My Thoughts

2010-06-07T14:49:00.003-07:00

Embeddable Tweet!

2010-05-05T17:07:00.001-07:00

Oil spill may change the Gulf coast forever: http://bit.ly/abVyVkless than a minute ago via SeesmicWIRED Science
wiredscience

Can you identify this bird?

2010-04-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

Does anyone care about Google Wave?

2009-11-29T10:35:00.001-08:00

I have 35 Google Wave invites but there seems to be no takers! I think separating that from gmail is a big mistake and I haven't used it at all after the first few days. In a way, it's good that way as a dynamically updating email/chat combination will be a big distraction. I remember a tweet from a early user that he wanted a big PAUSE button :-)

If you want an invite, leave your email in a comment and I will send you one. I will not publish the comment ofcourse.

Know something About Sprouts

2009-11-28T17:33:00.000-08:00

http://www.yogsandesh.org/categories/Articles-on-Health/

Sprouts are full of nutrition and the best source of a balanced food. Sprouts are alkaline in nature and hence improve the health in many respects. They are helpful in complete purification of the body and also improves the disease fighting capacity of the body. Sprouts also increase the nutritiounal value of food.

In order to maintain good health, 80% of the food should be alkaline and 20% should be acidic, which should necessarily include raw food and sprouts in good quantity. Sprouts are best medicine for the body. Sprouts are the germinated seeds of lentils or grains, and this germination process gives a lot of beneficial qualities for health.

Why are sprouts essential?

In the present life style, food habits are changing fast and in an unnatural way. This has a bad impact on our health. The main reason for most of the diseases is wrong food habits, life style and negative thinking. Sprouts are the best solution for improving wrong food habits. The use of sprouts as a part of daily food fulfills the need for alkaline and acidic food requirement, which is important for maintaining good health.

Use of Sprouts

Any healthy or unhealthy person can eat sprouts but the quantity should be less in the beginning and they should be chewed properly. Cucumber, tomato, green chillies, coriander and lemon can be added to enhance the taste and also make it more nutritious. Sprouts are the germinated seeds of lentils or grains, and this germination process gives lot of beneficial qualities for health. If an ill person consumes raw foods then he or she can overcome health related problems very easily. If a healthy person eats sprouts regularly then he or she can prevent several diseases and also improve their health.

All grains cannot be sprouted. Sunflower, pulses, kidney bean, gram, soybean, fenugreek, and wheat seeds can be sprouted. These sprouts can be taken after consultation with doctor or an expert.

At the time of sprouting wheat, special care should be taken to avoid fungus formation. Use a glass jar to make wheat sprouts or some other special sprout makers that are available in the market and put it under the sun in the morning.

Benefits of Sprouts

Sprouts are natural, fresh and a complete food. They are easily digestible, they control weight and are tasty, besides being nutritious.
Some sprouts have more vitamin C, iron, riboflavin, niacin, and phosphorous. Therefore it is a good source of vitamins and minerals.
The non-nutritional elements reduce after sprouting.
The starch found in sprouts converts into glucose, fructose and maltose. It not only enhances taste but also improves the digestion. The process of sprouting is slower in lentils when compared to grains.
Sprouts reach the different organs of the body quickly and give instant energy.
Sprouts are nutritious for the body in a natural way.
Sprouts are a complete food and free from adulteration.
The body gets necessary nutrition from sprouts.
Sprouts help alcohol addicts to get rid of this problem.
Sprouts should be taken raw as boiling, cooking or roasting destroys its nutrition value. However, it can be steam cooked. Old people, who cannot chew sprouts, should grind it and eat the paste. This will not reduce the nutritional value of sprouts.
Sprouts of kidney beans, fenugreek, gram and other grains can be made in a glass jar or damp cloth. Wash the grains or lentils thoroughly in water at least three to four times. Remove the bad seeds and place the good ones in a glass jar and fill it with four times water. Soak overnight, and spread on a cotton cloth, tie it nicely and keep it aside. During summer season, sprinkle cold water on the sprout bag prepared in this manner to retain the moisture. Sprouts appear the next morning. The sprouting process takes more time during winter season than summer season. Sprinkle water inside the jar also at regular intervals.
Do not store the sprouts for many days. Use fresh sprouts and wash it once in water before eating.
The seeds, grains or lentils chosen for making sprouts should be fresh, new, clean, and free from chemicals. Some seeds cannot be sprouted during this process. Select and remove the unhealthy seeds.

Best seeds suitable for sprouting:

Kidney beans can be easily sprouted. They contain vitamin A, E and C.
Fenugreek has a strong and bitter taste. It has curative power. It is used in the treatment of diabetes and arthritis.
Gram is sprouted since ancient times. It provides vitamins, protein and minerals. Sprouts are like nectar. Eat them raw to improve your health.

For a healthy heart, you need to rest too...

2009-11-13T13:23:00.000-08:00

Author unknown - this was forwarded to me in email....

What killed Ranjan Das and Lessons for Corporate India

A month ago, many of us heard about the sad demise of Ranjan Das from Bandra, Mumbai. Ranjan, just 42 years of age, was the CEO of SAP-Indian Subcontinent, the youngest CEO of an MNC in India. He was very active in sports, was a fitness freak and a marathon runner. It was common to see him run on Bandra's Carter Road. Just after Diwali, on 21st Oct, he returned home from his gym after a workout, collapsed with a massive heart attack and died. He is survived by his wife and two very young kids.

It was certainly a wake-up call for corporate India. However, it was even more disastrous for runners amongst us. Since Ranjan was anavid marathoner (in Feb 09, he ran Chennai Marathon at the same time some of us were running Pondicherry Marathon 180 km away), the question came as to why an exceptionally active, athletic person succumb to heart attack at 42 years of age.

Was it the stress?
A couple of you called me asking about the reasons. While Ranjan had mentioned that he faced a lot of stress, that is a common element in most of our lives. We used to think that by being fit, one can conquer the bad effects of stress. So I doubted if the cause was stress.

The Real Reason
However, everyone missed out a small line in the reports that Ranjan used to make do with 4-5 hours of sleep. This is an earlier interview of Ranjan on NDTV in the program 'Boss' Day Out':
http://connect. in.com/ranjan- das/play- video-boss- day-out-ranjan- das-of-sap- india-229111- 807ecfcf1ad96603 6c289b3ba6c376f2 530d7484. html
Here he himself admits that he would love to get more sleep (and that he was not proud of his ability to manage without sleep, contrary to what others extolled).

The Evidence
Last week, I was working with a well-known cardiologist on the subject of 'Heart Disease caused by Lack of Sleep'. While I cannot share the video nor the slides because of confidentiality reasons, I have distilled the key points below in the hope it will save some of our lives.

Some Excerpts:

·        Short sleep duration (<5 or 5-6 hours) increased risk for high BP by 350% to 500% compared to those who slept longer than 6 hours per night. Paper published in 2009.
As you know, high BP kills.

·        Young people (25-49 years of age) are twice as likely to get high BP if they sleep less. Paper published in 2006.

·        Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold increased risk of heart attacks. Paper published in 1999.

·        Complete and partial lack of sleep increased the blood concentrations of High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-cRP), the strongest predictor of heart attacks. Even after getting adequate sleep later, the levels stayed high!!

·        Just one night of sleep loss increases very toxic substances in body such as Interleukin- 6 (IL-6), Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-alpha) and C-reactive protein (cRP). They increase risks of many medical conditions, including cancer, arthritis andheart disease. Paper published in 2004.

·        Sleeping for <=5 hours per night leads to 39% increase in heart disease. Sleeping for <=6 hours per night leads to 18% increase in heart disease. Paper published in 2006.

Ideal Sleep
For lack of space, I cannot explain here the ideal sleep architecture. But in brief, sleep is composed of two stages: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and non-REM. The former helps in mental consolidation while the latter helps in physical repair and rebuilding. During the night, you alternate between REM and non-REM stages 4-5 times.

The earlier part of sleep is mostly non-REM. During that period, your pituitary gland releases growth hormones that repair your body. The latter part of sleep is more and more REM type.

For you to be mentally alert during the day, the latter part of sleep is more important. No wonder when you wake up with an alarm clock after 5-6 hours of sleep, you are mentally irritable throughout the day (lack of REM sleep). And if you have slept for less than 5 hours, your body is in a complete physical mess (lack of non-REM sleep), you are tired throughout the day, moving like a zombie and your immunity is way down (I've been there, done that L)

Finally, as long-distance runners, you need an hour of extra sleep to repair the running related damage.

If you want to know if you are getting adequate sleep, take Epworth Sleepiness Test below.

