A few excerpts from the Global Environment Outlook report

I am still reading the GEO report

We humans, like most animals on Earth, rely largely on water for our sustenance. Directly by drinking; indirectly by applying it for irrigation, aquaculture, industry etc

The knowledge that over two-thirds (2/3) of the surface of this Earth is water is common-place. The knowledge that barely 3% of all the water on Earth is sufficiently desalinated as to be available for human use is less common.

The sub-continent is home to one of the largest concentration of species in the world

At present, the subcontinent is still one of the single largest concentrations of arable land

In it's scientific detached manner, the report illustrates the impact of our historic/existing consumption patterns

Whilst interiors risk drought, populations near sea-shores are at the risk of shoreline degradation.

Practical Programming: The ritual of implement worship

Navratri = Nau + Ratri = Nine Nights.

Today is the Tenth/Final day of the Navratri festival; one amongst many of a period of fervour for those who adhere to the Sanatana Dharma.

The tenth day symbolizes the victory of good over evil. Many legends are attributed to this day, paramount amongst these are

1. Execution of Ravana by Rama
2. Execution of Mahishasura by Durga

Similarly many rituals are bound to this day too. Vehicle/Tool worship is one amongst the many esoteric rituals performed on this day to empower it till the next year.

Imagine the situation if you will : The villain has secured a secret weapon, and aims to enslave the entire universe. Just when it seems things are going to go from worse, to worst, a hero appears on his trusty steed and challenges the villain to battle. A _terrific_ battle has raged for ten whole days finally comes to an end. The protagonist has emerged victorious, and is ready to return home. The invincible protagonist is unscathed. The adulation of millions applies not only to the protagonist, but to all that is associated with him; weapons, garments, vehicle/mount etc.

All well, and good.

Even today, distances in India are large. Merely travelling to/from work consumes close to 20kms, without including pool-travel distances; mid-day chore driving and so on. A good deal of wear and tear is involved. Travelling back in time to the period of our Hero and Villain there were probably few, if any, roads. Most travelling would be through the wilderness guided by the moon/stars etc.

I wonder, could what we deem to be vehicle 'worship' actually refer to the task of servicing the vehicle after the rigours of a full-blown battle? A means to drive a community of people of less evolved thought in the direction of maintaining their implements to prolong the existence of the tool directly, and the survival of the community in the long run?

Towards Civilization; One Step

Take an educated person, and put him in a featureless, soundless room
with uniform lighting( either it is lighted 24x7x365, or it is not ).
Sooner or later, the person will try to devise a way to keep track of
the passage of time. The easiest way to do so would be by tracking the
sleep-cycle.

Now we change the scenario a little; instead of a featureless room we
put him in a room with uniform features. The outcome will be similar,
if not identical.

Change the scenario a little more; make the features non-uniform and
endlessly varying. Allow sound to impinge on the senses at random.
Allow the light to vary at random. The outcome will still be similar.

Now assume the person to be you. You are placed on Earth at a random
location in a distant time when the concept of a static human
population did not exist even in thought. The endlessly varying
features are those of Nature. The endless variation in light is that
from the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. The random noises are the
sounds of Nature, and her other creations. You realize, dimly, that
you are a little different from the rest around you; not provided with
boundless strength, or venom, or claws. That great meat-eating beast
does not always hunt you. Sometimes it hunts you stealthily, and
sometimes it merely growls at you without making a charge. The nest
from which the snake devoured eggs, sometimes has no eggs in it... and
sometimes there are eggs in the nest the very next day.

It's all very puzzling, except that you don't know the word yet.

Suddenly one day, you realize the answer. The behaviour of the beast
is similar to your own. When you hunt, you're stealthy too. When
you've eaten to your fill, you don't chase your prey; why spend energy
on another chase when, now that the cramps from hunger are finally
gone, you may finally sleep. This leads to another discovery – the
huge beast must stay full longer too, even though it's stomach,
appetite, and size are so much larger. Through a sequence of such
small discoveries communicated wordlessly across generations the
balance shifts.

The greatest such discovery is that there is a cycle to all events.
Looking around there is nothing to relate the cycles too. Everything
around you is bound to it's own cycle of transience. The light dawns
upon you; up there, high above you is a marker, the Moon. Each time
you sleep, the Moon shows a particular face.

In a major move towards order, and civilization; you have discovered a calendar,

and a means to mark time.

Prioritization

कोई भी सॉफ्टवेर डेवेलोपमेंट अनेक छोटे-छोटे विभाजन करके आगे बढता है | कुछ सरल, तो कुछ कठिन ; कुछ छोटे जिन्हें एक व्यक्ति अकेले ही बस कुछ घड़ी में पूर्ण कर दे , तो कुछ इतने विशाल ५० व्यक्तिओं कई मॉस में भी न पूर्ण करें | जैसे भी कार्य हो, अन्यामंसक होना अत्यन्त दुखदाई बन सकता है |

उद्धरण के लिए - समझो के रास्ते-चलते कोई आपका थैला छीन कर भाग जाये | आम तौर पर कोई भी व्यक्ति चोर का पीछा करने वाला होता है। अब पीछा करते करते यदि चोर अपने किसी साथी को थैला थमा दे, और दोनों अलग अलग रास्ता भागें तो निर्णय करने में यह ध्यान रखे के वह साथी संभवतः लंबा नाच नचाने कि त्यारी कर आया है। उसका पीछा करना कठिन होना ही है। साथी ही में प्रथम चोर को पकड़ने कि संभावना अधिक है, और चोर पकड़ा गया, तो चोरी तो पकड़ी जानी ही है।

अतः हमारे साथ जब कोई नवयुवक चाकरी करने आए तो उन्हें समझाना अनिवार्य होता है कि वे महारथी अर्जुन के तरह अपने कार्य के सफल पूर्ति के ओर अग्रसर रहें, चूँकि किसी और कार्य पर ध्यान बांटना भी हार है |

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We do our development work focussed on lots of tasks; some complex, some simple, and some plain unwieldly. Working on complex tasks, it's easy to get distracted and lose track of the original task; something that can be expensive.

