The Loop

FOR i=1:buy_gun
{
The week starts on Friday with the 3 wise men meeting. The next 2 hours are filled with an incessant droning noise which is interrupted by spots of abstract math. More like mild chicken pox. After some vigorous nodding and numerous attempts, the wise men and the underling arrive at what looks like a “To do” list for the next one week or so. The underling is repeatedly told that such a list eliminates confusion (In other words, to remind them of what exactly their roles are in the project, so that they don’t get caught out in the next meeting and avoid coming up with pearls like “Which data? Oh THAT data, oh yes I thought you meant the OTHER data”)

With the underling’s life force a flowing puree, he walks back home looking like dried panda. One of the wise men would obviously have had a new idea and emailed the underling (only!) that he would strongly suggest trying them out. This is by Saturday. As “cc” are not important in his life, the other wise men wouldn’t have been aware of it. Of course this completely bollockses the “To do” list agreed by the others the previous day. Meanwhile, the underling works through the nights and sometimes day to meet the project targets.

I say,” sometimes day” because a fine research lab has meetings. The better the lab the more meetings they must have had to get there. It could be the weekly journal session where random co-workers present a brilliantly irrelevant topic. And then there is the odd visiting scientist who ends up on campus largely due to faulty Sat-nav. Now it is only inevitable that he presents his current paper to an audience of underlings and their minders.

Due to the fast and racy life, it’s a Friday before i can blink. The same things go into an infinite FOR loop (of course, this doesn’t apply to the times when one meeting lasts till the next).
}
END loop;

Losing equilibrium

Equilibrium is when things happen effortlessly, leading to peace, not having to worry about the myriad variables in our lives which affect us. We put a lot of effort to push things towards this equilibrium. We push with great fortitude with all our conviction. We refuse to recognize that equilibrium is not a way of nature. It is simply unnatural. On the way, we even award ourselves countless medals for courage, patience and even intelligence. Yet we strive towards it, well knowing that it will definitely last for not more than a few moments.
Ironically, it is the pursuit of equilibrium which causes much of the anxiety and pain. What would happen if we let go of our quest for happiness/equilibrium? Would it lead to happiness? But then how can that be?

Along the Cliffs

The last weekend was a long one. As the weekend approached I made grandiose plans of being “productive”. This usually involves having visions of being extremely creative and doing unbelievably clever things. Along with my visions I had made plans with a friend to hike from Dover to Deal. As I wasn’t involved too much with the planning and organizing, it turned out to be well planned.
Me, my arguably better half, my friend and two of his friends drive to Dover in a hired car. Ten others joined us in an empty car park in Dover. Most of us were all set with the proper hiking gear, along with one girl who thought heels were made for hiking. She was arguably the funniest sight all morning. This was later easily beaten when we saw that the path was filled with slush from heavy rains the previous day.
The view, standing on the white cliffs of Dover was unparalleled. On the horizon was the French coast some 25km away. Most of the walk was barely 2 metres from the edge of the cliff which made it rather more interesting.
Apart from the 3 of us (Me, the wife and my friend) the rest of group was mostly Chinese, which meant that all communiqués were in traditional Chinese. Not much of a problem for me as I usually tend not to speak in Chinese while walking. By lunch we were in the quiet village of St.Margaret’s, where we planned to stop for lunch. The Chairman among the Chinese had decided not to stop for delicious hot lunch and continued walking. As the Chairman knew the area well, the rest of us presumed that the lunch stop was just round the corner and continued walking. We soon realised that there wasn’t going to be any lunch. This resulted in some very upset and hungry ladies. The men married to any of the ladies were obviously mauled to near death; some even contemplated jumping off the cliff to avoid prosecution. The unmarried ones (the Chairman was, obviously) got away scot free. Much rest, two apples and a bag of crisps later, we continued walking and taking in what was more of the stunning landscape.

Knowledge transfer

A conversation between me and my PhD advisor:

Advisor: ……. it’s a continuous and a mutual learning process, you know. You learn from me and I…. er…ummm ....... learn from you.
Me: Yeah..

Nano

Tatas Nano has received a lot of press in the UK. I do not know whether it was intentional (a planned PR strategy) or just plain straight forward news reporting.

Whatever the underlying reason, a lot of people here have heard about it. I have had 3 to 4 instances where people have asked me about Nano (presumably, just because I’m Indian). Most people have completely bought Ratan Tata€™s logic of cheap small car. I too am very proud of it not because someone made a 1-lakh car, but as an ambition it is truly spectacular.