Interpretation: Score of 0-9 is considered normal while 10 and above abnormal. Many a times, I have clocked 21 out the maximum possible 24, the only saving grace being the last situation, since I don't like to drive (maybe, I should ask my driver to answer that lineJ)
In conclusion:
Barring stress control, Ranjan Das did everything right: eating proper food, exercising (marathoning! ), maintaining proper weight. But he missed getting proper and adequate sleep, minimum 7 hours. In my opinion, that killed him.
If you are not getting enough sleep (7 hours), you are playing with fire, even if you have low stress.
I always took pride in my ability to work 50 hours at a stretch whenever the situation warranted. But I was so spooked after seeing the scientific evidence last week that since Saturday night, I ensure I do not even set the alarm clock under 7 hours. Now, that is a nice excuse to get some more sleep. J

Unfortunately, Ranjan Das is not alone when it comes to missing sleep. Many of us are doing exactly the same, perhaps out of ignorance. Please forward this mail to as many of your colleagues as possible, especially those who might be short-changing their sleep. If we can save even one young life because of this email, I would be the happiest person on earth.

Google Wave invites

2009-11-13T13:15:00.000-08:00

If you want an invitation to google wave, let me know. I have about 20+ invites. Leave a comment with your email and I will send you an invite. I will not publish your comment....

Take Care of Your Heart

2009-11-13T09:23:00.001-08:00

A chat with Dr.Devi Shetty, Narayana Hrudayalaya (Heart Specialist) Bangalore was arranged by WIPRO for its employees .

Qn: What are the ways in which the heart is stressed? What practices do you suggest to de-stress?
Ans: Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in everything in life.

Qn: What are the thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart?
Ans:
1. Diet - Less of carbohydrate, more of protein, less oil
2. Exercise - Half an hour's walk, at least five days a week; avoid lifts and avoid sitting for a longti me
3. Quit smoking
4. Control weight
5. Control blood pressure and sugar

Qn: Which is the best and worst food for the heart?
Ans: Fruits and vegetables are the best and the worst is oil.

Qn: Which oil is better - groundnut, sunflower, olive?
Ans: All oils are bad .

Qn: Does consuming bananas help reduce hypertension?
Ans : No.

Qn: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart?
Ans: No

Qn: Will consuming more coffee/tea lead to heart attacks?
Ans : No.

Qn: How do irregular eating habits affect the heart ?
Ans: You tend to eat junk food when the habits are irregular and your body's enzyme release for digestion gets confused.

Qn: How would you define junk food?
Ans : Fried food like Kentucky , McDonalds , samosas,Haldirams, Gardens and even masala dosas.

Qn: What is the main cause of a steep increase in heart problems amongst youngsters?

Ans: Lifestyles, smoking, junk food, lack of exercise in a country where people are genetically three times more vulnerable for heart attacks than Europeans and Americans.

Qn: You mentioned that Indians are three times more vulnerable. What is the reason for this, as Europeans and Americans also eat a lot of junk food?
Ans : Every race is vulnerable to some disease and unfortunately, Indians are vulnerable for the most expensive disease.

Qn: Is walking better than jogging or is more intensive exercise required to keep a healthy heart?
Ans: Walking is better than jogging since jogging leads to early fatigue and injury to joints

Qn: Sometimes, due to the hectic schedule we are not able to exercise. So, does walking while doing daily chores at home or climbing the stairs in the house, work as a substitute for exercise?
Ans : Certainly. Avoid sitting continuously for more than half an hour and even the act of getting out of the chair and going to another chair and sitting helps a lot.

Qn: Can yoga prevent heart ailments?
Ans: Yoga helps.

Qn: How can one keep the heart in a good condition?
Ans : Eat a healthy diet, avoid junk food, exercise everyday, do not smoke and, go for health checkup if you are past the age of 30 ( once in six months recommended) ....

Qn: Many of us have an irregular daily routine and many a times we have to stay late nights in office. Does this affect our heart ? What precautions would you recommend?
Ans : When you are young, nature protects you against all these irregularities. However, as you grow older, respect the biological clock.

Qn: How do you differentiate between pain caused by a heart attack and that caused due to gastric trouble?
Ans: Extremely difficult without ECG.
Qn: Is it possible for a person to have BP outside the normal range of 120/80 and yet be perfectly healthy?
Ans: Yes.

Qn: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack?
Ans: Help the person into a sleeping position, place an aspirin tablet under the tongue with a sorbitrate tablet if available, and rush him to a coronary care unit since the maximum casualty takes place within the first hour.

Qn: Why is the rate of heart attacks more in men than in women?
Ans : Nature protects women till the age of 45.

Qn: It's still a grave shock to hear that some apparently healthy person gets a cardiac arrest. How do we understand it in perspective?
Ans: This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health checkups.

Qn: Does cholesterol accumulates right from an early age (I'm currently only 22) or do you have to worry about it only after you are above 30 years of age?
Ans: Cholesterol accumulates from childhood..
Qn: How can I control cholesterol content without using medicines?
Ans: Control diet, walk and eat walnut.
Qn: What is the routine checkup one should go through? Is there any specific test?
Ans: Routine blood test to ensure sugar, cholesterol is ok.. Check BP, Treadmill test after an echo.

Qn: Does headache pills increase the risk of heart attacks?
Ans : No.
Qn: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs cause some other complications (short / long term)?
Ans : Yes, most drugs have some side effects. However, modern anti-hypertensive drugs are extremely safe.

Qn: What are the modern anti-hypertensive drugs?
Ans : There are hundreds of drugs and your doctor will chose the right combination for your problem, but my suggestion is to avoid the drugs and go for natural ways of controlling blood pressure by walk, diet to reduce weight and changing attitudes towards lifestyles.

Qn: Are asthma patients more prone to heart disease?

Ans : No.
Qn: Do, in any way, low white blood cells and low hemoglobin count lead to heart problems?
Ans : No. But it is ideal to have normal hemoglobin level to increase your exercise capacity.

Qn: Marriages within close relatives can lead to heart problems for the child. Is it true?
Ans : Yes, co-sanguinity leads to congenital abnormalities and you may not have a software engineer as a child
Qn: Is there a relation between heart problems and blood sugar?
Ans: Yes. A strong relationship since diabetics are more vulnerable to heart attacks than non-diabetics.
Qn: What are the things one needs to take care of after a heart operation?
Ans : Diet, exercise, drugs on time , Control cholesterol, BP, weight..

Another browser to check out...

2009-02-24T20:37:00.000-08:00

Just days after writing about the Minefield browser, there is another browser launched that deserves a look. Apple released Safari 4 Beta! Does any one launch a finished product any more? :-) Apple claims that Safari is the fastest browser. It is pretty fast and sleek. And its available on OS X and Windows both.

I didn't like the Safari browser on windows before but this release is pretty sleek. I downloaded it on windows and showed it to a co-worker. He asked - "is it chrome?" :) I am not saying anything more.

When you launch Safari, the blank screen comes up with the Top Sites you visit are presented in a nice galary kinda display. And Apple claims 150 features in Safari. Now if only I can flip the windows in my laptop's screen....

I am still playing around with it. It renders unicode just fine on windows. I vaguely remember that being a problem in the previous round. And I also just remembered that I am still supposed to be playing with Minefield...

How to keep your computer malware free...

2009-02-21T20:06:00.000-08:00

People used to call me rarely when their PCs were infected before. In the past few weeks, that rate has alarmingly increased. One of my friends, who is very careful, was infected with tidserv trojan and ended up reinstalling the OS. Two friends are still battling some virus/trojan problem that left them without the internet.

There are a few steps you can do to stay free of malware. Let's go thru them one by one.

1. Don't use Windows!

Switch to some linux variant - Ubuntu is very pleasant and easy to use - trust me. Or you can get a Mac and live happily in the OS X land. You can try Ubuntu without installing. If you think this is an extreme step, skip this and head to #2 below. You brave soul, just head over to Ubuntu site and download their desktop version.

You can download the disk image, burn it in a CD - blank CD if I might add, pop it in the machine, well - its already there as you just made it - reboot and try without install option. You have browser, open office and a bunch of games right off the CD and you can also get on the net with it. You know what's cool? If you have room in your disk - say 5 to 10 10GB, you can install Ubuntu on the same machine. At boot time, you can decide which OS to boot into. To do this, start windows, pop in the Ubuntu CD and follow the instructions to install. It's pretty easy. The Wubi installer is awesome! If you are scared to try it, ask your 8 year old to do it. May be Ubuntu guys should run a 'cave man' commercial on this :-)

So you don't have anything to lose. You can try and work with Ubuntu. And if you have some thing that works only in windows - old windows game, some windows software that you can't live without - boot into windows only to use them and get back to the Ubuntu Land.

2. Secure your computer

So you want to stay in Windows land. There are a few steps you can follow listed in this site. Spend a few minutes and go over the steps.

How To Secure your Computer or Network - A Step by Step Approach

The above site has been very good. Please go over the 4 steps and 8 steps and see which suits you. I use the following steps that have served me well.

