EGO

Ego. What the heck is that? We tend to see that in our daily life. Most of us have daily confrontations with Ego, in terms of our own self ego, ego of our bosses, ego of managers, ego of restaurant waiter, ego of our professors and so on.
Thesaurus lists the following definitions for Ego:

• "The self, especially, as distinct from the world and the other selves"
• "An exagerrated sense of self importance".
• "Appropriate pride in oneself, self-esteem".

On a philosophical note, Sri Ramakrishna comments on Ego as "You cannot conceive, think of perceive God, otherwise than as a person, so long as you are a person with Ego of your own". In the same vein, Sai Baba define Ego as "Edging God Out".

All the above definitions underline "Self", which keeps popping up as self importance and self esteem. According to anthropology and sociology research Ego plays a very important role in defining who we are. Ego identifies the central character of every human being; what he relates himself to, what he thinks he knows best, what he thinks he can do best and so on. But it is Ego which acts as one of the major resource wrecking havoc in the society. See around yourself and think of the last time you had a problem with your boss, your mom/dad, your neighbor, your teacher, the restaurant waiter who suggested something for you etc. Everytime somebody passes a comment on you, it is your Ego which gets directly punctured. The comment spears into the authority on which you are built upon and which you have advertised to others. Once the initial blow has been inflicted upon your Ego, our brain would kick in the survival training part, which has been pre-programmed as a by product of our evolution process. We go into a defensive mode, trying to confront the person who has ridiculed the basic identity of who we are. Thus, forcing us to retailiate and starting a tirade of passing comment on the opposite person. After that the problem takes the road deep south.

How can be tackle our Ego? Well, we need Ego but we should also control it. We need to defend our Ego if we know that it is correct ethically, morally and factually. Well, as a starting point thats what our parents and books we read in our childhood has taught us. In Sangam Tamil literature, there is a quote that Pulavar Nakeerar didnt budge from his stand that Lord Shiva was had factual mistake in his poem and stood by it. He seem to have passed on a comment on Shiva saying "NetriKan thirapinum Kutram Kutrame", hearing which Lord Shiva burnt him. Lord Shiva then resurrected Nakeeran and appreciated him for being strong even in front of the Lord. But does that work in our practical life?

For the last 6 months I had an interesting experience of playing with my Prof's Super Ego. For a stupid reason (of the department not designing the course correctly), I had to re-take a course (under a new prof), even after me getting an A during the first time. The new Prof came from a different background, had different understanding of research methods used in my field (Information Systems) and most of all had no idea of what my field is about. Here I am in the class, where 4 students are from IS and one from management. Even before the course had begun, the prof had been strongly instructed by the IS department on what to teach and what not to teach. Before going any further, I should also let you guys know that we are talking about a full Prof and whose terrible stint as a teacher was well known to all the departments. Still, she was asked to teach to students. Why? people in the IS dept thought it was not their duty to teach that course. Other smart departments like Finance and Accounting instructed their students not to even think of taking that course. Anyways, the course was supposed to teach the students an overview of Quantitative and Qualitative methodology. In the first class, the prof comes with a syllabus which has 95% of classes devoted to Quantiative methodology and 5% to qualitative methodology. And here I am, who have taken mutiple classes on the subject and wanted to learn qualitative more. Anyways, I tried to keep quiet in the class, hoping she would teach qualitative methodology. She never completes any of the material and through the whole semester is stuck up with Surveys. Then comes up with the term paper. When 4 others in the class chose a quantitative paper, i chose a qualitative approach with a noble cause of learning it from the semester. I seldom realized that the prof neither knew it or was ready to accept she didnt know. Comes the end of semester, I am given a C. The reason, I didnt understand the methdology. Who comments on it? A prof who expected Stats in qualitative paper, expected hypotheses in Exploratory study? But who to question her. Having bought up with values, and to stand up to it; I was caught up inbetween throwing my values out of the window or stick by it, keep a C and retake the class. My fellow colleagues did ask me to do the unthinkable "Kneel down and suck it up...". I just kept on collecting reseach to prove that I am right and she was wrong; proved it and finally got a B. Well, what was my fault in this whole process? Stuck with the truth or challenging a Professor that she was wrong and deliberately screwing my grade? When I tell this to my advisor, he said "Welcome to real world" and learn to live up to it. Gosh, if thats the case why did my mom teach me Bharathiyar's "Nimirdha nanadai, Ner konda parvai, Nilathil yarkum anchadha nerigalum"? May be this is what I should expect, if i had to stick up to truth, i.e. path full of challenges. Huh ! I again remember Bharathiar's song for this "Nallothor veenai seyvom. Adhai nalam keda puludhiyil erindhu vetom. Solladi Sivasakthi, endha sudar migum arivudan ennai padaithai"...

