Bloodshed on a pale blue dot

A few days ago, I came across "A Pale Blue Dot", a profound thought, articulated by eminent physicist Prof. Carl Sagan [many audio/video renditions, like the one shared above,  are available on YouTube].  Addressing the entire humankind he says: ".. there is no hint that help will come  from elsewhere to save us from ourselves".

How true it sounds, when the disheartening news of terror attacks in Paris, reaches us. Nothing seems to have changed from the attacks of 26/11 in Mumbai and many attacks before and after.  In the middle of second decade of the 21st century, at a time when we making tremendous leaps in our understanding of the world and applying it make our lives better, we still can not find ways to reconcile our differences and collaborate. Instead humans choose to kill another in conflicts ranging from  skirmishes, wars, riots to terror attacks.

How do we react when such incidents occur ?  There are usual statements of condemnations and angry responses. Then the political blame games begin. For example, if you have followed the timeline of facebook posts - you will find many people using the occasion to score political points -- for example, in India,  the Hindu 'nationalists' are quick to point out that the terror attacks are due to Islamic ideology and  the 'secularists' are citing the dominating policies of powerful Christian nations and loss of lives in NATO led wars in the Arab world to underline that attacks are not one sided. The gun and anti-gun lobbies used this occasion to make their cases.  European and American groups are trying to justify their hatred against the Arab world and vice versa. These are only indicative. I am sure, you will see many more differences, debates and fights from groups and communities in different parts of the world being pushed into the public discourse,  in this backdrop. 

Each such concern, argument or narrative,  has an element of truth in it. But at the end of the day, are we addressing these problems ? Are we able to prevent these terror attacks ? Do we, as common people, have a better defense against such attacks ? If similar attack happens in Mumbai again, will we be able to prevent loss of lives. Will we be able to punish the guilty in a timely manner ? Can we avert conflicts and wars ? Our hardened positions maintain status quo for centuries ? Even after centuries we still fight over the same set of issues,  after few centuries will we be fighting over the same things ? Possibly, with more destructive weapons and weakened economies.

These debates and emotional responses, will die down in a couple of weeks - when the incident goes out of focus. Then these issues will be forgotten until next attack occurs. And then the same cycle repeats. This keeps on recurring over and over again - with the magnitude of the impacts getting larger and larger. The problem is that everyone is talking, no one is listening, and more importantly no one is taking steps to change the status quo.

In these battles, we as humans are knowingly or unknowingly, are working towards our own extinction. Humans do not require for extinction, an asteroid from space,  like the one which eliminated the mighty dinosaurs who once ruled the earth, much as we do today - for we are creating our own weapons of mass destruction.

Prof. Sagan has put it so eloquently, that we need to save us from ourselves !       

From science fiction to technological reality

Today got an opportunity to attend talk of Prof. Rajesh P N Rao at IIIT-Hyderabad.  Brain-to- machine and brain-to-brain communication technology developed by him and his collaborators and students brings to life, some of the ideas imagined in science fiction.  Surely, this research  is going to impact humankind in the near future. A direct impact will be to help people with disabilities and diseases, but there could be many non-medical applications too. These advances open up immense possibilities and new challenges for the human race.  It is difficult to predict the future, so I will not even attempt to do so, but surely it is going to be different than today.  Check out this video by Prof. Rao's team.

Change of governements without change in governance

A look at the post-poll situation in Maharashtra, with a slightly different perspective:

•  We have all forgotten that in democracy people directly or indirectly through their representatives administer the country. Do the elected MLAs represent people or their parties ? Is election merely about selecting between parties ? The battle between foot-soldiers and shatraps of the parties to be become 'rulers' is no different than battle for supremacy between hundreds of kings who ruled the masses, before independence.

• Since, independence the population has tripled, but the number of representatives, has not increased commensurately. The 'winner-takes-all' approach to government formation needs to be reworked out.