3. Use non-IE browsers

Screw political correctness. Use Mozilla's Firefox! Period. If a site doesn't work in Firefox, give it a miss :-) If your bank or some work related site works only in IE, use the IE tab extension of Firefox and configure them to use IE engine from within firefox. So you can always use Firefox and those sites alone will use the IE rendering engine.

4. Block unwanted parasites with a hosts file

Do you get the joke in 'There is no place like 127.0.0.1'? :-) In a nutshell, thats what this site does. This site is so popular, it comes up as top one or second when you google for 'hosts file'.
The site lists all sites that can potentially affect your web surfing experience and with their copy of hosts file, you can block all traffic to those sites from your computer. Just follow the simple instructions on that site and stay parasite-free. You can join their mailing list and you will be notified whenever there is an update to their hosts file. You can also learn more from their blog. Are you camped out in youtube nowadays? Then you should read about malware invading youtube!

5. Use Promomitron or Proximodo

Proxomitron is a proxy you use with your browser. Quoting from Proximodo site: This is a proxy server that you can install locally and use to remove ads, banners, harmful scripts or tracing headers on-the-fly while you surf the web. It was written by Scott Lemmon who is no more. You can find lots of information in the official site: http://www.proxomitron.info You can also find a lot of support in these pages including a yahoogroups mailing list. The yahoogroups mailing list also has a lot of filters and goodies to work with Proxomitron. Proximodo is a clone of Proxomitron and hopefully will be taken further.

6. Tools to fight malware

You can use these tools to rid your machine of malware. Try the tools listed in this page. To that list, add Microsoft's Windows Defender and Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware.

So start with any of those and every month spend some time to update yourself on the tools and techniques. Also update your tools and run them periodically. Good luck and stay safe!

Mozilla's Minefield browser

2009-02-19T20:33:00.000-08:00

Mozilla's Minefield browser is awesome. I have been using it for the last few days and it seems to be pretty fast and the page rendering is crisp. You can download it here. Please don't replace your stable Firefox with this yet. Use it as a secondary as this is still in development. The current stable version is 3.0.6. And Minefield is 3.2! So it's really bleeding edge.

I follow a lot of Tamil sites and Minefield has the best rendering of that language so far. And most of the extensions seem to work. I will write more about the browser soon.

You can read some articles in the mean time here :-) Please tell them, I sent you!

Mohandas K. Gandhi’s Damaging Effect on Post-Independence India

2008-03-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

This article was written by a high school student for an assignment. The assignment required the student to present an opposing view to normally held ideas/beliefs. This student is of Indian origin and is an accomplished artist of classical Indian music and dance. This student is well grounded in her/his understanding of Indian values, culture and history. I am emphasizing all these just to tell you that this student took this topic as a challenge and so - please treat this as an academic exercise. This is a lengthy article. You can jump to the end to read the abstract. But don't jump to conclusions that this student is a Gandhi hater :-) Her/his parents are still recovering from the shock!

Mohandas K. Gandhi’s Damaging Effect on Post-Independence India

Introduction:

The image of Mohandas K. Gandhi seems to epitomize the idea of India in modern culture. When many people think of India, one of the first images that pops into their heads is Gandhi’s frail, weakened body. Due to his role in the Indian struggle for independence, he has become an influence for many other leaders, such as Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. However, while Gandhi helped to obtain Indian freedom, he also unintentionally damaged India through his goals and ideals, including his strong ties to Hinduism, his political philosophies, and his attempts at reforming the caste system.

Nationalism, Ties to Hinduism, and their Consequences:

Gandhi strongly encouraged nationalism and faith in the Indian nation, which in turn encouraged Hinduism. Many of the words and ideas he used were Indian or came from Hinduism, a religion strongly tied to India. This is exemplified in his fight against the British. As a devout Hindu, he allowed his religious beliefs to embed themselves the way he portrayed the fight against the British. For example, his idea of a “satyagraha”, which he used as a term for the fight against Great Britain, was taken from Hinduism. Through the use of this phrase, he indirectly promoted Hinduism. Also, the phrase “Jai Hind” was coined and heavily used by Gandhi’s followers (Guha 26). This term essentially means “Hail India”; however, the word Hind is a shortened form of Hindustan, which means “Land of the Hindus” (India). In using this phrase, he and his supporters entertained the idea of India as a Hindu land. Thus, he simultaneously promoted Indian nationalism and Hinduism. His strong Hindu background was also seen in his associations with other organizations. For example, he was associated with a group called RSS, a union of young, Hindu men who entertained the idea that Hinduism was the only morally correct religion (Guha 34). Thus, his encouragement and emphasis on Hinduism caused many of the problems that plagued India well into the post-independence era.

Gandhi’s advocacy of Hinduism was counterproductive in the long run because of the stagnant nature of religion. Many religions’ ideas and imageries have been the same since their respective foundings. For example, temples in India date back as far as the 9 century; the idols seen in these temples are nearly identical to the statues being created today. Many of the practices have also remained the same; for example, Hindu texts state that it is not Satvic (pure, in accordance with the “reality” described by Sanathana Dharma) to eat food that is not fresh. The intent of this rule appears to be the prevention of sickness as a result of eating stale or rotten food. However, the invention of refrigerators and other preservation techniques has made it possible to store food in a safe and healthy manner. However, many orthodox Hindus still refuse to eat food that is not satvic. This stagnancy, which can be seen in all religions, shows that it is impractical to found a governing body based on religious tenets.

Politically, Hinduism is ineffective because of its indifference towards the outside world. Hinduism breeds an indirect form of indifference through it’s concepts of Karma and Dharma. The idea of Karma says that every action an individual engages in will have its resulting consequences (positive or negative). Based on this idea, Hindus have no desire to correct the wrong-doings of others. The idea of Dharma states that each person has their own duty or purpose in life, and must fulfill this. These two policies breed indifference to external events. For example, if someone is taking advantage of another person at their place of employment, a Hindu will not take any kind of action to stop this because of the laws of Karma and Dharma. Based on Karma, he feels that the harasser will get his punishment eventually, whether this occurs instantly or in another life; based on Dharma, he does not feel that it is his duty to correct the actions of others. Thus, as a result of the ideas of Karma and Dharma, Hindus have a lack of ability to control their world. This is demonstrated in the novel Mr. Sampath by R.K. Narayanan. The protagonist of this book typifies Hindu’s indifference; in many situations, he lets people take advantage of him at his own expense. The entire novel is illustrated by one quote: “Life and all the world is passing by- why bother about anything (Naipaul 12)?”Politically, this mentality is not applicable because of its internal nature. In religion or spirituality, where much of the action is internal, this philosophy is effective in creating peace within the mind. However, in politics, this philosophy is not effective because everything is externalized and based on others. If you simply let things go as they please in the external world, success is sparing. After his death, Gandhi’s ideas continued to influence Indian politics. Thus, Gandhi’s ties to the Hindu beliefs of Karma and Dharma had damaging effects on India.

Gandhi’s non-violence and indifference has created conflict between India and Pakistan. This started with the interaction between Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah saw that Gandhi was leading India towards becoming a predominantly Hindu nation. As a Muslim, Jinnah pushed the idea of a Muslim state (i.e. Pakistan) by forming the Muslim League. Gandhi was strongly against the separation of groups of people, especially people of his country; thus, he was against the splitting of India, which encompassed modern-day Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India. However, Pakistan (including modern-day Bangladesh) was formed. Gandhi’s fault was promoting India as a Hindu country. While this was not direct, it was made obvious by his constant practice of Hinduism. The Indian nation started to form around Gandhi, as demonstrated by the massive following of his fasts and marches. Jinnah realized that this would lead to Hinduism becoming the religion of India and started to support the idea of an Islamic country. Thus, Gandhi has inadvertently spoiled India through his excessive use of Hinduism.

Promotion of Hinduism led to a Muslim hatred of Gandhi. This is typified in a speech by Nathuram Godse, Gandhi’s assassin. He says that his rationale for murdering Gandhi was his “constant and consistent pandering to the Muslims,” “[which] goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to and end immediately (Guha 38).” Because of Gandhi’s ties to Hinduism, the Muslims’ hatred of Gandhi evolved into hatred of Hindus; this initiated a rift between the two groups in India and the areas around it.

Simplicity of Life:

Gandhi tried to rule based on an idea termed Perennial Philosophy, which was made popular by Gottfried Leibniz. Perennial philosophy is essentially a set of underlying truths or realities that exist in tall people. In Hinduism, it is known as Sanathana Dharma (which is probably how the idea was introduced to Gandhi). The basic tenets of Perennial Philosophy are as follows:

Reality is beyond physical entities and sensory perception—it is received by the intellect and the spirit.
Humans have a 2-sided nature; one side is a physical aspect, which experiences birth and death, while the other side is an intellectual aspect, which is not subject to these physical attributes.
All humans can see the other side of reality by utilizing this intellectual aspect.
The realization of this other side is the final objective of humans (Loemker 136-139).

