adam osborne: the idea of (NRI) indianness
March 28, 2014
This post continues from – adam osborne, the pc pioneer, ‘vellakkaara thamizhan’ – the man… (27/03/2014)
I assure you – there is no jingoism here. There is no suggestion of an empty glorification of the past. Just a few pertinent and plain questions – to make us think. That’s all.
There is only a suggestion of a reasonable pride about relevant parts in our history, our collective pasts and the present – and most importantly, stressing on Quality rather than a mindless statistic of a Quantity… Of course, there are certain parts of our shared histories that we need to introspect on too! We have to take corrective measures, of course, of course!
Oh, well.
Yeah. On to the unknown or, much known. I have personally met quite a few of our NRIs (non resident Indians) and RNIs (resident non Indians) – and I am sure, you too may have bumped into such induhviduals – who have these kinds of attitudes. Adam Osborne has had some scathing observations on these folks.
” A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants. “
– Macaulay.
How long do we hold on to the coat-tails of the likes of Thomas Babington Macaulay? May be, this too shall pass?
Anyway – here goes, the text of Adam’s April 1991 DataQuest article: (23 solid years have gone by, but this reflection is still relevant – I frankly do not know whether to laugh it off or merely shrug my shoulders…)
” The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake – you can’t learn anything from being perfect. “
– Adam Osborne (1939 – 2003)
I do not know how many of us 45+ folks remember Adam, I mean THE Adam.
Perhaps not many. Our memories are short. Our capabilities in respect of studying, mapping, assimilating and knowing in breadth and depth — the details and mappings of any idea or a concept – are rather shallow. We are designed from the beginning to be lusers, Dravidian lusers. We offset our incredible lack of scholarship by manufacturing random histories (such as Aryan invasion or Dravidian superiority theories) and random geographies (such as Lemuria or Kumari-k-Kandam, if you will).
Otherwise, what would be preventing us from celebrating the memories of such a personality? I am not talking about a random Robert Caldwell or a randomer Constantine ‘Veeramaamuniver’ Beschi here – am referring to a fantastic individual, who lived in our midst – after making epochal contributions to the spread of the cult of the portable computer.
But then, am digressing, as is my wont.
Of course, the reason why I am rejiggling my fading memories is that – Adam Osborne, the man, one of my boyhood heroes, moved on – just about 11 years back, after living for so many years in India — on 18th March, 2003 – in our good ol’ Kodaikanal, Tamilnadu.
Snuffed out. Unsung. Unheard of. PBUH.
… … … Having been lost in a dazed reverie, I have been thinking about him for the past few days and just thought I would share a thing or two about this fine man…
online social activism for dummies
March 4, 2014
Silly…
It is very easy-peasy to become an activist (of social or anti-social issues) these days. Hallelujah, hallelujah!! All of us wannabe social activists have never had it oh so good!
In fact, this post is about ‘social activism’ that I actually learnt from an illustrious parent of one of my children… believe me! I am telling you the unvarnished truth – and unfortunately, for various reasons this parent (or parents) shall remain unnamed, sorry.
Oh, well.
To help you lazy fellows (I mean you – the unfortunate reader of this oh so very pathetic weblog), I have presented five levels of social activism, after a whole lot of painstaking research and lucubration. And, I sincerely hope that you would profusely thank me and flood my mailbox & the comments area with a zillion thankyou, thankyou kind of mushy notes, oh the hope!
Okay – onto the details of the FIVE levels: Read the rest of this entry »
malcolm gladwell = the capital punishment :-(
February 28, 2014
The Sweeping Generalissimo strikes again! Oh mommeeeee!!! (or) Oh Gladwell, what a sad sickness! (or) there is absolutely NO reprieve, sorry.
The problem with some kinds of popular science writing is that, well, they are written to be popular with the people who want to be popular – which they do by being seen with the book. It is of course, a wince-wince situation. The best-selling author and the ‘best-seller buying readers‘ both enjoy the reflected glories of the symbiotic relationship.
