Food for thought

Here is a rehash of some of my thoughts from the recent past. I had posted this on my blog some time back and thought it might provide some food for thought.

What is an interesting problem? A subjective question at best. What is interesting to some could be dis-interesting to others and vice versa. Understanding how people react in different situations is an interesting but complex problem. Abe Lincoln once said "When I'm getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds thinking about him and what he is going to say". This quote is inspiring in the sense it made me think a little bit harder on something that is infinitely simple yet with no solution for all practical purposes.

Let us think of a game with two players. Each player is asked to write either "a" or "b" on a piece of paper. If either states "b" the game ends there and the hypothetical pay off is 0. But if both write "a" the game goes moves on to the second stage. If the game proceeds then the setting is as follows. Each player is asked to write down the largest possible integer that they can think of. The winner gets a hypothetical $1000 and the loser gets $ 500.

A simple game one should think! Well if we think about it, it is obvious that both players will choose "a" in the first stage since $ 500 is strictly greater than zero. The problem really is in the second stage. Here a unique solution does not exist. Both players cannot play the best response strategy because the best responses are not defined. Example: say if player 1 is thinking of writing 999, he knows that player two will play 1000, which makes player 1 think of playing 1001 and then the cylce goes on and on. The problem is a technical difficulty in optimization theory. It is a mathematical impossibility to arrive at a result because we are maximizing over an open set.

Can we find a game as trivial as this? Just choose a number and the person choosing a bigger number wins. A seemingly innocous problem but in reality unsolvable at this level. Note that it is quite possible someone might say that they dont care about winning $ 500 dollars as compared to $ 1000. Let me assume that one always wants to win which is fair enough (dont u think?).

Ramblings of a Marathon Support Group Member

I do not wish to belittle the achievement by stating it as another marathon. Nevertheless, yesterday my husband finished another marathon along with 2 of our close friends.

The arduous hours of training, the "interesting" pain(Yes - he does state that the wrenching pain is interesting!), the accompanying medal were all taken in the spirit of a true sportsman. While volumes get written about the marathoners, nothing gets written about the support groups (in this case, a sturdy troupe comprising of the 3 wives, 1 toddler and a teenager). So, I have decided to pen the support experience.

Through the training sessions and the carb-loading phase prior to the Marathon, the support group has no mean task. There you are, with your unswerving loyalty to your loved ones, dishing out all the wonderful dishes. There is the potato fry (just the right shade of golden with the crispy texture), the fluffy rice and the creamy soups. On the subject of potatoes, I could swear they mock you from the frying pan, and just would not stop enticing you till the darn dish is over. I could feel the extra burden during the carb-loading phase. The only thing I can thank God for, is that the carb-loading is a short span of time. I ran a pantry in the kitchen serving hot dishes every 3 hours. You could judge by the loose pajamas I wore that day to make room for the extra carbs.

All the carbs safely tucked in, the marathon day arrived. While the runners braved the early morning weather to venture into the first part of their marathon, we, the supporters braved the roads and got together with bananas, apples and baked potatoes at the Mile 18 touch-point. I had mild butterflies in my stomach, just hoping that they will be fine and running sans injuries. Already, we knew one of them had an injury and had slowed down. At this point I could tell you that no amount of carb-loading prepares you for the elated sensation you get when you see one of your close friends running towards you in steady strides. You want to tuck into some baked potatoes for support, but you refrain. One must have self-control!

We stood watching groups of people run by. The plan was for us to give the runners a boost at Mile 18 with baked potatoes and bananas, and then head to Starbucks to get a boost for our hoarse throats and proceed onto Mile 21 and then to the finish line. It turns out that there was a mis-reading, and that the Mile-18 point was indeed Mile-15, and we had missed 2 of the 3 guys.

We are a sacrificial lot, as mentioned earlier, and we decided to forgo the Starbucks visit, and dash it to Mile-21. We checked our watches, and sped away as fast as our cars would take us without drawing the attention of cops. During this particular ride, my toddler decided to fall asleep. So now, we parked at the 21-mile point, lugged a 2-year old on my shoulder and legged it across a Farmer's market cum bakery exhibition (I swear the temptation never stops!) to cheer the boys on. Guess what, they just left!

