things to come. I had been to Chennai this weekend to attend a Marriage reception ceremony of my friend. I was returning back to Hyderabad that morning, as I do have to get to work.

The flight reached safe, and I got to home in Hyderabad at around 11:00 am. It was already late, and I really do have to get to work now. I thought of changing from my t-shirt & jeans to a formal wear, but since it was already late and the security strap tied to my baggage wasn’t coming off my, I decided to go casual for the day. When I reached work, I didn’t know that the Dress Code Police was at work. I didn’t even know that there was a Dress Code Police at my workplace. Well, anyways, some guy stopped me at the gate, and extended his hand towards me saying “Hello”, with a condescending look and assumed air of authority. I know he works here too, because he was wearing the badge. But, I don’t know who he was. I didn’t ask “Who are you ?”, but I hesitated to answer him.

Taken aback that I wasn’t responding and his hand hung in air pointing no where, he asked, “So, you hesitate to shake hands with another colleague ?”. I responded, ” Well! You talk to me as if we are familiar. But, I don’t know you.” Then, he introduced himself. Yes, that sounds better. I told my name. Then he told, that my clothes were not appropriate and asked the reason. I told that I have been flying in from Chennai, and I was late and so on and on. He made a joke and laughed, which didn’t understand at all. Finally, I was told that I have to go back home and change or I wouldn’t be allowed inside. He also told that my bosses will be informed of the delay that I caused myself as a result of the “attire issue”.

First, I didn’t know how to react. I am tad conservative on the matters of professional attire. Yes, I do think that the wear to my kinda work should be formal, at least for 4 days of the work week. But the way I was told made me feel like a school kid. If my boss has told to me -or- if any HR personnel had told to me in person about my “attire issue”, it would have be more dignified. But, this dress-or-go-back-home method sounded so middle-school-ish. I remember an event in middle school, where I was asked to go back home, because I didn’t finish my home work. Probably the next time I was caught by the Dress Code Police, I would be asked to write the statement “I will wear formal wear on the first 4 days of work week”, 50 times in the black board. Or Stand up on my chair while I am working. Or probably, some form of corporal punishment of the medieval times.

For my commute, I use an arrangement, quite prevalent in Hyderabad, called the “shared auto”. Auto-Rickshaw or Auto is a three wheeled vehicle, supposed to carry only three passengers, and supposed to be metered like a taxi. But, under the “shared” arrangement, this vehicle is made to carry five passengers and every passenger pays the fixed amount arbitrarily decided by the vehicle driver at the end of his commute - supposedly based on the distance the passenger travels. The cost is not as much as the metered one, because the driver picks up his revenues on volume, rather than per-unit. I went back home, changed my clothes and returned work on a “shared auto”.

At the end of my commute, I was supposed to give the driver my fare - 4 rupees. Within a moment, I had a disturbing discovery - I forgot to bring my wallet (purse)!!! I changed from Jeans to a formal trousers, but forgot to take the wallet!!! I told the driver that I had forgot the wallet. Looking down upon me, the driver asked me in a menacing tone, “What do you want me to do, now ?… Tell me, Sir. What should I do now ?”. I looked helplessly. Fortunately, another passenger came to my rescue. He told the driver that he would pay my fare too. I thanked him… twice or may be more. I had nothing but words at that moment. Even, that came with a whimper.

But, there is still some more… Sometimes, When extremely accidental events happen, you wonder, if they were a perfectly scripted play. When the “shared auto” was about to leave, a small girl wearing a plain dark green dress came to me and begged for some money. I thought for a moment. Of course, what I was experiencing at the moment was heavy-duty guaranteed-for-life embarrassment, but there was something more than just embarrassment. I really wanted to hold her hands and thank the little girl, but, I laughed and told her, “I didn’t even money to pay to this guy… You are asking me the money ?”. Every one including the driver in the vehicle laughed, as it passed me slowly.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of the moment. Just two days ago, I was told that I would get 250K rupees of credit limit for my credit card application, if I just show my pay slip and my organization bage. But, this moment neither my pay slip nor my ID could secure a credit of 4 rupees with the auto driver! And the girl, who begs me, thinks that my “formal wear” should mean that I could solve her poverty! I was laughing quietly at myself, just happy to be - there and then.

மழை, சென்னை மற்றும் சில சிந்தனைகள்

கடந்த வாரம் முழுவதும் மழை - அழகிய பருவக்காற்று மழை. பருவக்கற்று மழை என்றதும் எனக்கு தாகூரின் வாரத்தைக்கள் தான் ஞாபகத்திற்க்கு வருகின்றன. மழையை எழுவத்தில் வடிப்பதில் தாகூருக்கு இனை எவரும் இல்லை என நினைக்கிறேன். அவருடைய வார்ததைகளை மொழிமாற்றத்தின் மாசில்லாமல் வாசிப்பதிற்காக, வங்காள மொழியை கற்க வேண்டுமென அவ்வப்போது நினைப்பதும் உண்டு. இதோ, எனது துரு பிடித்த தமிழாக்கதில் தாகூரின் சில வார்த்தைகள்

மேகங்கள் வானத்தில் தடபுடல் சத்தம் செய்யதவாறு,
ஜூன் மாத மழை பொழியும் போது,
கீழக்கிலிருந்து வரும் உலர் காற்று விளையாத நிலங்களின் மீது படையெடுத்து,
மூங்கீல்களின் நடுவே நின்று வாத்தியங்களை முழங்குகின்றன.
எங்கிருந்தென்று எவருக்கும் தெரியாமல்,
தீடீறென வெளியே வரும் பூக்களின் கூட்டம்,
புற்களின் மீது நடனம் ஆடத் துவங்குகின்றன.
தாயே, பூக்கள் பூமிக்கடியில் பள்ளிக்கு செல்கிறதென நினைக்கிறேன்.
கதவை மூடிக் கொண்டு அவை பாடம் படிக்கின்றன;
பாடத்திற்க்கு முன் (பூமியை விட்டு) வெளியே செல்ல முயற்ச்தித்தால்,
வாத்தியார் (வகுப்பின்) ஓரத்தில் நிற்க வைத்து விடுகிறார்.
மழை வந்தால், பூக்களுக்கு விடுமுறை…