I understand that these kinds of work always aim at the Minimum Common Denominator – the likes of the uncritical, all accepting fans of Oprah Winfrey (the Grand ol’ Ma’am of moralization & mediocrity) and Rahul Gandhi (the Grand Duke of terrible, terrible snafus) & Arvind Kejriwal (the Chief Propagandist of preachy middle-class morality and middle-classy vicarious rabble rousing). But, still…
Yes. This Malcolm veX, reminds me of another of those sweeping theorists who grandly generalize based on exactly one single rather lonely data point or even less, if they could help it.
Yes, you are verrrry corrrrect… immediately, the image of The Jared Diamond floats up, claiming his inherent right to be the Grand Duke of the Great hall of Grandiose theorists – but then, it would be kinda jarring to bring up this rather pricey carbon allotrope, so I choose to desist from dealing with this man… I merely gnash my teeth, for the time being. Oh my GAWD! Read the rest of this entry »
julia vinograd & bubbles
January 3, 2014
Dunno how popular, this poetess and bubblerina is, with the rather small group of readers (circa 100) of this web journal…
But Julia (a student of the legendary Gary Snyder), IMO has written poems with effortless ease and incredible depth, even as she continued (continues?) to blow bubbles across Berkeley, to amuse children and to annoy ‘adults.’
Samples of her poems are available here and there on the web. Read the rest of this entry »
education: a taxonomy towards understanding the beastess!
December 21, 2013
You see, every once in a while, some guys (peace be upon them, poor things) become unfortunate enough to take part in my random training sessions – wherein I pretend to bestow my infinite wisdom on an otherwise normal and happy bunch of people; there was one such workshop that I conducted a couple of weeks back, in which a few of us discussed the various angles / prisms (or axes, if you will) through which one can see the myriad facets of that phantasmagorical beastess (yes, education is a female!) called education; this note was circulated to seed some discussions and here it is, as some food for your thoughts, that is, if you are the type which likes to think…
But then, this is a rather looooong document, that has taken very many years of practical experience, observation and a sort of reasonable scholarship to get assembled – and so some patience is advised. If you do not have the patience, you please stop right here. And, go away. Seriously.
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In this document, we would look at the common ways of stereotyping education in terms of what sociologists call their sociological categories, Ideal Types.
“An ideal type is formed from characteristics and elements of the given phenomena, but it is not meant to correspond to all of the characteristics of any one particular case. It is not meant to refer to perfect things, moral ideals nor to statistical averages but rather to stress certain elements common to most cases of the given phenomena.” (The methodology of the social sciences’ – Max Weber – a very fine text; some details below)
The methodology of social sciences / Max Weber / 1949 / The Free Press, Glencoe, Illinois; this is one of the books that I keep getting back to, when I have some fundamental doubts about categorizations – sociological and much else! Strongly recommended for anyone who wants to seriously study societal dynamics and dialectics…
Simply put, the world of ideal types merely allows one to stereotype, simplify and attempt to slot – and then to grapple with things – such as white and black, so that we can easily pretend to understand things.
But you see, the world is NEVER defined in terms of black and white. It has myriad hues – it is a true celebration of gray areas.
Salutations to thee, the Goddess of the Great Gray!
what is education?
December 18, 2013
Every once in a while, I do conduct some random workshops (or training sessions if you will), pontificating on what fancies me at that moment.
And so, it was the turn of a few hapless fellow teaching-colleagues who were unfortunate enough to be part of the conscripted audience of a 2.5 hour talk (spread over two days – conducted a few weeks back) delivered by yours truly (of the I-Me-Myself fame).
I wanted to do the talk in Tamil – but that was not to be, because 1) Most of the audience was made up of fellow Tamils – so they wanted it in English 2) There were a few non-Tamils who of course wanted it in English.