•  Most Indians study not for learning, but to score marks in exams, higher marks means greater job opportunities. Similarly, political parties don't care about governance, but only about the number of seats, more seats mean more power.

•  Lets compare the situation with, AAP in Delhi. When activists raised uncomfortable questions and made demands in public interests, they were not respected but rather challenged into electoral politics. Some of them formed a party and came second in the race. Despite not being in majority, citing moral victory and shying away from majority, they were pushed to enter government formation and show majority by BJP and Congress. But they came up with novel ideas like referendum and 16-point agenda for support. When it came to passing the reform for which they were pulled into politics, BJP and Congress teamed up to block them. If AAP had continued without passing their legislation - it would have been betrayal of trust of the people who voted for them, if they resign they (which they did), they would be labelled as running away from government. Elections were denied for eight months subsequently in the name of some sacrosanct letters and replies.

• Like AAP many political parties, including BJP, in India rose with some specific regional / ideological demands. Initial volunteers of such new born parties are idealistic but this race for the majority leads them to paths on which principles are compromised. The emphatic "naahi-naahi-naahi" of dynamic Devendra Fadnavis to alliance with NCP or PM Modi's criticism of NCP on the corruption charges against them, (before the elections) raise peoples hopes and when they compromise principles to remain in power (after the elections), hopes crash even faster. Vajpayee's clean image, had raised people's expectations, but when they saw mediocre performance, "feel-good-factor" was nowhere to be seen and UPA came to power. Anger against UPA's corruption scams, brought BJP back in power. Such flip-flops are seen at state and district level as well. So are we addressing the real problems ? Are we asking the right questions ? Our political analysts always concentrate on political battles, vote-banks and vote-shares based on religion, castes and communities and number of seats, but not the fundamental problems with the electoral system in India. I wish, we are more serious about change in governance, rather than a mere change in government. 

Political Inertia

I have been following Indian politics for close to 20 years now, and one thing that irks me the most is the inertia that exists in the system.  In the first quarter of the 21st century, we are witnessing exciting things - technology is becoming affordable, autocratic regimes are falling,  new economies are emerging, bipolar or unipolar superpower regimes are falling apart,  as people across cultures are getting connected  interdependence between nations is increasing. In times like this, a country whose median age group falls in the 20s has unparalleled advantage. Yet political system in India is struggling to tap the potential which is waiting to explode.

Youth have taken to the street - demanding justice, laws, opportunities. The protests for Janlokpal, Delhi gang rape and many others are manifestation of the desire to bring about a change in the system. However,  our so called leaders executive,  judicial, bureaucratic and political class are procrastinating on the decisions they need to take.  They will wait until things dampen out and subside.  A leader, by definition is one who can inspire people to follow his path or ideas.  Where are the leaders who can mobilize masses ? A leader in a democracy certainly does not hide in a fortress behind barricades and police force or struggle to read scripted speeches addressing orchestrated crowds.  In 2014 elections, these people must be overthrown from their seats of power.

Many of these so called leaders are octogenarian, either in their age or ideologies.  Their priority is satisfy their greed for money, power, luxuries -- they have no interest in welfare of the society. Consequently, overall result is a status quo.  Take the case of hanging terrorists. The decisions were delayed to the point beyond which they could not be delayed further. The fall out reactions were also exactly as predicted. The pseudo secularists or communal nationalists, leftists, regional parties have shown their usual reactions, aimed at appeasing their respective vote-banks. The so-called human rights activists, were conveniently hibernating when innocent citizens died in blasts and attacks occurring every year, in some part of the country. When a deterrent punishment was pronounced, as expected, these lobbies they become vociferous, as if terrorists are the only humans in this country.  The media and particularly journalists pretended to be independent and liberal - but as they are bound by their commercial or political affiliations or government jobs -- they launched veiled attacks on the other side.  The judicial system worked at its own pace - their is no concept of time for them - if you get justice in your lifetime, you must be lucky. Bureaucracy, well known for red-tapism, sycophancy and corrupt practices, only helped to make matters worse in this case. Ironically, the separatists / terrorists are also becoming predicatable;  a locality in Mumbai has been targeted thrice since 1993.