Off it goes.......











(Courtesy: NASA)

Well.. Well.. Well..NASA after a looooong and costly investigation of the failed Columbia mission, successfully launched Space Shuttle Discovery and it has also successfully docked with the International Space Station. For the past two days, it has been fun to watch NASA Live TV where the action is shown live right from the chatter talk between the Shuttle crew members and Ground Control, and some knowledgable commentary by NASA PR people. It is literally awesome to see earth from the perimter of the Space Shuttle. Good job NASA for the great images..
Well, after all the ravings lets start the ranting. The mission is not without its grey area. In contrast to NASA's overconfidence on the external fuel tank's insulation, a chunk of insulation did fall off. This has severly dented NASA's confidence with the safety of the tank and so the safety of the Shuttle crew, thus ground the future (foreseeable) missions to a screeching halt. It is highly surprising that even after NASA knew that it wont be able to completly correct foam shaving problem from the external fuel tank, all it did was to just patch up the faults in the foam coating design and not totally re-design the entire fuel tank. Its easy to say that it all boils down to dollars, as the tank is reused and it is cheap to just refine what we have than redo from scratch. But if NASA doesnt fix the foam problem, it is highly unlikely that the Shuttle program would continuue or would be used to its fullest extent before retiring it in 2010.
Coming to the next point, has the Shuttle program lived upto its expectation in the last 25 years. If one compares the overhyped Shuttle with clanky Russian Soyuz, it would be crystal clear that Soyuz has a better safety record and much cheap mode of transport between earth and space station. If that is the case, why NASA still sticks with its risky Shuttle design? First EGO, that Americans always design a better product.. Its bullshit.. Even a first year Mechanical Engineering student would say that during renentry path the lesser the amount of space area exposed to heat, the better chance of shielding from it and returning to earth safely. Soyuz fits as a glove to do the job of shuttling the astronauts and supplies back and forth and safely bring them back home.. It is clunky, small but due to its compact nature has less area to be shielded from renentry burning. While, the US shuttle are beautiful to see and has large space, but it is one of the most complex thing ever built by human being and most flimsiest. Most people dont know that the tiles used in space shuttle are so flimsy that it cant even land back on earth when it is drizzling.
The ISS program is being boasted as a joint collabration program involving a dozen countries. For the success of the program and for the advancement of science, let hope that NASA put some logical thinking and be rational in whatever it does.

Statesmen in India - Do they need a quick visit to an eye Doctor?