Normally my talks (*gasp*) are just plain ol’ stand-up comedy types – but this time, it was done with a few handouts and all that paraphernalia. I even made a powerpoint presentation, O tempora, O mores! :-(
shah jahan’s tajmahal vs raja’s 2G corruption
December 12, 2013
Oh, yeah. Once in a while, we ‘discuss’ politics and allied goings-on (including the civic structures and civil society) with our impressionable adolescents. We sometimes discuss history too, in spite of the fact that, in these times of the impending ‘secondary school leaving certificate’ exams and prep mode for some of our children, we can’t have interesting discussions like *this all the time.
But, still…
Here is a gist of a rather tricky question posed and some ideas it generated…
1600s CE:
The Moghul emperor – Shahab-ud-din Muhammad Khurram – popularly titled and known as ‘Shah Jahan’ (Ruler of the World – for a given value of the world, that is!) in our horrendous history books – ordered the construction of a mausoleum (basically an elaborately & aesthetically constructed interment monument) – over the grave of his favorite queen (who was also Khurram’s maternal cousin) Arjumand Banu Begum – popularly known as Mumtaz Mahal. Read the rest of this entry »
mir mukhtiar ali, folk singer from bikaner
December 4, 2013
Thanks to the incredible folks at the Chitra Kala Parishath, Bangalore and the Information Department, Government of Karnataka – we were able to go to a ‘sufi music concert’ of the rustic gent from Rajasthan – the preserver of the sufiana qualam from the Indo-Pakistan border.
His incredible voice (easily ranging well beyond 3 octaves) along with a deep, wide repertoire (drawn from all over – amir khusro, mirabhai, kabir (of course, of course), bulleh shah, hazarat shah bahu…) held all of us spellbound! Read the rest of this entry »
calculus made easy!
November 22, 2013
‘The Annotated Alice‘ of Lewis Carrol and Martin Gardner – was (finally) returned a couple of weeks back by my dear Rama and I was fondly leafing through it, before sentimentally returning it to the library shelves. It is currently rubbing shoulders with the books of the likes of Isaac Asimov, JBS Haldane, Erwin Schrödinger, Enrico Fermi, Paul Dirac, Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer et al and should be feeling happy now; what a work of deep scholarship!
Rest in peace, Martin. You lived to a ripe old age of 96 and also did a great job of living, all the while!
Having thoroughly enjoyed (actually a lame word like ‘enjoyment’ does begin to describe the pure exhilaration one feels studying a Martin Gardner or a Douglas Hofstadter or a Richard Feynman) ‘The Annotated Alice’ among many other works of Martin, I am reminded of that 1910 gem ‘Calculus Made Easy‘ of Silvanus Thompson which was later updated and edited by Martin in 1998. ( I just realized that this classic, a real classic at that, has completed hundred years of its existence!)
Now, what is oh so great about the book? Read the rest of this entry »
(or) USSR (RIP), MIR Publications, and oh yeah – Yakov Isidorovich ‘Y Perelman’: Physics can be Fun! (aka ‘Physics for Entertainment’)
This book published in 1913, – ‘Physics can be Fun’ – is truly a classic and is still a classic. I recommend it heartily to anyone (and everyone) who is fortunate enough to have a passing knowledge of English – well, that’s how I recommended it to myself in the first place!
In my humble opinion, no home is complete without this book on its bookshelves. Really.
I am of the opinion that, if one really goes through the book, it would be next to impossible NOT to appreciate the wonderful world around us. Oh the pure joy! ‘Physics can be fun’ is eminently readable, sprinkled with great insights & cutesy diagrams and is a fantastic work of translation (from the Russian original – or so a little Ruski bird tells me!).
However, I note that these are the stellar times of the gag reflexes – sometimes even from otherwise well accomplished people! You enthusiastically start talking about some delightful aspect of math or literature or film or science or music or whatever, or even cooking for that matter – and you can literally (and immediately) see the eyes of your acquaintances glazing over, eyeballs bulging in disbelief, as they sincerely feel that ‘I can’t do / understand it’ all the time.