Gandhi created his political stance based on these ideas, targeting the perception of this reality; the objective of his ideal government would be to create an environment that was conducive to the opening of the link between man and this reality. However, the basic problem of Gandhi’s idea lies within the above tenets. It says that all humans are able to see the reality; however, this does not imply that the have any kind of desire to do so. The desire to see this reality must come from with in the individual. If the desire for this does not come from within the individual, an attempt at a government based on these philosophies is useless. Also, Gandhi’s idea of government (which is based on Perennial Philosophy) calls for ever-present freedom; this is only effective if the people under this governing body use this freedom to conduct some kind of internal search for the reality. However, there is bound to be at least one individual in this group who abuses the freedom for some kind of personal gain and, in turn, damages the society. Thus, when one person begins to do this, others do the same in order to keep up. This eventually evolves into a chaotic society. Had Gandhi’s ideals been fully expressed in India’s government, the nation would have been in shambles.

Also, through the ideals of Perennial Philospohy (or Sanathana Dharma), Gandhi supported indifference to the outside world. He implied that the metamorphosis of the self is the most important thing and thus, people should not interfere with others. Again, we notice that while this philosophy may work with internal fields, like psychology, spirituality, and religion, it is a rather ineffective philosophy in externalized fields, like economics and politics. Also, as people grow and mature, they have different goals and different perspectives on life. Because of these differences in goals, you can not rule people in different phases of life based on the assumption that they will be internally focused. Thus, you can not rule people based on this because it does not always apply to them.

Gandhi encouraged people to life a simplistic life and did so himself. His house, which was made of mud and had no running water or furniture, cost less than 1 US Dollar. This also goes along with the idea of Perennial Philosophy, that the focus should be internal and not external. This is also seen in a statement made by Mira Behn, one of his followers in 1949:

“Tragedy today is that the educated and moneyed classes are altogether out of touch with…our Mother Earth, and the animal and vegetable population which she sustains…By science and machinery, he (man) may get huge returns for a time, but ultimately will come desolation (Guha 230).”

However, not everyone is capable of living within his simplistic ideals. For example, mothers can not live entirely in simplicity because of the physical and financial needs of their children. Because of their children’s education, they can not live simplistic, internalized lives. As the child begins to get involved with other people at school, the mother is dragged in as well, causing her to discard the simplistic ideal. Hence, simplicity is a difficult ideal to fulfill. Gandhi’s political ideas failed due to a need for a hardly-achievable level of simplicity.

Ignorance of Issues:

Because of Gandhi’s focus on the internal self, India became ignorant of the issues they would face upon becoming a country, including industrialization and technological advancement. The problems related to Gandhi’s minimalist idea of living by self-subsistence are further exemplified in his economic ideas, his educational vision of India, as well as other policies he advocated (or did not advocate). Some of his follies in these areas were resolved by India’s 5-year-plans.

Gandhi was much more focused on freeing India from British oppression than he was on the growth of India as a nation. As a result, he did very little planning as to how India would function as a nation, especially economically. This was seen in his lack of an economic vision for India. Because of his self-subsistent lifestyle (and his imposition of this on India), he was not focused on making India one of the world’s most prominent nations. This lack of economic desire is seen in his focus on the self-sustaining cottage industries. For example, Gandhi said that he would spend August 15, 1948 (India’s first Independence Day), “doing some constructive work,” mentioning spinning thread (to make his own loin cloth) as his main motive (Guha 20). While the British controlled India, this practice helped India gain a degree of economic independence; however, it was continued after independence was gained, resulting in economic apathy. Gandhi never set any kind of goal or objective for the economy. He failed to encourage the idea or entertain the thought of boosting India’s Gross Domestic Product. Thus, India endured little economic growth until the 1980’s, when the economic liberalization of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi initiated growth (Guha 572-573).

Gandhi was very academically avid, as demonstrated by his study of law in Great Britain. However, Gandhi, in accordance with his idea of self-subsistence, did not try to pass on academic initiative to the Indian people. In his belief that academic accomplishment was not necessary for self-sufficiency, he overlooked a very important aspect of Hinduism. Hinduism states that there are 4 main stages of life: Brahmachari (learner/student), Grihastha (bachelor), Vanaprastha (family man), and Sanyasa (old age). Gandhi’s ideas of autonomy and rural farm life are most closely related to Sanyasa. However, it should be noted that one can not skip or shorten one of the stages, because this will cause it to resurface somewhere else. This is comparable to a grown man acting in a juvenile manner because he had a shortened childhood. By not creating a strong academic base for the new country, he was taking away the rights of people to fully fulfill the Brahmachari stage. Education was certainly present in India during his time; however, it was not at the level it is today: intitially, there were very few prestigious universities, research labs, or academically revered people (i.e. noble laureates) in or from India. This was also an issue in India’s first elections, where only 15% of the people eligible to vote were literate (Guha 143). The lack of educational focus was not combated until founding of the first 5 IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) between 1954 and 1964 (Guha 223).

To some degree, Gandhi indirectly fought off industrialization in India. He was focused on an autonomous, self-subsistent life, which consisted of high levels of simplicity. This was noted by Jawaharlal Nehru when he said, “We have to industrialize India as fast as possible,” during his presidency from 1947 to 1964 (Guha 214). His advocacy of this lifestyle caused a large portion of the Indian society to follow him in living this way. Thus, they were led away from urbanization and were primarily involved in self-contained cottage industries. Also, Gandhi discouraged the people from using British goods, including farming machines, because they created dependency on the British. This is seen in his march to Dandi, where he extracted his own salt from ocean water in order to boycott British salt (and the taxes on it) (Gandhi 314). The rejection of British agricultural machinery led to the use of primitive, less-efficient tools. As a result of the rejection of machinery, they also rejected British farming methods. The denial of these two things continued until the third round of 5-year-plans from 1961 to 1966, which coincides with the Indian Green Revolution (Guha 214). It was only during this time that ideas such as crop rotation, mechanization, and cooperative farming were introduced to Indian farmers. The results of this were seen in 1968, when there was a substantial increase in food production (Guha 442).

Additionally, the consequences of Gandhi’s lack of economic foresight were compounded by the large population. India’s ratio of resources to people is low due to its immense population density. Thus, after India had gained independence, there were not enough resources to sustain the entire population. For example, there was a lack of food, which caused many deaths especially in the lower socio-economic groups (Guha 210). This lack of resources eventually led to the implementation of five-year-plans, which overcame some of the deficiencies associated with Gandhi’s lack of foresight.

Caste System:

Gandhi is well-known for his attempt at reforming the caste system in India. However, there are still repercussions of the system in Indian society today. Some of these could have been avoided if Gandhi had changed the way he addressed the caste heirarchy. While Gandhi spoke against the caste system, he never tried to create any actual reform or clearly-defined progression. He never attempted to facilitate the creation of organizations to help the Dalits (outcastes). When he indirectly gave them some level of freedom (as a result of public response to his speeches), they had no avenues of progressing to a better lifestyle; thus, the continued functioning in the same manner that they did before the gained freedom. Another issue with his reform of the caste system was that he tried to abolish it instead of change it. The caste system is deeply tied into Hinduism and thus, abolishment is nearly impossible. His reform would have been more effective if he had tried to make it more equal instead of destroying it.

Conclusion:

In retrospect, while Gandhi may have been a strong spiritual leader, he was not necessarily the best political leader. Much of this stemmed from his Hindu underpinnings. He incurred problems because was the spearhead and the primary leader of the independence movement. His ideas would have been more successful if he had created some kind of organized congress to assist him in his conquest from Indian independence. Thus, some of the focus would have been taken off Gandhi and dispersed among the congress members. This also could have helped lessen the ties to Hinduism which Gandhi initiated as well create a larger target audience because of the broader spectrum of ideas they asserted (religious as well as political, social, and economic). After gaining independence, this group could have then formed the nucleus of the new government. The concept of a group of men fighting for independence could have avoided a lot of problems, i.e. continuation of Hindu indifference and division with Pakistan. In order to prevent the schism between Muslims and Hindus, Gandhi could also have empowered Muslims in different associations. For example, Jinnah said that he left the Indian National Congress (INC) because it was dominated by Hindus. Also, B.R. Ambedkar, a former Dalit, stated that INC had little representation of the lower castes and was dominated by higher castes (Guha 365). Therefore, Gandhi could have remedied the caste system and maintained the unity of Hindus and Muslims by empowering these Muslims and Dalits in the Indian National Congress, a group he was once a member of.

Annotated Bibliography:

Gandhi, Mohandas K. Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Washington D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1948.

Mohandas lead the movement for Indian independence through his methods of nonviolence. Educated in England, he is considered to be quite literate and fluent in the English language. In terms of this work, he is credible because it is an autobiography. However, his views are biased because he does not see the views of others or the long-term impacts of his policies.

Guha, Ramachandra. India After Gandhi. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007.