Therefore one of the notes we have for newbies is -

Stay focussed on your in-hand task, because digressing means you've already lost.

For instance, say

1. You're shopping
2. Someone snatches your shopping-bag, and runs off
3. You chase the thief
4. The thief tosses the bag at an accomplice, who runs off too
5. Options now are -

• Continue chasing the original snatcher

• Chase the accomplice who just showed up (probably refreshed, and full of stamina)

It makes sense to opt for (a), because catching hold of the snatcher implies a higher probability of regaining your belongings.

Applied Programming: Reuse

Information Technology / Programmer wannabes invariably have the word 'Reuse' drummed into them almost from the first day as a student. This is one probable reason we Indians are usually good programmers. We reuse everything, even our Soul ( see: reincarnation )

Jokes apart, the reuse that is drummed into an IT student is usually in the context of OOP, or programming where we talk of reusing the code written once to be used elsewhere. The term reuse, though, goes much further. We reuse a great many things without even realizing it. For instance, software development contracts will often have similar, even almost identical clauses. The reason is that similar problems are expected to arise, and therefore are dealt with in a similar manner. Whilst these rudimentary applications of reuse are valuable, reuse itself can be far more valuable by way of mentoring (something that only came to mind after I read this)

The reason I choose to link mentoring to the concept of reuse is because mentoring provides an apprentice with the opportunity to capitalize upon the experience of the mentor. Organizations such as IBM, Microsoft, InfoSys have mentor programmes to help their employees growth.

What should I look for in a mentor?
The thoughts that come to my mind are -

1. Trust & Communication (the two must go together)
   
2. Better than average understanding of the domain (Finance, Software...) under which the mentoring occurs
   
3. Better than average Time Management skills, and as a corollary - not a workaholic
   
4. Compatibility

I put in the third point - Time Management - with some diffidence because -

• It simply doesn't make sense to assign someone as a mentor, only to find they're not able to justice to either their primary role or their mentor role.
  
• The apprentice might pick up the bad-skills too
  
• Poor time-management might also mean a stressed work-style; in the long run this could be detrimental to health, and to teamwork.

In winding up, reusing knowledge gained by others is something we do all the time - right from the first 'A' at school, this continues throughout life. The broader form of reuse of experience by Mentoring provides a means to build a relationship between the mentor and an apprentice that could potentially be capitalized upon by the organization.

Sparring with Nature

Until man appeared, Nature had Earth all to herself to play with; it was Man who coined the term ‘Natural Disaster’. Natural Disasters are nothing new to Humanity; they’ve been around longer than Man has. History records the destruction of whole cities Pompeii, Elba, Tannis, perhaps even a place as well planned as Mohenjodaro.

It is only in recent times that the Population Explosion has made it impossible for Nature to even breathe without hurting Man; The effect is impressive.

India is no stranger to Natural Disasters; as recently as the last few years there have been drought, and extreme floods. The most recent this year in Maharasthra, and before that in Bihar. The impact is extreme; both in terms of damage to human life, livestock, and property. Any disaster is augmented by the infectious panic that follows as all flee leaving all but their most prized possession behind.

It is almost impossible to provide adequate warning to all before Nature strikes. Even Nature’s smallest sneeze is liable to affect at least thousands of human lives; therefore it becomes that much more important to have a decent response mechanism in place. Here, on the sub-continent, a knee-jerk reaction is to press the armed forces into service. The armed forces have an impressive record in providing succour in cases of Natural Disasters; be it Bhuj in Gujarat, Morvi & Mowad in Maharashtra, Orissa, or most recently Bihar. Natural Disaster Relief is not the charter of the Defence Forces; albeit they do the job with aplomb. But, Destiny Forbid, what if a Natural Disaster should coincide with any attempt to violate the territorial integrity of our Nation?

Before we can address the question ‘If not the Army, then who should we call?’ it is important to recognize what makes the army so effective in dealing with these situations. After all, the army is comprised of Humans too; what makes them immune to Panic?

Panic rises from the thought- There is nothing I can do that will help improve the situation I am in. A soldier is conditioned to react to survive; he does not have the time to formulate this thought.

How can the army continue to function in scenes of Natural disasters? The answers, I believe, are these

1. Communication – This provides the means to revert for advice, definition of priorities when required.

2. Defined Chain of Command – Without a chain of command, all the ability to communicate, is meaningless. The soldier on the spot knows exactly whom his instructions should come from.

3. Broadly defined instructions – Broadly defined instructions leave the Soldier on the spot the freedom to act on his initiative where required. He does not need to be told how to achieve an objective; only what the objective is. Thereafter he is free to act upon his initiative.

The next question is – Who, if not the Army?

The army is comprised of trained men, equipped with the necessary tools required to do their job. The answer therefore must be an alternate group of people similarly trained, and with access to the necessary tools required. Possible candidates, in my opinion, are – Police, RAF, NCC, Home Guard [taken in order]. In addition, it would help to have a volunteer group defined for each mohalla who may liaise with the disaster relief agency. Such a volunteer group will be aware of potentially hazardous areas, and may prevent needless casualties. In addition, the presence of a volunteer cadre will free up resources to be utilized elsewhere.

Each year hundreds of people lose their lives to the vagaries of Nature. Losses in terms of livestock, and property is incalculable; but it cannot stand against the value of Human Life. There may be those who argue that the capital expenditure in setting up a dedicated Rescue&Relief unit to respond to Natural Expenditures may be huge. Can we afford to not make this investment to save Human Lives, to mitigate the loss to property & to livestock?