நல்ல வேளை, தாகூர் இன்றய பருவக்காற்று மழையை பார்க்கவில்லை. அதுவும் மழை பெயிது முடிந்தவுடன் சென்னை தி. நகர் ரங்கனதன் தெருவில் நடக்கும் சுழ்நிலை அவருக்கு எற்பட வில்லை. அங்கு அவருக்கு, சரவன செல்வரத்தினம் நகைக் கடையில் 916 தங்கத்திற்க்கு, கிராம் ஒன்றுக்கு 804 ரூபாய் விலையுடன் 5% extra கிடைத்திருந்தாலும், இந்த வார்த்தைகளை எழுதுவதற்க்கான ஊந்துதல் கிடைத்திருக்குமா என்பது சந்தேகம் தான். பிளாஸ்டிக் பூக்களை பற்றித் தான் எழுதியிருப்பார் தாகூர். ஆம், கடந்த சனி/ஞாயிறு வார இடவேளையில், சென்னையில் தி. நகர் ரங்கநாதன் தெருவிற்க்கு சென்றிருந்தேன். இந்த ஆண்டின் இலக்கியத்திற்க்காண நோபல் பரிசு வென்ற ஓர்ஹான் பாமுக் இந்தியா வந்த பொழுது, தான் மதுரையில் உணர்ந்தாக சொன்ன “glorious abundance of humanity” இந்த தெருவில் தினந்தோரும் பார்க்கலாம். சொல்லப் போனால், இந்தயாவில் எந்த பெரிய நகரத்தை கடந்தாலும், ஒரு முறையாவது இந்த உணர்வு ஏற்ப்படும்.

Dil Chahta Hai திரைப்படத்தில் Thanhayi என்ற பாடலில் நடிகர் ஆமிர்கான் நிற்க, அவரை சுற்றியுள்ள உலகம் - மனிதர்கள், வாகனங்கள் - வேகமாகச் செல்லும். ஆமிர் சிலை போல உரைந்திருக்க, மற்றவை VCR-இல் fast forward செய்தது போல அறக்க பறக்கச் செல்லும். தனிமையில், அழ்ந்த சிந்தனையில் ஆமிர் இருப்பதை அழகாக இயக்குனர் ஃபர்ஹான் அக்தர் கான்பித்திருப்பார். அதே சூழ்நிலை இயற்க்கையாகவே ஃபர்ஹானின் இயக்கமில்லாமல், ஷங்கர்-இஷான்-லாயின் இசை இல்லாமல், ஸ்ரீகர் பிரசாதின் editing இல்லாமல், இரவி கே. சந்திரனின் ஒளிப்பதிவும் இல்லாமல் தி. நகர் ரங்கனதன் தெருவில் அமைந்துள்ளது. அந்த தெருவில் ஒரு நிமிடம் நின்றிந்தால், நம்மை வேகமாக உரசிச் செல்லும் கூட்டம், நம்மை ஒரு ஆழ் சிந்தனை கடலில் மூழ்கடித்துச் செல்லும். இவ்வாறான இடங்களை, ஆழ்சிந்தனை சந்திப்புகளென நான் பேரிட்டுக்கொள்வேன். சென்னையில் இது போன்று பல இடங்கள் உள்ளன. சென்னை சென்ட்ரல் அது போல இன்னோரு இடம்.

சென்னைக்கும் எனக்கும் இன்னொறு உறவும் உண்டு : ஒவ்வொரு முறை சென்னை செல்லும் பொழுது, மனதில் ஆழமான சிந்தனையை ஏற்படுத்தும் எதாவதொரு நிகழ்ச்சி நடக்கும். அந்த நிகழ்வு, அந்த பயணத்தை மறக்கமுடியாமல் செய்யும். இந்த முறை, இரயில் பயணத்தின் போது, பக்கத்து சீட்டுக்காரர் என் வேலை மற்றும் படிப்பை பற்றி விசாரித்தார். நானும் சும்மா பேச்சு கொடுத்தேன். விவரங்களைச் சொன்னேன். பேச்சு கொஞ்சம் வளர, தீடீரென்று, “நீங்க ஐயரா (Iyer) ?” என்று கேட்டார். 500 பக்கங்கள் தடிமனான ஆங்கில புத்தகத்தையை, நான் மிக மும்மூரமாகப் படித்துக் கொண்டிருந்ததை பார்த்து அவர் அவ்வாறு முடிவு செய்திருக்கலாம். இல்ல ஒரு வேளை, நான் நல்ல கல்லுரியில் படித்து,கொஞ்சம் பேர் பெற்ற நிறுவனத்தில் வேலை பார்த்துக் கொண்டிருப்பதைக் கேட்டு அவர் அவ்வாறு முடிவு செய்திருக்கலாம். எந்த காரணமாக இருந்தாலும், இந்த கேள்வி ஒரு சக பயணியிடமிருந்து வருவது என்க்குப் புதிதல்ல. இதற்க்கு முன் என் பயணங்களில் பல முறை இந்த கேள்விக்கு கொஞ்சம் யோசித்து, இழுப்பறி செய்து, வேறு வழியில்லாமல் பதில் சொல்லியிருக்கிறேன். ஆனால், முதல் முறையாக, சிரித்துக் கொண்டே “இல்லை”-திசையில் தலையாட்டினேன். மேலும் அவர், “ஐயர் இல்லன… நீங்க யாரு ?” ம்ம்ஹும்ம். நான் பல்லைக் காட்டிக் கொண்டு தலையாட்டுவதை நிறுத்தவில்லை. புரிந்து கொண்ட அவர், பேச்சை சிறிது நேரம் நிறுத்தி விட்டார். சாதி, குலம் போன்ற நம்முடைய சில கலாச்சார அடையாளங்களுக்கு இன்னும் உபயோகம் இருப்பதாக எனக்குத் தோன்றவில்லை. இந்த சம்பவம் அவைகளை நான் துறந்து விடுவதில் ஒரு சின்ன வெற்றி போல எனக்குத் தோன்றியது. அதற்க்கு மேலாக, இந்த “caste stereotyping”-கிற்க்கு எதிர்ப்பு தெரிவித்த ஒரு உணர்வு.சிறு சந்தோஷம்.