Guha was educated in New Delhi and Calcutta, India. He eventually went on to teach in the Indian Institute of Science, Stanford University, Yale University, and University of California at Berkley. After this, he settled in India and became a full-time writer. Some of his works include Wickets in the East and This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India. He is a credible source due to his credentials. However, he is limited in that he could not see the people’s immediate reaction and state-of-mind during Gandhi’s time.

Loemker, Leroy E. The Philosophy of Leibniz and the Modern World. Charlotte, North Carolina: Vanderbilt University Press, 1973.

Loemker is the most prolific translator of Leibniz’s works. He was a faculty at Emory University and has had a significant impact on the university. He has also translated works such as Discourse on Metaphysics and New System of the Nature and Communication of Substances. His work is limited because he may not necessarily portray the connotative meaning that Leibniz tried to emphasize.

Naipaul, V.S. India: A Wounded Civilization. New York: Random House, 1976.

Naipaul is a British writer of Indo-Trinidadian descent. He has been knighted and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001. His books include An Area of Darkness, A Congo Diary, and A Turn in the South. Due to his credentials, he is a credible source. However, his work is limited because he evaluates things from the perspective of the Western world.

Works Cited:

Gandhi, Mohandas K. Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Washington D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1948.

Guha, Ramachandra. India After Gandhi. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007.

Loemker, Leroy E. The Philosophy of Leibniz and the Modern World. Charlotte, North Carolina: Vanderbilt University Press, 1973.

Naipaul, V.S. India: A Wounded Civilization. New York: Random House, 1976.
Works Referenced:

Burki, Shahid Javed. Pakistan: Fifty Years of Nationhood. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999.

Lauder, Hugh & Brown, Phillip & Dillabough, Jo-Anne & Hasley, A.H. Education, Globalization, and Social Change. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2006.

Naseem, S.M. The Post-CColonial State and Social Transformation in India and Pakistan. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2002.

Shurmer-Smith, Pamela. India: Globalization and Change. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2000.

Abstract:

Gandhi was one a highly influential and well-known Indian figure. However, while Gandhi helped to obtain Indian freedom, he also damaged India through his goals and ideals, including his ties to Hinduism, political philosophies, and attempts at caste system reform.

Through the terminology he used, Gandhi promoted India as a predominantly or entirely Hindu state. This is seen in the use of phrases like Jai Hind and satyagraha. The idea of advocating any religion as a political philosophy is not good because philosophy is internalized while politics are eternalized. Also, Hinduism specifically is ineffective because of it’s concepts of Karma and Dharma. These breed an indirect form of inaction, which creates a lack of productivity in the external world. The promotion of Hinduism led to the splitting of India and Pakistan and was the root of Gandhi’s assassination.

Gandhi ruled based on Perennial Philosophy, an idea popularized by Leibniz. This theory states that there is an alternate, intellectual reality and that humans must find it. Gandhi’s political ideals revolved around people’s quest for this goal. However, because people are at different stages of life, they have different goals, making Gandhi’s policy ineffective. He encouraged simplicity of life, which was not attainable by all.

Gandhi did not plan how India would function after independence. As a result, India was far behind other nations academically, industrially, and economically at the beginning of the post-independence era.

Gandhi’s well-known attempt at reforming the caste system failed because castes are an integral part of Hinduism. Had he tried to fix (instead of eliminate) the system, he would have been more effective.

Gandhi should have created a party to help him lead India to independence. This would have taken the focus off of him and placed it on others, as not to create a martyr effect.

Amazing Orkut!

2007-07-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

Man! These orkut and google sites are so smart!! After hearing about it a lot, I thought I will create an orkut account. So I just gave the minimal info(nothing!) and logged in to my spanking new shiny(well - nothing there to shine yet) orkut page.

This is what it said:

You are connected to 64,566,907 people through 0 friends.

Just imagine how many people you will be connected to if you just add a couple of friends. Wonder how many people Kevin Bacon is connected to. Couple of galaxies probably!

Windows Vista? - Hasta la Vista, Microsoft!

2007-02-02T06:32:00.001-08:00

Microsoft lists 100 Reasons why you'll Be Speechless if you try Windows Vista. I don't know about that. Here is my one reason why I will not try Vista. My Mac OS X/ XP/ Win2k are running just fine, thanks!

And what will it take to run Vista on my desktop with 333 MHz celeron that is still running win2k just fine. My kids play games on that and its still decent in getting my work done - browsing and doc. And I most of the time, I use that desktop only to scan stuff (the scanner has drives only for win2k!)

That too with kids playing more on dedicated gaming devices(gameboys, game cubes, Wiis, PS-x - does anyone play on the PC anymore), we need not play on PCs. And that too kids play more browser based games.

I have heard good things about the Vista UI - but you need processor power for it. I also hear that the BSoD has been upgraded to RSoD!!!

And if you use Firefox and proxomitron like me, you will stay bug free. I don't even have anti-virus on any of my machines(*and* my kids don't have admin rights!)

So thank you Microsoft! I will keep my dollars.

Technorati Tags: Windows Vista

Fundraiser for American Heart Association

2007-01-31T21:45:00.000-08:00

A plea from my kids:

Hi! I’m joining in the American Heart Association’s Jump Rope For Heart event at my school. I will be jumping rope to help the American Heart Association raise money to fight heart disease and stroke. Can you help me by making a donation? Thanks!

The American Heart Association's online fundraising website has a minimum donation amount of $25.00. If you want to donate less, that's ok. You can just send the check right to me and I'll make sure the American Heart Association gets it.

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support American Heart Association - Mid-Atlantic Affiliate

Firefox rulz!

2006-12-11T12:32:00.000-08:00

This is hilarious. Microsoft Adcenter Support suggesting the customer to try Firefox!!!

I hope Helen is still employed in Microsoft! I had once contacted Microsoft about an IE7 problem and the support person sent me a link to a posting in the net(using googlegroups page). But this one takes the cake.

Recently Joel Spolsky took apart Vista's shutdown options. I also read an article in response by a guy who worked on that shutdown menu. You would think someone is describing Federal Government at work! If someone knows that URL, please post it in the comments. The meeting attendees to work on the menu cracked me up. I remembered my previous job when one programmer had to update seven project managers on 'status' and 'progress'.

Useability and Design

2006-09-21T18:39:00.000-07:00

Of all the people, Sprint sends a new phone to Joel Spoelsky to try out their service! What were they thinking... I am sure some heads rolled there. Spolsky really ripped into them. Big time. I don't want to spoil your fun. Read it for yourself. It's a bit lengthy. But it's awesome.

Speaking of useability, where are windows apps going? Recently the apps are having a mind of their own. Skype for example. I uncheck the option to start skype when windows starts. You think it cares? No Sir. It's a tease option. And I hate having to click three times to close these apps. Apps like skype, instant messaging, etc., They have just a close option in the Menu. When you close, they shrink to the task bar. Then you click on right mouse button and click exit. And then they ask you again if you are sure! Jeez!!

And couple of days back, I installed the new yahoo messenger with voice. I normally keep an eye to exclude the extra apps they throw in. I don't remember seeing any option. Today I had to uninstall 3 or 4 apps that Yahoo Messenger installed. Why do you need an app in your machine for webmail? And why is yahoo offering tabbed browsing feature to IE. I mean - why bother!

Orbitz thinks I'm gay!

2006-09-06T10:48:00.000-07:00

Have you ever watched this episode of "King of Queens" where TiVo thinks the guy is gay and records such programs? Now real life meets SitCom. Orbitz thinks I am gay. I thought my colleague photoshopped when he sent me a screen-shot of Orbitz displaying him "All Gay Vacations" with a link to Orbitz's Gay Travel Section!!! My friend's destination was MCO. That didn't work for me. So I tried SFO!

Pretty soon Orbitz site will have a R rating. Anyway - your assignment for this weekend is - find all the gay destinations in the world!

Solar system downsized!

2006-08-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

Solar system is catching on the need to compete by slimming down the organization. The board of Solar System Inc has announced that they are letting go one of their personnel of planetary proportions! According to this new Sarbanes Oxley, Pluto did not conform his path and neighborhood to the regulation(new I may add). And lost his planethood. So head on over to this site and enjoy his status till BBC conforms to the new board! Oh boy, he did have a wacky orbit.

But worry no more. Help is on the way. The board is interviewing a few candidates and we might have a bloated company pretty soon. Possibly as many as 12 planets! Yeah!!

Mutating Windows!

2006-08-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Please don't bother updating your windows. It will do it itself. Now the thing is mutated to a stage where you can not update it manually. These are the steps I had to go thru today.

1. Noticed that my XP setup asked me to reboot as it installed an update.
2. When I restarted, I did a Microsoft update. It came up with a big list.(Wait - didn't they roll out, like 30 updates, yesterday?). I opted for download and install.
3. It downloaded all but installation failed.
4. It said another install is in progress(WTF)
5. After a while the dreaded yellow shield appeared in the tray thingy and prompted for express install. I said yes(do I have a choice at this stage?)
6. It started installing.
7. Rebooted and all is well(till tomorrow I think)

The same thing happened in another XP installation(from step 2 onwards). May be this is the right time to pass a law barring Microsoft from getting into genetic engineering. Hope it's not too late!