Accident-Prone

I'm jusssst a little accident-prone lately; walking into things, having vehicles drive into me, dropping buckets on me feet, catching my fingers in the car door, losing balance on the stairs, having puppy discover it's fun to pull my hair out by the roots.

Bright Side (+: I've discovered why demons/ogres in the old tales were always shewn with malformed/misshapen bodies and appendages. Their bodies weren't that way because of their demoniacal behaviour/mentality; 'twas the other way around.

Ever notice how irritable a person can be when they have a toothache?

Organismics – Towards Omniscience

God, and Big Brother know all there is to know about everything. Unlike the rest of us, mere mortals, God is truly Omniscient. Big Brother, on the other hand, is not really omniscient.In spite of being served by mere mortals, Big Brother has got around his mortality by arranging to have an excellent memory. Big Brother has an institutionalized memory. Ideally, once something is known it shan't be forgotten albeit it may be lost.

Compared against God & Big Brother, I am not immortal. My memory too is not institutionalized; there're actual gaps in my memories. Of all that I know, I learnt some things at School. Some other things I learnt second-hand. Still others I learnt from first-hand experience. The last category is also the most ... pervasive.

Waiting to report at my first job, I was speechless with the knowledge that my education would finally be applied to challenging tasks. Within a month I was disillusioned. This probably happens to the majority of us. The first job carries with it the aura of finally proving to the world what we have learnt over years. Sooner or later, every one of us realizes that little of what we learnt at school is really directly applicable. The sooner this moment of truth comes, the better.

Of all lessons we learn at school, the most important are not taught in class. Rarely, if ever, are these lessons even mentioned in words. And yet these lessons form the keystone of all our education, and lie as the bedrock for a successful career.

At school, we had as many as 8 different subjects covered during the day in blocks of 45 minutes each. The teacher would, at the end of each block, hand out an assignment to be delivered in the next block for that subject, and woe-betide anyone who neglected to do it, or gave the excuse they hadn't understood in class. The impression, of course, was that we were expected to know everything.

Looking back, I now realize that these were the real lessons we were meant to learn, albeit they were never vocalized.

1. You do not know everything; nor are you expected to know everything.

   Of course we do not know everything. When the answer is wrong the first thing that comes to mind is 'All that effort gone waste!', right?
   
   Wrong! It's not gone waste. We know now -

1. At least one thing the answer is not

2. At least one approach that is not applicable

2. When you have expended sufficient effort towards an objective, Ask!

   Remember those sums Teacher used to give us at Math; All those words, and numbers? It sometimes seemed as though nothing we could try would work, and it was so easy to get stuck in a thought-loop. [It still is! (+:]

   Well, the approach that applied there applies in professional life too -

   1. If, at first, you do not succeed; Try, Try, Try Again

   2. Keep track of what went into each effort

   3. When you've spent a reasonable amount of time without getting the solution, Ask!

      A colleague with an as-yet unlooped mindset may be able to solve the problem by a mere a look. When an outright solution is unavailable, someone will certainly be able to put you on the right track. Even if that doesn't happen, merely breaking out of the loop by doing a different task will help.

3. Manage your time!

   This is the most important lesson, most of us never really learn at school. With 8 subjects spread over 45 minutes daily, our approach to homework was usually haphazard. In hindsight, that we even managed to get homework done is just short of astounding.

   Working towards an objective does not mean focusing at one item to the exclusion of all else (albeit such tunnel-vision does help at times). Tunnel vision, or applying single-minded effort for a week doing naught else is usually not justifiable. Such tunnel vision starts up the backlog on other tasks in hand; every one of us is a cell in the organism that is the organization. In biology, when one cell ceases to function effectively; one of the following happens -

1. The cell dies, and is replaced at some cost to the body itself

2. The body's auto-immune system tries to flush the cell from the body

   Such extreme situations may not arise in our professional lives. Typically, the worst case condition is that the inability to manage time will hurt the organization that pays your salary.

True omniscience is elusive for individuals & organizations aline, but we can use these lessons as a step towards organizational omniscience.

Kept in mind three lessons, learnt subconsciously at school, form the foundation of a successful career.

Organismics - The Balancing Act

I've been working in/around IT for several years now. As in any industry there are companies that merely survive, and there are those that thrive. One part of it is the timing involved. Timing is not everything though. As it caters to more customers, as it creates different products across different geographical locations... as it grows, each company has it's own share of teething troubles.

Those companies who make it good & succeed do so because they approach the task at hand as a single living breathing entity. Management are the brain, deciding upon what to do. Human Resources are the auto-immune system, working to ensure the cells in the organization are content, and healthy. The various departments are the different organs performing their tasks to keep the organization function optimal. The Department head is the synapse, reporting on the status of the department to the brain.

In all my time (that sounds so ponderous ...) i have never seen a person to be irreplaceable; In an organization, none of us are. Each individual may be likened to a member of a football team. Whilst each of us is capable of playing the position of the goalkeeper, the forward, the defender; we may do better at one particular position.

Compare playing football to working in an organization -

• Project is the goal
• Task assigned to the team member is the ball
• Coach, manager/supervisor, defines what is expected of each team member
• Each team member knows what to do with the ball, but how to do it is his prerogative

The entire purpose behind an organization is to commit all necessary resources into play at the same time towards achieving a common goal. The key, as we all know, is to communicate well within ourselves. Where communication fails or isn't complete, it results in friction causing avoidable loss of time, and effort. A failure to communicate effectively manifests ultimately as conflict within the organization.