ஆனால், சென்னையில் என்னால் மறக்க முடியாத சம்பவம் 2003-இல் நடந்தது : சுதந்திர தினதின் போது, “தாம்பரம் - கடற்க்கரை” இரயிலில் வந்து கொண்டிருந்தேன். ஒரு தீ விபத்தில் தன் கணவனை பறி கொடுத்தாக, ஒரு பெண்மனி பிச்சை எடுத்துக் கொண்டிருந்தார். அந்த பெண்மனிக்கு, பிளாஸ்டிக் தேசிய கோடிகளை விற்றுக்கொண்டிருந்த ஒரு சிறுவன், தன் கோடிகளைக் கொடுத்து, ” பிச்சை எடுக்காம, எதாவது தொழில் பன்னலாம்ல… இந்த கொடிய வித்து, காசு செத்துக்கோ” என்று சொன்னான். “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime” என்ற ஆங்கில வாசகத்திற்க்கு இயக்குனர் பாக்கியராஜ் திரைக்கதை எழுதிய ஒரு காட்சியை பார்த்தது போல நான் உணர்ந்தேன் (ஆமாங்க, ஸீரியஸா தான்ங்க). இதல்லாம் சென்னையில தான் பார்க்க முடியும்.

அப்போ நீங்க கேக்கலாம் - “அப்படி சென்னை மீது அவ்வளவு லவ்வு இருந்தா, அங்க குடி போக வேண்டியது தானே!!!” இடம் பெயர்ந்தால், இவ்வாறு ஒவ்வொரு சம்பவத்தையும் நின்று சிந்தனை செய்ய முடியாது. தினமும் பார்த்து பார்த்து, அந்த நகரம் பழக்கமாகிவிடும். சென்னையுடனான என் உறவு முற்றிப் போகும். இந்தக் காதல் கல்யாணாமகி விடுட்டால், 90 நாட்களில் (ஆசைக்கு 60 மற்றும் மோகத்திற்க்கு 30) உறவு கசந்து விடும். அதனால் தான், சென்னக்கு நான் ஒரு வெளியுர்க்கார்னாக இருக்கிறேன். செல்லும் பொழுதெல்லாம் ஆட்டோவிற்க்கு 100-200 என்று அழுதாலும், அவ்வப்பொது இடம் தெரியாமல் தொலந்து போனாலும்(சென்னையில் அது கூட ஒரு சுகம் தான்!), இந்த சிந்தனை சந்திப்புகளின் விளைவுகளினால் எற்படும் சுகத்திற்க்காக முடிந்தவரை சென்னைக்கு வெளியுர்காரனாகவே இருந்து விட்டு போகிறேன்.

five random thoughts

I decided to walk from work to home the other day. It just takes twenty minutes, but walking on the Madhapur Road produces a lot of potentially harmful, but fortunately bio-degradable thoughts. Here are five of those still alive.

• I can not stop wondering, Why private hospitals, now a days, have blinking neon signs on top of their buildings ? For some reason, these signs reminds me of "Kahoots" sign(a strip club in East Hartford,CT) or some of those "Hotel Marriott" signs. Even Marriott doesn't have its sign blinking!!! I can learn to accept Neon signs. But, Why make it blink ? Shouldn't the advertisement be more professional ? Or Is it just me who thinks such frivolous entertainment elements should not be a sign of a hospital ? Anyways, this is another reason, Why I think the next big thing is neither the hospitality industry, and nor the aviation industry, but the health care industry!!! I know what I am going to do, if a well-known hospital in big city goes public with an idea of building a chain of hospitals all over the country. By the way, I think a better way to indicate the location of an hospital is put signs on the roads indicating its way, rather than put up blinking red/blue lights like a Wireless tower.
  
  
• The logo of Airtel is another proof for the theory on branding, I have been thinking about : To be a successful brand in a common market place, the brand logo should be so simple that you can draw it with your own hand. Or using Microsoft Paint - No, not Photoshop, but just the default Paint software that comes with Windows. No obscure fonts. No transparency. No reflection thingy. No shadows. No layers. No millions of colors. Just the basic 32 colors, fundamental shapes and a few basic fonts. Of course, this works only for common marketplace brands, not specialized brands developed for specific markets like - developing roller skates for the hobbits in the Middle Earth. Another example for the theory is Google - OK, you can forget that thing I told you about shadows. By the way, if you, like me, are wondering what exactly the font of _Airtel_© is, it resembles more like Centry Gothic, and not Arial. Yes, I too thought it was Arial.
  
  
• While the passenger cars in India have been forced to adopt Bharat III auto emission norms, I don't know what emission norms do Auto rickshaws conform to. I don't think anybody would dare to develop a standard for these three wheelers. Only thing anybody could do is give a name to the level of emissions, that they already produce, and issue that as a "standard". If you ask me, such a standard would be the minimum emission standard for a tear gas, and would be called as Bharat Smoke Screen 1.0. But, you didn't ask me though.
  
• Have you ever noticed that it is very easier to cross a road with crazy traffic(a fast flowing traffic with high frequency of vehicles), when you cross it with a group of people, and majority of the group are colorfully dressed women ? It might sound obvious to you that it is easier to cross the road if you start from NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) rather than from Govt. Boys Higher Secondary School. But my point is - I didn't say good looking woman, I said colorfully dressed women. Because those who drive in crazy traffic don't really have time to see the details. When they see a sea of colors, they go 100 to 0 in less than a second!!! My grand father once said, the actual brake inspector of a vehicle is not sit at the motor vehicle dept. office, but it is the buffalo that comes to the middle of the road out of no where. Yesterday while I was crossing the road, the brake inspector for that moment was a wall of women wearing pink, magenta, green, yellow, red and their million respective shades. (My eyes work only with some 7-8 colors)
  
  
• Speaking of women and dresses, Have you ever noticed that most of the women, we think look good on the street, are actually only well dressed ? It seems to me that, looks really doesn't matter. In the sense of capturing your momentary attention, what matters is the appearance of looking good.(If you think this is a shallow and superficial line of thought, I am with you. You can skip this point, and write your angry comments to me.) From a blog written by a gal, I remember that, the most important thing in a movie, with a theme of a girl going from not-so-good-looking to absolutely-n-stunningly-amazing, is just the dress upgrade! She also wrote that the English movie "Pretty Woman" is a good example. Apart from being the touchy love story it is, the most important thing in "Pretty Woman" is Fashion 2.0 of a hooker.
  