Click Monkeys!

2006-08-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

There is a running joke in our office about click monkeys - you must have experienced the same - if you are demoing/driving the keyboard in a conference room, pretty soon everyone turns you into a click monkey! I was reading an article on slashdot about click fraud prevention by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and saw this site in one of the comments.

Click Monkeys!

This is absolutely hilarious. Check out the giant tanker ship click farm! The site claims that they have a huge ship just off U.S. waters near San Francisco with over - get this - 20,000 click monkeys.

It gets better. Each monkey has 3 computers that cycle thru a bunch of connections thru different ISPs. So the sites see clicks coming from different IPs. If you were to believe the site, its not illegal. Because they are outside the US. How do you use an American ISP and make this legal? The site says the computers will cycle connections thru AOL, Earthlink, PacBell, Verizon and FibbleNet.

Anyway - we had a good laugh. And some of us are applying. Do you have a monkey in you? And can it click??

Damned if you do, Damned if you don't..

2006-07-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

This CNET article is saying that Microsoft is planning to automatically push IE7 as part of a Windows Update. The user will be prompted to install it or not. Then it is not automatic, is it? :-)

Automatic Updates will first notify people when IE 7 is ready to install and then show a welcome screen that presents key features and the choices to install, not install or postpone installation.

Like the average user can understand half the features and make a decistion!!! If they know that much, they will be using firefox. IE7 might break some of your web applications. That is why Microsoft is giving you another tool to automatically block the automatic IE7 update. Is your head spinning at the last one? Gee, Microsoft thinks of everything :-)

Blake Ross himself has said IE7 is much improved. So IE7 has made progress and is more secure and should keep you safe. But it might break your existing apps. Damned if you update. Damned if you don't.

I tried IE7 on XP and was the butt of many jokes at work. People stopped at my cube, said - this guy tries pre-alpha software from Microsoft and laughed uncontrollably. It was painful. I tried rolling it back and it left me in a strange state. It functioned like IE7 but reported IE6(or the other way - I try not to remember all the details). Microsoft support interestingly sent me a link to googlegroups article which didn't help. If India based tech support also gave up on you, then there is no hope :-)

I think I will first turn off my automatic update and wait for emails from National Cyber Alert Systems.

May Gates be with you!

New Phrase: "Stopping out of school"

2006-07-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

Here is a brand new extension from Mozilla. Only this time, it's an extension to English language and not to that wonderful browser called Firefox. Add this phrase to your phracabulary(thats another word - you read here first): "Stopping out of school".

Blake Ross, the wunderkid behind the popular browser, said in an interview that he is stopping out of school. According to him, it's not 'dropping out of school'. It's called stopping out of school - meaning to work on a startup! I think you need to be strong on XUL to figure out the difference :-)

In this interview, he talks about his startup. To be precise, he doesn't talk about the startup. In the interview he says he can't talk about his startup - especially to a newspaper from Seattle! He is also very honest about IE7. To the shock of Firefox mafia, he has nice things to say about IE7. And get this: he wants to end up in film business. Blake Ross - the man behind Firefox browser - wants to write fiction and make that into a movie. Coming to theaters near you - Tabs wielding browser extensions attacking Darth IE. Do you want Google Office with that?

*** Whatd'ya know? The man himself has left a comment here. I'm honored(Assuming it is Blake Ross himself)

Lawnmower and parenting

2006-05-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

Josh is assembling one of his puzzles. He is past the tricky first part where you have absolutely no idea about which piece to begin with. As you help him by asking questions about shapes and alignments of parts, the question arises in your mind. "Are you being a good father? Are you teaching Josh all he should know for a five year old?" You wonder how many parents feel the same. You decide to look up some statistics published somewhere on that topic. At least it would be good for your psyche if you learn that seventy-eight percentage - any number above fifty, of parents feel that they are being bad parents.

Just look at this room. The train set that Josh played with yesterday, is still sitting there in the middle of the room. Of course the engine and a wagon are missing. You make a mental note to return them here if you step on them in the kitchen or bathroom. The miniature cars and the plastic animals are scattered everywhere. This room reminds you of your room when you were in college. You remember the article that said that all children grow into their parents. What if Josh turns out like you? And how better is your office than Josh's room. You quickly dismiss the picture of your office cubicle. The center of your intense activity with papers and magazines covering all the surfaces of the desk, the yellow-post-it notes on the overhead bookshelf, the little napkin with the customer's phone number taped to the computer monitor and at least three manuals with bookmarks - napkins again.

How much of your father have you become. The fact that you haven't become a person who runs his life like a well-oiled machine gives a lot of comfort. Josh will not be like you!

Josh is almost done and you look at the dinosaur emerging. You make little corrections to fit the parts tightly. Just then you remember the calendar Paul has in his cubicle. Paul's wife has made a calendar at the Kinko's with their photos. Paul's daughter Karen is just a month younger than Josh. There were pictures of Paul and Karen fishing - Her first fish, playing checkers, family vacationing in the Blue Ridge, in the beach and Karen learning ballet.

You take some consolation on your child's achievements. And the fact that he knows more animals than you do. Even the name of that rat with aluminum sidings in Texas. And that he can tell apart a T-Rex, Allosaurus, Brachio and Stego. At least till 'Land before Times', after which they all became Sharp Tooth, Little Feet and Sarah's. And how about his computer skills? Josh can shutdown the computer properly. A five-year-old can turn on a computer but how many can shut it down properly. He can load his CDs, handle the mouse and fly through his games with no assistance. You make a note for the zillionth time to cut down his time on the PC. You definitely don't want him to develop your 'monitor-tan'. You think that Josh is going to send an email to your cell phone any day now. If only you can teach him his alphabets soon!

Josh has finished the puzzle and wants some action. You both go out to the yard. Suddenly you get the great idea of teaching your kid the fine art of lawn mowing. "Ah, that should fix Paul and Karen". You set up the equipment and lecture Josh about mowing, lawn, grass height, the switches and so on. You wonder how much a five year old register of this lecture. Just when the mower is humming nicely, your wife calls out to remind about lunch. And about the dinner party tonight at Fred's place. And when you turn back to resume your tutorial, you are in for a surprise.

The lawn mower has gone right through your flowerbed. Your weeks of hard work, the envy of your neighbors and the jewel of your yard, all gone in one push. You lose your control and start screaming at Josh. That produces his mother instantly. She picks up Josh who is transitioning from a state of achievement to crying. She stops you with, "Hey Hold on. You are raising a child. Not a flower-bed."

You shout back asking would not a five-year-old know not to mow through a flowerbed. The defense attorney's response started with, "If a thirty-seven year old knows how to set a mower in front of a flower-bed...."

As you go back inside the house, you wonder if Karen can shutdown the PC properly.

Recipe

2006-05-09T13:00:00.001-07:00

“What are you doing?” asked a very happy looking Raj.

It was eight in the evening. We were tired.

“Just looking into a simple problem”, I said. Sam and I had decided a long time back never to get into specifics with Raj. In this case, the simple problem was a bug that threatened to stop our major software release. We had been trying to fix the problem for two days without any luck.

Raj offered to take us to dinner. Raj is the chief technical officer of our company. How he got to that position was a corporate mystery. Usually Raj delves into our problems and was ready to give us unsolicited advices. But today he stayed away from our problem. So far.

“How about some beer first?” Raj asked. After a marathon debugging effort, we were ready for anything. Even a beer with Raj. A break from the monotony also would give us some rest and hopefully a solution when we attack it again the next day.

As were driving down the streets of downtown Washington, Raj got into his trivia mode. “Do you know that Washington, D.C. was designed after Roman cities? Look at the numbered and lettered streets. We said that we were not aware of that.

“If you notice you will not find the letter ‘I’ , in the lettered streets. That is because there is no letter ‘I’ in Latin. Did you see that movie Indiana Jones? Harrison Ford steps on the letters to get to the Holy Grail. Stepping on a letter could mean death. Just imagine – a letter in a foreign alphabet decides your life and death.

I said something in appreciation of his knowledge of history. In return he lectured us on the need to keep our ears and eyes open. “Who knows? You will end up in that show “Who wants to be a millionaire”. And this alphabet nonsense could stand between you and a million dollars”.

Raj was not technically sharp. He followed his own processes and methodical and slow approaches to problem solving. We on the other hand considered ourselves free spirits. We just attacked a problem in a “prodigal manner” almost till a solution presented itself! And we had been lucky often. Raj was successful in his career probably because he just kept his eyes and ears open. Whatever that meant.