No organization is ideal. There is always some conflict involved. To even attempt resolution of every tiny conflict would be an overkill. As in life, it is neccessary to choose our battles. But every single battle must be fought to a plan. The first thing to do is to identify the enemy. The disgruntled employee who talks down the new employee is not the enemy; why he is disgruntled, and why he chooses to vent at a newbie is what needs to be identified. If anything, the fact that a person is dissatisfied is cause for concern; the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

As with any problem, a solution can only be found after the problem is well-identified. Before we even make an attempt to resolve the conflict, we must identify the conflict. Broadly, in my experience, symptoms of conflict are these -

1. The most obvious is probably finger-pointing within the team; it's the equivalent of the goalkeeper claiming the player who passed the ball back to him is the reason for the own-goal. Each task assignment is met with the equivalent of - 'Why Me'?
2. The second most obvious symptom is lack of pride in the work being done; this typically manifests itself as that murmur which goes like 'what's the use? even if we achieve it, this will never see the light of the day & it will never benefit us. we'll always remain anonymous in the background'.
3. The third, and probably the least obvious symptom, is when nothing obvious is mentioned. Things aren't obviously wrong; they're quietly wrong. This is probably the most dangerous form of conflict within the organization; conflict of this type only becomes apparent when things are almost at a head, nearly irreparable. Say, for instance, the rest of the team relies upon one piece of work assigned to Vishwas; e.g. a daily database update. If now Vishwas does his task, but _regularly_ fails to convey the relevant details to the rest of the team then something is quietly wrong... and it affects the entire team. As i've mentioned earlier, the entire purpose of being there as a team is to work together to a common goal. Here, Vishwas may have personal troubles which affect work, and instead of choosing to confide in his team-mates atleast as far as the work-related aspect is concerned, he's going it alone; That is cause for concern.

As part of the effort to avoid conflict, the person responsible for the team might

• Impress upon the team, the need for each member of the team behave responsibly towards the output expected of the team.
• Define & Enforce the guidelines for unequivocal communication.
• As a corollary to the above, continually make sure team members refrain from 'guessing' what is expected.
• Prevent exhchange of disparaging remarks between members. If possible by calling on their sensibility & sensitivity. If necessary by drawing their fire to him.
  

Each occurence of the symptoms listed above are not a sure-shot indication of conflict. They are merely signs to watch out for. It is upto the more experienced persons on the team to notice these flags in the context of the work at hand, and the general mood of the team. There is no panacea to deal with conflict. Each of us is an individual, and our troubles are personal too. Therefore, to achieve the best results, conflict too is best handled one-on-one, and subject to the need of the hour. As with any malaise, prevention is better than cure.

Organism -> Artifact -> Artificial Organism

Man, they say, is a social animal.

Organism ...
The word "organism" may broadly be defined as an assembly of molecules that influence each other in such a way that they function as a more or less stable whole and have properties of life. Every time I look around, I find organisms galore. Of course, not every organism is created by nature. There are artifacts too. Some of these artifacts interest me; the properties of life are less obvious in them. An artifact may not be an obvious assembly of molecules; it may be an assembly of other artifacts too.

The big thing about an organism is that it is an ideal representation of Synergy; the Whole is greater than the sum of it's constituent parts. When you, or I for that matter, accidentally touch the steam-iron we don't wait a second and think "Oh! This is hot! I ought to move my hand away". The reflexes we exhibit as an organic whole , coupled with our ability to plan actions which rely upon the reflex makes us so effective at survival.

Here, Survival means we -

• consume food


• generate energy from the food consumed
• use the energy either to procure more energy, OR to perform actions that benefit our person

The assignment I am working on now involves lots of such composite assemblies which together form a very impressive whole. This got me to thinking how similar such assemblies are to life... and yet how primitive. The analogy led me further to think seemigly intangible assemblies; for instance - an entity may exist only on paper. A similar example is a company; or to use it's more appropriate synonym - 'Organization'.

As an organic entity is conceived, born, lives... and dies, so too an organization may go from a conception, to birth, through life, and eventually Death. As with an embryo, an organization too must be well-protected in this stage. Similarly too, the protection must be maintained after birth whilst the baby learns [through survivable mistakes] of it's capabilities. Whilst it lives, the baby grows, consumes food, & makes it's existence known by performing some activities apart from consumption.

For an organization food is resources consumed ... brainpower, manpower, & electricity. Growth (+: needs no translation. Existential Activities,in this case, are actions towards translating the energy consumed from resources into revenue, into eventual Growth.

The Fast Track to Development

Earlier this week newspapers reported a proposed high-speed link between Mumbai, and Nagpur. At present the two cities are linked by air, rail, and road. Travel-time, by air, is around 45 minutes. By road, and by Rail it varies from 15 hours upwards. Surface transport being the less expensive, despite the recent slew in populist fares by various airlines, most people spend from 15 hours upwards on a one-way trip.. or 2 work days. As such most travel is on the weekends. There are, at present, around 15 odd trains linking the two cities. Even going by a conservative estimate of 100 travellers per train, there are no less than 1500 travellers daily. This translates to a staggering 1500 (times 2 work-days); that is 3000 work-days lost in transit. As a layman, the cost of 3000 work-days on the economy is beyond me; i shall not dwell upon it.

The proposed high-speed train aims to reduce travel time to 3.5 hours. This means each traveller on the new train will save nearly 1.5 work days. The cost involved is to the tune of INR 8000 Crore i.e 80 Billion Rupees. Going by the assumptions that a

• two-way track will be installed,


• there are 200 persons on board each train for the entire trip from source to destination, and


• there are 2 trains plying at any given time

we spend 200 * 2 * 3.5; that is 1400 hours; this works out to 175 work-days. At the same time, regular trains plying along this route will continue to cost the 3000 work-days daily.