  

For no reason at all, I would augment the last two points with this news story: Fertile women dress to impress, U.S. study finds. I did think of combining this news story with last two points into a different blog post, but it probably would destroy me. Yeah, the battle of sexes that nobody wins.

gandhi-giri and new york subway cars

I saw a Hindi movie on Friday called “Lage Raho Munna Bhai”, directed by Rajkumar Hirani. It was smart, hilarious and very intersting. In the movie, the protagonist Munna Bhai uses Gandhigiri, Gandhism equivalent of Dadagiri, to solve his problem. Even though the movie is about social transformation, it doesn’t get as preachy as the tamil director Shankar’s movies. But the significant difference between Raj kumar Hirani’s Munna Bhai and Shankar’s Anniyan/Indian is that Shankar uses the philosophy of fear (as typified by the cliche “An eye for an eye”) and Hirani tries the antithesis of fear - love, as manifested by the principles of Gandhism. But, if you don’t want to get so touchy by using the word “love”, feel free to give your own name. In the movie, Munna Bhai appears in his friend’s on-call radio program, to provide solution for the callers’ problems based on the principles of Gandhism.

Here is an example of such a Gandhi-an method, Munna advises. One of the callers’ problem is that his neighbor spits pan right at his door, making the door and the area around it look like cat puke. The caller says he had tried to tell the neighbor, but he doesn’t stop spitting. The Munna Bhai’s gandhigiri solution caller is this: After the neighbor spits in front of the door, smile at the him, and Clean the door. The idea was to send a message to the neighbor by cleaning the door over and again, and thus producing a transformation in the heart of the neighbor. I agree its touchy. In the movie, Munna Bhai shows that Gandhi’s method works, when the neighbor stops his spit act. While watching this scene at the movie, I hear murmurs among the audience questioning if such a solution would work in real life. I would be one of those audience, if I had not read the book “Tipping Point” written by Malcolm Gladwell.

The book “Tipping Point” is about an interesting phenomenon defined by the moment when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips and spreads like an wildfire - like an epidemic. In this book, Gladwell discusses about such a phenomenon that happened in New york city in the 1990s, causing the crime rate to plummet. In the city, during a period of five years, murder rates fell by two-thirds, and total crimes fell by half. Gladwell says that this crime drop has the same characteristics of the spread of epidemics. He defines three principles of epidemics - The Law of the Few, The Stickiness Factor, and the most interesting one I think is, The Power of Context. My point of interest is the the “The Power of Context”, which says “Human beings are a lot more sensitive to their environment than they seem.” and “A small change in a person’s immediate environment can cause big effects”. For the other two, here is an writeup of these principles in the context of marketing.

While discussing the power of context in the case of New york city, Gladwell produces examples about the small changes brought about in the New york subway systems that helped reverse the city’s crime epidemic. David Gunn was appointed the new subway director. He insisted that they have to start with the small things that symbolically indicate an environment for crime to happen. Graffiti being painted on the subway cars is such a symbol. Gunn decides to take on graffiti before anything else. He says

The graffiti was the symbolic collapse of the system. When you looked at the process of rebuilding the organization and morale, you had to win the battle against graffiti. Without winning that battle, all management reforms and physical changes just weren’t going to happen.

How did Gunn handle the problem of Graffiti in New york’s subway cars ? He drew up a new management structure aimed at cleaning the system line by line, train by train. On stainless-steel cars, solvents were used. On the painted cars, the graffiti was simply painted over. OK. What if the cars were vandalized again ? They cleaned again, and again. They were religious about their cleaning. At the end of the line, where the trains stopped and turned around, Gunn setup a cleaning station. If a car came in with graffiti, the graffiti had to be removed during the changeover, or the car was removed from the service. They make sure dirty cars are never mixed with clean cars. The idea was to send a clear message to the vandals - by cleaning over and again.

I was totally struck the method Gunn used to make the subways clean - not harsher punishment for the vandals, but to send a message to them by cleaning the cars. Of course, there is a difference between the tone, the kind of the message (or even a subtle difference in the motive), Gunn and Munna Bhai conveyed to their subjects. But the action point is the same - If you want to stop people from making dirty of public places, you just have to keep it cleaning - rigorously and continuously.

If it works for the multi-billion dollar cars of the New york subway system, it sure would work for everyone.

self.reflect(...)

When started, the idea of this blog was to make my thoughts as brief as possible. But after having successfully failed at my attempt to keep myself brief, I decided its time to change the name of the blog. Hey, If you can not change, just change how you call yourself. So, the new name for this blog is self.reflect(…). And the tag-line is # a reflection of me and everything else onto myself, and vice versa. Even though I don’t expect a tag-line to contribute to this blog as much as it does for a Telugu movie, it helps to deceive everyone that there is something more than just a dumb title. (I am huge fan of Telugu movie tag-lines. I mean, seriously. Who cannot be impressed by “Bommarilu - Love makes Life beautiful” or “Sprasha - Be ready to be Touched” ? . For more, flip to “Gemini” channel and watch “Bioscopuu”. )

There are two completely insignificant reasons why I kept the title in the form of a statement written in a computer language. One, after working with computers for a while, it kind of grows upon you. Very often, I see myself as a computer program badly in need of a maintenance contract, and a separate IT department with pointy haired managers. No.. no.. that is a different issue. Moving on to the second reason - When expressed as a line from a computer program, everything is brief. The title of the blog, actually, squeezes this whole post into a single line. To tell you the truth, the content of this post is redundant to the title and is wasting your time. You can just read the title, and go back to whatever you were doing before. At least, you can do it now. Seriously. I mean it.

But, you might not do what I advise and read this line. Then, I would tell you about the billion dollar research and development behind the new name. The word “self” is lifted from the syntax of Objective-C, and Ruby language (I think it was actually stolen from Smalltalk, I am not sure). The “self” in this title represents no one but me, this insubstantial self as it writes this word. The use of “.” between the subject “self” and the function “reflect” is a convention used both in Ruby and C++. Since the “self” pretends to do something while it muses upon the objects of reflection, “reflect” is a function - an act - being called upon the “self”.