We now had the dubious reputation of chasing the marathon runners by car, and they were leading!

This was no time for dilly-dallying. Decisions had to be made, and fast. We decided to look askance at the wafting smells of baked products, and got back into the car, determined to get to the finish line before they did, and guess what?

WE DID! HA!

We reached the finish line ahead of the runners, and managed a decent photo shoot at the very end at least!

Great job guys: No mean feat, I am proud of you all!
Good job support group: No mean f(e)at.

First baby step=acknowledgment

Infamous "women accidents" propelled by dowry and what-nots have been a sad sphere for the Indian woman for decades now. Although, we have public awareness a little more than what it used to be, this abuse spanning different socio-economic groups and classes have taken more lives than what can be accounted for.

Women organisations in India are kicking dust big time in cities like Bangalore for instance. Enjoying media support and also being at the right place @ the right time have made their voices heard and women now are strongly urged not to take in-law, spousal and work environmental abuse that lightly. More shelters and 24/7 hotlines are coming up throughout the country and guess it's finally dawning on the supposed to be oprressed suppressed gender that this is infact not normal-- to get hit, pushed, bullied and more often than not sexually exploited.

Well, gone are the days when there were no laws to prevent, worse even question these so called actions against women, culture and tradition probably being used as one of the major guilt ripping tactic. Marital rape for instance, was considered a non-punishable offence under the CPC/CRPC (civil/criminal procedure code) since the husband was within his conjugal rights. A law has been passed now which entails the woman to get help for emotional, financial, physical and other kinds of abuse she has been meted out with. AND Marital rape is considered an offense!! So-- finally there's something that might the scare the S*^% out the batterers OR so I really hope.


Acknowledgment of such happenings was a major hurdle all these decades. So, atleast publicly admitting to a problem is a first step to something... IMHO. By no means a feather yet, but a cap has been donned for what it is worth!

Peace!

E = mc^2

I am not a big lover of mathematical symbols or equations. But, when I do come across universal constants and equations which change the entire way humans think of nature, it amazes me. One of the most famous equations of our time is certainly E=mc^2, which explains the mass-energy relationship. Though I have always wondered about it, only this time, I thought I will sit down and crunch some numbers.

If we assume a mass of say 1kg, the energy equivalence is approximately 90000000000000000 joules or 25000000000 kilowatt-hours or 21 megatons of TNT. Imagine how much energy we potentially have. The word potential is important, since the above energy assumes that mass is at rest...:).. This got me thinking, how much energy do we really consume per day in order to sustain. One way to calculate that would be to find the calorific value of the food intake. Assuming our mass doesnt change upon the food intake and we survive, one could say that the energy expended is just equal to energy consumed. Being a conservative person, I assigned 3000 calories of food intake to show a good number for the amount of energy we make use of. 1 calorie is around 4.184 joules, which would mean 3000 calories is roughly 12000 joules. Comparing that with the energy equivalent (still assuming 1 kg mass since multiplying it by 50 or 100 is not going to significantly affect the equations...again being on the conservative end of the spectrum), the fraction of energy consumed to keep our body in tact is around .000000000013333333 %. This is quite amazing from 2 aspects. One can look at it and say that our entire system works with such a low energy battery or that we probably are expending only a very small proportion of our energy equivalence.

Switching gears a little, I have heard from people who meditate and who are spiritually oriented that nature has a lot of energy. I often hear people saying that, when they go to a park or beach, they could see a lot of energy. Now, thinking back, based on the energy equivalence, one could say that, wherever there is a lot of mass, there is a lot of potential energy stored in that place. Obviously, forests, mountains, rivers and oceans have a lot of energy associated with it and thus the entire universe. Also, when there is a place, like a social gathering with a lot of people involved, you will still see that there is a lot of energy in that place. The only place where I couldnt find this correspondence to work is with obese people. We dont call all fat people as being energetic, do we? When someone oozes with confidence and optimism, we call them energetic. How is that energy defined? So, can one say that energy is not just a "mass" concept but rather a "mind" concept when it comes to people? I dont know...