I remember a year or so ago, reading an interview with Soichiro Honda, the top guy at Honda. He scoffed at the concept of Tata’s small car as trash. Such a statement coming from a Japanese company was quite ludicrous. In the 60’s when Japanese car makers such as Daihatsu, Nissan, and Honda etc wanted to enter the UK car market, they were ridiculed by British car makers such as British Leyland. Japanese cars at the time were horrid looking mash of European designs. So poor was their reputation that no one at the time considered that Japan could make cars, forget being a world leader. However, in the present day in the UK, Honda is one the top car companies by sales.

I am not saying it’s a miracle which will happen with Tata as well. However, I do think the possibility is truly endless. I do not even know if Nano is going to be successful commercially. Petrol prices are very high and are not going to be cheaper ever. Running and maintaining a car is not the same as maintaining a scooter. Maybe people will run it on LPG. Tata is probably not having a big profit margin. I would guess it would be somewhere around 5-10K, being very optimistic. Would this mean they will make up for that with expensive spares? 

And environment ? Pah, I dont even believe in Global Warming.

At the moment all looks well. Go! Tata.

 

Different experiment, slightly

Dear ladies, gents and members of unrelated species, in accordance with my utterly bemusing career path, I have decided to pursue a PhD. I will be exploring the boundaries of science, slavery and relentless micro-management. At the same time, I will be obeying all random commands of my Principal Investigators (PI) or “project guide”. It will be, no doubt, exciting times as I work with novel concepts in my field of Systems-Biology/ Bioinformatics/Gobbledygook.
Like any self-respecting UK university, I had been left without funds to start this project earlier. However, now thanks to some amazing ballet by four different Research groups and my own incessant moaning, I have enough resources to get this project off the ground.
The path of the project is very slowly (I saw Pluto going past me twice) being put into place. As each bit is discussed, the collaborating groups have agreed to fight to maximize their share of the pie. Of course, such a fight, usually played with the student’s blood and severed head as the prize, will be very beneficial to me and scientific community as a whole. Hopefully, after a long gestation period of abundant politics, self-interest, science and some very hard labour, I will have made an attempt to move science tremendously, by few parts of a millimetre.

My experiments with truth - Part 3

Even though I felt I had systematically deconstructed L’s arguments, I was still unsettled about the whole issue. There was something which was bothering me. I opine that the BJP is as useless as any other party. The Congress proved its uselessness over 50yrs, the BJP did just that in 5yrs. So in that sense, it probably was less painful. I am aware that the Upper castes were not too happy with Gandhi regarding the Harijan movement. I am also aware, that the upper castes were being stupidly silly about it.

It is another thing to be challenged by a foreigner about something about my country. I am admittedly not a Gandhian. My ideology is somewhat different. However, the debate spawned an interest in the “other” side of Gandhism. What was really the politics of the day ? How did Gandhi become Gandhi ? It is quite evident that Nehru rode on Gandhi’s popularity and made use of it for his own ends. What lies beyond the mysticism, the myth and the legend of Gandhi? Considering it was in the interest of the ruling political party to ride on Gandhi’s popularity and hype, I would certainly take all history of this era with a pinch of salt.

As far as the question of who got "rid" of Gandhism is concerned, I do not think its got to do with any caste or religion.
I think its a social phenomenon. Indians have moved on. We want to buy foreign steel companies not make loin cloth on a spinning wheel. We do not remember our past 'cos our past is tied with shameless corruption, unemployment and poverty. Money is no longer evil. We are the neo-capitalists.

I do not know who was real and who was unreal. As it is being increasingly evident that our history maybe a result of a whitewash I am curious to reverse-engineer the “facts” I know. Any help is welcome.

My experiments with truth - Part 2

“ Gandhi was killed by an upper caste man.” he said. “of course all upper caste people hated him. The upper caste thought his ideology was rubbish. Why was it that they were so motivated to actually kill him ?”. Everyone’s eyes fell on me. I said “ Aw’ c’mon, saying Gandhi was killed by an Upper caste is like saying Kennedy was killed not by Oswald but by a Christian, I think its hardly a fair statement.” He continued “ My friend, you are saying this ‘cos you come from the same background (Caste) and it is possible that you have been brought up on the same anti-gandhi ideology that Gandhi’s killer was” I remained silent. “Gandhi was anti-upper caste, he was a great supporter of the backward caste. As a result all upper caste people hated him. And they got rid of him. Subsequently, in the present day, where no one really cares for Gandhi’s principles, who benefits ? It is the upper castes, is it not? It was always the backward castes who were big followers of Gandhi. Gandhism never really caught on with the upper castes. I am very sure that even in this day, he is still remembered more among the backward castes than the upper castes. Gandhi was good to the Muslims, which obviously didn’t help”
I said “You still haven’t explained why it was the Brahmins who killed Gandhi and not Godse ?”. He said “Godse was a member of Hindu right wing fundamentalists. You very well know that this organisation was completely run by the Upper caste. The Jan Sangh (early BJP) is a hindu right wing party. It’s a fundamentalist organisation. After independence, they found an excuse to get rid of him. Now they have got rid of his ideology.”

