What do future anthropologists do?

Anthropologists are forever finding evidence on some tablet or inside some godforsaken cave, telling us all about life in the era. I mean when we see caves full of paintings showing tigers being strung with a sleek bow and arrow, we know that the cavemen weren't launching supersonic jets, followed by rockets to the moon and just dumbing themselves down in the paintings! They really were slaying tigers with sophisticated weapons of their time such as bows and arrows. Then, as time went on, people discovered the funny thing that starts with an 'h', that essentially is between drawing and script writing, and used that to depict what was going on. Mythology grew from a combination of bad paintings and imaginative minds. There was some record-keeping albeit one left more to imagination than to facts, but something!

The clay tablets yielded slowly to the tree bark, and the cryptic grew more descriptive. The three barks became parchment rolls and then the Chinese saved the day by coming up with paper. So far so good - you see paper, you can figure out what is written there. You see a tree bark with a sign engraved
Z *big heart sign* X, and can figure out that Z loves or loved X, and was daft enough to proclaim love on a tree bark, after probably getting his or her hand chiseled a couple of times with the rough stone used to engrave their undying love. But, we still know what happened, so long as the bark survives, we know that Z and X were in love at some point.

The printing press and full blown books were a blessing. Suddenly, everything you needed to know about any nook and corner of the world was available in some book somewhere. Great! Then, you did not even need books to get information, all you needed was access to the net. E-reading became cool. Now as we move on towards paperless functioning, a most disturbing thought just struck me, and I do not wish to be taken frivolously here. I am as serious as a rabbit running from a fox on a wintry night can be.

What if future historians are like me? It could very well happen that one gene triumphs in the coming generations and that gene is my technology retarded gene, couldn't it? It is not that I can't operate technology - I just can't keep pace. By the time, I figure out how to use the remote to change the setting on one contraption, the remote changes, or worse the contraption is gone! Let me think of some gramophone records that my father prided himself on - in fact, I reluctantly got him to get rid of the foghorn after decades, knowing that we could never listen to another gramophone record again, and the space is better used in conserving the tape recorder for the next 2 decades, before it too meets the same fate?!

So, some songs that were only there in the gramophone records no longer exists, same for some songs on tape too. You get the picture. Now, with the internet, and the blogosphere, most news and creative writing as moved to the e-medium. What if future generations are unable to retrieve these great gems of the era- voltages may change, servers change, the electronic medium destroys just as soon as it creates!

Well, I suppose the graffiti on the world heritage sites would still tell us who loves who, but what if future archaeologists only get the Harry Potter books, and believe life was that - they have no method of knowing it was a fantasy world?!

I haven't even started on the Modern Art phenomenon yet. If those were the paintings left for interpretation, I can barely imagine what it would come out as.
Pray tell me what you can make out of this?http://www.milesmodernart.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/modern-art-41108-24x48-w.jpg

I can almost hear you sigh that if these are the kind of gems of writing the future is missing, they are better off without it! But I stand by my notion that 50 years from now, when there is no paper, record retrieval will be all the more difficult, and a blip in Earth's history - 500 years later, that era might well be a dark one

PS: Ahhhh..hieroglyphics that is the "h-word"
PS1: How curious it is that I typed this blog out, and then couldn't connect to the net to publish it, and had to snuggle up to the husband to help me?

See what I mean and what I fear for?

Generation "gap?"

The blog by Saumya on nourish-n-cherish got me thinking. Instead of expressing my thoughts as a mozha-neelam comment, I thought I will blog about it. It is a topic that has been in my mind for a while. The questions are simple and is centered around the current generation of people in comparison with our previous generation. By previous generation, I mean people who were born in 1940s-1950s. Are we, as a community more social and friendly? Are we more selfless in our deeds than them? Are we smarter? Are we flexible and adjusting?

Call me old fashioned. But, in my opinion, our previous generation (I will restrict this to Indians) seem genuinely friendlier and sociable than the current generation. While I can't miss the touch of hypocrisy and sarcasm sprayed all over in the previous generation, there is a special sense of caring, that is unequaled. I have seen numerous examples of cases where a relative of some kind would be taken care of through their college till they get to work. As I grew up, I've never found anyone considering the act of cooking for others to be a chore. Even when an uninvited guest shows up, people used to go crazy about cooking them good food...