We need great force, to bring a change in the momentum of the system which will continue to be in a state otherwise.  Fundamental changes need to be brought in electoral, judicial processes. We need laws to be reworked, systems to be made more participative.  Democracy is not just about casting your vote; it is about a society which can think, and act in a collective and timely manner for welfare of everyone.  We are fortunate that we are entering an era where communication is getting faster and better with research in science and technology.  A truly participative governance is certainly feasible, if we embrace technology.  If India aspires to be progressive and successful, she needs to overcome the inertia and unleash the latent potential. We need to believe in ourselves more than we believe our ancestors and their beliefs about god and the world. Dynasties and caste systems need to be broken. Existing orders need to be challenged. The only thing constant in life is change !

आज की राजनीति

आज राजनीति में महात्मा की ज़रुरत हैं, या कुटिल चाणाक्य की ?
रावण अनेक हों तो, राम की आवश्यकता हैं, या परशुराम की ?

Kabeer Vacanaavali

Some dohas (couplets) of Kabeer that I learnt in school:

तिनका कबहुँ ना निंदये, जो पाँव तले होय ।
कबहुँ उड़ आँखो पड़े, पीर घानेरी होय ॥

बडा हुआ तो क्या हुआ जैसे पेड़ खजूर।
पंथी को छाया नही फल लागे अति दूर ॥

कबीरा गर्व न कीजिये काल गहे कर केस
ना जाने कित मारे हैं क्या घर क्या परदेस

जाति न पूछो साधु की, पूछ लीजिये ज्ञान।
मोल करो तलवार का, पड़ा रहने दो म्यान।।

Rangeele

A beautiful composition by Naresh, Paresh and Kailash! I always wonder how they manage to capture myriad emotions like joy, sorrow, anxiety, agony, aspirations, desires, love, anger of ordinary people. There are many musicians who have mastered all ragas and genres, yet, unlike Kailasa, very few can manage to stir your soul, perhaps because their life is devoid of experiences of struggle, hardships and failures.

Indian knowledge based economy

The reality of Indian knowledge based society is: entrepreneurs = money hungry and power thirsty manipulators, managers = contractors and engineers = job-security seeking laborers. Knowledge based society and IT superpower is absolute ignorance. Open your eyes to reality, India is only a servile labor exporter. Is it wrong to be a laborer ? No. What is incorrect is being exploited as a laborer. What have we achieved with the service based model employed in the last 30 years ? Few lakh people could get food and homes, and the wealth of few business dynastic families have swelled by billions of times but India is a nation of 100 crore people. Without any intellectual capital, we will not be able to prosper in the long run. Firstly, cheaper and more efficient economies are on the rise and they have the potential to displace our IT workforce, and in this situation the dynastic business houses will quickly shift their money to a more profitable ventures leaving the employees to the same plight as that of the cotton-mill workers in Mumbai. Secondly, despite having a workforce of the order of 1.5 lakhs, these IT giants can not come up with innovative products and inventions whereas small companies of 100 people in smaller countries are coming up with game-changer products. As a direct consequence of this everyone in Indian IT industry is looked upon as a servile laborer, to whom you can outsource laborious bug-fixing, testing or support work. But more important than this perception is the fact that these companies are not producing any solutions to the problems that our country faces -- every technology is imported which increases the cost and hence the overall burden on the economy.  The mark of a good society is one which one practices the values that it preaches -- and we as a nation have a long way to go to achieve that !

Right to recall

Few questions to those who are rejecting the idea of right to recall as foolish and impractical. 