We were at the Capital Brewery. Raj wanted to know if they serve Manchurian. He then went into how he used to enjoy beer and a snack called “Gobi Manchurian” that-goes-well-with-beer in the Bangalore pubs. He said that was a Chinese food and wondered whether the Chinese really had a food item called Manchurian. I suggested that they would probably have it in Manchuria.

When we were gulping down the beer, Raj went into how he had to work with slow and outdated computers, almost no software tools and no documentation too. He explained over an hour about how they pulled out quality software from thin air.

Then came the question. “What exactly is your problem today?” Sam said that the program was crashing after taking the stock symbols without giving the stock quotes as the program was supposed to do. I suspected that it was the beer that made Sam break our long standing resolution. Raj asked if we used any other software in our program. We knew where his questions were leading. There are two types of programmers. One who readily blamed other’s work for the problems and our type who always suspected their own work and worked continuously to improve it. “May be you should check the data when it is processed by the WebStream’s library. Who knows what they are doing”. WebStream is a partner company whose programs we used in our product.

Surprisingly Raj touched something we didn’t suspect for the source of the current problem. Sam silently nodded to me conveying that we ought to explore that path. Though our motto is that our product is guilty unless proven otherwise, we wanted to examine that angle as we had tried everything by then.

Then we went to dinner. When we were devouring the Ethiopian bread, Raj launched into recipes and tastes of about ten similar delicacies from his homeland. And somewhere between preparing the dough and deep frying the eggplants, I decided not to take up Raj’s suggestion. It may be that I wanted another dinner with Raj to punish ourselves for our oversight. Or it may be that I wanted to master that eggplant cuisine!

Reducing Agent

2006-05-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

When I first saw the advertisement, I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Lose all your friends or your money back”. I had never seen anything like that. I had an overdose of friends and always wanted to cut down the number of friends. But this method of losing all the friends intrigued me. Lose all the friends and start over again. May be this time I can choose the right ones. So I went to see this person.

Parry invited me into his house with a warm smile. I wondered how such a nice person would help me lose all my friends. Parry started explaining his method. First he wanted me to know the history behind his technique. Once Parry ran into somebody in his neighborhood grocery store. That man invited Parry to his house to discuss a revolutionary business plan. Parry was told that if he did that business for a couple of years, he would earn enough money that he could retire. As that person bored him with all the outcomes of doing that business with phrases like residual income, network of people, achieving your dreams, inner potential, pyramid of workers under you, the power of franchise, Parry was looking for the escape route.

He couldn’t escape without taking two videotapes that would explain the concept further. Parry said that there wasn’t any information but more spiel on people living rich and happily after doing that business. Parry said that he dreaded the calls from this businessman and hid whenever he saw him in the grocery store. It changed his lifestyle a lot in the following weeks – not answering the phone, shopping in a distant grocery store and so on. One day the phone rang as he was having dinner. As he let the phone ring, he reviewed the whole experience with a detached view and suddenly had an insight. He thought through the process and decided to try it out. Next day, he invited a few of his friends. As he explained the business plan, he made sure it was more boring than his own ordeal.

He tried to follow-up with his friends but could never talk to anyone. He realized that his insight was working when he received a thank-you note from the local Phone Company. They were thanking him for the sudden demand he created for their caller-id service.

Parry said that he had mastered that art to perfection and he could make people disappear. Literally. I said that would not be possible. Parry smiled and took me to his backyard. We saw his neighbor working in his yard. Parry called out his name. And in the next instant, that man disappeared. I mean, he just disappeared. He was faster than the Cheshire cat of Alice in Wonderland. That cat at least left a grin back for a while. I didn’t even see his facial expression changing. There was no “Poof” or no “jingle” with which people disappear in fairy tales. He just plain disappeared.

I asked him for some more demonstration to believe my own eyes. Parry took me to the riverside. He said he could show more in the grocery store but they don’t allow him inside anymore. We drove to the riverside and Parry was scanning the joggers and people who were fishing and playing in the water. He finally spotted a friend in a kayak and waved. And in the next second, the kayak was empty. It was as if it was drifting along empty.

As we were driving back, I asked Parry how long it took for the people to reappear. Parry chuckled and said, “that I will never know.”

Shifting horses

2006-05-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

“Something doesn’t sound right”, John said. John was pulling out of the restaurant parking lot. That statement threw Abigail further into turmoil. They just finished dinner during which she found John to be quieter than his usual self. John and Abigail have been dating for six months. Abigail had a suspicion that the relationship was in trouble. She thought that John was not happy with her. John had not said anything on that matter explicitly.

As they were waiting for the light to turn green, John thought about the noise he heard when he was shifting the gear back in the parking lot. That made him mad. He paid five hundred dollars that day to get the transmission fixed. “What a rip off? I paid through my nose for this lousy job. I will call him first thing in the morning”, he said to himself. Abigail saw his irritation. “Oh, my God. What have I done now? He is such a nice guy and he is bottling up all his feelings”. She wondered how soon he was going to explode. She agonized over the restlessness that was driving him crazy.

“Warranty! He might bring up the word warranty. And I will show him warranty.” John uttered the word warranty couple of times under his breath. Abigail noticed that. She thought that John must be in a lot of pain and that it was getting unbearable for him.

John changed the speed and kept listening for the noise. He shifted to a lower gear and heard nothing. But he was not convinced. He repeated this twice and thought he again heard the noise. Abigail was almost in tears. With the way John was driving, she was afraid if he would reach home safe that night. She prayed for some more time to fix the relationship.

Abigail wondered if she expected too much from John. He had a few faults but she thought that they caused her no big problems. She faulted herself for expecting a knight in shining armors. She blurted out, “There are no knights riding on horses anymore, John”. “Huh”, John said. He only heard the word horses. “Pardon me. Horses?” Abigail felt all the guiltier. “What am I doing to a man who knows his faults.”

John thought that the world would be a better place with just horses. At least they don’t have transmissions to fix. He smiled to himself. “May be I will ask the dealer to take this car and give me a horse.”

John dropped Abigail at her apartment. She looked out the window and watched John driving out with a frown. Abigail burst out and threw herself on the bed and sobbed. When she calmed down, she called Elise. She described the whole evening to her friend breaking down many times in between. The two went over every word and expression during the dinner and the ride home. They discussed for two hours. And several hours in the following days.

Abigail was convinced that she was not the right person for John. She had a lengthy conversation with John and he tried in vain to convince her. She broke off with him that left John confused. One month later, John was having dinner with Carl and Kathy. He asked Kathy, “Did Abigail ever have horses?”

The Father

2006-05-09T12:58:00.000-07:00

When I reached the terminal at the airport, there was thirty minutes to the scheduled departure. There was a long line at the counter thanks to the popularity of e-ticket. I saw Stephane ahead and waved. There was only one clerk (customer service representative?) at the counter and he was taking a long time to issue the boarding passes. I wondered if the plane would leave on time. I looked behind to check the length of the line and saw a family of three approaching. The father was carrying a girl and dragging a Pullman. The mother was carrying a small backpack and looked impatient. I saw her saying something to the husband as they joined our line. Must be one of those, “it’s all your fault” things.

Luckily another counter opened and the line started moving fast. I smiled to myself when I noticed Stephane handing over his driver’s license as soon as he stepped up to the counter. You would do the same thing if your last name were Ruaud. In another few minutes I moved to the counter, requested and got an aisle seat. I used to enjoy plane trips. And that too in long flights to the West Coast, I used to request a window seat to enjoy the view. I don’t enjoy travel any more and avoided them as much as possible. In particular, I dreaded the trips to headquarters in Los Angeles. I lose an entire day on the return journey from the West Coast. The traffic there was a nightmare. I had never seen permanent HOV lanes in any other city.

I boarded the plane, took a book from the bag and stored the bag in the overhead cabin. After a few minutes, a middle-aged man took the next seat. After making himself comfortable and promptly claiming both the armrests, he introduced himself. As I was talking with him, I noticed the family occupying the same row across the aisle. We pulled out of the gate on time but were taxiing as there were few planes waiting to take off before us. The armrest stealer commented that the airlines guarantee only pulling out of the gate by the departure time. He said that the airports are overloaded everywhere and people spend long time taxiing for take-off or for gate availability after landing. Across the aisle, the father was busy storing the belongings in the overhead cabin after taking a baby food bottle and a book. The mother claimed the book and settled comfortably in the window seat. The father started talking to the baby explaining to her that they were in the plane and getting ready to fly to Los Angeles. The mother reminded that he forgot to take the spoon. The father got up, took the bag out, fished out a spoon, bib and napkins.

The stealer was giving his ideas on how to make air-travel efficient. I let him rant for sometime and then fed him with ideas Arthur Hailey had in his novel Airport. He had read the book and said that those ideas would not be used as time had proved already. And got back to his ideas again. I went back to nodding. The baby’s crying interrupted him and the stealer threw a disapproving look at the family. The father was trying to calm the baby and apologized to us. He pulled out a book from his bag and started showing the pictures of animals and birds to the little girl. That calmed the baby and we all fell silent waiting for the take-off. The stewardess came around checking the seat belts and handed over a lap belt to the family. The father attached the belt and took the girl on his lap. The mother inspected the belt, gave her approval and went back to the book.