My question is not whether the current generation will or will not do what the older generation did? But, I don't see that as commonly as I used to, before. There could obviously be more reasons... Is it because we are more independent (esp., financially)? Is it because, our importance to just our family has grown exponentially? Is it because, we are wrapped up in a more competitive and expensive world where everyone needs to work to take care of their own family that there is no time for "others"? We do adore Darwin's theory and tout ourselves as being smarter than the previous generation. Does it mean that, smartness is inversely proportional to being sociable? Is it because, the community has overgrown from being limited to villages or townships to global? Should there be a dilution factor applied as the community size increases? Or, is it just being rational? Can I say that, courteousness superseded rationality in our previous generation... Is it just that the more closer we get to rationality, certain "random acts of kindness" disappeared? All said and done, everyone likes to be treated with kindness and be considered special, at least by a few... If rationality or being smart is what stands in the way, I don't know if it is a good idea to be rational.... Oops, I have gotten into an infinite loop in analyzing rationality now...;)

Eternal discussions...

Time to time, when I talk to my parents or relatives in India, one topic that almost always surfaces is the criticism about the US institutions and government, not to mention the zillion others about the US way of life, divorce rates, etc., Every time the Indian stock market goes up, people go gungho on how India will outperform every other country in the world. At the same time, when the market goes down, the entire blame rests in the hands of US financial institutes and US representatives, aka, me...:) This is one of those arguments where my patriotic self is torn between rationality and the emotional counterpart. Half way into the discussion, I often get confused as to which side I am on. Is it about nationality or market dynamics? Recently, when the SIFY scandal broke out, I was in one of those "I told you so" moment. I do repent for the millions who have lost their money and millions more, who are yet to lose. But, as Greenspan puts it, the Indian market is flooded with irrational exuberance.

Consider the Indian IT market. Most of the big companies are service companies which cash in money for every resource they have. It is almost a direct mapping. So, on one hand, the company executives started seeing a surge of money. With corruption being a norm and getting away from corruption being very easy, it would be an anomaly to find corporate executives who don't make use of the "system". We all know how the food chain feeds itself in the political system, one that is supposed to overlook any mishaps. In my opinion, SIFY scandal just surfaced the tip of the iceberg and there will be a lot more to come. Is it because incompetency breeds incompetency?

During the past 10 years, the number of colleges in Tamilnadu alone has grown from about 50 to a whopping 500+. I went to a reasonably good engineering college. But, let me tell you, the quality of teaching was very mediocre, the exceptions being a couple of professors. The quality of engineers produced were again very mediocre (including me..:)). Now, I see the overwhelming number of colleges and guess who is teaching, the same mediocre people who left from colleges like ours. Not to point fingers or ridicule anyone, but, the students who are now lecturers and professors were below mediocre, in my scale. And, they've been teaching for over a decade now. The more I hear from people, the quality of engineers produced is definitely bad. But, the overriding question is, does it matter? And, that too to land up in an IT services job? A big NO. For the mundane work that most IT companies sign up for, the qualification that someone is an engineer is all it takes.

When I passed out engineering, getting into MNCs or big IT companies was nothing but a dream. It was plain difficult. Now, except for a handful of companies, who still go to elite institutes for their recruitment, the need for quantity has definitely killed quality. So, if we have an enormous collection of low quality workers riding one on top of another, how do you think it will evolve over a period of time. Coupled with the web of corruption, the situation will serve as a perfect recipe for disaster... I think, Indian system is it's own worst enemy... Only time will tell, what the consequences are going to be...If you ask me, it is nothing close to rosy is all I would say...

Copy cats or Imagineers?

Malcom Marshall with his side on leaned action was ready to bowl. His first shirt button was unbuttoned as usual and he ordered 3 fielders around with that sharp look.

Sreekanth, looked up at the sky and muttered something and took his crease with his drop down shoulder and unique stands ready to blast the ball out of the ground with his bat speed.

Marshall ran and bowled a perfect out-swinging delivery. Howzzzz that?, he appealed for LBW with his usual sitting pose.