Here are few arguments made to dismiss the idea and my counter-arguments to them:

Right to recall will lead to political instability - 

If this is a mechanism to recall corrupt politicians. No political party ever admits that majority of their party members are corrupt. Then what is the problem ? We should not have any problem, if say, only 1% of the candidates are recalled and replaced every two years. One-third of the Rajya Sabha members retire every two years. It does not lead to instability. [ We will come to issue of elections later.] Saying that right to recall will lead to political instability is indirectly stating that majority of the politicians in India are and will be corrupt.

Right to Recall will become a weapon in the hands of losers to find a subterfuge way of defeating the winner - 

You are assuming that we can only build system which can be misused. The subterfuge could happen in the elections as well. If you can guarantee that no rigging happens in the elections, you should also be able to guarantee that no rigging happens in a procedure which is as important as the elections. You have to. That is your job, is n't it ? Secondly, in a democracy a person can be elected or voted out only if majority of people think so. So, majority of the voters have to express their dissent. In a country where elections are skipped for vacations, it is very unlikely that majority of the people would go to reject a candidate unless they are totally frustrated. Thirdly, if voters are believed to be capable of choosing right candidates, we can also trust their judgement of rejecting corrupt ones. 

Who will verify signatures ?

Why are we talking of signatures ? Are we not capable of building an electronic system ? It is not as complex as rocket science. We can launch satellites, send rockets to moon build nuclear plants. Then why not a computer based system for elections ? We have a post office in every village, town or district of our country. Percentage of these running without electricity should be very less. We can install computers / devices here for the purpose of registering recall votes. A citizen can walk into these centers anytime and register his dissent. At the end of specific period say 1 year or 2 year, these votes can be counted. Internet based services can be used as well. Internet banking has now become common in large cities. Many of our IT companies specialize in creating web based solutions. 

Cost of elections

What is the exact expenditure on elections, by-elections, state elections, municipal elections ? To whom is it costly -- for the election commission or the political parties who invest lot of money in winning them ?  EVMs are not changed for years, teachers and schools are always available for free. Nevertheless, if we make recalling  a permanent system powered by electronic means we can cut down the cost.

At the end, I would only like to say that we can improve any system only if we are optimistic to find solutions to problems rather than being pessimistic and discouraging those who are eager to bring about change. I certainly believe that we can change our electoral system, so that it reflects the aspirations of  billion people rather than few power hungry people - like it is today.     

Sapno se bhare naina

 

At times life seems to be an endless struggle in the chase of a dream, in search of happiness ... beautifully penned by Javed Akhtar and composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Some times, I wonder, how few rhymes of a beautiful poem can capture what thousand words can not express. How can few notes of music can convey the emotions you feel ? We can do many things we can not comprehend ! Enjoy the song, see if it does strike a chord with you !

India's first computer and history of computing in India

Indian engineers had designed and built a vacuum tube based computer in the 1950's, when very little of computing knowledge was available publicly.

TIFRAC India's first computer a retrospective
Computing: 50 years on

Do read these articles from Indian computer scientists. The story of the first computer is inspiring. The second article describes the evolution of computing in India, reflects how India struggles with computer science research and development 50 years later.

Our political parties try to take credit and win elections, by claiming their prince charming, brought computers to India.  We should do our homework well to understand and appreciate the efforts of these great engineers who toiled to develop computing in India.  If we see half Indian name of a scientist in the US, we get excited and try to trace his/her lineage to India and start claiming how India runs everything in the world. While we glorify Indian-origin scientists in the west, we forget those who really worked for us.

Most of the glorified IT industry works for providing services and people for people in the developed countries to offload their laborious and unrewarding work. Last 20 years have seen the launch of many innovative products in the software industry. Not one has has come from an Indian IT giant.  Its time to think beyond outsourcing.

With Anna led  agitation against corruption sweeping across the country, people have started thinking and questioning the conventional wisdom of the leaders who try to concentrate all powers in their hands. The campaign is focused against political corruption, but the effects will trickle to other areas as well. I am very hopeful that new India will support innovation and research and which in turn will bring in development and prosperity.