The use of “…” is the C/C++ language convention for variable arguments. Here, it means “everything else”, those objects I reflect upon and that reflects me. Since “everything else” is actually everything else, I use “…” as shamelessly as I use it with the word “etc” (I feel that “etc…” amplifies “etc.” by 200%). As such, the whole statement “self.reflect(…)” doesn’t belong to any one computer language. That is to trick everyone that I, the self doesn’t have any language bias. I mean, I use every form of every expression in every language I know to do this reflection thingy (and to waste your time and bandwidth).

When everything is said and (nothing is) done, I got a comment from someone - “So, you are going to reflect. Sure, I will bring my sun glasses.” I think that this someone knows me. OK… I made up that comment. I just started reflecting…

மீண்டும் Mac

மீண்டும் Windows PC-லிருந்து Mac-ற்க்கு வந்து விட்டேன். இது என் தங்கையுடன் நடந்த ஒரு ஏற்ப்பாடு. இரண்டரை வருடத்திற்க்கு முன் நான் வாங்கிய Apple Mac Notebook என் தங்கையிடம் கொடுத்திருந்தேன். அந்த Notebook ஒரு அழகிய வெள்ளை நிற G3 800MHz iBook. Mac OS X 10.2 ஒடிக்கொண்டிருந்தது. அதை, என் ஒன்றரை வருட பழைய Windows XP ஒட்டிக்கொண்டிருக்கும் (கொஞ்சம் அசிங்கமான) Dell Inspiron (Intel Centrino 1.6 GHz) laptop-ற்க்கு பறிமாற்றம் செய்து கொண்டேன் - செய்ய வேண்டிய சூழ்நிலை. என் தங்கைக்கு, Mac-ல் Floppy disk இல்லை என்றும் VC++ programming செய்ய வசதிய்ல்லை என்றும் பிரச்சனை. முக்கியமாக Windows-ல் ஓடும் பல மென்பொருட்கள் Mac-ல் இல்லை என்று கோளாறு சொல்கிறாள். அடப் போங்கடா!! Microsoft வெண்ணைகளா!!! (நடிகர் வடிவேலு மதிறி ஒரு வசனம் எழுதலாமுனு ரொம்ப நேரம் யோசிச்சி 'வெண்ணை'யை தவுர வேற ஒன்னும் வர மாட்டிங்குது... அடி வாங்கினாதான் வரும் போல... இல்ல, அட்லீஸ்ட் பார்த்திபன் மதிரி யாராவது ஒரு ஆள் பக்கத்தில இருந்தா வரலாம்)

சரி, இப்ப iBook சங்கதியை பாக்கலாம். இந்த iBook-ஐ upgrade செய்ய, ஒரு 512 MB RAM-மும், மேக் ஓஸின் அதி நவீன பதிவான OS X 10.4-இன் ஒரிஜினல் டி.வி.டி ஒன்றும் வாங்கினேன். அந்த RAM-ஐ மாற்றுவதற்க்கு தேவையான 5 mm Philips screw driver, கோவில்பட்டியில் கிடைப்பதற்க்கு ஒரு வாரமானாலும், RAM-ஐ மாற்றி, OS X 10.4-யை இன்ஸ்டால் செய்வதற்க்கு, ஒரு மணி நேரமே ஆனது.

iBook துவங்குவதற்க்கும்(இயந்திரம் துவங்கி லாகின் திரை வரும் வரை - 45 நொடிகள்; லாகின் செய்ய - 15 வினாடிகள்) மற்ற Applications துவங்குவதற்க்கும் கொஞ்சம் அதிக நெரம் ஆனாலும், துவங்கிய பின் ஸிஸ்டம் வேகமாகவே செயல் படுகிறது. 800 MHz-இன் விளைவு வேகத்தில் சில நேரங்களில் தெரிந்தாலும், 640 MB நினைவகத்தை (Memory) OS X நன்றாகவே உபயோகித்து கொள்கிறது. Dashboard, Spotlight போன்ற OS X-இன் சிறப்பம்சங்கள் சிறப்பாக பணி செய்கின்றன. Unix-இன் பல அம்சங்கள் தினசரி காரியங்கள் செய்ய உதவியக உள்ளது. மென்பொறுள் தையார் செய்வதற்க்கு தெவையான பல டூல்கள் -Ruby, Perl, PHP, Applescript editor, மற்றும் XCode - ஓஸுடன் வருவதனால், வேறு எந்தச் செலவுமின்றி ஒரு முழுமையான Development system-ஆக செயல் படுகிறது.

இதை எல்லாவற்றையும் விட, இந்த Mac வேறு எந்த மென்பொறுளும் தனியக இன்ஸ்டால் செய்ய வேண்டிய அவசியம் இல்லாமல், தமிழ் கனினியாக செயல் படுகிறது. முரசு அஞ்சல் மென்பொருள் நிருவனத்தாரின் தமிழ் Keyboard ஊள்ளீட்டு முறைகளும்(Input Methods), இனைமதி என்றழைக்கபடும் தமிழ் Unicode Font-ம் ஓ.ஸுடனே வருகின்றன. எனவே, எந்த டாக்குமெண்டையும் தமிழில் கோர்ப்பது சுலபம். முரசு அஞ்சல் நிறுவனத்தினர் 'அஞ்சல்' மற்றும் 'தமிழ்99' என இரு keyboard உள்ளிட்டு முறைகள் உருவாக்கியுள்ளனர். அதில், 'அஞசல்' ஊள்ளீட்டு முறை மூலம் text editor-ல் தமிழ் வார்த்தைகளை Keyboard-ன் ஆங்கில எழுத்துக்களின் மூலமே கோர்க்க முடியும். அதாவது 'கில்மா' என்று editor-ல் எழுதுவதற்க்கு keyboard-ல் "gilmaa" என்று டைப் செய்தால் போதும். இதை Mac ஒ.ஸின் default editor-ஆன TextEdit மூல்மே செய்ய முடியும். ஏன்! இந்த blog post முழுவதையும் அதில் தான் எழுதினேன்!!!