The plane took off after a few minutes. When they turned off the seat-belt sign, I walked over to Stephane and chatted with him for a while. I saw them distributing the drinks and got back to my seat. The stealer started again about the airline’s choice of the snacks. He wondered why they even bothered doing that.

Across the aisle, the mother had gone to sleep. The father was feeding the baby. I noticed that he was doing a fine job with minimal movements of the spoon and the baby’s clean face. I remembered the last time I traveled with my family and my son’s face after every meal. The girl seemed to be very attached to the father. After sometime, the father frowned as if he smelt something. He took a bag and carried the girl to the rest room. I wanted to stretch and walked over to the area near the wings and the steward’s station. A thought came to my mind that the father must be one of those stay-home dads and the mother was the breadwinner of the family.

As I was finishing a glass of water, the father emerged from the rest room with the daughter and joined me. He apologized again for the disturbance. I told him that he was really handling the baby well. He said he loved his daughter very much. After discussing the weather and sports, the talk turned to our profession. I told him where I was headed and asked him if they were on vacation. The father replied, “No. I am on a business trip. I am a network administrator. I am going to attend the network security conference in LA. I am taking the family along, as I can’t stay away from my daughter for four days. Neither can she.”

Through-Hikers

2006-05-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

As we stand in the parking lot, I look up at the mountains. The Blue Ridge always fascinates me. The cool green mountains with a mask like blue haze stand with a firmness and permanence. I can almost hear one say, “This is my place and I am not going anywhere. Come and worship me”.

I strap my backpack on and take a few steps to check if the backpack is seated just above the hipbones. I walk over to Donna and help her with her backpack. John is checking the camera, keys, water bottle, lunch pack, coke and candies. Donna smiles at me and says, “Look at him. He is so tense as if he has a presentation ahead. Can’t relax even on a vacation. Everything has to be perfect.” Today I am glad that John is prepared as they are bringing my lunch.

I look around for the trail sign and Donna has already found it. She reads, “Malhar Trail. 100 feet this way”. We walk towards the trail looking for the white blaze on the trees, the sign of the trail on trees and rocks at regular interval to help you stay on the trail. Donna and I work together. She sits in the next cubicle. We both sit facing each other with a wall in between. At times when I stretch my feet against the wall, I could feel the pressure of her feet on the other side. “Hey Eric. Stop that. Are you expanding your cube?"

The Blue Ridge is dazzling in this fall season. I look at the trees and realize that we caught the fall season at its best. My botany is limited and I classify the trees as maple, not-maple and pine. Even to my unskilled eye, the vegetation in Blue Ridge changes a lot along the trails. You don’t realize that when you drive through the Blue Ridge parkway. Here when you walk past each and every plant, shrub and tree, you see the difference.

Donna is walking with me and John is behind. We stop to look at a huge red butterfly sitting on a yellow flower. John catches up, pulls out his camera, checks the light, adjusts the aperture, clicks and walks on. Donna looks at me and shrugs. “That’s it for him. A beautiful shot.” We take a few more minutes and enjoy the orange patterns on the butterfly before it flies away. We come to a small stream and John says, “This must be the Tye River”. We chose this trail today as we heard that Tye River runs along this trail and is gorgeous. The river, more like a stream here, is a steady and strong trickle and at some places swells to resemble a river. Donna picks up the leaves floating in the water. She sticks two bright orange colored leaves in my cap and laughs. John takes a picture and shouts, “Appalachian Indian”.

I tell them that the sound of water running over the rocks is very relaxing. We sit down, close our eyes and listen to the sound of the flowing water. After few minutes, John breaks the silence and describes a fountain that you can buy in the stores to get that effect. The water fountain is built in a bowl with pebbles and a motor buried in the pebbles that pump up the water over the pebbles. “My boss has one and says it is great”. Donna asks him, “How will you get the birds chirping?” John just shrugs and says, “Next version!”

I wonder if Donna and John are always like that. They knew each other from high school and at times they behave like high school kids talking back. May be all couples are like that. They seemed to be happy all the time but for occasional signals. I was working with Donna on a problem last week and one day noticed the timestamp on some programs. Donna had modified them at three in the morning. It was not even a high priority job and I asked Donna about it. She said that she was not getting sleep and logged on from home and worked a bit.

Donna and I work together a lot and most of the time in her cubicle. When you are in the next cube, you hear a lot. I hear her making appointments with doctors, more doctors, and specialists of some kind and heated discussions with John in low voice. You hear a lot over the walls but you hear nothing. You catch a lot of words and make up the rest.

It’s noon and we reach a shelter. The shelter is a wooden shed with the front fully open. There are few picnic tables outside where we sit and eat our lunch. A through-hiker stops by to rest. A through-hiker is one who hikes the entire Appalachian Trail all the way from Georgia to Maine. We ask him a lot of questions about his hike and how tough it is. He says, “It’s more tough internally than externally. When you begin, you enjoy the loneliness and contemplate a lot. After some time it gets to you. There are days you like yourself and there are days you hate yourself so much that you want to throw yourself off a cliff. You rediscover yourself”.

It’s been a week after the hike and Donna is seriously planning a through hike. She is reading up and contacting through-hikers for advice. She has already applied for leave of absence. She says that John is not going with her and wonders if I would be interested.

The Rebel

2006-05-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

Dwight had been upset from the morning. I didn’t ask him what was troubling him. I had to finish some work and wasn’t ready to lose the whole morning. He tells you his stories only twenty times before repeating. I approached the subject with him after lunch. He was waiting for me to ask and exploded, “Do you know what the accounts people have done this time? They are going to deposit our salaries directly in our bank accounts.” I saw nothing wrong in that. “Why do you care? Are you uncomfortable with giving them your bank account number?” Dwight said that he did not have any such problem. He said he always deposited his paycheck personally and did some more routine transactions at the same time “down at the bank next to Ukrop’s.” And he had been doing that all his career.

“You know Dwight? It’s only easier for you now. They have spared you the trip. You can do all that by one phone call. Or even on the PC over the internet if you are brave enough.”

“But I always go there and do it myself. Always. The Tellers know me very well down there.” I tried to find out if that was the motive. “Are there any cute Tellers in that branch of yours?” I asked. “No. They are just good people. In fact one of then went to school with my mom.” I gave up after Dwight repeated for forty minutes that he always went to the branch with his paycheck. Always. Always.

Ever since I moved from San Jose, I found Dwight very interesting – or amusing. Dwight lived all his life within a radius of twenty miles. He graduated from local schools and local university. All his friends and family were in Richmond. He did not even have a long distance calling plan. His routines were well set and he practiced them religiously. So even a small change in his routine was a major disruption. If there was a construction in the Three Chopt Road, the whole organization heard about it. Dwight kept us all entertained for two full weeks on his direct deposit nightmare.

We had an employee by name Radha from India. One day, Dwight was giving her the local history and said that Richmond burned in both the wars. That confused her a bit. She said, “I am not that good in history. But I thought there was no attack on the mainland. Wasn’t Pearl Harbor the only place attacked in the whole war?” That day, we were treated to the “true and authentic” version of the American Civil War. That jogged the Hollywood sponsored history knowledge of Radha and both went down the memory lanes as if those two were Rhett Butler and Scarlet. I think this irritated Sean, a new comer. Dwight informed me later that Sean was a Connecticut Yankee. I didn’t even know that there were such fine classifications. Sean asked Radha if she knew Newton’s third law of American Literature. “To every Gone with the wind, there is an equal and opposite Uncle Tom’s cabin.” Let me just tell you that the rest of the afternoon was very lively. Both of them were telling Radha how evil the other side was.

Two months later, Sean was made Dwight’s manager. Both Sean and Dwight were good workers. But Sean was well known for his new techniques and for keeping up with the market changes. He introduced new procedures and tools in the workplace. I don’t have to tell you how Dwight reacted to all that. Radha called their team “the civil war team”. The team meetings came to be known as “The Manassas Day” or “The Gettysburg Day” depending on who prevailed. Radha said that she was witnessing history as it happened. Her knowledge of the civil war seemed to grow everyday too.

Then came the light bulb joke. I was chatting with Dwight in the break room. Sean walked in and asked me with a mischievous smile, “Do you know how many Virginians it takes to change a light bulb?” I had heard many light bulb jokes but this was new to me. “I don’t know. How many?” That set the stage for Sean and he went, “Three. One to change the bulb and two to talk about how great the old one was!”

Dwight quit that day. Radha called it “the Appomattox Day”. I heard that Dwight was suing the company for harassment. I ran into him after few months in a pub (on second right after Stoney’s statue as Sean would put it). Dwight said he was going to teach history in high school. “The right history”, he said.