Movies and Science

A pretty laid back evening for a Wednesday I should say. Did not get much work done and was bored to death. So what do i do? I decided to watch a movie. I have a fancy for natural disasters and this time I picked up Volcanoes as my pet topic. The movie was Dantes Peak starring Pierce Brosnan as a volcanologist and some other lesser known folks.

While the movie was interesting, there are some weird sequences which defy science (atleast i think so). For instance after the volcano erupts Brosnan and his lady love go in opposite direction towards the mountain to rescue the kids and their grandma. Enroute, their truck is literanlly submerged in water as they try to cross the river. Frankly I cant understand how that truck managed such a feat (mebbe i dont know much about automobiles).

Well the truck makes it and the two of em reach grandmas place and set about planning the escape. In comes molten lava pouring into the house and the house does not burn. Lava temperatures approximate close to 1000 degrees Centigrade. Come on folks I need a break. While we are talking about lava, there is a scene where Brosnan drives his truck over molten lava. Given the tempererature, the truck should be blown away or atleast the tyres should burn. Adding insult to injury, somehow the pet doggie finds it way right next to lava and manages to jump in. Talk about timing!

Hmm there are a number of other funny sequences, such as the acid lake where Brosnan manages to use his left arm wrapped in a thick coat, to paddle for nearly 3 to 4 mins and nothin happens to his arm, wheras grandma Ruth is crippled within 30 seconds of jumpin into the water. Do note that the water in the river is so acidic that it has literally eaten away the propellor on the outboard engine. What material did they use to make that coat. Obviously it can withstand acid, which by the way eats metal and humans too for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

An then the last sequence. I believe it takes two days before fire service comes in to rescue Mr. Brosnan and co. Well he probably was fractured and bleeding from the rock slide and stuck in a mine completely enclosed for 48 hrs. When he is rescued he walks out and lo behold the two kids and the mom are also safe. Now i wonder if folks trapped for 2 days without food and water (dont know where they got their oxygen from) and suffering from multiple fractures presumably(otherwise those rocks were probably made out of paper) can walk out without so much as a hint of tiredness on their face and get to hug each other blah blah.

What is the point of such movies? I guess its more the effect, the fact that you can show large scale destruction keeps viewers at the endge of their seats. It dun matter if science takes a backseat. The worst part is an added love story. Do we really need a love story between an erupting volcano???

Democracy - An alternative perspective

In my last blog on democracy, the stand taken was that the democratic system is quite feasible and in fact could actually end up improving social welfare. Here I would like to offer an alternative perspective based on agency theory.

Theory: Let me put the theory in perspective. The mode of analysis will be based on the principal-agent model from information economics.There exist two entities in this world with the principal being the person with the capital and a project that needs an expert to implement and the agent being the person with the skills to do the job. The Principal hires the agent. The agent has superior information (since he is a specialist) which can be useful for the principal in the smooth running of the project. In return for the services of the agent, the principal provides him with a monetary transfer.

Problem: As can be seen straight away, the fundamental problem in such a model is information asymmetry between the principal and the agent. The agent has superior information which can be used to extract higher rents from the Principal. Since the principal knows this, he uses his powers of monitoring over the activity of the agent to keep the agent in check and controls the transfer in such a way that gives him optimal returns.

This leads us to the fundamental problem of efficient contracting. In a world where there is no information asymmetry and both the agent and the principal are aware of the entire information set, we achieve the socially optimal outcome where allocation of resources is in equilibrium. However from a practical perspective this is never the case and hence we will see some loss in efficiency. Such losses of efficiency can be attributed as agency costs.

Application: Think of the entire set of voters as principals and the candidate as the agent. THe principals are hiring the agent to represent them and execute public projects (we can treat everything as a project for illustrative purposes here) for them. The first point to note is that the principal does not have direct control over the actions of the agent (i.e.) the voters have to wait atleast till the next election to punish their elected representative and cannot nullify any actions he has taken on a project. Hence this is an obvious source for agency costs. In my story here, the transfers are in the form of taxes which the voters pay. The tax money is allocated by the representative for projects which may or may not improve social welfare. Therefore the representative can engage in wealth destruction for their subjects.