Regular trains plying on the surface will continue to be bound to the ...vagaries, of nature, and of man. A tree may fall across the tracks, a tiger may challenge the train, politically motivated flash strikes may hold-up all trains along the route for hours on hend, and so on. Assuming the above do not happen, trains rarely ever travel at better than 120km/hour on the subcontinent, apparently due to poor tracks, and facilities[i wonder what the term means in this context]. The average speed is more like 70km/hour. Could the infusion of 80 Billion INR translate to better facilities that would allow the majority of trains to ply at better than 170km/hour?

just a verse...

Slept out in the open
Beneath the purple sky
Thought about the stars; wondered where am I?
Thought across the light-years
Traveled as the light of my Star
Through the finite infinity
I reached my Self, where my thought sprang from
But the light of my Star had ceased to Be.

Scripting Learning

Another short quick post.
Someone visited here from Canada recently. The discussion over supper meandered over a multitude of topics. One topic that sticks in mind is that of language scripts, and pronunciations.

There are numerous language scripts on the sub-continent; some similar, some different. The few I know of are from the North Indian languages. Scripts in South India bear little similarity whatsoever. The one exception is Urdu, which uses the Arabic script. One point on which the languages I know of are similar is the grouping of consonants, soft-consonants, and vowels. The letters are grouped in the manner of pronunciation.

The Devanagari Script is organized in groups based upon where the sound originates in the body as -
Velar - Ka, Kha, Ga, Gha
Palatal - Cha, Cha, Ja, Jha
Retroflex - Ta, Tha, Da, Dha [as in Tut]
Dental - Ta, Tha, Da, Dha
Labial - Pa, Pha, Ba, Bha

The pronunciation of the dentals are a softer version of the retroflex. But that's past the point. We learn to speak even before we learn our alphabets. Here, on the subcontinent, english is the medium of instruction in a significant fraction of the nursery/preparatory schools. But without meaning to sound an anglophobe [can't claim to be that, as anybody reading this will realize (+: ] why not start the mother tongue earlier? As the baby/child gains control of his ability to make sounds, teach another set of the sounds. By the time school starts, the child will have a significant advantage. The success of this suggestion also depends upon how well a child responds to learning something new, though. But children tend to be fascinated by whatever appears new. I wonder if this may work ...

Re... tail

For a change, this post is less of my typical spur-of-the-moment spinning-wheels in the rooms upstairs. This post is about reasons I believe responsible for the fact that the local software product market is still in it's infancy. A subject I frequently ponder about; more frequently of late, and is prompted by something I read on here.

Since India started on the path to a free-market economy back in the early 1990s, it's software industry has acquired a name for itself. The population on the subcontinent has frequently been the subject of jokes on topics of family planning; but apart from China and countries in Africa, the subcontinent is probably the world's last underexploited market. In addition, the longitudes also work to the advantage of the sub-continent in providing the facility for a 24/7 work-cycle to industries in the far-east, and in America. Longitudes apart [pun intended!] the rupee is sufficiently weak for an indian workforce to be viable economically, even at the cost of training them.

Indians, outside the subcontinent, have by-and-large done well; contributed to their adoptive country, and gone on to positions of responsibility. But I admit to prejudice on this point. Anyway, the thing is that companies from the sub-continent have an advantage in being able to bid _very_ competitively for projects from firms located outside the subcontinent. Unflattering as it may seem, even a child can learn to throw instructions together and write a program. To write compact, maintainable code, something for an evolving _product_, one needs knowledge of algorithms, design strategies, and knowledge of technologies. Some of these may be learnt from books, the others must be learnt by hard experience.

Similar to the case of an individual, a firm too must earn to survive. In the latter case, the earning is termed 'profit'. A product, until it is established in the markets, remains a red-line on the profit-charts. Few software firms in India cater to a product for the local businesses, and professionals. Businesses in India are, for the most part, still in the small business stage. These are usually owned by a family for generations at a time. This is not to say there are no manufacturer owned outlets; there are, but such outlets are heavily outnumbered by the smaller businesses which cater across brands, and across price segments. Similarly there are small supermarkets, mostly managed by various consumer cooperatives, and some small chains. Business, by and large, is computation intensive but small stores here rarely own a computer, let alone use a computer for inventories/billing. Both are managed on paper, if at all.

Lately, small businesses are beginning to make the switch to a computer but there is an established mindset which must change, before the potential of the market can be realized. A few arguments I believe that need to be factored in by firms aiming to tap this market are -

First, there are few, if any, retail chains; as a result one big selling point in favour of computers - networking/communication - does not carry quite the weight it should.

Second [as a consequence of independent retail stores], the owner of the store down the street _will_ think atleast twice before putting his data into a server he himself does not control; no matter that the advantages of a remote server - daily backups, encrypted data storage [(+; the freedom to sue, if there's a problem ]

Third, Computers require a power-supply. As much as a third of the electricity generated by the Electricity companies in India is lost in the accounting [to what are euphemistically termed as Transmission & Distribution Losses]. There are places [my city of Nagpur with population > 4M] where the power companies shutdown distribution [it's called load-shedding] for as long as 4-hours during the working day. I've heard of places in the interior who experience power-outages upto 8 hours a day. This has improved in recent days, but the point is this - power supply can be ... capricious. The spiraling cost of fuel all but precludes purchase of a Generator. From the point of view of the store-owner - "Invest in a computer, Invest in the software for the computer, invest in a generator, purchase fuel time-and-again, and _then_ pay the auditor? I think not".

Chaos

I like to hang around in the c++ forum on the IRC networks. The discussion is not always about the language, it's features, IDE idiosyncrasies and the like; it may be about the mundane too. This post is about a discussion we got into about personal ownership of vehicles. At first, the need for a discussion may appear pointless. After all ever since we were able to, we have attempted to domesticate animals for the purpose of transport. So why, after all these millenia(?), do we have this debate? Not, of-course, that we know whether the debate was there earlier.