மேற்கூரியவற்றை Windows-லேயே செய்ய முடியும். ஆனால், Mac OS இதற்க்கும் மேலே செல்கிறது. இதில் File-கள் மற்றும் Folder-களின் பெயர்களை தமிழிலிட முடியும்!!! அது மட்டுமில்லாமல், அந்த File-லில் உள்ளவற்றின் preview, File-களை List View-வில் பார்க்கும் போதும் தமிழ் வார்த்தைகள் சரியாகத் தெரிகிறது. (Windows-இலொ Linux-இலொ இதை செய்வது சாத்தியமா ? சாத்தியமகலாம். ஆனால் அதற்க்கு இரண்டு கிடாக்களை ஐய்யனாருக்கு காணிக்கையாக வெட்ட வேண்டுமென நினைக்கிறேன். ஹி..ஹி.. ) இதோ என் கனினியில் 'தமிழ்' என்ற folder-ல் உள்ள File-களின் list view...

ஆனால்,List view-வின் Previewவில் ஒரு text டாக்குமெண்ட் சரியாக தெரிவதற்க்கு அது Unicode UTF-16 encoding-ல் எழுத பட்டிருக்க வேண்டும். UTF-8-ல் இருந்தால் பிச்சைக்காரன் வாந்தி எடுத்தது போல தோற்றமளிக்கும்.(Unicode என்றால் என்ன ? UTF-8, UTF-16 எல்லாம் புதிதாக இருக்கிறதா ? இதோ ஜோயலின் ஒரு கட்டுரை! ஆங்கிலத்தில் இருக்கிறது. சமயம் கிடைக்கும் போது தமிழில் மொழிபெயர்க்க வேண்டுமென ரொம்ப நாள் ஆசை. )

Spotlight என்பது Mac-ல் உள்ள ஒரு desktop தேடல் மென்பொருள். அது ஸ்டீராய்டுகள் அருந்திய Google Desktop Search என்று கூரலாம். மிக வெகமாகவும் துள்ளியமாகவும் செயல் படுகிறது. அதன் மூலம் தமிழ் டாக்குமெண்டுக்களையும் (UTF-16 encoding-ல் எழுதப்பட்டவை) தேட முடியும். இதோ என் 'காதல்' தேடலுக்கு Spotlight மூலம் வந்த தேடல் முடிவுகள் (search results).

Mac-ன் மற்ற சில applications-ஸினால் உருவாக்கப்பட்டவைகளைக்கூட Spotlight-ஆல் தேட முடியும். உதாரணத்திற்க்கு, Address Book-ல் உள்ள, எனது நன்பர் பழனியப்பனின் விலாசத்தை தேடும் பொழுது வந்த முடிவுகள்...

அதை திறந்து பார்த்த பொழுது...

அவர் இந்தியவில் எதொ ஒரு தெருவில், எதொ ஒரு நகரதில், எதொ ஒரு மாநிலத்தில் வசிக்கிறார் என தெரிய வந்தது. நான் சொல்ல வந்தது என்னவென்றால், மற்ற Applications-ஸிலும் தமிழில் எழுத முடியும். இன்னொரு உதரனம் - சிக்குன் குன்யா நோயயை ஒழிக்க Stickies application மூலம், தமிழ்நாட்டின் சுகாதார அமைச்சகம் இப்படி ஒரு to-do list உருவாக்கி இருக்கலாம்.

எதிர்கால ஓ.எஸ். Unicode-ஐயும், Unicode தேடலையும் மையமாக் கொண்டிருக்குமென நான் நம்புகிறேன். எனவே, Mac OS X 10.4 எதிர் காலத்தை இன்றே கொண்டு வந்துவிட்டது என்று சொல்வது மிகையாகாது.

obesity, an epidemic ?

The International Congress on Obesity starts on September 3 in Sydeny, Australia. Here is a news piece about the "epidemic of obesity".

"Obesity is an international scourge," Prof Paul Zimmet, chairman of the meeting of more than 2,500 experts and health officials, told delegates in a speech opening the International Congress on Obesity. "This insidious, creeping pandemic of obesity is now engulfing the entire world."

"It's as big a threat as global warming and bird flu," said Zimmet, an Australian diabetes expert.

Other experts at the conference said the cost of treating health problems related to being overweight was immeasurable on a global scale, but was estimated at billions of dollars a year in countries such as Australia, Britain and the United States.

The professor boldly said "pandemic...engulfing the entire world", and I go like - "Did you mean, even in Africa and developing countries in Asia ?". The last paragraph clarified that obesity, right now, is a huge pain in the (fat) butts of Australia, Britain and the United States. That is not actually so surprising. Development, naturally, causes epidemic of diseases of comfort - caused by imbalance due to surplus, and not scarcity. Personally, I think obesity is as much an epidemic as Chain smoking or Alcoholism.

So now, experts and health officials have gathered to "fight" Obesity. Now what ? A war against fat asses ? I believe obesity has a place in Capitalism. As a business, it makes a sustainable industry with such an wonderful prospects. First, you have fast food restaurants serving junk foods, and, then you have diet and other programs to work it out, and, then you have the biotech companies working for technological developments to fight obesity, and, then there are pharmaceutical companies making magic pills to thin you out, and then there are doctors and obesity specialists advising you, and then finally, you would soon have a special obesity-insurance - all of these contribute to an economical system rich and, well... obese. Obesity will live, because it will make money - a lot of money!!!

So, my advise to you is - Invest in Obesity.

firefox 2 beta 2

I got nothing to do today, and there is a long weekend ahead. I had thinking of trying Firefox 2.0 beta 2 since it was released Thursday. (Also, I wanted to write a blog with lot of colorful pictures for a long time ). Well, at first I accidentally download the German version (I followed the link from a blog. Even though the blog was written in English, it lead me to the German version.). Even though the installer spoke German, I went ahead and installed assuming that the problem might a locale setting or something. Then, I figured out that there are separate versions for each language.(Why ? ) Anyways, I then downloaded the English version and fired up the installer. The installation went well and, when it tried to import the extensions from the existing installation of version 1.5, most of the extensions were not compatible.

Yes, I was warned about incompatibility, while I downloading. So, no complaints here. But there is a really nice option for the rest of the working extensions (now called Add-ons). Add-ons, now, can be disabled with a click. Hooray!! Long live the add-on Gods!!!

The basic UI looks the same. Some cool tab features have been added directly into the browser. A new option for tab has been introduced, which has basic feature of any tab++ extensions out there.