Who bears the burden or the costs? Does the representative bear the cost? My argument in the previous blog was that the voters can punish the representative in the next election. But consider this scenario. What if the representative decides he is not going to contest in the next election? What if he decides to make the most of his office now never to return later? The incentive structure now gets into trouble. Keeping that aside for the moment, the ultimate burden is borne by the taxpayers themselves. The projects are theoretically for the benefit of the public at large. However if the representative engages in wasteful uses of the funds, he does not bear any personal liability, but rather it is the taxpayer who ends up losing.

A logical question here is are there other forms of organizations where agency costs arise and if yes are there potential solutions we can look at? Think of a corporation as a counter example. Investors in companies also face similar problems. For instance if you want to invest in google, basically you are the principal and the managers in google are the agents. Obviously the managers at google know more about the firm and its prospects than you will ever know. Since this information is known to you, you can protect yourself through the market mechanism by demanding a higher rate of return for the google stock. Hence the premium collected on the stock covers the additional risk on account of information asymmetry.

Can we use this line of reasoning for the state? Probably not but it is interesting to think why not. In our little example here, the rules governing the uses of money and also the imposition of taxation is governed by the same authority. Hence the institutional set up is such that the principal is virtually powerless. In the corporate case, the principal can control his transfers to effectively get the work done. But he cannot do the same here. He has to pay the taxes imposed upon him by the state. NOw given there has been wasteful expenditure, can he ask for compensation from the state? Maybe you can but the chances are slim that you will get a ruling in your favour because of several reasons one of which being, preferences for public goods by consumers are never monolithic. The basic disagreement between the principals provides disincentives for public response (exceptions being different ideologies such as labour unions in kerala, where it really does not matter what u think. if the union decides to strike then all members go on strike) being effective.

Now getting back in line, I wanted to briefly mention about the comment made by brainwaves which can be directly linked to this story. As noted by brainwaves, there are times when the representative can strategically manipulate the incentives of the principals by attacking a set of principals with monetary offers and other incentives. This is a classic case where agency costs pretty much kill the system.

Even assuming that such strategic manipulations never happen, what can the public do? One option in a democratic set up, as i mentioned earlier in this blog and my previous blog, is that the principals ncan choose to replace the existing representative with a new agent. However the institutional structure still remains the same. Hence all we are doing is subsituting the agent but not his incentives. The new agent has exactly the same incentives as the agent prior to him. So why should he do anything different?

Under these circumstances does a democractic system really improve efficiency??

(PS: Being an empiricist by choice, I just cant stay away from saying this. Was just looking at the timing of the posts by Mindframes on Democracy (6:58), my post of decmocracy (9:59) and this last post (10:59)..now what is the significance of 59 in this episode. An innocous sense of timing one would think...ROTFL)

Anniversary special and Happy Diwali

Ladies and gentleman, I came across this video and thought it might be a good one for the diwali party (i presume that there is a diwali party on)...hmm well even otherwise, we can use this one for the birthday party...it is is funny...hardcore Ilayaraja fans out there, please think before u hit play...the usual disclaimer applies from my side...BTW i hate hip hop but dunno why i managed to stay through this one....wishing one and all a very happy diwali..

Happy Anniversary

Officially, this blog was started on OCt18,2005 . I realised it just this morning. We are a day late..I think we can pat ourselves on the back for all the rants, thoughts, views shared , inspite of us not being great writers. When has that stopped us from writing anyway ?:-) Btw, in 1 year, we have 191 posts.

A note on Democracy

Instead of commenting on the very interesting post by mindframes on Democracy, i just thought it might be better for me to pen my thoughts as a blog.

@ Mindframes: An interesting point that you have brought into focus from your comment to the post on democracy is that if the social planner in a democratic set up is working in favour of the public, then why is it that just a fraction of the population end up voting? Does this represent the the breakdown of the democratic set up or a show of loss of faith in the system from the voters?