Going by what little we know of the past, the concept of governance was pretty much limited to a pack-leader. The concept of society, & societal welfare didn't appear in the picture until much later. On the other hand, the idea of each person looking out for himself is almost hard-wired into us. A private vehicle is an extension of our own self. One which may open up the boundaries beyond the nearest visible horizon. To restrict private ownership is almost akin to putting bounds on how much a person may grow. The word 'almost' appears because the usage of a personal vehicle may vary from the apparently frivolous to deadly serious.

The primary reason for the debate rises apparently because of the frivolous usage of so many vehicles. The use we put our vehicle to results in the obvious consumption of so much fuel. But that's the obvious purpose. In the same manner by which a horse cannot outrun a racing camel in the desert, a man-made vehicle requires a certain terrain too; the roads. Our roads are constructed to be able to transport only so much traffic at a time. If the limited capacity of a road is exceeded, the least that may happen is an apparently interminable delay... the worst may be extreme road-rage.

Public ownership of vehicles may help keep the number of vehicles on roads limited to as many as are necessary. The bottle-necks will move from the road, to queues at the point of embarkation. The priority may be decided at-least partially upon old-fashioned courtesy, rather than upon BHP aka Brute Horsepower. That sounds wonderful ... until we realize it does nothing to actually increase the traffic-bearing capacity of a road. This is only a thought, but if all drivers decide to switch to public-transport, public transport systems - bus, rail-road, ferry, pavements will face the same congestion problems soon enough. Couple this with the fact that the elderly, and infirm need some degree of insulation from the more brisk commuters. Also, factor in the knowledge that a person should typically get to a point within about 10 minutes walking distance of their destination. Remember that all neighbourhoods are not necessarily safe for a stranger. Add also the knowledge that transport is not merely persons, but also material goods; the backbone of economics.
Our transport systems may be chaotic where they are congested. Transport systems - road, railroad, water, and air are not universally equally congested. Beyond the city, beyond the railway junction, out at the fringe of the sea/air lanes, there is still open space.

Surnames.

A while ago the bank officer put in papa's name as my middle-name, in spite of my efforts to convince him otherwise. It's tradition hereabouts. In some parts of India, a middle name is mandatory. The middle name may be the village of origin of the family, the name of the father/spouse. The thing is, a middle name is not necessary now that a family-name/surname is.

Not too far in the past, there was a time when travelling for a day meant a distance of perhaps 100kilometers at the most. For a long period of time travel by horse-back, cart, and buggy were perhaps the quickest means of travel. In such a time, living in relatively small communities most people would know each other by name. A surname was not necessary. Indeed, in some parts of India it was only after the East India Company, and later HMG were well established that it was made mandatory for a person to have a surname. Hence some persons selected a surname descriptive of their occupation, their city of origin, and so on.

As soon as we started to explore our surroundings, and to travel we discovered we were not alone. One name alone was often enough to identify us. A name, and a surname OTOH was not duplicated quite as frequently. Thus any community which used a name/surname to identify a person was probably governed more ... pragmatically than it's contemporaries. Governance aims at the community, but deals with individuals. Anthropologically, we may even assume that a community which used surnames was more advanced in terms of economy, and probably technology.

Practical Programming II - Community Development

Traditionally, the life of a Hindu is divided into several phases. These are, in order

• Brahmacharya
• Grihastacharya
• Vanaprastha
• Sanyaas

Brahmacharya is the phase from infancy to childhood. During this period the youngling learns how to live in a community, is educated and probably apprenticed into trade.

The second phase, Grihastacharya, sees the child, now an adult, settle down professionally and in the community. He makes his contribution to the economy, and science of the community. In this phase of life, he also attends to the well-being & education of his children, mentoring them for their roles in the future. The children are now in the Brahmacharya phase. This phase typically closes after the children are themselves ready to move into the Grihast/Householder phase.

Vanprastha is a combination of two words - Vana[= Forest] + Prasthan[=move ]. The word means Move to the Forest. Traditionally, this means that the the Grihast, having fulfilled his active obligation to keep the community alive, and prosperous distance themselves to a remote location, purportedly to meditate. The phase is typically spoken of as meaning Retirement & Exile.

The final phase, Sanyaas, is that of oneness with the elements. I confess the phase is beyond my understanding.

Seen objectively, the 4 phases represent an orderly procession through life; at all times there is a generation in training for the next phase. The most obvious example is the Brahmacharya-Grihastacharya phase where the parents are in the Grihast phase and the children in the Brahmacharya phase.

The rules were obviously defined for the benefit of the community. Therefore to remove the invidual at what may be the peak of their professional life, when they may most contribute to the community seems counter-intuitive. Vanprastha however, is not only about retiring into seclusion. The description, passed down through generations, speaks not about seclusion, but about moving to distant places, and meditating. Seclusion although it may be considered as a passable synonym for moving to a remote place isn't quite the same. This, I believe, is the Key. Meditate means to think/dwell upon in the mind. Change the presently accepted definition from 'go to secluded places' to 'relocate to places remote from the present location' and the picture changes quite a bit. A person is irreplacable, the role fulfilled by a person is not. A person may fulfil a role even in places other than his own. This seems sensible, but it still raises the question about _why_ a person must leave from the place where his roots lie.

To relocate to a remote place is not the same as being alone. A remote place may still be a community but perhaps less evolved, for instance- a tribe. Even today, atleast 5000 years down the line from when the Vedas were composed lifestyle in urban centres is very different from that in hamlets, and villages. In a form of existence where there is little mechanization, the first person to move to a place proves that it is habitable, the others who appear fill requirements to form a community. When a person moves to a remote place, irrelevant of whether a community is already present his lifetime of experience acts as a solid bulwark. If a community/tribe is already in the vicinity, both the newcomer and the community stand to gain from the relationship. The former from the existence of the community and all that a community represents [companionship & help]. The latter from the experience which the newcomer brings with him - knowledge, and technology. Over time, a remote tribe may become a community centre if there are enough persons with experience in the vicinity. It is then on the way to become an urban centre.