An easier way to get to the list of all tabs is something, I have always wanted with in a browser.(I mean, a browser with tabs function)

And the one that impressed me most is the feeds options. Now you can redirect any RSS/RDF/Atom links to your favorite feed reader directly from the browser. You just have to do this...

A special mention - Built in "Restore Session after Crash".

But I don't know why the QuickTime plug-in still crashes on me. I am still not able to see the new apple ads.(It does to me even in Firefox 1.5, and IE 6.0. Bad Computer! ) Also, the bookmark explorer crashes, when I try to change the properties.

On the whole, Firefox 2.0 looks good with lots of nifty features. But I see that the features of popular extensions are slowly creeping inside the browser. I hope, it doesn't bloat Firefox.

sins of the fathers

When the recent Isreal-Lebanon conflict (12 July - 14 August 2006) was going on, there was an article in BBC about debates in Germany over involvement of Germans in a Lebanon peace force, before steps were taken to create one. The article is about the debates in German Media on the ethical questions faced by a German soldier, if he is needed to fight an Israeli soldier.

"History is the past, but the history of the Holocaust belongs to the German present," said the Frankfurter Rundschau. No German soldier should, even theoretically, "be brought into a situation where he has to aim his weapon at an Israeli", it added. [...]

[...] Austria's Der Standard said it was "unthinkable" that the grandchildren of Holocaust perpetrators might find themselves shooting at the grandchildren of victims.

Germany is a country with a dark period of history during the reign of Hitler, leading to the second world war. When it all ended, there were trials, especially the famous Nuremberg Trials, incriminating the war criminals of Second World War. But the punishment for the sins of Third Reich didn't end there. The most unfortunate were not those who were tried (deservedly so), but the sons and grandsons of the Nazi generation. That regime has left such a deep stain in the German history, that its descendants carry that even today.

In contrast, the way the Japanese handle their history is... well, not quite the same. There have always been questions about the accuracy of Japanese history textbooks, and the accusations that they "justify and glorify the wrongs committed in the past" (especially the Nanjing massacre. Wikipedia entry is here). Even after protests, those textbooks were never changed. Recently, there have been protests over the Japanese prime minister visiting the Yasukuni shrine, where war criminals are venerated. By such attempts, Japanese try to paint a different picture of history to their younger generation. Though their objectives on re-writing Japanese history are political, it probably would make the future Japanese generations carry less burden of the past. Unlike the Germans.

The question is how nations (and its people) choose to handle the sins of their history - either let it burden them for generations OR glorify the sins to make them proud. I couldn't do an ethical analysis of the Japanese stand on its history OR the reasons why Germans has to confront their history head on (I don't have access to a good library and, I am no historian. We can't miss the cultural angle(east vs west) too).

Bringing the same line of questioning towards ancestral histories, I think, our parents, grand parents, uncles, and aunts had the same two choices. When they had to tell us the inconvenient truths of the past, they either choose to bury them down or pass those burdens over. Of course, they would rather bury them, than do the dad-son karma-transfer. So... I wonder, Do I really believe in everything of what I am told about my family ? (or my country ?) And, Am I going say everything, most importantly every sin of my life to my next generation ?(if by an accident or some act of God, a next generation happens to me!!!)

brevity

The most important problem of blog writing is the lack of brevity and relevance. As David Beaver of language log points this here, while comparing blog writing with Grice's Conversational Maxims, he says the main reason of blogs being verbose and not to the point, is the uncertainty of the audience makeup.

In the case of blogs, uncertainty over audience make-up and mores reaches a new high. You could be anybody. In fact, many of you are not bodies at all, but automated web-crawlers. And there simply is no commonly accepted purpose or direction. Bloggers are free to make up purposes and directions as they go, to inform as much as they like about whatever they like in pretty much any way they like.

So, a blog is more whining and ranting, than something that could add value to the reader. And, there is a commonly known tendency for Indians to get verbose. Putting it all togeather, it makes brevity a difficult thing to do for me. Even though the goal of my blog was to deliver my thoughts as short as it could possibly expressed, I have hardly well done.

There is an old story about a famous Tamil speaker. When this speaker was asked to give a speech for ten minutes, he said he needs two days of preparation. When he was asked to give a lecture for two hours, he said that he can start right away. Silence may be golden or even diamond-ish, but being brief is the arduous task of mining the precious stone.

where is the sport in motorsport ?

I have a problem with the idea that is "motorsport". And, that is - I don't think, it is a sport. I tried, but I couldn't see a sport in "motorsport". I don't discriminate any form of motorsport - F1 or NASCAR or IndyCar. I hate them equally. More importantly, I think "motorsport" a misnomer. Call motorsport, a shameless and profligate expression of penis-envies, exhibited by those whirring, exploding, gas-sucking, and piston-pumping motors as a symbolic extension of the male genitals (except for Danica Patrick, may be). I stand behind you (with a little caution). Call it as motor-circus. I am totally with you. Call it a motor-driver-exhibition. I agree. Call it as a motor-competition. There is a bling of disagreement. Still, I nod. But, Calling it a sport - No, Sir ! Circus is not sport! Yes, it is entertainment. But not a sport.

I know what is coming next. You are, probably, going to throw me the definition of sport. OK. Lets get this over with. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, Sport (in the sense of, ah, well, sports) is defined as

An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.

Technically, of course, any competition involving skill is a sport. ESPN thinks that Poker is a sport (Oh, Well, the argument that shuffling chips and picking cards as a "physical exertion" is not really, you know, getting through). Again, I have no problems with Poker being a recreational activity. But, a sport ? The problem actually is not the definition or classification of motor-what-ever as a sport - technically.

So you tell me, it may just be a matter of personal preference. Probably, I don't like motor-blah-blah as much as, say, baseball. I compared my comparison with another comparison. (Is this a record - three comparisons in a line ?). I do like baseball more than cricket, both of these I admire as sports. One of the many reasons for liking baseball is what I perceive as a difference between hitting and batting. Hey, I am just a fan. I may be completely wrong here.