I agree that the right to vote is one of the principal determinants of a democracy. But lets look at this problem from a different angle. Generally democracies are big countries with large electorates and a significant number of eligible voters. In theory we can definitely think that the effect of one vote will at best be marginal (but i guess we were proved wrong in the US in the election prior to the last, which we can consider as an anomaly for our purpose here). But lets look at the individual voters decision to vote a little more carefully. Lets say that the net benefit for the individual comprises of two parts. One is the direct cost benefit (let C be the cost and B the benefit, then the net benefit will be N=B-C). The other will be the probability of casting the decisive vote for being on the winning side (just going back to my comment on preferences). THe higher the probability of casting the decisive vote, the more would be my inclination to vote. So let me denote that as (Z=p*X where p is the probability of casting the decisive vote and X represents the benefits derived from being on the winning side).

Now let us compare the two parts of the function individually. While N is straightforward since they are strictly observable, we cannot easily measure the impact on Z, because it has a probability measure p which is affected by the number of people who turn out to vote. To be more specific since voter turnout is endogenously determined and hence not observable prior to the decision to vote. The probability of casting the deciding vote will be near zero if everyone in the electorate votes and vice versa and note that the individual will have no way of verifying if the entire electorate will vote or not. Therefore again assuming rationality and the prior belief that p will be close to zero in large electorates, the decision rule that most individual will apply is that if N<0, then they will refrain from voting. Hence the decision to vote is definitely influenced more by the measurable direct costs and benefits of voting as against pitting themselves against uncertainties.

To take this further, suppose we assume that every individual in the electorate ended up thinking in the same line, then virtually nobody will turn out for the vote and hence every vote could be a decider, which will again make every individual think that his/her vote will be the decider, leading to everybody in the electorate voting. However, I will refrain from this line of thinking for the moment. Another line of thought which might do the rounds is using psychological persuasion modes (sense of civic duty etc etc.). I have chosen to ignore this line of thought (will reserve something on this for a later blog).

Hence for the moment let me use the argument of rational behavior and suggest that the voter turnout is lower not because, voters dont believe in the democratic system or that the social planner is not being efficient, but rather given the circumstances, their net benefit from voting is negative.

@ Survivor: One of the key points raised in your comment is there is no "true democracy". That really did set me thinking and I think my response to that would be democracy really means quasi democracy. While i agree to that and I guess i will reserve my comments on a quasi democracy vs. a democracy to another blog, my concern is with the comment on going to war. "invading other countries", that seems to be a little harsh. While again there might be hidden agendas for the social planner, what seems unclear is how to justify or not justify a single action, especially when there are several interlinking events, which may or may not have caused such a reaction (arguably justifying the actions). The direction of causality cannot be established without doubt and hence i would not go to the extreme to saying that this represents a failure in the democratic set up.

Now to your comment on dictatorship being the best at home as long as you rule! (LoL)..

I think this is an interesting area where we can apply Arrows impossibility theorem. Arrows theorem basically says that there is no ideal voting system in the world. Crudely stated every voting system is flawed. Lets think of the set up where decisions have to be made at home. If we assume that there exists a system for rank ordering of preferences for all the people involved in decision making process and that the preference would be for a collective choice rather than individual choice, how best can we arrive at an optimal choice where one ordered preference function is preferred over all others?

When we talk about collective decisions, we can arrive at a rank ordering of the preferences for each decision in several ways (ie. individuals can have difference preference functions). Let us say we have a choice function (c) which represents the best possible rank ordering of preferences. To achieve the optimal choice function C, there are several constraints that need to be satisfied. One such constraint says that there cannot be one participant whose rank order is most preferred over others (in other words dictatorship is not allowed). For Arrow's theorem to hold there are several other constraints too, but for the sake of parsimony, lets assume that all other constraints hold. Given this scenario, Arrow states that an optimal cchoice function can never be picked.

Hence in this set up since survivor ends up being the dictator, it should be a lot easier to make collective decisions as Arrows impossibility theorem holds.