They tell themselves forever that they are not good at this, not good at that, they are not made to understand these things, I am like this only etc etc and so very happily settle for Aamir Khan films mediocrity! How sad… What a waste of human potential! Read the rest of this entry »
uranium paranoiaum
November 13, 2013
“India’s generation of children crippled by uranium waste” screams the ‘World news’ section of the British tabloid The Observer.
The byline reads: ‘Observer investigation uncovers link between dramatic rise in birth defects in Punjab and pollution from coal-fired power stations’
Ahem! Let us go through this article first and then treat it with the contempt & disdain that it deserves.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/30/india-punjab-children-uranium-pollution
Let me say, I admire this excellent effort at factifuging. However, never mind the facts, if you do a google search, you get copious amounts of random rumours and fearmongering… No real analysis, no understanding at all – all are characterized by a mere store-and-forward procedure!
“…he was systematical, and, like all systematic reasoners, he would move both heaven and earth, and twist and torture everything in nature to support his hypothesis.”
— Laurence Sterne, in Tristram Shandy. Read the rest of this entry »
… and uh oh, these korean ‘action’ films! (or, are they comedies(or horror flicks(or like our very own tamil pilims ?)?)?)
November 3, 2013
Oh NO!
Many moons (not your Sun Myung Moons, silly) have passed by, since I saw this rather confusing film – but my motto in life is:
let the freakin‘ world beget, what I begat.
grrrr…
… I recollect with abject terror, the fact that, very many moons ago, actually in 1989 or so, Mahadevan and I had gone to a Korean avant garde film festival with all kinds of expectations and then had to literally RUN away from the Auditorium for our dear lives… Oh the horror, the horror…
But it seems to me that, I hardly learn any lesson from all my misdeeds, in my life. :-(
So, I saw an yet another mater-copulating Korean film. And, here goes my rabid viewpoint… Read the rest of this entry »
the universe within…
November 1, 2013
“Everything you’ve learned in school as ‘obvious’ becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There’s not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines.”
– R. Buckminster Fuller
On a particular day – a couple of years back or so, I had taken a walk rather late in the evening, with a child, to a nearby lake; this child had just begun ‘schooling’ – and was some 3 years of age – a very curious and an edible bundle at that – and was very chatty; it was constantly commenting on everything and anything and was forever asking questions rather incessantly… why, where, when, what, who and How — and most importantly Why NOTs? Read the rest of this entry »
debra granik: winter’s bone (2010)
October 22, 2013
… Once in a while – a genuine, technically perfect and a haunting film appears from that USA and floors the (film)seekers.
And, mostly they are not made by the behemoth studios / corporations that create the mediocre films (tagged Hollywood) – they are actually made by independent and otherwise nondescript production companies and by brilliant directors who do NOT believe in insulting the intelligence of the audience.
These real films do not have maudlin melodramatic content or tomato-sauce strewn action sequences or stereotypes or cliches or black/white schisms (lately the computer graphics oriented nonsense that is de rigueur in many of these flicks — has also added to my list of woes!)… Read the rest of this entry »
daniyal mueenuddin, a pakistani-ameriki auteur
October 17, 2013
Very interesting guy, this Daniyal.
I chanced upon a short article in ‘Outlook’ – an otherwise execrable & shady (Indian) magazine – in the ‘waiting room / lounge’ of a local dentist – no, I was not the one with random tooth issues. ;-)
This article talked about how good this Daniyal guy is and stuff — and I got curious… (there was also a picture of him (as under) that would qualify him as a veritable ‘hunk!’)