The batsman responded, "Dei appave LBW kedayathu-unnu sonnana illaya?". (Didn't we agree to not have LBW for this match?)

Marshall act was forgotten, and the alter ego of 10 yr old took over angrily "Appo nee kalai stump-ikku munadi vaika kodathu" (Don't keep the legs in front of the stumps then)

This cricket ground was our terrace (40x10 ft).
The ball was plastic ball (out swingers and in-swingers are determined by the wind direction at the time of the day)
The 3 fielders don't have too many places to move around other than swapping their positions.

And last but not the least, Sreekanth was my brother and it was me who was doing the perfect(?) Malcom Marshall act.
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Watching my 4 yr old doing a pretty neat Penguin imitation (Gloria, in the movie Happy feet) took me back in memory lane of imitations we did as kids.
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There were unwritten rules of imitation. To start with, your social status, coolness factor, knowledge level (inversely proportional to coolness factor) are all at display by the personality you imitate.

- Geeks prefer to imitate players with good statistics & results.
Ex: Gavaskar, who other than wearing that hat does not have too much to imitate.

- Cool kids ((don't argue imitation itself is for geeks!) on the other hand prefer character
Ex: Viv Richards , chewing gum with an attitude

Imitation of cricket players not only served the imagination purpose. But emphasized our cricketing knowledge and elite status. And it does not stop only with cricketers.

Here are some other characters I proudly enacted during my acting days...

- There was lot of competition over who will be "The Mc Enroe" during our tennis season.
Side note: Do you know that a fully soaked badminton ball bounces knee high? And can be used as your "tennis ball". Because of its bounce, the chances of it landing in neighbors roof is less.

- Tong Fu, chinese gymnist (floor exercise specialist), was toast of the town during one of the Olympics (Los Angeles, I found out later). All available pillows were stacked in line for our dare devil floor exercise. We learnt to do somersault without using hands thanks to Tong Fu.
In the hind sight, it is a minor miracle that we all have our spine intact in spite of mis-landing on the concrete floor.

- Seeds of my marathon running were sowed back then. We use to run around the 40x20 terrace 26.2 times. (conceived by none other than the author - what can I say, as my mother would like to say, he always gets 90+ in GK (general knowledge))
[Side Note: Imagine the plight of 6 different families which lived underneath that 40x20 terrace with a group of kids running round and round above their heads.]

- To make the running experience interesting and to simulate the hurdles of some sort, we choose to jump over the chimneys which were sticking out every 8 feet.

- The same chimneys were served as hide outs for Spark & Captain from star trek. Yes! even I cannot believe it that we were avid Star trek fans for the cool gadgets and the command hierarchy. It gave an opportunity for me to boss my friends around as the captain.

- Giant Robots were controlled by our virtual/imagined watches too.
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What strike me as I think about it is that the lack of tools/toys never stopped us as kids from imagining anything. We circumvented the problem with what was available and there I think I/we have a lesson to learn as adults.

P.S: Don't be shy. Share your best imagination stories in the comments section. (most of us need a blog, I am sure).

Powerless...

I've been reading a lot of news lately. Though I resent the fact that many people are killed in various fights and militant wars throughout the world, I find a strange curiosity to get the updates. I don't know why.

As people contend about what the futuristic world holds in terms of technology and what not, I couldn't stop thinking about the fate of innocent people. As militants get their covers under the civilian population, I see that innocent lives are starting to look "disposable". It has almost become a norm. Though, on one hand, it looks completely ridiculous, I don't know what solution stays with the countries that have to defend it's territories and people at large. Consider the terrorist incidents back in India. If one has to make a choice of getting rid of terrorists, is it worthwhile trying to protect a handful of innocent people? Doesn't it look very subjective? I do realize that, if I had any of my close friend, family or relatives anywhere close to where such incidents happen, I may have a different take on the subject. But, for a government, it looks like the choices are running out. Will such trend go towards a power shift of the so called "protectors"...Is it the real solution to curbing down the terrorists? I don't know. But, with growing list of terrorist organizations, I think, more and more innocent people are going to be terribly affected.