 

Happy Independence Day

The people of India are looking forward to this independence day with great optimism, as they are about to witness a change in the system, thanks to the agitation by led by Anna Hazare against the corrupt political class.

I am sure most people in India will be eager to listen to Anna's address rather than the PM's this independence day. It does not matter whether you listen to PM's speech delivered today or the one five years back. They are always the same. They can very well be substituted with a tape recorder.  

The most constructive element of our system has not been the legislature, judiciary or executive, it has been people like Anna. Anna has shown how villages can be transformed, how a "welfare state" can work. He has been instrumental in pushing the RTI act - due to which we are seeing many cases of corruption being exposed. Now, through Jan Lokpal Bill he is trying to make corruption a punishable offense and establish mechanisms to achieve the same. The people see a definite plan in his actions. He has been a person who has delivered in bringing about the change.

It is only the so-called intellectuals, who keep on pointing to scriptures and law books or useless statistics; for they have lost the ability to think by themselves. They obstruct justice by pointing to laws. The laws were made by humans like us, they are not divine. They need to be corrected as per the needs of the society.  Laking courage, these intellectuals submitted themselves to the whims and fancies of the pseudo-democratic dynastic regimes, and the anarchy that came along with it. By spreading skepticism or discouraging obstructing the ones who are trying to do something constructive, they have made the situation worse.  

However, unlike the intellectuals, the common man, I think, is able to see the larger picture and that is why there is huge support for Anna and great optimism that it will lead us on the right path !

Jai Hind !!

In search of happiness

I sometimes wonder what is that makes us happy? I guess, happiness comes from doing things, small or big, that you enjoy; creating or doing things that will benefit others; being able to drive your life; facing challenges and at times even failures. We often measure success by educational degrees, packages, wealth etc. But do these things really make a person happy? Happiness comes from the satisfaction of doing creative things. Instead of facing challenges, we are often over-protective in guarding against failures. Then, we live in the sorrow of lost opportunity.

Living a capitalist markets of money for labor, we have socialist aspirations of security and surety in life. Creativity has lost is place in our society. We study for scoring in exams, give exams for getting jobs, do jobs for earning money, earn money for raising family, raise family for making our kids do the same. The 'common man' in India has attained nirvana in being emotionless and indifferent. The common man is not supposed to have any ambitions or aspirations in life. The only aim of his life is to be in the rat-race so that he can lead a secure life. He surrenders to the belief that what happens is already decided. Yet, he wanders from temple to temple to magically change things in his life. He travels in a crowded train feeling all alone. He sweats with fear that, not having chanted the mantra today, will surely bring him bad luck. Looking at a huge crowd, he feels with so many people, he has no chance of making to his dreams. Compromise is way of his life. He works mechanically throughout his life.

Can we empower ourselves to enjoy our education, sports, work? Can we have more human than a mere mechanical life?  Is it what will make us more happy? 

A match to watch

Tomorrow will be an interesting day to watch in politics. Will the youth of India  follow fast at Anna's Lokpal or enjoyment at Pawar's IPL ? Interestingly, many of the people whose names figure in scams, are running business at IPL and so also liquor and smoker barons.  Is the the youth of India really ready to take on the corrupt politicians ?  An exciting match to watch !

An academy that we need

I accidentally stumbled upon the work of Salman Khan and his team.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Khan_%28educator%29

http://www.khanacademy.org/

What a fabulous work these guys are doing ! Be sure to check out. I am sure your reaction will be "had I got access to such education I would have been a genius by now !"

To improve the ever deteriorating education systems of countries like India, we have to ensure that good teachers reach the masses. Even the poorest should have access to quality education. Only then can we create equal opportunities, which a welfare state like ours, aims at.

The Khan academy is trying to tap the power of Internet and multimedia for making quality education available for everyone. Most of us would spend our lives criticizing and blaming the system and doing nothing to change it.