Democracy

I find it disturbing to hear that Democracy is a panacea in the context of various forms of governments. Though I have had the privilege of enjoying democracy throughout my lifetime and certainly have no regrets, I couldnt help but notice that all forms of institutions and organizations don't embrace democracy.

Starting from home, we have the mother, father and kids. In most cases, it is questionable to assume that both father and mother have equal rights. I dont even have to talk about the kids. It is all driven by rules. Same is true in schools and colleges, all the way to organizations. Literature suggests that, having democracy in organizations, especially for decision making is a recipe for disaster.

Shifting our focus to governments, though it often seems like, in a democratic government, everything is based on people's will. Is it really true? If not everyone, do majority of people influence government? Infact, the more I think about it, I am inclined to say that, listening the mass of people is the most inefficient way to make decisions. Honestly, how many of us love to pay tax? how many of us want our mortgage tax exemption to be removed? how many of us want our securities compromised? how many of us really want globalisation to happen (assume that India is not the country where things move to)? how many people would want government to abolish junk food places? how many people would give up social security incomes, than have people to really save for their retirement? So, if a government had to act by people's interest, would it be an efficient government? Everyone who works for a company gets his own salary though everyone wishes to get the maximum possible salary there is, for the least amount of work. If companies start providing just that, would it be efficient...

When all forms of organizations are bound by efficiency, why is government thought of differently? Is it crippled by the issue of how the leader and representatives are chosen to carry out the job of governing? I dont know...

Background Music

Did you know I was a radio star? I have performed a few times on the All India Radio (I meant that to sound pompous) Before you go and start searching for my name in the halls of fame, let me put it in context. There is only 1 important characteristic in all those programs. Nobody can make out that it was me. The only way one could have guessed is by listening to the announcement prior to the program proclaiming my name in the list of students performing.

To be fair to my father, he recorded one event. When he rewound the tape and listened to the program again, he figured it would be enough to just retain the announcement section, since the rest of the program could have been performed by anybody. So, he promptly used the tape to record M.S.Subbulakshmi songs when he got a chance. It would have been nice to have the announcement proclaiming my performance followed by MS singing. Tut Tut....That was not to be: the announcement got over-written too.

So my claim to fame is solely by word of mouth. It goes like this: List of students in today's program: Subashini, Venkat, ............., Saumya,......!

I was a versatile performer. I sang at times(never solo: lest you start bad-mouthing AIR), and some other times performed in skits. The school stationery manager stepped forward gallantly and mentioned that he had left an illustrious career in the theatrical industry to serve the school, and therefore he should be the person who provided the background music skits. We nodded and the practice sessions started.

To state it as mildly as possible, the background music was HORRENDOUS. Every place in the play where you think some quietness would do, there was music blaring. Some other places where mild music would have done the trick, we had garish music making us shout out every line in order to be heard over the music. I would not call the program a fiasco, but there were no folks waiting outside for autographs. The highlight of all this drama was the lunch we ate at Annapoorna restaurant in Coimbatore (Plus: the day-off from School to drive down to Coimbatore, perform and get back)

There are times in my life when I envision my life as a movie, and there is background music. So I see myself cooking *Sax playing mildly indicating a chef's beauty being developed* Never mind that I am making Rasam and vendakkai curry. It provides spice in my life! The washing clothes/ folding them section gets a banal harmonium. Playing with my daughter and taking her on walks gets melodious flute accompaniment.

I have worked hard at directing my life, so why not revel in my role as music director?!

Meaningless songs etc

I heard a song recently that is in my head all the time. It's from the movie Fanaa and goes something like this. "Chanda Chamke Cham Cham.."

Tongue-twisters - What a brilliant discovery! Thats what this song is all about. There is no meaning in this song. That is not to say it is out-of-context in the movie. Compared to all other meaningless songs (And definitely all songs with double-meanings and vulgarity), this is by far the best it ever got. Tongue Twisters are an excellent passtime (for a few minutes) and also a wonderful ice-breaker. It brought back memories of childhood. My favorite was the cimple - Kaccha Pappad, pakka Pappad.