Most of Indians who like cricket (that's a given), tend to dislike baseball, because they think there is absolutely no intelligence in hitting. But I wonder - If it is true that hitting is a dumb thing like pinning the donkey's tail, Why every hitter in baseball doesn't hit with the same average ? So, here is the comparison. In cricket, a batting is a mini-gymnastic exercise. The batsman has to look the swing on the ball, see where it pitches, and orchestrate the movement of the foot (the foot movement is like an Irish dance) in sync with the movement of hand.( with a perfect timing of course). The batsman spends more time understanding the ball, than the bowler. In cricket, batting is all about concentration and choosing the perfect stroke - and the stroke, as a result, is as brilliant and creative as a chess move.

In baseball, hitting is not really that complicated. There is already a stance, all you have to worry about is your shoulders, your waist and your swing. (There is a little foot-work,but you really don't have to dance) This makes hitting simple, but more mental. It is all about judgement, and getting into the head of the pitcher - Ah, there lies its emotional rub. So, as I see, the swing of a successful hitting is as beautiful as the free-kick in soccer that ends up as a goal. Finally, in a seven game series between beauty of baseball and brilliance of cricket - Beauty - 4, Brilliance - 3. (This is how I see these two sports. Of course, it is entirely possible to see this the other way) But I really couldn't do this comparison with motorsport...er...uh... motor-boink-boink against any of the sport I admire. I really don't think it is relative liking or relative hatred. There is something more...

My problem is the meaning of motor-boo-boo as a sport. I see the motor as a machine, and the driver as an operator. I see no difference between twenty drivers racing their machines, and twenty lathe operators on a shop floor, in a pump manufacturing company, working up their productivity charts for a TPM showcase. Only difference is that the question on the shop floor is - Who drives the tool tip faster ? Would we call that a sport ?

I would like to relate to any sport just by watching it or playing it. In the exhibition of motor"sport", I see nothing of the driver's skills. I only get to see the effects of the skills. So the driver managed to keep himself ahead, while negotiating the curve. What did he do, really ? What were his movements ? Did he flinch ? Did he have fit ? or Did he fart ? I don't see nothing. (OK. Technically, you can't see a fart. That aside. Personally, I think, driving is a boring activity with its only use of transporting a person) I can't even play that game in my yard or in a park. Is there anyway to relate to this "sport" ? In this sense, I think, even Dodgeball or Rock-Paper-Scissors are agreeable as sports. Or Competitive eating, for that matter. (A clip from the movie Dodgeball explaining the rules. For those who haven't heard of Dodgeball before, there is no such thing as ADAA. Its just a parody of naming sports associations of America.)

Finally you say, what you have to see is the power of machines. Its the technology, baby. F1.com runs a long list technical details to look for in a F1 racing. If its about technology, why don't they have an Auto expo or something like that? At least then, you can have the technology without the noise and heat. The claim that its an exhibition of technology doesn't really make motor-pee-pee a sport.

And finally, the reason why I even started writing this. Some time ago, Chuck Klosterman, one of my favorite writers on American pop culture, was writing about Barry Bonds, (the Sachin Tendulkar of Baseball) under the suspicion of using performance enhancing drugs, surpassing Babe Ruth's (the Don Bradman of Baseball) record of home runs (the sixer of a baseball game. Yeah, they do have record for sixers!!!). He wrote

It's a problem for anyone who considers sports to be a meaningful prism through which to understand life and culture.

Yeah, that is it. I wanted to use this line, and I don't understand life or culture with motorsport. But... Wait! If motorsport is a prism to understand culture or life that is - just noise, pollution and exploitation of fossil fuels - well then, may be, motorsport is the sport of our generation. Probably, the last generation that uses fossil fuels.

little miss sunshine

It was an interesting day yesterday. I read the book "1984" by George Orwell, finally. It consumed my whole day. The writing was so powerful, that, I was underlining at the rate of a sentence per page. That reduced my speed of reading, and guess what!!! It made me think!!! Yeah, its deep. I think, I would reserve my thoughts on "1984" for another post. Later yesterday, I went to watch the movie "Little Miss Sunshine". It was comedy movie, and when I try to classify the movie in the unofficial comedy-film-making taxonomy, that was so not a comedy.

It is true that "Dying is easy, but Comedy is hard". But the writers of comedy movies, of late, doing it easy. They have only been picking the toppings from an available of menu of theme-choices. The menu (also called unofficial comedy-film-making taxonomy) goes like:

1. satire/parody
2. slapstick
3. gross-out (the flavor of the day)
4. screwball (the classic)
5. a double with the choices 1-4
6. a triple with the choices 1-4
7. anyway you want (available toppings: choices 1-4 again).

Or they probably could be using a script-vending-machine. Or they were seriously trying to prove the hypothesis that an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite amount of time could reproduce the works of Shakespeare. And probably, they didn't get enough monkeys. (I do think they have a lot of time)

Well, there is another generation of comedy movies, that start out funny, but as it grows - We have got a surprise for you - tada!! - A chick flick!!!. Actually, I am not against chick flicks. I don't hate them. I even enjoy some of them. My only concern is that jokes in such movies would have made a pure comedy movie.

There are Comedy movies made of nothing but a few jokes scattered here and there in a generic sub-theme. And then, there is "Little Miss Sunshine". I had a wonderful time enjoying this movie, but a hard time classifying it - only to have found out that it doesn't fit any of the choices above. I think it belongs to a genre of its own.

The story is about a (dysfunctional) American family - a dad, a mom, a brother, an uncle, a grandpa, and finally the youngest member of the family - the blue eyed little girl - Olive. They set out on road trip from New Mexico to California, so that, Olive can compete in a child beauty contest, Miss Little Sunshine. The movie is about their their adventures during the 700 mile journey and at beauty contest.(The tendency to place "dysfunctional" in brackets is a because of a general Indian thought that "dysfunctional American family" might sound as an oxymoron. I don't think, it is prejudice, but it is a gap in family values between two cultures and the assumption that MTV is America. But I do think, every functional family, irrespective of nationality, has to be dysfunctional in some department. We don't pick our parents or our children -OR- Do we ?)

The movie, of course, is a satire about the issues in family life and other heavy issues it rubs on, such as drug abuse, suicide, and child beauty contests. But the comedy is not satirical. Comedy in the movie is mostly a the result of irony about an individual's position against the family backdrop. Though, the family is fabricated for the movie, the script brings a kind of plastic realism touching all the characters of the story. It is smart and funny.

I couldn't remember a movie or a story, that displayed such a weight in each of its character - in the solemn expression of comedy.