The press of tradition, community, and peers can only make a person do so much. Every one of us has a desire to create something memorable. An urban community with all the ready resources it provides, is also an extremely crowded place.. one where time and creative thought are difficult to come by. Vanprastha was the research labs, and Community Development Center of the ancients, not Retirement & Exile.

Tsunami 2004: Divine Retribution

December 26, 2004 AD had the vacationers in the coastal areas of Indonesia adjacent to the Indian Ocean have their breakfast hours interrupted by an amazing sight. The ocean was retreating from existing shores; almost as if someone had pulled the drain-plug deep beneath the ocean. In a sense, it was true... but only for a very short time. Deep beneath the surface of the ocean, the Indo-Australian continental plate had ground against the Burma plate. The movement of the one plate downwards pulled the waters below, deep beneath the seemingly placid waters. The immediate result was a massive seismic tremor registering an almost unbelievable 9.1 on the Richter Scale. The less immediate result, a Tsunami, that totalled over 220,000 fatalities in Indonesia, India & Sri Lanka together. A large figure even without counting the losses in terms of property, and human experience.

Sometime before the quake, a week or so, a famous Seer in South India was arrested and held under the Penal Laws of India. Scores believed him to be innocent, but a great many also believed there was some basis for the charges under which he was held. The Tsunami was linked to the arrest by his supporters as proof of Divine Retribution.

A year later, the December 2005 issue of the Indian Edition of The Reader's Digest commemorated the anniversary of the Tsunami. This by replacing the bonus section with a series of eyewitness accounts of survivors. Among the several photographs in the issue was high altitude photograph of a place named Meulaboh. Meulaboh had a population of 50,000 humans. With the exception of a mosque, the photograph was devoid of any sign of human construction. Bar the mosque, all structures were razed by the Tsunami. A phenomenon which led people to comment upon the Divine Will. A similar phenomenon [Similar in the sense it also relates to the survival of a construction for a theological purpose against high odds] is the fact that St. Paul's Cathedral in the United Kingdom during the entire course of the Battle for Britain received a Direct Hit during the War, but survives intact.

Before I proceed further, I must make a quick detour on theology. The" gist of Pascal's take on theology is simple.There may, or may not be a God. I may, or may not, believe in him. The only way to lose, is if God exists & I do not believe in him ... thereby earning condemnation to Hell. Therefore, I choose to Believe ; merely to be saved from condemnation to Hell. The argument appears to be selfish, and probably won't endear me to anyone ... but ask yourself, and deep down that voice which always has your well-being in mind will answer you. To the best of my knowledge, which admittedly is limited, most forms of belief have some thing to offer by way of afterlife, or in afterlife. It's an understandable tactic ; if some religious beliefs were able to guarantee a man's desires/aspirations fulfilled within a defined time-frame, they might be taken to court for breach of promise if the time-frame lapsed without the desires fulfilled. Therefore, guarantee that a person's desires to be fulfilled in the afterlife. After all we only hear talk of a few persons return, and none of them seem to have sued... Definitely good for the business..

If every single human had believed and had lived according to the virtues prescribed by various theological texts, a great many events would not have appeared in our History textbooks... perhaps our civilization would be a little different from what it appears to be, but I digress. To get back on the subject, the statement 'believe & be saved' may not be widely accepted as it is. But at some subconscious level, it must register. This is especially so in the case where we humans construct monuments to the God/s of our beliefs. An unscrupulous contractor would not hesitate to save on costs [or more apt, increase his gain] by substituting sand for cement, and use less rebars than required according to the design. The same person, however, will almost certainly think twice before doing the same when constructing a structure for a preternatural. The fear of retribution from a preternatural keeps a great many of us from indulging in actions/speech which may be deemed offensive. Structures made as a form of respect for a character from theology therefore are sturdier and more attention paid during the course of construction. The end result is a structure that is able to better withstand furies of nature, and man-made calamities such as armed conflict ... thereby providing 'proof' of the existence of a God.

Practical Programming

The first question that comes to the mind of the inquisitive is – What is a program? Put simply, a program is merely a defined sequence of instructions that must be followed to perform a certain task. The word 'must' makes it obvious there is to be no deviation from the sequence defined; even an automaton with no more intelligence than the ability to follow the sequence may achieve the expected result. Of course, if the sequence may throw some unexpected situations as a result of one or more instruction intelligence may then be required. The may is subject to the degree of customization provided to deal with the unexpected. The simplest way, obviously, is to deal with all unexpected situations with a single yardstick.

Thus if the task is 'clean'; the sequence of instructions may be

a) Start
b) Identify Dusty
c) Remove Dust
d) Repeat from b) until no more surface Dusty
e) Stop

Obviously, this is a rudimentary sequence. As the art of programming evolves, we find it is not necessary to have the instructions repeated ad infinitum. It is enough to define the instructions independently and only provide the necessary input with each call. But this still has a drawback; the step c) may vary depending upon the input provided. For instance – removal of dust from a glass surface is best aided by application of some fluid. But removing dust from, say, a computer motherboard with a fluid is a definite no-no. Therefore we realize while the task 'clean' is a generic description, the actual cleaning is specific and depends upon what is to be cleaned.

Anthropologically, the caste system is not very different. The origins of the Caste system are shrouded by mists of time, and beliefs. What we do know for certain about the Caste system, as identified by the Aryans in India is that there were 4 primary castes –

Kshatria/Kshatriya/Warrior,

I wonder whether the term Kshatria may not simply mean kshatra, chattra/umbrella as we use the term in present day hindi. The purpose of an umbrella is to provide shelter/respite from the elements. The Kshatria therefore becomes the caste that holds the umbrella[for the members of the community, where the term community refers to all regardless of caste].
Brahmana/Priest/Intelligentsia,

Vaishya/Merchant,

Shudra/Menial Tasks.