There are 2 stanzas in this song and I liked the second one which is moderately challenging.
It goes like

Pake ped me paka papeetha, paka ped ya paka papeetha
Pake ped ko pakade pinku, pinku pakade paka papeetha

Talking about Fanaa, the title song brought back other memories too. A line in that movie goes something like this -"...Zidd he ab to khudko mittana, hone hai tujme fanaa..."
And as I was deciding what to make dinner that night, I sang "..Zidd to ab he roti banana, khana hai mujko channa.."

In our hostel, my dear friend and myself would spend time on composing lyrics. We made some that I don't think I'll ever forget. It fits into the Vaa Minima scheme. I would share it, except I don't want to violate any confidentiality rights.

Too busy to be a hypocrite

One common denominator when people are asked about their likes and dislikes is “I hate hypocrisy”…. Actually, if you go back to my introduction in our blog, I had sworn my dislike towards the aforementioned trait. Hmmm.. this got me thinking…How do you define hypocrisy?

Mariam Webster defines it as

1 : a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion
2 : an act or instance of hypocrisy

I remember the day I started my first job at TI,India . We had to fill a questionnaire asking about hobbies etc. And that form was posted on the cafeteria board. I am talking about the days when TI was in a small building with few employees. Incidentally, I had written “I love – hypocrisy” and “I hate – hypocrisy”. This prompted a few employees to notice me. I guess people rarely see someone loving hypocrisy. Back to definition # 1, I think every single person is a hypocrite. People do so many things that they don’t believe in. I can summarise lot of instances in my life which I did provoked by others, inspite of my disapproval. An act or instance of hypocrisy- what about the act that one puts up infront of guests conforming to basic courtesy , or the forced smile when seeing a known face . Bottomline – Yes, I would like to be a hypocrite if my act brings happiness to someone, without causing any harm to self.

I would like to see a smiling face across the counter than a frowning one.

I would definitely like to have a doctor tell me I have chances of living for 10 years ( even if he believes otherwise) rather than telling me that I cannot survive long enough.

Talking about hypocrisy got me thinking about people who are “BUSY”. It is becoming one of my pet peeves nowadays.

“I wonder how you guys manage studying with work. I am so BUSY, I cant imagine studying with my work schedule.”

“I am so busy that I don’t have time to exercise.”

“I am so busy that I don’t have time to read blogs, though I am a member and even if I read, I don’t have time for commenting.” – Gotcha ! *LOL * Now lets see how many comment for this one.

Wars

I know why the US starts wars in far-off lands.

It is a place to groom future presidents.

X: I am going to contest the presidency
X's much older opponent Y: Which wars did you fight in huh? Come on you! Tell me which war you fought in?
X: None
Y: NONE!!!!
X: But...but there were no wars for me to go to.
Y: Well..too bad. There is no metric to measure your patriotism. I went for the War in Dracola Land. I know the pain and suffering and I would like to use this office to make the world a better place to live in. So you're out!

Threshold of squeamish

There was an article in today’s newspaper about the vaccine against HPV(human Papillo virus) which causes cervical cancer. This cancer kills 10 women every day and is sexually transmitted. They have started administering this vaccine to 11 yr olds girls as it is effective before one becomes sexually active.

The interesting part about that article was

“ The development of the first vaccine for any kind of cancer is a major milestone. And yet there was a reluctance by some to embrace the new vaccine because, well, you know how squeamish Americans can be about sex.”

LOL!!.Ofcourse, I am assuming they are comparing themselves to Europeans. Wondering how this will be taken in India. At home, it is not considered just squeamish, but a taboo just to use the word. I am talking about an average Indian here, though there might be exceptions. There could be two perspectives

1. Though every parent knows that it could be beneficial, they will still hesitate to administer it.

2. They may not understand the meaning of this vaccine and administer it as part of the usual regimen , like polio. Ignorance is bliss , afterall.

Beating the Mean !