Well. I should first thank my friend Sowmya for instigating to start blogging again and it was also great to read her painstakingly written blog on Saivaite saints. Bravo !!
As I was thinking about a topic to blog on, two prominent things came on to my mind. The first one on issues about occupation and profession. I am saving on to that for now, as I think I still have to read some more papers to have a indepth understanding of the concept. The second one that flashed across is about China and India.
In the last 1 year every news paper, journal article or magazine article seems to be incomplete without allotting a single column on the topic of India vs China. For example, in the latest Forbes magazine article on Oil prices projects India and China to be the reason behind the increase in Oil Prices. "The bullish case for oil stems from a growing world economy - you know, china and India - that will ensure increasing demand and stock propelling earningss". It seems true on the base level to say that both India and China have been growing tremendously. For true, they have been growing at 7-8% for the last decade. But the issue which most of us seem to forget that it is an unreasonable comparison being made between them. Even though, the growth rate is comparable, are we talking about comparable economies. No we arent. Take for instance, China has forex reserves to the amount of 750 Billion US dollars and India just 110 Billion US dollars. In order to have a 8% growth like China, India has to grow at a rate of 20% per annum , which is impossible and unthinkable. But how come 2 countries which were comparable in 60's have become totally incomparable in the span of 40 years. I would say the majority of burden lies on the lack of visionaries in India. Unlike China, whose premier has the foresight to see his country in long term, India has been plagued by more of short term rusted politicians than visionaries. Even though India greatly benefitted from visionaries like MS. Swaminathan and Vallabhai Patel in 50's and 60's; it came to a screeching halt then. We lost steam and locked ourself in cucoon for the next 40 years. It had to take a luminary like Manmohan to kick start in 1991 and a global disaster like dot com bust to take the Manmohan initiative to the next level. But if we think that India is in a perfect position to take on China now, I would suggest you to think 20,000 times before it. Right now everyone in India thinks India is doing great because of the BPO boom and all. But the ITES sector just contributes in single digit percentage to Indian GDP. Whereas Chinas GDP is fuelled by wide rage of sectors right from IT, ITES, manufacturing and all. On the onset of the 21st century I think the Indian think tanks have realized the old adage "Dont book all your eggs in a single basket". It is visible from the heavy dis-investment work going on in India and the opening up of markets right from Aviation to retail sector. But does it suffice to just open the sector. Once, again the lack of foresighted visionaries handicaps India here. Whats the use of have aviation pact with countries and having mushrooming low-budget carriers without having proper infrastructure. I think all Bangloreans would endorse to the state of Bangalore International Airport. It still is in the drawing board 2 years after being awarded the contract. It is shame to know that the Airport Authority of India is just now thinking of having an automatic baggage handling facility for 10 top airports. What about other airports in India like Trichy or Madurai or Pune? It would be worthwhile to look at developed nations and how they did it. USA invested lots of money in airport and roads in the 50's and 60's parallely when it the respective sector booming and things were done at rapid pace. In India, the word rapid sticks only with the paper and doesnt go anywhere.
The other glaring example for the lack of foresightedness of Indian leaders is WTO-Cloth export cap. When the developed nations took the cap off in Jan 2005, do you know who benefitted the most? Bingo China. Just for numbers sake, look at this. Their increase in export to USA (in any segment of clothing - underwear, swimsuit, sweaters) rose to 200-400%. This happened within the first quarter of 2005. In the same time, exports from other countries like India rose in very modest numbers. Why this dispartity? Do you think that dumping of clothing from China happened overnight? We all would remember the late Murasoli Maran and his acts in WTO 2002, when he inked the export cap pact. All the nations had approximately 3 years for the D-Day i.e., Jan 2005. But who won? Only China, who used the time wisely to improve the infrastructure and create redundant manufacturing, yarns, shipping facilities and just switched it ON in Jan 2005. Whereas, in India, it seems we started taking note of the banishment of export cap only from Jan 2005 and started building the infrastructure. I was totally apalled by a news article in Hindu (dated 21st July 2005), which quoted an industrialist in Tirupur (manchester of India) being happy about the bank approving his 1 crore loan to buy a new spinning machine in addition to the new one he bought a couple of months back.
Well, the two examples I quoted are a drop in an ocean. What we need in India is someone who can think in the long term and who can lead India without red tape.
Chal..... thats it for today..shall rejoin in the next edition with my thought on Youth in India.

Here you go people. I am back again with a bang (after a l0oooooo0000ooooong lull of 1 year)...
Hope you guys have listened to Anniyan songs by Harris Jayaraj.. Here is my take on the songs..
1. Iyengaru veettu -- Starts with a great opening of classic keerthana "Jagatha nandha...", changes the beat and still sticks with the raaga(but have to bear with the lyrics.. ouch.. awful to the extent)...The song also has the right mix of classical instruments like mridangam, gatam with keyboard..
2. Kadhan Yanai ---- Crap song and has lots of uncanny resemlence with one of the 12 B song
3. Andan Kakka --- A classic Shankar song.. I can see Shankar more in this song that that of Harris Jayaraj.. I am sure that this Song would be of the Genre like that of "Uppu Karuvadu" of Mudhalavan fame
4. Stranger in black --- Another song which sounds more like one of Harris's previous hit "thoodhu varuma" in Kaaka Kaaka..
5. Kannum Kannum - I still dont get the reason why Harris relies on his 12 B chord than anything. Hear for "Oooooh".. It gets on my nerves to hear that repeatedly without thinking of "Seriya Thavara" in 12B.
6. Kumari - A great rendition by Shankar Mahadevan and overall a good song too.. For a change in the whole album (other than Iyengaru veetu), Harris has thought to mix carnatic strings (look out of Mandolin note) along with Keyboard...but alas to the middle of the song (after the first stanza), Harris uses the Sax note from "Mutham Mutham" from 12B...

I totally wish Shankar should have stuck with ARR than his student...Harris has a long way to go...He totally lacks in confidence and relies on digitally mixing his already hit notes...