While throughout the day, through various forms of media we are bombarded with  artificial reality shows, saas-bahu's sinister plots,  sansani breaking news,  stupid wallpapers, ringtones SMSes , useless quizzes and tarot card readers and astrologers - all justified in the name of "this is what we want". But, I believe, that is not what we need. Along with other things, I believe, such academies is what we need, and that the societal forces controlling the media have to ensure that they are delivered.      

Republic Day

This republic day brought shame to the nation. What will this republic day be remembered for ? Firstly, an honest officer exposing corruption was burnt alive by the mafia. Secondly, the national flag is now no more a symbol of values and integrity it used to be -- hoisting it leads to hatred and violent outbursts in some communities and regions or atleast the liberal and secular intelligentsia believe so; perhaps, that is why they believe only in deploying more and more security forces to suppress rebellions and promising economic packages when stones are being pelted and situation goes out of control. :) The so called secular and saviours of the minorities cannot prevent them from getting alienated and influenced by separatists, then how can they allow the communal people to take the credit of national integration ? Samjha karo yaar! Thirdly, the nation which calls itself a rising superpower, that has leadership and governments that defy non-proliferation treaties, dares to be non-aligned, has independent foreign policy; is totally helpless in exposing the black money laundered in foreign banks ! (I heard someone say, now I don't care, I have Wikileaks )

Well, I might not be the only one, crores of Indians might have been disheartened by the dark picture. But we must remember that being disappointed by the events is only going to worsen this picture. What we really need is constructive action rather than laments. On this republic day, it looks like, we need a dose of Dr. J P Narayanan's optimism more than anything else. ( As usual, courtesy: YouTube )

Inspirational speech by an IPS officer

During the 26/11/2008 terror attacks in Mumbai a young IPS officer took the terrorists head on, at the Taj hotel, firing rounds at them, they were lucky to escape. The officer the wisely took charge of the operation, and led his team to engage the terrorists until the NSG arrived.

The same officer, who comes from a rural background, had earlier won accolades, fighting with the Naxals in Gadchiroli district, and also for his social welfare schemes.

The officer's name is Vishwas Nagre Patil.

I just stumbled across his lectures (circa 2006) which some kind person has shared on YouTube. He is surely an inspiration for most youngsters of this country ! I need not speak more, these videos will do the rest !!

Thesis homepage

M.Tech Thesis homepage:

Explorations on a neurologically plausible model of image object classification

http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/vision/sourabhd/

A soulful ghazal

Jis taraf jayiye ... hain khokle lafzo ka jor... (2)
Kaun samjhe yahaan awaaz ki gehraai ko ? .... (2)

Shehar dar shaher liye phirta hoon tanhai ko ....

A excellent ghazal by Hariharan and Ustad Zakir Hussain .... what an apt description of life !!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAkeM5hgMZk

Indic languages : is transliteration the simplest solution ?

NLP researchers at Google and other places have done a great job in transliteration from Roman script to Indic scripts. Now transliteration feature is available in GMail.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/email-in-indian-languages.html


However, there is a simpler solution available.




Just click on on the menubar (or some keyboard shortcut) and change you keyboard layout to India. Your keyboard then starts emitting Unicode (ISCII) symbols for Indian scripts (eg: Devanagari). These layouts have been standardised long back. Only thing missing in the present setup is that Indian characters are not printed on the keyboards. ( Of late, you can find Indian charecters printed on some cell phones though)


The Japanese,Russian, German, French and many other coutries have such keyboards. (Its not a difficult task anyways). Hindi, for example, is the 4th largest spoken language in the world. Yet, why there is no demand for such things ?

I personally believe Devanagri is a better script for Hindi (and Sanskrit and Marathi) as it is very precise. What is the point of writing these languages in the not-so-precise Roman script such that your transliterating software produces the correct Devanagari (or for every word you have to select from drop-down box) ? Why not write directly in Devanagari ? Would n't it be much simpler ?