Another thing that bothers me is that I am getting totally confused with the responsibilities of organizations like UN. What is their real charter? Is it to just issue statements condemning organizations or countries? I think, as organizations like UN look biased and powerless, more and more countries will start doing things on their own. Why am I concerned with all of this? Honestly, I am not, well, may be a little. I realize that I don't have the faintest clue whatsoever on the realities surrounding people who go through such painful tragedies, and unless I do, my curiosity or concerns about the topic only stays in the confinement of a blog which is mostly based on what the media projects. And, thanks to technology, I am overwhelmed with more and more information that reaffirms how utterly powerless I am...

The Chilli Effect

Green chillies always bear the brunt of a sore person's temper at the food table and rightfully so in my opinion. There are certain cooks and cook's assistants who cut all the vegetables and the chillies in exactly the same dimensions. While I like to see vegetables cut a certain way, there are certain types, especially chillies that I like to see stick out! It is also for this reason, that I don't take endearingly to the chilli hidden in the omelet or the oothappam. That to me is guerilla warfare.
When I am having lunch, you can visualize a person who stuffs food in the opening where usually the mouth resides. One day if my nose were to shift downwards, I would be in a sorry state indeed. I gape at the computer screen, and immerse myself in the mundane-surfing routine that my lunch time allows me to do.
So, you can safely assume that I am not on a chilli-weeding routine while tackling my lunch. I might catch a peek of the dangerous thing if I were expecting it, but the hiding in batter/egg variety freaks me out. One minute, I am stuffing the faithful mouth, and the next I am shooting up from my seat with the green from the chilli and the red from the taste coursing through my veins and bursting forth in pink spurts on my face. My nose inexplicably starts watering and so does my mouth. When the nose and mouth do that, the eye feels the compelling need to keep them company and before you know it, you have liquid leaking from all the open pores in the face. I feel my ears turn beetroot, my tongue refusing to quiet down, my hand reaches for the tissue - one for the eyes and another for the nose, because obviously once can't do for both.
I once read somewhere that drinking hot water quietens your tongue quickly. Nope - now you have the hot water and the burning to deal with! Sugar doesn't help either. And no, I don't think honey with warm water would help. What would? Time perhaps!

PS: I attended my brother's wedding and have blogged some posts on the wedding in my personal blog if interested:

New Year !

As every year goes by, there is a part of me that scoffs on what the big deal is? Another part of me convinces that, new years are a great time to reflect on the past. It is like a water break in running. Especially given the shut downs that we've been having, it gave me extra time to think about what I did last year. Even less reason not to brood over the past.

Well, if I were to summarize on what I did last year (apart from the usual) in a nutshell is that, I did a lot of running. I ran about 1600 miles over the year, racing 4 half-marathons, 2 full maratons and the relay. I did improve with every event, which kind of fed back to itself making me run even more. Not sure if this trend can continue for long, especially, the coming year. But, I am happy with how it went last year. Shoba and I had a wonderful 3 week vacation, or should I say, hibernation... The start-up I worked for got acquired by Cisco. Not that it matters much to me except till next year. I was just running out of stuff to list...If it is less than 3 items, the word list sounded meaningless to me? Oh, and then, I did bungee jumping during our visit to New Zealand. I know I've bored most of you with these facts. But, I am going to repeat it again. My major revelation during our trip to NZ was that, they don't have any native mammals in the entire country. What it means is that, you can walk all over NZ evergreen forests and you will never see any other animal other than sheeps/deers/stoats and possums... No bears/tigers/lions...Interesting, isn't it?

As most people, I do have my list of stuff (aka resolutions) to do for the new year. One of them is to start blogging actively (atleast 1 every week). Blogging, in a way, keeps me tuned to information... As a disclaimer, this has nothing to do with me being part of Cisco... Believe me...:)

Anyway, to start with, I was going to blog something about economy. My inspiration came from an interview in NPR (Forum with Paul Saffo). As I started typing the blog, I went back to listen to the audio archive. As I figured, I wouldn't do any justice whatsoever to the content than the content itself. To give a sneak preview, it is about where we are heading, in terms of economic trends and how factors like global warming, internet revolution, etc., influence it. It was one of the most interesting talk I've heard in a long time. Savor it when you find time. I am sure most of you will love it...

Link to Audio Archive of the interview

Happy New Year Y'all !