Daniyal, who is also apparently a practising farmer (earlier avatars included being a Newyork lawyer and stuff) is good with his language, almost RK Narayan-like – in terms of telling an universal story from the particular point of view of a culture, while using a simple story line and leisurely snapshots based character development. Read the rest of this entry »
ஹோமர்-ன் காவியங்கள்: இவற்றை, நான் (கொஞ்சமாவது) புரிந்து கொள்வதற்கு உதவிய புத்தகங்கள்
October 13, 2013
ஹோமர்: இலியட், ஆடிஸ்ஸி – சில குறிப்புகள் படித்தீர்களா? (அதில் ஒரு விஷயம் எழுத மறந்துவிட்டேன் – அந்தப் பேச்சுகள் ஆங்கிலத்தில்தான் இருந்தன – அதாவது குறுந்தொகை + புறநானூறு குறிப்புகளைத் தவிர)
எனக்குத் தெரிந்து, மேற்கண்ட குறிப்புகளைப் பார்த்த படித்த இரண்டே பேர்களில் ஒருவர் எனக்கு உதவியாக இருந்த புத்தகங்களின் ஜாபிதாவைக் கேட்டிருக்கிறார். ஆக, அதனைக் கீழே கொடுக்கிறேன்; எனக்கு எப்போதுமே, ‘யாம் பெற்ற பேறு, பெருக இவ்வையகம்’ தான். ;-) Read the rest of this entry »
ebrahim alkazi, studying mahabharatha – some notes
September 28, 2013
I’ve read the Odyssey and the Iliad a few times, soaked in them (not in the original Greek though, sadly), I respect them – but nothing that I have ever read so far, comes even reasonably close to that grand epic mahabharatha.
It is not because, I am from India or anything that I think so about mahabharata. I would consider the likes of Kurosawa Akira, Johannes Sebastian Bach, Dawn Upshaw, Parveen Sultana, Kiri Te Kanawa, M S Subbulakshmi (this listing is delightfully endless..) – not to mention ‘The Brothers Karamazov,’ ‘Remembrance of things past’ etc etc – all part of my tradition & hoary past too! In my view, all great and grand things & people of the world are part of our common tradition. Ahem!
So, one can ask why? What is so significant about mahabharata?? Read the rest of this entry »
the magical child
September 25, 2013
Am reproducing some of the notes that I jotted down from my readings of Joesph Chilton Pearce and Jean Piaget and a couple of basic evolutionary biology books – these notes are slightly dated – only 20 years old, but then… they continue to fascinate me…
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Apparently, it is the heart that gets formed first. Not the brain. And, I am talking about the foetus. We were all one in our earlier avatars, though we may not remember it. Foetal attraction, yeah.
Apparently, post conception, the mother’s heart sends a signal to the mass of cells that is in the womb and a few of these cells start pulsating in rhythm to that of the mother’s heart – this group develops into the heart of the foetus. Eventually there is some kind of magnetism (or may be not) that sets in due to this pulsation and the cells around this heart, get a signal to go become a this or that in the body of the child in the womb. The brain also is formed as some cells receive such an instruction from the incipient heart of the foetus. Read the rest of this entry »
the art of the possible
September 22, 2013
The problem of the dialogue between the individual and society, which has come up in connection with the question of intelligence and instinct. . . is nothing other than this capacity human beings have of distancing themselves from their environment, both external and internal. This detachment, which expresses itself in the separation between tool and hand and between word and object, is also reflected in the distance society creates between itself and the zoological group…
The most striking material fact is certainly the “freeing” of tools, but the fundamental fact is really the freeing of the word and our unique ability to transfer our memory to a social organism outside ourselves.
— André Leroi-Gourhan(1911-1986) in Gesture and Speech / MIT Press / 1993
As usual, the end of the term saw to it that complete exhaustion started creeping in – and one longs to get a decent 6 hours sleep, during most of the nights – at least during the holidays…
But then, we were able to do a significant number of things with our children in this term – have started working with our TinkerLab & a basic electronics lab and stuff.There is a fine chap (one of my junior boys from my good ol’ almamater) who has landed up with whom lot of things have suddenly become possible – especially, math, oh the lovely mathemagics and ah the la la land of puzzles…
Read the rest of this entry »
othisaivu.in 