I was at a seminar couple of days back and one of the things that the speaker stressed a lot for companies to succeed was the paradigm, "Beat the Mean!". As we all know, when Microsoft was started, they had only 4 people and each one of them were extremely smart people and the average IQ of the company was extremely large when compared to most companies. As companies grow, the average IQ drops down owing mainly to the size of the company. As long as a company can keep their average IQ to not drop significantly and consciously focus in maintaining it, the company wouldnt fail. That was the speaker's claim. When the average IQ reaches the IQ of the average population, he claimed that the company would certainly fail. Though I have my own set of arguments on the theory, on a large scale, it makes sense. I think the same could be applied to individuals.

As we undertake more and more tasks, it is possible that our average performance might come down. It recursively applies to the subtasks that we perform as well. For example, in the case of long distance running, I figured that, running at a slow pace in the beginning and a higher pace towards the end or vice versa will have the same effect as running at the average pace throughout the course. Infact, the simple truth is if I improve on my average pace, my overall performance can be tremendously improved.

I think there are 2 ways to improve the "mean" performance. Either, you drop some of the underperforming areas or areas that one doesnt like to pursue. In the company sense, this would probably mean shutting down the businesses that doesnt fetch money (much like what GE Welch did). The other way is to consciously question the mean effort needed to complete a task and try to improve on that. In real life, I think this can also be looked at from a consistency perspective. As long as one does a certain activity consistently, on an average, they become the person they want to be. So, the real secret lies in not improving one's peak performance, but the average performance!

Marriage

I was reading Khalil Gibran's Prophet last sunday. He has written beautifully about marriage. Well, we learnt it the hard way...Hopefully, Madmax can be prepared :-)
Here it goes...

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.

You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.

Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together, yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Parking buddy

I parked my car in front of Party America & Linen things to let my wife shop and decided to watch my sleeping kid. I parked right in front of this dark blue BMW. Then I saw him. He looked like an Italian from distance. Or is he Middle Eastern I thought to myself? Through two car windshield it is little difficult to figure out. He must have been there for a while.

First two minutes was casual I was setting up the CD and making myself comfortable. And I am sure he was half expecting me to get down and go shopping. Then I can see he getting little curious to find out why there is another soul doing the same thing. He must have got an answer after seeing the kid in the backseat. We said our head-nodding acknowledgment to each other.

After few minutes of listening to the CD and I glanced to my buddy. He was trying to change station to keep him occupied. He must have seen me glancing, he started calling his wife. Of course, I don't know who he was calling, but again, he was trying to prove he is getting out of this parking lot anytime now.

After some exchanges in cell phone he decides to find his solace in Cigarette. "Don't smoke in BMW buddy" I said in the confines of my car. His wife must be a big-time shopper I thought to myself. She certainly must be in Linen & Things and definitely not in Party America. His looks at me suggested he is thinking the same about me. I inadvertently looked at the Party America store to check whether my wife is back may be a feeble attempt to convey my wife is not shopping like his (!!).

Finally I decided to recline the seat to put it in sleeping position. After another 5 minutes my curiosity got better of me. I peeped to see the status of my buddy. He was getting restless. And my peeping did not help his cause. He looked away.

After what seemed like an eons, his wife (must be) walked with clear head scarf. I knew he was Middle Eastern guy I told myself! He was already in reverse gear and ready even before her wife stepped in and closed the door. Just before he left, my buddy gave, what I thought, a small victorious grin!

In Peace

Following is an excerpt from Khalil Gibran's PROPHET about death.

*********************************************************************************

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the sheered not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink form the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

*******************************************************************************

For the past few weeks, my day always started with Rachel. She was a fellow blogger in my redtoenail site. A young lady of remarkable strength and determination. Her blog was taken over by her mom after she became very sick. She is finally at peace today.Inspite of her illness, she found time to thank everyone who signed in her site and signed in my guestbook. Whenever I felt like whining, all I had to do was think of Rachel and Val, to make me stop worrying about where my career is heading or what others think about me or getting angry over mundane matters. This morning, when I woke up, I knew she was at peace even before I opened her blog.
I dont feel sad, just calm.
http://rachel.redtoenail.org
Just felt like sharing with you all.