Similarly, I wonder whether the term Shudra may not be related to the term 'shudh/shuddh/purify', as we use the term in the present day. The term itself is Sanskrit, and means Purify. While the suffix 'ra' is unknown to me, i wonder whether the term may not then refer to the people who bore the responsibility of keeping the habitat spic-and-span, so to speak... obviously a far cry from the apparently derogatory 'untouchable'.

We therefore have the caste system as being task/function oriented; not a very original idea, but I choose to believe it.

Why did the ancients consider it worthwhile to divide the society so? Did they not realize that such a divided society might not survive? They certainly did, and if we are to believe even the most conservative of estimates the society, as split into castes, has survived for atleast a millenium. The divisions obviously served a purpose which we do not seem to recognize today.

To a programmer, the caste system is a classic example of object oriented programming theory. OOP is built upon the properties

i. Encapsulation/Confinement of knowledge
ii. Generalization and specialization
iii. Inheritance/Propagation of knowledge through heirarchy

In object oriented programming OOP, in short] a program is comprised of a number of objects. Each object is based upon a defined template, with properties and responsibility assigned. Such template is referred to as a 'class'.
Thus, for instance the above sequence of instructions may be represented as a class with the property and responsibility as mentioned below

class Cleaner Responsibility: Identify Dirty, Perform Cleaning Uses: Cleaning instrument
The advantage of such a classification is the knowledge is then encapsulated or confined. Thus the knowledge of cleaning is now the responsibility of Cleaner. The question is – why confine the knowledge? The answer – because encapsulation helps prevent misuse. Imagine what may happen if one intended to dry-clean the control panel in a nuclear submarine!

Jokes apart, a more practical reason to encapsulate knowledge is this - Delegation of a task frees the delegator to undertake other tasks. Thus in a society comprised of various castes, as mentioned earlier, a warrior need not worry himself overly about living in unsanitary surroundings because it would be handled by the section of the society responsible for that task. Similarly, the menial labourer would not need to concern himself with things other than his own task because it would be handled by the sections of society responsible for those tasks. Commerce handled by the Merchants, planning for the future of the society by the intelligentsia, protection of the society by the warriors, and so on.

Moving on to the twin properties of Generalization & Specialization, the task of cleaning itself is a very broad definition. For instance, cleaning a glass plate is quite different from dry cleaning a silk cloth. If the one method is applied to the other, it may not have quite the expected result. The task of cleaning may be further narrowed down, to improve efficiency.

We see similarities applied in everyday life. A bank may be a good example; when one enters a bank the obvious task has something to do with money... a loan, or a payment, or a withdrawal, or a deposit. Again, each of these may have their own hidden subtleties. Ideally, we do not need to know more about what goes on behind the closed doors to be able to use the facilities better.


OOP has another advantage; a property termed as Inheritance. By inheriting from an existing class, the knowledge encapsulated by the original class is made available to the inherited/child class without significant additional effort required. The parallel, as applied to the Caste System is apt.

The more one is exposed to a profession from childhood days, the more one inculcates. There is the argument that the knowledge gained by a generation may be passed on to subsequent generations by means of writing/pictorial representation and so forth. Documentation is useful. The practice of documentation helps to convey some portion of the knowledge to newcombers in the profession ... we see that frequently in the field of programming, perhaps in all professions nowadays. Reading conveys part of an experience. Listening to the person who experienced it, with all the vocal inflections and facial expressions is something different altogether. However one has to live an experience to brand it into memory.

There is, of course, the drawback that such hereditary knowledge may result in stagnation. I concede the point with the example of what the Caste system is, as it exists as we see it today. We do not know, with any degree of certainty, the origin and the rationale, and yet it persists mostly because it 'is traditional'.

Rambling on about ... lifestyle

I was playing trivia on DALNet (www.triviaholic.net) when this question came up - What is the name of the traditional indian form of exercise? Easy question - A: Yogasanas.
As a kid, I was able to perform various yogic positions, or asanas as they are referred to in the vernacular. That question prompted me to attempt the Lotus position, or padmasana. I got the position, with a little effort, and felt pretty pleased with myself ... until I discovered, to my chagrin, I couldn't get out of the position!! I have since been practicing regularly, and expect to be able to get over my ummm fear of the lotus position. Google came up with a number of web-sites, but the one that gets my vote is this one -
www.yogajournal.com Anyway, take my advice. Dont' ever practice yogasans when puppy may come in and sniff-tickle you off your balance.

We hear off-and-on about various forms of exercise [martial,and otherwise]- Yogasanas, Tai'chi, Judo, Quigong, and so on. All these forms of exercise, seem to have two things in common.

i. Ensure a supple spine, and good posture
ii. Practice controlled breathing.

As babies, our bodies are naturally supple to an extent that seems almost impossible to most adults. Just try to hold your big toe to your mouth and suck upon it, if you don't believe me!! A baby does it with an ease most of us grown ups cannot.

As we learn to use our mind and settle into the world socially in the 'accepted way of life', our body loses the flexibility it was born with. By and large, the accepted form is increasingly influenced by what is spoken of as 'Western culture'. Lunch and Dinner in the classical European form, i'm unsure of the nation of origin, require a table and a chair. On the other hand, meals [even
traditionally] in India are believed to have been consumed sitting cross-legged on the floor. It is only in the recent past that I heard the cross legged position actually stimulates the abdominal muscles.. compressing the right organs to promote digestion. While the previous statement may, or may not be accurate, i find myself wondering whether there a middle-way that allows us to grow technologically, and yet refrain from a sedentary lifestyle?