Yantrakaal

Civilisation emerges from the lawless jungle riding on the back of a juridical system that resolves disputes through non-violent means. India has had an uneven history in this regard but the relatively stable structure that we had inherited from the British is crumbling because people are now, more often than not, taking the law into their own hands. Not because the judges are incapable, though in some cases that may be true, but because they are not able deliver their judicial services in time. Justice is being denied to large sections of the population simply because of abnormal delays. There are so many examples of this sorry state of affairs that it is pointless to give specific instances. The fact is too well known. Question is what can we do about it? Obviously there is no magic wand, no silver bullet but perhaps a technology driven, business process reengineering approach -- so beloved of management consultants -- can help. “Measurement is the first step that leads to contr...

Saraswati is the patron saint of learning in general and literature, arts and music in particular who is honoured and adored on Basant Panchami every year. Most of us are aware of her image where she is seated on a swan with a Veena in her hand. However there is a very unique yantra or abstract representation of the Devi that lies beyond the anthropomorphic image that is usually worshiped in countless households across Bengal. Here is a collection of such images.

We have been living in Calcutta for so long and yet rarely do we find the time to visit the Sunderbans, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, that is just next door. The Sunderbans is famous for two things, first the Royal Bengal Tiger and the unique estuarine-mangrove ecosystems that has protected Calcutta and Bengal from the fury of many Bay of Bengal cyclones and the resultant tidal bores. In the context of global warming and the rise in the level of the sea, it is very likely that a hundred years from now the Sunderbans will get submerged and then live on only in history and in people's memory. Hopefully, these pictures will help us remember this tragic, magic land! Our destination was the Royal Bengal Resort, near the Sajnekhali Reserve Forest But we started off from Godkhali, 100km from Calcutta, just beyond Canning and right across the Bidyadhari River from Gosaba, one of the largest and busiest bazaar/village in the Sunderbans. There are no roads in the Sunderba...

The world today is awash in lies and myths, because nothing is what it seems to be. Paid media, biased press -- no one seems to be telling the truth anymore. Is this how it is supposed to be ? As an aside, any analysis of philosophy in India invariably begins with a commentary, or denunciation, of Charbak’s philosophy of extreme materialism -- reenam kritwa, ghreetam pibet! Borrow money and have fun. Now that we have invoked Charbak, let us get along with our thoughts. image from http://thedailybanter.com/2014/03/the-top-10-most-egregious-republican-lies/ There are so many lies floating around that it is not too difficult to pick any three of them. Consider the fallacy of the demographic dividend that has been tomtommed by everyone from an opportunist Nobel Laureate to the semi-literate leftist. The main thesis is that if a country has lots and lots of young people it will automatically become an economic powerhouse. Why? Because young people can work. What it ignores com...

The Green Revolution freed India from the spectre of famine by using technology aggressively and effectively to boost agricultural productivity. Operation Flood made India not only a milk sufficient nation but also the world’s largest producer of milk. Education, on the other hand, is still one of India’s greatest weaknesses because the Government has been a spectacular failure in delivering even primary education to vast swathes of our population. The depth of this tragedy is evident when the Prime Minister has to admit that even after 68 years of independence, most of our schools do not have toilets -- let alone labs, libraries and broadband internet ! What we need is the equivalent of a Green Revolution, an Operation Flood that will give a huge, non-linear, exponential boost to our delivery model so that educational services can reach each and every corner of the country. We need both quantity and quality and we need it in the next 5 years. Is this possible ? Why not ? ...

An internet of minds Aldous Huxley in his book, The Doors of Perception, a travelogue of his mescaline-fuelled trip through the mental landscape, compares the mind to a reducing valve. Every sentient individual is in touch with and is aware of all that is happening anywhere else but to preserve sanity in the face of an intolerable information overload, the mind chokes off most of the information and restricts itself to the safety and comfort of his local environment. The concept of a universal mind or consciousness, the brahman , of which an individual or atman is but an image is also the foundation of Sankara’s Advaita Vedanta. Both Huxley and Sankara in their own way suggest that all “minds” in the universe are somehow connected together and are in a position to share information. Doesn’t this ring a bell somewhere ? image Peace of Mind by Dokon taken from urbantimes.co A telephone bell perhaps ? Since every telephone on this planet is connected, or certainly connecta...

My effort to learn Hadoop and Map Reduce resulted in the presentation. If you like it and find it useful do leave a comment.