I was quite taken aback by the caste angle. I had never really thought of it that way. I never really thought the upper castes had an active hatred against Gandhi for “de-stratification” of the society. But I was willing to agree that it might be possible. It was the first time in my life I was seeing that point. However, I found it very unfair to be branded as Gandhi killer caste. And also, there were innumerable people who fought along-side Gandhi for Indian Independence. How is their fight any less compared to Gandhi’s ?.

It was my turn to speak. “ Firstly, I would like to point out that there are numerous upper caste Gandhi disciples or Gandhians. Secondly, you say the upper castes have systematically eroded Gandhi principles ? How would that be possible my friend ? I am not a supporter of the BJP, as they haven’t done better than any other party. Right wing or Left wing. However, I must point out that in the last 60yrs of Indian Independence, more than 80% of the time India was ruled by the Indian National Congress. The very party which is claimed to be based on the principles laid down by Gandhi. The hindu right wing party has ruled for less than 10%. It is always the victors who write the history, not the losers. If Gandhi’s principles had to be got rid of by a planned campaign (as suggested by you) , don’t you think you would have to be in power to implement such a policy ? Even among the so called upper castes, the Brahmins constitute only a fraction. Keeping this mind, if they have managed such massive PR coup against Gandhism, it would be quite a feat especially when not in power, don’t you think ? If they DID manage such a feat, I beg to ask you the question, why have they struggled to stay afloat as a political force in all 60yrs? All their efforts to come to power have been pathetic. So if today there is a complete erosion of Gandhism, by sheer logic you should be blaming the pro-gandhi Congress party.”
“As far as Gandhi being relatively more popular among the Dalits today, I think that too is nonsense. Only Ambedkar is considered a true leader. I am not sure they give a toss about Gandhi today. And you think I am anti-Gandhi ? Lets not go there as it is besides the point. If you think my ideology is shaped by my caste, you have another thing coming. My family has hardly shown any interests in political issues. Our social circle too indicates a lack of casteist fundamentalism. I too like millions others have been brought up on the mundane text books preaching the very same ideology you are talking about, in four different languages!”
By this time my friend L was struggling to counter my point. Of course, I being Indian gave me a little more edge in gathering the points. But he refused to give up, which I suspect had all to do with ego rather than rationale. He queried “ Where do you think I got such an impression then ?”. I immediately recognized this as a trap. If I had speculated on where he got his impression, he would immediately be in a position to catch me on the wrong foot. “ I don’t know” was the only thing I said. He looked at others around the table and dismissed me “ He is a cynic. He wont give up”. I just said “Prove it” “Prove that I was being a cynic. You cant make random statements, my friend”. He said “ I can say whatever I want, cant I ?” As a man of science, that’s the last thing you would expect him to say. It was the sound of his nerves snapping. I shrugged and let it go.

My experiment with truth - Part 1

It is not often that you start analysing things you have always known. However, I had that chance in the past week. I was in the middle of a very interesting discussion which subsequently boiled into a political maelstrom. The topic was Mahatma Gandhi.
I was hanging around with my usual bunch during lunch. The bunch consisted of an Uruguayan called B and two Italians, P and L. One of the Italians called L has considerable experience living in India and has a fair idea of Indian history and politics. Our discussion was spawned like this:
B: So do you believe in the Military ? And Nuclear Weapons ?
Me: Yes I do believe in my Military very much. I’m still undecided about this world having Nukes, though.
B having lived her life under a dictatorship and was not too impressed with my answer. And asked me “ That is strange coming from someone from the land of the Mahatma.” At this point my Italian friend L interjected and laughed and said in a very absolutist and judgemental manner “Are you kidding !? These guys have trashed Gandhi long time ago. No one cares anymore. The upper caste have systematically eradicated all teachings of Gandhism.”

The last sentence hit me as ignorant. I did want to stop and laugh. B ignored him and continued with her interest “So, why do you support the military?”
Me: “The military is what keeps my country a democracy. Unlike many other nations, the military in India has never crossed the line of democracy. That’s why I support it.” B was fairly happy with my reasoning and resigned. Then I turned to L and picked his last comment and told him I was very offended by his comment and that it was very irresponsible. Being a man of fairly large ego, he was flustered. The debate began.